Bender Bending Rodriguez

Bender Bending Rodriguez (Model: bending unit 22) is a bending unit (serial number: 2716057), who works at Planet Express as Assistant Manager of Sales, formerly chef of the company. He is one of the primary characters and is known for his "in-your-face interface".

Personality and abilities
Bender is often selfish and insensitive to other people's emotions. At one point, he flushed Leela's beloved pet Nibbler down the toilet. He is also quite vain, frequently bragging about how great he is. Bender has no qualms about committing crimes and often steals people's wallets or items from shops. He loves smoking and drinking, though as a robot he has to drink alcohol to keep him going. (The cigars just make him look cool.) Bender can also be cruel at times and even sometimes treats his own friends badly. He is also extremely lazy, and is often seen sitting around on the couch drinking a beer and/or watching television.

However, he is capable of caring for others and is close friends with Leela and Fry, even though he often acts obnoxious and mean towards them. Bender seems genuinely happy for Leela when she is reunited with her long lost parents and was devastated when he is ordered to kill Fry in Bender's Big Score. Considering he is still upset when he returns to the future it's possible he might have been mourning Fry for nearly a thousand years.



Bender also has a fair few romantic relationships with fembots, such as Countess de la Roca and Angleyne. Bender can be quite emotional at times, despite stating that robots aren't supposed to have emotions, and is empathic towards turtles since they have hard shells and have difficulty getting up if they fell on their backs, two things they share in common with Bender. He also becomes the leader of a group of penguins at one point. Bender also idolised the Harlem Globetrotters and wanted to become one of them and started crying when they refused to let him join.

Bender also loves cooking though he had little talent for it and would often cook things that were either inedible or just barely edible. In certain episodes however, he has been able to make food successfully, making a cake for Nibbler's birthday party which was promptly eaten by the Nibblonian.

As a robot, Bender has quite a lot of abilities. He is able to stretch his arms long distances as well as record data in his head, once using this to get Richard Nixon to give him back his body. He also breathes fire whenever he burps and when he is terrified he sometimes ejects bricks from his backside which is his variant of defecation. (This is a reference to the slang phrase, to "s**t bricks", meaning to be very scared or surprised.) Although he usually only does this while in a state of shock, he has also done it after eating an potato chip from the 20th century. Bender is also very strong, even managing to bend a supposedly unbendable girder.

Bender is able to remove numerous parts of his body such as his head, arms, legs and even eyes. When he is staring at something or someone his eyes frequently extended out of his head. Like turtles he can withdraw into his chest when he chooses to. Bender can also survive in lava for a short time, though when he displays this ability his eyes melted as soon as he came out of the lava. Bender's body has also been used as a popcorn maker, crock pot , and steam engine (6ACV23).

Early years
Bender Bending Rodriguez was built in Tijuana, Mexico in the early 2990s, although he believed it was in 2998, by Mom's Friendly Robot Company. He has a fatal defect leaving him as mortal as a human. This seems almost impossible, as he is known to have time-traveled to the past (using the time code) and wait until the normal time again, which would make him thousands of years old. He lacks the hardware necessary for him to save a copy of his software daily, so unlike other bending units, if he begins to die, he cannot upload his data to another body. Nevertheless, his body is still extremely tough. Tough enough that he survived a small-scale nuclear war on his body with no harm, and only a tickling sensation. Inspector 5 (Hermes) knew of the defect but let him live. There is some speculation about what happened in the following two years, but he briefly studied Bending at Bending State University, which may or may not be the facility he was built in. He minored in Robo-American Studies.

He soon got a job bending girders, but after realizing that the purpose of the girders he bent were for suicide booths, he figured that his purpose was meaningless and thus decided to kill himself in one of the suicide booths he had helped construct.

You really want a robot for a friend?
While waiting in line to kill himself on 31 December, 2999, Fry, who was clearly not familiar with suicide booths, stood in front of him, thinking it was a phone booth. Bender helped him along. But they managed to get out of the suicide booth alive. Bender soon learns that Fry is from the 20th Century and had been frozen for a thousand years.

But since Fry refused to get assigned to his job, Leela was on his tail. Bender helped him escape through the Head Museum and soon down to Old New York below New New York. Here Leela finally caught up with them and agreed to help Fry. Bender decided to stay with them and they headed over to Fry's nephew, Professor Farnsworth. Farnsworth soon offered them jobs, and luckily for them, he had the proper career chips.

Farnsworth's asset
As an employee at Planet Express he continued his kleptomania, drinking and smoking. He convinced Fry to move in with him at his apartment and soon Hermes Conrad forced him to actually do something around the company. He got assigned as chef of the company, one of his dreams was apparently to cook, but having no sense of taste made vile meals for the staff.

Bender got into trouble when he began abusing electricity (jacking on), and his friends were not in favor of it. Saddened by their discontent, he sought new opportunities in religion. He joined Robotology, but this only served to make him more annoying to his friends. So they decided to make Bender sin to become his regular self again, inadvertently condemning him to Robot Hell. Feeling guilty, Fry and Leela tracked Bender down and saved him from the Robot Devil.

Bender has, in fact, found true love before, in the form of an aristocratic fembot, the Countess de la Roca, whose relationship with him strongly resembled that of the protagonists of the movie . When the Titanic ship was being sucked into a black hole (due to Zapp Brannigan altering the ship's course), she was the only passenger to go down with it. But, despite this, his personality continued to be a problem for his friends, and Leela became very upset with him when he flushed Nibbler down the toilet. The Professor "carefully" implanted an empathy chip in Bender, which forced him to feel Leela's every emotion for a short while.



The lesser of two evils
During a visit to Past-O-Rama they bumped into Flexo (serial number: 3370318), another bending unit, possibly also of the same model number (22). Flexo and Bender became good friends, but Fry feared that Flexo is evil, and in a mix up at the Miss Universe contest Flexo was arrested for Bender's attempt to steal the tiara.

Bender briefly joined the Robot Mafia and fought in the Ultimate Robot Fighting League until his popularity slipped and he was rigged out of the league. Together with his fellow robots he rebelled against humanity.

Well - I'm rich
Bender's Uncle Vladimir died and Bender was to inherit his castle, on the condition that he had to spend one night within its walls. Bender was not at all comfortable in his new castle and the start up sound of Windows 98 was not helping either.

While being chased by several hologram ghosts, he fled out in the yard where he was run over by a were-car. The collision caused a virus to be beamed into him and he became a were-car. Bender did not realize this until later, but the Gypsy told them the only way to get rid of the virus would be destroy the original were-car. So through a long journey they found the original were-car and destroyed it, and thus Bender was free of the virus.

Whether he kept the castle or not is unknown.

Now when I'm found in a million years, people will know what the score was
Bender continued his life with many adventures together with Fry and Leela. He temporarily worked for Calculon as his water heater. He met up with Flexo again, but this time he was not happy to see him, because Bender figured that his second true love was still in love with Flexo. Bender screwed it up and the divorcees got back together.

He was briefly sent to an institute for insane robots, along with Fry, who went temporarily insane. He got to go on tour with Beck after becoming paralysed from a freak accident with a can opener, thus fulfilling his dream of becoming a folk-singer, became Pharaoh of an entire planet, driving everyone (including Fry and Leela) into slavery, and beat Elzar on the television show Iron Cook. However, he did not accept the title of Iron Cook, only the lesser title of Zinc Saucier (which he made up, and comes with double prize money).

During a battle with Space Pirates, Bender was shot out through the torpedo slot and was forced to drift through space. He, for some time, became the God of the Shrimpkins, which was a life form that had grown on his stomach. But, after they viciously killed each other in a nuclear war, started by Bender's need for booze, Bender met up with the Galactic Entity, who he believes is God. The Entity eventually sent Bender back to Earth after receiving a radio signal from Fry.

I should not be allowed on TV!


Bender was still wanting his fame, he found interest in becoming the new Antonio on All My Circuits. He got the job. But Calculon was hardly impressed by Bender's performance, however the Network executives disagreed. So Bender got to continue on the show, but in his true nature.

But when Bender realized that his behaviour on TV causes Dwight and Cubert to steal his stuff, he called off the show.

Bender joined Fry and Leela briefly as they gained super powers in the New Justice Team, he has had an affair with the Planet Express Ship, he got modeled into a fembot and had a relationship shortly with Calculon, and helped Robot Santa as a replacement.

Dumb dumb away!
But the company got into trouble when the Box Network canceled its license, and for two years they were not able to deliver packages. Luckily though, their license was renewed and they went back in business.

Bender became the centre of attention as the new masters of the company lead by Nudar infected him with an iObey virus and they forced him to go back in time and steal all of Earth's valuables. But when Fry managed to escape back into the past, they send him after Fry to kill him, and after 12 years tireless hunting, he managed to do so.

But he soon learned that the Fry he killed was doomed anyway because he was a time paradox duplicate. But after being stranded on Neptune for a while, humanity and he decided to fight back, and after the war was won (with the help of Hermes), he revealed that he himself had kept the Spheroboom that the scammers had told him to keep safe, thus saving the day.

However, while on a trip back in time to make sense out of everything that had happened that year, a mishap led to him accidentally tearing the universe open.

Death to humans!
After becoming an official stalker for Calculon by Calculon, Bender fell into a deep depression after Calculon informed him that there was no such thing as the League of Robots, a society of robots which came to the aid of robots abused by humans, and which Bender had worshipped for his entire life. He contemplated commiting suicide until he was approached by the League led by Calculon himself; he lied about its non-existence to ensure its secrecy.

Bender became the newest member of the League and began to personally enforce the no-humans policy of the organization, becoming very famous within it. However, Bender was caught helping his human friends and his bluffs were called by Calculon, whom Bender challenged to a duel. Bender broke the rules of the duel, severely injuring Calculon and nearly exposing the League, but instead of being kicked out of the League, Calculon resigned his position as President and gave it to Bender.

Bender organized the Army of the Damned (trading his firstborn son to the Robot Devil for it) to take over the world, only to discover that its entire population was already leaving to live on the body of a giant tentacled monster named Yivo. Bender soon received a letter from Fry describing how wonderful life was there, but Bender ended up interfering by attacking Yivo and attempting to bring humanity back. Soon, for personal reasons, Yivo unwittingly complied with Bender and had everybody return to Earth.

I know not of this Bender
Bender finds himself attempting to catch up with a game of Dungeons and Dragons, played by Cubert Farnsworth and his friends. He soon hits the obstacle of realising he has no imagination. But the more he tries, he eventually believes he is Titanius Anglesmith, Fancy Man of Cornwood.

Unfortunately, his imagination grows wild, and he is sent to HAL Institute to be cured. The therapy is unsuccessful and they decide to give him a "robotomy". But during the operation, the dark matter crystals becomes close enough, allowing Bender's imagination to become real.

In his fantasy, he is the owner of a castle. When he hears of Black Knights approaching, he sets out with his friends, Leegola and Frydo. Discovering the Die of Power, he sets off to Greyfarn, where they learn of the story behind the Die. Titanius is slightly against the quest, but decides to tag along. On several occasions, he refers to going back, such as when they have just passed through the Cave of Hopelessness.

On the other side, Fellowship decides to seek Wipe Castle for help. Unfortunately, the King of Cornwood is insane, and the entire royal army is gone, because the king declared war on scallops, tied the entire army to a rock, and pushed them into the ocean. As Momon's forces arrive, they have a large, unwinnable battle at hand. But as things seems darkest, Leegola and her centaur army saves Wipe Castle. Knowing of Frydo's quest, the Fellowship decides to go help him. However, they are too late and Momon wins the battle, causing them to return to their world.

I'm...so...GREAT!!
Bender takes a trip to Mars Vegas with the rest of the crew. There, he falls in love with Fanny, a burlesque dancer, who is the Donbot's wife. He enters the Universal Poker Championship Tournament for her and wins against Fry with five kings.

After returning to Earth, Bender feels upset that the Feministas are committing more felonies than him. He gets hired by Zapp Brannigan to help him capture the Feministas. By getting Bender to wire tap Fry's "cellphone-telephone" Zapp finds out where the Feministas are hiding and chases them aboard the Nimbus, along with Bender and Kif. After an exciting space chase, Bender captures the Feministas and goes against them in court. They are found guilty and sent to Maxi-Padlock Prison.

Bender then breaks into the women's prison and helps the Feministas escape, because by doing so, he would have committed way more felonies than the women. He bends a brick wall and calls Farnsworth, who pilots the Planet Express Ship down to rescue them from the prison's forces. They crash a demolition ceremony, and in the end, Bender is sent through a wormhole with the rest of the Planet Express Crew.

Dying sucks butt!
After crashing the ship into Earth and being rebirthed, Bender starts a robosexual relationship with Amy , after Kif dumps her for flirting with criminal inmates, despite his previously affirming that "Humans dating Robots is sick". Amy and Bender decided to marry, and manage to pass a proposition to legalize robosexual marriage. However, Bender leaves her upon realizing she wants a monogamous marriage. He participated in a re-enactment of the Sith-il War, after which he learned that he was built without a back-up unit. He then goes with Hermes Conrad to determine why. Despite failing to do so, Bender uses the experience to reaffirm his stance on life.

Later, Bender witnesses robots undergoing evolution on a deserted planetoid. He was nearly killed after switching bodies with a Robo-Hungarian Emperor. Later, he threw a party celebrating Planet Express' 100th delivery. After abruptly ending the party, Bender participated in the Devolution Revolution, using his expertise to bend the Westside Pipeway.

When the crew crashes on a gender-neutral planet, everyone's genders are switched in a freak accident and Bender resumes his feminine Coilette persona before the genders are corrected. He then runs havok with the Professor's duplicator, creating exponentially miniature versions of himself that almost consume Earth but later band together to save it from a hideous monster, though he dies soon afterward when a suicide booth murders him. Bender lingers as a ghost but bargains with the Robot Devil to get his material body back in exchange for Fry. He attempts to scare him to death, but when Fry discloses his love for Bender, Bender refuses to kill Fry and ends up protecting him. Robot God then invites Bender to an existence in Robot Heaven as his reward, but Bender declines and returns to the crew.

After crashing a Robot Mafia wedding and making out with Bella, Donbot's daughter, Bender is forced to enter the witness relocation program, and Clamps replaces him at work as an in for the Mafia to discover Bender's whereabouts and kill him. The crew is led to the Moon to a hillbilly robot identical to Bender, but Bender is discovered to be in hiding as a waiter at the pizza parlor across the street, and returns to work when the Mafia takes him for dead.

A new child


In 3012, Planet Express acquired a new soda machine named Bev. They did not get along very well, but a fight of theirs eventually culminated in sex. The next day, Bev gave birth to Bender's child. Bender did not take this well, worrying over his fatherhood and eventually learning about robot reproduction for the first time, as his mother's religious fundamentalism kept her from teaching him this information. He attempted to give custody of the child to Bev, presenting her with a certificate of abandonment, but she too did not take having a child well, and she left Bender with custody of the child. Though he was initially disappointed over this, he eventually discovered that his child took an interest in bending. Naming the child Ben, they formed a bond with each other, but to their surprise, discovered that Ben's lack of arm control software and an additional expansion slot prevented him from bending. At Ben's Bot-Mitzvah, Ben expressed for his appreciation for his father as well as his hopes of bending just like him. At the ceremony, however, Bev regained custody of Ben, separating him from his father. That night, Bender broke Ben out of Bev's trailer, but were caught in their escape by the police, who arrested Bender on grounds of kidnapping. Bev showed up at the scene and gave birth to another child, and content with having another child to neglect, allowed Bender to keep Ben. Ben, however, was still disappointed in not being unable to bend, so he takes up an offer by the Professor to have a bending card installed in him - consequently losing all his memories of Bender. Bender, though tearful, allowed the surgery to go on, and eventually accompanied his son to his enrollment at Bending State University in Santa Cruz.

He later briefly worked as a paparazzo for Us People magazine.

In 3013, Bender entered a tap-dance contest.

Ruler of Earth
After Nixon's fourth term in office began, things went downhill for the Earthican population to the point when robots began doing all the tedious labor and consequently, they began a rebellion led by Bender. At some point between 3014 and 3028 Bender became ruler of Earth and started killing humans, thus fulfilling his life-long desire.

Composition
Bender routinely claims to be made of thirty to forty percent of various metals, typically following his claims up by knocking on his own chassis. Unfortunately, his credibility on this matter is thrown into question by the fact that his various claims now add up to well over one hundred percent. Bender has alternately claimed to be:


 * 40% zinc
 * 40% titanium
 * 30% iron - Presumably mixed with osmium.
 * 40% dolomite
 * 40% lead (FVG) - Canon status of video game uncertain.
 * 40% luck/horseshoes (ITWGY) - Composition of the horseshoes unknown.
 * 40% chromium - Bender was not the one to make this claim, it was an Antarian.
 * 60% storage space
 * 40% scrap metal
 * 40% wire
 * 40% empty
 * 40% ass - Non-canon.

In "Near-Death Wish", Bender states that a set of virtual adaptor caps stored inside of him (that he uses to get himself, Fry and Leela into Virtual Retirement) are "40% safe", but this probably wouldn't count as part of his composition. In "Assie Come Home", Bender's body (except for his eyes and mouth) is stolen, so he uses the help of Fry and Leela to retrieve it. After finding his head, antenna and torso, he says: "I'm 40% back, baby!". This is a combination of two of Bender's catchphrases; one being him stating a percentage of what he is composed of, the other being "I'm back, baby!".

Total: 150% - 370% or greater. The number is dependent on whether or not one counts various claims as true. First the "40% Horseshoes" claim, as the supposed horseshoes could have been made of one or more of the other metals previously stated (Titanium, Iron, or Lead), meaning that one could have been a restatement rather than a new figure. Second, it depends on whether or not he considers his storage space and wires to be part of the total percentage of himself, in which case the remaining 40% each that he often claims to be would constitute the rest of his body. Third, the claim of "40% Lead" is dependent on whether the video game can be considered canon. Fourth and finally, whether the claim of "40% Chromium" is accepted at all. This claim was not made by Bender but rather one of the Antarians. It is plausible that the claim is false and that it was just made to justify the in-progress cannibalization of Bender's body.

Even if all previous points made are taken into account and only the first four claims were used, Bender's composition would be 150%, far more than what is possible. This error can be explained as due to Bender's being a poor calculator, making it plausible that he has given the wrong percentages.

Additionally, he has a 0.04% nickel impurity, which doesn't increase total percentage, but slightly decreases the percentages of everything else. This is apparently not a standard impurity, and is cited as making him unique.

There's also a mention that robots are made from recycled beer cans and beer cans are made from recycled robots, so depending on the year 3000 composition of beer cans, he may have a certain percentage of aluminum in his alloy.

As a side note,  is also the title of a 1974 film. The film's main character, Dolemite, is a pimp who leads an army of hookers skilled in kung-fu. Bender has been a pimp many times throughout the series.

This running gag is referenced in the title of the episode "Forty Percent Leadbelly".

Family

 * Professor Farnsworth, Bender's owner and the creator of the sports utility robot on which Bender and all/most other modern robots are based.
 * Flexo, not exactly a relative, but another bending unit of the same model. (presumed deceased)
 * Billy West, identical model (deceased)
 * Mom, owner of Mom's Friendly Robot Company.
 * His mother, a robotic arm who sends him Xmas cards.
 * Ben Rodriguez, son.
 * His father, who was killed by a giant can opener.
 * Uncle Vladimir, who lived in Thermostadt, capital of the Robo-Hungarian Empire, and died at the ripe old age of 211.
 * Tandy, Uncle Vladimir's son and hence Bender's cousin.
 * Screwy Aunt Rita, who is a screw. (Note that Bender stated that he had an Aunt Rita during Leela's coma fantasy in the episode "The Sting", so this may not be true.)
 * Albert, Sally, Nina, Sam and 8 other orphans, briefly adopted from the Cookieville Minimum-Security Orphanarium.
 * Three penguin "children".
 * Junior, a child born to The Crushinator (US#009). Comic books of uncertain canon status.
 * His first born son, Bender exchanges him for an Army of the Damned.
 * Bender's grandmother, who is a bulldozer.
 * Buster, identical cousin.
 * Turner, another cousin.
 * Commodore LXIV, or Commodore 64. A painting of this robot is hanging in Uncle Vladimir's dining hall and can be assumed to be one of Bender's ancestors.
 * His guinea pig, who died off-screen prior to the V-GINY's rampage.
 * Inspector 5, Inspector at Mom's friendly robot plant in Tijuana, Mexico.

Age
According to himself, Bender was originally constructed in 2998, making him one year old when Fry met him in 2999, but several later discoveries supports the theory that he was in fact born earlier. Bender's memory as newborn is as a complete, fullgrown robot, but events in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" suggest that his current, fullgrown body merely was the final stage, and it is possible that Bender only remembers entering this final stage - what he considers being born. Or, the effects of the de-aging tar may have made him smaller somehow.

In Season 6 episode "Lethal Inspection", it is revealed that Hermes supervised Bender's construction before getting the job in Planet Express, and is seen much younger than he must have been in the late 2990s. We also see that the state in which he was supervised - reminiscent of a human baby - much differs from the one Bender remembers from 2998. In "The Prisoner of Benda", it can be shown that Hermes was already in the company in 2993, and thus Bender must have been born in that year at least, and possibly even earlier. However, Hermes might have quit, worked for Mom, and come back.



The events in "Roswell that Ends Well" make his head 1055 years older than the rest of his body. The incident in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" does largely not count as an aging or the opposite, and fans largely regard his age to remain intact. In, Bender travels back in time several times, though the amount of times is unknown, the amount of Benders that appear at the end, may suggest at least a couple of thousand times. Given how many of these travels seems to be between 1000 to 5000 years in the past (from about 3007), an educated guess would make him at least a million years old, but probably more. An alternative theory could suggest when the time duplicates explode at the end of the first film, Bender is the same age he was at the end of the original run plus 995 years, as the Bender that went back 995 years in time to kill Fry is presumed to be the original and therefore wouldn't expire like the rest of them.

In the comic, "Rust in Peace", it is revealed that Bender, due to too much time travelling, must be inserted into a renewed unit. Farnsworth determines his age to be 27,203 before moving him to his new body. But 27,203 seems a lot less than what would be a quick educated guess. 27,203 would require Bender to have gone at least about a thousand years back each time and only gone 27 times, or instead gone more years back and done fewer than 27 times. But regardless of the ordeal, the amount of Benders appearing at the end of Bender's Big Score seems to contradict this fact. The event in the comic is thus not considered canon.

Durability
Bender frequently displays incredible durability, to the point that he appears to be indestructible. He has been completely flattened, hit point-blank with a shotgun, had several chips removed from his severed head, then had his head buried for over a thousand years, had his lower torso melted from a cosmic electrical disturbance, been launched out of a torpedo tube then withstood atmospheric reentry, submerged himself in lava, and been burned to nothing but his eyes and mouth after converting his body entirely into wood (though this was a dream, but it is implied the dream could actually happen). In "Rebirth", after having been nearly eaten by a cyclophage and have a doomsday device explode inside him, he remarks "What does it take to kill me?". A bomb has also exploded inside him in "War Is the H-Word" (twice). He survives being shot point-blank at least three times in Season 6, survived being completely melted, was able to come out of Limbo after having been killed and had his head sliced in half by spinning blades.

However, as it's revealed in "Lethal Inspection", Bender was built without a backup unit. This means he can't download his personality or memories to another body, which he wanted to do if his original body got killed. Therefore, if his body is destroyed, he dies. As it turned out, Inspector #5 was the one responsible for mercifully approving Bender as a perfect robot, thus allowing him to live despite actually being a defective robot.

Alternate appearances

 * 2ACV08: Bender the Offender/Gender Bender Bender joins the Ultimate Robot Fighting League, and become 'Bender the Offender', but after he becomes less popular, Abner Doubledeal, the Commissioner of the URFL, changed his persona to 'The Gender Bender'
 * 2ACV16: Giant Bender: In a non-canon scenario, Bender is pictured as 500 feet tall. During the episode, he claims to weigh 7 billion tons (14 trillion pounds).
 * Go-Kart Bender: After being murdered by Leela in aforementioned episode, she reassembles his parts into a sporty go-kart.
 * 2ACV18: Were-Car Bender: In "The Honking", Bender is transformed each midnight into a malicious were-car, determined to kill his closest friend.
 * 3ACV03: Santa Bender: Bender becomes a good Santa. This appearance basically has Bender's body painted red.
 * 3ACV15: Parallel Bender: The only difference apparent between Bender and his counterpart in the parallel universe (the only alternate universe at the time) was that parallel Bender (along with the rest of the parallel Planet Express crew) was wearing a cowboy hat and vest when both crews visited the Edge of the Universe. Whether this is the norm for the parallel Crew, or was due to some difference in parallel Fry's touristy adventure that day was never mentioned.
 * 3ACV18: Human Bender: In "Anthology of Interest II", Bender asks what it would be like if he were human. Despite being Mexican, he appears to be Caucasian. (Note: this could be a default setting on the professors device.)
 * 3ACV19: Flying Saucer Bender: After crashing to the New Mexico desert, the US military mistakenly reassembles Bender's body to resemble a small (functional) flying saucer.
 * 4ACV04: Superking: Bender joins the New Justice Team as the superhero "Superking", with a cape, a mask and a royal crown.
 * 4ACV09: Young Bender: Bender takes several reverted forms in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", including a software disc and a set of "Bending unit blueprints". Modifications include braces and dish-antenna-like ears.
 * 4ACV13: Coilette: Bender undergoes a sex-change operation in order to win five olympic gold medals. Faked his(her) own death with a fictional disease called "African Hydraulic Fever" because he(she) did not want to marry Calculon.
 * 4ACV14: Wooden Bender: In a dream, Bender downgrades to a wooden, steam-powered version, and he also has termites inside him.
 * 4ACV15: Golden Bender: In Universe 1, Bender's coin flip resulted in his choosing the gold finish instead of the foghat grey that we're used to.
 * BBS: iObey Bender: In Bender's Big Score, Bender was tricked into downloading the iObey obedience virus. He is forced to do anything the naked scammers tell him, and his pupils become red pixel swirls.
 * BwBB: LOR Bender: Bender is given a luxurious ascot to wear, as he becomes a new member of the League of Robots.
 * Pirate Bender: He dressed as a pirate in honor of Fry in his attempt to retrieve him from Yivo's body.
 * BG: Titanius Anglesmith: While playing Dungeons & Dragons in Bender's Game, Bender convinces himself that he is a knight and goes insane.
 * 6ACV17: Gray Goo Bender: Bender calls upon his legions of microscopic Bender duplicates to join together with him and form a gigantic version of him, in order to defeat the Unattractive giant monster.
 * 6ACV19: Ghost Bender: After Bender's death, his software takes on a ghostly existence.
 * 6ACV25: Overclocked Bender: In a cave behind a waterfall, he has processed inside out.
 * 7ACV19: Bendee Boo: Bender is re-conceived as a dog.

Trivia

 * Bender is bending unit 22. "Bender Bending Rodriguez" has 22 letters.
 * Bender's e-mail address is: bender@iloveBender.com
 * It is recommended that he run on 5 gigawatts.
 * Interestingly enough, Bender appears to have been an entirely different Robot before having met Fry. They meet when Bender is (at the very least) guilty and willing to kill himself over his dismay at finding out that the girders he had been bending were for suicide booths. However, after Bender bends the bars keeping them from escaping Leela, Bender declares that from then on he will live his life only for him and do only what he wants to do. This may, however, just be an overlook by the writers of the show simply for the sake of introducing Fry to the drastic changes the future has brought (booths that are as ubiqitous as phone booths for suicide; walking, talking Robots).
 * This sudden change could be explained by the electric shock Bender received shortly before bending the bars. Not only did it change his programming, it changed his opinions on various things.
 * A year later however, Bender presents a picture of himself when he was only a month old with a bottle of beer and a cigar, showing he has always been a "precocious little scamp".
 * All robots need beer to function, and that may not have been a cigar.
 * It was probably a cigar. However, drinking and smoking do not necessarily mean he is amoral befor the electric shock. He smoked cigars from the very first episode, saying "they make me look cool".
 * He has been charged for pimping.
 * Bender's apartment number is 00100100. This is a binary representation of the ASCII character '$' or 36 in decimal.
 * Bender's serial number is 2716057. This can be expressed as the sum of 2 cubes. Specifically, 9523 + (-951)3.
 * Additionally, he seems to be the 1729th unit produced by his "mommy".
 * The word "bender" can refer to a drinking spree, hinting at Bender's heavy alcohol use.
 * Bender's head contains a, and his ass an  . It is possible that inbetween the events of  and , he got a processor change, which would make sense considering that the Athlon II was introduced in 2009. After Cubert overclocks Bender's ass, Bender discovers that he has "an extra processor in his compartment of mystery".
 * Bender dies at the end of both of his what-if scenarios in each Anthology of Interest and both have one of the characters saying "Goodnight, sweet prince" (Fry in the first and Farnsworth in the second) to Bender when he dies.
 * His self-destruct code is "1A2B3". However, this appears to cause only his head to self-destruct, leaving the rest of his body intact and functional. This is a reference to the self-destruct codes of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" movie. However, the final code that must be entered is "0 0 0 Destruct 0" which leads to the destruction.
 * Bender cannot have magnets attached to his head, or it will "screw up his inhibition unit", thus causing him to sing crazy variations of folk songs.
 * Apparently stole the Prime Minister of Norway's arm.
 * Despite Bender being made of various metals as hard as iron and titanium, humans and other organic organisms seem to have little to no difficulty harming his metal body using only their fists and feet.
 * His birthstone is Robobium.
 * Is able to simultaneously reattach each of his severed arms with the other.
 * He cannot get up when he is knocked on his back. At least not until he learns how to from the majestic turtle.
 * His antenna interferes with satelite televisions, along with some cellphones.
 * He, along with Fry and Leela, appears in all episodes of the series.
 * No one can say he doesn't own John Laraquette's Spine.
 * In addition, he seems to own the skeletal remains of Charlamagne, as shown in "Jurassic Bark".
 * Bender has Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, fear of the number 666, as hinted in "The Honking".
 * Bender is the most evil robot in the series, as acknowledged by Robot Santa and the Robot Devil.
 * Bender has named his hands "Grabby and Squeezy," and his footcups "Stompy and Smashy."
 * Bender's favorite cause of death is being crushed to death by a big rig driven by The Incredible Hulk.
 * In Firefox 3, if you type "about:robots" into the address bar, a page with several cultural references to robots is displayed. The fourth bullet point says "Robots have shiny metal posteriors which should not be bitten."
 * His vanity plate reads “1 DVS BSTD” (one devious bastard).
 * He said the last sentence in all 4 films: "Well, we're boned", "I love you, meatbags!" , "Whip harder, Professor!" , "Into the breach, meatbags. Or not, whatever".
 * Bender's waste management facilities may convert material he consumes into bricks.
 * Bender's mighty robot powers allow him to get sick of things much quicker than humans.
 * Bender is said to be roughly 500 pounds in "Gender Bender" but in Into the Wild Green Yonder he says he is 2 tons. Despite this, he is shown as being easily lifted and carried by Fry in "Ghost in the Machines", suggesting that he may be significantly lighter than either of the above figures.
 * He goes into sleep mode whenever there is too much exposition.
 * Bender has appeared in Family Guy, "The Simpsons", and The Cleveland Show.
 * He has referred to his chest compartment as his "compartment of mystery" (6ACV25).
 * Bender was featured on the front cover of all the Futurama DVDs, until Volume 6.
 * In March 2012, hackers elected Bender to the.
 * Even though his head has been shown to function as a camera many times before (the first time being in "When Aliens Attack"), he still carries around his own portable camera (with film!) to remember "neat" events.
 * He owns a black-handled switchblade, which he often uses to sharpen wooden sticks to use for protection while in prison.

Name
Bender's full name was not revealed until Season 3. This is a list of appearances of the name "Rodriguez".


 * (as Bender Bending Rodriguez)
 * (as Bender B. Rodriguez)
 * (as Bender Bending Rodriguez and Bender Rodriguez)
 * (as Bender Bending Rodriguez)
 * (as Bender Rodriguez)
 * (as Bender Rodriguez)
 * (as Ben "Vending" Rodriguez)
 * (as B.B. Rodriguez)
 * (as Bender Rodriguez)
 * (as Ramblin' Rodriguez, Bender Rodriguez, and Rodriguez)
 * (as Bender B. Rodriguez, in speech and text, and Rodriguez)
 * (as Ramblin' Rodriguez, Bender Rodriguez, and Rodriguez)
 * (as Bender B. Rodriguez, in speech and text, and Rodriguez)

Voice
Of all the voices on the show, Bender's voice was the most difficult to cast. This is because none of the creators and crew were sure what a robot should sound like yet. So they had every voice actor who auditioned also audition for the role of Bender. Even David X. Cohen was suggested for the role.

John DiMaggio originally auditioned with Bender's voice for Professor Farnsworth. Among the bases for the voice were the character of Taggart from and DiMaggio's original character "Charlie the Sausage Lover". In the audio commentary of Spanish Fry, David X. Cohen joked about it also being "90 parts John DiMaggio."

Catchphrases
Bender's basic catchphrase is "Bite my shiny metal ass".

Variations on this include the following:
 * Bite my red-hot glowing ass!
 * Lick my frozen metal ass!
 * Bite my colossal metal ass!
 * Bite my splintery wooden ass!
 * Bite my glorious golden ass!
 * Bite my shiny metal face!!
 * Bite my shiny metal hat. (said by Fry)
 * Bite my tiny metal ass! (said by a microscopic Bender duplicate)
 * Bite my fhiny metal aff
 * Byte my 8-bit metal ass! (said by Bender during the video-game segment)

Other common catchphrases are:
 * "Me, Bender": whenever he says "me", he usually follows it with "Bender", thus producing the sentence "me, Bender." Thus making this the most said character name on the show.
 * "Well, we're boned.", said in situations where he, or a group of people including him, are in a large amount of trouble.
 * "I'm back, baby!" whenever he makes an intriguing appearance on the scene; Bender had also said the phrase "We're back, baby!" on numerous occasions, particularly in reference to the series' revival. At one point, Bender just said, "Yeah, we're back." while filing his "nails" after escaping the wormhole.
 * "Neat!", when Bender is taking a picture with his purple camera, usually of something disturbing or disgusting.
 * "Cheese it!" whenever he encourages other characters to run away from trouble. This is used less commonly.
 * "Fun on the bun", another less common catchphrase that is used whenever Bender describes amusement.
 * "He's pending for a bending.", a phrase used as a warning very few times throughout the show.
 * "Bender is great!", like "Me, Bender", he usually likes to say this to emphasize his enormous ego.
 * "Oooh!", a ghostly/eerie noise often accompanied by jazz hands when feigning supernatural abilities, etc... (The Gypsy machine also did this once to Fry)
 * "Kill all humans..." This is a much more prevalent saying of Bender's in the early episodes.

Bender also has a tendency to call humans "meatbag" when he is displeased or annoyed with them. Additionally, Bender regularly says "Kill all humans", although, in Leela's dream he claims to whisper "except one", referring to Fry, every time too. In "Naturama" when Bender is represented as an elephant seal, he mutters "Kill all penguins" in his sleep.



As stated in "War Is the H-Word", the top ten words that Bender uses more than any others is as follows:

Chump Chumpette Yours Up Pimpmobile Bite My Shiny Daffodil Ass 

It is by no means impossible that the second word in the list is not "metal" considering all the variations of his catchphrase. In reference to his use of the word "daffodil", he said the sentence "Hot-diggidy-daffodil" in this episode and again in. "Chumpette" is only uttered once though. "Pimpmobile" was also spoken by Bender in the game. However, in all likelihood, Bender's real most spoken words would most likely be along the lines of any other speaker of the English language: the, and, I, a, so; etc.

Assets and titles
Bender has, over the years gained many assets and ranks in various organizations and a large amount of wealth. Some of these include:


 * Served as Prime Minister of Trisol under the brief rule of Fry the Solid (most likely terminated when the old emperor came back into power or when Bender and the rest of the crew fled Trisol).
 * A castle, inherited from his uncle, though possibly forfeited when he failed to spend a night within.
 * Leader of the League of Robots
 * Commander of the Army of the Damned
 * Iron Cook, on the television show of the same name (Zinc Saucier)
 * The Dirty Double Cross, Earth's highest honor in swindling
 * Calculon's official stalker (possibly fired when he maimed Calculon during a duel)
 * Spy for the DOOP
 * An enormous amount of wealth from various crimes
 * Pharaoh of Osiris 4
 * Prime Minister of Norway, due to him having the real Prime Minister of Norway's hand AND career chip

Functions, attachments, and accessories
As we can see during the episodes, Bender has a lot of different functions. Here is a list of them:


 * Trash Can: Bender's own cavity can be used as a trash can. First seen "Space Pilot 3000" as he throws a bottle of beer inside himself.
 * Extenso-matic Eyes: His eyes can zoom out of his normal layer, so he can get a better view on things; they tend to fall out when he zooms too far. First seen also in "Space Pilot 3000".
 * Subway Car: His legs can extend onto rail tracks and his feet work like wheels, allowing Fry, Leela, and a random bum transportation in Old New York. Seen only in "The Luck of the Fryrish".
 * Extenso-matic arms: Bender's arms and legs are capable of extending to many times their normal length. First seen in "The Series Has Landed".
 * Gaydar: Bender pulls out a small radar device to prove to  Amy and Leela that a man they are interested in is gay.  It surprisingly works, seen in "Love's Labours Lost in Space".
 * Video Camera: Each of Bender's eyes can be used as a camera, either to take pictures or to film things. Both are first seen in "When Aliens Attack". He also has one more camera, located "below the equator" which does not always "perform".  The camera is never seen, but it can be heard extending.
 * Cowcatcher: In "A Taste of Freedom", Bender has a 19th century style cowcatcher installed to his front to clear a path through the crowd outside the Decapodian Embassy.
 * Barbecue: Bender's cavity is used the same way as a barbecue. He used it to cook some burgers. First seen in "When Aliens Attack".
 * Oven: His cavity can be used as an oven, to cook things. The real function name is "E-z Bake", and is used to cook a cake for Nibbler, in the episode "I Second that Emotion".
 * Refrigerator: His cavity can also be used to refrigerate, as seen also in "I Second that Emotion".
 * Stage Light: A light can come out of his cavity. He used it for the first time in "When Aliens Attack".
 * AC Power generator: Bender plugs a television power cord into his side in Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV.
 * Popcorn maker: Bender can make some popcorn in his cavity. He can also push down on his antenna to dispense butter. First seen in "Fear of a Bot Planet".
 * Keg: Bender can also serve some beers within is cavity. First seen in "Hell Is Other Robots"­.
 * Toilet: Bender's cavity is used as a toilet in the episode "The Cyber House Rules". He pushes his antenna to flush.
 * Recorder: Bender can record things with his head. First seen in "A Head in the Polls", to record Richard Nixon's head's words. He records onto magnetic tape cassettes.
 * Oxygen Supplier: In the episode "The Deep South", Bender is used as an Oxygen Supplier, that comes via some masks.
 * Exhaust Port: Bender's exhaust port is present in his ass, as seen in "Crimes of the Hot".
 * Flotation Device: In "The Deep South", Bender refer to his ass as a Flotation Device.
 * Pepper Grinder: In "The 30% Iron Chef", Bender inserts peppercorns in his mouth and shakes ground pepper out of his ass.
 * Beer Tub: Beer ferments in Bender's chest cavity in the episode "The Route of All Evil". It has a capacity of at least five gallons, six ounces.
 * Pager: Antenna glows and vibrates to notify the New Justice Team of a call from the mayor in "Less than Hero".
 * Oil Sprayer : Bender sprays oil on a cosmetic saleswoman in "A Fishful of Dollars".
 * Mail Box: Bender's antenna indicates when he is receiving mail. First seen in "Crimes of the Hot".
 * Chicken Deboner: Bender can debone a chicken by putting it into his mouth. He then regurgitates the chicken's skeleton and a feather duster. Seen in "The 30% Iron Chef".
 * Card Shuffler: Bender can put a deck of cards into his mouth to shuffle them, and then spit them back out to deal them. He can apparently spit them with enough force for them to cut through objects such as apples and hair. Seen in "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back".
 * Circular Saw: Bender can use his hands as a circular saw and lower a matching eyeshade to protect his eyes. First seen in "Less than Hero".
 * EFTPOS Machine: In "Leela's Homeworld", Bender takes the Professor's credit card and swipes it between his teeth to check its balance.
 * Laser Show: In "Jurassic Bark", Bender projects an expensive-looking laser show with his head, complete with techno music.
 * Flamethrower: Bender boils some water using flames coming out of his mouth in "Anthology of Interest I". May not be a real feature due the scene being part of a simulation.
 * Stadium air horn: In "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", the Robot Devil installs a stadium air horn under Bender's nose.
 * Voice Modifier: In "Bender Gets Made", Bender changed his voice via a control panel. Two voices are available : Robot (his normal voice), and King (his normal voice with a British accent).
 * Bug Zapper: In "Spanish Fry", Bender shows that he is apparently capable of charging his surface with electricity and using his head to electrocute bugs.
 * Lighthouse: In "Obsoletely Fabulous", Bender's revolving head and luminous eyes acted as a fully functional lighthouse. He can also emit a foghorn sound.
 * Pistol: In the cover of the game, Bender is shown using his finger as a pistol. Canon status of the game uncertain.
 * Cheating Unit: In "A Flight to Remember", Bender speaks of his "cheating unit" which predicts (inaccurately) the coming roll of the dice at craps.
 * Water Boiler: Boils and produces hot water for Calculon in "That's Lobstertainment!".
 * Safe: In "Put Your Head on My Shoulders", Bender stores money in his cavity, the combination lock dial can be seen on his door.
 * Movie Projector: In "Crimes of the Hot" Bender's head projects an educational film.
 * Pen: Finger can turn into a pen. Used to write down an address in "Xmas Time Is Fear" and to write down a joke in "Who's Dying to Be a Gazillionaire?", and to write a "A Plea For Attention" in "The 30% Iron Chef".
 * Cigar Lighter: His finger also flips up to reveal a cigar lighter. He uses this throughout the series to light his cigars.
 * Paper Shredder: Paper is inserted into his mouth, shredded and comes out of his chest. Used to shred the menu in Hell Is Other Robots.
 * Food Processor: Bender purées fish and regurgitates it to his surrogate penguin children in "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz".
 * Answering Machine: In "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch", Amy apparently uses him as an answering machine. He isn't a very good one, though, as he doesn't alert people to new messages, and then deletes them anyway.
 * CD Player: Bender can open his mouth panel to insert and play music CDs, as revealed in "Obsoletely Fabulous".
 * Projector: A deleted scene from the opening of The Beast with a Billion Backs shows Bender projecting the Futurama logo, and the blue beams displayed behind it, from the top of his head, possibly from his antenna.
 * Spray Paint: Bender is capable of spraying paint from his mouth, and does this when writing graffiti as seen in "A Pharaoh to Remember".
 * Suction Cup Feet: Bender can use his feet as suction cups, allowing him to walk on walls. This is seen in "Bendless Love".
 * Vacuum: Bender's arm can also can be used as a vacuum. As seen in the fourth movie; Into the Wild Green Yonder, sucking up slot coins.
 * Pencil Sharpener: Bender can sharpen a pencil, as seen in "Lethal Inspection".
 * Gyroscope: Bender is gyroscopically stable, as seen in "The Mutants Are Revolting".
 * Roller Skates: Roller Skates can extend from Bender's feet. Only seen once in "A Pharaoh to Remember".
 * Flash Camera: He uses his eyes to take pictures for the Girly Calendars in "Neutopia".
 * Cannon: If cannon ball is placed in his chest cabinet, his antenna can be lit to activate his cannon function. Bender didn't know he could do this. Seen in "All the Presidents' Heads".
 * Bicycle: He serves as a bicycle for himself and his son Ben in "The Bots and the Bees".
 * Tripod: He grows a third leg so that he can be his own tripod to photograph Leela, Farnsworth, Fry, Amy, Hermes and Zoidberg - in "The Thief of Baghead".
 * Defibrillators: Located inside his chest cabinet as seen in "How Much is that Mutant in the Window?".
 * Telephone Device: This was seen in "How Much is that Mutant in the Window?" on the inside of Bender's chest door, the tip of his antenna lit up red when he used it to call a tow ship to get himself, Fry, Leela and Nibbler home.
 * Jack- in volume two, episode two "Brannigan, Begin Again" Bender is used by Fry as a jack to lift the hover cart high enough to dump all the dark matter into the left engines furnace.
 * Fire Extinguisher: Located in his wrists. Seen in "The Inhuman Torch".
 * Airbag: Located in his chest cabinet. Seen in "Meanwhile".
 * Free Will Unit: Currently the only robot in possession of Farnsworth's free will unit.

Appearances
While Bender appears in every episode, film or comic, the following categories may be of interest;
 * A plots focusing on Bender
 * B plots focusing on Bender