History Film / TheWaterBoy

** Bobby had been constantly abused throughout his life, but eventually he got tired of it and fights back.

* CharacterDevelopment: Bobby goes from being a spineless [[MamasBoy mama's boy]] to an independent, confident adult who stands up for what he wants and thinks is right. Said confidence also transfers to the football field: Bobby's first game as a Mud Dog ends in disaster, as he doesn't really understand the concept of trying to win-- he just wants to hit people who piss him off, which costs the team the game when they had it won. Eventually, he cements himself as the team's savior on defense, and [[spoiler: in the Bourbon Bowl, he makes the game-winning play on ''offense'', throwing a touchdown pass to quarterback Guy Grenouille]]. His potential as a person and a football player seem limitless.

* CreativeSterility: Ever since Red Beaulieu stole his playbook and passed it off as his own, Coach Klein has struggled to think up new plays as inspired and innovative as those in the book until Bobby helps him face his fears. This shows ''Red's'' own inability to come up with new plays to counter Klein's as he stymied by the fact they're not in the playbook.

* FakeUltimateHero: Red Beaulieu's success as a coach is due to him stealing Coach Klein's playbook years ago to pass off as his own. In the championship game, he is caught off guard and frustratingly flips through the pages when Coach Klein starts to beat him with new creative plays that aren't in the stolen playbook to the point he throws the stolen playbook to the ground in anger and actually is unable to come up with anything original of his own.

* ForTheEvulz: It's never really explained why the Cougars mercilessly tease and torment Bobby to begin with. The Mud Dogs' teasing of him is at least a little understandable (they're frustrated for having not won a game in more than four years and need somebody on which to take out their misery). But the Cougars and their coach seemingly abuse and torment Bobby for no real reason other than... because they're jerks and they can. Never mind that Bobby is the guy who's not [[UngratefulBastard only keeping them hydrated but probably preventing them from dying of heat stroke]] during Coach Red's obviously grueling football practices.

** If Coach Red had never fired Bobby from being his team's water boy, he never would have been brought in by the much kinder Coach Klein and figured out how to channel his anger into being a defensive linebacker. The look of shock on Red's face when seeing how many sacks Bobby got in his first game says it all. [[spoiler:The Mud Dogs winning the final game against Red would ultimately prove this trope as his total undoing.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Coach Red starts to lose his cool and becomes frantic when Coach Klein starts making his own creative plays, all of which catches Red off-guard. As the tide of the game starts turning around in the Mud Dogs' favor, Coach Red eventually instructs his players to make dirty hits and cheap shots just to take Bobby out of the picture. None of it works, and the Mud Dogs still win the game, causing Coach Red to collapse on his knees and cry like a huge baby. In the censored version of the game-winning catch, Coach Red even starts strangling the mascot.

** Coach Klein was intimidated and screwed over by Red to be coaching a farm team, but thanks to Bobby's advise, he no longer sees Red as someone scary and came up with new creative plays that totally catches Red off guard and defeats him in the most heartbreaking way possible.

* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Vicki holds up a sign asking Bobby if he wants her to kill the people conducting his high school equivalency exam. Bobby just shakes his head.

* TheUnintelligible: Farmer Fran, who speaks with an incredibly thick Cajun accent.
-->"We lib a play annundeh."

* AnythingButThat: Bobby takes one look at the old water bucket of the South Central Louisiana University football team (which has become what could be charitably labeled a mini-swamp from disuse) and accepts Klein's proposal to be a player on the condition he never gives that water to any living being.

* CreativeSterility: Ever since Red Beaulieu stole his playbook and passed it off as his own, Coach Klein has struggled to think up new plays as inspired and innovative as those in the book until Bobby helps him face his fears.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Bobby tackles his biology professor over the fact that alligators get ornery because of their enlarged medulla oblongata, leading to more aggressive emotions, instead of Mama Boucher's explanation that "they got all them teeth and no toothbrush". They're both wrong, because the medulla oblongata has absolutely nothing to do with emotions, being responsible for breathing and heart rate. The amygdala is responsible for emotions. In fact, Bobby's answer is ''[[AccidentallyCorrectZoology more correct]]'' than the other. Infected/damaged teeth and gums are one of the primary reasons for some predators to become more aggressive and developing man-eating behavior. Furthermore, the premise that alligators are unusually aggressive is false. In fact, among large crocodilians, alligators are comparatively docile.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** Bobby tackles his biology professor over the fact that alligators get ornery because of their enlarged medulla oblongata, leading to more aggressive emotions, instead of Mama Boucher's explanation that "they got all them teeth and no toothbrush". They're both wrong, because the medulla oblongata has absolutely nothing to do with emotions, being responsible for breathing and heart rate. The amygdala is responsible for emotions. In fact, Bobby's answer is ''[[AccidentallyCorrectZoology more correct]]'' than the other. Infected/damaged teeth and gums are one of the primary reasons for some predators to become more aggressive and developing man-eating behavior. Furthermore, the premise that alligators are unusually aggressive is false. In fact, among large crocodilians, alligators are comparatively docile.

* BilingualBonus: Guy (pronounced Gey) Grenouille's last name is French for "Frog."

* LoveableRogue: Vicki is a petty thief and ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend, but still basically a good guy.

** Coach Red Beaulieu, who is a rather unpleasant scumbag of a coach that tormented Bobby by revealing his fake transcripts and stole the playbook from Coach Klein for his own selfish purposes. Naturally the two of them would take him down in the end together and humiliate him in the process resulting in his perfect season being ruined as well. To elaborate: Red lost the Championship game to a farm team run by the coach he screwed over, who'd never won a game until they brought on [[ChekhovsGunman the waterboy he'd fired earlier]].
** Meaney who bullied Bobby throughout the movie receives a brutal powerbomb tackle in the Championship game by the very victim he tormented and gets the shit knocked out of him.

** Coach Klein was intimidated and screwed over by Red to be coaching a farm team, but thanks to Bobby's advise, he no longer sees Red as someone scary and came up with new creative plays that totally catches Red off guard and defeats him.

* HateSink: It's very easy to despise [[{{Jerkass}} Coach Red and his Cougar Team]] for the assholes they are. The players relentlessly bully Bobby despite the fact that he does nothing but keep them hydrated and stay to himself, and Red fires Bobby for "disrupting his team"; in other words, being the target of the aforementioned bullying through no fault of his own.

** The championship Bourbon Bowl game is this for Bobby and Coach Klein towards Coach Red and his Cougars as the former two were wronged by the latter two.

** Coach Red Beaulieu, who is a rather unpleasant scumbag of a coach that tormented Bobby by revealing his fake transcripts and stole the playbook from Coach Klein for his own selfish purposes. Naturally the two of them would take him down in the end together and humiliate him in the process. To elaborate: Red lost the Championship game to a farm team run by the coach he screwed over, who'd never won a game until they brought on [[ChekhovsGunman the waterboy he'd fired earlier]], also resulting in his perfect season being ruined as well.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: It would have been a lot harder for the Mud Dogs to pull off that game-winning play if the Cougars hadn't put them in field goal distance by dogpiling Bobby after the play, causing a huge mess of penalties. To be fair they didn't even know Bobby would be put in the offense, meaning that they didn't know it would potentially put a player out of the game. They just did it as payback, but too bad for them is that [[spoiler: Bobby [[NoSell no-sold]] it anyway, thanks to "some high-quality H20."]]

* SaltTheEarth: When Bobby arrives for the second half of the Bourbon Bowl Coach Red briefly attempts to not play offensive in an attempt to run out the clock.

* SlobsVersusSnobs: The Mud Dogs from the small, run-down South Central Louisiana State University versus the Cougars from the large, top-tier University of Louisiana.

-->'''Coach Klein:''' You know Bobby, when I was your age, my mother wouldn't let me get a tattoo of Roy Orbison. "What mama don't know won't hurt her." ''(Pulls his pants down, and shows the tattoo on his butt cheek)'' I trust you'll make the right choice.

* WasItAllALie: Mama Boucher revealed the truth about his father: [[spoiler:He left for New Orleans to make some money to support his family. But after two weeks, he "deserted" them to be with his two new loves: big city-livin' and a "voodoo woman named Phyllis." And changed his name to Roberto. She lied to him about his father because she was afraid Bobby would leave her too, thus the reason why she sheltered him all his life.]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Coach Red starts to lose his cool and starts becoming frantic when coach Klein starts making his own creative plays that ''really'' catches Red off guard and making him look like a fool as it starts turning the tide of the game around in the Mud Dogs' favor which eventually leads to Coach Red losing the championship causing him to collapse on his knees and cry like a huge baby.
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Vicki.

* DeadpanSnarker: It may be tough to see it under the speech impediment at first, but Bobby is definitely one.

* BookDumb: Apparently, Bobby's lack of common knowledge is a result of his sheltered upbringing, rather than some learning disability.

* DirtyCoward: Red shamelessly revealed Bobby's fake transcript just so he would not have to face him in the Bourbon Bowl.

* FakeUltimateHero: Red Beaulieu's success as a coach is due to him stealing Coach Klein's playbook years ago to pass off as his own. In the championship game, he is caught off guard and frustratingly flips through the pages when Coach Klein starts to beat him with new creative plays that aren't in the stolen playbook to the point he throws the stolen playbook to the ground in anger.

** Coach Red Beaulieu, who is a rather unpleasant scumbag of a coach that tormented Bobby by revealing his fake transcripts and stole the playbook from Coach Klein for his own selfish purposes. Naturally the two of them would take him down in the end together and humiliate him in the process. To elaborate: Red lost the Championship game to a farm team run by the coach he screwed over, who'd never won a game until they brought on [[ChekhovsGunman the waterboy he'd fired earlier]], and his perfect season was ruined as well.
** Meaney who bullied Bobby throughout the movie gets a brutal powerbomb tackle in the Championship game by the very victim he tormented.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: It would have been a lot harder for the Mud Dogs to pull off that game-winning play if the Cougars hadn't put them in field goal distance by dogpiling Bobby after the play, causing a huge mess of penalties. To be fair they didn't even know Bobby would be put in the offense, meaning that they didn't know it would potentially put a player out of the game. They just did it as payback, but too bad for them is that [[spoiler: Bobby [[NoSell no-solding]] it anyway, thanks to "some high-quality H20."]]

* VillainousBreakdown: Coach Red starts to lose his cool and starts becoming frantic when coach Klein starts making his own creative plays that ''really'' catches him off guard and making him look like a fool as it starts turning the tide of the game around in the Mud Dogs' favor which eventually leads to Coach Red losing the championship causing him to collapse on his knees and cry like a huge baby.

* FullNameBasis: Bobby tends to call everybody by their full name, and sometimes their title, too (e.g. he calls Coach Klein [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment "Mr. Coach Klein"]]).

* MadLibsCatchPhrase[: This trope is ''the devil!''

** Coach Red Beaulieu, who is a rather unpleasant scumbag of a coach that tormented Bobby by revealing his fake transcripts and stole the playbook from Coach Klein for his own selfish purposes. Naturally the two of them would take him down in the end together. To elaborate: he lost the Championship game to a farm team run by the coach he screwed over, who'd never won a game until they brought on [[ChekhovsGunman the waterboy he'd fired earlier]], and his perfect season was ruined as well.
** Meaney who bullied Bobby throughout the movie gets a powerbomb tackle in the Championship game by the very victim he tormented.

* VillainousBreakdown: Coach Red starts to lose his cool and starts becoming frantic when coach Klein starts making his own creative plays that ''really'' catches him off guard and it starts turning the tide of the game around in the Mud Dogs' favor which eventually leads to Coach Red losing the championship causing him to collapse on his knees and cry.

** Bobby had been constantly abused throughout his life.

** Bobby was abused by the Cougars for years and had no choice but to just stand there and take it. The Mud Dogs finally push him too far, and this leads to him standing up for himself by tackling those who insult him. Especially tackling Meaney in the Bourbon Bowl, who ''definitely'' had it coming after years of tormenting Bobby for fun.
** Coach Klein was intimidated and screwed over by Red to be coaching a farm team, when he no longer sees Red as someone scary, he came up with new creative plays that totally catches Red off guard and defeats him.

* FakeUltimateHero: Red Beaulieu's success as a coach is due to him stealing Coach Klein's playbook years ago to pass off as his own. In the championship game, he is caught off guard and frustratingly flips through the pages when Coach Klein starts to beat him with new creative plays that aren't in the stolen playbook to the point he angerly throws the playbook to the ground.

** Coach Red Beaulieu, who is a rather unpleasant scumbag of a coach that tormented Bobby by revealing his fake transcripts and stole the playbook from Coach Klein for his own selfish purposes. So it's only natural the two of them would take him down in the end together. To elaborate: he lost the Championship game to a farm team run by the coach he screwed over, who'd never won a game until they brought on [[ChekhovsGunman the waterboy he'd fired earlier]], and his perfect season became ruined as well.

* VillainousBreakdown: Coach Red starts to lose his cool and starts becoming frantic when coach Klein starts making his own creative plays that ''really'' catches him off guard and it starts turning the tide of the game around in the Mud Dogs' favor that eventually lead to coach Red losing the championship causing him to collapse on his knees and cry.