Guantanamo Prisoners Love ‘Fresh Prince,’ Seem Pretty Cool To Me

You said it, Will

FACT: When I went to bed last night, I did not expect to wake up to news stories — like, in actual news-y places — about prisoners in Guantanamo watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I really, really did not. In hindsight, I probably should have seen it coming, though. I mean, OF COURSE they would watch Fresh Prince. Everybody likes that show. So, yeah, this one’s on me. I can and will do better in the future.

From The Miami Herald:

Harry Potter books are passé among the prisoners. The adventures of the boy wizard have been supplanted by early episodes of Will Smith’s 1990s TV comedy, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as a popular way to pass time among the 168 captives now in their second decade of U.S. detention.

“I just ordered all six seasons,” says librarian Milton, a Defense Department contractor who gives only his first name to visiting journalists.

My favorite part of this story is that, as of today, I now know that if I was ever granted access to Guantanamo for whatever reason, I could probably walk up to one of the inmates and say, “Yo, remember that episode where Ashley started a singing career with Will as her manager and he let it all go to his head and Uncle Phil fired him?,” and he’d probably be like, “Son. YES,” and I’d go, “And hey, speaking of Uncle Phil firing people, shouldn’t he have sh-tcanned Geoffrey for insubordination in like episode two? He doesn’t have to take that kind of backtalk from the help,” and then his cellmate would jump up and say “THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN SAYING,” and we would go on from there to have a very pleasant visit despite our philosophical differences.