I Second That Emotion (Futurama)

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Futurama episode
"I Second That Emotion"
Bender flushes Nibbler down the toilet.
Episode no.	14
Prod. code	2ACV01
Airdate	November 21, 1999
Writer(s)	Patric Verrone
Director	Mark Ervin
Opening subtitle	Made From Meat By-Products
Opening cartoon	"Fresh Hare" (1942)
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 Shoulder 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...

"I Second That Emotion" is episode one in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 21, 1999. The episode was written by Patric Verrone and directed by Mark Ervin.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Continuity 3 Cultural references 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Plot

When Nibbler has a birthday party, Bender becomes annoyed that he is getting more attention than him. Having reluctantly made a birthday cake for Nibbler, Bender is aghast to see Nibbler gobble it all up before everybody else can praise Bender for the cake. In extreme annoyance, Bender flushes the animal down the toilet. Leela is distraught at the loss of her pet and wishes Bender could understand the emotions of others. Professor Farnsworth proposes a solution: installing an empathy chip in Bender's head that will cause him to feel other people's emotions. After forcibly installing the chip, the chip is tuned to pick up Leela's emotions, so that whatever feelings Leela experiences, Bender automatically experiences them as well.

After a night of experiencing a multitude of Leela's feelings, but mostly her depression about Nibbler, Bender misses Nibbler so much that he cannot stand it. When Fry tells him that alligators can supposedly live after being flushed, Bender flushes himself down the toilet in pursuit of Nibbler. Fry and Leela enter the sewers and quickly manage to find Bender and a crowd of mutants who live in the sewers. The mutants introduce them to their subterranean civilization. They also reveal that a monster called El Chupanibre has been terrorizing them.

Leela, thinking that Nibbler is the monster, is happy until she is informed that the only way to lure the monster out is to offer a snackrifice (a sacrifice) in the form of a virgin. Although not one herself (considering her run-in with Zapp Brannigan), Leela is the closest thing to a virgin there and is therefore forced to be the sacrifice. At the sacrifice, Nibbler emerges from a pipe along with a large, reptilian monster, who is the real El Chupanibre. Fry gets entangled in the trap that was meant for El Chupanibre, leaving only Bender to fight the beast; however, Leela is so scared, for herself and the others, that Bender is immobilized by her emotions. He and Fry teach Leela to stop caring about other people and care only about herself, and as a result, Bender is able to fight off the beast, whom he eventually flushes down a giant toilet into the sub-sewers.

The Professor removes Bender's empathy chip. He says in amazement that the chip was actually turned off, so that Bender was actually sympathizing for Leela by himself. He then corrects himself, saying that it was actually at triple capacity ("And I still barely felt anything!" Bender claims). Bender still retains his 'in-your-face' attitude and has learned nothing, while Leela learns that adopting Bender's attitude is better than being nice.

[edit] Continuity

In the scene where Fry, Leela, and Bender are surrounded by the mutants, Leela's real mother and father (who are not introduced until season four) are clearly visible in the crowd. This appearance was intentional on the part of the creators who had conceived of Leela's true origin before they even pitched the idea for Futurama to FOX. This episode features the original design for Leela's parents in which Morris has a normal mouth and Munda has normal human arms. It was later decided that the characters would need to appear more mutated and the design was changed.^[2][3]

Starting this episode, Tress MacNeille is now credited under a "Starring" role instead of "Guest Star" and Maurice LaMarche now has an "Also Starring" role. David Herman, Phil LaMarr, and Lauren Tom, however, remain as guest stars and stay that way for the rest of the series.

Although celebrating Nibbler's fifth birthday in this episode, it is later revealed in "The Why of Fry" that Nibbler is, in fact, well over one thousand years old.

[edit] Cultural references

• One of the animals in the vet's office is a rust monster from the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.^[4][5]
• The title of the episode comes from the 1967 hit song by The Miracles titled I Second That Emotion (as well as a pun on the expression "I second that motion", when an action has been suggested by one member of a group and another member announces his support for it). In the audio commentary for this episode, the commentators state that the episode's title is a reference to the fact that this episode is the season two premiere.^[6]
• A reference is also made to the movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes when Fry points out that the mutants worship an unexploded nuclear bomb.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• I Second That Emotion at TV.com
• I Second That Emotion at the Internet Movie Database

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