Fun on a Bun

Last updated

"Fun on a Bun"
Futurama episode
Episode no.Season 7
Episode 8
Directed byStephen Sandoval
Written by Dan Vebber
Production code7ACV08
Original air dateJuly 30, 2012 (2012-07-30)
Episode features
Opening caption 50% More Colors Than Bargain-Brand Cartoons
Episode chronology
 Previous
"The Six Million Dollar Mon"
Next 
"Free Will Hunting"
Futurama (season 7)
List of episodes

"Fun on a Bun" is the eighth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama , and the 122nd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on July 30, 2012. The episode was written by Dan Vebber and directed by Stephen Sandoval. Additional Oktoberfest music was provided by polka band Brave Combo. When the team attends an Oktoberfest, Fry discovers that the traditions he is familiar with have changed and rebels, Bender enters a sausage-making contest, and Leela deals with an apparent loss.

Contents

Plot

Professor Farnsworth takes the Planet Express crew to Germany for Oktoberfest. Fry is disappointed to discover that the celebration has become much more refined since the 20th century, and he gets intoxicated and performs "The Chicken Dance", embarrassing his fellow workers, particularly Leela, who breaks up with him. Meanwhile, Bender discovers that Elzar is there, ready to win the sausage-making challenge using pork that has been aged over 3000 years. Bender is determined to win the event, and takes a despondent Fry with him in the Planet Express ship to look for woolly mammoths frozen in a nearby glacier within Neander Valley, believing that meat aged over 30,000 years should certainly win. Bender is successful at finding a woolly mammoth, and with Fry's help, proceeds to grind the woolly mammoth into sausages. Bender is unaware when Fry appears to fall into the grinder. Later, as the rest of the crew tastes Bender's sausages, they find traces of Fry's hair and clothing, and assume he has been killed and made into sausage meat. Leela is so upset that she decides to have all of her memories of Fry removed from her explicit memory. The Planet Express crew do their best to avoid mentioning Fry to Leela after this process.

A flashback shows that Fry had managed to pull himself out of the shredder in time, losing his clothes and a little bit of hair in the process. He then falls down a deep pit, hits his head, and is partially frozen. Fry is soon discovered by a lost society of Neanderthal cavemen and other prehistoric animals that have lived within the glacier for more than 30,000 years. These Neanderthals were long ago driven into exile by the then emerging Homo sapiens . The fall, having given Fry both amnesia and an enlarged Neanderthal-like brow, leaves him unaware of his past, and he joins the tribe. He and Leela see certain objects that remind them both of each other, though they still cannot remember who the other is. Fry soon convinces the Neanderthals to return to the surface through a hole found in the ice.

At Oktoberfest, Bender is dissatisfied that his mammoth sausage only won third place. Fry leads the Neanderthals out of the pit, and they attack the attendees of Oktoberfest with woolly mammoths, a woolly rhinoceros, and a Megatherium (which moves slowly towards Hermes). Bender uses the chaos of the attack to secretly dispose of the chefs that won first and second place, so that he can be the first-place winner. Zapp Brannigan tries to attack from his ship only for the Neanderthals to catapult a saber-toothed cat into the ship, causing it to crash. The battle culminates with Fry and Leela having a face-off on the deck of the Planet Express Ship. The pair, still lacking memories of each other, nevertheless make peace with each other and embrace in a kiss. The two warring sides are inspired by this act of affection and decide to end the conflict before Fry and Leela's memories are fully restored.

A new and much-less-refined Oktoberfest celebration is restarted and the episode ends as Fry sits back while Leela performs the "Chicken Dance", allowing her to embarrass him for a change.

Cultural references

Reception

Zack Handlen from The A.V. Club gave the episode a B grade. [1] Max Nicholson of IGN an 8/10 "Great" rating, stating the episode was one of the most memorable of the season. [4]

Related Research Articles

Leela (<i>Futurama</i>) Main character in the television show Futurama

Turanga Leela is a fictional character from the animated television series Futurama. Leela is spaceship captain, pilot, and head of all aviation services on board the Planet Express Ship. Throughout the series, she has an on-again, off-again relationship with Philip J. Fry, the central character in the series. The character, voiced by Katey Sagal, is named after the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen. She is one of the few characters in the cast to routinely display competence and the ability to command, and routinely saves the rest of the cast from disaster. However, she suffers extreme self-doubt because she has only one eye and grew up as a bullied orphan. She first believes herself an alien, but later finds out she is the least-mutated sewer mutant in the history of 31st-century Earth. Her family parodies aspects of pollution and undesirability associated with industrial New Jersey when compared with New York City.

"Where No Fan Has Gone Before" is the eleventh episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 65th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 21, 2002. Set in a retro-futuristic 31st century, the series follows the adventures of the employees of Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company. In this episode, the Planet Express team and most of the main cast of Star Trek: The Original Series face a court-martial after visiting the forbidden planet Omega 3.

"31st Century Fox" is the eleventh episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 125th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on August 29, 2012. The episode was written by Patric M. Verrone and directed by Edmund Fong.

"Fear of a Bot Planet" is the fifth episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 20, 1999. The episode was written by Heather Lombard and Evan Gore and directed by Peter Avanzino and Carlos Baeza with co-direction by Ashley Lenz and Chris Sauvé. The episode focuses on a delivery the Planet Express Crew must make to a robot planet named Chapek 9. The robot inhabitants hate all humans and Bender decides to join them because he is tired of robots being treated like second class citizens. The episode is a light-hearted satire on racism, an idea reinforced by the title reference.

"A Flight to Remember" is the tenth episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 26, 1999. The title is a reference to Walter Lord's non-fiction book about the Titanic disaster A Night to Remember. This episode was written by Eric Horsted and directed by Peter Avanzino. Dawnn Lewis guest-stars in this episode as LaBarbara Conrad. The episode is a direct parody of the 1997 film Titanic.

"Brannigan, Begin Again" is the second episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 15th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 28, 1999. The episode was written by Lewis Morton and directed by Jeffrey Lynch.

"Anthology of Interest I" is the sixteenth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 29th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 21, 2000. This episode, as well as the later "Anthology of Interest II", serves to showcase three "imaginary" stories, in a manner similar to the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of Matt Groening's other animated series The Simpsons.

"A Pharaoh to Remember" is the seventeenth episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 49th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 10, 2002. The episode's title references the title of the 1957 film An Affair to Remember.

"The Sting" is the twelfth episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 66th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on June 1, 2003. In the episode, the Planet Express crew is sent to collect space honey, and find themselves in a harrowing battle with giant bees. The episode's plot originated from the writers wanting to do a story where it seemed as though a major character had died. The episode was then produced faster than normal and was well-received by critics.

"Love and Rocket" is the third episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 57th episode of the series overall. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 10, 2002. The episode is a Valentine's Day-themed episode that centers on Bender's relationship with the artificial intelligence of the Planet Express Ship. The subplot involves Fry trying to express his feelings for Leela through the use of Valentine's Day candy. The episode parodies 2001: A Space Odyssey.

"Rebirth" is the premiere and first episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, the 89th episode of the series overall, and the revival of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on June 24, 2010. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and Matt Groening, and directed by Frank Marino.

"The Mutants Are Revolting" is the twelfth episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 100th episode overall. It aired on Comedy Central on September 2, 2010, as a mid-season finale, with remaining episodes broadcast in November 2010 and in 2011. In the episode, the Planet Express crew celebrate their 100th delivery. Leela's status as a mutant is exposed to the public and she is deported from the surface and forced to live with other mutants in the sewers. She recognizes the inequality with which mutants are forced to live and rallies them together in an equal rights revolt against the surface dwellers.

"Möbius Dick" is the fifteenth episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 103rd episode of the series overall. It originally aired August 4, 2011 on Comedy Central. The episode was written by Dan Vebber and directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill. In the episode, the Planet Express crew pass through an area in space known as the Bermuda Tetrahedron, where many other ships passing through the area have mysteriously disappeared, including that of the first Planet Express crew. While exploring the area, a mysterious four-dimensional space whale devours the ship's engine, leaving them stranded in the area. The ship's captain, Leela, becomes obsessed with hunting down the whale.

"The Butterjunk Effect" is the sixth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 120th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on July 18, 2012. The episode was written by Michael Rowe and directed by Crystal Chesney-Thompson.

"Decision 3012" is the third episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 117th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on June 27, 2012. The episode was written by Patric M. Verrone and directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill. The plot is a parody of the Birther Movement.

"Free Will Hunting" is the ninth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 123rd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on August 8, 2012. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Raymie Muzquiz.

"T.: The Terrestrial" is the sixteenth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 130th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on June 26, 2013. The episode was written by Josh Weinstein and directed by Lance Kramer. In the episode, Fry becomes marooned on a distant planet, where he befriends an inhabitant who helps protect him and find his way home.

"Fry and Leela's Big Fling" is the seventeenth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 131st episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on June 19, 2013. The episode was written by Eric Rogers and directed by Edund Fong. Fry and Leela attempt to have a romantic time together, but with everyone around they cannot get time alone.

"Assie Come Home" is the twenty-first episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 135th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on July 31, 2013. The episode was written by Maiya Williams and directed by Raymie Muzquiz. Bender searches the universe for his missing body parts after an alien street gang has him stripped down to his bulb eyes and mouth grille.

"Murder on the Planet Express" is the twenty-fourth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 138th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on August 21, 2013. The episode was written by Lewis Morton and directed by Frank Marino. In this episode, the crew get trapped aboard the Planet Express ship with a horrific alien creature. The episode's title derives from Murder on the Orient Express and parodies Alien and The Thing.

References

  1. 1 2 Handlen, Zach (August 1, 2012). "Futurama "Fun on a Bun"". The A.V. Club . Retrieved February 16, 2022.
  2. Pinson, Ann (July 16, 2012). "Brave Combo's nuclear polka to explode on the small screen in "Futurama"". The Dallas Morning News . Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  3. Lewis, B.J. (July 30, 2012). "'Futurama' to feature Brave Combo music". Denton Record-Chronicle . Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
  4. Nicholson, Max (August 2, 2012). "Futurama: "Fun on a Bun" Review". IGN. Retrieved December 22, 2016.