The 30% Iron Chef
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| Futurama episode | |
| "The 30% Iron Chef" | |
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| Episode no. | 54 |
| Prod. code | 3ACV22 |
| Airdate | April 14, 2002 |
| Where |  United States |
| Writer(s) | Jeff Westbrook |
| Director | Ron Hughart |
| Opening subtitle | IF ACCIDENTALLY WATCHED, INDUCE VOMITING |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Guest star(s) | None |
| Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
“The 30% Iron Chef” is the 22nd episode in season 3 of Futurama. It originally aired April 14, 2002.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Bender cooks for the Planet Express crew and the meals he produces are awful. Also, Zoidberg destroys the scale replica of the world's largest bottle that Professor Farnsworth has made. He frames Fry for the damage and the Professor demands that Fry pay $10 for the material cost, because of this Zoidberg is riddled with guilt.
Running away, Bender hopes Elzar will teach him how to cook, but Elzar refuses. Bender then finds two hobos who take him with them on the spacerails, Bender and the hobos end up on the biggest hobo joint in the universe. There, Bender meets Helmut Spargle—a legendary cook who lost his TV show when Elzar replaced him. Spargle begins to train Bender how to cook in order to get revenge.
Once Bender is finished with his training, he accidentally kills Spargle by causing his stomach to explode with the meal he has made. With his dying breath, Spargle reveals the secret to great cooking and gives him a vial of clear liquid to use whenever he needs to spice up a food.
Bender challenges Elzar to a cook-off on Iron Cook. The main ingredient used in this cook-off is Soylent green.He applies the liquid that Spargle gave him and wins. During the contest, Zoidberg becomes remorseful of framing Fry when Fry is unable to pay for a commemorative turkey baster. Zoidberg publicly apologises before trying to commit seppuku honorably using a ceremonial Wakizashi, only to damage the $5000 sword and blame Fry.
When the Professor examines the liquid in the bottle Spargle gave Bender, it turns out the liquid was water laced with LSD. The episode closes with the characters joyfully anticipating a meal prepared with plenty of Bender’s new-found “confidence.”
[edit] Quotes
- Bender: (crying) It’s over! My dream of being a chef is deader than the cat I’m sitting on!
(Two hobos stand next to him.)
Hobo: Gus, old chum, let’s give a friendly welcome to this new robo.
(Bender rolls up his sleeves.)
Bender: What did you call me?!!
Gus: A robo. You know? A robot hobo.
Bender: Oh, okay. I thought you said “romo.” - Spargle: You don’t understand. Without the distraction of taste, your mind is free to touch the Zen of pure flavor. You could become the greatest chef ever!
Bender: I could?
Spargle: Yes. Just as Beethoven was a great composer because he was deaf.
Bender: Or like how Rembrandt was blind and had wooden hands! - Hiroki: Aki, what’s Elzar making?
Aki: Well, Hiroki-san, when I asked him, he asked what business it was of mine and conjectured that my mother was a prostitute.
Martha Stewart: In the English countryside, many prostitutes decorate their rooms with festive gourds. - Farnsworth: Hmm. Let me see that vial, Bender. (He puts it in a machine and a readout prints and he looks at it and gasps.) Good Lord! According to the spectralyzer, Spargle’s magic ingredient was… water! Ordinary water!
(Everyone gasps.)
Hermes: No!
Fry: Ah, so the real gift Spargle gave you was confidence. The confidence to be your best.
Farnsworth: Yes, ordinary water. Laced with nothing more than a few spoonfuls of LSD.
(Bender takes the vial.)
Bender: The important thing is, by my standards, I won fair and square. Now, who wants brunch? Cooked with plenty of… confidence?
Leela: I’m in!
Farnsworth: I do! - Hobo: You've never heard of Helmut Spargle? He used to be the greatest chef who ever lived! He once ran a restaurant that was so exclusive that the only way to get a reservation there was to create a parallel universe where you already had reservations!
Gus: Yup. I once et there when I what was a senator.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title and the Iron Cook cooking contest parody the Japanese cooking competition show Iron Chef.
- The song played during Bender’s training montage is “You’re The Best” from The Karate Kid soundtrack.
- Spargel’s character and subsequent death are a parody of Yoda of the Star Wars series, as is the scene in which Bender peels hovering potatoes. Also, Spargel's name is a reference to the popular German food, spargel.
- Elzar's seduction by the "Dark Side of Cooking" (cilantro, mango salsa, raspberry vinaigrette) was a reference to Darth Vader's seduction by the Dark Side of The Force.
- The ending, with the LSD-laced water, is a parody of Space Jam, in which a secret elixir that Bugs Bunny (voiced by Billy West) gives the team is actually just water.
- When the winner of the competition is announced, Chairman Koji says to Bender, “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,” a reference to the popular song “Mr. Roboto” by the band Styx.
- The episode concludes with a clip from Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” a well-known psychedelic song.
- Linda and Morbo appear on “Good Morning Earth,” a parody of Good Morning America.
- The Iron Cook main ingredient is Soylent Green, a parody of the 1973 film. Bubblegum Tate’s Line: “Soylent green is my kind of people” is a parody of Charleton Heston’s famous line “Soylent Green is… people!”
- When Bender and the hobos jump before the stop there is a Pink Floyd reference to Dark Side of The Moon with the prism that splits into the rainbow.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode reveals Dr. Zoidberg’s first name to be John.
- Bender’s original role, as shown in some production sketches and part of the Director’s commentary, was supposed to be that of the ship’s (horrible) chef. However, a decision was made to cast him as the lazy robot instead and not give him a defined role.
- It is said that Bender would like to make good-tasting meals but can’t because he has no sense of taste (as alluded to in previous episodes, such as “My Three Suns”). However, near the end of the episode “A Fishful of Dollars”, he could taste, as he spits out Fry’s anchovy pizza (as does everyone else except Fry).
- The Kitchen Coliseum is home to the Kitchen University Wildcats, possibly a reference to Johnson & Wales University (Johnson & Wales's mascot is the Wildcat) where Emeril Lagasse went to college. Chef Elzar is based on Emeril.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: " Future Stock " |
Futurama episodes | Followed by: " Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch " |
