History WesternAnimation / TheProudFamily

** In "E-Z Jackster", Penny is used as a pawn by new boy Mega to infect the whole world with Mega's music-sharing website. Everybody ends up using the website to download music illegally. These results in Penny being under arrest and record sales going down drastically. The local record store also goes out of business, and the manager ends up firing Penny and Dijonay as a result for their actions.

* AnAesop:
** "Culture Shock" is an episode about Penny living with a Pakistani family through a cultural exchange program. Though everyone thinks they're weird and Penny is initially rude, she eventually learns that the Zamin family is just like any other, explaining that it's unacceptable that their house was vandalized. It particularly stings when Oscar and Suga Mama refer to them as "those people", but Trudy is quick to quash their ignorance. During Penny's speech, it seems like she's talking to the actual viewers themselves and not just her friends and family. In other words, you can't judge people without getting to know them first.
--->''“Before I moved in with the Zamins, I thought like a lot of you guys — they’re weird, they’re different, they’re not like us. And I was right and the more I got to know them, the stranger they became. And before I knew it, they were exactly like my family — truly bizarre. But they’re exactly like all of our families; little brothers and sisters that get on your nerves, a father that’s too protective, a grandparent that sleeps in front of the TV and a mom that keeps everything together. And if you know that, you could never write on their door “go back to your country, America for Americans”, [[EverybodyHasStandards you just couldn’t do it]].”''
** There are two episodes about not taking your heritage for granted and that there’s nothing wrong with taking pride in it. The first one, "Seven Days of Kwanzaa" focuses on Kwanzaa’s principles and the second, "I Had a Dream", is about Black History Month. Both episodes handled them pretty darn well.
** "The Altos" feature Sticky hanging out with the titular bullies due to him being upset about his parents' divorce. As Oscar tells him, you shouldn't let divorce (or [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse any traumatic experience]]) influence you to do bad things and that you should reach out to those who care about you for help in those tough times.
** "Hip Hop Helicopter" has Penny and her friends wear black midriffs in order to feel "older". But Penny gradually realizes that like it or not, these new clothes command the wrong kind of attention from boys. She comes out of the experience learning how sacrificing one's modesty isn't worth getting attention from others, and you shouldn't try to "grow up" in a hurry.

''The Proud Family'' is an American animated comedy series created by Creator/BruceWSmith that aired on the Creator/DisneyChannel from 2001 to 2005. The show is notable for being the first cartoon to feature an African-American family in the main role[[labelnote:◊]] (''[[WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids Fat Albert]]'' was the first cartoon to have an all-Black cast)[[/labelnote]], and was the first Disney Channel Original animated series, being created specifically for the channel rather than Creator/{{ABC}}'s Creator/OneSaturdayMorning block or FirstRunSyndication. It also has the distinction of being the first Disney series not produced by [[Creator/DisneyTelevisionAnimation WDTA]], being made instead at Smith's Jambalaya Studios.

*** In-between: Dijonay. She's a SassyBlackWoman who always thinks cool, but isn't as klutzy and more assertive.

* ShrinkingViolet: The principal, like [[Film/PoliceAcademy Hooks]], can be [[CuteButCacophonic very loud]].

-->--'''Music/DestinysChild'''

->''♫[[Music/DestinysChild You and me will always be tight\\

You know I'm loving every single thing you do~]]♫''

Initially running for 52 episodes over the course of two seasons, the series ended with a MadeForTVMovie entitled ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamilyMovie''. In it, Penny and the Proud Clan have [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext to stop the evil scientist descendant of George Washington Carver from unleashing peanut humanoid clones upon the world]]. Like we said, the show could get weird.

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Penny and [=LaCienega=] (brunettes), Dijonay (blonde) and Zoey (redhead).

* FourGirlEnsemble: Vain AlphaBitch [=LaCienega=] (a sexy one), loud and aggressively flirtacious [[SassyBlackWoman Sassy Black Girl]] Dijonay (a tomboyish one), sweet and impressionable ShrinkingViolet Zoey (a sweet-naive one), who's constantly caving into peer pressure by the aforementioned girls, and Penny, the caring and polite NiceGirl title character who tries to keep the peace.

->''&#9835[[Music/DestinysChild You and me will always be tight\\

You know I'm loving every single thing you do~]]&#9835''

->''You and me will always be tight\\

You know I'm loving every single thing you do~''

** "Culture Shock" is an episode about Penny living with a Pakistani family through a cultural exchange program is particularly. Though everyone thinks they're weird and Penny is initially rude, she eventually learns that the Zamin family is just like any other, explaining that it's unacceptable that their house was vandalized. It particularly stings when Oscar and Suga Mama refer to them as "those people", but Trudy is quick to quash their ignorance. During Penny's speech, it seems like she's talking to the actual viewers themselves and not just her friends and family. In other words, you can't judge people without getting to know them first.

* ButNotTooBlack: Trudy is much lighter skinned than the rest of her family.

* OffModel:
** Penny's skin color tone varies throughout the first season.
** When she's wearing shoes, [=LaCienega=]'s feet are about the same size as the other girls', but when she's shown barefoot in "Love Thy Neighbor" her feet are huge. This is actually ''invoked'', as she was wearing the shoes to hide her feet.
** One of Penny's classmates during "I Had a Dream" changes races constantly. It is particularly jarring as it happens during part of the episode that takes place in 1955, and the students are still separated by race in the classroom. So the switches make it seems that a Black student is sitting among the white students when it is previously stated (and seen) everyone is separated.
** There is one where Papi is deliberately animated OffModel, when an actor was put in place of the real Papi to provide the illusion of a resort. Suga Mama immediately notices that Papi's feet aren't ridiculously huge.

The series centers the titular Proud family, with most plots focusing on Penny Proud (Creator/KylaPratt), the family's 14-year-old teenage daughter who often butts heads with her overprotective parents - {{manchild}} and failing snack food entrepreneur father Oscar (Creator/TommyDavidson), and loving yet controlling breadwinner mother Trudy (Paula Jai Parker) - while trying to assert her independence. Other members of the family include one-year-old twin siblings, brother [=BeBe=] (Creator/TaraStrong) and sister [=CeCe=] (Tara Strong), and her paternal grandmother, "Suga Mama" (Creator/JoMariePayton).

* ExtravertedNerd: Myron. Suga Mama calls him "Urkel" at one point, a reference to another Extroverted Nerd, Steve Urkel of ''Series/FamilyMatters''. [[note]]Makes sense since she was voiced by the actress who played Harriet, the one who was supposed to be the focus of the show.[[/note]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* CompanyCrossReferences: One of many, many Disney cross-references. In one of the earlier episodes, Oscar explains that an incident with a fish at a restaurant left him so scared of fish that he had to watch ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'' with his hands covering his eyes.

* {{Dark Skinned Blond}}e: Dijonay. Given that she's African-American, it can be assumed that she probably dyed her hair blonde.

* PositiveDiscrimination: Averted. Not only are the Prouds just as insane as any other animated family, but there's also an episode where Penny dates a seemingly angelic boy in a wheelchair, only to realize he's a total prick who uses his disability to get his way.

** One of Penny's classmates during "I Had a Dream" changes races constantly. It is particularly jarring as it happens during part of the episode that takes place in 1955, and the students are still separated by race in the classroom. So the switches make it seems that a Black student is sitting among the the white students when it is previously stated (and seen) everyone is separated.

* ArtShift: "She Drives Me Crazy" is animated in Flash, while the rest of the series is done traditionally.

* BaseballEpisode: "Suga Mama's Believers".
* BeautyBrainsandBrawn: LaCienaga the beauty, Zoey the brains, and Dijonay the brawn.

* Beauty,BrainsandBrawn: LaCienaga the beauty, Zoey the brains, and Dijonay the brawn.