Let's Nab Oprah
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| The Boondocks episode | |
|---|---|
| “Let's Nab Oprah” | |
 Ed, Rummy, and Riley on a mission to kidnap Oprah. |
|
| Original airdate | February 12, 2006 |
| Season no. | 1 |
| Episode no. | 11 |
| Production no. | 112 |
| Director | Seung Eun Kim |
| Writer(s) | Aaron McGruder Yamara Taylor |
| Guest star(s) | Samuel L. Jackson Corey Burton Charles Q. Murphy Kevin Michael Richardson |
| The Boondocks - Season 1 November 5, 2005 – March 19, 2006 |
|
| Season 2 → | |
"Let's Nab Oprah" is the eleventh episode of the Adult Swim animated television series, The Boondocks. It originally aired on February 12, 2006.
[edit] Plot
After a conversation involving texting, Ed and Rummy park their car near the bank. Riley approaches them, carrying a box filled with candy, asking if they would like to buy one to help inner city children. Rummy asks how much and Riley responds, "Three...ya hear that? I said THREE!" Riley successfully plays his part as the lookout. Ed and Rummy then run into the bank and Ed fires his gun into the air. They eventually are led to the bank's safe.
Ed and Rummy make it out of the bank with the spoils of the robbery and the bank manager as a hostage. Riley comments that the bank robbery would have been a failure if Ed's grandfather didn't own the bank and the police (the robbery took 22 minutes ). As part of a running gag, Ed gets away with any criminal activity he does. The bank manager takes the money back inside, obviously used to this routine, after some conversation of the robbery in the car between Ed, Rummy and Riley. Ed, Rummy, and Riley then drive away.
Presumably the next day, an intense fight between Huey and Riley breaks out. This fight started because Huey refused to let Riley go to Ed's house, however, Granddad eventually stops the fight and lets Riley go. Once Riley is at Ed's house, Rummy tries to think up a new plan while Ed and Riley are playing some video games on the PlayStation 2. A news segment shows up on the TV talking about a book signing Oprah will be doing in Woodcrest after Ed destroys the game console. Rummy then decides that the group should kidnap Oprah at her book signing. Meanwhile, Huey is getting suspicious about what Riley is doing with Ed and Rummy.
Acting as a lookout, Riley eventually signals Ed and Rummy to start moving in once Oprah's bodyguard leaves her. Ed and Rummy, who are both heavily armed, start heading toward a bookstore and begin causing havoc there. Soon they carry off a woman from there despite Riley's unheard pleas that they had gone into the wrong bookstore. Once Ed and Rummy are in the truck, Ed gets a text message from Riley. Ed realizes that he and Rummy had kidnapped the wrong woman. They had actually kidnapped Maya Angelou. They dropped Maya off in the middle of a street. After some additional planning, they decide to attempt to kidnap Oprah at her studio.
Right before Riley departs with Ed and Rummy to kidnap Oprah, Huey is able to find out about their plan. He gets ready to go and stop them. Ed, Rummy and Riley find out they can't enter through the back door since guards are standing there once they arrived at the studio. Ed spots Huey nearby. Riley then places a prank call to the studio saying that a boy with a "big stupid afro" is coming to hurt Oprah. Alerted by this phone call, the guards move away from the door and Ed, Rummy and Riley head into the studio. Huey gets engaged in a fight with Bushido Brown, and while this fight is going on, Rummy and the rest of the group navigate through the studio to get to Oprah's dressing room. Huey is apparently knocked unconscious after a powerful blow by Bushido Brown about the same time Rummy, Ed and Riley break into Bill Cosby's dressing room due to Ed and Rummy's sheer stupidity. Rummy and Ed decide to kidnap Bill Cosby, but return him eventually because he was too annoying.
Later Riley comes back for his two-way pager, but Huey hits him and drags him away.
[edit] Cultural references
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- Gin Rummy's dialogue about "Nigga Technology" before the bank robbery is inspired by the conversation between Vincent (John Travolta) and Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules before their killing of Brett in Pulp Fiction. Rummy himself is also voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.
- Gin Rummy says to Riley "It's not wise to upset a Wuncler" after both Ed III and Riley are arguing over the former's loss in the video game. This is a reference to the line: "It's not wise to upset a Wookie" from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope quoted by Han Solo after C-3PO defeats Chewbacca in a match of chess.
- This episode features the songs "Raid," "ALL CAPS" and "Strange Ways" by Madvillain.
- Oprah's security guard, Bushido Brown, has a similar design to Jim Kelly's character in the martial arts film Enter the Dragon, going as far to use the quote "Man, you come straight out of a comic strip," similar to Kelly's "Man...You come right out of a comic book" line from the aforementioned movie. This is the second reference to the film in the series. It also alludes to the fact that Huey actually is straight out of a comic strip. The fight between them could also be perceived as a reference to the fight between Bruce Lee's character and that of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Game of Death, the main difference being that Brown eventually defeats Huey. Bushido Brown could also be perceived as a slight parody of the character Afro Samurai.
- The conversation in the car between the Wuncler boys and the robbery victim resembles a conversation in the 1997 film Nothing to Lose after Tim Robbins's character robs a convenience store owner named Henry and asks what he thought of the robbery.
- During the scene where Ed and Rummy terrorize the book store, one of the old women they threaten looks exactly like Dante from the anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Ed Wuncler III and Gin Rummy are believed to be paroides of George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This episode appears to be a commentary on the War on Iraq, and more specifically the search for weapons of mass destruction. For example:
- No one seems interested in stopping Ed and Rummy from trying to rob a bank or kidnap Oprah -- things generally believed to be wrong. Everyone except Huey appears indifferent to the events, or worried that discusing the events will offend Ed and Rummy.
- Despite evidence to the contrary (a large crowd of fans and a "Welcome Oprah" sign) Ed and Rummy do not find Oprah where they expect to. (Instead, they enter the wrong bookstore and end up kidnapping Maya Angelou.)
- Riley mentions the importance of Intelligence (information gathering) while helping to create a plan to kidnap Oprah during a show taping.
- Rummy's plan to enter through the rear of the building is ruined by an unexpected surprise -- a guard at the door -- which he refers to as an "unknown unknown." That phrase was coined by Donald Rumsfeld during the search for weapons of mass destruction.
| Preceded by “The Itis” |
The Boondocks episodes | Followed by “Riley Wuz Here” |
