“Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces“ by Cheech and Chong

Sung in falsetto by Cheech Marin, playing the title character Tyrone (as in “tie-your-own“) Shoelaces, it tells the story of Shoelaces’ love of basketball. It is a parody of the No. 16 Billboard Hot 100 song “Love Jones“ by Brighter Side of Darkness. In the album version, the song is preceded by a mock interview with Jones’ basketball coach named “Umgwana Kickbooti“, in a parody of a Wide World of Sports interview conducted by a character named “Red Blazer“. The cartoon was created to promote the song’s release in the United States. It is about a teenager named Tyrone Shoelaces and his love of basketball. The short was designed by animator Paul Gruwell who worked on many classic series including The Banana Splits, Scooby-Doo, GI Joe, The Transformers, The Simpsons, and the film Heavy Metal. In the animation, Shoelaces, who appears as a stereotypical African American, is shown from birth having a skill for “dribbling“ (in which he is s