- "The Amazonians will be divided into three groups. The one called Zapp will be snu-snued by the large women. He that is designated Fry will be snu-snued by the petite women. And Kif, as the most attractive male, will be snu-snued by the most beatiful women of Amazonia, then the large women, then the petite women, then the large women again."
- ―Femputer declaring how Zapp, Fry and Kiff will be snu-snued.
Amazon Women in the Mood is the first episode in Season Three of Futurama. It was first aired on February 4, 2001.
Storyline
Amy Wong has been receiving phone calls consisting only of panting and gasping since last year. The calls are from Kif Kroker, who is consumed by love for Amy but finds himself unable to speak to her due to his nervousness and shyness. When Zapp Brannigan realizes that Amy and Leela know each other, he decides to go on a double date: Kif with Amy and Zapp with Leela.
Leela agrees to the date as a favor to Amy and the four go to a fashionable restaurant on board a space liner. When Kif takes Zapp's idiotic advice about seducing women, Amy storms off. Forlorn, Kif gets onstage to participate in karaoke and sing a heartfelt rendition of Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit song "Total Eclipse of the Heart". The gesture touches Amy, but Zapp quickly hijacks the stage and launches into a performance of "Lola", substituting "Leela" for the eponymous love interest of the original song, that sends the passengers jumping off the ship in terror. Zapp insists he can steer the restaurant-ship home, but proceeds to crash it into planet Amazonia. The four are captured by the Amazonians, a race of tall, muscular, tribal women.
After hearing about the crash, Fry and Bender take off in the Planet Express Ship to find Leela and Amy. They make their way to the Amazonian's city and are also captured. The Amazonians decide to take the men to their leader, the Femputer, a man-hating, wall-sized computer.
After learning that the previous men on the planet died of crushed pelvises, the men are sentenced by the Femputer to death by "snu-snu", which results in mixed feelings in Fry and Zapp, sadness at their impending death and happiness in the method in which it happens. Bender is released, as he is not technically a man but a man-bot and therefore cannot be punished by snu-snu. Fry, Zapp, and Kif are taken to the snu-snu chambers and stripped to their underpants. Kif is taken first because the Amazonian women find him the most attractive. Kif tells Amy that Zapp gave him the lecherous pick-up lines and that he was the one who kept calling Amy and not speaking. Leela sends Bender to unwillingly reprogram the Femputer. Although Bender initially refuses, a few angry words of Cantonese and a twisted arm from Amy changes his mind. He sneaks into the Femputer's chamber and attempts to reprogram it with a wrench. To his surprise he finds that the Femputer is actually a computer operated by a fembot, who came from a world ruled by a vicious Manputer who was actually a manbot. She then advances on him, wondering what to do with him.
Amy sneaks into Kif's snu-snu chamber on a pair of stilts, in order to pass as an Amazonian. She grabs him and flees with him in her arms, but the Amazonians chase them back to the Femputer's chamber. Bender is inside, making out with the fembot. Two voices come from the Femputer, which confuses the Amazonians. After a short while, the Fembot and Bender convince the Amazonians to release all their captives. Back on Earth, Fry and Zapp receive treatment for their severe pelvic injuries. After Fry and Zapp comment about their experience, which they concur with Bender as "the best mission ever", Kif asks Amy what the two could do next. Amy whispers something to Kif and the episode fades out to the nervous heavy breathing that Kif had made to Amy in his phone calls.
Quotes
Zapp: (laughing) Oh, God, you're killin' me.
Zapp is violently clubbed by several Amazonians
Zapp: Oh, God, you're killing me!
--
Leela: Femputer, be reasonable. Sure men are annoying and they wreck up whatever planet they're in charge of, but most of these men are sorta my friends. They don't deserve to die.
Femputer: Hmm. Perhaps men are not as evil as Femputer thinks.
Thog: But they make fun women's basketball.
Femputer: What? Did you explain how the women's good fundamentals make up for their inability to dunk?
Ornik: Yes. They still laugh.
Femputer: The men must die.
Bender: Too true, Femputer. You're so wise. Kill 'em all, I say. Good riddance! Did I mention I'm not a man? I'm a manBOT. It's an understandable mistake. You can let me down now, thanks.
Kug: He big jerk like man.
Bender: I sure am. But check the crotch. [He bangs it.] Nothing.
Characters
Trivia
- The title of this episode comes from the 1987 comedy film Amazon Women on the Moon.
- When Zapp says "The spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised", it's a reference to the phrase "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." This idiom was first recorded in the New Testament (Matthew 26:41).
- The Femputer is reminiscent of ENIAC, the first electronic computer. She is also similar in appearance to Landru from the Star Trek episode Return of the Archons.
- The Femputer being just a false front operated by an ostensibly omnipotent while hidden operator is a reference to the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz, down to the hand-operated controls and outdated microphone.
- Several of the electronics on Amazonia carry the brand name Sonya. As mentioned in the audio commentary for this episode, the name is a feminized version of electronics company Sony.
- When searching the jungle, Fry and Bender find a large empty can of TaB cola.
- Zapp Brannigan's spoken-word rendition of "Lola" by Wikipedia:The_Kinks_The Kinks is reminiscent of similar performances by William Shatner. Although Zapp appears oblivious to the implications of the original song's lyrics, which is about a man who is attracted to a woman who turns out to be a man this might be considered a reference to the earlier episode War Is the H-Word in which Zapp is attracted to Leela while she is disguised as male soldier Lee Lemon or Put Your Head on My Shoulder in which Zapp's date is clearly a man dressed as a woman.
- The plot of this episode bears several similarities to that of the 1970 film Carry On Up the Jungle.
- The restaurant, Le Palm D'Orbit, is a reference to the Palme d'Or awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.
- The spaceship-restaurant is reminiscent of the bistro-starship Restaurant at the End of the Universe from Douglas Adams's "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".
- The impact tremors of the approaching Amazonian women causing ripples in a cup of water and a puddle is a reference to the film Jurassic Park, in which the approaching Tyrannosaurus causes the same phenomenon.
- The punishment of "death by snu-snu" is similar to the well-known joke involving two male explorers who find a jungle tribe, and are subsequently condemned, being given a choice of death or "oonga-boonga". One chooses Oonga-boonga and is sodomized by all of the male tribe members. The second declares that to spare his dignity, he would rather choose death; the tribe then declares "Death...by Oonga-boonga!"
- The comments made about the basketball on Amazonia are a reference to the critiques of the WNBA, and women's basketball in general.
- The company named J. Crab that manufactures shells for Decapodians is a parody of J. Crew.
Background Notes
- This episode was nominated for an Emmy.
- This was also Bea Arthur's first voice over role.
Goofs
- Fry got his job back even though he lost it in the last episode, but this is passed off as a 'common inconsistency'