Fry discovers a document hidden in Leonardo da Vinci's beard, leading him and Professor Farnsworth on a fantastic journey to Da Vinci's greatest work.
Tropes
- Always Someone Better: What Fry tells Da Vinci and the Professor upon their vengeful spree.
- Bat Deduction: Spoofed, when the Professor uses a ludicrous line of logic to "deduct" that what the crew is looking for is at the Trevi Fountain. Leela tries pointing this out, to no avail, and he turns out to be right anyway.Professor: There can be no question.
Leela: Uh, Professor...
Professor: There can be no question! - Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Da Vinci was actually an alien.
- Big Fish in a Bigger Ocean: While Farnsworth is a Omnidisciplinary Scientist on Earth (and other parts of the universe), he's treated like an idiot by the Proud Scholar Race of Planet Vinci and grows to hate them.
- Bowdlerization: In American syndicated broadcasts, Fry's use of the word "dong" was changed to "ding-dong". Also, earlier on, after Bender brings The Last Supper painting into the Planet Express building, Zoidberg exclaiming "Jesus Christ ... and his Twelve Apostles!" was cut out entirely.
- Brick Joke:
- At the start of the episode, Fry incorrectly answers a first quiz show question about what tool is used for hammering a nail as "a nail". Later, Fry tries to hammer a nail with an actual nail, instead of a hammer. Strangely though, he's been seen using a hammer before but being Fry, maybe he forgot.
- The Professor lists someone called "Braino" as one of his idols. Later on, when the plot gets to Vinci, a Braino memorial can be seen.
- Captain Ersatz: Da Vinci's bully resembles Biff from Back to the Future.
- Charlie Chaplin Shout-Out: Fry gets stuck between factory wheels, in homage to Chaplin in Modern Times.
- Clock Punk: Da Vinci's home planet runs on clockwork.
- Coin-on-a-String Trick: Bender tries it with the giant coin they found at the Trevi Fountain. His arm gets pulled off.
- Denser and Wackier: The show's gradual descent from a Work Com set in the future to an intergalactic adventure-comedy is lampshaded when, after hearing that the crew has to travel to Rome to solve Da Vinci's mystery, Hermes remarks: "Didn't we used to be a delivery company?"
- Dunce Cap: When Farnsworth flunks a class on planet Vinci, a holographic cone goes on his head to form a dunce cap as the rest of the class laugh at him for his idiocy.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: Fry apparently ate rocks before they met Da Vinci, which the professor thought was dumb. He forgot this when he punched Fry in the stomach and hurt his hand and causing Fry no pain. Fry felt this justified eating them.
- Epic Fail: Fry as a contestant in Who Dares to be a Millionaire?. He fails the first question because he doesn't know which instrument is used to "hammer a nail". The two first options are "hammer" and "nail" and he quickly answers "nail" before allowing the host a chance to say what the two other options are. He shows in at least two other occasions that he still believes his answer was correct.
- Exact Words: Leonardo convinced Fry to help him by saying the machine would make ice cream. It does make ice-cream, but as a byproduct. The main purpose is to kill people.
- Famous, Famous, Fictional: Aside from Da Vinci, Prof. Farnsworth's other science idols are Copernicus, Euclid and Braino.
- Giant Squid: There's one in the Trevi Fountain for some reason.
- Hidden Depths: Everyone is amazed that Zoidberg knew about an obscure art technique. He confesses that his doctorate is in art history.
- Human Aliens: The inhabitants of Da Vinci's home planet, known as the Vincians, closely resemble Earth's humans during the Renaissance movement. The difference is that they are much more intelligent and can live thousands of years, if Da Vinci himself is of any indication.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction:Morbo: Are you ready to play?
Fry: I didn't come here to play; I came to win. Now let's play. - Insufferable Genius: The people of Planet Vinci. They mercilessly taunt anyone who isn't as smart as them.
- Lack of Empathy: The Planet Express crew don't visit Fry while he spends weeks in the hospital, not even sending him a card, and don't even react to him once he returns, still injured.
- "Last Supper" Steal: Quite literally, as Bender rips the original painting off the wall and brings it to Planet Express. He was supposed to get a copy, but "the guy at Kinkos was an idiot".
- Look Both Ways: Fry is walking down the street after being called an idiot, consoling himself that he at least has street smarts. Then he walks in front of a bus.
- Looking Busy: Robot Animatronio pretends to be selling ice-cream while he's spying on Fry, Professor Farnsworth and others who try to find out some big secret about Leonardo da Vinci. Animatronio wants to stop them.
- Mile-High Club: Fry asks Leela if she would like to join "the mile deep club" to which she casually says "sure why not?" Fry is delighted but the professor shuts them down, much to Fry's dismay.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Da Vinci was endlessly bullied by his peers, but after his death they all wind up expressing sorrow at what happened to him.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Da Vinci, it turns out, was an alien from a whole planet of geniuses, widely considered the stupidest person there. He went to Earth so he could be the smartest one around.
- Opening Shout-Out: As the Planet Express crew fly to Rome, a parody of the opening title, renamed Future Roma, plays.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Hermes' comment about the show growing Denser and Wackier also serves to lampshade how the show has begun to focus less on deliveries to get the plot going.
- Recognition Failure: Fry mistakes Da Vinci with Leonardo DiCaprio.
- Rube Goldberg Device: The devices in Da Vinci's workshop are arranged so they could form a spaceship when the right lever is pulled.
- Saying Too Much: Animatronio, repeatedly.
- Scienceville: The planet Vinci, which is described as one colossal university and resembles Renaissance-era Italy. Leonardo left the planet because, by his people's standards, he's actually the dumbest of them all.
- Self-Punishment Over Failure: Animatronio, a wooden robot built by Leonardo da Vinci, flays himself to death after telling the Planet Express crew about a fountain where da Vinci's secrets may be found.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is one to The Da Vinci Code, along with the initial plot.
- A gag shows how Hermes actually has a tiny skeleton, upon which he says "I'm not big-boned, I'm just fat": an inversion of Eric Cartman's usual claims of being big-boned and not fat.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Leonardo fled to Earth to escape the ridicule of his home for his idiocy, only to find himself equally frustrated by being the smartest person on Earth.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Da Vinci was always mocked for being the dumbest on his planet, so his greatest invention is a doomsday device set to kill everyone else!
