The Lesser of Two Evils

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Futurama episode
"The Lesser of Two Evils"
Episode no.	19
Prod. code	2ACV06
Airdate	February 20, 2000
Writer(s)	Eric Horsted
Director	Chris Sauve
Opening subtitle	The Show that Watches Back
Opening cartoon	"Felix the Cat" cartoon from 1920.
Guest star(s)	Bob Barker as himself

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? The 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...

"The Lesser of Two Evils" is episode six in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on February 20, 2000.

1 Plot
2 Characters
3 Cultural references
4 Production in-jokes

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

While visiting the Past-o-rama theme park, Fry runs over a robot with an uncanny resemblance to Bender. They bring him back to the Planet Express building, where Professor Farnsworth repairs him. The robot's name is Flexo, and like Bender, he is a bending unit. The only physical difference between the two is that Flexo has a goatee. Bender and Flexo hit it off, but Flexo soon begins to grate on Fry's nerves.

The Professor reveals an atom of the fictional element Jumbonium, which the crew is to deliver to the Miss Universe pageant, to be held on Pova 9. Due to the value of the atom, the Professor hires Flexo as additional security.

Leela assigns Fry, Bender, and Flexo shifts guarding the atom, but when Fry's shift comes up he falls asleep and the atom is stolen. Fry not only suspects Flexo, but believes he has disguised himself as Bender. After Bender re-establishes his identity, Fry, Leela, and Bender head off to inform pageant host Bob Barker of the theft.

They burst into the contest in pursuit of Flexo, and he and Bender start to fight. At the end of the fight, Bender's chest cavity door is knocked open, revealing the atom. Flexo tells the rest of the crew that he had seen Bender steal the atom and left to inform Bob Barker.

With the atom recovered, and Flexo accidentally imprisoned for Bender's crime, the pageant concludes with a giant paramecium being crowned Miss Universe.

[edit] Characters

Characters making their first appearances in this episode are:

Flexo

Miss Universe Contestants:

Miss Arrakis: A horned, blue humanoid with flippers.
Miss Perfect Little: Squat, black creature with tendrils, and many eyes and breasts.
Miss Vega 4: A giant purple ciliate, Miss Universe 3000's winner.
Miss Heaven: A green energy being.
Miss Pluto: A pink haired, blue humanoid.
Miss Deamenor: A turquoise, hoofed alien that bears antennae.
Miss Methane Planet: Halatina Smogmire, a footless alien consisting of purple methane gas.
Miss Earth's Moon: The Crushinator, an enormous pink robot that doubles as a car.
Miss Un-named Planet #2856-B: She is green, with orange hair and a trumpet for a nose. Zapp Brannigan apparently likes her.

[edit] Cultural references

The robot strip club is named Electric Ladyland, a reference to the Jimi Hendrix album
Flexo's Goatee is a parody of Star Trek Episode "Mirror, Mirror" where an evil Spock from a parallel universe sports a beard.
One of the strippers in the robot strip joint resembles Ilda, the robotic secretary from the 1960s DC Comics feature Star Hawkins.[1]
The Miss Universe pageant is a reference to the actual Miss Universe pageant, although in the Futurama universe contestants from other planets are able to enter. There are some jokes at the expense of the Miss America pageant, as well. Bob Barker hosted the Miss America pageant for many years, but resigned in protest over the pageant's awarding of fur coats as prizes.
In the Miss Universe pageant, the contestant Miss Heaven can be seen briefly. She is made up of glowing concentric circles, which is a reference to the structure of heaven in The Divine Comedy.
The winner of the Miss Universe Pagaent resembles Purple Tentacle, the lead character from the LucasArts computer game Day of the Tentacle.
URL and Smitty appear on the TV show Cop Department, a parody of COPS.
Past-o-Rama makes reference to Good Times, when Hammurabi says to Albert Einstein, "Dy-no-mite!".
The sign in the subway reads "Learn Spanglish".
The Planet Express' crew attempt to guess how much the tiara is worth (complete with Bender guessing one dollar more than Leela) references The Price Is Right.
One of the beauty pageant finalists is Miss Arrakis, a reference to Dune. She bears some resemblance to a Guild Navigator.
The "radiator woman" that Fry mentions is a possible reference to the 1977 David Lynch film Eraserhead.
Bender's serial number is 2716057, which is expressible as the sum of two cube numbers ((952)³ + (-951)³). He shares this trait with Flexo, whose serial number is 3370318 ((119)³ + (119)³)

[edit] Production in-jokes

In the audio commentary of the show this episode was stated by David X. Cohen to have his only artist's input into the series. Half way through the episode when Fry, Bender and Flexo are at a robot strip club, a robot stripper with a strange gear oriented design can be seen. David claims that he drew the robot himself, this being the previously mentioned input. [2]
Vega 4 is a pun on Vega 5, or Vegas