When a fling with a Vending Machine turns into a crash-course lesson in parenthood.
OR RERUN OF EPISODE I WATCHED DRUNK
Planet Express gets a new soda dispensing machine named Bev (voiced by comedian Wanda Sykes-Hall), who instantly clashes with Bender, but during a late-night fight, they make out and Bev ends up giving birth to a robot son the next day and Bender struggles with being a father.
Tropes present:
- Abusive Parents: In contrast to Bender, Bev abandons Ben once he's born and eventually kidnaps him against his will. When Bender tries to steal him back, Bev threatens to chain Ben to a radiator.
- Ascended Meme:
- The Couch Gag for this episode is a take on the "Not sure if X, or just Y" meme
that permeated from a screencap of Fry squinting in Season 2's "The Lesser of Two Evils". - Fry saying "Shut up and give me a Slurm Loco!" to Bev is a reference to the "Shut up and take my money!" meme that spawned from last season's "Attack of the Killer App".
- The Couch Gag for this episode is a take on the "Not sure if X, or just Y" meme
- Avengers Assemble: After Farnsworth gets a new soda machine, he summons all the Planet Express employees using a Bat Signal. Amy was having sex and hijacks a hovercar, Zoidberg was eating in a dumpster and rolls to the building in a garbage can, Hermes left his home to go to work, Scruffy rides a llama from Paraguay, and Fry, Leela and Bender escaped from a giant spider in space.
- Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: When Bender is trying to bend a giant girder to impress Ben.Ben: Bend it, daddy! Bend it like it called you poo-poo face!
Bender: It called me what!? [twists girder into a knot] - Bilingual Bonus: Bev lives in the Basura Blanca Trailer Estates. "Basura blanca" is Spanish for "white trash."
- Bittersweet Ending: Ben finally gets to realize his dream of becoming a bending robot, but it comes at the cost of all his memories of who Bender is.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Ben's first words confirm that he's Bender's son.Ben: Wipe my tiny metal ass!
- Chekhov's Gun: The certificate of abandonment Bender signs and sticks on Bev gives her leverage to take Ben back later in the episode.
- Giant Spider: The episode starts with the Planet Express Ship caught in the energy web of a giant spider that lives in the vacuum of space.
- Good Parents: Surprisingly, Bender! While still the same troublemaking jerk he usually is, Bender genuinely loves his son Ben and gives him a great childhood.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Parental version. Ben wants to bend so badly, Bender allows him to have a bending chip installed even though it means Ben won't remember him any more.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: When Bev gives birth to Ben, Bender refuses to believe he's the kid's dad, until Ben uses a variation of his Character Catchphrase.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: In order for Ben to have a chip installed that allows him to bend, his memories must be removed. Bender, wanting his son to fulfill his dream, makes the sacrifice.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Fry, Leela and Bender are being attacked by a giant spider when they get a call from the Professor. Cut to them casually landing the ship in the Planet Express building, with no explanation for how they escaped.
- Notary Nonsense: Scruffy reveals himself to be a notary. While there is nothing that says a janitor could not also be a notary, he is revealed to have died and been brought back as a zombie in "Law and Oracle", implicitly putting his personhood, much less his qualification to be a notary, in serious doubt.
- Parental Abandonment: Not wanting to be tied down, Bender tries to abandon Ben once he's born and goes as far as to sign a certificate of abandonment. However, Bev leaves first, forcing Bender to raise Ben after all.
- Ping Pong Naïveté: Bender, who has been a voracious womanizer throughout the series, has no idea how robot reproduction works and is baffled when his one-night stand with Bev results in a baby robot, leading to the explanation that his mother never gave him The Talk. This despite the fact that Ben isn't even his first kid!
- Recursive Creators: Why robots have sexes as well as robots without owners or obvious purposes are finally explained this way: robots can breed—and it's in essentially the same way that humans breed: the male robot transmits a portion of his code to the female robot, who makes up the missing portion and then the baby robot eventually comes out of her cabinet.
- Sassy Black Woman: Bev has some witty responses to Bender's remarks, and she is voiced by a black comedian, Wanda Sykes-Hall, known for these roles.
- Sex Miseducation Class: Downplayed. The episode features a robot sex-ed tape that is fairly comprehensive (since the audience needs exposition on how robot reproduction works), but shames teenage robots for being "hideous" and hormonal and ends on the note that masturbation is unnatural and wrong.
- Title Drop:Farnsworth: Come on, everyone. Let's take Bender to the teen center to learn about the bots and the bees.
