2-D Blacktop

Professor Farnsworth joins a gang of street-racing punks.

Production
On 14 December 2011, geek blog posted a picture of the episode's production script to their  page. The picture was accompanied by the following description.

"got to see Matt Groening, Leela AND Fry (Leela has two eyes and looks like FYI). No Bender though (I think he was scared)"

In February 2012, the episode's title was registered on the US.

On 5 February 2013, released a preview clip for the tenth broadcast season, which contained footage from the episode.

On 30 April, Comedy Central released a preview clip of the episode as the first item in the year's Countdown to Futurama, and revealed the episode's air date.

Trivia

 * The Professor names the Planet Express ship "Bessie".
 * The music used during the inner city chase between Professor Farnsworth and the gang of street-racing punks is the song "" by the band.
 * Coincidentally, the upcoming game  will feature a Möbius dragstrip.
 * The episode was originally supposed to be the second episode of its broadcast season. The Beast with a Billion Backs, which also features characters in two dimensions, is the second film. "Reincarnation", which, too, features characters in two dimensions, is the second segmented episode of the second run.

Allusions

 * The episode's title is a reference to the 1971 road movie , directed by and starring, ,  and.
 * A wrecked from the Star Trek franchise can be seen in the scrap when the Professor approaches Impound Lot 136.
 * The white car that Sal melts down is identical to . The man who gasps after Sal melts down the car is a parody of Speed Racer himself.
 * New New Jack City is named after the 1991 film , which is set in New York.
 * Thingly Wiggly is a parody of the chain.
 * The third act is a parody of the 1884 book , written by, which was adapted into in 2007.
 * The Lords of Flatbush are named after the 1974 film.
 * The Bonneville Salt Flatlands in the second dimension are a reference to the located in Utah. There is also an area of the flats known as the, where many  have been broken.
 * The episode contains many references to mathematics, including topology and fractal geometry.

Continuity

 * Bender's vandalism tile-art from "Proposition Infinity" re-appears.
 * Fry previously did karate in "Attack of the Killer App" and "Forty Percent Leadbelly".

Goofs

 * Leela introduces the new ship as slower to make it safer, however later on she is able to beat the old ship in a drag race.
 * When they are in the race, the Professor is wearing his racing clothes (black leather lab coat, black hat) but when he arrives in the second dimension he is wearing his standard attire.
 * In the second dimension, Bender walks out of the new ship, but, in the establishing shot, only Leela is in the ship.
 * Initially the Lords of Flatbush have guns, but when chasing the crew they only have spears.
 * It's possible that spears were the closest s at hand for them to chase the crew with.
 * The Professor makes it clear that it's impossible to go around others in the second dimension, but when they are eating at the castle, several of the creatures are sitting behind them.
 * The creatures are actually above, not behind. As the Professor says, the laws of physics in the second dimension are different. For example: if the Professor is at coordinate 0,0 another creature could be present at 0,1 or 1,0, etc.
 * Hermes claims the crew has only been gone for five minutes, however it was afternoon when they left, and it's clearly dusk when they arrive back.

Characters

 * Albert (montage)
 * Amy
 * Auctioneer
 * Bender
 * Debut: Benny
 * Crack addict
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * H.G. Blob
 * Debut: King of Flatbush
 * Leela
 * Debut: Lords of Flatbush
 * Debut: Minx
 * Nina (montage)
 * Debut: Pimparoo
 * Randy Munchnik
 * Sal
 * Sally (montage)
 * Sam (human) (montage)
 * Scruffy
 * Smitty
 * Debut: Speed Racer look-alike
 * Debut: Street-racing gang
 * URL
 * Debut: Yellow car

Places

 * Debut: Big Boy Karate
 * Debut: Bonneville Salt Flatlands
 * Flatbush
 * Debut: Glorianimous 3
 * Debut: Möbius dragstrip
 * Impound Lot 136
 * Debut: New New Jack City
 * Planet Express conference room
 * Planet Express hangar
 * Planet Express headquarters
 * Planet Express lab
 * Debut: Second dimension
 * Debut: Thingly Wiggly
 * Tokyo