A Big Piece of Garbage
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| Futurama episode | |
| "A Big Piece of Garbage" | |
 |
|
|---|---|
| Episode no. | 8 |
| Prod. code | 1ACV08 |
| Airdate | May 11, 1999 |
| Writer(s) | Lewis Morton |
| Director | Susie Dietter |
| Opening subtitle | Mr. Bender's Wardrobe by ROBOTANY 500 |
| Opening cartoon | Elmer Fudd in "A Corny Concerto" |
| Guest star(s) | Ron Popeil as himself Nancy Cartwright as the Bart Simpson doll |
| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"A Big Piece of Garbage" is episode eight in season one of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on May 11, 1999.
[edit] Plot
Professor Farnsworth announces that tomorrow the crew will make a delivery to Ebola 9, the virus planet. They cannot go today because he wants them all to be alive for the Academy of Inventors annual symposium, where he will present the Deathclock, a device which tells you how long you have left to live. At the symposium, he meets a former student of his from Mars University, Professor Ogden Wernstrom, who vowed revenge on the Professor after receiving an A minus on a pop quiz, even if it took him a hundred years. Just over ninety-nine years have passed, and no revenge is in sight, so Farnsworth considers himself to be in the clear.
After Wernstrom presents his invention (a 'reverse scuba' suit which includes legs and a water tank to allow a fish to operate on land), he taunts Farnsworth over his invention from the previous year - the Deathclock. Mortified that he had already presented the invention and forgotten about it, Farnsworth hastily begins drawing on a napkin, and comes up with the smelloscope, a device to allow people to smell distant cosmic objects. The smelloscope is received with scorn and laughter, and Wernstrom gives it "the worst grade imaginable - an A minus minus".
Back at Planet Express, he invites everybody to see the smelloscope, which, it turns out, he already built last year and also forgot about. Fry begins pointing the smelloscope around, and discovers the smelliest object in the universe with "a stench so foul, it ranks right off the funkometer". After calculating its path, Professor Farnsworth announces that the object will collide with New New York City in 72 hours. After some research, a video is produced, revealing the object to be a giant ball of garbage launched into space by New York around 2052 in an attempt to alleviate a crippling rubbish problem.
After warning the mayor of New New York, Mayor Poopenmayer, a plan is hatched to destroy the garbage ball. The Planet Express crew is sent on a mission to plant a bomb on the ball. The bomb has been set to allow twenty-five minutes to escape. Unfortunately, the Professor put the bomb's countdown display in upside down, and it actually only allows fifty-two seconds. The crew are forced to throw the bomb into space to save themselves, and the opportunity to destroy the garbage ball is lost.
Attempting to redeem himself, Farnsworth formulates a second plan to save the city: Launch a second ball of garbage to bounce the first one away. Using Fry's 20th century garbage-making skills, the city of New New York quickly generates a second ball of garbage, which succeeds in saving the city. Leela's concerns that the new garbage ball will return and destroy a future generation are dismissed by other characters.
[edit] Cultural references
- A pile of Bart Simpson dolls is found on the surface of the garbage ball. Also when Bender eat's the dolls shorts, Bender exclaims "mmm...Shorts" in a similar way to Bart's Father, Homer Simpson.
- Fry finds a Mr. Spock collector's plate on the surface of the big ball of garbage.
- The entrance to City Hall is covered by a blue sign labeled CITIHALL, which is similar to the old Citibank logo.
- The planet Ebola 9 is a reference to the fatal virus Ebola which has killed most of its victims.
- There are several references to the movie Armageddon:
- The Professor's first plan to destroy the ball of garbage is similar to the plot of the movie.
- The scene where the giant hamburger asteroid crashes through the skyscraper is the same as a famous scene in the movie.
- The scene in which the space heroes walk out to their ship is similar to the same scene in the movie; which is, in itself, also a reference to a famous shot in the film "The Right Stuff."
- When the ship is advancing towards the garbage ball, it looks similar to the meteor from Final Fantasy VII after a rocket is sent to blow it up.
- The delivery of the message from Neptune was identical to that of an outpost colony in Star Trek: The Original Series, "Balance Of Terror" when it was describing an approaching Romulan vessel's attack run on the colony.
- The credit sequence features the song "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn. This is a reference to the 1964 black comedy Dr. Strangelove which featured the song in the ending along with a montage of nuclear bomb explosions, mirroring this episode's views of world destruction.
- The opening subtitle, "Mr. Bender's Wardrobe by ROBOTANY 500", is a reference to 70's and 80's game shows, in that many hosts' wardrobes came from Botany 500.
[edit] Continuity
- Wernstrom says "Au Revoir" although it was stated in "A Clone of My Own" that French was a dead language.
