Bend Her

"Bend Her" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of the animated television series Futurama. It originally aired in the United States on July 20, 2003.

Plot

While attending the Earth 3004 Olympic Games with the crew to see Hermes compete in limbo (which he narrowly loses), Bender feels he should compete as well. However, feeling emasculated by the large male Olympic bending robots, he decides to pose as a fembot in order to compete. Competing as "Coilette" from the Grand Duchy of Robonia (a country he is assumed to have made up), he easily beats the female competitors with his adept, bulkier build as compared to the fembots' slender limitations. He wins five gold medals without being discovered, until he is called in for gender testing. Desperate, Bender has Professor Farnsworth give him a sex change, turning him into an authentic fembot.

"Coilette" is invited to go on a late night talk show and starts to display fembot tendencies, setting a bad example for women. Also appearing on the show is robot actor Calculon, who falls for Coilette instantly. The two go on several dates, which Coilette claims she is doing for the fame and money. Calculon proposes to Coilette, who accepts — her motive being to subsequently divorce Calculon to get half his belongings. On an outing, however, Coilette's emotions go wild as she sees that Calculon really loves her. Professor Farnsworth then reveals that Coilette is slipping closer and closer to being a fembot forever due to her new female hormones. At the wedding, Coilette, Leela, Zoidberg and Fry stage an elaborate scene that fakes Coilette's death. Though heartbroken, Calculon vows to star alone in a film "dedicated to her memory". Bender returns to his male persona, and claims to have not been changed at all by the experience. Secretly, however, he seems to miss Calculon.

Production notes

The scene of opening of the Olympics was changed following the September 11 attacks, and were changed after the original animation.^[1]

This episode was considered somewhat easier to animate than others because there were fewer spaceship scenes.^[2]

Cultural references

• The title is a reference to Ben-Hur. It is also a reference to Bender's name and the act of "gender bending". In the DVD commentary producer David X. Cohen claims the episode title is a "triple joke".^[3]
• Coilette is a reference to the Truffaut film Antoine and Colette, which is also about a one-sided love story.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Bend Her

• Bend Her at The Infosphere.