The Lesser of Two Evils

"The Lesser of Two Evils" is the nineteenth episode of Futurama, the sixth of the second production season and the eleventh of the second broadcast season. It aired 20 February, 2000 on FOX. It is the first episode to be aired out of sync. It guest stars Bob Barker as himself in a jar. After running into Flexo, another Bending Unit, Fry begins suspecting Flexo of being the evil Bender, but at the Miss Universe Pageant, he discovers the opposite.

Act I: "Shut up and get to the point!"
Bender, Fry and Leela are watching Cop Department when an advertisement for Past-O-Rama appears on the television, Bender wishes to see a time before life was cheapened by heartless machines. They look around Past-o-rama at various attractions such as a telephone booths and Al Sharpton’s burial chamber. Then, they come across a ancient car, and Fry attempts to drive it. He is unable, and he instead takes it through a wall. Unable to stop, they hit Flexo, a bending unit with a beard.

Act II: "He's the evil Bender."
The crew are nervously pacing around while Bender is looking at a robot pornography book and Flexo is successfully fixed. Flexo and Bender find that they like each other immediately. They take Fry to a robot gentlemen's club where they pay a robot to give Fry a lap dance which results in injuires. Due to this, Fry begins to think Flexo is evil. The crew go into the Professor's bedroom at his request. He reveals to them the atom of Jumbonium which is so expensive, that if stolen it will cause Planet Express to go bankrupt. Due to this, the Professor hires Flexo to help the Planet Express Crew deliver it, despite some resistance from Fry.

Act III: "And the winner is..."
Bender, Flexo, and Fry take turns watching the atom in that order. Fry distrusts Flexo, so he watches Flexo during Flexo's turn to watch the atom. Fry falls asleep during his watch due to this. When the ship lands they discover the atom is gone, and they begin to search for Flexo. Fry believes he stole it and starts watching Bender who is all the time covering his chin with different things. Due to this, Fry suspects he could be Flexo covering his beard. However, he soon learns that it was Bender anyway. They can't find find Flexo so they tell Bob Barker's head and he orders them to find the atom. When they finally find Flexo, he and Bender begin to chase each other through the beauty pageant but Leela doesn't know who is Flexo because they're covering their chins and Flexo's beard can't be seen. Later it is revealed that Bender in fact stole the atom, and not Flexo. Flexo saw Bender steal the atom and ran to tell Bob Barker's Head. The atom is returned; however, Barker mistakes Flexo for Bender, and Flexo is locked up in Bender's place.

Additional Info




Trivia

 * Sponsored by Arachno Spores.
 * Past-o-rama's logo is based on the Futurama logo. Title caption: Located on the former side of Brooklyn.
 * Flexo has a goatee, which is a reference to the goateed Mirror Universe from the  episode of the original Star Trek.
 * Electric Ladyland is the name of the third Jimi Hendrix album.
 * From Leela and Bender's guesses on the value of the Atomic Tiara, its value should be exactly $200,000. Based on Professor Farnsworth's earlier descriptions of its value, the nucleus is worth exactly $150,000.
 * Bender states that both his and Flexo's serial numbers are expressible as the sum of two cubes. For Flexo's serial number, 3370318 = 119^3 + 119^3.  Bender's serial number 2716057 = 952^3 + (-951)^3.
 * Stills of Fry in this episode (while in suspicion of why Bender was wearing clothing) have now been used to help express the internet : 'I see what you did there', which "conveys a condescending or patronizing tone as a reponse to a banal joke".
 * On 25 April 2012, Comedy Central aired an advertisement for season 7 including the meme.
 * In May 2012, Comedy Central's blog released two videos consisting of the closeup on the suspicious Fry in video and other memes as read by Fry's voice actor - Billy West.
 * This meme was used as a caption for the episode "The Bots and the Bees".
 * Contestants in the Miss Universe contest include
 * Miss Heaven (who looks like M5438)
 * Miss Arrakis
 * Miss Unnamed Planet
 * Miss Demeanor
 * Miss Perfect Little
 * Miss Amazonia (Not labeled on the sash, but obviously from Amazonia)
 * Miss Methane Planet, Halitina Smogmire
 * Miss Earth's Moon, The Crushinator
 * Miss Pluto
 * Miss Vega 4 (Also known as the Parameciums Homeworld), Gladis Lenux (Info found during "Raging Bender")
 * Jellyfish Nurse
 * The judges in the Miss Universe Contest are:
 * Florp
 * Calculon
 * Zapp Brannigan

Continuity

 * Miss Universe reappears in "Raging Bender" and The Beast with a Billion Backs.
 * Flexo reappears in "Bendless Love".
 * This is the first time Zapp Brannigan appears without Kif.

Censorship

 * This episode was subject to censorship by itself and.

Allusions

 * Past-O-Rama shows that people in the 31st century have little knowledge of the distant past. A few mistakes include:
 * Mammoth hunts in New York.
 * These "mistakes" could also be a satirical jab at the 20th century &mdash; i.e. people in the 31st century think of people from the 20th century in the same way people in the 20th century think about earlier/more primitive civilizations (e.g. cavemen).
 * Star Wars : 's.
 * This might, at some point in the near future, be an actual movie, thus not qualifying as a mistake. In fact, it is most likely a jab at the Star Wars of the early 21st century.
 * Except Yoda died in Star Wars VI, so he probably wouldn't have a Bar Mitzvah as a Force ghost.
 * It could also be referencing the rumours about a to the original trilogy, which would be Star Wars VII - IX. George Lucas has, however, denied that those rumours are true.
 * Appearance of primitive Robots.
 * and, the ancient King of Babylon, existing at the same time as each other and at the same time as disco.
 * Cars running on tanks of burning fossils.
 * However, cars are run on tanks of.
 * Cars being called Auto-mo-cars.
 * While watching the primitive robots, Bender says "We've come a long way baby" and drags his cigar, a reference to advertising.
 * The Miss Arrakis is from, the planet of , by.
 * One of the contestants plays 's on her nose.

Goofs

 * Despite Bender being bad at math and not being a good calculator, he was able to tell that both his and Flexo's serial numbers are expressible as the sum of two cubes.
 * Flexo could've figured it out and told Bender, who told everyone else.
 * Both Flexo and Bender immediately started laughing upon exchanging serial numbers, thus they both calculated the similarity simultaneously.
 * The car Fry was tasked with moving at the museum at the beginning of the episode should not have had any compatible fuel in the tank as whale oil has replaced fossil fuel.

Alien Language Sightings
Time: 03:45

Location: Sign in subway

Language: AL1

Translation: laser tentacle surgery

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Bob Barker's head
 * Calculon
 * Debut: Centipede alien
 * Debut: Centipede alien's wife and kids
 * Florp
 * The Crushinator
 * Debut: Gladys Lennox
 * Debut: Flexo
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Jellyfish nurse
 * Leela
 * Nine
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Smitty
 * Debut: Stripperbot
 * URL
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg
 * Debut: Miss Arrakis

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Eric Horsted
 * Director
 * Chris Sauve
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Phil LaMarr
 * David Herman
 * Lauren Tom
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Rich Moore
 * Eric Horsted
 * Peter Avanzino
 * John DiMaggio
 * Special Guest
 * Bob Barker