Original subtitles

- Boomerang Man here!

We're learning and having a good time doing it.

Now despite the boomerangs, I'm not Australian.

So, please, no Australia questions!

- I wanna play!

(audience cheers)

- Thank you, Boomerang Man.

As his promotional brochure states,

What you toss out there always comes back.

I hope that has inspired all of you to do community service.

Even if it didn't,

you still have to do 30 hours of it to graduate.

- 30 hours? (audience groaning)

- Relax.

You're all heroes.

And the thing about heroes

is they shouldn't have

to do the same things as regular people.

You just give an inspirational speech

to some second graders.

I suggest stay off drugs.

- That sounds easy.

- Great.

30 hours of mandatory kindness toward others.

- Bliss, chill.

There's a school-sanctioned trip to Costa-Rica.

The plane ride alone counts for, like, 20 hours.

My sister went last year.

Check it out.

She got so drunk at the wildlife preserve,

she puked all over a rare species of turtle.

- Oh, my god!

That is so going to be us!

(light music)

- Just don't do it to the peanut butter anymore.

- Stay off drugs!

Stay off drugs.

- What?

- Now, Ubuntu, Dr. Millstein prescribes those pills

so your mother can ride in elevators.

- No, that's my speech for community service week.

- That's all you do for community service week?

- Yeah, 'cause I'm a hero.

All football players are.

- Suntan lotion?

(scoffs) I've only got one week, and I want to get in,

get burned and get out.

- Bliss, I hope you plan on doing something meaningful

for community service week.

- I'll say so.

I'm going to be helping all kinds of people

and turtles and stuff in Costa Rica.

They need me.

- Wait, I've heard about that trip.

It's one big party.

That is not community service.

Don't you remember all the fun we used

to have at soup kitchens and needle exchanges?

- School says Costa-Rica is good enough.

- No.

Community service is helping your community here,

not going off on a Central American party junket.

- Or giving canned speeches instead of using your words

to help make the world a better place, Ubuntu.

- You two are not taking the easy way out.

- Why does being good have to be so hard?

- And suck so bad.

- I think that's how you know it's working.

(upbeat, rhythmic music)

(singing in foreign language)

♪ The Goode family ♪

- I wonder if I could reuse this as a shower cap.

- I'm not so sure I got through to Bliss.

She thinks we're not letting her go

to Costa-Rica because you're cheap and I'm a monster.

- Cheap? - Helen, Gerald.

Picking up supplies for Bliss's trip to Costa-Rica?

- Actually, no, Margo.

As a matter of fact,

our daughter prefers doing real community service

right here in Greenville.

- Well, we try to expose our Celia

to all the world's suffering.

And Costa-Rica is a country

so rich in biodiversity and poor people.

- That may be fine for Celia,

but my daughter is not going

to become some superficial poser

whose charity work is merely an excuse

to jet-set and attend meaningless galas only

to wake up one day alone, cynical and dead inside.

(gasps)

(humming)

- But Celia's great.

Great, great, great.

I'm gonna use this as a shower cap.

(groans)

- (scoffs) I can't believe

I got stuck with graffiti cleanup.

What did you get?

- I have to donate my hair.

(triumphant brass music)

- It's Costa-Rica!

That's a mexican song.

- This speech is good,

but I don't know if it's good enough to shape a generation.

- Just bring in a snake.

Kids love 'em!

- Ubuntu, I'm sure it's wonderful.

Just relax, open your mouth and change the future.

- Global warming increases corporate greed,

taking its toll on rising food prices at the pump,

feeding hate in third world country human rights violations.

And so, I ask you, where are the bees?

It's up to you!

- Hm, very powerful stuff,

but I think you need to focus on something personal,

something you've experienced yourself.

- Puberty?

(groans)

- Maybe just a smidge less personal.

- Well, off to clean graffiti and hide from drive-bys.

- Bliss, you're overreacting.

- Don't forget those gang signs I taught you.

Those have saved my ass I don't know how many times.

(groans)

(birds chirping)

- Where's the graffiti?

Maybe I'm here too late.

Or just late enough.

I'm Bliss.

I'm here to do community service for school.

- One sec.

I'm just building and analyzing a rehabilitation protocol.

(bomb exploding) (man screaming)

Are you cool?

- Yeah, I think.

- I think so, too.

Bliss, listen closely.

Clearly, there's no graffiti.

Guess who doesn't know that.

The government.

Guess who keeps sending money, anyway.

- The government?

- I see a little of me in you.

Now it's 10: a.m., which means we actually have

to get down to business.

Stalking my ex on Facebook.

- All right.

- Gingersnaps, Pecan Sandies.

Oh, oatmeal raisin!

- Ubuntu, I understand that cookies are important to you,

but they might not be speech material.

- [Helen] Guys, come here!

- So the average guy just got back from Disneyland.

I had one heck of a good time,

until I got lost near the airport and ran into this!

- Oh!

- And then this!

- Oh!

- I was sick to my stomach

until I saw these uncommon laborers,

these gentlemen of the mop,

these sanitational sensations

who have decided to take back their hood.

- That's what Bliss is doing, making the park safe

for little brown children and their mamacitas.

- You should tell Bliss.

She could probably use the boost.

- Tomorrow, the average guy asks,

"Whatever happened to pagers?"

- Hmm.

(upbeat music)

- What?

Where's the profanity?

- Pass and score! - Bam!

You don't see a lot of headers in foosball.

- Bliss! - Mom?

What are you doing here?

- I thought this was an urban park

in need of rehabilitation.

Where are the mamacitas?

The grandmas selling corn with chili on it?

- Your mom's not cool, is she?

- Mm-mm.

Everything's fine.

Michelle gets urban renewal money,

and I get community service credit for working on my skills.

Everybody wins.

- No!

Everybody loses.

You lose!

Bliss, one of the greatest gifts you can have

is the chance to help others and make a difference.

Come on.

I'm sure Jimmy Carter is building something nearby.

- You made me do this in the first place.

I'm staying here.

And I'm taking these boys to the championship.

- We raised Bliss to give back,

not leech off the system like this Michelle person.

- Helen, Bliss has veered offtrack before,

but she always finds her way back into the fold.

Now let's hope this herbal sleep packet

gives me chamomile-flavored dreams. (sniffs)

- But she's taking the easy way out.

What's next?

Running a phony nonprofit and buying carbon offsets

so she can fly off to the Hamptons?

What are the Hamptons, anyway?

(sighs) (snoring)

- I saw these uncommon laborers,

these gentlemen of the mop,

these sanitational sensations who have decided

to take back their hood.

- (sniffs) That's what Bliss needs.

And that is what she shall have.

(exciting, rhythmic music)

(police sirens blaring)

- Two words, Michelle: Pillow fort.

(Michelle yelping)

We got tagged?

I thought that didn't happen here.

- It doesn't, but it did!

The pamphlet is coming true!

(dramatic music)

- I hope you're happy, mom.

Someone tagged the playground,

and I had to spend all day getting it off.

- That's terrible.

But it felt good doing something positive

for the community, didn't it?

- No.

But now that it's done,

Michelle and I can concentrate

on getting grant money for matching golf carts.

(upbeat, rhythmic music)

(can rattling)

- Okay. (chuckles)

- Hey, check out that awesome tag.

Gang quality.

Say hello to my new screensaver.

- Ah!

Gang quality!

I always knew my art was dangerous.

- Okay, personal.

I have a dream!

I'm flying, but I can't remember my locker combination.

Then I wake up.

Did I inspire you?

Did I, Ray?

- Well, I liked the flying part.

- (groans) There's more graffiti out there.

It took all day to clean up.

- So you cleaned it all up?

Already?

I mean, that's great, helping the community and all,

but don't work yourself too hard.

It might not be so bad for it to stay up a little while

for people to see and admire.

- [Charlie] This punk kid again?

- Some in the community think graffiti is a blemish.

- Yeah, so do some people in this armchair.

- But not Margo Jensen, head of The Greenville art council.

- We believe graffiti is a relevant art form,

one that allows the underclass to express itself,

and we are so excited that underclass

has finally made its way to Greenville.

And that's why we brought in Professor Mead,

a visiting art professor from Oxford.

- That's right.

Oxford, England.

In my opinion, you're lucky

to have a talented new artist in Greenville.

- It is pretty good.

- His name is Huggo.

- It says Heygo!

That's an e and a y, moron!

- And he's clearly working

in the Aztec tradition of public art,

to give voice to the oppression

and the pride of the disenfranchised.

- Well, he's right about that.

That's definitely what the artist is doing.

- Artist?

Now you think this criminal is an artist?

- Well, we have to be open-minded.

- I'm all for Aztec traditions,

except for the human sacrifice,

the cannibalism and the slavery,

but this person is vandalizing public property.

- Yeah, mom!

Public property a certain daughter

you know has to clean up!

- Well, yes, but it's the art of the streets.

He gets it.

- Don't look at me.

I like a clean wall.

- Covering up these works of art is a racist act

against the artist,

an oppressed Chicano youth stuck in the system.

- Great.

So now I'm a racist.

- Well, maybe a little.

(upbeat, rhythmic music)

- Damn!

- Hello, emergency dispatcher?

It's me, Gerald.

I'm out night-biking, and I stumbled across a vandal.

He looks physically imposing.

He's Helen?

Whoops, just kidding.

I'm safe at home.

Good night.

Helen, you're Huggo?

- Heygo!

It's Heygo!

- I don't understand, Helen.

This is absurd!

- I was just trying to help Bliss

by making sure she had work to do,

but then I accidentally discovered I'm very talented.

- You're using VOC paint.

- This is about the greater good, Gerald.

It's art!

- Helen, I can sort of understand why you started this.

Sort of.

But you have to stop. (gasps)

Now I think it's best that we don't tell Bliss.

(sighs) She'll be angry and confused

and think that you're out of your freaking mind.

(computer beeping)

- It was Heygo.

Oh Margo, I saw you on TV.

What an exciting new artist we have on our hands, yes?

- Oh, he's a genius.

And yet, you let your daughter censor him.

Is that what you meant by community service?

Destroying art locally?

- It's not Bliss's fault that some reactionary elements

can't handle the mysterious Heygo's work.

- Well, first off, it's Huggo.

And second, he's not so mysterious anymore.

He's come forward.

- What? - His name's Joaquim.

We're celebrating him

and his work tomorrow evening at the playground.

(tense music)

- Helen, I really don't think you should be here.

- Relax, Gerald.

I'm just here to support this young liar's work.

- Art is not about pretty pictures.

It is about inner pain,

and that is what Huggo forces us to confront.

(crowd clapping)

- I'm gonna make Huggo confront some outer pain

if he doesn't clean up that wall!

I've been to Los-Angeles.

I've seen what happens.

- I'm proud to introduce the Chicano artist himself.

Joaquim! (audience clapping)

- Joaquim is in my math class.

He's not Chicano.

He's from Spain.

His family owns a winery.

- Yeah, this one,

It really comes from the depths of my soul?

- My soul.

Those are my demons up there.

(growls)

- We need to commission a piece

from Huggo for the art museum.

We could build a whole show around it.

(dramatic music)

- He's lying!

He's a lying liar!

- You tell 'em, sweetheart!

She's a little off-topic, but the sentiment is there.

- I did all of this!

Me, me, me!

I'm Huggo.

And it's Heygo.

Helen Goode, Heygo.

See how much cooler that sounds?

- Mom!

- Helen, this is embarrassing and ridiculous.

- I'll prove it.

This one took two hands.

And for this one, I used a special layering technique.

- So it definitely was you? - Yes!

I'm brilliant!

I'm the oppressed artist!

- Then you're under arrest. - What?

Art is not a crime!

- But vandalism is.

- So is cultural appropriation!

- Down with cultural imperialism!

- String her up!

Tough love.

- No, wait!

This was all just a little unorthodox parenting.

- Yes.

I knew all along it felt too enfranchised.

- Mom? (dramatic music)

(police siren wails)

- Ah, Helen, are you okay? - Mom!

- I'm fine, honey.

Mama can handle herself in the yard.

I'm so glad you came.

Your dad explained everything, right?

That I was just trying to help you help others.

- I just came to press charges against you,

but apparently, there was a long line of people ahead of me.

- Don't worry.

Everything is fine.

We should have you out in time for Ubuntu's speech.

- Speech?

I've gotta give a speech now?

- Well, I should try to fix that.

- Stay off drugs.

- Say no to dope.

- Don't need the weed.

- Nice job, Bunghoo.

- No, there's more.

Can't take the easy way out.

It's my job to inspire your tiny impressionable brains.

And something happened to me.

It's the saddest story ever told,

about lost innocence, a promise broken.

It's so easy to get on the wrong path.

Like my mom.

She got into tagging.

Now she's in jail.

And I miss her.

- That was beautiful.

Who thinks it's cool to stay in school?

(kids cheering) - Me!

(door knocking)

- Really busy!

Feeling self-righteous.

Where's mom?

Putting graffiti on the fridge for me to clean?

- No, she's still in jail.

The D.A. is throwing the book at her.

- For tagging?

- And it looks like that professor

is requesting it also be declared a hate crime.

That's why I need your help.

The public defender said that the D.A.

might go easy on her if there's a show

of support from her family.

- Why should I support her after what she did to me?

- Bliss, you need to know that

as odd and misguided as it seems,

she was doing it for your well-being.

Well, originally.

Then she was doing it for art and herself.

Then I think maybe she was doing it for Mexico or...

The point is, she loves you,

and she wanted you to remember

what it was like helping others.

You used to do community service together

when you were little, and you loved it.

- Look, the fact is, a tagging white woman

is the greatest thing to ever fall into my lap.

The rich art crowd and the law-and-order constituency

are both out for blood.

- Please, sir, you can't lock my mom up.

Even though she does dumb stuff like this all the time,

she's not a menace to society,

unless you consider overly aggressive

volunteer work a menace.

- Aw, that's sweet.

But I still have to throw the book at her.

(gasps)

However, I will reduce the charges.

She'll get time served and undergo a psych evaluation.

- (groans) A psych evaluation?

We may never get her back.

- How about community service instead?

- Hm, deal.

- (sighs) Thank god.

- Why couldn't you have just been a minority?

I was this close to arts funding.

Right on time, Bliss.

The hippos are getting hungry.

(sighs)

- Let me show you how to get this stuff off.

- I'm so sorry, Bliss.

It was never about wanting you to suffer.

- I know.

So how much time do you have left?

- About 75 hours.

How about you?

- I'm all done with my requirement.

I just thought you might need a little help.

- I do.

- Actually, you only have to clean this wall.

I got you a reduced sentence

by turning Michelle in to the D.A.

They're gonna raid this place on Monday.

- That's my girl.

(triumphant horn music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(coughing)

- That's a Mexican song.

(upbeat, rhythmic music)

(singing in foreign language)

♪ Goode Family ♪