Bender Gets Made
Encyclopedia
"Bender Gets Made" is episode thirteen in season two of Futurama
. It was originally shown in North America
on April 30, 2000.
While working at Elzar's restaurant as a busboy
, Bender meets the robot mafia, and is offered a chance to join them. He jumps at the chance of doing something he enjoys for a living: stealing (Elzar indifferently allows him to quit his job). Bender works hard for the mafia, quickly becoming one of the Don-bot's favorites. Unfortunately for Bender, the whole job turns sour when the target of the mafia's long planned Zuban Cigar heist is the Planet Express Ship
. In an intense space battle, Fry defends the ship and steers it at the same time, pulling strings strung between the ship's wheel and the gun turret to steer the ship; Leela is still confident in her piloting skills, but blissfully unaware that she is in fact holding Nibbler
's dinner bowl, as she is still blind. She realizes her mistake upon feeling the raised letters on the bowl that spell "Nibbler", and promptly returns to the actual wheel. Unfortunately, her hindered skills allow the mafia to destroy the fuel line. The mafia board the ship, blindfold Fry and tie him up with Leela. Bender realizes that if Fry and Leela hear him, his cover will be blown. In a crazy attempt to avoid being discovered, he changes his voice to "king's accent", and pretends to beat himself up when the Robot Mafia finds out a robot was on the ship (Bender was pretending to be sick to disguise his whereabouts from Leela and Fry). He is almost discovered when Leela's blindfold comes off, but since her eye is still healing she can only see a blurry silhouette. The ship gets robbed, but instead of blowing the ship up and leaving with the mafia Bender remains onboard, telling the mafia he will take care of them. When they fly away, he ties himself up using his arms, and makes up a crazy story to remain unexposed. Back at Planet Express, Leela's eye has recovered and she thinks Professor Farnsworth was part of the mafia, for he matched the silhouette she saw. Bender quits the robot mafia to stick to plain crime instead of organized crime, though not until after Tinny Tim gives him his fraction of the loot.
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
. It was originally shown in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
on April 30, 2000.
Plot
The Planet Express crew attends a taping of Elzar's television show, much to the joy of Bender, who secretly wants to be a chef. Bender continually disrupts Elzar in the middle of the show, until Elzar accidentally sprays Leela in the eye with his spice weasel. Leela, who is now temporarily blinded, is forced to wear an eye patch to protect her eye until it is healed. In order to make up for the incident, Elzar invites the entire crew to dinner at his restaurant, serving them the most expensive and appetizing things he has to offer. After the dinner, he actually bills them, despite the crew being led to believe that the dinner was free. Unable to afford the $1200 bill, Elzar solves things by having them arrested. However, Bender convinces Elzar to let Bender work for him to pay off the debt.While working at Elzar's restaurant as a busboy
Busboy
Busser, busboy and busgirl are terms used in the United States for someone who works in the restaurant and catering industry clearing tables, taking dirty dishes to the dishwasher, setting tables and otherwise assisting the waiting staff....
, Bender meets the robot mafia, and is offered a chance to join them. He jumps at the chance of doing something he enjoys for a living: stealing (Elzar indifferently allows him to quit his job). Bender works hard for the mafia, quickly becoming one of the Don-bot's favorites. Unfortunately for Bender, the whole job turns sour when the target of the mafia's long planned Zuban Cigar heist is the Planet Express Ship
Planet Express Ship
The Planet Express Ship is a fictional spaceship in the animated series Futurama, which bears the official designation "U.S.S. Planet Express Ship." The ship was designed and built by Professor Hubert Farnsworth and is the sole delivery ship of Planet Express, a delivery service owned by the...
. In an intense space battle, Fry defends the ship and steers it at the same time, pulling strings strung between the ship's wheel and the gun turret to steer the ship; Leela is still confident in her piloting skills, but blissfully unaware that she is in fact holding Nibbler
Nibbler (Futurama)
Lord Nibbler is a fictional character from the animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Frank Welker, who provides not only his speaking lines but also the various noises he makes when not speaking English....
's dinner bowl, as she is still blind. She realizes her mistake upon feeling the raised letters on the bowl that spell "Nibbler", and promptly returns to the actual wheel. Unfortunately, her hindered skills allow the mafia to destroy the fuel line. The mafia board the ship, blindfold Fry and tie him up with Leela. Bender realizes that if Fry and Leela hear him, his cover will be blown. In a crazy attempt to avoid being discovered, he changes his voice to "king's accent", and pretends to beat himself up when the Robot Mafia finds out a robot was on the ship (Bender was pretending to be sick to disguise his whereabouts from Leela and Fry). He is almost discovered when Leela's blindfold comes off, but since her eye is still healing she can only see a blurry silhouette. The ship gets robbed, but instead of blowing the ship up and leaving with the mafia Bender remains onboard, telling the mafia he will take care of them. When they fly away, he ties himself up using his arms, and makes up a crazy story to remain unexposed. Back at Planet Express, Leela's eye has recovered and she thinks Professor Farnsworth was part of the mafia, for he matched the silhouette she saw. Bender quits the robot mafia to stick to plain crime instead of organized crime, though not until after Tinny Tim gives him his fraction of the loot.
Introduced characters
- The Robot Mafia
- Donbot
- Clamps
- Joey Mousepad
Censorship
On FOX, Comedy Central, and the DVD version, Professor Farnsworth yells, "Holy Zombie Jesus!" after seeing the check. On Cartoon Network and TBS, the "Jesus" was muted out.Cultural references
- The police batons are visually similar to lightsabers. However, they are functionally different; instead of being used as blades for cutting, they are used as nightsticks for beating.
- The character Elzar is a reference to the television chef Emeril LagasseEmeril Lagasse'Emeril John Lagasse is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, and cookbook author. A regional James Beard Award winner, he is perhaps most notable for his Food Network shows Emeril Live and Essence of Emeril as well as catchphrases such as “Kick it up a notch!” and...
as is his television program and restaurant. - The laser guns the robot-mafia uses look almost exactly like the Thompson Sub-Machine gunThompson submachine gunThe Thompson is an American submachine gun, invented by John T. Thompson in 1919, that became infamous during the Prohibition era. It was a common sight in the media of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals...
which is the stereotypical gun used by the original mafia. - URL refers to the "MarmadukeMarmadukeMarmaduke is a newspaper comic strip drawn by Brad Anderson from 1954 to the present day. The strip was created by Anderson, with help from Phil Leeming and later Dorothy Leeming , and Paul Anderson. The strip revolves around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke...
" newspaper cartoon. - MmmTV, the channel that broadcasts Elzar's television show, is a reference to MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. - Leela's eye is treated at the Taco Bellevue Hospital, a reference to Taco BellTaco BellTaco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., which serves American-adapted Mexican food. Taco Bell serves tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "Value Menu" items...
and the real Bellevue Hospital. To further this reference, one of the doctors appearing there is a parody of the Taco Bell spokesman of the time, a talking chihuahua-like alienTaco Bell chihuahuaGidget "The Taco Bell chihuahua" Chipperton was a popular advertising figure and mascot, voiced by Carlos Alazraqui, and developed by TBWA and used by Taco Bell, a division of Louisville, Kentucky -based Yum! Brands. The Chihuahua is a breed commonly associated with Mexico, as are the tacos the...
. - Bender correctly guesses that the Robot Mafia's "private lotteryLotteryA lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
" is an illegal numbers gameNumbers gameNumbers game, also known as a numbers racket, policy racket or Italian lottery, is an illegal lottery played mostly in poor neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day...
; Clamps insists they are into "nothing fancy, you know, ones and zeroes mostly", a reference to the binary numeral systemBinary numeral systemThe binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, represents numeric values using two symbols, 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2...
used in computers. - "Sammy 'the Mechanical BullMechanical bullA mechanical bull, also known as a rodeo bull or bucking bronco is a machine that replicates the sensation of riding a bucking animal, such as a rodeo bull or horse. It is usually powered by a variable-speed electric motor...
' Gravano" is a reference to real-life mobster Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" GravanoSammy GravanoSalvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano is a former underboss of the Gambino crime family. He is known as the man who helped bring down John Gotti, the family's boss, by agreeing to become a Federal Bureau of Investigation informant and turn state's evidence.Originally a mobster for the Colombo crime...
, an associate of John GottiJohn GottiJohn Joseph Gotti, Jr was an American mobster who became the Boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Gotti grew up in poverty. He and his brothers turned to a life of crime at an early age...
. - Clamps says, "Bada-climp bada-clamp" which is a reference to "Bada-bing bada-boom."
Continuity
- A deleted scene had Bender cross out his serial number, 3370318, and replace it with "14" as a means of hiding from the Mob. However, the crossed-out serial number was shown to be 2716057, the serial number given by Flexo seven episodes prior in "The Lesser of Two Evils". This was meant to imply that at some intervening point Flexo had taken over Bender's life. The scene was removed after the creators decided it would irk fans and render the later episode "Bendless LoveBendless Love"Bendless Love" is the sixth episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on February 11, 2001.-Plot:After an overly dramatic takeoff results in an inelegant crash onto the streets of the city, the crew discovers that the Planet Express ship's essential L-unit has been...
" (in which Bender impersonates Flexo in order to prove that Angleyne still loves Flexo) entirely incomprehensible. - Bender comments that his food tastes good even though it was established in "My Three SunsMy Three Suns"My Three Suns" is episode seven in season one of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on May 4, 1999. This episode was written by J. Stewart Burns and directed by Jeffrey Lynch and Kevin O'Brien...
" that Bender has no taste buds. - Smitty describes his motivation for becoming a police officer - the failure of his father's restaurant business due to 'dine and dashDine and dashA dine and dash is a form of theft by fraud, in which a patron orders and consumes food from a restaurant or similar establishment with no intent to pay, then leaves without...
' thefts. This contradicts "Space Pilot 3000Space Pilot 3000"Space Pilot 3000" is the pilot episode of Futurama, which originally aired in North America on March 28, 1999 on Fox. The episode focuses on the cryogenic freezing of the series protagonist, Philip J. Fry, and the events when he awakens 1,000 years in the future...
" in which it was originally established that a person's job was assigned to them rather than chosen. - Much like in other episodes, Dr. Zoidberg is treated unfairly: when Leela damages the Planet Express building during an attempt to take off while blind, Hermes states that the repair costs will come out of Dr. Zoidberg's pay.
- The Masked Unit in "Raging BenderRaging Bender"Raging Bender" is the eighth episode in the second production season of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on February 27, 2000 as the twelfth episode of the second broadcast season. The episode was written by Lewis Morton and directed by Ron Hughart...
" can be seen in the background in the Little Bitaly scene. - Professor Farnsworth says, "Holy zombie Jesus," he used a similar phrase in the episode, "The Deep South" (which was also censored when aired on Cartoon Network and TBS, but not FOX, Comedy Central, or on the DVDs).
External links
- Bender Gets Made at The Infosphere.