Line #11 Recap/FuturamaS3E18AnthologyOfInterestII


1	[[quoteright:960:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/701950.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:960:"All right. It's Saturday night. I have no date, a two-liter bottle of Shasta and my all-Rush mix tape. Let's rock."]]
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4	'''[[CouchGag Hey TiVo, Suggest]]''' '''''[[CouchGag this!]]'''''
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6	The Professor has fine-tuned his What-If machine, giving the crew a chance to ask another round of hypothetical questions. Bender sees what life would be like if he were a human, Fry's video gaming skills are put to the test against an invasion of Earth, and Leela goes on a ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''-style journey to find her true home.
7	----
8	!!Tropes
9	* AbusiveParents: Mom, as per usual.
10	-->'''Mom:''' Fly, my stupids! Fly out and get them!\
11	'''Igner:''' But, Mommy! You promised us you'd bake monkey-cake today.\
12	'''Mom:''' By "monkey cake", I meant ''your ass!'' ''(slaps all three at once)''
13	* ActorAllusion: Creator/TressMacNeille actually ''did'' voice the Wicked Witch in the short-lived ''WesternAnimation/TheWizardOfOz'' animated series from 1990. It should come as no surprise that one of her ''Futurama'' characters (namely Mom) would be in the role.
14	* AllJustADream: Leela's What-If isn't from the machine; instead, the lever hits her on the head and knocks her out. [[TheUnreveal In fact, it's never shown what her scenario was]].
15	* AndYouWereThere: Spoofed at the end of Leela's What-If.
16	-->'''Leela:''' I was having the most wonderful dream... except ''(points at Fry)'' you were there, ''(points at Bender)'' and you were there!
17	** Leela and Nibbler play Dorothy and Toto.
18	** Scruffy plays the "Man-Witch of the East".
19	** The Munchkins are played by the smaller characters such as Dwight, Cubert, the Neptunian elves, and Small Glurmo 1.
20	** Amy plays the Cute Witch of the North.
21	** Fry plays the Scarecrow who is not aware he needs a brain.
22	** Bender plays the Tin Man, who wants a heart... to steal.
23	** Zoidberg is "the Other Guy, courage, not enough of it. Need some from Whatshisname."
24	** Mom is the Wicked Witch of the West; Walt, Larry, and Igner are the Flying Monkeys.
25	** Hermes is the guard at the door.
26	** Professor Farnsworth plays the Wizard.
27	* TheBadGuyWins: Lrrr and the other Space Invaders successfully take over Earth. Their demand?
28	-->'''Donkey Kong:''' '''QUARTERS! A MILLION ALLOWANCES WORTH OF QUARTERS! ''NO SLUGS OR TOKENS!'''''
29	* BaitAndSwitch: Mom orders her monkey-sons to kidnap Leela... so she can adopt her. Leela gets the chance to return home instead, but...
30	--->'''Leela:''' There's no place like ''Iwannabeawitch!''
31	* DeadAllAlong: Human Bender turns out to have died when the party started at the climax of his segment.
32	-->'''Wernstrom:''' But he just said "Whoo"!\
33	'''Farnsworth:''' No, that's just air escaping the folds of his fat.
34	* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Leela forgot how easily Mom-Witch was killed a few moments before.
35	* DiesWideOpen: Human Bender's eyes are still open when he dies at the start of the party, which is why nobody realized he was gone until after the party was over. The reason for his frequent "WOO's" were due to the air escaping his excess fat.
36	* DifficultyByAcceleration: In-universe during the ''Space Invaders'' segment. Fry is unable to hit the last enemy because it's moving too fast (he always had to get his brother Yancy to finish it off), and when Lrrr lands and defeats him, he gives him a lesson in [[LeadTheTarget leading the target]].
37	* DownerEnding: For the first WhatIf: after becoming human, Bender's hedonistic lifestyle catches up with him and he dies of obesity and massive organ failure.
38	* FanDisservice: Human Bender is quite the looker, but his overindulgence does him no favors. His extreme obesity at the end of his life is especially horrifying.
39	* FauxHorrific: Tremble, as Fry fires at the space invaders ''through his own shield''!
40	-->'''Bender:''' He's a madman! A maaaaaaaadmaaaaaaaaaan!
41	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Leela still thinks [[spoiler:she's an alien]], so instead of the What-If machine showing her the scenario, she dreams it. The What-If machine would have revealed [[spoiler:she's a mutant human, not an alien]].
42	* GratuitousItalian: Courtesy of [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]].
43	-->'''Mario:''' Mama mia! The cruel meatball of war has rolled onto our laps and ruined our white pants of peace!
44	* HairTriggerTemper: Leela murders the Cute Witch of the North for making a disparaging comment about her foot size.
45	* HappilyAdopted: What Leela would have been in her What-If, had Bender not opened that champagne bottle onto Mom.
46	* TheHedonist: Bender turns the whole Nobel Prize committee into this.
47	* HistoricalInJoke: The competition between arcades and laundromats for quarters was a fierce one back in TheEighties and TheNineties.
48	* HomageDerailment: The third and final segment of "Anthology of Interest II" is a WholePlotReference to ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', with Leela and the Planet Express crew as stand-ins for Dorothy and the film cast. At the very end though, where Leela's supposed to wish to go home, she instead wishes to become the new Wicked Witch and turns the rest of the cast into toads (until Zoidberg [[UndignifiedDeath splashes her with overflowing toilet water and she melts]]).
49	* HugeHolographicHead: Farnsworth as the Wizard at first appears to be this, but then he steps from behind the curtain and his head really ''is'' that size.
50	* HumanityEnsues: Bender is transformed into a human for the first segment.
51	* IKnowMortalKombat: The point of Fry's What-If where life was like a video game. His gaming skills in a ''Space Invaders'' style battle are put to the test. Skilled as he is, he loses in the end.
52	* IWasHavingSuchANiceDream:
53	-->'''Leela:''' "Except you were there, you were there, and [[RuleOfThree you were there]]!"
54	* ImColdSoCold: General Pac-Man's last words.
55	* ImMelting: Just like in the original film, Mom melts when sprayed with water. It also happens to Leela when she turns into a witch.
56	* InformedFlaw:
57	** PlayedForLaughs: Bender kicks off the first segment by claiming that as a robot, he doesn't have emotions, "and sometimes, that makes me very sad."
58	** Due to how truncated the third segment is, the flaws of its version of the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion don't exactly get time to be established. Leela simply guesses that Fry doesn't have a brain, Bender's needing a heart is more literal (he needs to pump a lot of blood out of his basement), and Zoidberg forgoes any kind of introduction in favor of pulling up in a taxi and announcing he doesn't have enough courage.
59	* InkSuitActor: WordOfGod says that Human Bender is exactly like Creator/JohnDiMaggio in looks ''and'' personality--except [=DiMaggio=] has red hair, while Bender is blond.
60	* InsistentTerminology: It's no longer the Yellow Brick Road. It's now UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr Boulevard. (It was renamed by the Chamber of Commerce).
61	* InstantTasteAddiction: Bender is turned into a human and tries his first food: nachos. He almost immediately gets addicted to overindulging in junk food and booze and eats more or less nonstop until he dies.
62	* LampshadeHanging: [[WeaksauceWeakness "Oh, who'd have thought a small amount of liquid would ever fall on me!"]]
63	* LargeHam:
64	** The {{continuity announce\|ment}}r. To whit:
65	--->'''Announcer:''' '''[[BrainBleach YOU WATCHED IT! YOU CAN'T UN-WATCH IT!]]'''
66	** Bender throughout "I, Meatbag".
67	--->'''Bender:''' '''PAR-''TAY!'''''
68	* LeadTheTarget: Lampshaded by Lrrr, who wins his ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' battle against Fry and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech points out that Fry should've been doing this]]. Poor sap could never get that final alien as a kid.
69	* MoodWhiplash: Bender's death by overindulgence has the Professor briefly eulogizing him, then saying "Let's get him out of here. He's starting to stink up the joint."
70	* MundaneSolution: Lrrr and the other invaders just need quarters for laundry -- as does Earth. The solution? Just share the laundry in the same machine.
71	* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Of course, it happens to the TropeNamer:
72	-->''[Walt, Larry and Igner swoop down and grab Leela, Fry and Bender, leaving Zoidberg alone.]''\
73	'''Zoidberg:''' ''[indignant]'' What, do I smell or something? ''[smells own armpit]'' Awwwww.
74	* NiceJobBreakingItHero[=/=]NiceJobFixingItVillain: Bender killing the Wicked Witch of the West (Mom) [[GreyAndGrayMorality could be interpreted as either one of these]].
75	* OffToSeeTheWizard: Leela's "What-If" ends up being as much a parody of these as of ''The Wizard of Oz'' itself; about half of the jokes are dedicated to just how overdone it is.
76	-->'''Leela''': Haven't I seen you before in some copyrighted movie?
77	* OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope: When the "Munchkins" begin dancing, the one played by Small Glurmo 1 sings, "We resemble but are legally distinct from the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild..." but is eaten by Nibbler before he can finish.
78	* OrganTheft: The Professor even has a box set out for Leela's organs.
79	* PacManFever: Fry asks the What-If Machine to show a world where life was like video games. Even though Fry is originally from 1999 and would have grown up in the home console and computer game era, apparently his favourites are all arcade games from twenty years earlier, including ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'', ''VideoGame/PacMan'', and ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong''.
80	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Lrrr gives Fry a lesson in [[LeadTheTarget leading the target]] when Fry is unable to shoot down the [[DifficultyByAcceleration rapidly-moving]] final alien and win.
81	* RefugeInAudacity: Fry shoots upward through his own shields to hit the aliens, considered poor strategy by ''Space Invaders'' players.
82	* RememberTheNewGuy: Blatantly played for laughs when the Professor asks for someone to ask the What-If Machine a question, including Katrina the fairy, and Xanthor, both of whom the audience has never heard of before, and never see again.
83	* {{Retirony}}: General Pac-Man really shouldn't have said his retirement started tomorrow.
84	* SenseFreak: For Bender, tasting food, beer, and other things is such a shock that he can't stop, and quickly becomes an oversized blob.
85	* SequelEpisode: To the first "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E16AnthologyOfInterestI Anthology of Interest]]".
86	* ShoutOut:
87	** The Frycrow tries scaring crows by reading ''Literature/{{Christine}}'' at them (supposedly, though the passage he's reading doesn't match anything from the book).
88	** Everything in the second segment, as it is filled with references to classic video games.
89	** When Leela is told she cannot see the Professor, she sighs, "Oh [[Film/ForTheLoveOfBenji for the love of Benji...]]"
90	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The first segment details what would happen if a human tried to follow Bender's "diet" of alcohol and cigars. When Bender becomes human and continues to indulge without restraint, he quickly becomes morbidly obese and dies about a week later.
91	* TinMan: Bender wants to see what it would be like if he became human because as a robot, he doesn't have any emotions and that sometimes makes him very sad. Hilariously averted in the third segment [[Film/TheWizardOfOz where he's literally the Tin Man]], but only needs a human heart to pump out all the blood in his basement.
92	* TooDumbToLive: Human Bender's idea of a good time is to overindulge in every vice he can think of, which is the ''exact opposite'' of what he should be doing when he's become the opposite of a robot who's virtually immortal (as long as they're maintained regularly) and ''needs'' booze as opposed to being negatively affected by it. No wonder he dies of morbid obesity.
93	* UnscientificScience: Farnsworth's entire concept of "reverse fossilization" is based on taking fossilization (where organic matter is replaced by minerals) and reversing the process. This can turn a robot into a fully organic living human, or a toaster into a raccoon (with a working toaster in its back somehow).
94	* VideoGamePerversityPotential: An in-universe example; when Fry loses his ''Space Invaders'' battle, he's asked to enter his initials. He can't resist the opportunity to input "ASS".
95	* WeightTaller: In addition to the enormous weight gain, Human Bender somehow grows several feet taller after his over-indulgence binge.
96	* WhatIf: Just like the first "Anthology of Interest", the segments in this episode show What-If scenarios, namely "What if Bender were human?" and "What if life were more like a video game?" The third segment averts this: Leela asks "What if I found my true home?", but she's knocked unconscious when the lever hits her on the head and she instead has a dream parodying ''The Wizard of Oz''.

Context Recap / FuturamaS3E18AnthologyOfInterestII