"A Date with the Health Inspector" is the 5th episode of the 1st season of The Boondocks. It originally aired on December 4, 2005.
Tom Dubois is suddenly arrested and detained for fitting the description of the "Xbox Killer". Fearing that he will be anally raped in prison, Tom calls Huey and Riley for help. The Freeman boys, along with Ed Wuncler III and his friend Gin Rummy, search for the real killer. But this turns out to be a big mistake, as Ed III and Rummy are more concerned with going on a crime spree of their own.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: Gin Rummy, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, recites some of his actor's iconic lines from Pulp Fiction.
- Accidental Truth: Ed and Rummy lie to the cop that the convenience store manager they're robbing is a terrorist and is holding a gun on them. Then it turns out the manager does have a gun and, if the two other men who come to back him up packing heavier artillery is any indication, actually a terrorist.Rummy: I didn't think they'd actually shoot back at us!
- Ambiguous Situation: It's never actually clarified whether the convenience store was really owned by terrorists, or if the staff was just defending themselves. While they were charged with crimes after the shootout, it's a well established fact in this episode that the Police Are Useless.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Xbox Killer strikes again because Ed and Rummy were too busy holding up a mini-mart, which they get away with scot-free. On the bright side, the killer is still caught and Tom is vindicated, the ending shows that he's suing the city for his wrongful arrest, meaning the police won't get away with their incompetence and torment.
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Broken Aesop: Police Are Useless. - Catapult Nightmare: Tom almost gets raped in his nightmare, before he wakes up in a panic.
- Didn't See That Coming: Gin Rummy believes in this in a post-9/11 mindset, discussing with Riley about "Weapons of Mass Destruction".
- Berserk Button: Don't ask Rummy if the military ever found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Riley doing it provokes him into an angry rant full of Insane Troll Logic.
- Could Have Avoided This: Huey, Riley, Ed and Rummy could have stop the Xbox Killer from killing another victim if Ed and Rummy didn't stop to rob convenience store.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: Tom has this attitude, but for personal reasons:Sarah: Tom, did you erase all my MP3s?
Tom: Hey, file sharing is a crime, and I'm not going to get anally raped just so you can listen to Usher! - Does This Remind You of Anything?: This episode is supposed to be a satirical allegory for the Invasion of Iraq. It even has Gin Rummy (Donald Rumsfeld parody) restate the infamous "known unknowns" speech.
- Dream Intro: In the first few minutes of the episode, we see Tom having a nightmare about dropping the soap in a prison shower, which leads to an inmate called the "Health Inspector" preparing to anally rape him.
- Freudian Excuse: When Tom was a little boy, he watched a movie which depicted a graphic prison rape scene. It traumatized him so badly, he grew up to be an extremely straight-laced citizen who would never commit any crime, even if wasn't punishable by a prison sentence.
- Gag Penis: The Health Inspector. On the DVD version, it's even worse, as they don't censor it with pixelation.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Ed Wuncler III and Gin Rummy shoot exactly one guy during the shootout at the convenience store, a bystander cop, who somehow lives. Same goes to the mini mart staff who fail to shoot Ed and Gin despite being at close range
- Irony: Tom grows up to be a law abiding citizen so he doesn't have to risk going to jail and getting anally raped. He is aware that the some of the people he persecute have that same fear.
- Karma Houdini: Ed and Rummy are left unpunished for committing armed robbery and starting a gunfight. Although their victims, who got arrested, may or may not be terrorists.
- Made of Iron: A policeman gets caught in the middle of a gunfight between Ed and Gin, and a group of convenience store works on three back-to-back occasions. Somehow, he survives.
- Metaphorically True: On his phone call to Huey, Tom begs him not to tell Jazmine what's happened to him because he doesn't want her to know "her daddy was somebody's biiii-hi-hi-hi-hi-hi-hitch!" When Jazmine asked Huey what Tom said, Huey said "Your father wants you to know he's nobody's bitch." Unfortunately this still causes Jazmine to burst into hysterical tears again.
- Mugging the Monster: Ed's and Rummy's attempt at an armed robbery of a convenience store goes south when it turns out the staff are also armed (it's implied that they might be terrorists due to the semi automatic weapons they posses.).(Heavy gunfire)Rummy: I didn't think they'd actually shoot back at us!Huey: Well of course they're shooting back at us! You're robbing their store!Rummy: You can't assume that people are gonna shoot back at you! It was an unknown unknown!
- Police Are Useless: And how!
- The police arrest middle-class lawyer Tom Dubois suspected of committing a crime that a completely different, ghetto black man was responsible for. As Huey narrated, sometimes it doesn't take much, or anything, to be arrested because you fit a suspect's description. Fortunately for Tom, the real Xbox Killer is eventually discovered and arrested.
- Later on, the police ignore Ed's and Rummy's robbery of a convenience store, and instead they only arrest the store owners (who may or may not be terrorists).
- Ed and Rummy are useless and failed as vigilantes to stop the Xbox Killer
- Prison Rape: This episode explains the reason Tom is so law-abiding is because he lives in mortal terror of getting incarcerated and anally raped, ever since he saw it in a documentary as a kid.
- Race Against the Clock: Tom calls Huey to find the Xbox Killer before he is transferred to real jail for the weekend, which he claims is more than enough time to get anally raped (Tom says it statistically takes one night). Ultimately, they fail to find the Xbox Killer thanks to Ed and Rummy getting into a shootout with the Mini Mart staff; however, it doesn't matter because by the time it's over the Xbox Killer killed another victim.
- Scary Black Man: Tom has nightmares about a big, hulking, muscular prisoner with a really long dick who calls himself the "Health Inspector".
- Shout-Out:
- To Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when Gin Rummy reassures the cop that he won't die/be mortally wounded in vain.
- Riley and Gin Rummy's conversation in the car is a near word-for-word re-enactment of the famous "English, motherfucker! Do you speak it?!" scene from Pulp Fiction. It helps that Gin Rummy is voiced by the exact same actor, Samuel L. Jackson.
- When buying drinks from the convenience store, Rummy tells Ed, "Watch my back, I got your front", which is an opening ad-lib from "Shook Ones, Pt. II".
- Special Guest: Terry Crews as the Health Inspector, Charlie Murphy as Ed Wuncler III, and Samuel L. Jackson as Gin Rummy.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Even though Ed and Rummy were just two felons committing an armed robbery, the public thinks that they're heroes who set out to fight terrorists.
