The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings

"The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" is the seventy-second episode of Futurama, the eighteenth and the last of the fourth production season, the sixteenth and last of the fifth broadcast season and the series finale of the original run. It aired 10 August, 2003 on FOX. Fry makes a deal with the Robot Devil so he can become a skilful musician and win Leela's heart. Dan Castellaneta guest stars as the Robot Devil.

Act I: "Mr. Bender, I simply cannot teach your child!"


Fry is desperately trying to learn to play the Holophonor, as he once almost won Leela's heart with it. He begs Bender to come and attend his Holophonor recital, and Bender graciously agrees. However, Fry is still very inexperienced, turning his recital into a disaster. This leaves Fry depressed because he can imagine great music, but is not capable of playing it. Just then, Leela tells him that she has a soft spot for men with creative musical talent, like her ex-boyfiend, Shaun, and his saxophone. Bender suggests that Fry should cut a deal with the Robot Devil in order to learn to play the Holophonor. Fry agrees and they travel to Robot Hell and confront the Robot Devil, who tells Fry that he has "stupid fingers", which can't even master a belt buckle. He suggests that Fry takes a pair of robot hands to replace them, and leads them to a big wheel of fortune called "Wheel of Robots", containing every robot in existence's name. The wheel lands on the Robot Devil (positioned next to Bender's), who reluctantly replaces his hands with Fry's.

Act II: "I'm back from Hell, and I've got the Robot Devil's hands!"
With his new hands, Fry easily masters the holophonor and soon becomes a star. He even makes his own records and plays in public at Hovercar-negie Hall. Leela is genuinely touched by the beauty of his music. The Robot Devil is desperately trying to get his hands back, but Fry refuses to give them back. Meanwhile, Hedonism Bot asks Fry to write an opera for him, and Fry agrees, provided that he can write it about Leela. He begins his work, and Leela is very impressed by his creative talent, but Fry doesn't want her to hear the opera until it's done. Meanwhile, the Robot Devil cuts a deal with Bender, installing on him a stadium air horn, taking his crotch plate in return. This allows Bender to fulfill his wish of being more annoying. Bender tries out his new function on the first person he sees, Leela. The blast is so loud, she is deafened, the night before Fry's big concert. This is just what the Robot Devil had hoped for--a bargaining chip to use against Fry in return for his hands.

Act III: "Please don't stop playing, Fry. I want to hear how it ends."
Fry's opera, Leela: Orphan of the Stars, has its grand premiere in the Metropolitan House of Opera, attended by a huge audience. As she still can't hear, Leela begs the Planet Express crew not to tell Fry that she is deaf, because she fears it would break his heart, so Amy uses Emotion Flashcards to show Leela what she is supposed to feel when Fry sees her. The first act, dealing with Leela's past, is a great success. During the intermission, Leela decides that she would give anything to hear the rest, which plays right into the Robot Devil's plans. He agrees to grant her new ears in exchange for her hand, which she accepts, and is given Calculon's ears. The Robot Devil tells her that he will come back for the hand at a later time because the intermission is about to end and he does not want her to be late for the rest of the opera. During the second act, portraying Fry's deal with the Robot Devil, the real Robot Devil makes a personal appearance on the stage, confronts Fry and demands his hands back, or he will take Leela's promised hand—in marriage. Fry is desperate, as his skill with the holophonor (and his ability to impress Leela) lies in his new, robotic hands. Without them, he will not be able to complete the opera he wrote to win her heart. In the end, he decides to give up the hands so that Leela may go free. Left with his old hands, he is unable to play with any amount of skill, and the opera is a flop. Fry sees the entire audience leave in disappointment, as he fumbles to complete his masterpiece. Just as he is about to leave the empty stage, he spots Leela, who alone has stayed in the auditorium. She asks him to play on so she can hear how it ends. Fry smiles and resumes playing, managing to tell the rest of the story, albeit crudely, where he and Leela kiss and walk into the distance, hand in hand. It is worth noting that Fry does in fact play the last few tones perfectly, right before the credits—leading to speculation that he might not have needed the Robot Devil's hands after all.

Song lyrics

 * Leela: Orphan of the Stars
 * I Want My Hands Back

Trivia

 * On the spinning wheel used by the Robot Devil to select the robot who will trade hands with Fry, the names seen are those of actual robots who have appeared in the series. (See below for the full list.) Some of them have no or only one hand, suggesting that the Robot Devil had ways of cheating.
 * The grumpy snail is in every holophonor piece Fry plays, except the opera, and is also featured on the advertisement for Fry's record.
 * The final line in the episode took a while to record due to Katey Sagal's involvement with 8 Simple Rules.
 * Dan Castellaneta returns as the Robot Devil, and also plays the slug advertising Fry's album.
 * When the show went on hiatus in April 2002, the Futurama crew made this episode to work as both a season and series finale, as it would give them a 50/50 chance to get renewed.
 * Fry, Leela, Bender, Professor Farnsworth and Richard Nixon are the only characters to appear in both this episode and "Space Pilot 3000".
 * Writer Ken Keeler was nominated for an Emmy in 2004 (for Outstanding Music and Lyrics) for the song "I Want My Hands Back".
 * Preacherbot mentions the power vested in him "by the state of New New York." Up until this point, it had never been mentioned if the state's name had changed along with the city's, although it was marked as such in "Bendin' in the Wind".
 * This is the only time the big screen in the opening sequence shows a picture of the opening sequence itself, repeating itself endlessly.
 * The sign of the Holophonor teacher bears the subtitle Taking the fun out of music for over 20 years.
 * Fry and Bender ride to get to the recital.
 * Amy is using Emotion Flashcards featuring the Poster Guy to tell the deafened Leela what she is supposed to feel during the opera.
 * The contract Leela has signed is headed Standard Diabolical Exchange Agreement.
 * At the end of the episode, just as Leela says "I want to know how it ends," she no longer has Calculon's ears (you need to zoom). In the DVD film Bender's Big Score, she no longer has the ears either, and Calculon doesn't appear. This is often considered a retcon. It is more likely however, that just as Leela's loss of eyesight in "Bender Gets Made" was temporary, so too was her loss of hearing in this episode. It is also possible that her hearing was simply fixed after the Opera.
 * During the sequence where the Robot Devil gives Fry his hands, there are at least three frames where both he and Fry have robot hands. However, this is hardly noticeable at regular playing speed.
 * This episode was named #16 on IGN's list of Top 25 Futurama Episodes.
 * Zoidberg's quote "Your music's bad and you should feel bad!" inspired an Internet meme similar to the Fry meme following the formula: "Your x is bad and you should feel bad", which was used in two promos for season 7 of Futurama: "ALL NEW FUTURAMA IS GOOD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL GOOD" and "YOUR PROMO IS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD".
 * The opening subtitle with "See You On Some Other Channel" hinted that FOX had cancelled Futurama, and that the show would air in syndication on Adult Swim, but this is the last episode Adult Swim aired on 31 December, 2007 before their rights expired. Once Comedy Central started airing it, the subtitle became twice true, due to CC reviving the series in 2010.

Goofs

 * Bender, cheekily explaining his plan to Fry, ends by saying "...and by metaphorically, I mean get your coat." Fry is pretty clearly wearing his trademark red jacket the whole time.
 * During the advertisement for Fry’s record he switches between having normal and robot hands.
 * Tinny Tim holds up a newspaper twice, which has the title "New York Post", rather than "New New York Post" as would be expected.
 * Even though New York has been destroyed and New New York exists in the 31st century, it is possible that the New York Post survived without changing its title. Despite this, in "Attack of the Killer App", Scoop Chang clearly says he is reporter for the New New York Post. Which either confirms the goof or indicates the paper finally updated its name in between the two episodes.
 * When the Robot Devil first comes to get his hands back, Fry is standing with his hands in his pockets, and then in the next shot, his hands are out of his pockets, but no time has passed to allow for Fry to take his hands out.
 * There was a deleted scene between the two shots where Fry takes his hands out to make a gesture.
 * In the episode "Parasites Lost" Leela had indicated that only a couple people in the universe could use the Holophonor and that they weren't very good at it. Here, we see a large number of children being taught to play it and at least one of them is shown to have skill with it.
 * It is implied that the child is extremely gifted, and the piece he plays is Beethoven's , which is very simple.
 * At the end of this episode, the Robot Devil had almost married Leela. But in "Proposition Infinity", it is revealed that robosexual marriage is illegal.
 * Maybe Reverend Lionel Preacherbot believes that the rules on Earth don't apply in Robot Hell.
 * Robosexuality is stated to be illegal in terms of the law, but the Temple of Robotology never explicitly states that the religion prohibits it. Reverend Lionel Preacherbot may have been about to break the law, but there is no indication that he was about to break any religious rule.
 * The Robot Devil lives in New Jersey, where robosexual marriage may be legal.
 * The Robot Devil may have just been pretending to marry Leela to trick Fry.
 * It is later revealed that the Robot Devil has multiple back-up copies of his body in Robot Hell ("Ghost in the Machines"), so he could have just taken his old hands off of one of those.
 * It is possible that he created the copies after this episode.
 * When Leela gets Calculon's ears, a man drops his coat off with the Robot Devil. The man appears to be Victor but with brown hair.
 * Victor could have dyed his hair.
 * And then we all remember that this is not real life we are talking about, but a cartoon.

Inside References

 * This episode takes up the storyline of "Parasites Lost".
 * Leela is seen eating a grilled Buggalo leg, a reference to "Where the Buggalo Roam".
 * Fry's "stupid fingers" may be a result of his hands being replaced in "I Dated a Robot".

Outside References

 * Two people in the holophonor image jump over barrels as they walk upstairs, which is similar to the gameplay in Donkey Kong. This links the first episode ("Space Pilot 3000") and what was at the time of production the final episode of the series in that they both have a Donkey Kong reference.
 * The idea of someone selling something to the devil for an artistic talent is similar to.
 * The name of the opera hall where Fry's opera debuts is MHOp (Metropolitan House of Opera), a reference to both IHOP (International House of Pancakes) restaurants and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
 * The plot may be based on Marlowe's Faust.
 * The title of the opera could be based on the title of the book, Ami : L'Enfant des étoiles, a 1999 book which title, translated from French, means Ami : Child of the stars.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Bolt Rolands
 * Calculon
 * Debut: Djambi
 * Fawn
 * Florp
 * Fry
 * Debut: The Grumpy Snail
 * Hedonism Bot
 * Hermes
 * Humorbot 5.0
 * Kitty
 * Leela
 * Mayor C. Randall Poopenmeyer
 * Debut: Mrs. Mellinger
 * Mom
 * Mom's sons
 * Morbo
 * Morgan Proctor
 * The Preacherbot
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * The Robot Devil
 * Ron Whitey
 * Scruffy
 * Tinny Tim
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Ken Keeler
 * Director
 * Bret Haaland
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Lauren Tom
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Phil LaMarr
 * David Herman
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Ken Keeler
 * Bret Haaland
 * Billy West
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Dan Castellaneta
 * Special Guest
 * Dan Castellaneta