Don't Be A Menace To South Central While ... - Common Sense Media

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Parents' Guide to

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Movie R 1996 89 minutes Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Poster Image
  • Common Sense Says
  • Parents Say 4 Reviews
  • Kids Say 0 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Brian Costello By Brian Costello , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 17+

Over-the-top parody has frequent cursing, raunchy humor.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is a 1996 parody comedy. As the lengthy title clearly implies, the movie is a satire of the slew of "hood" movies from the '90s that tried to convey the harsh realities of the inner city for African-Americans. As such,…

 Why Age 17+? Language

Frequent usage of "f--k," "motherf---r," and the "N" word. One of the characters

 Sex, Romance & Nudity

In a flashback scene, lead character talks of having sex with a girl whose mothe

 Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Lots of scenes of malt liquor drinking and weed smoking. A recurring gag is a gr

 Violence & Scariness

Exaggerated parody violence. A white sniper shoots and kills an African-American

 Products & Purchases

St. Ides Malt Liquor frequently shown -- the only brand of malt liquor anyone dr

 Any Positive Content? Positive Messages

Movie satirizes dramas from the 1990s that attempted to realistically portray li

 Positive Role Models

The characters are parodies of stock characters in the 1990s inner-city dramas t

  • Parents Need to Know

    Parents need to know that Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is a 1996 parody comedy. As the lengthy title clearly implies, the movie is a satire of the slew of "hood" movies from the '90s that tried to convey the harsh realities of the inner city for African-Americans. As such, exaggeration permeates the movie in every form, and is the source of much of the comedy. There's frequent usage of "f--k," "motherf---r," and the "N" word, as well as scenes filled with malt liquor drinking and weed smoking. The father of the lead character encourages his son to drink and drive and then talks of how much fun it is. Gun violence is shown and parodied; however, the scene in which a white sniper shoots and kills an African-American student starting his first day of college feels way too real and far less funny in light of so many mass shootings. The stock characters this movie is parodying are on full display: trigger-happy gangbangers, Korean immigrant owners of corner stores who don't trust their African-American customers, women in the neighborhood who sleep around and have several children from several different fathers, police brutality. There are exaggerated sex scenes, parodies of foreplay in which food and condiments are used for absurd effect. In another a scene, the lead character reads a bedtime story to his father (who appears to be younger than him); it's a sex story from a pornographic magazine that he reads while the teen boy masturbates under the blankets. However, the movie also uses comedy to raise questions of how African-American men and women are portrayed in movies like these, and in Hollywood overall.

    To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

  • Language

    a lot

    Frequent usage of "f--k," "motherf---r," and the "N" word. One of the characters uses the slur "chink." "Bitch," "hos," "s--t," "d--k."

    Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

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  • Sex, Romance & Nudity

    a lot

    In a flashback scene, lead character talks of having sex with a girl whose mother walks in on them; the mother is dressed in leather bondage gear. In a gag that the father of the lead character is a few years younger than his son, the father asks his son to read him a bedtime story; the son reads a sex story from a pornographic magazine while the father is in bed masturbating under the blankets. Recurring joke of how the woman who is the love interest has slept with all the men in the neighborhood. In an extended scene, the lead character and his love interest engage in absurd foreplay involving various food items and condiments. Talk of sex in prison. Oral sex mentioned. One of the lead characters gets a shy girl drunk before having sex; she turns monstrous and eager to have sex.

    Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

    Get started Close

  • Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

    a lot

    Lots of scenes of malt liquor drinking and weed smoking. A recurring gag is a grandmother who smokes blunts. The father of the lead character encourages his son to drink and drive and then talks of how much fun it is.

    Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

    Get started Close

  • Violence & Scariness

    some

    Exaggerated parody violence. A white sniper shoots and kills an African-American college student starting his first day. A standoff between rival gangs brandishing weapons ends when one of the lead characters opens the back of his truck to reveal a nuclear warhead. Drive-by shootings. Machine guns and gunfire. Lead character gets into a fistfight with his grandmother. In a parody of Stand by Me, four kids find a dead body -- it's an Elvis impersonator. One of the characters dies from smoking marijuana -- going into convulsions and foaming at the mouth as if he has taken a stronger drug. Ice cream truck driver held up at gunpoint.

    Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

    Get started Close

  • Products & Purchases

    very little

    St. Ides Malt Liquor frequently shown -- the only brand of malt liquor anyone drinks in the movie.

  • Positive Messages

    very little

    Movie satirizes dramas from the 1990s that attempted to realistically portray life in the inner city for African-Americans. Makes fun of the heavy-handed messages often contained in these movies, but also uses satire to make pointed comments about the lack of positive African-American female roles in movies like these and overall.

  • Positive Role Models

    very little

    The characters are parodies of stock characters in the 1990s inner-city dramas the movie is satirizing: trigger-happy gangbangers, women with several children from different fathers, Korean store owners who distrust African-American customers and speak in broken English, etc.

Where to Watch

  • Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Trailer Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
  • Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Movie: Scene #1
  • Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Movie: Scene #2
  • Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood Movie: Scene #3

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Parent and Kid Reviews

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  • Parents Say (4)
  • Kids Say
age 14+

Based on 4 parent reviews

See all 4 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In DON'T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD, Ashtray (Shawn Wayans) has just moved into the inner city to live with his father. He starts to learn the ways of the streets from his gun-toting cousin Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans), as well as friends Preach and Crazy Legs. At a party, Tray falls hard for Dashiki, a woman with several kids from different fathers. This arouses jealousy in Toothpick, a recently paroled gang member. Things come to a head shortly after in the parking lot of a corner store when Toothpick rolls up in his convertible with his friends on the verge of killing Ashtray and Loc Dog in a drive-by that's only prevented when Loc Dog threatens to fire the nuclear warhead he keeps in the back of his truck. Ashtray soon sleeps with Dashiki, who immediately tells him she's pregnant with his child. Tensions continue to escalate between Toothpick's and Ashtray's posses, and Ashtray wants nothing more than to survive the impending shootout and take Dashiki and her children with him out of the hood.

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Is It Any Good?

Our review: Parents say (4 ): Kids say: Not yet rated

This parodyhas moments that are still hilarious decades after its initial release. Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is at its best and most timeless when the humor transcends the genre of the movies it's parodying. The recurring joke of Keenen Ivory Wayans as the mailman who turns to the camera and yells "Message!" whenever a heavy-handed comment on society is shoehorned into the story; comments on the lack of positive roles for African-American actresses in Hollywood; and a group of LAPD detectives in the station gathered around an arcade game modeled after the Rodney King case are all moments of barbed humor reminiscent of the Wayans' best sketches on In Living Color. The references to the OJ Simpson case and Bernie Mac as a black police officer who hates black people have also stood the test of time.

As for the rest, some of it depends on your taste in humor, and some of it simply hasn't aged well. There's a lot of humor in sight gags and exaggeration that almost reaches the gut laughs of a parody like Airplane!. The parodies of stock characters in the "hood" movies of the '90s sometimes make it unclear what the target of the humor is supposed to be: the way these movies are written or the people themselves. In other words, while it's safe to give the Wayans the benefit of the doubt that they're obviously not making fun of welfare recipients, stronger and more thoughtful humor might have been employed instead of fridges with blocks of clearly labeled government cheese. And jokes involving snipers killing innocent people don't seem all that funny anymore in a country with so many mass shootings. References to drinking 40s and smoking blunts are also beyond played-out by this point.

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Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about parody movies. How do parodies like Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood mine comedy out of popular movies, in terms of characters, scenes, and dialogue? How do parody movies stand out on their own?

  • What were the different styles of comedy used in this movie? What is the difference between parody and satire? How is exaggeration used for comedic effect?

  • What serious points was the movie trying to make through comedy? Why is comedy often a good way to make serious points?

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Movie Details

  • In theaters : January 12, 1996
  • On DVD or streaming : November 25, 2014
  • Cast : Shawn Wayans , Marlon Wayans , Vivica A. Fox
  • Director : Paris Barclay
  • Inclusion Information : Gay Movie Director(s) , Black Movie Director(s) , Black Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Actor(s)
  • Studio : Island Pictures
  • Genre : Comedy
  • Topics : Family Stories ( Dads , Single Parents ) , Friendship , Arts ( Hip-Hop ) , Activism ( Racial justice )
  • Run time : 89 minutes
  • MPAA rating : R
  • MPAA explanation : Strong language, sexuality, some drug content and violence.
  • Last updated : September 3, 2025
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Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

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