Fry invites the Planet Express crew to a party at his night job at the head museum, which leads to them drunkenly discovering that the head preservative fluid can cause one to time travel. After discovering one of Professor Farnsworth's ancestors was one of American history's worst traitors, he becomes determined to salvage his family's reputation.
Tropes
- Abhorrent Admirer: Professor Farnsworth finds that his family is rich in the Alternate Universe, but it comes at the price of him being the Queen's lover, and she is ugly.
- America Is Still a Colony: After Fry accidentally changes history by taking one of the lanterns that was meant to signal Paul Revere, New New York is full of London Underground signs and red double decker hoverbuses, symbols of "Western Britannia" include the Tyranny Bell and Dunkin Crumpets, and everyone wears random period outfits from the Elizabethan to the Victorian age, and speaks with really bad Cockney accents. (Even Amy, who's from Mars.)
- Bait-and-Switch: When Dr. Cahill catches Fry and his friends partying with the President's heads, she appears to berate him for doing so, but then asks why they are standing around when they should be partying.
- Bowdlerise: Both of the "fhit" [sic] jokes were removed from American syndicated airings.
- British Coppers: Smitty and URL are depicted as this in the alternate future.Smitty: Freeze! Or we'll be forced to continue chasing you since we don't carry guns!
URL: Indubitably. - British Teeth: After the timeline change Bender's mouth plate inexplicably has missing "teeth".Bender: Say, how is it that we've got socialized medicine, [shows missing teeth] but me teeth still loo' like this?
- Brutal Honesty: George Washington's head, quite fittingly, is blunt and direct about David Farnsworth's treachery.George Washington: Farnsworth?! That name is a stain on American history! One of the worst traitors of the revolution was a Farnsworth!
Hubert Farnsworth: You're lying!
Leela: He's George Washington. He tends not to do that. - Butterfly of Doom: The gang travels back in time to The American Revolution to stop Prof. Farnsworth's ancestor David, who betrayed the Revolutionaries by counterfeiting money. After they stop David, Fry burns the counterfeit bills with a lantern he found in a church, which turned out to be one of the lamps used to signal the coming of the British (one if by land, two if by sea). Because of this, the British win the war and the gang come back to an America that's still under British rule.
- Circular Reasoning: Fry says that he is drinking so much coffee because he has a night job, which he needs so he can buy coffee to stay awake for his night job.
- Close-Enough Timeline: At the very end, the crew corrects for their previous interference in 1775, re-ensuring American revolutionary victory... and a new colonial flag depicting Bender and the phrase "Bite my fhiny metal aff."
- Continuity Nod:
- Dr. Cahill initially calls Fry Lars.
- After Fry's meddling with history causes Britain to win the Revolutionary War, Farnsworth bluntly tells him he "really screwed the granny this time".
- Currency Conspiracy: Ben Franklin casually admits to putting Satanic symbols on the money.
- Hope Spot: The crew successfully stop David from passing out his counterfeit dollars, only for Fry to change history by taking one of the lanterns needed to signal Paul Revere of the British arrival.
- Hypocritical Humor: Farnsworth boasts that he's going to restore dignity to his family's name...then licks the head of his colonial ancestor.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Inverted. Bender gets angry when people mistake him for things like a cannon (see Running Gag below), but when Paul Revere thinks he's scrap metal, he smugly replies "I'm 40% scrap metal!"
- Late to the Punchline: When Leela asks if Ben Franklin is in Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson replies, "When he's not in Charlotte, or Maribel, or Louisa", to which all the other congressmen laugh, but Fry says he doesn't get it. Later, when they reach Philadelphia, a woman answers the door, and Franklin says to her, "You may go, Louisa", and Fry pops in and says, "Now I get it!"
- Lie Back and Think of England: Spoken by the Queen as she's about to have sex with the Professor, who thinks she's extremely ugly but he's her "consort" in the new timeline.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fry takes one of the lanterns meant to signal Paul Revere, resulting in the British winning the Revolution.
- Really Gets Around: Benjamin Franklin's famed lasciviousness is alluded to in the following scene.Leela: Uh-oh. Isn't Franklin in Philadelphia?
Thomas Jefferson: When he's not in Charlotte, or Maribel, or Louisa!
[Jefferson, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Hancock commence to snickering] - Running Gag:
- The people of the past keep mistaking Bender for various types of equipment, from a boiler to a cannon.
- People of the future repeatedly mistake the old-timey "s" for an "f."
- Shout-Out:
- A couple to Monty Python's Flying Circus. Zoid-Smythe, the alternate version of Zoidberg, dresses and walks like the Minister of Silly Walks, and a reenactment of Paul Revere's ride in a documentary is done in the style of a Terry Gilliam animation.
- Among the heads at the party at the beginning of the episode are Zoe Washburne, Inara Serra, and Summer Maher (the latter having Summer Glau's first name and Sean Maher's surname).
- The Fourth Doctor can be seen coming out of a double-decker bus and entering a familiar looking police booth. Also, one of the heads attending the party is Amelia Pond, though she doesn't look like Karen Gillan.
- In the documentary, the statue in the Lincoln Memorial is replaced by a statue of director Alfred Hitchcock, which, naturally, is surrounded by birds.
- Shown Their Work: In case you’re wondering, yes, David Farnsworth
was a real person who lived during the American Revolution, and yes, he did indeed attempt to destroy the colonial economy by placing counterfeit money into circulation, a crime for which he was hanged. That being said, the episode makes no mention of Farnsworth’s partner John Blair, instead portraying him as having acted alone. - Take That!:
- Against New Jersey:[the Continental Congress meets in 1775]
Thomas Jefferson: The yeas have it. Our nation's official joke state shall be New Jersey. - And also against Philadelphia:Farnsworth: I'm sure no one's ever said this before, but I must get to Philadelphia as quickly as possible!
- Against New Jersey:
- Time Travel: Farnsworth discovers that licking the heads in the Head Museum causes one to travel briefly to the time period that head lived in.
