I, Roommate

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Futurama episode
"I, Roommate"
Episode no.	3
Prod. code	1ACV03
Airdate	April 6, 1999
Where	United States
Writer(s)	Eric Horsted
Director	Bret Haaland
Opening subtitle	As Seen On TV
Opening cartoon	Baby Bottleneck
Guest star(s)	None
Space Pilot 3000 Episode Two: The Series Has Landed I, Roommate Love's Labours Lost in Space Fear of a Bot Planet A Fishful of Dollars My Three Suns A Big Piece of Garbage Hell Is Other Robots A Flight to Remember Mars University When Aliens Attack Fry and the Slurm Factory
List of all Futurama episodes...

"I, Roommate" is the third episode of season one of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on April 6, 1999.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Future products 4 Future planets 5 Foreshadowing 6 Cultural references 7 Quotes 8 List of Signs Bender Passes on His Sober Binge 9 Trivia 10 Goofs

[edit] Plot

Since his arrival in the future Fry has been living in the Planet Express offices. Fry's presence is disrupting business however and when Fry eats the Professor's alien mummy it is decided that Fry has to go. After being physically removed from the office Fry moves in with Bender.

Several days later, Fry discovers that he can't take living in Bender's 2 cubic meter apartment, and the two begin a search for living space that will satisfy them both. Leela offers to help Fry find a new apartment, but with no success. However, when one of Professor Farnsworth's colleagues dies, Fry and Bender lease his old apartment where Bender lives in the closet.

After discovering his antenna interferes with the building's televisions, Bender is forced to relocate back to his old residence, but Fry stays put. Distraught at the separation from his friend, Bender goes on a self-destructive sobriety binge, eventually cutting off his own antenna.

Out of concern for Bender, Fry moves back into Bender's old apartment, and discovers that Bender's oversized closet has more than enough room for a human to live comfortably.

[edit] Characters

Characters which make their first appearances in this episode are:

• Calculon
• Monique
• Hattie McDoogal
• Boxy

[edit] Future products

Future products in this episode are:

• Bachelor Chow
• LöBrau Beer

[edit] Future planets

Future planets in this episode are:

• Zuban 5

[edit] Foreshadowing

• While sleeping, Bender repeatedly says, "Kill all humans." The desire for robots to kill all humans is evident in the robot citizens of Chapek 9 in "Fear of a Bot Planet" although Bender reveals in The Sting that he would always whisper (presumably) "except Fry", hence Bender says (to Fry) "I was having the most wonderful dream...I think you were in it."
• Some believe that Hermes Conrad's loathing for Dr. Zoidberg is first made apparent when Zoidberg offers Hermes a plate of food; Hermes immediately spits the food out once he learns that Zoidberg himself made it. However, since the food in question is crab claws and Zoidberg is a lobster, Hermes was probably meant to be disgusted by the cannibalistic implications rather than by dislike for Zoidberg. It may also be a suggestion that Dr. Zoidberg himself produced the claws (from his own body).
• The tune Bender whistles at one point in this episode is the same one he whistles in his fantasy at the end of "Obsoletely Fabulous".

[edit] Cultural references

• The title is a reference to Isaac Asimov's short story collection, I, Robot.
• The owls which are infesting the entrance to Planet Express - and which seem to be everywhere in New New York - are North American Spotted Owls. In the late 1980's/early 1990's, the Spotted Owl was added to the Endangered Species List and became the touchstone for the demand to end the logging industry in the Northwest woods. Ironically, it seems that by the year 3000, the Spotted Owl has not only become far from endangered, they have elimated the presence of rats in New New York and have become the new pest. One billboard featured in the show's opening sequence is for Def-Con Owl Traps - a pun on such devices as the Roach Motel.
• At the beginning, Bender bends Fry's alarm clock over the edge of the table. This is a reference to the clock in Salvador Dalí's painting The Persistence of Memory.
• The popular TV show All My Circuits is a parody of the soap opera All My Children.
• When Fry and Bender are looking for an apartment, they visit one that resembles M. C. Escher's Relativity.
• When Fry and Bender move into their new apartment, the music playing is the theme from the TV series "The Odd Couple". The bit where Fry jabs the cigar Bender throws away with the tip of an umbrella is from that show's opening title sequence.
• A Slurm painting in Fry's and Bender's new apartment is a reference to an Andy Warhol painting.
• A lady from the apartment next to Fry and Bender claims that Bender's thoughts are being transmitted to her cellphone. When she closes the phone, it beeps like the communicator from Star Trek.
• After Fry fixes the TV, his "'Ey" is similar to that of Happy Days character, Fonzie.
• The montage during which Bender wanders the streets of New New York stinking sober is a reference to the film "Lost Weekend", starring Ray Milland, a story about an alcoholic desperate for a drink.
• There is a distinct similarity in this episode between robots' antennaes, and male genitalia. These references are implied when Leela suggests to Bender to cut his antennae off so he and Fry can live together again, and Bender retaliates with "Are you crazy? That's Little Bender you're talking about. I can't cut it off. You're not a robot or a man so you wouldn't understand. I gotta get out of here." Another reference was when URL and Smitty are assisting in helping find Bender's antennae. When Smitty finds it, URL says "You call that an antenna?" URL, who is also a robot, seems to be mocking the size of Bender's antennae, which is quite a common trait among men in Western Societies, who often mock the size of other men's genitalia.
• The finding of Bender's severed antenna in a field by Officers Smitty and URL may be a reference to the discover of John Wayne Bobbitt's penis in a similar fashion. Lorena Bobbitt, after cutting off her husband's penis, tossed it out of the window of her moving car. Like Bender, Bobbitt's missing "Little Bender" was found and reattached.

[edit] Quotes

• Fry: "Where's the bathroom?"
  Bender: "The 'bath-what'?"
  Fry: "The bathroom."
  Bender: "The 'what-room'?"
  Fry: "The bathroom."
  Bender: "The 'what-what'?"

[edit] List of Signs Bender Passes on His Sober Binge

• "No Liqour License"
• "Public Library"
• "Bible Study 2 Nite"
• "Boring Geology Lecture"
• "Water Fountain"

[edit] Trivia

• According to Futurama Executive Producer David X. Cohen, Farnsworth's mention of the mummified remains of "Zevulon the Great," is a reference to his college roommate, Zev.
• The beer Bender is drinking is LöBrau, which has apparently survived intact over the last 1,000 years as it is the same brand of beer Fry is drinking when he is frozen on New Year's Eve, 1999.

[edit] Goofs

• When Hermes says, "We'll bill ya for the couch" in the beginning of the episode, his mouth does not move.
• Leela suggests that Bender remove his antenna and bender says "That's little Bender you're talking about." Two minutes later, Bender, Fry, and Leela are in Fry's apartment and Bender threatens to cut off his antenna. Leela tells Fry not to encourage him to mutilate himself. Leela has no reason to say this when mutilation was her idea in the first place.
• Although Bender's antenna is knocking out the reception on the whole floor, the TV would turn off and on when Bender walked through the door, not when he got on the floor.
• In later episodes, it is shown that Bender can simply remove his antenna, rather than cutting it off.
• Bender's room number is 00100100 which is the binary equivalent of either 36 or the $ symbol.

Preceded by: "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed"

Futurama episodes

Followed by: "Love's Labours Lost in Space"