A Pharaoh to Remember
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Futurama episode | |
| "A Pharaoh to Remember" | |
 |
|
|---|---|
| Episode no. | 49 |
| Prod. code | 3ACV17 |
| Airdate | March 10, 2002 |
| Where |  United States |
| Writer(s) | Ron Weiner |
| Director | Mark Ervin |
| Opening subtitle | PSST... BIG PARTY AT YOUR HOUSE AFTER THE SHOW |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Guest star(s) | None |
| Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002 |
|
|
|
| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"A Pharaoh to Remember" is the 17th episode of Futurama's third season. It originally aired on March 10, 2002. The title is a reference to the 1957 film An Affair to Remember.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Bender grows concerned that he will be doomed to obscurity, and sets off to rectify the situation. One of these schemes includes spraying graffiti on the side of a building, saying "Bender Lives Large And Kicks Butt." The building is demolished, and his phrase is reduced to "Bender Licks Butt". Bender starts sulking around the office. The Professor assigns the crew a new mission: deliver a giant sandstone block to the planet Osiris IV.
Upon their arrival, they find a desert world whose society is modeled after ancient Egypt, who they claim introduced interstellar travel to them, in defiance of known history. The crew is enslaved to work on the building of the funeral pyramid of Pharaoh Hamenthotep. Their job is to work alongside the other slaves, moving heavy stone blocks manually. Bender, impressed by the Osirin Pharaohs' method of ensuring their place in history, becomes a workaholic, working so fast the slavedrivers can't even keep up with him.
Pharaoh Hamenthotep arrives to inspect his newly completed pyramid, and is killed when the nose falls off a giant statue of himself. The priests entomb Hamenthotep, and the next day they consult their wall of prophecy to select the new pharaoh. They discover that, thanks to a few surreptitious modifications to the wall, Bender is the new pharaoh.
Newly crowned Pharaoh Bender demands a statue of himself, one billion cubits tall, so that he will be remembered forever. Construction proceeds, and the statue is completed. But when it is unveiled, Pharaoh Bender announces that he is displeased with it, and wants it to be torn down and rebuilt. The high priests, disgusted and tired with Bender, wrap him for burial, and toss him into the tomb, along with Fry and Leela for human sacrifices.
Fry and Leela want to blast their way out using the explosive Schnapps from the tomb's distillery, but Bender objects, worried that he won't be remembered if the statue is destroyed. Fry and Leela make a show of not remembering Bender, and he relents. After blasting a crack in the statue's foot, Fry, Leela, and Bender escape and run back to the ship. As the ship departs Osiris IV, the statue explodes in a gigantic fireball. Bender is distraught, but Leela consoles him with the knowledge that his reign of terror will be remembered longer than any statue.
[edit] Quotes
- High Priest: Great Wall of Prophecy, reveal to us God's will, that we may blindly obey.
Congregation: Free us from thought and responsibility.
High Priest: We shall read things off of you.
Congregation: Then do them.
High Priest: Your words guide us.
Congregation: We're dumb. - High Priest: The prophecy is strange, and, crudely drawn, at best. It says that we are here...and our next Pharaoh is there, by those tents.
Bender (from reeds): Those are waves, jackass! It's meant to be a river! - Statue: Remember me!
Bender (with sorrow): I will. - Fry: Dearly beloved, we are here to remember the life of Bender. Taken from us in the prime of life when he was crushed by a runaway semi driven by the Incredible Hulk.
- Professor Farnsworth: Your standard bending unit is made of an iron osmium alloy. But Bender was different. He had a 0.4 nickel impurity.
Bender: It's what made me me!
[edit] Cultural references
- The singer at the previous Pharaoh's funeral greatly resembles Elton John, who emotionally sang at Princess Diana's funeral. The songs he sings are parodies of the songs "Benny and the Jets" and "Crocodile Rock", spoofing John's reworked version of "Candle in the Wind".
- Fry says "I've got a bad feeling about this", a common reference to the Star Wars series.
- The Osirians mention being taught space travel and pyramid building by Earth's Egyptians - the book Chariots of the Gods suggests that the Egyptians were taught both by aliens.
- The comedians referenced in what the Osirians learn from the Earth Egyptians are Abbot and Costello, in particular their movie Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. Latter in the episode the wheezing Fry does after being entombed is the same as Costello's.
- Bender's tomb is completely sealed off, except tunnels through which thousands of snakes may enter - a reference to the Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- The picture of Bender turning into a butt is a reference to Mad Magazine Fold-ins.
- The title of this episode is a reference to the film An Affair to Remember.
- After being named pharaoh Bender "Walks like an Egyptian", the dance/song made popular in the 1980's by the The Bangles.
- One of the slave masters is wearing a shirt that says "What would Pharaoh do?" in reference to the popular "What would Jesus do?".
[edit] Trivia
- There is an Australian slave among the slaves on Osiris IV. He is the same Australian man who was a slave (and soon after Hermes' arrival, the only slave) on Spa 5 in "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back".
[edit] Goofs
- The slave master says that while his people visted earth Egyptians taught them about space travel. But how did they get to earth in the first place?
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: " A Leela of Her Own " |
Futurama episodes | Followed by: "Anthology of Interest II" |
