A Short Story and a Tall Tale

**A Short Story and a Tall Tale** is the eleventh episode of season two of *The Cleveland Show*. It is the thirty eighth episode, overall.

## Synopsis

Rallo is sick of being short. Meanwhile, Cleveland goes to an NBA All-Stars game.

## Plot

Dismayed at finding himself always looked down on because of his diminutive size and age, Rallo finds a kindred spirit in Marty Barty, another short person with a fierce independent streak at the grocery store. Rallo starts hanging out with Marty who takes him to the track and lets him drive his car. Enjoying Marty's lifestyle, Rallo fails to notice that Marty is actually a diminutive mobster. Marty asks Rallo to take out his unattractive sister Trish. After meeting at Cheese E. Charlie's, Rallo agrees to marry Trish but blows off the wedding to play with his friends. Upset at having been disrespected by Rallo, Marty gathers his mobsters and vows to kill Rallo.

Meanwhile, Mr. Waterman gives Cleveland two courtside tickets to the NBA All-Star game. Originally intended to take one of his friends, Donna lets it be known that she will be going with Cleveland. Leaving the kids with Cleveland's parents, they fly to Los Angeles in the company jet. After experiencing much of Southern California's culture, Cleveland and Donna get to the game. Cleveland passes the time shouting insults at the players. After the game, the players decide to pay Cleveland a visit to set him straight.

At the house, the gangsters and the NBA players converge and decide to fight to see who gets to enter the house first. While Cleveland is amused by the antics outside, Rallo shows up in the doorway. Marty sees him and chases him to his room. As he prepares to bash Rallo, Marty finds out that Rallo is only five years old. Feeling dumb for having made similar mistakes in the past, Marty and Rallo make up with Trish asking Rallo to call her when he gets older. The NBA players converge on Cleveland, with the intent of insulting his mother in payback for insulting Kevin Garnett's mother. Kevin starts to insult Cookie but Kevin's mother arrives and demands Kevin apologize for insulting her. Cookie in turn demands Cleveland apologize to the players. As LeBron James sheds a tear at the scene, Rallo remarks that LeBron does care about Cleveland.

## Characters

### Major Roles

* Cleveland Brown
* Donna Tubbs-Brown
* Rallo Tubbs
* LeVar Brown
* Evelyn Brown
* Marty Barty
* Trish Barty
* NBA All-Stars
	+ Shaquille O'Neal
	+ LeBron James
	+ Dwight Howard
	+ Kevin Garnett
	+ Steve Nash
	+ Dwayne Wade
	+ Dirk Nowitzki

### Minor Roles

* Cleveland Junior
* Roberta Tubbs
* Tim the Bear
* Lester Krinklesac
* Holt Richter
* Lloyd Waterman
* Terry Kimple
* Florence
* Theodore Parker Jr., III
* Bernard Bernard
* Kameron
* Tigger
* Anna Torv
* Denzel Washington
* Kendra Krinklesac (Indirectly Mentioned)
* Ernie Krinklesac (Indirectly Mentioned)

## Quotes

**Rallo**: Whoa! What's going on here?
*[Rallo walks in on Cleveland and Junor making a tiger fight a komodo dragon]*
**Roberta**: Welcome to The Ring of Wildfire, where vicious, wild animals battle to the death in an epic flaming fighting ring! In this corner, we've got Cleveland Junior with Kameron the komodo dragon. *[pronouncing it: "Kam-Er-Un"]*
**Junior**: It's Kameron! *[pronouncing it: "Kam-Uh-Rawn"]*
**Roberta**: And in this corner, we've got Cleveland Senior with a tiger named something only *tigers* can say!
**Cleveland**: Just call him Tigger!
*[The tiger growls at Cleveland]*
**Rallo**: Seriously, what the heck is going on?
**Cleveland**: Oh, hey Rallo. We're just gunna watch a tiger fight a komodo dragon. Roberta, light the ring!
**Roberta**: Lightin' it up!
*[Roberta lights up the ring; A clown passes by]*
**Clown**: Hiyuk, yuk, yuk! Hotter than the sun and barrels full of fun! Shoot your starting gun, cuz it's time for round one! Hoo hoo hoo!
**Rallo**: Alright! But why's this happening in our living room?
**Cleveland**: We do stuff like this every night after you go to sleep. Wait a minute, what time is it? 8:12!? It's past your bedtime.

**Rallo**: I'm tired of being treated like I'm a second class citizen because I'm little. Drinking out of sippy cups, painting with my fingers, Cleveland putting me in a cage when you're not around.
**Cleveland**: *[offscreen]* Not a cage. It's a crate.

**Donna**: Rallo, the reason little people have no rights is because your brains are small, so you're not very smart yet.

**Donna**: *[reading The Giving Tree]* There was a needy man and a homosexual tree that never had the guts to make it's move. The end.

**Mr. Waterman**: I just thought someone of your hue would enjoy watching some basketball.
**Cleveland**: Well, hue got that right. Thanks, you racist son of a bitch!

**Mr. Waterman**: Florence, send in Jose, I wanna give him a Datsun pickup truck filled with alley furniture.

**Donna**: These people don't know me. I will hit you.

**Donna**: I wonder if I can smoke in here.

**Junior**: Rallo's driving? That's just crazy.
*[It's revealed Junior is riding the flying komodo dragon]*
**Junior**: Arise, Kameron!

**Roberta**: You guys are going to Hollywood? Can I-
**Cleveland**: No.

*[Flashback to Cleveland when he was a child; LeVar is leaving]*
**Cleveland**: When are you coming back?
**LeVar**: What day is it?
**Cleveland**: Tuesday.
**LeVar**: ... Never.
*[LeVar slams the door in Cleveland's face]*

*[Cleveland and Donna are in a plane crash on their landing in Hollywood; They are hoisted out of the water by a helicopter]*
**Cleveland**: Only survivors. Hey look, a palm tree!

**Rallo**: See? Lebron James *does* care about Cleveland.
## Trivia

* Every night after Rallo goes to bed, the rest of the family does something insanely epic, such as pitting a tiger and a komodo dragon against each other in a fight in a ring of fire.
* Rallo's bedtime is 8:00.
* Cleveland puts Rallo in a crate, while Donna is gone.
* It's revealed that Rallo's actual full name is "Montclair Lawson Tubbs" and that "Rallo" is just a nickname.
* Cleveland was a ceramics major in college.

### Cultural References

* Junior names his tiger *Tigger* after the character from *Winnie the Pooh*.
* Donna reads *The Giving Tree* by *Shel Silverstein*.
* In a picture on Mr. Waterman's wall, Terry Kimple is shown dressed as *Superman* for Halloween.
* Trader Jew's is a parody on *Trader Joes*.
* Cleveland insults Donna, by calling her *Gargamel* from *The Smurfs* and *Dumbledore* from *Harry Potter*.
* Tim does an impression of *Jack Nicholson* and quotes his characters from the movies "*A Few Good Men*" and "*The Shining*".
* At Cheese E. Charlie's, there are two arcade games named "Polygamous" and "Custer's Return". Polygamous is a parody on *Polybius*, a fictional video game that doesn't actually exist but has become widely known about, via playground rumors that can be traced back to as early as the 1980's. Custer's Return is a parody on *Custer's Revenge*, a highly controversial pornographic video game, featuring General Custer raping a Native American woman.
* Cleveland makes fun of the show *Fringe*, via a fourth wall joke, where the show is advertized.
* Kevin Garnette and his mother compare Cleveland to *Stanley Hudson* from *The Office*.