Time Keeps on Slippin'

Act I: Your face can take a lot of punishment. That's good to know.
While the staff of Planet Express are visiting Central Park Lake, a spaceship lands and the Globetrotters emerge and challenge Earth to a game of basketball simply to embarrass them if they lose. Professor Farnsworth offers to play them and plans to beat them with a team of mutant atomic supermen, however they are currently only babies. To speed up the growth, Farnsworth sends the crew to collect Chronitons. While collecting the Chronitons, Fry tries but fails to impress Leela. Professor gives the supermen the cronotons and they grow into adults; mutations include a man with a cannon in his chest and a giant spider. The basketball game starts and is commentated by Marv Albert's head. The supermen are winning 48-42.

Act II: Enough about your promiscous mother, Hermes!
While playing, however, a strange flash occurs, causing everyone to reappear in a different position. Another flash happens, and Professor times the game out; he determines that time is lurching forward randomly, due to interference from the Chronotons. Time and space are ripping apart. In addition the fifth man is killed and Fry offers to play to show Leela his skills. However in two minutes he allows the Globetrotters to win 200 points causing earth to lose the game. The leader of the Globetrotters, Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate offers to help find out what is happening with time and space. The Professor concludes that by Thursday it will be the end of existence.

Act III: Hello, lawsuit.
Time continues to skip forward and the Professor says that everyone acts normally during the time skip, but they have no memory of it. Bender explains that he is a big fan of the Globetroters and that he wants to be one. Fry shows Leela a special room that will stop time skips. However it is just a romantic chamber and this annoys Leela. She explains to Zoidberg that Fry is sweet but very immature. Through the smellescope, Farnsworth finds out that time is leaking, causing time skips on earth. Bubblegum thinks that moving a cluster of stars to a certain area will cause the time skips to move to an empty part of the universe. A machine is built using all of earth's money to move the stars. After Leela successfully moves the stars Bender shows Bubblegum his homemade Globetrotter uniform and Fry again tries to impress Leela. A time skip occurs and Fry and Leela have just gotten married.

Act IV: Even in these formal shorts I feel like a failure.
The time skips carry on and Leela, thinking that Fry tricked her into marrage, divorces him. The others try to console him.

Act V: I deserve free money!
Farnsworth realises that Bubblegum's algebra was incorrect. The rest of the globetrotters decide to cause an implosion in the cronoton nebula to create a black hole. Farnsworth provides one of his doomsday devices for that to work and the Globetrotters say that Bender isn't funky enough to be one which upsets him. Fry tells Leela he is sorry if he did trick her, only to find out he did it by spelling "I love you Leela" with the stars, which are sucked into the black hole and Leela never finds out what happened.

Trivia

 * Zoidberg's birthday is the day after Amy's.
 * Professor Farnsworth has mentioned Atomic Monsters before but this is the only time we see them.
 * This episode was named #15 on IGN's list of Top 25 Futurama Episodes.

Quotes

 * Zoidberg: Don't be so hard on yourself, Fry. You lost the woman of your dreams but you still have Zoidberg. You all still have Zoidberg.
 * Leela: Fry, stop. I don't wanna hurt you, but there is absolutely, positively no way that you and I will ever, ever- [Time skips] Preacherbot: ...man and wife. You may kiss the bride.
 * Nixon: Now, how long will it take to build? Tate: It won't be easy, Nixon. A jim-jam this complex might take months or even- [Time skips] Farnsworth: Ah, there we are. One gravity pump. Powerful enough to move the stars themselves. Now to begin the arduous task of attaching it to the ship so th- [Time skips. The Planet Express ship is taking off with the gravity pump attached] Farnsworth: Off you go, apparently.
 * Farnsworth: Doomsday device? Ah, now the ball's in Farnsworth's court! [platform rises from floor containing many doomsday devices] Farnsworth: I suppose I could part with one and still be feared.

Outside References

 * The front cover of the pop singer Wendy's album is a reference to one of Britney Spears' albums

Goofs

 * After the time skip during the wedding, when Fry gets a bouquet in his mouth, Grotrian, who is to screen right, is duplicated.

Characters
(In alphabetical order)


 * Amy
 * Debut: Aracneon (Spider Mutant)
 * Bender
 * Debut: Curly Joe
 * Debut: Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate
 * Debut: Armo (Five-Armed Mutant)
 * Fry
 * Debut: Grotrian (Stretch Mutant)
 * Hermes
 * Judge Whitey
 * Leela
 * Linda
 * Debut: Marv Albert's Head
 * Nixon
 * Debut: Lazar (Optic Blast Mutant)
 * Preacherbot
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Debut: 'Sweet' Clyde Dixon
 * Debut: Thorias (Cannon Mutant)
 * Zoidberg

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Ken Keeler
 * Director
 * Chris Loudon
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Phil LaMarr
 * David Herman
 * Lauren Tom
 * Jeff Cesario
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Ken Keeler
 * Susan Dietter
 * John DiMaggio
 * Billy West