Episode Number: 2ACV08
Title: "Raging Bender"
Original Airdate: February 27, 2000
Also Starring: Dr Zoidberg, Amy, Professor Farnsworth, Hermes, Destructor
Intro Promotion:
Directed by:
Assistant Director:
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At the morning Planet Express meeting, the crew discovers Hermes has been assimilated by the brain slugs. To avoid Hermes' slack-jawed stare and being assimilated themselves, the rest of the staff takes off for the movies.
While watching All My Circuits, The Movie, Bender picks a fight with a robot that turns out to be Ultimate Robot Fighting champion The Masked Unit. The Masked Unit trips on Bender's oil-soaked popcorn, and is knocked out by the fall. Coincidentally, the commissioner of Ultimate Robot Fighting is at the movie, and hires Bender on the spot.
After training with Leela, Bender has his first fight against a chainsaw-equipped robot called The Clearcutter. By a stroke of luck, Bender defeats his opponent, causing The Clearcutter to explode into a pile of parts. However, Bender runs into the robot backstage, and the commissioner reveals that Ultimate Robot Fighting is fixed, and that the most popular robot always wins.
Bender spurns further training from Leela, and proceeds to win several fights, but eventually his popularity wanes, and he is told that he can either take a dive in his new role as 'The Gender Bender', or be killed by his giant opponent, Destructor. Bender asks Leela for help, but she initially refuses. When she discovers that Destructor is being trained by Arcturan kung-fu Master Fnog, she changes her mind. The male chauvinist and sexist Master Fnog had ruined Leela's dream of competing in the Arcturan Kung-fu junior championships years ago, and Leela still holds a grudge.
While Bender is being thrashed by Destructor, Leela discovers that Destructor is being controlled remotely by Fnog. They proceed to fight and Leela wins, but when Fnog falls, so does Destructor, crushing Bender. After the fight, Fry and Leela roll up the flattened Bender and carry him home.
References
The movie title "When A Man Loves A Smizmar" is a foreshadowing reference to a future episode of Futurama, wherein it is revealed that a Smizmar is Kif's race's name for the partner that initiates the feelings of love that cause his race to become pregnant. Not all of them at once, of course.
"It Came From Planet Earth": Too numerous to list are the 1950s science fiction movies whose titles began with "It Came From..."
"Shaft On Africon-9": 1970s film Shaft and remake.
"Galaxy Wars" described as "historical documentary": Star Wars
The silhouetted figures of the "Mystery Science Theater 3000" cast can be seen in the movie theater.