"Invasion of the Katrinians" is the ninth episode of the second season of the Adult Swim animated television series The Boondocks and the twenty-fourth episode overall. It originally aired on December 10, 2007.
Plot
Granddad's cousin Jericho and his family take up residence in the Freeman home after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
While professing their gratitude, Jericho and his family quickly begin taking advantage of the Freemans' hospitality, running up bills, devouring all of the food in the house, and destroying the family's belongings. When Robert asks them to get jobs, Jericho and his family refuse and tell Robert that white society is now responsible for them. Jericho tells Robert that he will be receiving a check from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and that when he does, he will give him some of that money as a reimbursement. Robert and Jericho step outside. Uncle Ruckus then says that Jericho and every other Katrina refugee are lazy. Jericho then attacks Uncle Ruckus.
Time drags on and Jericho and his family cause the living conditions in the Freeman home to become abysmal. Angry at having been taken advantage of, Robert stops paying the utility bills to drive Jericho and his family out. The plan backfires, however, as neighbors begin giving handouts to Jericho and Granddad is attacked by the local media.
Eventually, Huey makes an impassioned speech to Jericho and his family, telling them that waiting for other people to help them is what got them into the mess they're in; instead, Huey says, Jericho and his family should go back to New Orleans and help their fellow citizens repair the city. Jericho quickly agrees—neglecting to tell anyone that he has just received a check for $200,000 from FEMA (or grand dad). Jericho instructs his family to pack up so they can go home; they soon depart, with a grinning Jericho promising Granddad to pay for all of the damage he and his family caused, "as soon as my check arrives". At the very end, when they were driving down the Timid Deer Lane, encounters Uncle Ruckus rants to them while they're leaving in the car about how "the white man brought the Gulf of Mexico" and "I'm gonna buy a dog, and I'm gonna name it Levee, and I'm gonna kick it whenever it rains."
Notes
- This episode is based on the Hurricane Katrina saga from the original comic-strip series of The Boondocks
- Cedric the Entertainer and Lil Wayne guest star.
Cultural references
- The theme for the Jericho family is a jazzy rendition of When The Saints Go Marching In... — a song often associated with the city and culture of New Orleans.
- Riley is shown preparing roux, a cooking base for Cajun cuisine.
- A reporter asks Robert if Bill Cosby put him up to the eviction of "poor black people" when he tries to kick Jericho out. This is in reference to Bill Cosby's criticism of "poor blacks" during an NAACP speech in 2004.
- Riley refers to people from New Orleans as grimy. This was from a 1999 song early from Lil' Wayne's career called, "Grimy Work".
- Jericho Freeman's first name is a reference to the ancient city of Jericho whose city walls fell to the Israelites in the Bible, similar to how the levees fell in New Orleans.