| "Raging Bender" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Futurama episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 2 Episode 8 | ||
| Directed by | Ron Hughart | ||
| Written by | Lewis Morton | ||
| Production code | 2ACV08 | ||
| Original air date | February 27, 2000 (2000-02-27) | ||
| Guest appearances | |||
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| Episode features | |||
| Opening caption | Nominated For Three Glemmys | ||
| Opening cartoon | "Hollywood Capers" fromLooney Tunes byWarner Bros. Cartoons (1935) | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| Futuramaseason 2 | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Raging Bender" is the eighth episode in thesecondseason of the American animated television seriesFuturama, and the 21st episode of the series overall. It originally aired on theFox network in the United States on February 27, 2000. The episode was written byLewis Morton and directed byRon Hughart. The story focuses onBender becoming aprofessional robot wrestler.
At the morning Planet Express meeting, the crew discoversHermes has been assimilated by theBrain Slugs. To avoid being assimilated themselves, the rest of the staff takes off for the movies.
While watchingAll My Circuits, The Movie,Bender picks a fight with a robot that turns out to be the Ultimate Robot Fighting champion The Masked Unit. The Masked Unit trips on Bender's oil-soaked popcorn, and is knocked out by the fall. Coincidentally, the commissioner of Ultimate Robot Fighting, Abner Doubledeal, is at the movie, and hires Bender on the spot.
After training withLeela, Bender has his first fight against achainsaw-equipped robot called The Clearcutter. Seemingly by a stroke of luck, Bender defeats his opponent, causing The Clearcutter to explode into a pile ofparts. However, Bender runs into the robot backstage, and the commissioner reveals that Ultimate Robot Fighting is fixed, and that the most popular robot always wins. Bender is shocked at first, but then celebrates the fact that he is popular.
Bender spurns further training from Leela, and proceeds to win several fights, but eventually, his popularity wanes, and he is told that he can either take a dive in his new role as 'TheGender Bender', or be killed by his giant opponent, Destructor. Bender asks Leela for help, but she initially refuses. When she discovers that Destructor is being trained by Arcturankung-fu Master Fnog, she changes her mind. Themisogynist Fnog had ruined Leela's dream of competing in the Arcturan Kung-fu junior championships years ago, and Leela still holds a grudge.
Bender tries to fight Destructor, but takes a merciless beating in the ring. He begsFry to throw in the towel, but sees that Fry now has a Brain Slug on his head. Meanwhile, Leela discovers that Destructor is being controlled remotely (usingmotion capture and virtual reality) by Fnog, hidden beneath the ring. They proceed to fight, but just as Fnog is winning, Leela grabs his fist and forces it into the floor; when Destructor copies this move, his fist smashes through the canvas and knocks Fnog out. Destructor collapses on top of Bender, pinning him and winning the match. The flattened Bender receives aBed Bath & Beyond discount card, and Fry and Leela roll him up and carry him home. Fry's Brain Slug is found on the arena floor, having starved to death.
According to the DVD commentary,Hermes was supposed to have thebrain slug for the rest of the season. However, this idea was scrapped because everybody "just sort of forgot about it".
When Fry, Bender, and Leela are riffing through the newsreel, they are ironically shushed byCrow T. Robot andTom Servo fromMystery Science Theater 3000. The film's opening sequence is an homage toMaurice Binder's iconicJames Bondgun barrel sequence.
Destructor's final blow to Bender's head is shot in black-and-white slow motion in a recreation of a famous shot fromRaging Bull.
The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+, stating "The story of Bender’s rise and fall in the fine art of (staged) Robot Wrestling is a time honored comedy tradition… “Raging Bender”’s conclusion is pretty much all silly… The subplot is the closest the episode comes to having a legitimate emotional component… Still, if you can put that aside, this is a solid episode. Leela kicks some ass, Bender gets crushed by a giant robot, and Fry starves a brain slug to death. So that’s cool."[1]
