The Honking
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| Futurama episode | |
| "The Honking" | |
 Bender the were-car. |
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| Episode no. | 31 |
| Prod. code | 2ACV18 |
| Airdate | November 5, 2000 |
| Writer(s) | Ken Keeler |
| Director | Susie Dietter |
| Opening subtitle | Smell-O-Vision Users Insert Nostril Tubes Now |
| Opening cartoon | "Bold King Cole" |
| Season 2 November 1999 – December 2000 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"The Honking" is episode eighteen in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 5, 2000. The title comes from The Howling, a modern werewolf film.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
After spending a terrifying night in his late Uncle Vladimir's castle, Bender is run down by one of the most feared of robot monsters, a "were-car" (the car equivalent of a werewolf)—in truth, the "were-car" is a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury, a clear reference to Stephen King's Christine. Back at Planet Express, Bender begins to have nightmares about cars running people over, and starts to have blackouts. Seeking advice, the group consults "professional help", a circus fortune-teller machine. She tells him that he has become a were-car himself, and that he is fated to kill his closest friend. The only known way to break the curse is to destroy the original were-car. She gains this information from an ancient read-me file, a text book called "Curse Of The Werecar for Windows 98".
That night, a restrained Bender breaks out of confinement, transforms into a Cadillac-like sedan, and almost kills Leela, angering Fry, who had thought that he was Bender's best friend. This causes Fry to hate Bender, and they fall out. The next morning, Fry, Leela, and Bender set out to track down the original were-car. After returning to the castle, an old cursed bird watcher robot sends them to follow a trail of infected robots, which leads to an igloo in the Arctic, and then to the All My Circuits sound stage. There, Calculon tells them that a thousand years ago, scientists built the most evil car out of parts from other evil cars. It consists of the steering wheel from Adolf Hitler's Mercedes Benz, the left-turn signal from Charles Manson's VW bus, and the "windshield wipers from that car that played Knight Rider" (known on the show as KITT). The were-car infects Calculon, who was a simpler automotive arm-machine at the time. Acting on Calculon's information, the crew heads off to find Project Satan, the most evil vehicle ever made. When they arrive at the abandoned Chrysler plant, they confront Project Satan, but the clock strikes midnight, and Bender takes on his were-car form. After being given the choice of whom to kill, Bender goes for Fry, ending Fry's grudge with him. While trying to kill Leela, Project Satan accidentally skids into a giant furnace and is killed, dissolving the curse.
Unfortunately, though, it is lifted at an inconvenient time, as Fry was in were-car Bender's driver's seat. Bender reverts to normal, but thinks he killed Fry as his last act. However, Bender's stomach hatch opens, revealing a squished Fry, who jumps out and enjoys Bender's last beer, causing Bender to once again try to kill him.
[edit] Continuity
- In this episode, Bender's antenna is shown to also act as a receiver for remote controls, which Hermes uses to set him to 'mute' when he becomes too annoying. Bender is entirely unaware of any change.
[edit] Reception
in Doug Pratt's DVD Pratt noted that this episode had an "extremely witty plot turn".[1]
[edit] Cultural references
- The premise of robots turning into cars is a nod to The Transformers.[citation needed]
- The factory where Project Satan was initiated is called Anti-Chrysler, a pun on Antichrist.
- The eerie sound that is heard in the castle is the default startup tune for Windows 98.
- One of the robot ghosts chasing Bender is the Microsoft Windows logo. Another is an After Dark flying toaster.
- The town of Thermostadt is a pun on Thermostat, a device used to adjust the temperature in many homes, using the common German suffix '-stadt' or 'town'.
- One of the tombstones in the castle cemetery reads "The Red LeBaron", a punning reference to the Red Baron and the Chrysler LeBaron, foreshadowing the were-car plot.
- Uncle Vladimir's spoiled son Tandy is named for the Tandy Corporation (now the RadioShack Corporation). On his torso is written "Euro-TRaSh-80", a reference to Tandy's TRS-80 personal computer, nicknamed the "Trash-80".
- When the will is read, the line for Tandy is a parody of a line from the famous Volkswagen commercial "Funeral".
- The painting with the moving eyes is that of "Commodore LXIV", referring to the Commodore 64 personal computer.
- The line spoken by a Thermostadt villager, "Mumbo, perhaps. Jumbo, perhaps not.", is a parody of a line from the 1934 horror film The Black Cat: "Supernatural, perhaps. Baloney, perhaps not."
- This episode references several horror movies, including The Car, Christine, The Haunting, The Shining and An American Werewolf in London.
- While staying in Vladimir's castle, Bender is alarmed to see the binary number 0101100101 (357 in decimal) in a mirror, resulting in 1010011010 when reflected. 1010011010 is the binary representation of 666, the Number of the Beast. The fact that it is only coherent in the mirror is a reference to the famous "Redrum" phrase occurring in "The Shining" (the leading zero in the unreflected version makes no sense for arbitrary width binary numbers; even Bender points this out by saying it was gibberish).
- Calculon's claim that he was all of "history's greatest acting robots" is a subtle reference to the immortal Mr. Flint from the Star Trek episode "Requiem for Methuselah". David X. Cohen confirms this Star Trek reference in the DVD commentary.
- Calculon claims that he was once David Duchovny.
- The impound lot in which Bender wakes up has the slogan "The Happiest Place On Earth", a reference to Disneyland.
- Project Satan refers to "Ed Begley, Jr.'s electric motor, the most evil propulsion system ever conceived!" Begley is known for his environmentalism and support for hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius, and owned a General Motors EV1.[1]
- At one point during the episode, Doctor Zoidberg attempts to sell Mary Kay products to his co-workers.
- The scene where the horse-drawn carriage is moving along the cliffs towards the castle is very similar to a scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
- The castle that once belonged to Bender's uncle is located in the former Robo-Hungarian Empire, a reference to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
- The Thermostadt villager who takes them to the castle remarks "I will go this far and no farther" similar to the 1931 film Dracula. They are, in fact, at the doors to the castle.
- Calculon says that the most evil parts of the most evil people's cars were used to build Project Satan, like the steering wheel from Adolf Hitler's staff car and the left turn signal of Charles Manson's VW, both Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson are considered to be two of history's greatest villains. He also mentions the windshield wipers from KITT from the series Knight Rider, to which Fry says "Knight Rider wasn't evil!". Calculon responds "His windshield wipers were! It didn't come out much on the show, though."
- In the final act in the factory, there are some references to Carmageddon.
[edit] References
- ^ Pratt, Douglas. Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More!, 474.
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