Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is a 1996 hood film/comedy film. Similar to the Wayans' previous effort I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, the film spoofs a number of black, coming-of-age, 'hood films' such as Juice, Jungle Fever, South Central, Higher Learning, Do The Right Thing, Menace II Society, Poetic Justice, New Jack City, Dead Presidents, and most prominently Boyz N the Hood, all primarily released between 1985 and 1995, and also mixes the names of a few of the said titles to form the long title of the film.



Don't Be A Menace teases out the racism inherent in the popularity of 'hood movies' such as the above, irrespective of their supposed "redeeming qualities". The film suggests that the result of the massive popularity of 'hood movies' was/is that black actors are limited, in an attempt to profit from these movies' success, to similar roles, especially in the 1990s. Menace attempts to comically satirise that sociological phenomenon. Some actors in the film also starred in the films the movie parodies, a few even in the same scenes and characters.