A Huey Freeman Christmas
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A Huey Freeman Christmas is the 7th episode in the first season of the animated television series The Boondocks. It originally aired on December 18, 2005
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The Boondocks Season 1 |
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Episodes: |
[edit] Episode Summary
Christmas time is near. Jazmine has gotten into the spirit of the season, even going as far as dreaming about preaching to a church congregation about Santa. Riley, meanwhile, has been putting on a disguise and assaulting the Santa at the mall. He later explains that he only wants Santa to pay what Riley feels he is owed.
"I didn't ask for much, just rims. I didn't even ask for the whole car! Just rims!"
We cut to Huey in school. His teacher, Mr. Uberwitz (voiced by Judge Reinhold) is trying to get Huey to get some holiday spirit as well, first trying to teach the class about Kwanzaa, and then asking Huey to direct the school's Christmas pagent. Huey protests, saying he wants nothing to do with it, until Mr. Uberwitz promises him complete creative control. Huey stares at him and then demands, "I want it in writing."
Mr. Uberwitz learns just what he was getting into when he offered complete creative control when Huey hires Quincy Jones as the musical director of the production. Further complications arise when Huey tries to get the other children to see his vision, but they all waste time dancing and having fun. Huey shouts, "Do I look like Charlie Brown?" The children are confused, so Huey fires them all. Mr. Uberwitz has to go along with it as the contract states.
Huey works tirelessly on the project, enlisting the assistance of several notable Hollywood actors, special effects, a complex musical score and, for some reason, a samurai. He ignores all the protests from the PTA who object to their children not being involved, but he is forced to have a meeting with the Principal, who says that a change needs to be made in the script. Namely, Jesus can not be portrayed as black in the play. This is a problem for two reasons. One, Huey's vision is being compromised and two, the title of the play is "The Adventures of Black Jesus".
Huey abandons the project a day before it is to debut, but Mr. Uberwitz puts on the performance anyway, not a word changed from Huey's vision. Sadly, no one saw it, as the PTA had staged a boycott of the performance, not because of the subject, but because their children were not in it.
[edit] Trivia
- There are several references to A Charlie Brown Christmas. For instance the music used in the background is very similar, the urge for the protagonists to give the "true" meaning of Christmas by directing a Christmas play, Riley's letter to Santa appears over his head as he writes, and the sound effects used are easily recognized by anyone familiar with the original special. Also a part of Huey's explanation of the true history of Christmas to Robert is muffled much like the voices of the teacher's in Peanuts cartoons. Charlie Brown is also mentioned in the episode.
- Quincy Jones does his own voice work
- Several prominent Hollywood actors are mentioned in the episode, (ie. Denzel Washington and Angela Bassett) but none are ever seen on screen with the exception of Quincy Jones
- Huey makes a statement about Jesus being black, stating that "In addition to Arabs, the Middle East has always been home to people of African descent, who you would consider black." This is a reference to one of Malcolm X's statements on his return from Mecca. Huey has a poster of Malcolm X on the wall near his computer.
- Surprisingly, the usually logical minded Huey never actually gives a reason for his belief that Jesus was black; he merely states that there were some Africans who lived in the Middle East, a statement which fundamentally neither proves, disproves, or even supports the idea that Jesus was/wasn't black.
- The Detour on Teletoon's website lists this episode as Merry Christmas, Huey Freeman.
