Recap / Futurama S 7 E 8 "Fun on a Bun"

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The Professor decides the crew should head to Oktoberfest to relax from work. Fry, disappointed that Oktoberfest is now sophisticated, gets drunk, and the rest of the crew thinks Fry died from an accident with a meat grinder, when he actually fell into a mammoth hole and got rescued by Neanderthals.

Tropes

• Amnesiac Lover: Leela undergoes literal Laser-Guided Amnesia after thinking she ate Fry, who was presumed to have fallen into a sausage maker. Fry however fell down a chasm, hitting his head, and discovered a hidden society of Neanderthals who assumed he was one of them because of his swollen forehead and natural stupidity. Fry eventually leads the Neanderthals to battle against the Homo Sapiens, and just as he and Leela are about to kill each other, they both regain their memories and unite the two species.
• Artistic License – Paleontology:
  • To begin with, prehistoric mammals that were only found in the Americas are shown living in a Lost World in Europe. Gets jarring by the apparent absence of cave bears and Irish elks, two of the iconic Ice Age mammals that did live in Europe, and the token saber-toothed cat being the European Machairodus (though it would have gone extinct before Neanderthals) rather than the American Smilodon.
  • The giant ground sloth Megatherium has a mouth full of sharp teeth (the real animal had peg-like teeth), is in a perpetual upright stance (granted, we never see it walk in the episode), stands flat-footed on three-clawed feet (its feet had only one claw and were set on its sides), and moves at a ridiculously slow pace (though this one was made pretty funny). It's also far larger than the real animal, with the one released during the Oktoberfest battle appearing close to sauropod-sized (the real Megatherium was only around the size of an elephant). Oddly zig-zagged with it being depicted with a full coat of fur as traditionally portrayed, as while the real animal would have been naked as a modern elephant due to its size (and living in a warmer climate), the one in the episode is living in a cold climate alongside woolly mammoths so a full coat would be logical.
  • Woolly mammoths are treated as significantly larger and heavier than modern elephants, as evident in a scene where a mammoth crushes a remote control which Zapp claims can withstand a modern-day elephant's foot, when in reality they were no larger than African bush elephants (which are the largest living elephant species).^note  This is, of course, assuming that African bush elephants are still around in the year 3012.
  • As mentioned below, under Shown Their Work, the Neanderthals suggested interbreeding with Homo sapiens in the past, but were refused. In reality, interbreeding did occur, and is, in fact, one of the reasons Neanderthals went extinct. Neanderthal genes are still present in many modern humans. Though it could be possible that this is a particular Neanderthal tribe who had their ancestors refused in the past, while other tribes have succeeded with other Homo sapiens tribes.
• Cat-apult: The Neanderthals attack Zapp's ship by catapulting a saber-toothed cat.
• Clothing Damage: A rare case of this being a plot point—part of the reason that the misunderstanding of Fry's body ending up in the sausage happened is because his clothes and some of his hair got shredded in the process.
• Comically Missing the Point: Leela breaks up with Fry early in the episode... And he's elated to learn they were actually going out.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Fry. While suffering from amnesia, he leads an army of neanderthals against the humans at Oktoberfest and is successful. He even is able to hold his own in one-on-one combat against Leela.
• Curbstomp Battle: The Neanderthals against Zapp's forces, amazingly. Considering this is Zapp Brannigan though...
• Department of Redundancy Department: "Bring on the beer, and the scantily-clad beer maidens, and the more beer!"
• Escape Pod: The crew eject from the ship using one while the Planet Express ship is still in the hangar.
• Gratuitous German: Mixed with Sophisticated as Hell.
  Fry: Ach du freakin' Lieber!
• Handy Feet: Fry dips and eats a tortilla chip and scratches his armpit with his feet, prompting Leela to call him out for it—but only because he double-dipped. Plus, as a Rule of Funny not only does Leela also eat chips with her feet but also brushes her hair with them.
• Hidden Depths: Fry proves to be a capable leader in helping the Neanderthal uprising, and he can be a rather motivational speaker.
• I Ate WHAT?!: Leela thinks she ate Fry after seeing the sausage she took a bite out of having traces of Fry's clothing and hair. Subverted in that Fry actually got out of the meat grinder, so the sausage is pure mammoth meat.
• It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: The Professor implies they're going to Oktoberfest in October. The event is actually finishing up in early October and starts in September. In a geographic sense, Oktoberfest isn't celebrated at the Neanderthal valley. This can all be handwaved since Oktoberfest has gone through some changes since Fry's time.
• Kill All Humans: Neanderthal!Fry shouts "Kill all modern humans!" as a battle cry when the Neanderthal tribe begin their attack.
  Bender: Hey, this guy's alright.
• The Little Detecto: Bender uses one to look for frozen mammoths.
  Fry: The ship has a mammoth detector?
  Bender: You're drunk, Fry. This is the elephant detector. I just set it to big and woolly.
• Lost World: Fry falls into a hole in a German glacier and discovers a secret tribe of Neanderthals, along with wooly mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and giant sloths.
• Mammoths Mean Ice Age: Several woolly mammoths appear in the Lost World. Also, Bender plans to use frozen mammoth meat to grind up into sausages for a contest.
• Misplaced Wildlife: There are Megatherium (giant ground sloth), Macrauchenia (long-necked and trunked ungulate), and Doedicurus (glyptodont) in a Lost World in Europe. All three were native to South America.
• No Sympathy: Everyone gets over Fry's apparently violent "death" a lot quicker than Leela—especially Bender, whose fault it would have been for letting him fall into the sausage grinder.
  Bender: Well, what about my feelings? Fry was my best friend, and now he's dead! (bursts into sobs)—Nah, I'm just kidding. My pastor helped me through my grief. (walks off scat-singing)
  Hermes: Bender is a jerk, but he's right.
• No Tech but High Tech: Zapp Brannigan remarks that the Neanderthals attacking them don't have technology, despite most of said Neanderthals carrying clubs, spears, a cage on wheels to carry a giant sloth and (most egregiously) a catapult.
• Not Enough to Bury: Subverted. The crew think that a hot dog is all that is left of Fry, but they give it an open casket funeral anyway, complete with bun.
  Zoidberg: He looks so peaceful.
• No Water Proofing In The Future: The DOOP tanks are destroyed almost instantly after being sprayed with beer.
• Oktoberfest: Fry is disappointed to find out that it has evolved into a sophisticated, high-class affair instead of the "barfapalooza" he fondly remembers.
• Orbital Kiss: Between Fry and Leela.
• Overly Long Gag: "Release the Giant Sloth!" "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...."
• Parting-Words Regret: Leela dumps Fry early in the episode, but when he seemingly dies in a meat grinder accident, she becomes so devastated and guilt-ridden that she has her memories of him erased.
• Rhino Rampage: A woolly rhinoceros is among the animals the Neanderthals use as war-animals. Bender kills one of the two contestants who came above him by putting him in the way of a charging rhino.
• Rock Beats Laser: The army of Neanderthals along with various beasts manage to handle themselves well^note read: stomped them flat against the modern humans, led by Zapp Brannigan mind you.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Bender considers being put in third place “the worst injustice Germany has ever committed”. He then murders the two who outranked him to steal their positions.
• The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Fry is helping Bender make sausage from frozen mammoth meat when he gets caught in the grinder. When Leela bites into a link and finds scraps of Fry's hair and clothes, she assumes the worst. Subverted when it turns out Fry escaped being ground up but fell into a hole in the ice and discovered a Lost World of Neanderthals; the sausage was just so good because it was "aged" for 30,000 years.
• Shout-Out:
  • The process Leela undergoes to erase her memories of Fry is similar to the one in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
  • The gag with the oversized ribs from the closing credits of The Flintstones is recreated, with Zapp in place of Fred.
  • The woman who erases Leela's memories totally resembles Peg Bundy.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Despite the above mentioned Artistic License – Paleontology, the episode correctly portrays Homo neanderthalensis as being a separate species from Homo sapiens as opposed to a direct ancestor^note There are some who believe H. neanderthalensis was actually a subspecies of H. sapiens, but even then, no scientist seriously considers one to be the ancestor of the other. It also portrays them as having been contemporary and in competition with H. sapiens back in prehistory, which is consistent with the fossil record. And taking it even further, the Neanderthals are depicted as being able to interbreed with modern humans (tying in with the "subspecies" hypothesis mentioned in the note), which was not only possible in real life, but also considered by many scientists to be a contributing factor to H. neanderthalensis' extinction (namely, they interbred so much with H. sapiens that their lineage was assimilated by them).
  • Woolly mammoths are acknowledged as elephants rather than being separate from them. Particularly during the above-mentioned moment with The Little Detecto.
  • For all its flaws listed above, the Megatherium is at least portrayed with a face shaped more like a modern-day sloth's (with both nostrils placed on the front of the nose) as opposed to the horse-like faces seen in many portrayals.
  • The machairodont or saber-toothed cat in the episode is based on the long-tailed Machairodus, which did live in Europe, rather than the iconic (and strictly American) Smilodon. It is even properly referred to as a saber-toothed cat rather than a "saber-toothed tiger". Also, it displays the correct attacking style of sabretooths when it subdues Zapp with its front paws, as opposed to using its (fragile) sabers like in most depictions.
• Sluggish Sloths: An attacking clan of Neanderthals release a Megatherium on a screaming Hermes. The giant sloth moves very slowly towards him, causing him to get bored and pull out a newspaper to pass the time (while still screaming). Thankfully, it reaches him after peace is declared, and they end up cuddling instead.
• Snobs Vs Slobs: In the end, during a massive drunken party, pretty much everyone agrees that the old style of Oktoberfest (from Fry's time) is a lot more enjoyable than the future's sophisticated version of it.
• Something Else Also Rises: A reverse variant: Fry loses his forehead bump that makes him look like a Neanderthal when he and Leela recognize each other, suggesting that the blood that was packed in it "went somewhere else".
• Title Drop: By Bender, seeing as it's one of his many Character Catchphrases.
  Bender: A sausage making contest, eh? Sounds like fun on a bun.
  [sees sign reading "Fun on a Bun"]
  Bender: Shut up! I said it first! [crumples up sign]
• War Elephants: Woolly mammoths serve as these for the Neanderthal clan in their attack against the modern humans.