Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?

==============================================================================
Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?     Written by Eric Kaplan
					Directed by Brian Sheesley
==============================================================================
Production code: 2ACV05			Original Airdate: 6-Feb-2000

TV Guide synopsis:
    Dr. Zoidberg returns to his home planet for mating season,
    but not without a few pointers from Fry

Title Sequence

Opening theme promotion:
	From the network that brought you "The Simpsons."

Opening theme cartoon:
	[[[A dog (Bimbo?) chomps and grins.]]]

Did You Notice...

... Zoidberg has no trouble handling a basketball, even though
    his claws punctured volleyballs in [1ACV12]?
... Zoidberg's ancient homeworld is apparently named Decapod 10?
    Decapods are an order of (Earth's) crustaceans.
... Though most of Zoidberg's people talk with New York/Jewish
    "Old Country" accents (as does Zoidberg), one of them talks
    just like Amy and another talks like a sista?
... Fry's list of "first date" ingredients is exactly what Zapp
    Brannigan had on hand when he invited Leela to meet him in
    the Love-Nasium [1ACV04]?

Haynes Lee:
... Zoidberg has elastic restraints on his claws, just like a
    lobster before it's cooked?
... Edna's doorbell sounds like a sonar pulse?

Voice Credits

- Starring
  - Billy West (Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Prof. Farnsworth)
  - Katey Sagal (Leela)
  - John DiMaggio (Bender, Plumbing Robot, Nautilus, Randy)
- Also Starring
  - Phil LaMarr (Hermes)
  - Tress MacNeille (Edna)
  - Lauren Tom (Amy Wong)

Movie (and other) References

+ Creature From The Black Lagoon (Movie)  {hl}
  - Zoidberg's head fin.
+ Star Trek (TV Series) "Amok Time" Episode
  - Spock gets all riled up and must go to his home planet to mate.
  - Fry's choice of weapons (except for the lobster-eating thingy).
  - National anthem of Zoidberg's people is the dramatic incidental
    music played during a Star Trek fight to the death.
+ "Cyrano de Bergerac"
  - Fry feeds romantic lines to Zoidberg.
+ Six of a Kind (1934), with W.C. Fields  {zc5}
  - "... and that's how I came to be known as Honest Bender."
+ Zorro  {so}
  - Dr. Z carves his initial.
+ Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series)  {hl}
  - Lobster frenzy looks like the lake-like Great Link of the
    Founders.
+ The Simpsons  {hl}
  - Zoidberg's goofy attempts to re-attach Fry's arm at the end
    is like Dr. Nick Riviera's and his patient "Mr. Arm for a Leg".

Previous Episode References

This is the first episode in which Fry's body is mutilated.
It will happen again.

Freeze Frame Fun

- Bender's TV remote has a BEER button on it.
- NNY Dumbbell Club
  - Signs inside:
    - Windowless Room For Ugly Exercisers
    - KEGELCIZER
    - Pregnercise
  - On the barbells:
    - Gravistat: LO \|/ NORM
- Decapod 10 Planetary Spaceport
- Fry writes on the chalkboard:
  First Date:
  - Champagne
  - Flowers
  - Lame Conversation
- Red Primate -- For the Land-Food Lover In You
- Zoidberg's syringe contains:
  St. Jonah's Morphine for Children

Animation, Continuity, and Other Goofs

Lobster Goofs

Haynes Lee:
  - Lobsters don't have their brains in their anus (although
    some politicians do)
  - Lobster mating ritual is more like a bird's
  - It's highly unlikely a lobster race will allow seagulls
    to evolve
  - Caviar is fish eggs
  - Lobsters dont have claws on their feer
  - Lobsters don't die after mating

Jym Dyer:  Lobsters don't grow unless they molt, and males
    molt more often than females.  This, rather than internal
    parasites, is what would keep Edna thin.  Also, shortly after
    molting is the time when the females usually mate.

Reviews

Daniel L. Dreibelbis:  Although maybe not as packed with laughs as 
    some past episodes of Futurama has been, it made up for it with
    an excellent science fiction plot - with an amazing twist ending
    to it that I am not going to spoil for anyone.  Let's just
    say that the third act is a real mind-blower worthy of a serious
    sci-fi series.

Haynes Lee:  The best episode ever laden with crusteacean jokes.

Eric Sansoni:  Finally a supporting character gets some
    much-needed depth.  I had little faith that Dr. Zoidberg could
    carry an episode, but the writers do a surprisingly excellent
    job of fleshing out this shellfish, by putting him through an
    emotional wringer and neatly revealing his cultural background
    at the same time.  Fry gets all the best dialogue, which finds
    big laughs in the contrast between the dating rituals of 20th
    Century humans and the mating rituals of Zoidberg's species.
    The story loses some relevance when it turns from Cyrano to
    gladiatorial combat, and probably goes too far with the newest
    trend in comedy, the severed limb, but as usual this and every
    other moment is as well-executed as can be. (B+)

Comments and Other Observations

The Decapodian mating ritual resembles those of a variety of
aquatic Earth species (cloacal vents and all), not just of
lobsters.  "Male jelly" does sound similar to the gelatinous
sperm packets of Earth lobsters, though.  {jd}

Quotes and Scene Summary

Fry and Bender loaf in front of the TV, watching a "Robo-Rooter"
commercial.

Jingle: Call Robo-Rooter when you flush your towel,
        And we can also help with an impacted bowel!
-- "Crustacean in Love"

Fry enjoys 1000 years of progress, in the form of a
self-microwaving Bavarian creme hot dog, while Bender complains
that his remote-control beer doesn't quite reach his mouth.

Leela and Amy walk in, dressed for a workout.

Leela: No offense, Fry, but you've become a fat sack of crap.
  Fry: Sack?
-- Of? "Crustacean in Love"

Amy: Bender, your beer belly's so big your door won't even close.
     And that doesn't even make sense.
-- Code bloat from Olde Fortran? "Crustacean in Love"

Zoidberg: For some reason I'm as frisky as a squid on Tuesday.
-- You don't want to know about Monday, "Crustacean in Love"

The women and Zoidberg drag Fry and Bender to the NNY Dumbbell Club.
They pass a multi-legged creature on a treadmill, a woman working
hard on the Kegelcizer (¡Ay Caramba!), and a robot punching bag
working over a human being.

Zoidberg: I'm going to work out with the Nautilus.
Nautilus: What up, Doctor Z?
Zoidberg: Yo yo yo, whassup whassup, give up the rock!
-- "Crustacean in Love"

Zoidberg tosses a basketball around with an actual nautilus creature.
Meanwhile, a nude Fry sits down in a steamroom with the women.

  Fry: Co-ed steamrooms.  I love the future!
Leela: Uh, Fry, you're in the women's steamroom.
  Fry: [ignoring her] Fu-tur-istic!
-- "Crustacean in Love"

Amy points at Fry.

  Amy: Psst!  Look what life was like before genetic engineering.
Leela: Those poor 20th Century women.
-- Fry's not roundup-ready, "Crustacean in Love"

Embarrassed, Fry crosses his legs.

Later, in the weight room, Fry tries to impress Leela by lifting
some large barbells.  Leela realizes that their gravity is turned
all the way down to "Lo" and adjusts it to normal, after which Fry
is trapped under them.  Zoidberg rushes over, grabs the dumbbells,
and starts pumping iron.  He demands more weight, and while he's
working out, a fin pops out of his head.  He demands even more
weight, until he's pumping all the available iron, with Fry and Amy
holding onto the sides.  Then he freaks out and cuts the barbell
apart with his claws.

Bender: Hey!  Looks like Zoidberg's finally coming out of his shell.
        Heh heh, get it?
-- "Crustacean in Love"

Zoidberg runs amok in the gym.  His shrill screams scare a
roomful of stationary cyclists to pedal faster.  Then he heads
into the Pregnercise class.

Instructor: Nice and gentle.  We don't want any unnecessary
            stress!
  Zoidberg: [pops out of the water, screaming]
     Class: [screams, and a baby is born]
Instructor: Is there a doctor in the gym?
  Zoidberg: I'm a doctor!
     Class: [more screams and more births]
-- "Crustacean in Love"

Later, back at Planet Express, Zoidberg has his claws bound
with elastic restraints.

   Leela: I wonder why Dr. Zoidberg is acting this way.  Out
          of all of us, he always seemed the most normal.
Zoidberg: I am normal.  Amy!  Take off these rubber bands
          and I'll show you how normal I am.
     Amy: [in shredded clothes] Fool me seven times, shame
          on you.  Fool me eight or more times, shame on me.
-- Ancient Martian proverb, "Crustacean in Love"

Bender: It's always so sad when a friend goes crazy ... and you
        have to have a big clambake [puts on a chef's hat] and
        cook him.  Yeee-haa!
-- "Crustacean in Love"

Professor Farnsworth examines Zoidberg.

Zoidberg: Give it to me straight, Professor.  Is it fin rot?
          It's fin rot, isn't it?  Tell me it's not fin rot!
   Prof.: Relax, my chum, there's no problem.  You're just heavy
          with male jelly.
   Leela: Bleccch!
   Prof.: It must be mating season for Zoidberg's people.  A
          chaotic time when his behavior is dictated by the tiny
          brain in his rump.
     Fry: Eyuccch!
-- Too Much Information, "Crustacean in Love"

Professor Farnsworth explains that Zoidberg must be taken back
to his ancient homeworld to mate.

Prof.: We, by which I mean you, will have to rush him to his
       ancient homeworld, which will shortly erupt in an orgy
       of invertebrate sex.
  Fry: Oh baby, I'm there!
Leela: Fry, do you even understand the word "invertebrate?"
  Fry: Nope.  But that's not the word I'm interested in.
-- Fry flirts with spinelessness, "Crustacean in Love"

The crew flies Zoidberg back to his homeworld, landing at the
"Decapod 10 Planetary Spaceport."  A "Welcome Maters" banner is
hung up and a greeter puts a necklace of shells on Zoidberg.

Later, they're in a car, and Zoidberg is driving.

  Bender: You're look less nuts, Crabby.
Zoidberg: I'm feeling less nuts, thank you, because tomorrow I
          will be depositing my jelly in the cloacal vents of a
          female, if you catch my drift.
-- "Crustacean in Love"

Zoidberg explains that he'll attract a mate that afternoon.
Leela marvels that his species can fall in love so fast, but
Zoidberg dismisses any mention of love.

Zoidberg: I'm simply looking for a female, swollen with eggs,
          to accept my genetic material.
     Fry: You and me both, brother!
-- Little does he know, "Crustaean in Love"

Zoidberg pulls the scuttling car over to his old scuttling
grounds, a very small pond.  A small hermit crab walks out.

Zoidberg: Who's the tough guy now, Vinnie?
-- "Crustacean in Love"

Zoidberg eats Vinnie.

They walk up to an arena, where a fight is in progress.

  Bender: Look!  Outdoor theater.  Let's get tickets.  Oh, let's do!
Zoidberg: No, it's the ceremony of Clawplach, where my species fight
          to the death over matters of honor.  Also over whether
          abbreviations count in Scrabble.  They don't!
     Fry: I didn't come here to see any activity involving two guys.
          Where do you people do your erotic display?
Zoidberg: Same place as your species:  the beach.
-- "Crustacean in Love"

At the beach, Zoidberg emerges from the Male Changing Room,
covered in flotsam and jetsam.

Zoidberg: How do I look?
  Bender: Like whale barf.
Zoidberg: Then the illusion is complete!
-- Ambergris comes up again, "Crustacean in Love"

Zoidberg joins several other males who stand on piles of sand
and shells and yell "graw!" at passing females.

   Fry: Look how ridiculous they look!
Bender: Please, he's no different from the rest of you organisms.
        Shooting DNA at each other to make babies ... I find it
        offensive.
-- "Crustacean in Love"

[Deleted Scene (from DVD)]

   Fry: But you're obsessed with pornography.  You get your mail
        delivered to the local strip club.
 Leela: Which brings up an interesting point.  If robots can't
        reproduce, why are they so interested in sex?
Bender: Entirely for the perversion.
-- "Crustacean in Love"

[End of Deleted Scene]

Things aren't going well for Zoidberg.

         Zoidberg: Graw!
           Female: Keep your jelly away from my eggs!
         Zoidberg: Graw?
  Amy-Like Female: So not interested.
         Zoidberg: Graw!!!
Sista-Like Female: Hmp.  I've heard that line before.
-- "Crustacean in Love"

At sundown, all the other males are paired up.  Zoidberg retracts
his head fin and sits down dejectedly.  Then he sees a female from
high school and perks up.

Zoidberg: Edna, it's me, Zoidberg, remember?  From high school?
    Edna: Prrr?
Zoidberg: You used to laugh at me because my face was covered
          with barnacles?
    Edna: [gasps]  Zoidberg!  Well, I didn't know you were back
          in town.  I heard you went off and became a rich doctor.
Zoidberg: I've performed a few mercy killings.  So ... as long as
          I'm in town I was wondering if maybe ... graw?
    Edna: Oh.  Gee.  Yeah.  I'm just ... going through a lot of
          things right now, and ... look, Zoidberg, I carry more
          eggs than any other female, and I owe it to our race
          to pick a mate who's stuffed with male jelly.  Maybe a
          rock star.
Zoidberg: Or maybe a doctor?
    Edna: I'm sorry, Zoidberg, you're just an inferior male specimen.
          Nice seeing you again.
-- Let's just be friends, "Crustacean in Love"

The sun sets.  Later, inside the ship, Zoidberg is distraught.

Zoidberg: Noone will ever want to mate with me.  Not with a puny
          claw like this.  Did you see those other guys?  They
          looked like giant claws with bodies attached.
   Leela: At least you didn't smell as bad as them.
Zoidberg: You're right!  My stink gland is weak!  Smell!
-- "Crustacean in Love"

     Fry: Listen, Doc, if you wanna score, you've got to fake like
          you're in love.  Just look her in the eye, start crying,
          and say, "I've never been so happy."
   Leela: [exasperated]  Oh.  If a guy ever did that to me, I'd
          know it.  Wait a minute, they've all been doing that to
          me.  Even Sean! [runs away crying]
Zoidberg: Hmm.  This love intrigues me.  Teach me to fake it!
-- "Crustacean in Love"
 

     Fry: Tell her she looks thin.
Zoidberg: You seem malnourished.  Are you suffering from internal
          parasites?
    Edna: Why, yes.  Thanks for noticing.
-- She also botoxed her swimmerets, "Crustacean in Love"

     Fry: Now ask her how her day was.
Zoidberg: Why would I want to know?
     Fry: You wouldn't.  Ask anyway.
Zoidberg: How was your day?
    Edna: Well, first, I got up and had a piece of toast, then I
          brushed my teeth, then I went to the store to buy some
          fish, then I ...
Zoidberg: Fry, look what you did.  She won't shut up.
     Fry: That's normal.  Just nod your head and say, "Uh-huh."
Zoidberg: Uh-huh, uh-huh.
    Edna: ... and then you threw an octopus at my window.
-- Communications breakthrough, "Crustacean in Love"

    Edna: You know, Zoidberg, it's crazy, but when you talk this way
          your obvious deficiencies as a male seem ... less obvious.
          Your genes seem less detrimental.  You even stink more.
Zoidberg: Do I ask her to mate now?
     Fry: Third date!

Zoidberg: Edna!  Of all the slimy, gross crab monsters on this planet
          you are apparently the hottest.

 Edna: I have to go powder my mouth flaps.
Leela: Uhh, me too.
-- You and me both, sister! "Crustacean in Love"

Zoidberg: I'm confused, Fry.  I'm feeling a strange new emotion.  Is it
          love when you care about a female for reasons beyond mating?
     Fry: Nope.  Must be some weird alien emotion.
-- He's no Cyrano, "Crustacean in Love"

 Fry: I just came to tell you that Zoidberg's really great.  He's got
      male jelly coming out the wazoo.
Edna: Well, that is where it comes out, but jelly isn't everything.
      I know Zoidberg's magical words were really yours.  Teach me to
      love, you squishy poet from beyond the stars.
-- 'Cause jam don't shake like that, "Crustacean in Love"

   Leela: Dr. Zoidberg, this is madness!  You're being irrational.
Zoidberg: Of course I'm being irrational, I'm in love!
   Leela: Aww!

Fry: My fellow fish monsters!  Far be it from me to question your
     stupid civilization or its dumb customs ...

Bender: Hey, what's with the flying jerks?!

Zoidberg: I don't know from emotions, but when it comes to medicine,
          forget about it!

Contributors

Capsule authored by Jym Dyer.

{dld} Daniel L. Dreibelbis
{jd}  Jym Dyer
{hl}  Haynes Lee
{so}  Sean O'Flaherty
{es}  Eric Sansoni
{zc5} zoicon5