The Waterboy is a 1998 American sports comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It was written by Adam Sandler as well as Tim Herlihy and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. Sandler also stars as the title character while Kathy Bates, Fairuza Balk, Henry Winkler, Jerry Reed, Larry Gilliard, Jr., Blake Clark, Peter Dante, and Jonathan Loughran play other characters.
Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher, Paul "The Big Show" Wight, and Rob Schneider have cameo appearances. The film was extremely profitable, earning $39.4 million in its opening weekend alone in the United States, earning a total of $190 million worldwide. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Robert "Bobby" Boucher Jr. is a socially inept, stuttering 31-year-old man serving as the water boy for the University of Louisiana football program. He lives with his protective and extremely religious mother, Helen, and believes his father, Robert Sr., died of dehydration in the Sahara while serving in the Peace Corps back in the 1960s. As the players constantly bully Bobby, the Cougars' head coach, Red Beaulieu, fires him for being "disruptive" during the 18 years of his employment. Bobby approaches Coach Klein of the South Central Louisiana State University Mud Dogs and is retained as the water boy on a voluntary basis.
The Mud Dogs have lost 40 consecutive games, their cheerleaders as well as the mascot are alcoholics, and players are forced to share equipment due to budget cuts. When the new team teases him, Klein encourages Bobby to stand up for himself. Remembering all the bullying he has put up with over the years, Bobby tackles the team's quarterback, knocking him out. Seeing Bobby's potential, Klein meets with Helen and tries to persuade her to let Bobby play on the team, but she refuses, saying it is too dangerous.
Klein convinces Bobby to play anyway, seeing that Bobby is eager to attend college. Bobby becomes a feared outside linebacker and the Mud Dogs go on a winning streak. Bobby's newfound fame and confidence also allow him to reconnect with his felonious childhood love interest, Vicki Vallencourt. Helen forbids Bobby from seeing her, insisting that she "is the devil".
The team's success earns it a trip to the annual Bourbon Bowl on New Year's Day to face the Cougars and Coach Beaulieu. However, Beaulieu and his team crash the Mud Dogs' pep rally and reveal that the high school Bobby went to does not exist and that he was homeschooled, and his fake high school transcript makes him ineligible for college and football. The team and fans turn against Bobby, believing him to be a liar and cheater.
Klein convinces the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to let Bobby play if he can pass a General Educational Development (GED) exam. He apologizes to Bobby and admits to submitting the fake transcript because he was desperate to get even with Beaulieu. Twenty years ago, Klein and Beaulieu were assistant coaches at the University of Louisiana. After Beaulieu stole and took credit for Klein's playbook, he was promoted, and Klein was fired. Klein suffered a mental breakdown and became unable to come up with new plays. The story convinces Bobby to help Klein get revenge on Beaulieu and prove himself to everyone. Bobby finally stands up to Helen while studying for the GED, angrily revealing that he has been playing football, going to college, and seeing Vicki, and intends to continue doing so.
Bobby passes the exam, but Helen feigns a coma. Feeling he drove his mother to illness, Bobby stays in the hospital with her. Meanwhile, Vicki leads a gathering of fans to the hospital to convince him to play. Seeing her son struggling to ignore this, Helen ends her fake illness. She tells Bobby the truth about Robert Sr., who abandoned her while she was four months pregnant with Bobby to have an affair with a voodoo priestess in New Orleans. This led to Helen constantly fearing that Bobby would leave her too. Deciding to put her son's happiness ahead of her own selfishness, she encourages him to play in the Bourbon Bowl.
Arriving at halftime, Bobby finds the Mud Dogs losing by a score of 27–0. Using the same technique of "visualizing and attacking" as Klein taught him, Bobby then turns the lesson back on him. Klein overcomes his fear of Beaulieu and comes up with new plays. The Mud Dogs catch up and go on to win the Bourbon Bowl 30–27, and Bobby is named the game's Most Valuable Player (MVP).