I Second That Emotion
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I Second That Emotion Written by Patric M. Veronne
Directed by Mark Ervin
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Production code: 2ACV01 Original Airdate: Sun, 21-Nov-1999
Foxworld synopsis:
Professor Farnsworth installs an empathy chip in Bender,
forcing him to feel human emotion. After Bender flushes
Nibbler -- Leela's beloved pet -- down the toilet, while
showing no sign of remorse, the insensitive robot is
programmed to receive Leela's emotional frequency.
Overcome by sadness, Bender sets out on a mission to
find Nibbler and save him from the dangerous depths of
the sewers, where mysterious inhabitants lurk.
Title Sequence
Opening theme promotion:
Made From Meat By-Products
Opening theme cartoon:
"Fresh Hare" (1943) {ms}
Did You Notice...
... Glagnar's Human Rinds are a caucasian flesh color?
... it looks similar to the aliens that counted down to the
new millennium in [1ACV01]?
... the floor under the can-opener has diagonal yellow stripes,
like a no-parking zone?
... one of the bars on the patio railing has a bandage wrapped
around it?
... Nibbler is actually sitting still for his birthday?
... one rung in the ladder that leads down from the manhole
is broken?
... almost every building in the mutants' village is a
dry-cleaner's?
... at the end, the far billboard is displaying a "Got
Protoplasm?" ad?
Jym Dyer:
... Nibbler's pet door is also an automatic sliding door?
... the Let's Go guidebook has that series' trademark
hitchhiking hand, only with four fingers?
... Raoul makes quotation marks in the air with his fingers
when he says "virgin," but since he has three hands, that
adds up to three quotation marks?
Timothy H. Wille-Jørgensen:
... the alien in the commercial for Glagnar's human rinds
has four arms, but only moves two of them?
... Nibbler closes all three eyes when his hat is pulled
over his third one?
... Bender's limbs actually interchange -- he can connect
his leg to his arm socket and still make it work?
Voice Credits
- Starring
- Billy West (Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Prof. Farnsworth)
- Katey Sagal (Leela)
- John DiMaggio (Bender)
- Tress MacNeille (Linda, Mutant Vyolet)
- Also Starring
- Maurice LaMarche (Calculon, Mutant Raoul)
- Guest Starring
- Phil Lamarr (Hermes, "Glagnar" Announcer)
- Dave Herman (Vet, Mutant Dwayne)
- Lauren Tom (Amy Wong)
- Frank Welker (Nibbler, Chupanibre)
Movie (and other) References
+ Harlem Globetrotters {jk}
- Bender whistles their theme, Sweet Georgia Brown, while
doing Globetrotters basketball stunts using his head.
+ Newman's Own (salad dressing and other food products) {jb}
- Calculon's Own
+ Dead Ringers (Movie) {jd}
- The vet's instruments are based on the ones in this movie.
~ Star Trek: Generations {hl}
- Data installs his emotion chip.
+ Rocky and Bullwinkle (TV Series)
- Professor Farnsworth says "Quiet, you!" to Bender, just as
Mr. Peabody would. {je}
+ The PJ's (TV Series)
- The pothole cover that Fry and Leela remove before entering
the sewer displays the face of Thurgood Stubbs.
~ The Tick (TV Series)
- Going into the sewer to save the city. {lf}
- Episode 31: "The Tick vs. Filth." I should also mention
that Sewer Urchin is present, leading them. {re}
~ Superman: The Movie (Movie, 1978) {es}
- Probably just a coincidence, but some lines in this episode
recall dialogue from a scene set in Lex Luthor's subterranean
Metropolis headquarters. The contrast between what lies on
a glamorous aboveground vs. what lies below must be appealing
to joke writers:
- Lex Luthor: Miss Teschmacher, how many girls do you know
who have a Park Avenue address like this one?
- Eve Teschmacher: Park Avenue address? 200 feet below?
+ Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Movie) {rs}
- Mutant humans living in the bombed-out future sewers of New
York City, worshipping an unexploded nuclear weapon.
Previous Episode References
- [1ACV01] O'Zorgnax's Pub
Mention of mutants living underground
Underground NNYC seen
Bender's arms fall off, he groans
- [1ACV04] Zapp's web page brags about him making it with a woman.
- [1ACV05] Miniature Bender figurine (sold to bots cf.,
on the cake)
- [1ACV06] Someone says "Ritzy" (first Amy, now Fry)
- [1ACV10] Bender's internal CPU helps him cheat at a game
- [1ACV13] Moon Maggot looks like the Slurm Queen
Freeze Frame Fun
- Glagnar's Human Rinds
- Kibbles 'n' Snouts
- Animal Clinic: Virtual Pets Debugged
- Neon sign of an 8-legged dog of some sort, wagging its tail
- Pets/creatures in Animal Clinic waiting room:
- A colorful tropical bird sitting in a tree
- A human petting a cat
- A human-sized cat petting a kitten-sized human
(Fluffers and Dave Spiegel)
- A robot with a pet Rust Monster (mutated armadillo creature)
- A dog with two heads
- Contents of the Planet Express refrigerator:
- ORANGE JUICE
- CALCULON'S OWN BBQ GREASE
- VARIOUS GRADE BIRD EGGS
- On the kitchen counter:
- FLOUR
- THIRD & THIRD & THIRD Milk
- Bender's control knob in his torso:
settings from "REFRIGERATE" to "E-Z BAKE"
- Fry's guide book: Let's Go Sewers, 3000
- Directional signs in the sewer:
- SC 6 (with an arrow to the left)
- (an arrow to the right)
Animation, Continuity, and Other Goofs
Bender didn't seem to be affected by the magnet in the can opener.
{ddg}
- His survival chip probably has a higher priority than his
inhibition chip, so the magnet overriding it would have little
effect. {lf}
- If so, then neither has a higher priority than his patriotism
circuit.
Bender has his head cut open by the can opener, but the cut only
shows up when Fry asks if he's alright. {thw}
In the waiting room, the space between the tree and the cat-owner
is very small, but it appears to be much longer when the doctor
calls his next patient.
The vet must have shaped his own tooth into the shape of a fang
for Nibbler. {thw}
The egg carton inside the refrigerator moves when Bender goes to
get a couple of eggs.
I wonder how Bender cooked those HUGE bottom layers. They'd
never fit inside his chest cavity. {pt}
It's hard to believe that on his birthday, Nibbler actually
managed to avoid attention long enough to wander into the
kitchen alone.
The room adjacent to the TV room was a hallway in [1ACV12]. The
crew carries Bender, Fry and the couch through it in [1ACV03],
and Farnsworth passes through it in [1ACV06] (while rambling
about a race of atomic supermen) and [1ACV07] (before explaining
the crew's mission). Nibbler later has a pet-door under it in
[2ACV03] and it leads to Professor Farnsworth's laboratory
(which is actually on the floor below) in [2ACV06]. I highly
doubt it's a bathroom.
When Bender carried Nibbler into the bathroom, the door only had
one sliding piece, but from here on, it has two.
Outside Fry and Bender's apartment, there are stars at the very
bottom of the window, where the city should be seen.
Next to the dart board in Fry and Bender's apartment, at first
there's a dart stuck in the wall, but then it disappears.
- So it fell. {jd}
Where does Bender plan on finding his bucket of ice-cream?
[1ACV03] shows nothing but a wall in that corner. (Maybe the
'squeaky' robots next door moved out and they joined apartments.
Or closets. But this can't be true, either -- in [2ACV11]
that's the corner where Fry eats and sleeps.)
The mutants in the sewers celebrate Christmas and Easter --
even though [2ACV04] will reveal that Christmas has changed to
Xmas. (Of course, the mutants' society could have been living
underground so long that the holiday's change never reached
them.) {bc}
Dwayne's line, as it appears in the captions, is actually,
"... then I suppose you also don't believe in El Chupanibre."
Notice the extra "don't." This is how the line should read,
since otherwise it makes no sense.
Directly after Bender drops Nibbler and runs away screaming, you
can see him standing motionless behind Fry -- even as the sound
of his scream is still heard (faintly).
Why can't Nibbler just eat El Chupanibre, like he did to the
animals in [1ACV04]?
When Leela picks up Nibbler, her shirt becomes magically untorn.
In fact, this is the second time Leela's clothing has miraculously
changed itself -- in [1ACV07], Leela's jacket went from buttoned
to unbuttoned in an instant. What, are we to assume that this is
some sort of (snicker, snicker) magic tanktop? {jb}
Fry's book said the only way out was through the small pipe, how
did they get out, anyway? It shouldn't be that hard for Bender
to extend his legs high enough to reach any manhole cover, then
give Fry and Leela a lift up (presumably, the book assumed the
reader didn't have a robot along). {ddg}
- The map in the book would be very complicated and in 3D.
Fry, who couldn't count 5 rings, probably couldn't read it
properly. {lf}
Reviews
Nate "Bender" Burch: Ah, Bender ... I challenge anyone to come
up with any character funnier on TV today. It's gotten
to the point where all he has to do is speak and I laugh.
Anywho this episode was Bender at the top of his game.
The first act was full of great jokes, and Bender flushing
Nibbler was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.
How could it get any funnier you ask? Why give Bender an
empathy chip so he feels what Leela feels, comedy ensues!
All the jokes in this episode were very fresh and original,
the kind only a really talented writer can come up with. The
ending lost a bit of momentum (this isn't a Saturday morning
cartoon, we don't need a weekly action sequence), but could
hardly take away from the excellent first two acts. (A+)
Eric Sansoni: An ideal Futurama episode: The sci-fi concepts
are not just decoration but foundation, the tone is playful
without relying on simple parody, and character development
drives everything. The series' 3rd major focus on a
gross-out concept may be ill-advised, but here the irony
of the characters tolerating things fairly well makes it
funnier. Nibbler and a bizarre female mutant are memorable,
while comments about Zapp's web page and a mutant's
philosophical musings make for hilarious moments. The show
has likened men to robots before, but this time Bender is
a revelation. Both fascinating as a robot and satirically
stinging as a caricature of the insensitive male, his
complexity is unlocked like never before. (A)
"Spacer2000": This episode started good and it stayed that way,
much to my dismay and gladness. It was good -- not a
hysterical classic. The Nibbler-down-the-toilet was funny
and Leela's soft side showed. The PJ's reference was
silly. :-) Only a few times did it slow down to average, so
I give it a: (B+)
Yours Truly: I thought it was disappointing as the first true
Season Two episode. While the animation and characters have
become more defined, the humor seemed to pack little punch.
The plot, however, was excellent in its use of heavy themes
and in covering such large ground with such a tight
story. As a whole, it seems to come with all the trademark
qualities of Futurama, minus the jokes. (B-)
Average Grade: [13/4=3.25] (A-)
Comments and Other Observations
Beginning with this episode, a few minor changes have been
made to the Planet Express building. Aside from being more
consistent in its surroundings, it now sports a metallic
window covered with a tin gate and a drop-off slot in the
corner opposite the big-screen TV, the emergency shower stall
has been replaced by an interesting new gadget with a cross
in the center, and there is now a large Slurm billboard outside.
Brian Corvello: Due to the ease with which he makes the cake,
Bender has apparently become a much better cook between now
and [1ACV07].
Don Del Grande: [Roger] Ebert's Little Movie Glossary (reprinted
as Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary) has a name for the
all-too common singing of a birthday song that's not "Happy
Birthday:" "Jolly Bornday." Usually, it's done because
royalties have to be paid if "Happy Birthday" is used, but
it may just be a spoof of that as I would assume Fox could
afford the royalties.
DVD Audio Commentary: The veterinarian's name is Jeffrey Grant,
which is the name of a doctor that Matt Groening and the
writing staff go to; the robot's pet at the vet is based
on the "Rust Monster" in Dungeons & Dragons; and the vet's
instruments are based on the ones in Dead Ringers.
Joe Klemm: Virtual Pets was a Japanese fad that hit America in
1997. Users would have a keychain-size device which would
contain a computer creature. The people who have virtual pets
were to raise them the same way you raise a regular pet. The
craze had a short period of popularity, then quickly died down
just before Pokemon hit America. However, one type of Virtual
Pet device, Digimon, has found another way to gain success in
the USA thanks to the Anime series that airs on Fox.
Marie Hicks: Fry is navigating the sewers with a guide book called
Let's Go Sewers 3000. Let's Go is a guide book company run
and researched by Harvard undergrads. The writer behind this
gag was probably a Harvard alum -- especially since a few
minutes later, Fry tells Leela that the guide book says the only
way out of the sewer is through a tiny pipe that a hamster could
barely squeeze through. "Don't worry, it widens after about a
mile" is typical Let's Go form -- their guides have a notorious
reputation for leading you into the worst situations, like
rat-trap hotels populated by crack smugglers and "popular sites"
that ceased to exist years before.
DVD Audio Commentary: The makers of The PJ's responded to this
episode's reference by putting a "Have You Seen Me?" photo of
Fry on a milk carton.
Nibbler's Age
Don Del Grande: According to his fang, Nibbler is five -- but
five what? Five revolutions of what was his home planet
around its sun? How long is that in Earth years?
Larry Finkelstein: That would depend on the distance to the star
it orbited. Since the tooth grew a new layer every year, then
the planet must have distinctive seasons, so animals would
respond to 'years'. That implies 1. an elliptical orbit,
2. a tilted axis (like Earth's) or 3. it orbits a multiple
star system. Or some combination of them.
Jym Dyer: It also depends on whether the tree ring hypothesis
is correct, of course.
(Information on Nibbler's actual age is revealed in [3ACV07].)
Alligators and Such in the Sewers
Folklore Alert: {hl}
- False: There are alligators inhabiting the sewers of New York:
http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/legends/gator.htm
http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/legends/gator2.htm
http://www.urbanlegends.com/classic/alligators_in_sewers.html
BTW, gators have pointy snouts while crocs have rounded snouts.
- True: Sewer rats can come into the house and bite one's behind
while on the potty.
- True: Pet snakes have been known to escape through the toilet
plumbing. (It happened to wrestling's Jake "The Snake" Roberts'
python in Toronto.)
- A snippet from UNEXPLAINED!: They (alligators) got there when
baby alligators purchased as pets (they were sold as often
and as cheap as candy in the 30's in Florida to tourists) were
dispatched down toilets. Though the rumor (of alligators in
sewers) was circulated most widely in the 1960's, in March 1935
and June 1937 both live and dead alligators were recovered (from
the Bronx River)." In the years afterward, NYC sewer workers
asked for protection from the creatures. {rm}
In New York City, there has been subculture communities of
homeless people dwelling in disused subway tunnels. In other
countries street kids have also been known to live in sewer
tunnels. There is also a song called People of the Subway by
Kansas. {hl}
El Chupatrivia
El Chupanibre is a play on El Chupacabra (translation: goat
sucker), a legendary beast that stalks livestock (sometimes
people) in South America and now Mexico (even Miami sightings).
An episode of The X-Files brought the myth to the mainstream.
Do a web search for it or for "x creatures," mythic beasts or
"Mongolian Blood Worm" (I'm serious about the last one). {dg}
El Chupacabra was also featured on a segment of Dexter's
Laboratory. It turns out Dexter created the creature to scare
Dee Dee away from his lab. {fjb}
Concerning the Futurama version, Chupanibre, there is no 'nibre'
in Spanish. Not in 1999, anyway. One can only assume that
over the next millenium a new species will be discovered, quite
possibly in a Hispanic nation. {da}
Quotes and Scene Summary
[Various parts of this transcript were written by Leandro Pardini.]
We start the show with a commercial, starring a weird-looking
alien eating from a bag labelled "Glagnar's Human Rinds."
Announcer: Futurama is brought you by Glagnar's Human
Rinds. It's a buncha muncha cruncha human!
[End of Act One (0:09)]
It's morning at Planet Express HQ, and while Fry pours himself
coffee, Leela is cooking breakfast for Nibbler. She opens an
oversized can of "Kibbles 'n' Snouts" with an oversized can opener
that occupies a full wall in the kitchen. Outside on the patio,
the noise from the can opener wakes Nibbler up from his nap and
he dashes in to catch the food as it's being poured into his bowl,
devouring it in seconds.
Leela: Aw, somebody likes snouts.
Fry: Is it me?
Bender enters the kitchen whistling, but gets sucked into the
magnet over the can opener and it begins to cut his scalp off.
Leela rushes to turn it off, and Bender cowers.
Bender: Stupid can opener! You killed my father and now
you've come back for me!
Fry: You all right, Bender?
Bender: Uh, yeah, I guess so. But I don't see why we keep
this ticking time bomb around just for that dumb animal!
Leela: Don't yell at Nibbler like that. You hurt his
feelings. Come on, pet him and make up.
Bender: No!
Leela: I said pet him.
Bender: I'll pet him. I'll pet him with both hands!
He attempts to grab Nibbler but Leela protects him. Nibbler
jumps out of her hands and bites Bender's ass. Bender yells and
throws Nibbler to the floor.
Leela: Are you alright?
Bender: Eh, it's nothing a lawsuit won't cure.
Leela: Not you!
Leela lifts Nibbler and finds out that he's chipped a fang,
and starts kissing him in pity.
Bender: Hey, I got a busted ass here; I don't see
anyone kissing it!
Zoidberg: [wearily] All right, I'm coming.
Leela, Fry and Bender take Nibbler to an Animal Clinic. They sit
in the waiting room while the veterinarian diagnoses a dog with
two heads, then it's their turn to enter the examination room.
The vet checks Nibbler's fang, while Bender mumbles to himself.
Vet: Ah, it's just a simple broken fang. Nothing serious.
Bender: What's that you say there, doctor? You're gonna have
to put him down?
Vet: No ... huh? What is ... ? [stammers]
Bender: Terrible shame, that. Shall I do the honors?
Bender approaches Nibbler with a broken bottle of goose laxative,
until Leela saves him by ripping Bender's arm out of its socket and
beating it against the table until it lets go.
Bender: You 'bout done?
Leela: Next time, I'm keeping it.
She tosses the arm back to Bender. The vet tells them that he may
have a replacement fang for Nibbler in the next room. He goes in,
an unseen struggle ensues, and he barely gets back into the room
alive, holding a tooth.
Vet: Well, the jaguar didn't want to cooperate, but luckily
he knocked one of my teeth out.
He takes Nibbler's broken fang off and leaves it on a table, while
he surgically attaches Nibbler's new tooth with a hand-held laser.
Fry examines the old tooth.
Fry: Hey, what are these rings in Nibbler's fang?
Vet: Um, I'm still a little woozy from a gazelle kick this
morning, but if he's anything like the common tree, the
rings might indicate his age.
Fry: [laughing] Yeah, well, good luck. It'd take some kind
of genius to count all these rings.
Vet: [looking] He's five.
Cut to Planet Express HQ, where a birthday party has been set up.
Leela gives Nibbler a new cape, and comments on how cute he looks
in it. Bender, really jealous, says he'd look cute too if someone
gave HIM a new cape. Fry sets up a game of "pin the tail on the
moon maggot," and asks if someone wants to play. Bender takes a
tail and with his tracking system he puts it perfectly. But no one
notices, since they're all busy looking at Nibbler, who's nibbling
spoon. Bender takes off his head and performs a Harlem Globetrotters
routine with it, but everybody is still paying attention to Nibbler.
All: What day is today?
It's Nibbler's birthday.
What a day for a birthday,
Let's all have some cake.
Fry: ... and you smell like one too! [giggles]
They clap, and Bender looks jealously sick. He tries reprising
his dance, but Leela interrupts.
Leela: Bender, I thought you were supposed to be cooking for
this party.
Bender: Fine. We'll have rack of Nibbler.
Leela: Just make a simple cake. And this time, if someone's
going to jump out of, it make sure to put them in after
you cook it.
Bender: So it's a cake you want, is it? I'll make you a cake
you'll never forget!
[cue ominous music]
Bender's plans unfold in the kitchen: he takes a tin of rat poison ...
and pours it on a rat-hole and puts it back in the cabinet. Then he
moves to make a real cake, with the idea of attracting attention
through his great cooking. He pours, mixes and finally bakes the
cake using his various bodily functions, and finally decorates the
cake with his name and likeness on it.
Bender: There. This'll teach those filthy bastards who's lovable.
Now all I have to do is spell-check it and it's ready for
my admiring public.
Alas, Nibbler finds his way onto the counter and, much to Bender's
protest, devours the cake in several big gulps. Insane with anger,
Bender yanks Nibbler up by the antennae, marches him over to the
toilet, and flushes him down. As Nibbler twirls down the drain,
Leela walks in, but it's too late: Nibbler is gone. Leela screams.
Bender: Hey! Can't you see I'm using the toilet?
[End of Act Two (6:03)]
Leela cries at the table with the crew around her, while Bender
nonchalantly smokes a cigar.
Amy: Bender, how could you flush Nibbler down the toilet?
Bender: Well, step one, I had to lift the seat. That was
the first little annoyance. Am I right, men?
Leela: Aren't you upset at all? How would you feel if I
flushed Fry down the toilet?
Bender: Only one way to find out.
Leela: You have no sympathy for anyone else's feelings.
Bender: Of course I do. Right now, I feel sorry for you.
Leela: You do?
Bender: Yeah. I mean, one cantaloupe-sized bloodshot eye.
You ain't winning no beauty pageants, lady.
Leela bursts into fresh tears. A funeral service for Nibbler is held
in the bathroom.
Prof.: And so we say goodbye to our beloved pet, Nibbler, who's gone
to a place where I, too, hope one day to go: the toilet.
As Leela cries, Hermes places a calla lily in the toilet, and Fry
flushes it down solemnly. Leela reflects that she wouldn't feel so
bad if Bender just understand the pain he's caused her. Meanwhile,
Bender is in the next room, laughing gleefully at an episode of
All My Circuits:
Calculon: Give it to me straight, doctor. Don't sugarcoat it.
Docbot: Very well. Your entire family died when a plane
piloted by your fiancée crashed into your uninsured
home. And you have inoperable cancer.
Bender: [laughing] Bet you weren't expecting that one,
Calculon!
The crew looks at him from the bathroom.
Amy: It's like he doesn't understand simple humanoid emotion.
Leela: I wish just once Bender could feel exactly what I feel.
Prof.: Actually, through the miracle of science that can be
arranged.
Fry: Uh-oh. Is this gonna be another crazy experiment that
crosses a line man was not meant to cross?
Prof.: [makes a finger gesture that means "a little bit"]
Bender is laughing at the humor of a tragic rocket crash described
in the news, when the crew gangs up on him and holds him to the
table, allowing the Professor to screw his head off.
Bender: Hey! What the hell are you doing with my head?
Prof.: I need to tinker in it.
Bender: Why don't you just use a potted plant, like Fry?
Prof.: Quiet, you, I'm installing an empathy chip.
Fry: And that'll allow Bender to feel other people's emotions?
Prof.: Yes .... If by "allow" you mean "force."
Farnsworth places Bender's head on a workbench, hammers a microchip
into the side, then returns it to his body. He uses a screwdriver
to "tune it to Leela's emotional frequency."
Bender: My god! I'm overcome with ... feelings. I'm experiencing
a powerful yearning to ... to cram my gullet full of
mackerel heads.
Zoidberg: [blasé] That's me, baby.
Farnsworth tries the screwdriver again.
Bender: Now I'm worried that I'm not as smart as Leela ... but at
the same time I feel relieved that I'm cuter than her.
Amy: Uhhh ... that's me.
Fry: [whispering to Amy] Thanks for covering!
Farnsworth tries yet again. The empathy chip beeps with activity.
Bender: This time I miss Nibbler and I'm feeling nosy and
opinionated.
Amy: Bingo!
Hermes: That's Leela.
Leela: Thank you, Professor. I'm happy that Bender can finally
feel my pain.
[the chip beeps]
Bender: Happy ... I like this feeling. Just don't revert to your
usual mopey self.
Leela: [offended] I'm not mopey. You shut up!
[the chip beeps]
Bender: Anger, huh? How dare you make me feel angry, you one-eyed
jerk with a dead pet! [laughs]
Leela: [cries]
[the chip beeps]
Bender: [cries]
That evening, Amy and Leela are out at the bar in O'Zorgnax's Pub.
Leela: Thanks for taking me out, Amy. I feel slightly less
miserable already.
Amy: Hey, you know what would cheer you up? You should get
yourself a puppy.
Leela: A puppy? [starts crying] Nibbler loved to eat puppies.
In their apartment, Fry and Bender are watching TV. The chip beeps
and Bender sobs.
Fry: What's your problem?
Bender: I miss Nibbler.
Fry: You do?
Bender: Hell, no! It's Leela's stupid feelings! Why can't she
just drink herself happy like a normal person?
While Bender sobs into his malt liquor, Amy is slow-dancing with
a broad-shouldered man. Leela watches with a contemptful eye.
Bender's chip beeps again.
Bender: Uh-oh, jealousy. [To Fry] You think you're so hot!
Fry: Wha ... ?!
Bender: The only reason you get all the guys is because you
dress like a tramp!
Fry: [weakly] They're just responding to my personality.
Back to O'Zorgnax's, Amy walks with the guy towards Leela, who gives
Amy her best false smile.
Amy: Um, Leela ... Armando and I are going to the back seat of
his car for coffee. You're going to be alright here by
yourself?
Leela: Sure. I'm having a great time. Really -- you two go enjoy
yourselves.
The chip beeps.
Bender: [very sad] I'm so lonely. I'm gonna go eat a bucket of
ice cream. [he walks out, sobbing]
Fry: [calling after him] The spoon's in the foot powder.
The next morning, Leela broods over a novelty photo of her and
Nibbler, while Bender and Fry watch her from the door.
Bender: I'm at the end of my rope. I can't live another minute
without poor, sweet Nibbler.
Fry: Too bad he wasn't an alligator. You know, when you flush
those things they stay alive in the sewers.
Bender: Really?
Fry: Yep. My friend's cousin's caseworker saw one once. It's
a widely-believed fact!
Bender considers the idea of the sewers ... then, in the bathroom,
he stands inside the toilet. He screams to Nibbler that "Uncle Bender"
is coming to save him, but flushing the toilet causes nothing much to
happen.
Bender: Damn, it's too small. What'd those humans design this
for, anyway?
[he takes off his left arm and flushes it]
Aha! Bender, one; toilet, zero.
[he unscrews his head and throws it in]
See you on the other side!
Fry, looking for his sombrero, catches sight of Bender's right arm
reaching from the toilet to press the handle and wave goodbye.
He tells the others.
Leela: Now he's flushed himself down the toilet? Who's he
going to flush next?
Fry: Hey, it's your fault. He only flushed himself because
your emotions made him feel bad.
Leela: You're right. I feel terrible.
Fry: Oh, great. Now you're making him feel worse.
Leela: I guess we'd better go down into the sewers and look
for him.
Amy: Are you crazy? There's mutants down there. They'll
eat you alive.
Zoidberg: They're hideous! [screams and claps his claws]
Leela: There's no such thing as mutants. That's a ridiculous
urban myth.
Prof.: Oh, don't be so sure. Many scientists believe humans
really could mutate down there due to exposure to toxic
waste and radioactive runoff and good old American feces.
Fry: [puts his hand over his heart] God bless America!
Outside the building, Leela opens a sewer manhole and throws Fry
inside. Fry burns himself with a match, the consults his guidebook.
Leela: Okay, check the guidebook.
Fry: Looks like we're under Park Avenue. Ooh, ritzy. Just think,
all this was probably once a charity luncheon for the Met.
They find Bender sitting in the shadows, trying to put himself back
together with little success. He and Leela share an emotional moment
of remorse for Nibbler, to Fry's disgust, and then the three of them
set out to find Nibbler.
Leela: It's no use, we'd better turn back. Which way,
Fry?
Fry: Hmm. According to this map, the only way out
is through ... that pipe. [points to a narrow
pipe in the ceiling]
[Bender and Leela glare at him]
Don't worry. It gets wider after about a mile.
Bender and Leela: [simultaneously, aside] Idiot.
Fry finds that his map offers no real solution, so he suggests they
ask "those people" for directions, referring to the crowd of mutants
surrounding them. All scream -- including Bender, once the chip beeps.
[End of Act Three (8:01)]
After a quick reminder of their situation, Fry tries to ward off
the mutants with his guide book as a torch, but the closest mutant, a
female named Vyolet, simply uses it to light her cigarette, exhaling
the smoke through gills on her neck.
Vyolet: Thanks, handsome.
[a mutant with a massive forehead approaches]
Dwayne: Please, do not be frightened. We're harmless.
[another mutant, with an arm protruding from his head]
Raoul: I have three arms.
Dwayne: I said harmless, not armless.
Vyolet: Lay off him. You know he's only got one ear.
Fry: Hey, aren't you supposed to be eating our brains?
You're mutants.
Dwayne: Mutants? Perhaps it is you who are the mutants.
Vyolet: Puh-leeze, Dwayne. Have you looked in a mirror lately?
Leela explains their search for Nibbler, and the mutants take the gang
to their "village."
Bender: You guys realize you live in a sewer, right?
Dwayne: Perhaps. But perhaps your civilization is merely the
sewer of an even greater society above you.
Leela: No, we're on the top.
Fry: Daylight and everything.
Dwayne: Oh.
The mutants show off their aquarium, library ("nothing but crumpled
porno and Ayn Rand") and church, which has a nuclear bomb in it.
Fry: Wow. You guys worship an unexploted nuclear bomb?
Vyolet: Yeah, but nobody's that observant. It's mainly a
Christmas and Easter thing.
They pass several dry cleaners, searching for Nibbler.
Fry: So, is it true that alligators flushed down the toilet
survive down here?
Vyolet: No. That's just an urban legend.
Bender: Then, what are those?
Vyolet: Crocodiles. [snorts]
Raoul: We keep them as pets. Then, when they grow too large,
we flush them down into the sub-sewer.
[points to an oversized toilet nearby]
Dwayne: Some say there's a freakish race of sub-mutants down
there.
Vyolet: Puh-leeze, that's just a sub-urban legend.
Dwayne: Oh? Then I suppose you also don't believe in ...
[dramatically] El Chupanibre!
Everyone in the village cowers at the mention of this name. Leela,
confused, ask what El Chupanibre is. Dwayne breaks out a guitar and
explains to them through song.
Dwayne: Gather 'round children, for the legend of El Chupanibre!
He creeps and crawls in the midnight hush
Silent as a low-flow toilet flush
Watch your step, 'cause sooner or later
He'll eat you whole, and half your alligator.
Vyolet: Crocodile.
Dwayne: Whatever.
Vyolet: [snorts]
Leela: Wait, our pet Nibbler loves fresh crocodile. It's his
favorite treat. He must be El Chupanibre.
Bender: Hey, yeah!
Raoul: You unleashed the dreaded El Chupanibre upon us? Then
you are our sworn enemies.
Leela: You don't understand. He would never hurt people. Let
us help you capture him.
Dwayne: Impossible. If the legend is true, our only hope is to
offer him a snackrifice.
Raoul: Yes, an unspoiled virgin.
Leela: I volunteer.
Vyolet: Nice try, Leela, but we've all seen Zapp Brannigan's
web page.
Bender laughs at Leela, but his empathy chip beeps, and he realizes
he made himself feel bad. Raoul decides that Leela will have to do,
so he orders the others to chain her to a post and rip her shirt.
Then, he outlines his plan to lure El Chupanibre into a rope snare.
A barrage of splashing sounds echoing from elsewhere in the sewer
indicates nightfall, and all but Leela seek out a hiding spot to
wait for the beast's approach. Soon enough, a terrible shadow
appears against the side wall, and thunderous footsteps are
ard from down one of the larger pipes. Nibbler shows himself,
alive and well, at the mouth of the pipe, and Bender runs over
to greet him, until Dwayne points out to him that a 10-foot,
green-skinned, ravenous monster, the real El Chupanibre, is
also standing in the mouth of the pipe. Bender drops Nibbler and
runs away screaming, while Fry, dashing heroically to the rescue,
snags himself in the rope trap.
[Deleted Scene (from DVD)]
Professor Farnsworth, taking a bath, hears Bender's screams
coming up through the pipes. Resolving that he "really must do
something," he turns his "Deaf Defier" brand hearing aid off.
[End of Deleted Scene]
El Chupanibre is nearing the helpless Nibber, and Bender, the
only member of the crew who isn't tied up, is too paralyzed with
Leela's fear to save him.
Fry: Leela, your scaredness is being transmitted straight to
Bender. If you care about Nibbler, stop caring about him.
Leela: I can't. I love every living creature.
Fry: Even me?
Leela: As a friend.
Fry: Damn.
Leela starts crying.
Bender: Listen to me, Leela. I'm an expert at not caring. The
secret is to stop giving a rat's ass about anyone else
and to start thinking of the things that you want ...
that you deserve ... that the world owes you!
Leela: Well, I could use a new tank top.
Bender: Bigger! Bigger!
Leela: A fashionable tank top, and designer boots encrusted
with jewels!
Bender: Don't stop now. You'll need some pants to go with that
outfit.
Leela: Yeah. And I could afford it all if I didn't have to
feed that stupid Nibbler!
[the chip beeps]
Bender: Bender is back!
Bender rushes into action. His first move is to kick Nibbler out of
harm's way, and then to get his arms ripped off by El Chupanibre and
his head almost bitten off. While Fry watches in horror, and Leela
discusses her need for a fancy spa membership and a Toblerone®,
Bender's disembodied arms come to the rescue, distract El Chubanibre
and punch him in the face, giving Bender ample time to stab him in
the belly with his antennae. The beast is sent flying, and lands in
the oversized toilet, where Bender's arms climb up and flush him down
into the sub-sewer. The mutants cheer.
Raoul: [with toilet paper] Let's have a tissue-tape parade!
Bender: No thanks.
Fry is let down from the rope-snare into the brown river below, and
Dwayne, sitting atop the toilet with his guitar in hand, harkens them
to gather 'round for the legend of Bender ... but one of the strings
on his guitar breaks loose, and he pities himself.
Dwayne: It's going to be many a year before someone flushes
another guitar string.
The crew returns to Planet Express with tales of their adventure.
Prof.: That was a disgusting story.
Leela: And it's all thanks to Bender. I love you, Bender.
Bender: I love you, too. [To Farnsworth] Get that stupid chip
out of me before I kill myself.
[the Professor does so, and inspects the chip]
Prof.: Bender, you won't believe this, but the empathy chip
burned out! The emotion you felt for Nibbler was
actually your own.
Fry: Huh. Looks like Bender learned an important lesson
about respecting other people's feelings after all.
[everyone murmurs in approval]
Prof.: No, I'm wrong, the empathy chip was running at triple
capacity.
Bender: And I still barely felt anything. Good night, losers.
[he leaves the room]
Leela: You know, Bender may not have learned anything from me,
but I think I actually learned something from him. So
long, jerkwads!
[she leaves the room with Nibbler]
Prof.: [waving] So long!
[End of Act Four (7:05)]
Contributors
Capsule originally authored by Jordan Eisenberg.
{da} David Antonoff
{fjb} Frederick J. Barnett Jr.
{jb} Jason Barrera
{bc} Brian Corvello
{dg} DalGoda
{ddg} Don Del Grande
{jd} Jym Dyer
{re} Ramsey E.
{je} Jordan Eisenberg
{lf} Larry Finkelstein
{jk} Joe Klemm
{rm} Robert Muldoon
{hl} Haynes Lee
{es} Eric Sansoni
{rs} Ruby Sinreich
{ms} Mike Smith
{pt} Paul Tomko
{thw} Timothy H. Wille-Jørgensen