Flexo
From Futurama Wiki
| Flexo (Serial#:3370318) | |
|---|---|
| |
| Gender | Male |
| Species | Robot |
| Planet | Earth |
| Occupation | Bending Unit |
| Relatives | Angleyne: wife (divorced) |
| First Appearance | The Lesser of Two Evils |
| Voiced By | John DiMaggio |
Like Bender, Flexo is a Bending-Unit 22 robot. Flexo's serial number is 3370318, the sum of 119 cubed and 119 cubed; his and Bender's serial numbers gave both robots much amusement as both their serial codes are expressible as the sum of two cubes. Flexo has a habit of speaking contrary to how he actually feels, before correcting himself; this is seen most often when he slanders or insults an individual only to add, "Nah, I'm just messin' with ya; you're all right." In "Bendless Love", when Bender shoves Flexo, the latter says "Thanks, I appreciate that," laughing but then adding, "Nah, I'm joshing you. That was quite annoying."
Flexo looks and sounds exactly like Bender with the exception of having a small triangular metal goatee, a spoof of the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", on his chin. He first appeared in "Lesser of Two Evils" when Fry accidentally runs him over with a 20th century gasoline-fueled car, a 1992 Latoura, and gives him "ass-whiplash". He becomes good friends with Bender, inspiring jealousy and suspicion from Fry, especially as Flexo often plays cruel jokes on him such as shooting a jet of poisonous chlorine in Fry's face for no reason. Fry originally believes that Flexo is an evil twin of Bender and suspects that he will try to steal the crown from the Miss Universe pageant. However, it turns out that Bender is the one attempting to steal the crown and Flexo is actually trying to stop him, therefore making Bender the evil twin. The confusion surrounding whether Flexo is good or evil is also not helped by his rather sinister laughter. When the police arrive at the scene, they mistake Flexo for Bender and, at the behest of Bob Barker's head, arrest him instead, sending him to a South American-Turkish prison.
More proof that Bender is Flexo's evil twin is in "Hell Is Other Robots"; Bender says that "there must be robots worse than me!", only to have the Robot Devil say that he "checked around, there really aren't." Therefore, if Bender is the evil robot, Flexo is less evil than Bender.
In a scene deleted from the episode "Bender Gets Made", Bender is shown scratching out his serial code so the robot mafia will not find him, however the code scratched out is Flexo's, not Bender's. According to the DVD commentary, this scene was cut as it was thought to be too confusing and would infuriate fans; the implication seems to be that it was Bender, and not Flexo, who was arrested previously, meaning the Planet Express crew, if not police, had identified the wrong robot.
In "Bendless Love", Bender briefly dates Flexo's ex-wife Angleyne. Once Bender discovers that Angleyne used to be married to Flexo, Bender impersonates Flexo, and, for the second time, Flexo is punished for Bender's behavior when the Robot Mafia drops a large, unbendable metal beam onto Flexo, crushing him. This could have killed him had he been trapped under it for an entire year, but Bender rescues him. Flexo then gets back together with Angleyne, and the two have sex "right there on the factory floor," apparently with Bender still in the room. Flexo is the only recurring robot to not appear in the episode "Crimes of the Hot".
