BET is taking a bit of heat over an animated public service announcement encouraging viewers to pick up a book, brush their teeth, drink water and use deodorant.
The video was originally released as a MySpace single by Bomani Armah before BET later picked it up and aired it on "The 5ive."
The clip opens with a shot of "Raphael De La Getto High School," where police sirens and gun shots can be heard in the background. Next, we move to a Lil Jon-ish character rhyming about reading a "mothafuckin' book" over the theme to Beethoven's 5th ... with a beat on it, of course.
Hot 97 host Miss Jones and the LA Times have apparently both been criticizing the clip, for a procession of "negative black stereotypes, from a machine gun that shoots books, to the word ‘book' emblazoned across bouncing animated booties," as Vibe.com reports.
So, what was BET's response? The station's VP of animation told the NYTimes that the clip was meant to be "very satirical," and that it directly mimics and mocks current trends in hip hop (videos). True that.
Here's to wondering how this video would fare over at Funny or Die. I'm going with funny.
Watch the mothafuckin' video:
