Torn from Tomorrow's Headlines
When Bender's pent-up urge to bend leads him to sleep-bending, he goes to a factory hiring non-union workers during a strike to work through his issue. There, he meets a shapely fembot named Angleyne, who just happens to be Flexo's ex-wife. Meanwhile, the Robot Mafia have their own plans for the factory...
Tropes
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: After Bender catches Angleyne and Flexo at Elzar's, he angrily yells about "You degenerate hussy!", making it seem that he's angry at Angleyne, but then clarifies that he's calling Flexo that.Bender: You degenerate hussy! I'm disappointed in you too, Angleyne.
- Beyond the Impossible: Bender manages to bend an Unbendable girder to save Flexo.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: When Bender first lays eyes on her, Angleyne looks like a Generic Cuteness type of Fembot, which Bender begins to feel slightly attracted to... until a pair of robots carrying a glass panel move out of the way, showing this trope in full effect and causing Bender to really get attracted to her.
- Camera Abuse: When a surveillance camera catches Bender's sleep-bending stint, he bends the camera, which manifests in the camera's output bending before cutting out.
- Companion Cube: Zoidberg's Slinky, which only makes it funnier when it flops uselessly to the ground and somehow catches fire after he tries to repair it.
- Cutting the Knot: Bender repeatedly misses the bottles at a carnival game. He then throws his last ball to knock out the attendant and steals a stuffed animal for Angleyne, as well as the attendant's wallet.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Sal the factory manager, on Bender joining him.Sal: Welcomes aboard, scab.Bender: Great to be here.Sal: C'mon, I'll introduces you to your scab co-workers you'll be scabbing with.
- Description Cut: Bender hears from the robot workers that the management of the bending factory are hiring scabs and decides to confront them. Once he marches inside, it cuts to him happily joining up as a scab.
- Early Instalment Weirdness: This episode shows a newborn Bender looking exactly the same as he does in the present. Later episodes show that Bender being a Ridiculously Human Robot extended to him having a childhood comparable to humans.
- Epic Fail: Zoidberg apparently did such a bad job of fixing his pet Slinky that it caught fire after going down a staircase made of books.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Bender helps Angleyne bend Hands-On Approach (and they bend the girder into a heart), the two share a Held Gaze and kiss with sparks, set to an instrumental version of "Unchained Melody". Then they start dating and have a montage over "Bend Me Shape Me". Bender tries to win her a prize in a carnival booth (he steals the toy and the seller's wallet moments later), they have a rowboat date (with Bender's arms rowing the boat), and they ride a tandem bicycle (which is actually a race between Fry and the bent Professor Farnsworth, which ends with Fry and the Professor flying backwards into a lake and Bender winning).
- Gaussian Girl: Parodied. Bender first sees Angleyne in soft focus, but only because there was a pane of dirty glass in the way.
- Hands-On Approach: Angleyne wants to prove to Bender that she's just as strong as he is, but she can't bend the traverse on her own. Bender steps up right behind her and helps her with the task. Together they shape the traverse into a heart.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction:
- Bender is caught bending things in his sleep:
Bender: This is quite a shock. On the other hand, it's not surprising in the least.- The Robot Mafia supports the striking workers:
Joey Mousepad: Yo! The Mafia supports ya! But don't tell no one. Spread the word. - Indestructible Edible: Bender, who has demonstrated the ability to effortlessly bend girders, takes a moment of strain just to bend a week-old baguette, and his arms still fall off.
- Insane Troll Logic: Bender's jealousy over Angleyne's past relationship with Flexo drives him to prove that she still has feelings for Flexo by pretending to be him and seducing her. This just reignites her feelings for Flexo.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Why Bender ends up rescuing Flexo.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: When the Donbot decides that Flexo should die in an "accident", Joey Mousepad suggests that instead of waiting for an accident to happen, the Robot Mafia should kill him themselves. The Donbot facepalms.
- Oh, My Gods!: When Hermes (A Rastafarian) tries to straighten his straight edge, he says "Haile H. Selassie!" instead of "Jesus H. Christ!" or the like.
- Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: Bender and Angleyne have a date on a rowboat as part of their love montage.
- Orphaned Punchline: One scene begins with Bender disguised as Flexo saying to Angleyne, "So the moral of the story is, if you want it to stay sunk, tie a weight to it!" They both laugh.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Bender's impersonation of Flexo, starting with him trying to solicit a date with Angleyne by putting on an accent. His attempts at the club are even worse.
- Rule of Three: It takes the Robot Mafia watching Bender-as-Flexo flash his money earned scabbing three times before they decide to murder him.
- Strong as They Need to Be: In one scene, Bender's arms break off when he tries to bend a baguette. Another scene in the same episode has him save Flexo by bending a girder that was thought to be unbendable.
- Temporal Paradox: The Couch Gag has this as the main joke. Provides the quote underneath the image on the page.
- Twin Switch: Bender poses as Flexo in order to see if Angleyne still loves him.
- Unions Suck: It's revealed the factory of Bending Robots strike is supported by the Robot Mafia, who are even the "duly elected" mobsters of the union. They likewise try to kill Flexo for being a scab, though granted this is because the Donbot is enraged at the idea of money being paid out to workers without him getting a cut.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Thanks to Bender bending his spine, the Professor becomes deliriously happy. By the end of the episode, everyone's gotten sick of it, and demand Bender fix it. He does... by bending the Professor backwards even further. But since it depressed him, they decide it's okay.
- Win Her a Prize: Bender tries to win a stuffed animal toy for Angleyne. He misses several times, so he hits the seller, steals the prize and the seller's wallet.
- Younger Than They Look: Bender turns out to be only four years old.Bender: Precocious little scamp, ain't I?
