Fry and the Slurm Factory

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Futurama episode
"Fry and the Slurm Factory"

Fry and The Slurm Queen.
Episode no. 13
Prod. code 1ACV13
Airdate November 14, 1999
Writer(s) Lewis Morton
Director Ron Hughart
Opening subtitle Live From Omicron Persei 8
Opening cartoon The Simpsons shorts
Guest star(s) Pamela Anderson as the Bikini Girl
Season 1
March 1999 – June 1999
  1. Space Pilot 3000
  2. The Series Has Landed
  3. I, Roommate
  4. Love's Labours Lost in Space
  5. Fear of a Bot Planet
  6. A Fishful of Dollars
  7. My Three Suns
  8. A Big Piece of Garbage
  9. Hell Is Other Robots
  10. A Flight to Remember
  11. Mars University
  12. When Aliens Attack
  13. Fry and the Slurm Factory
List of all Futurama episodes...

"Fry and the Slurm Factory" is the thirteenth episode of the first production season of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 14, 1999 as the fourth episode of the second broadcast season.[1] The episode was directed by Ron Hughart and written by Lewis Morton. Pamela Anderson guest stars as the voice of one of the Slurm party girls.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The episode opens with an advertisement for Slurm, announcing a contest: whoever finds a golden bottlecap inside a can of Slurm wins a free trip to the Slurm plant on Wormulon, a tour of the Slurm Factory, as well as a party with Slurm mascot Slurms McKenzie. Fry resolves to find the bottlecap by drinking massive quantities of Slurm.

Bender is sick with a high fever (900°F); Professor Farnsworth uses this as an excuse to test his experimental "F-ray", a device that enables the user to look inside anything, even metal. The Professor is able to find out what is causing Bender's high fever; he reveals a watch that belongs to Amy Wong. After repairing Bender the Professor leaves the F-ray in the custody of Fry and Bender. Fry realizes that they could use the F-ray to scan Slurm cans for the golden bottlecap. After checking "90 thousand" cans, they give up on finding the winning can. Fry settles in to relax with a Slurm and chokes on the winning bottle cap.

The Planet Express crew arrives at Slurm Centralized Industrial Fabrication Unit on Wormulon. The crew takes a tour down a river of Slurm through the factory, and see the Grunka-Lunkas "manufacture Slurm" step by step and sing their songs. Fry tries to drink from the river, but clumsily falls in. Leela dives in to save him, and Bender joins them for no good reason. The three are sucked into a whirlpool and deposited in a cave under the factory.

They discover that the factory they toured was a fake. Making their way through the tunnels, they enter the real factory and discover Slurm's true nature: it is a secretion from a giant worm, the Slurm Queen. They are discovered and captured by the worms. Bender is placed into a machine that would turn him into multiple metal Slurm cans. Leela is dipped into a vat of royal Slurm which will turn her into a Slurm Queen. Fry is fed ultra-addictive "super-slurm", so that he cannot resist "eat[ing] until [he] explode[s]". Fortunately, Fry manages to pull Leela out of the vat (while pulling the tub of super-slurm with him), who then saves Bender (who is left with a hole through the side of his waist) They escape, but are pursued by the Slurm Queen. Slurms McKenzie, exhausted from his years of partying, arrives and sacrifices himself to save Fry, Leela, his two super models, and Bender.

When they escape, the Slurm Queen bemoans that the company is ruined; however, Fry is so addicted to Slurm that he keeps the nature of Slurm a secret, telling the government agent Professor Farnsworth contacted that "grampa's just making crazy stories again," so that it can continue to be produced. In the end, the entire Planet Express crew holds a toast to Slurms McKenzie and Slurm itself.

[edit] Future planets

Future planets which appeared in this episode:

  • Wormulon is a planet famous for the production of a soft drink called Slurm. Slurm's advertising catchphrase is "It's highly addictive". Wormulon has a ring system similar to Saturn's, but has been manipulated to display the Slurm logo. The Wormulons are a greasy hybrid of slug like worms with eye stalks and leave slime trails.

[edit] Reception

In 2006 IGN listed this episode as number three in their list of the top 25 Futurama episodes, also stating that this episode was the "most memorable" of the series.[2]

[edit] Cultural references

The episode, including its title, is a parody of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a movie adaptation of the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.[1][2] The characters whom the factory paid to pretend to be workers, the Grunka Lunkas, resemble the Oompa Loompas from the film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the tour guide, Glurmo, also wears a Willy Wonka-like attire. Slurms McKenzie, the Slurm party slug, is a parody of Spuds MacKenzie, the Bud Light spokesdog.[3] When the cave collapses during the escape from the slurm factory and kills Slurms Mckenzie, the Slurm Queen eats her own slurm through her tail, very similar to the Ouroboros.

[edit] Slurm

Slurm is a fictional soft drink in the Futurama universe. It is popular, highly addictive, and is Fry's favorite beverage. Slurm is apparently a portmanteau of slug and worm, like the slimy invertebrate inhabitants of Wormulon. It is ubiquitous in the show; Slurm delivery trucks and advertisements can be frequently spotted, including in the Futurama opening credits (shortly before the Planet Express delivery ship crashes into the billboard). The drink's slogan is "It's highly addictive!" The distribution of Slurm is handled by the Bureau of Soft Drinks, Tobacco, and Firearms, a parody of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (which is now known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives).

Slurm has an active marketing campaign, similar to leading soft drinks today. It was spearheaded by the party worm Slurms McKenzie until his death. The campaign's theme music is an instrumental version of "I've Got A Tan," by The Four Postmen. Slurm posters were also one of the first clues to deciphering the alien languages in the series and were meant to act in a manner similar to the Rosetta Stone for dedicated fans.[4]

In this episode, the plot to create "New Slurm" then bring back "Classic Slurm" to make billions is a parody of The Coca-Cola Company's attempt to introduce New Coke, and the conspiracy theory that New Coke was produced solely to make the public desire Classic Coke more.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Booker, M. Keith. Drawn to Television: Prime-Time Animation from The Flintstones to Family Guy, 115-124. 
  2. ^ a b "Top 25 Futurama Episodes". Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
  3. ^ Nancy Basile. Futurama Pictures. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
  4. ^ Cohen, David X. (2003). Futurama season 1 DVD commentary for the episode "Space Pilot 3000" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  5. ^ Urban Legends Reference Pages: New Coke Origin

[edit] External links

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