Recap / Futurama S 6 E 17 Benderama

Others ask, "What if?" We ask, "Why if."

Using a machine that makes two smaller copies of whatever it scanned, Bender tries to decrease his already marginal workload by creating two mini-benders. However, these Benders are just as smart and lazy as the original, and things quickly get out of hand.

Tropes

• The Alcoholic: Linda the news anchor, as it turns out. She doesn't take it well when the Benders drink all the booze on the planet.
  Morbo: Our top story: all alcohol on Earth has mysteriously disappeared. Consequences are minimal, except among the most hardened alcoholics. Linda?
  Linda: I can no longer face my children! [collapses into hysterical sobs]
• Alien Sky: The floating rocks in the sky when they visit the giant's planet.
• Behemoth Battle: Bender combines all his clones into one giant Bender to fight the alien giant.
• Berserk Button: The giant takes all of Bender's jokes about how ugly he is in stride, but when Fry makes an innocent comment about his mother, he gets angry and attacks.
• Bowdlerisation:
  • Quite a few on Sky in the UK:
    • During the sequence of the Planet Express crew checking out the inventory they're delivering to the ugly giant, the part where Amy says "Aww... and one regular sized condom." and Bender says "All that and a small wiener? This guy's got it going on!" is cut.
    • The part where one of the tiny Benders says "Which way to the tiny hookers?" is cut as well, and the part during the montage of the tiny Benders being exterminated (set to a cover of the song "Rock 'n Roll Pest Control") where one of the tiny Benders offers some money to a tiny hooker, but gets caught in a mouse trap is cut, which causes an obvious jump in the song.
    • The part where a drunk Hermes shows a drunk Zoidberg a picture of his "boy" (which is actually his penis) is edited to remove Zoidberg saying "That's your penis!" and Hermes saying "That's my boy!"
  • In American syndicated broadcasts, Morbo drunkenly saying that everyone's "titty much protally fitshaced" was changed to "pretty much scrotally tewed".
• Bulletproof Bible: Original Bender is saved from being shot by a bible hidden in his chest compartment. The smaller Bender inside the bible, however, wasn't so lucky.
• Everybody Must Get Stoned: Due to the Bender clones turning all water on Earth into alcohol, everyone in the world is, as Fry puts it, "Bombed out of [their] gourds."
• Explosive Breeder: Happened when Bender duplicates himself creating two smaller Benders and they duplicate themselves and so on. They multiply and become smaller until they are atom sized and infest the Earth.
• Fly in the Soup:
  Professor: Scruffy, what is this tiny Bender doing in my soup?
  Scruffy the Janitor: He appears to be giving you the finger, sir. Enjoy.
• Go into the Light: Bender is too lazy to do so, so instead he comes Back from the Dead.
• Grey Goo: Once Bender duplicates enough times. He even says the trope name at one point.
• Halfway Plot Switch: During the final third of the episode, the plot switches from preventing the Bender copies from devouring all of the matter on Earth to the alien giant attacking, requiring the copies to help.
• Helicopter Flyswatter: Zapp Brannigan shoots at the giant from a helicopter, but then the giant grabs the helicopter and uses it to give himself a shave.
• Here We Go Again!: Bender makes a comment implying that he started making duplicates again, and as he blows smoke at the camera, the smoke is revealed to be made of tiny Benders.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy":
  Hermes: Wanna see a picture of my boy?
  Zoidberg: That's your penis.
  Hermes: That's my boy!
• Ignored Epiphany: In the Scary Door segment, a scientist builds a robot to do all his work for him. This leads to the robot winning the accolades and love that should be his... but rather than make a big deal out of it, he simply tells the robot to experience the dramatic irony for him, and continues lazing around drinking beer.
• Insane Troll Logic: A running gag in the episode is Bender's belief that doing two things is always harder than doing one thing - even if, as it goes by the end, the two things are folding a pair of sweaters and the one thing is saving the planet.
• Lady Drunk: Linda the news broadcaster, after all the water has been replaced with alcohol.
• Let's Mock the Monsters: The alien giant comes to Earth to apologize, but since everyone is drunk from the Benders turning all of Earth's water into alcohol, they just insult him more, until the giant finally snaps and goes on a rampage.
• Made Out to Be a Jerkass: Due to the giant being insulted by all of Earth's drunk citizens, he goes on an angry rampage and has to be killed by Bender's copies.
• Mech vs. Beast: To stop the giant's rampage, Bender convinces his copies to join together into one giant Bender.
• Mini-Me: The Banach-Tarski Dupla-Shrinker makes two smaller copies of whatever it scans. As Bender uses the machine to make more of himself, each clone decides to make their own copy of themselves as well. By the third act there are over two thousand microscopic Benders.
• No Conservation of Mass: Averted. The duplicator requires matter to create the copies, so every time Bender makes a new pair of clones, he has to ingest something first. This becomes plot relevant when the duplicate Benders threaten to devour all matter on Earth if they keep multiplying.
• Noodle Incident: Bender apparently once starred in a sitcom about "a city robot that moves back to the farm." And his character's catchphrase was "Shut your pumpkin, bumpkin!"
• One-Liner, Name... One-Liner: Bender in the end when he is suspected to have folded the sweaters: "Maybe I did, Fry, maybe I did."
• Rousing Speech: During the finale, Bender tries (but fails) to give one to his nano-counterparts, trying to motivate them to rid the world of all calamities but they cannot be bothered.
• Shell Game: Parodied during the montage of Bender and his first two copies. The three of them use their heads as the shells with Bender's head having the ball under. Since his head is bigger, the guy can tell it apart from the others. However, before he can choose it, the other two Benders beat him up and mug him.
• The Stoner: Once more, heavily implied with Hermes.
  Amy: Ahhhh! A big fat roach! (pointing at a tiny Bender)
  Hermes: I thought I put that away!
• Tandem Parasite: Bender and his two clones take a three-person bicycle, only all three are leaning back. The bike promptly falls over.
• Tastes Like Feet: After the professor's bathtub water has been turned into alcohol, Bender tastes it and says it's like fine cognac with just a hint of old man scrotum.
• Teeny Weenie: The crew has to deliver personal hygiene supplies to an ugly giant. He is 50 feet tall, and while most of his body parts are enormous, one part...isn't.
  Amy: Colossal tooth whitener, mega deodorant, humongous acne cream...awwww...and one regular size condom.
  Bender: All that and a small wiener? This guy's got it goin' on!
• Teeth Flying: When the Giant boy punches Giant Bender in the face, small Benders are seen flying from his mouth.
• Water Source Tampering: After reaching the atomic level, the Benders begin altering water molecules to make themselves more alcohol, resulting in everybody in the world getting drunk.
• Who Is Driving?: A nonverbal example. During the montage Bender has with his first two copies, they're on a bicycle...which is revealed that none of them are pedaling. Upon showing that, their bike crashes.

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