Bender infiltrates the fembot's division of the 3004 Summer Olympics, winning a slew of medals. But when a gender test comes up, he's forced to get a sex-change operation in order to maintain the ruse — and ends up the trophy girlfriend of All My Circuits star, Calculon.
Tropes:
- Always Someone Better: Barbados Slim, Hermes' rival in Olympic Limboing, who always beat him back in Hermes' glory days, and used to be LaBarbara's husband.
- Ambiguous Syntax: Bender asks the Professor to "make a woman out of me". The Professor politely says he thinks they're better as friends, until Bender clarifies he meant "turn me into a fembot".
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Coilette (Bender whose oil was changed) looks really attractive to other robots. The robots at gender testing are awed and Calculon certainly thinks so, too.
- Bad "Bad Acting": The crew of Planet Express play their roles terribly at the wedding of Calculon and Coilette.
- Becoming the Mask: Bender goes for the sex-change just to keep his medals, and get other prizes and stuff. However, his new female parts start influencing his mind!
- Big "NO!":
- Calculon cries a very big and very long "NOOO!" in a dramatic scene from All My Circuits. Calculon explained that the script called for Calculon to yell a Big "YES!", but
he gave it a little twist. - Calculon dramatically shouts "NO!" when he's devastated upon Coilette's (staged) death.Calculon: Noooo! En Oh Oh OH!!!!!!
- Calculon cries a very big and very long "NOOO!" in a dramatic scene from All My Circuits. Calculon explained that the script called for Calculon to yell a Big "YES!", but
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Bender decides he can't go through with the marriage scam, but doesn't want Calculon to suffer from a break-up, so they cook up a plan to use soap opera drama to help Calculon get over Coilette's death quickly.
- Brick Joke:
- While preparing for his date with Calculon, Bender tells Amy and Leela they don't dress trampy enough to score. When Calculon asks Bender to marry him, the act ends with Amy whispering to Leela that Bender might've been right. The episode ends with Bender covering his apparent feelings for Calculon by once again telling them they aren't 'trampy' enough.
- As Bender's wedding planner, Zoidberg angrily demands he order a cake Zoidberg's fixated on. At the wedding, while everyone else is busy, Zoidberg devours the cake.
- …But He Sounds Handsome: When Bender wins an event as Coilette, he says, "I'm great! Everybody else sucks! Except that guy Bender. He's really something."
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Box Robot, who gets thrown out of the balloon Calculon and Bender are using.
- Continuity Nod:
- Once again, Bender's antenna is treated as the male robot wang.
- In his "eulogy" for his love, Calculon declares that this time the Academy will not deny his film an award. Calculon had previously shown a desire to gain an Oscar and get out of television back in "That's Lobstertainment".
- Didn't Think This Through: Bender ends up winning five gold medals in the fembot division of the Olympics, but then an announcement comes on saying that all medalists (including robots) are required to report for gender-testing. This causes Bender to freak out and for Leela to say (paraphrased), "You seriously thought they'd let you get away without an engine oil sex check?"
- Epic Fail: In his disguise as "Congo Jack", Fry has to throw a spear at Coilette. He misses completely, and Bender has to pretend to be impaled.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: Coilette (Bender turned into a fembot) and Calculon have a montage set to Tom Jones' "She's a Lady". They drink champagne on Calculon's yacht (that's almost as huge as a cruise ship), dance under a sparkling disco ball, and have a relaxing bath in oil. The final shot also makes a cover of Famous Actor and Athlete Couples Illustrated magazine.
- French Jerk: In the 31st century, they have their own nation: The Republic of French Stereotypes. Everyone hates them.
- Funny Background Event:
- Calculon shows a scene of himself doing one of his usual Big "NO!"'s... and in the background of the clip is a pirate nonchalantly grilling burgers for no apparent reason.
- After stating his availability to play a priest to any talent scouts at Calculon's wedding, the Preacherbot can be seen waving at the camera while playing himself during the film recreation of the same wedding.
- Gender Bender: Bender has a robot sex change to be allowed to keep his medals from the Olympics (he won them disguised as a fembot). It is a complex and dangerous procedure that replaces testosteroil with fembot lubricants.
- Ignored Epiphany: Zigzagged. Being Coilette teaches Bender a lesson about respecting women... until he's switched back to being a manbot, and goes right back to being a chauvinistic jerk... but some of the feelings for Calculon are still in there.
- It's All About Me: Calculon is mainly attracted to Coilette because she reminds him of him, and when she 'dies', Calculon's immediate focus is on his pain, and how he's going to make a dramatization of it solely to win an Oscar.
- Jaw Drop: The robots at the gender testing facility drop their jaws when seeing Coilette after the sex change.
- Made Myself Sad: A robot athlete bends two unbendable girders at once.Bender: Wow! That guy must be like the world's greatest bender! My dreams of glory died before they began.Zoidberg: [cheerily] Welcome to my life! [sobs]
- Mr. Fanservice: Barbados Slim. Even Hermes can't help but admit he's good looking.
- National Stereotypes: Actually invoked as the reason the Jamaican Olympic team is unavailable.Amy: (on Jamaican limboers) Isn't that all Jamaicans do?Hermes: Jamaicans have other interests! ...uh, which is why the limbo team got detained at the airport.
- Noodle Incident:
- When the official points out that "Robonia" sounds like a made-up nation, Bender asks "Ever been beaten up by a guy dressed like a chick?" The official responds by fearfully squirming in the affirmative, implying that he actually has been beaten by a man in drag before without bringing up the exact context.
- Bender says dinner with Calculon would be a change of pace, as every other celebrity he had dinner with had to be Bound and Gagged first.
- Paper-Thin Disguise:
- Bender's original "Coilette" outfit.
Bender: My name is Coilette, and I'm from... uh... Robonia! Coilette's a chick's name!- Fry and Zoidberg's disguises at the end are not really impressive and they would be recognisable, considering Calculon has met them both before.
- Person as Verb: Fry asks what Bender will do if Calculon tries to Barry White.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: The Professor makes several sexist remarks toward women. One of these earns him a backhand from Leela. He also finds the "inspiring multiculturalism" of the Olympics irritating.
- Preemptive "Shut Up": When Bender and Zoidberg are left alone in the Olympics crowd when the rest go out to help Hermes, after a short pause, Bender says, "Shut up, Zoidberg! The robot bending events are starting!"
- Robot Athlete: By the 31st century, not only has the Olympics become an intergalactic competition that allows aliens to compete alongside humans, but it also allows robots to compete in it (in special robot divisions).
- Second Law of Gender-Bending: Bender is such an Attention Whore, he has zero problems with being a fembot sex symbol so long as he's famous. He only changes his mind when the change starts making him more empathetic, to the point where he fakes the death of his female persona mostly to spare Calculon's feelings.
- Sick and Wrong: That's what Fry thinks about the gender change.
- Skyward Scream: Calculon performs one in a dramatic scene from All My Circuits. There is a Meaningful Echo later when he does the same upon Coilette's "death."
- Something Else Also Rises: Calculon gives a metallic "sproing" when he spots Coilette in the Late Show.
- Stealth Pun: By becoming a female robot, Bender becomes a literal Gender Bender.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: To get into the Olympics, Bender claims to be from a country called "Robonia." When "Coilette" accepts "her" medals, "she" sings, "Hail, hail, Robonia / A land I didn't make up!"
- Tempting Fate: Bender, watching the Olympics, and the robot athletes in particular, declares he thinks he could easily beat the trained professionals. He's then proven extremely wrong.
- There Was a Door: For his proposal, Calculon walks through the wall at Planet Express.
- Third Law of Gender-Bending: At first, Bender's Coilette persona is an Overly Stereotypical Disguise embodying his very slutty ideal of how women should act (which Calculon points out make "her" more like One of the Boys). Eventually, it's stated having "female oil" running through his body makes Bender more (stereotypically) feminine; specifically, he insists on using a coaster for a drink and starts to feel empathy for Calculon, both of which stop when the procedure is reversed. However, the end hints that Bender is in fact capable of empathy as a manbot, he just hides it more than he did as a fembot.
- Trophy Wife: Coilette is one for Calculon, which Bender knows and enjoys.
- Widowed at the Wedding: Parodied and invoked. Leela and the others help Bender to stage his elaborate, overly-dramatic death at the wedding because "if there's one thing [Calculon] can handle, it's soap opera pain."
- The Worf Effect: Bender toys with the idea of entering Olympic Bending as a manbot, but then he sees what the level of competition is for male robots. Bender once bent an unbendable girder, with help from a performance enhancer and damaging himself in the process. One competitor takes two unbendables stacked together, and with nothing more than a grunt of effort, turns them into a decorative weave.
