Amazon Women in the Mood
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| Futurama episode | |
| "Amazon Women in the Mood" | |
 Femputer sentences the male prisoners to "death by snu-snu". |
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|---|---|
| Episode no. | 33 |
| Prod. code | 3ACV01 |
| Airdate | February 4, 2001 |
| Writer(s) | Lewis Morton |
| Director | Brian Sheesley |
| Opening subtitle | Secreted by the Comedy Bee |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Guest star(s) | Beatrice Arthur as the Femputer |
| Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"Amazon Women in the Mood" is the first episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on February 4, 2001.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Amy has been receiving phone calls consisting only of panting and gasping since last year. The calls are from Kif Kroker, who is consumed by love for Amy but finds himself unable to speak to her due to his nervousness and shyness. When Zapp realizes that Amy and Leela know each other, he decides to go on a double date: Kif with Amy and Zapp with Leela.
Leela agrees to the date as a favor to Amy and the four go to a fashionable restaurant on board a space liner. When Kif takes Zapp's idiotic advice about seducing women, Amy and Leela storm off from the table. Forlorn, Kif gets onstage to participate in karaoke and sing a heartfelt rendition of Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit song "Total Eclipse of the Heart". The gesture touches Amy, but Zapp quickly hijacks the stage and launches into a performance of "Lola", substituting "Leela" for the eponymous love interest of the original song, that sends the passengers and crew of the ship jumping ship in terror. Zapp insists he can steer the restaurant-ship home, but proceeds to crash it into planet Amazonia. The four are captured by the Amazonians, a race of tall, muscular, tribal women.
After hearing about the crash, Fry and Bender take off in the Planet Express Ship to find Leela and Amy. They make their way to the Amazonian's city and are also captured. The Amazonians decide to take the men to their leader, the Femputer (voiced by Beatrice Arthur), a huge, wall-sized computer reminiscent of ENIAC.
After learning that the previous men on the planet died of crushed pelvises, the men are sentenced by the Femputer to death by "snu-snu", which results in mixed feelings in Fry and Zapp (sadness at their impending death and happiness in the method in which it happens). Bender is released, as he is not technically a man but a man-bot and therefore cannot be punished by snu-snu. Fry, Zapp, and Kif are taken to the snu-snu chambers and stripped to their underpants. Kif, because the Amazonian women find him the most attractive, is forced to be snu-snued by "The most beautiful women of Amazonia...THEN the Large women, THEN the Petite women, THEN the large women again." Kif tells Amy that Zapp gave him the lecherous pick-up lines and that he was the one who kept calling Amy and not speaking. Leela sends Bender to (unwillingly) reprogram the Femputer. He sneaks into the Femputer's chamber and attempts to reprogram it (which he does at first by means of a lead pipe), and he finds that the Femputer is actually a computer operated by a fembot, who came from a world ruled by a vicious Manputer who was actually a manbot. She then advances on him, wondering what to do with him.
Amy sneaks into Kif's snu-snu chamber on a pair of stilts, in order to pass as an Amazonian. She grabs him and flees with him in her arms, but the Amazonians chase them back to the Femputer's chamber. However, the Amazonians find that the Femputer has two voices and are confused. It turns out that the other voice is Bender's - he has been locked inside the small chamber inside the Femputer and is now making out with the Fembot. After a short while, the Fembot and Bender convince the Amazonians to release all their captives (and give them lots and lots of gold). Back on Earth, Fry and Zapp receive treatment for their severe pelvic injuries. After Fry and Zapp comment about their experience (which they concur with Bender as "the best mission ever"), Kif asks Amy what the two could do next. Amy whispers something to Kif (that sounds like "snu-snu" while giving him a lustful smile) and the episode fades out to the heavy breathing that Kif had made to Amy in his phone calls.
[edit] Continuity
Although Fry was left unemployed by the end of the previous episode ("The Cryonic Woman"), he is back working in this episode without any explanation given.
In Kif's flashback to the night he and Amy met, Bender throws the bracelet that had belonged to the Countess de la Roca (in A Flight to Remember) into the garbage, which Bender had just learned was junk jewelry. This is also the third appearance of the Amazonians. An Amazonian had previously appeared in the episode "Brannigan Begin Again" and "The Lesser of Two Evils".
As the restaurent crashes onto the surface of Amazonia Brannigan exclaims "You win again gravity!". This is probably referring to "A Flight to Remember" where he crashed the ship into a Black Hole.
[edit] Themes
The episode features what Sci Fi Weekly refers to as the "stereotypical women's fantasy"; a world without men, a theme featured often in science fiction. The cliché, much like the opposite male fantasy of having all women enslaved, represents the desire "not to be marginalized in one's own society".[1]
[edit] Broadcast and reception
This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001 for "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)"[2][3] but lost to The Simpsons episode "HOMR". In 2006 it was named by IGN as the best episode of Futurama, praising it because it is both "crude and hilarious".[4] The episode was also noted as the "most hilarious" episode in Futurama's third season by Curve[5] and in the book 5000 Episodes and No Commercials: The Ultimate Guide to TV Shows on DVD.[6]
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of this episode comes from the 1987 comedy film Amazon Women on the Moon.
- When Zapp says "The spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised", it's a reference to the phrase "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." This idiom was first recorded in the New Testament (Matthew 26:41). which also appeared in The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror II
- The Femputer being just a false front operated by a hidden, non-omnipotent operator is a reference to the title character in the film of The Wizard of Oz, down to the hand-operated controls and outdated microphone.
- Several of the electronics on Amazonia carry the brand name Sonya. As mentioned in the audio commentary for this episode, the name is a feminine version of electronics company Sony.
- When searching the jungle, Fry and Bender find a large empty can of TaB cola.
- In the karaoke bar, Morbo is seen singing Funkytown, by Lipps Inc.
- Zapp Brannigan's spoken-word rendition of "Lola" by The Kinks (with "Leela" replacing the title character) is reminiscent of similar performances by William Shatner. Although Zapp appears oblivious to the implications of the original song's lyrics, (which is about a man who is attracted to a woman who turns out to be a man) this might be considered a reference to the earlier episode "War Is the H-Word" (in which Zapp is attracted to Leela while she is disguised as male soldier "Lee Lemon") or "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" (in which Zapp's date at the restaurant is clearly a man dressed as a woman).
- In the karaoke scene in the bar, Kif sings Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler.
- The restaurant, called "Le Palm D'Orbit", is a reference to the Palme d'Or awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.
- The impact tremors of the approaching Amazonian women causing ripples in a cup of water and a puddle is a reference to the film Jurassic Park, in which the approaching Tyrannosaurus causes the same phenomenon.
- The punishment of "death by snu-snu" is similar to the well-known joke involving two male explorers who find a jungle tribe, and are subsequently condemned, being given a choice of death or "oonga-boonga". One chooses Oonga-boonga and is sodomized by all of the male tribe members. The second declares that to spare his dignity, he would rather choose death; the tribe then declares "Death...by Oonga-boonga!"
- The comments made about the basketball on Amazonia are a reference to the critiques of the WNBA, and women's basketball in general.
- The company named J. Crab that manufactures shells for Decapodians is a parody of J. Crew.
[edit] References
- ^ McCarthy, Wil (2005-02-07). Two Girls for Every Boy. Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
- ^ "2001 Emmy nominations" (2001-07-12). Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
- ^ Azrai, Ahmad (2004-10-31). Farewell to the funny future. Retrieved on 2008-01-10.
- ^ "Top 25 Futurama Episodes". Retrieved on 2006-11-04.
- ^ Other picks.(Sapphic Screen) (2004-08-01). Retrieved on 2007-11-17.
- ^ Hofstede, David. 5000 Episodes and No Commercials: The Ultimate Guide to TV Shows on DVD. Back Stage Books, 120.
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