Attack of the Killer App

"Attack of the Killer App" is the ninety-first episode of Futurama, the third of the sixth production season and the seventh broadcast season. It aired 1 July 2010 on Comedy Central. It guest stars Craig Ferguson as Susan Boil. After Mom launches the new eyePhone, Fry and Bender race to getting a million followers on the Twitcher app.

Act I: "Good news, nobodies!"
At the New New York annual e-Waste event, Mayor Poopenmeyer announces the importance of throwing out dated e-waste. Even the Planet Express crew is there to throw out old electronics, such as doomsday devices, Japanese toilets and evidence. When prompted about where all the waste goes, Poopenmeyer tells them that they get some idiots to fly it off to the third world. This cues Farnsworth to announce to his crew that they are the idiots to fly it off. The third world turns out to be the Third World of the Antares system, where all the e-waste are dumped on the ground and burnt, turning it into useless material and releasing the toxin into the air, as well as the inhabitants dismantling the ship and Bender. As Leela discovers the horrors that their e-waste is leaving other planets in, she decides that the crew should avoid throwing out electronics, just because it is dated, and decides to take her old phone back.

However, her noble actions are short lived as an ad for the new eyePhone appears on the television, and the crew immediately throws out their current phones and heads for the queue. The queue, however, is so long, it is all the way through town. After a day of tireless walking, the crew begins to suspect that they are nothing but consumer zombies. Luckily, Dr. Ben Beeler is there to relieve them of their worries, as the eyePhone have all the apps you need. Soon, they arrive at the Mom Store, where a giant screen with Mom announces that the eyePhones are in short supply, which soon spreads panic among the shoppers. However, as the viewers soon learn, the short supply line is purely a method of increasing demand. While being told that with the eyePhone, he has no choice of carrier, can't change the battery and more, Fry becomes impatient and demands the man at the counter to take his money. Though, on the question of why its name is an 'eyePhone', Fry soon learns, it is because it is installed into their eyes.

Act II: "Did you know these eyePhones are phones too?"
Soon, all the crew members are addicts to their eyePhones and especially the extra service, Twitcher, where they can send small view messages to everyone who wishes to see it. Bender soon becomes addicted to the popularity he can easily gain from sending out videos and increasing his amount of followers. Fry, on the other hand, is not doing so well in numbers of followers, but decides to take a challenge with Bender about who can first reach one million followers. To make the bet interesting, however, the loser is to bathe in a pool filled with puke and diarrhea from a two-headed goat.

Meanwhile, Mom is very pleased with the sale of her eyePhones, because they are a much more efficient way of sucking information out of people, instead of doing it the old fashion way. With Twitcher, people are apparently willing to post everything they do, which all eyePhones record and Mom can see all this information. In addition, she is pleased to learn that Bender and Fry are throwing their million follower-Twitcher challenge, because when one person reaches one million followers, she can initiate her Twitt-worm, what she calls the true killer app of the eyePhone, but never fully explains what it does.

Back at Planet Express, Bender's follower numbers are raising fast, while Fry is still in the two digits. However, Fry learns about Leela's horrible secret, that she has a singing boil on her right butt cheek, that she calls Susan Boil. However, in discovering it, his eyePhone also filmed it. When Leela discovers that he has it on video, she asks him not to upload it, even though Fry can see a decent potential for his upload, and it could make him win the bet. In a desperation of not wanting to swim in puke and diarrhea, he uploads it.

Act III: "Impending news, everyone!"
The video is a huge success, but Leela is devastated when she discovers that Fry lied to her. Walking through the streets of New New York, Leela feels she have become a freak show and desperately wants to hide her shame.

However, the video results in Fry and Bender reaching a tie with both one million followers, and no one has to swim in the pool. Mom is even more pleased with the results, as she now has one to two million people she can infect with the Twit-worm. In front of the Planet Express headquarters, Leela finds Fry, who wants to apologize for uploading the video and explains he actually took a swim in the pool for her sake. But Leela has discovered that her boil is already yesterday's news, and nobody cares about it any more.

Meanwhile, around them, hundreds of people walking in a zombie like fashion begins emerging. All heading towards the Mom Store, where they are going to be the first to purchase the new eyePhone 2.0.

Production
The plot of "Attack of the Killer App" was among the plots mentioned at the Futurama panel at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. And Craig Ferguson was among the first guest actors of the production season to come to the recording studio. During Comedy Central Insider's Countdown to Futurama, a storyboard was released showing Farnsworth and Hermes throwing out dangerous doomsday devices.

Reception
"Attack of the Killer App" aired 22:00, 1 July, 2010 on Comedy Central, following a rebroadcast of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela". It received 2.2 million viewers and a 1.1 adults 18-49 share.

iPhone controversy
After having the aired "Attack of the Killer App", Comedy Central decided to remove the 'eyePhone' reference in their online video previews, resulting in an awkward reaction to nothing by the characters. By this point, neither Comedy Central nor Apple Inc. have made a comment on why the line was removed, but MacLife holds that only one company could be interested in having it removed.

Trivia

 * As in In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela, the opening sequence was abridged in this episode. Consequently, there is no opening cartoon.
 * The title of the episode is a reference to the cult film.
 * 6 August, 1991 is the date Tim Berners-Lee announced the World Wide Web project and software on the alt.hypertext newsgroup
 * In his first two appearances, Scoop Chang was voiced by David Herman. In this episode, he was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
 * For reasons unknown, Leela wears her full costume from Applied Cryogenics during the first part of the episode.
 * Among the "zombies" infected with the twitt-worm are two who bear a strong resemblance to Fry and Leela's Replacement from "When Aliens Attack".

Continuity

 * The shell phone Zoidberg throws away debuted in The Beast with a Billion Backs.
 * The cell phone Amy throws away was first seen in "Amazon Women in the Mood".
 * The episode seemed to show the last of Flexo before his death, presuming he didn't escape afterwards.
 * Although it is revealed in a later episode that your typical bending unit can never die, but simply be transferred into a new body if need be.

Goofs

 * Right after every crew member tosses their phones in the garbage, Zoidberg's pants are white instead of aqua.
 * How was Zoidberg able to afford an eyePhone when he is so poor?
 * When the counter clerk that Fry talks to opens the eyePhone box the Mom logo is properly oriented but once the box is opened and the camera angle changes, the logo is flipped upside-down, thus again properly oriented in relation to the camera.
 * The sitting arrangement changes when Leela crashes the Planet Express Ship.
 * Before
 * Fry - Amy - Empty - Zoidberg - Bender - Hermes - Empty - Empty
 * After
 * Fry - Amy - Zoidberg - Bender - Empty - Hermes - Empty
 * Note that there is one chair missing. Interestingly, the arrangement is correct (that is the 'before' state) in The Late Philip J. Fry.


 * When Fry and Leela hug again Fry has 4 legs.
 * When the guy from the counter reaches for the eyePhone his hand grabs more than one but in the next scene has only one to give to Fry.

Allusions

 * Fry refers to Mr. Chunks as a puke-me-poop-you, possibly its species name, but surely a play on the two-headed pushmi-pullyu from the classic children’s series Dr. Dolittle.
 * Susan Boil is a parody of Scottish internet singing sensation.
 * eyePhones are parodies of s, and Twitcher is a parody of the popular social networking site.
 * The scene of Leela exiting Elzar's Fine Cuisine is a parody of the famous scene of Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Debut: Antarians
 * Ben Beeler
 * Bender
 * Bolt Rolands
 * Calculon
 * Scoop Chang
 * Chaz
 * Debut: Mr. Chunks
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Flexo
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Hypnotoad
 * Igner
 * Debut: Infosquito
 * Debut: Japanese toilet
 * Larry
 * Leela
 * Mayor Poopenmeyer
 * Mom
 * Monique
 * Morbo
 * Sal
 * Sal's Friend
 * Scruffy
 * Stephanie
 * Debut: Susan the boil
 * Walt
 * Zoidberg