"Bitches to Rags" is the 2nd episode of the 3rd season of The Boondocks, and the 32nd episode overall. It originally aired on May 9, 2010.
Thugnificent's music career and financial security are in shambles. His latest album flops, causing him to be fired by the record company. He's also bankrupt and owes a huge debt to the IRS, who are ready to foreclose his mansion. So now he must search for a new job...
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: This is Thugnificent's episode. The Freemans have minimal involvement in the plot, with Huey only appearing twice and having no lines.
- Auto-Tune: Thugnificent tries going this route for his new album. He failed to realize that doing this to his entire album would lead to even lower sales. Even Riley sees this going wrong.
- Bad Liar: Thugnificent when he tries hiding his financial problems from Riley as much as possible to protect his "rich gangsta" image and assuring him that everything's fine.
- Bait-and-Switch: Thugnificent/Otis is now scared stiff that the IRS could be coming for him any second now. His doorbell rings, and he opens to find it's Robert. Otis sighs in relief, but then Robert directs him to two men who claim to be from IRS.
- Bittersweet Ending: After everything he went through and coming to terms that his career is over, Thugnificent quits the music industry and moves out of his mansion to allow it to get demolished. However, he overcomes his downward spiral by getting a new job as a delivery man with hopes of getting a reality show in the future.
- Broke Episode: The plot centers around Thugnificent trying to resolve his massive debts and bankruptcy.
- Broken Pedestal: After Thugnificent publicly dissed a younger rapper named Sgt. Gutter for his age, Gutter responds back in tow. He makes sure to remark that he used to look up to Thugnificent in the past. He then immediately proceeds to tear him down for being older and irrelevant now, as well as unnecessarily attacking a younger rapper.Sgt. Gutter: Grow yo' old ass up, nigga! I hope you go broke, you feel me? I hope that the IRS is on they way over right now to take yo' shit, nigga!
- Cardboard Box of Unemployment: Flo holds one after being fired because of Thug.
- Continuity Nod: Two that might not click unless you really look into it.
- When Dorothy is being towed, Robert points out that he's paid it off since 1975. Back in "The Real", Robert claims that he's owned Dorothy for thirty years, which lines up with that episode's timeline of 2005.
- Thugnificent states that his hit song "Booty Butt Cheeks" dropped four years ago. Season 3 starts off in 2009, making his claim line up with Season 1, in which the song was first heard.
- Disaster Dominoes: Thugnificent first for spending too much of his income on luxuries including his golden mansion and parties and then his music starts to lose popularity and his album flops, so he goes bankrupt with huge debt. Then when Flo tries getting him a white-collar job with an office setting, Thugnificent blows his interview by detailing he used to glorify violence in his previous job and even gets Flo fired for bringing up his music career and then he's now gotten so desperate for money he resorts to selling crack but burns it all up and so he loses his only potential customer. He calls on Ed Wuncler III to help with the deal. Just as the person they visit offers a new record deal, Ed snaps from impatience and ruins Thugnificent's last chance.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Thugnificent angrily asks his fans and followers why they won't buy his music so that he can earn an inflow of revenue, retorting that moral support and having a stronghold on social media isn't what he wants as his reward.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: Ed demands money from Steve because he was brought along for a drug deal, not knowing Steve (allegedly) has been clean for a year and is perfectly willing to help Thugnificent revive his career. This ends up screwing the latter over royally.
- End of an Age: After the aforementioned downward spiral, this episode marks the end of Thugnificent's rap career.
- Epic Fail:
- Thugnificent's new album contains Auto-Tune on every song. One can only guess on how well it does on the charts.
- Similarly, Thugnificent and Leonard try to cook cocaine, and end up burning it.
- Everyone Has Standards: Despite his distaste for Thugnificent, Robert takes pity on him by bringing him to his house for hospitality after seeing him unconscious on the sidewalk, pleading for him to continue getting a job, and looks on ruefully as Thugnificent's mansion gets demolished after the fallen rapper threw in the towel on his career (in contrast to Uncle Ruckus celebrating Thugnificent's departure).
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: All of the Lethal Interjection Crew need to look for new jobs after Thugnificent's hip hop career collapses. From what we see:
- Thugnificent tries to sell crack, then sign to Hellapoint Records in an attempt to salvage his career, finally settling on becoming a UPS postal worker.
- Macktastic goes back to pimping.
- Leonard works constantly at Wendy's, to help support Thugnificent's house bills.
- Flonominal gets a white-collar office job. He tries to help Thugnificent get a similar job, but that doesn't work out because of Thug's unprofessional demeanor. To make matters worse, Flonominal winds up getting fired when Thugnificent brings up his music career, something he did not want his boss to find out.
- Five Stages of Grief: This is essentially what Thugnificent goes through regarding the ending of his career.
- Denial: He keeps insisting to Riley that he's still doing it big when he's clearly not.
- Anger: He lashes out at Sgt. Gudda on live radio out of anger and resentment when asked his opinion on him, and does the same to his fanbase when they don't buy his album.
- Bargaining: He takes a job offer from Flonominal only for the sake of getting back into music, then resorting to selling crack when that falls through in the hopes of paying off the IRS.
- Depression: He finally comes to terms with the fact that his rap career is over, but is still jaded by the fact.
- Acceptance: Otis Jenkins, having abandoned the persona of Thugnificent, is back to his upbeat self when he realizes that the music industry is dead in general and instead tries to go into his very own reality show, with a newfound hope for his future.
- Genius Bonus: Thugnificent eventually settling with working for UPS is a reference to a recurring joke in hip-hop culture that if your rap career falls through, well, there's always UPS.
- Hope Spot: It almost looks like Thugnificent will get hired by a new label near the end. Too bad he brought Ed Wuncler III with him.
- Humiliation Conga: Poor Thugnificent can't catch a break. His new album fails (due to him using Auto-Tune on every song), gets dropped by his record label, owes a huge debt to the IRS, loses a chance for a real job (and gets Flo fired in the process), tries and fails to sell crack, and (after nearly getting his life back) gets shot at by a record label executive after a deal goes wrong thanks to Ed.
- Hypocrite:
- Robert brings the IRS to Thug's house, which amounts to snitching, something he and Riley claim to not do. Then again, the IRS isn't exactly the police plus Robert has demonstrated being a hypocrite many times such as telling Riley not to do things he himself does such as insulting Sarah's cooking or saying "fuck". Not to mention he's not exactly a fan of Thugnificent, which is putting it mildly.
- Back in his debut episode, Thugnificent claims that "Eff Granddad" wasn't meant to encourage violence against the elderly like so many of his fans enacted after the song's release. In this episode, he very casually proclaims to his interviewer that the song was about "fucking up old people".
- Similarly, "Eff Grandad" becomes ironically hypocritical now that Thugnificent, while not as old as Grandad, is struggling with the perception that he is old, washed-up, and lashing out at younger generations.
- Important Haircut: After Thugnificent sells his home, he loses the "Mickey Mouse" afro.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After all the crap Thugnificent went through, he decides to quit the music industry and get a simpler job as a UPS delivery man.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Thugnificent winds up getting Flonominal fired from his job, due to No Such Thing as H.R..
- No Such Thing as H.R.: To build on Thug's Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, there was logically nothing stopping Flo from contesting his termination due to the extremely flimsy guilty-by-association pretense. Unless of course Flonominal was still on probation.
- Only in It for the Money: Wuncler III expected to get some money after helping Thugnificent with a drug deal turned record deal. Unfortunately, he was too impatient and demanded payment then and there, regardless how it was made, ruining the deal all together.
- Riches to Rags: As the title suggests. Due to his overly extravagant lifestyle and poor business decisions, Thugnificent becomes bankrupt and is no longer able to afford his huge mansion. In a definite subversion of Status Quo Is God, Thug moves out of the house (which gets demolished), and he settles down with a blue-collar job.
- Shout-Out:
- Thugnificent's cries of "Damn, damn, DAMN!" throughout the episode combined with the subject matter can only be a reference to one specific source.
- Some of the episode parodies Boogie Nights - especially the climax where Thugnificent and Leonard meet up with Steve.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Thugnificent in a fit rage unleashes a potty mouth which kills off what little remained of his reputation after his newest album tanked (costing him the money he needs to pay off his mansion and car) and even some of his most loyal fans are disgusted by his profanity such as telling them all to "eat a dick".
- Speak of the Devil: Sgt. Gutter's response to Thugnificent ends with the hopes the older rapper is visited by the IRS to "take his shit". A second later, they show up at his doorstep thanks to Robert. By the end of the episode, Thugnificent's loses everything.
- Your Mom: Played With in which the mother is in on the insult instead of the butt of it. Thugnificent gets chastised by his loyal fans for the fact his own mother can't stand his profanity.
