"The Red Ball" is the 3rd episode of the 3rd season of The Boondocks, and the 33rd episode overall. It originally aired on May 16, 2010.
When his Chinese business rivals call in some old debts, Ed Wuncler I is forced to gamble all of Woodcrest's economic fortunes on a kickball game with its sister city: Wushung, China. Huey, a former kickball champion, comes out of self-imposed exile to lead Woodcrest's team in a brutal game with high stakes.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Mr. Long-Dou is a Corrupt Corporate Executive like Ed Wuncler I, but he's a very polite and refined gentleman.
- Anti-Villain: Ming (Long-Dou's granddaughter who leads the Wushung team) claims to be this; she tells Huey that the moment she was born, she was taken from her parents and forced to train in kickball, and will be sent to a prison camp if she fails. But this is ultimately subverted when Huey realizes that Ming is a liar who fabricated the sob story to trick him into going too easy on her.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: According to Ed Wuncler I, if Wushung wins, Woodcrest will lose almost all of its rights; including freedom of speech, having multiple offspring, purchasing assault rifles, and internet pornography. It's the last one that worries Robert Freeman the most.Robert: Not the porn!
- Baseball Episode: Well technically it's a Kickball Episode, but otherwise fits the spirit of this trope.
- Battle Royale Game: The kickball game degenerates into this, with one player after another becoming too badly injured to continue. It comes down to Huey and Ming, both barely able to move; Huey wins the game for Woodcrest by tagging Ming out with the shredded, smoking ball.
- Bilingual Backfire: Two of the Wushung players mock Huey in their native tongue for falling for Ming's lies. But then Huey responds in fluent Mandarin Chinese that he hates being laughed at, and then he knocks out both of them with a kickball.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Woodcrest team wins the kickball game, so they are no longer at risk of a hostile real-estate takeover by Long-Dou and his fellow Chinese businessmen. Unfortunately, every single player is too critically injured to enjoy their victory, so they are just left to groan in pain on the bleachers.
- Bribe Backfire: The Chinese businessmen try to bribe Uncle Ruckus like they did with the previous referee. But Ruckus is just so racist that he refuses to take their money, and continues to be biased in favor of the American team.
- Butt-Monkey: Betty von Heusen is repeatedly throttled by kickballs.
- Chekhov M.I.A.: Uncle Ruckus and Gin Rummy are the only reoccurring Woodcrest residents who aren't part of Huey's team or in the audience. They both end up being important later in the episode.
- China Takes Over the World: Woodcrest becomes at risk of being handed over to Chinese control.
- Combat Pragmatist: The Wushung team use physical violence and other dirty tricks on their opponents, and soon the Woodcrest team responds in kind until everyone is left bloody and bruising.
- Enemy Mine:
- Although the two really don't like each other, Huey has no choice but to take up Ed I's offer to be the captain of the Woodcrest team, given that everyone's property is at stake.
- Also Betty von Heusen and Butch Magnus, who've both antagonized the Freemans in the past, join the kickball team alongside the Freeman family and their friends.
- Fabricated Blackmail: When Huey is refusing to play, Wuncler tries to blackmail him by threatening to release a photoshopped picture of him in an embarrassing outfit. Huey doesn't budge.
- Homage: Riley missing the ball with a kick hard enough to flip him is one to Charlie Brown from Peanuts.Robert: Good Grief.
- Interchangeable Asian Cultures: This trope is discussed in Ed Wuncler I's anecdote. Wuncler claims that back in the late 19th century, his grandfather (Prescott Rothschild Wuncler) had once sailed to Wushung, China. He watched the local monks play a ball game, which Prescott brought back to America as "Jap baseball" (he confused China with Japan, neither knowing nor caring about the difference), before it was eventually changed to the more politically correct name of "kickball".
- Irony: Robert decides to celebrate winning the game by ordering Chinese food.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: With Huey entering the fray in earnest and the current umpire not being in China's pocket, the entire home team starts playing to win hard. With even Ed Wuncler III head butting a player in the stomach.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- Wuncler I revealed that he hired a child player to fake an injury-based retirement in a past kickball game to force Huey into his own retirement.
- In the middle of their game, Ming tells Huey that her team would be sent to a prison camp if they lose to his team. It throws off his game at first, until he learns she was lying.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Ed Wuncler I punishes the referee for accepting Chinese bribes (instead of Wuncler's own bribes) by ordering Gin Rummy to kidnap and murder him. Wuncler claims that the ref strangled himself, jumped off a bridge, then took an overdose of amphetamines, and brings in Uncle Ruckus as his replacement.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Kickball played with high stakes and over the top martial arts action not unlike Shaolin Soccer.
- Patriotic Fervor:
- One of the Woodcrest players is an immigrant named Jingmei, a proud Tibetan nationalist/separatist who personally despises the Han Chinese.
- The local Woodcrest spectators express their American pride by singing "America the Beautiful" during the climax of the game.
- Private Military Contractors: Wuncler hires a whole unit of Blackwater mercenaries (or "private kickball contractors"), along with a group of boys from the Dominican Republic to form the Woodcrest team. However the men get called away for a mission in Afghanistan and the boys all get deported, so he needs Huey to recruit new volunteers, as described below.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The team Huey brings together after the initial team is disbanded: his family (consisting of himself, Riley and Robert), Tom Dubois, Ed Wuncler III, Betty von Heusen, Butch Magnus, Cindy McPhearson, and a Tibetan man named Jingmei who joined because he's rebelling against the Chinese. Wuncler warned Huey that this new team won't survive, much less win. Considering he caused this and they are already pressed for time, he has no choice but to roll with it.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ed I gives a hilarious one to the team Huey created as mentioned above."This team is pathetic. They don't stand a chance against the Chinese. Not one single goddamn shot in hell. It'll be an embarrassment they'll never, ever live down for the rest of their miserable lives until they die. You know what one of these balls can do to a human body? They'll get torn to pieces. Ripped to shreds. Some may even lose control of their bowels. By the third inning, they'll be pissing and shitting on themselves right in front of their friends and loved ones. It's going to be flat out fucking terrible."
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Chinese businessmen bribe the kickball referee so that their team can get away with cheating. This infuriates Ed Wuncler I, who had already bribed the referee himself, but he decided to side with the Chinese instead.
- Serious Business: The whole kickball game, considering how high the stakes are.
- The Rival: Ed I and Huey have their respective Chinese rivals, Mr. Long-Dou and Ming. They also all acknowledge each other as Worthy Opponents.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: According to Ed I, the referee strangled himself, jumped off a bridge, and overdosed on amphetamines after Gin Rummy abducted him.
- Yellow Peril: Ed Wuncler warns the Freemans that life in Woodcrest won't be so great if the Chinese buy out the whole town. Not to mention that Mr. Long-Dou and his kickball team do prove to be very dishonest and conniving.
- Younger Than They Look: One of the Wushung players is 12 years old despite looking like he's in his late 20s. Though it could just be that the Chinese records official for the team was lying.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Much of the episode's high-stakes sports plot, down to the climax with just the pitcher and kicker remaining, pays homage to the Samurai Champloo episode "Baseball Blues".
- Wild Card: Uncle Ruckus hates both Blacks and the Chinese, making him the perfect "unbiased" replacement for the more corrupt umpire before him. He does leans toward the American team only because Ed I is managing it.
