Granddad's Fight

"Granddad's Fight" is the fourth episode of the Adult Swim animated television series The Boondocks. It originally aired on November 27, 2005.

Plot

The episode starts with two young black men (voiced by Terry Crews) passing each other on a city street. When they bump shoulders, they engage in what Huey refers to as a "nigga moment" ("Webster defines a "nigga moment" as a moment where ignorance overwhelms the mind of an otherwise logical negro male, causing him to act in an illogical, self-destructive manner, i.e. like a nigga"). The two draw arms and shoot wildly at each other but miss every shot. They ultimately decide that the fight is pointless and agree to go their separate ways, but they are both gunned down by the police shortly after coming to this conclusion.

The episode shifts to the local mall. Granddad has just purchased new shoes and is delighting over them. Suddenly, an old man in a pickup truck backs repeatedly into Robert's parked car. The man is identified as Colonel H. Stinkmeaner, a blind black man with a poor temperament and a dedication to make others miserable. At 15, he was diagnosed with cancer and lost his eyesight. But he has continued to live to be an old man. According to Stinkmeaner, it was his fervent hatred that kept him alive.

Stinkmeaner gets out of his truck and begins insulting and arguing with Robert, eventually trapping him into a nigga moment. The last straw is broken when he steps on Robert's new shoes. Robert reacts angrily and throws a punch at Stinkmeaner who unexpectedly dodges it, causing Robert to trip and fall. Stinkmeaner strikes Robert's knee with his cane and attempts to do so again, but Huey intervenes and stops the fight.

Afterwards, Riley ridicules Robert due to the fact he lost to a blind guy, calling him names like "Senor Piñata". While watching the news, Robert finds out that his fight was caught on camera, and he has become a national laughingstock. Huey has a dream in which he fights Stinkmeaner, who happens to be a powerful blind swordsman. He starts to think Stinkmeaner might be a true blind samurai.

Robert decides to challenge Stinkmeaner to a rematch against Huey's advice. After the match is made, Huey shows Robert a video bearing a striking resemblance to a scene from Ninja Scroll, comparing Stinkmeaner to the antagonist of the scene Utsutsu Mujuro. He insists that Granddad train, and the two work on increasing his strength and agility. Huey decides to reenact the battle with the blind swordsman by using a hapless, blindfolded Tom Dubois, whom Robert easily beats. All the while, Riley has started to take bets and hires a street team to promote the fight.

In spite of Huey and Tom's warnings, Granddad shows up at the rematch ready to fight. Stinkmeaner verbally tears into Robert and quickly angers him. After seeing Stinkmeaner blindly stumble around the fight circle, Huey realizes he's made a horrible mistake: Stinkmeaner isn't a trained warrior at all, but just an old man who got lucky--when Granddad had thrown the punch at Stinkmeaner, he had nudged Stinkmeaner's cane as he stepped up, alerting the blind man to the punch. Huey tries to interrupt the fight, but Robert is too enraged to stop and winds up beating Stinkmeaner to death. Realizing the one-sided fight did not live up to the hype, the people try to gang up on Riley and get their money back by force. Riley then throws a chair and misses, but fortunately, the people get angry and beat up each other, confirming Riley's theory that throwing a chair, even without hitting anyone, will incite a riot.

Robert sits in prison after the fight, contemplating a life sentence, when Huey reveals that he and Tom had the fight legally sanctioned at the last minute, absolving Robert from Stinkmeaner's death. Feeling sorry, Granddad decides to give Stinkmeaner a small funeral at the parking spot where they first met. He prays for Stinkmeaner's forgiveness for killing him, including Riley and Huey in the blame by saying "We are so sorry." Riley points out that Granddad was the one who actually killed Stinkmeaner, but Granddad just tells him to "shut yo ass and pray, boy".

Trivia

File:Samurai Huey.jpg

Huey dreaming he's fighting a blind swordsman.

• "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor is played on the way home after Grandad's first encounter with Stinkmeaner.
• Huey's dream about him fighting against Stinkmeaner was taken from the Japanese anime film Ninja Scroll. Both scenes involve the main characters fighting against a blind samurai in a bamboo grove. The song "Guillotine (Swordz)" by Raekwon is played in the background in the scene.
• After Huey compares Stinkmeaner to Zatoichi, Granddad agrees to train, saying, "I won't fail you. I'm not afraid," to which Huey responds, "Oh, you will be. You will be..." This is a near verbatim quote from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back from a conversation that takes place between Luke Skywalker and Yoda.
• There are several references to Bruce Lee's film Enter the Dragon in this episode. For instance, Huey quotes Bruce Lee when he asks Granddad, "What was that? An exhibition? You need emotional content." Huey also wears clothes that match Lee's exactly during the training sequence.