Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)

“It’s the only movie released this year with fourteen words in its title”

This spoof of ‘Hood films was directed by Paris Barclay and stars Shawn and Marlon Wayans, who also hold co-screenwriting credits alongside Phil Beauman.

The plot follows two cousins – good kid Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) and thuggish Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans), who wears condoms and pacifiers in his hair – as they traverse the unpredictable landscape of South Central Los Angeles.

Ashtray’s middle-class mother (Vivica Fox) is a beautiful, intelligent professional who dumps him in the ghetto. She won’t return; she says, “You know there ain’t no positive black females in these movies”.

She wants him to get an education so he doesn’t end up “selling drugs, pimping women, or working security for Eddie Murphy”.

Tray moves in with his teenage father, who dispenses fatherly advice, telling his son that condoms take away the feeling and that drinking and driving is fun.

The cousins’ homeboys are Preach (Chris Spencer), a black nationalist with a hypocritical taste for white women, and Crazy Legs (Suli McCullough), who was the best dancer in the ‘hood before he was paralysed in a drive-by shooting. Many of the film’s gags relate to his comically withered legs, proving that Don’t Be a Menace is not concerned with matters of taste.

The film is essentially just a series of Naked Gun-style sketches, and most of the comedy is aimed squarely at two films – Boyz N the Hood (1991) and Menace II Society (1993) – and exploits the cliches that infected nearly every gangsta movie in the 90s.

Ashtray hooks up with Dashiki (Tracey Cherelle Jones), who has seven kids by different fathers (whenever they meet a male, they ask in unison, “Are you my daddy?) and lives at 6969 Penetration Avenue.

She raids the refrigerator for sexual enhancements – licking Kool-Aid off his body, melting government cheese onto his chest (and we won’t even talk about the foot action!) – and announces that she’s pregnant seconds after their encounter.

A gang war ultimately erupts, pitting Ashtray and his friends against Dashiki’s ex-boyfriend, ex-con Toothpick (Darrel Heath) and his boyz.

Despite garnering negative reviews from critics, Don’t Be a Menace has built a strong cult following in recent years. Even on release, stoners held this movie in high regard. Not much has changed there, and it still holds up as a hilarious stoner comedy.

Ashtray
Shawn Wayans
Loc Dog
Marlon Wayans
Dashiki
Tracey Cherelle Jones
Preach
Chris Spencer
Crazy Legs
Suli McCullough
Toothpick
Darrel Heath
Loc Dog’s Grandma
Helen Martin
Doo Rag
Isaiah Barnes
Ashtray’s Father
Lahmard Tate
Mailman
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Dave the Crackhead
Keith Morris
Mrs Johnson
Kim Wayans
Ashtray’s Mother
Vivica Fox
Loc Dog’s Mother
Virginia Watson
Doughboy
Scott Randle
Tre
Wesley Eugene
Ricky
Tedero Jones Jr.
A.K.
Queline Young
Al Dog
Alex Thomas
Sam
Samuel Monroe Jr.
Sister Williams
Vivian Smallwood
Malik
Omar Epps
Rufus
Faizon Love
Officer Self Hatred
Bernie Mac
Old School
Antonio Fargas
Old School’s Mom
LaWanda Page
Doo Rag’s Father
Guy Torry
Jiffy Pop
Charles Edward Bennett
Sabomboo
Lisa Morgan
La Quanda
Tiara English
Keisha
Terri J. Vaughn
Mitchell
Mitchell Marchand
Detective Cliche
J.W. Smith
Snowflake
Kelly Vaughn

Director
Paris Barclay

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