This movie does a good job of developing character types and playing them off against each other.<br /><br />First, there is the ironic humor implicit in a white boy thinking that his rich white beach town is "the hood" and that he is one of the "oppressed people." At one point, he asks his black governess if she thinks that "our people" will ever be treated right. Eventually we find out that this white boy was literally raised by his black governess because his parents -- who are important and busy people -- were never around.<br /><br />He listened to and loved her music, got her perspective on life, picked up her accent, etc. He fell in love with rap music as a little kid, and his goal in life is to be a big-time rapper.<br /><br />So the notion of a white boy acting black is not as preposterous as it seems.<br /><br />One aspect of this movie that I found brilliant was the way the writers also incorporated the opposite situation of blacks "acting white." Specifically, two black character actors -- one who attended Juilliard, the other who launched his career at the Pasadena Playhouse, are hired by the boy's father to "scare the boy white." At first, we see these actors in an ad for the father's gubernatorial campaign arguing and pushing each other on a basketball court, and they do seem very tough.<br /><br />But when we meet them in person, they don't really have a clue about the ghetto or how to act like gangsters.<br /><br />When they stage a kidnapping of the white boy and take him to the house of one of their girlfriends who lives in the ghetto, they quickly realize that they are in over their heads.<br /><br />Then some real gang bangers come along and (in another ironic juxtaposition) the hardest core gangster in a guns-blazing showdown turns out to be the poser white boy, whose shooting escapade (no one is killed or injured) is captured on video by reporters and televised on the evening news.<br /><br />Naturally, the boy's father sees this and is mortified -- what will become of his run for the governorship now? Anyway, congratulations to the writers of this movie for a job well done.<br /><br />And congratulations to Jamie Kennedy for his excellent acting and comedic skills.