"The Story of Catcher Freeman" is the 12th episode of the 2nd season of The Boondocks, and the 27th episode overall. It originally aired on January 28, 2008.
Robert tells his grandsons an old folktale about Catcher Freeman, a heroic ex-slave who lived in the 1860s, and was (allegedly) an ancestor of the Freeman family. However, Ruckus then comes over to tell a radically different story about Catcher Freeman. Afterwards, it's up to Huey to do some research on the real historical record of Catcher Freeman.
Tropes:
- Alternative Character Interpretation: In-universe examples; Catcher, Thelma, Tobias, and Massa Colonel are all depicted very differently depending on Robert's, Ruckus', and Huey's respective versions of the story. See "Rashomon"-Style for more details.
- Anachronism Stew: Quite a few in-universe examples, regarding events that were supposedly set during the mid 19th century.
- Tobias allegedly wrote down the world's first screenplay for a film, some decades before motion pictures were even invented. If this was true, Tobias must've been way ahead of his time.
- During Robert's story, one of the slaves casually compares Catcher Freeman to Batman, a fictional character created in the 1930s. Even Riley notices this anachronism.
- During Ruckus' story, the slaves can be heard singing "Don't Trust Them New Niggas Over There", a song that we all know was created by Uncle Ruckus himself. Huey is quick to point out that this was never a real folk song. Though of course, this wasn't even remotely the only thing wrong with Ruckus' tale (see below).
- Artistic License – History: Another in-universe example; Ruckus' version of the story is one big heaping pile of pseudohistorical bullshit. He makes ridiculously revisionist claims that slavery was actually a very good thing for black people, in which they didn't have to work at all, and instead were able to goof around and have fun, while their generous white masters gave them good food and free housing. Of course, Huey has to point out that all of this is untrue.
- Briar Patching: In Robert's telling of the story, a slave tricks Massa Colonel into whipping Tobias repeatedly by pleading how much the others don't want him to do it.
- Cliché Storm: Lampshaded in-universe; Robert's story about Catcher Freeman sounds a lot like a generic Hollywood action-adventure movie, featuring such overused tropes like a One-Man Army Action Hero, a Damsel in Distress Love Interest, etc. Riley complains about all this, and is able to predict exactly what happens next in the climax.
- Composite Character: In-universe, it turns out that the so-called "Catcher Freeman" wasn't a (completely) real person. He's actually based on two very different individuals: Thelma, the true hero of the story, who personally led the slave revolt against Colonel Lynchwater; and "Catcher" Tobias Lynchwater, who accidentally killed his own master/father at the very end of the battle while trying to shoot Thelma, and subsequently exploited this moment by taking full credit for saving the day. Thelma and Tobias subsequently married and moved to Canada where they lived "more-or-less happily ever after".
- Crazy Is Cool: Riley doesn't seem to care how racist Ruckus' telling of Catcher Freeman is, he just finds his incredible feats awesome to hear.
- Foreshadowing: During Robert's tale, there are several mentions of Colonel Lynchwater's demise. Particularly how it happens in his story.
- Interactive Narrator: Riley, Huey, Robert, and Ruckus all provide additional commentary and argue over various details while the stories are being told.
- Irony: When Tobias is revealed to be the real Catcher Freeman and the son of Colonel Lynchwater, Uncle Ruckus dismissed those facts despite he and Tobias are willing to work for the White Man. Also, Uncle Ruckus believed that he's white in a black body while Tobias's father is white making him half white and thus the Freeman Family are white descendants. Uncle Ruckus is in denial.
- Jerk Ass Has A Point: Robert and Ruckus' tales are filled with historical romanticism and revisionism. However, Huey's "true" version of the story (which he got from the internet) claims that Tobias secretly wrote the first screenplay in history, which he planed to sell to the Colonel, decades before the movie industry even existed. It even shows the Colonel willing to buy it for a lot of money despite not even knowing what a script is. Ruckus is quick to point this out, sarcastically asks if Huey's reading "madeupmonkeyshit.com".
- Ruckus also has an actual photo of his version of the story's Thelma and Catch-a-Freeman to back him up, although it could be a fake.
- "Rashomon"-Style: The episode's Story Within a Story is told via conflicting historical flashbacks about a slave revolt on Colonel Lynchwater's plantation:
- Robert tells a cliched action movie plot, with the escaped rebel slave Catcher Freeman as a badass freedom fighter who rescues other slaves from slavers; Thelma as a vapid yet beautiful damsel and Catcher's girlfriend; Massa Colonel as the main villain of the story; and the Colonel's loyal slave Tobias, who's a generally useless race-traitor house slave. In the climax, Catcher leads his fellow slaves on an assault against Lynchwater's forces; ultimately concluding with Catcher and Thelma killing the Colonel and Tobias respectively, and they live happily ever after in freedom.
- Ruckus tells an insanely racist and backwards story, with "Catch-a-Freeman" as a superhuman, loyal slave who recaptured runaway slaves and returned them to their masters; Thelma as an evil whore who seduces Catcha; Massa Colonel as an absurdly kind slave owner who ineffectually tries to discipline ungrateful slaves who exploit their wonderful living conditions, and they plan to kill the Colonel just for politely requesting that they do some work; Tobias as his master's favorite house slave, and still generally useless. In the climax, Thelma has some wild sex with Catcha, but this is just a ploy to capture him so that he can't stop the evil, monstrous hordes of slaves from killing Lynchwater and all of his men.
- Huey finally sets both of them straight with the true version, from the Internet, which reveals that: The so-called "Catcher Freeman" was actually based on Tobias, Massa Colonel's illegitimate mulatto son, who was a cowardly opportunist who takes credit after he accidentally kills Massa Colonel (he meant to shoot Thelma, the real hero of the story, who actually led the slave rebellion); and Colonel Lynchwater was a fairly reasonable master, who was willing to grant Tobias his freedom (and maybe even recognize him as his son) as part of a business deal. This leaves Robert and Ruckus, who are both bewildered by these revelations, in an agreement to disagree with each other, but more so with Huey.
- The episode ends while Riley tries to tell his own, intentionally inaccurate story.
- Shrouded in Myth: Catcher Freeman, who is quite the legendary figure. There are many different, conflicting stories of his life; and within Robert's story, field slaves claim that "he's 14 feet tall, got trapezist muscles... and he can fly, underwater". After Robert and Ruckus tell their own tall tales about Catcher, Huey does some searching on the Internet to find out what really happened. The truth about Catcher turns out to be far more boring and mundane however.
- Slave Liberation: All of the Catcher Freeman stories revolve around a violent slave rebellion in the 1860s, in which a Southern planter named George Lynchwater was killed. Exactly how and why it happened is a matter of fierce debate however.
- Unreliable Narrator: Due to the many different versions of the Catcher Freeman story, Robert and Ruckus aren't really aware of what actually happened, only repeating tall tales that have been heavily distorted by word-of-mouth over the past century-and-a-half. So it's up to Huey to set the record straight like usual. Both of them refuse to accept this.
- Interestingly enough, Riley believes or likes Ruckus' version more than Robert's. He just found Huey's version boring.
- Zombie Apocalypse: During the slave revolt scene in Ruckus' version of the story, the slaves have (for some strange reason) morphed into vampiric zombie monsters who viciously murder the slave owners. Though of course, this lines up well with Ruckus' racist views of black people being animalistic savages who are prone to senseless violence.
