By Tim Kenneally
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" is
experiencing a resurgence - and its emerging fanbase gives new
meaning to the phrase "captive audience."
The Miami Herald reports that Will Smith's 1990s comedy has
become a big hit with the suspected terrorists being held at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, supplanting the "Harry Potter" books as
the preferred form of diversion for the inmates.
"I just ordered all six seasons," a librarian at the
detention camp told the Herald.
The series, which aired on NBC from 1990 to 1996, followed
Will Smith as a teenager from West Philadelphia who's sent to
live with his wealthy relatives in Bel-Air, Calif., in order to
distance him from the rough streets of his hometown.
In the meantime, the "Harry Potter" titles, once hot items
among the detention center's 28,000-title library, sit largely
unwanted on the library's shelves.
"They're over that; it's been more than a year [since
'Potter' was popular]," the librarian told the newspaper.
Another popular title among the inmates? The Oxford English
Dictionary, as the prisoners attempt to brush up on their
language skills while incarcerated. According to the librarian,
he's had to order 10 copies of the reference book - nearly one
for every cell block of the facility.
Whether the dictionaries will help the prisoners translate a
sentence like "Yo homes, smell ya later" is anyone's guess.
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