Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences

"Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences" is the ninety-ninth episode of Futurama, the eleventh of the sixth production season and the seventh broadcast season. It aired 26 August, 2010 on Comedy Central, and guest starred Katee Sackhoff, Sergio Aragonés and Futurama creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. After a bungled Earth invasion on his birthday, Omicronian leader Lrrr faces a mid-life crisis.

Act I
On his birthday, Ndnd becomes fed up with Lrrr's lack of motivation to conquer other worlds. He reluctantly invades Earth. However, he arrives during Comic-Con and is mistaken for a costume contest participant and leaves dejected. Concurrently, Fry attempts to author a superhero comic book featuring himself as the superhero saving a captured Leela from a malevolent alien. The crew is unimpressed with the comic, with the exception of the back page of novelty toy ads for x-ray specs, sea monkeys, and the Professor's disintegration guns, which are actually only teleportation guns. Leela also criticizes the comic, leaving Fry to figure out how to make the story more compelling.

Back on Omicron Persei 8, Ndnd learns of Lrrr's failure and kicks him out of their home. Lrrr returns to Earth, seeking shelter at the Planet Express building. The crew diagnoses Lrrr and his marriage problems as symptomatic of a mid-life crisis. Leela encourages Lrrr to recommit himself to his marriage with Ndnd, but he listens instead to Bender and gets plastic surgery, flashy new clothes, and goes out to a club to meet new women. There he meets an attractive female Omicronian named Grrrl. While on a date with her, she reveals that she is actually a human woman from the Comic-Con wearing an Omicronian costume. Though she is very attracted to real Omicronians, Lrrr rejects her and seeks Leela's advice on how to win back Ndnd.

Leela and the crew help Lrrr stage an invasion of Earth using a fake broadcast with the help of the head of Orson Wells à la the 1938 "War of Worlds" radio broadcast. Ndnd is fooled, but so are the Earthican army, who surrender Earth immediately to Lrrr. Leela scolds Lrrr, demanding that he end the charade and tell Ndnd the truth, but he hesitates due to Ndnd's renewed romantic interest and forces the citizens of Earth into slavery. During this time, Leela constantly nags Lrrr about telling Ndnd the truth, which causes Ndnd suspicion about their relationship. She confronts Lrrr, demanding to know if he is having an affair. Grrrl reappears, announcing that she loves Lrrr and will fight for him, brandishing a disintegration ray. Ndnd quickly takes the weapon and shoots Grrrl, causing her body to disappear. Ndnd reveals that she is not upset that Lrrr may have been minutely romantically involved with Grrrl, but that Lrrr allowed Leela to nag him, which Ndnd feels is her role and right as his wife. She invokes an Omicronian rite where Lrrr is reluctantly forced to prove his love for Ndnd by shooting Leela, whom he values as a friend, with the disintegration ray.

As he fires, Fry leaps in front of Leela, sacrificing his life. Ndnd is moved by Lrrr's demonstration of love and the two happily depart back to Omicron Persei 8. Leela is devastated by Fry's sacrifice. However, as the Omicronians depart, Grrrl reappears, shocking the crew. She reveals that the disintegration gun is merely one of the Professor's novelty teleportation guns that she purchased from an ad in the back of a comic book (She then begins to hit on Zoidberg who responds by saying of course he'll marry her). Realizing that Fry is alive, the crew find him back at Planet Express, putting the finishing touches on his comic. Inspired by his own heroic actions, his super hero counterpart attempts to rescue "Leela" from the malevolent alien by leaping in front of its ray gun. Leela is pleased with the new ending and commends the comic book, giving Fry a kiss on the cheek.

Trivia

 * Once again, Maurice LaMarche reprises his Orson Welles impression and his parody of Welles' infamous "Frozen Peas" recording session, having previously reprised this impression for such diverse projects as the Brain in Pinky and the Brain and Welles himself in the film Ed Wood and the TV shows The Critic, and The Simpsons.
 * An actual "Delivery-Boy Man" comic, based on the events of this episode, was released as a promotional item at Comic Con 2010 a month prior to its airing.

Allusions

 * '' was a phrase Nixon used to explain the US withdrawl from Vietnam near the end of the Vietnam War.
 * Lrrr watches an episode of "The Scary Door" which is a reference to "The Twilight Zone"
 * There is a "War Of The Worlds" reference that includes Orson Welles recreating his 1938 radio broadcast based on H. G. Wells' book of the same title.
 * During the fake broadcast of an invasion, Orson Welles says, "We interrupt our program of the Jonas Brothers and their Orchestra...". A reference to the pop band, The Jonas Brothers and to Ramon Raquello and His Orchestra, which was 'interrupted' in the original "War Of The Worlds" radio broadcast.
 * Lrrr brings back the face of J.J. Abrams, a famous movie director.
 * Bender's phrase "Dork calling Orson" when Fry is calling Orson Wells is a reference to the 1978-1982 Robin Williams sitcom.

Comic Con
The Comic Con section especially is filled with allusions and references:


 * Matt Groening's and David X. Cohen's heads' new show, "Futurella", is a self-parody of itself, down to the same opening sequence and the fact that it was cancelled before its time.
 * The people on the panel are the Futurama crew members that were on the 2010 Comic Con panel and the panel's moderator is based on Bill Morrison, who is their usual moderator.
 * Several cosplayers are references to popular movies, television series, Futurama characters and more:
 * from (Leela)
 * from (the speaker for the costume contest)
 * A from  (Scruffy)
 * Wally from
 * A ghost costume from "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" (Fry)
 * Davy Jones from "Pirates Of The Carribean" (Dr. Zoidberg)
 * The "Toy-minator" seen at 3010 Comic-Con is a reference to "The Terminator" franchise and the stars beside the name is a reference to the "G.I. Joe" toy franchise.
 * The Zapp Brannigan action figures are modelled in the same pose as the actual Toynami figure, and the box is also of a similar design. His line refers to an outtake from the animated Star Trek series, where Shatner is asked to say the word "sabotage" differently, and tells the director "Don't tell me how to do it, it sickens me".
 * At Comic-Con, between “Videogame – The Movie” and “Movie – The Videogame”, a racer very similar to the racers in Tron, the 1982 film, can be seen.
 * At Comic-Con, between “Videogame – The Movie” and “Movie – The Videogame”, a racer very similar to the racers in Tron, the 1982 film, can be seen.

Continuity

 * Lrrr watches an episode of "The Scary Door", previously seen in many episodes, most lately "Bender's Game".
 * Lrrr's and Ndnd's relationship problems were previously established in "Spanish Fry".
 * At Comic-Con 3010, Lrrr states that he recognizes Leela from somewhere; in response, Leela says that she was in his mouth at one time. A reference to the event in "The Problem with Popplers".
 * At the Comic-Con costume contest, the contestants are wearing costumes of characters seen in previous episodes/DVD movies of Futurama:
 * There are people dressed up as Mom and her three sons
 * Grrl is dressed up as Edna, Zoidberg's love, from "Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love"
 * There's someone dressed up as Yivo from "The Beast with a Billion Backs"
 * There's someone dressed up as the Robot Devil
 * There are three guys dressed up as members of the brain spawn last seen in "The Why of Fry"
 * The cross-species dresser uses the word Popplers in this episode, which has never been heard since its premier in "The Problem with Popplers".
 * The army, led by Zapp Brannigan before surrendering to Lrrr, are wearing the same army uniforms seen since "War is the H-Word".
 * Bender uses his left eye as a broadcasting camera once again, which he used previously in "When Aliens Attack".
 * Professor Farnsworth uses his Fing-longer to wake up Lrrr; the Fing-longer was introduced in "Anthology of Interest I" and has been seen most recently in "The Duh-Vinci Code".
 * As a continuation of a running gag established in "When Aliens Attack", Lrrr once again has trouble speaking into a microphone.
 * The “Spaceship in a bottle” on display at the Comic-Con is not unlike Professor Farnsworth's Scale model of the universe's largest bottle with a spaceship inside, as seen in The 30% Iron Chef.

Goofs

 * When Lrrr and Bender go to The Hip Joint, Grrrl asks "Hey, cool cape, wheredja get that?" and Lrrr responds "What, this old thing? I murdered my father."  However, Lrrr's cape is extremely similar, if not identical, to the one he has worn throughout the series.
 * He may have actually killed his father, who was last seen in "Into the Wild Green Yonder", and acquired an identical cape accordingly.
 * His claim might have beeen an outright lie, as an attempt to impress Grrl.
 * When they are broadcasting live, they are in the Planet Express building and then suddenly by the White House.
 * Lrrr's television broadcast is seen immediately by Ndnd, however in the episode When Aliens Attack, it takes television broadcast a 1000 years to reach Omicron Persei 8.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Australian Man
 * Bender
 * Debut: Bill Morrison Robot
 * Calculon
 * Debut: Claudia Katz's head
 * Debut: Crystal Chesney-Thompson's head
 * Debut: David X. Cohen's head
 * Fry
 * Debut: Grrrl
 * Hermes
 * Hypnotoad
 * Invader X
 * Debut: Ken Keeler's head
 * Kif Kroker
 * Lrrr
 * Matt Groening's head
 * Ndnd
 * Nixon
 * Debut: Orson Welles' head
 * Scruffy
 * Sergio Aragonés' head
 * Sith Overlords
 * Leela
 * Patric M. Verrone's head
 * Debut: Peter Avanzino's head
 * Victor
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg