Xmas Story

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Futurama episode
"Xmas Story"
Episode no.	17
Prod. code	2ACV04
Airdate	December 19, 1999
Where	United States
Writer(s)	David X. Cohen
Director	Peter Avanzino
Opening subtitle	Based On A True Story
Opening cartoon	Elmer Fudd in Fresh Hare
Guest star(s)	John Goodman Conan O'Brien
Season 2 November 1999 – December 2000
I Second That Emotion Brannigan Begin Again A Head in the Polls Xmas Story Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love? Lesser of Two Evils Put Your Head on My Shoulders Raging Bender A Bicyclops Built for Two A Clone of My Own How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back The Deep South Bender Gets Made Mother's Day The Problem with Popplers Anthology of Interest I War is the H-Word The Honking The Cryonic Woman
List of all Futurama episodes...

"Xmas Story" is the 4th episode in season 2 of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on December 19, 1999.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 3 Cultural references 4 Goofs 5 Ties to other episodes 6 Trivia

[edit] Plot

While on a ski trip, Fry begins to feel nostalgic for 20th century Christmases. To cheer him up, the rest of the Planet Express staff decide to decorate for what is now called Xmas, which includes cutting down an Xmas tree (which are now coconut palms).

Fry decides to venture into the city to buy Leela a present. The others warn him to be back before sundown, or else he will be killed by a murderous robotic Santa Claus. Meanwhile, Bender befriends several homeless robots and they go on a robbery spree.

Fry buys Leela a parrot, which escapes. Leela heads out to rescue Fry before Santa Claus arrives. After pursuing the parrot to the top of a tall building, he is saved from plunging to his death by Leela. Unfortunately, Fry's safety is short-lived, as Santa makes his entrance and opens fire.

Fry, Leela, Bender, and the other robots take refuge in the Planet Express building, but Santa breaks in through the chimney. Thanks to some quick thinking by Doctor Zoidberg (the only sentient being to not be judged naughty), Santa is forced back into the chimney, where an explosion sends him and his mechanical reindeer tumbling into the stratosphere.

Everybody celebrates by singing "Santa Claus is Gunning You Down". And Farnsworth strips naked.

[edit] Characters

Characters who make their first appearances in this episode are:

• Robot Santa
• Tinny Tim

[edit] Cultural references

• The title is perhaps a riff on the 1983 movie A Christmas Story.
• The war of 2012 is a reference to the war of 1812.
• Before Bender crashes through the ice skating rink the children ice skating are a parody of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
• After Hermes finishes praising the Jaimaican Olympic Bobsled team, he immediately turns upside down in his bobsled, referncing their historic crash.
• The scene in which Zoidberg, Amy and Hermes buy each other combs and sell their hair is a spoof of The Gift of the Magi.
• One of the creatures Fry inspects in the pet store is Bongo, a character from Matt Groening's comic strip Life in Hell.
• The sequence of Fry dangling from the bars of the digital clock display is probably an homage to the famous sequence of Harold Lloyd dangling from a clock in the silent film Safety Last.
• The character Tinny Tim is a reference to Tiny Tim from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
• During this episode 30th century versions of popular Christmas carols are sung including The Twelve Days of Christmas, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and Here Comes Santa Claus

[edit] Goofs

• The Professor stated that the poodle was extinct, just like pine trees. However, when Fry is in the pet store, a poodle can be seen in the background on multiple occasions.

[edit] Ties to other episodes

• From this episode forward, all characters say "axe" instead of "ask."
• The other Futurama Christmas episode, also dealing with Robot Santa, is "A Tale of Two Santas".
• In this episode it is stated that global warming occurred but was canceled out by nuclear winter, in a later episode this is contradicted and the effects of global warming are counteracted by dropping a giant ice cube in the ocean each year.

[edit] Trivia

• According to this episode Conan O'Brien lost his legs in the War of 2012.
• Just before the end credits, a panoramic shot of the city includes the digital clock tower seen earlier in the episode. It reads 8:57, which is about the time the scene would have originally aired on the East Coast.

Preceded by: " A Head in the Polls "

Futurama episodes

Followed by: " Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love? "