Attack of the Killer App

"Attack of the Killer App" is the ninety-first episode of Futurama, the third of the sixth production season and the seventh broadcast season. It aired 1 July 2010 on FOX. It guest stars Craig Ferguson as Susan Boil. After Mom launches the new eyePhone, Fry and Bender race to getting a million followers on the Twitcher app.

Act I: "Good news, nobodies!"
At the New New York annual e-Waste event, Mayor Poopenmeyer announces the importance of throwing out dated e-waste. The Planet Express crew is there to throw out their old electronics, such as doomsday devices, Japanese toilets and evidence. When asked where all the waste goes, Poopenmeyer says they get some idiots to fly it off to the third world. This cues Farnsworth to announce to his crew that they are the idiots. The third world turns out to be the Third World of the Antares system, where all e-waste is dumped and burnt, turning it into ash and releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere. While the lead alien explains the process to the crew, the other aliens manage to partially dismantle the ship and Bender. Leela is horrified by the devastation caused by e-waste polution, and decides that the crew should avoid throwing out electronics just because it is dated, and takes back her old phone back.

Her noble actions are short lived when an ad for the new eyePhone appears on television, prompting the crew to immediately throw out their current phones and heads for the queue. The queue, however, reaches all the way through town. After a day of waiting, the crew begins to suspect that they are nothing but consumer zombies. Luckily, Dr. Ben Beeler is there to relieve them of their worries, as the eyePhone have all the apps you need. Upon finally arriving at the Mom Store, a giant screen with Mom announces that the eyePhones are in short supply, which spreads panic among the shoppers. The short supply line is revealed to be a method for increasing demand. Despite being told that the eyePhone has no choice of carrier, can't change the battery and more, Fry becomes impatient and demands the man at the counter to take his money. Fry's question as to why the device is called an 'eyePhone' is answered, when the salesman install it directly in Fry's eye.

Act II: "Did you know these eyePhones are phones too?"
Soon all the crew members are addicts to their eyePhones and especially the extra service, Twitcher, which allows them to send small video messages to everyone who wishes to see it. Bender becomes obsessed with the popularity he can easily gain from sending out videos and increasing his amount of followers. Fry, on the other hand, is not doing so well in numbers of followers, but decides to accept a challenge from Bender about who can first reach one million followers. The loser of the bet must bathe in a pool filled with puke and diarrhea from a two-headed goat.

Meanwhile, Mom is very pleased with the sale of her eyePhones, because they are a much more efficient way of sucking information out of people than her "old-fashioned methods like spybots and Infosquitoes". With Twitcher, people are apparently willing to post everything they do, which all eyePhones record and Mom can see all this information. In addition, she is pleased to learn that Bender and Fry are holding their million follower-Twitcher challenge, because when one person reaches one million followers, she can initiate her Twitt-worm, what she calls the true killer app of the eyePhone, but never fully explains what it does.

Back at Planet Express, Bender's follower numbers are rising fast, while Fry is still in the two digits. Fry learns about Leela's horrible secret, that she has a singing boil on her right butt cheek that she calls Susan Boil. In discovering it, his eyePhone also films it. Leela begs Fry not to upload it, even though it will increase the number of his Twitcher followers. Desperate not to lose, Fry uploads it anyway.

Act III: "Impending news, everyone!"
The video is a huge success, and Leela is devastated when she discovers that Fry lied to her. Walking through the streets of New New York, Leela feels she has become a freak show and desperately wants to hide her shame.

The video results in Fry and Bender reaching one million followers at the same time; with no winner, no one has to swim in the pool. Mom is even more pleased with the results, as she now has two million people she can infect with the Twit-worm. In front of the Planet Express headquarters, Leela finds Fry, who wants to apologize for uploading the video and explains he actually took a swim in the pool for her sake. But Leela has discovered that her boil is already yesterday's news, and nobody cares about it any more.

Meanwhile, around them, hundreds of people walking in a zombie like fashion begins emerging, all heading towards the Mom Store, where they are going to be the first to purchase the new eyePhone 2.0.

Production
The plot of "Attack of the Killer App" was among the plots mentioned at the Futurama panel at the 2009. And Craig Ferguson was among the first guest actors of the production season to come to the recording studio. During Comedy Central Insider's Countdown to Futurama, a storyboard was released showing Farnsworth and Hermes throwing out dangerous doomsday devices.

Reception
"Attack of the Killer App" aired 22:00, 1 July, 2010 on Comedy Central, following a rebroadcast of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela". It received 2.2 million viewers and a 1.1 adults 18-49 share.

Due to it's more topical nature compared to other episodes and the arguable out-of-character moments of some of the characters, several fans have an extremely low opinion of the episode, with some ranking it among the worst in the history of the series.

iPhone controversy
After having the aired "Attack of the Killer App", Comedy Central decided to remove the "eyePhone" reference in their online video previews, resulting in an awkward reaction to nothing by the characters. By this point, neither Comedy Central nor Apple Inc. have made a comment on why the line was removed, but MacLife holds that only one company could be interested in removing it.

Trivia

 * As in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela", the opening sequence was abridged in this episode. Consequently, there is no opening cartoon.
 * The title of the episode is a reference to the cult film .
 * 6 August, 1991 is the date announced the  project and software on the alt.hypertext newsgroup.
 * In his first two appearances, Scoop Chang was voiced by David Herman. In this episode, however, he is voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
 * For reasons unknown, Leela wears her full costume from Applied Cryogenics during the first part of the episode.
 * Among the zombies infected with the twitt-worm are two who bear a strong resemblance to Fry and Leela's replacements from "When Aliens Attack". There is a zombie character resembling from The Simpsons.
 * The crew (other than Fry, Bender and Leela) become zombies.

Continuity

 * The shell phone Zoidberg throws away debuted in The Beast with a Billion Backs.
 * The cell phone Amy throws away was first seen in "Amazon Women in the Mood".
 * The episode seemed to show the last of Flexo before his death, presuming he didn't escape afterwards.
 * Although it is revealed in "Lethal Inspection" that your typical Bending Unit can never die, but simply be transferred into a new body if need be.

Goofs

 * The hinges of Bender's chest cavity door are on the wrong side after the Antarians strip him halfway down.
 * Right after every crew member tosses their phones in the garbage, Zoidberg's pants are white instead of aqua.
 * How was Zoidberg able to afford an eyePhone when he is so poor?
 * When the eyePhone salesman that Fry talks to opens the eyePhone box, the Mom Store logo is properly oriented, but, once the box is opened and the camera angle changes, the logo is flipped upside-down, thus again properly oriented in relation to the camera. Also, after he reaches for the eyePhone, his hand grabs more than one copy. Strangely, in the very next scene, he has only one to give to Fry.
 * When Leela is talking to Fry after discovering the eyePhone functions as a phone, she is flying through space, as shown by the stars flashing by through the window. However, in the next second, she crashes the ship into the Planet Express building.
 * The ship moves at 99% the speed of light, so it is possible that it was in space one second, and landing at Planet Express in the next second.
 * The sitting arrangement changes when Leela crashes the ship.
 * Before: Fry - Amy - Empty - Zoidberg - Bender - Hermes - Empty - Empty
 * After: Fry - Amy - Zoidberg - Bender - Empty - Hermes - Empty
 * Note that there is one chair missing. Interestingly, the first sitting arrangement is the same as the one in "The Late Philip J. Fry".


 * Bender should be seated where Hermes was seated so the angle of the video he posted would be accurate.
 * In the final scene where everyone turns into a zombie, Fry and Leela are unaffected, even though both have eyePhones. Arguably, Fry could be unaffected because he is the worm carrier, but there is no explanation as to Leela.
 * The worm only affects the between 1 and 2 million of Bender and Fry's followers, and, when the crew had lunch at the pizza place across the street, Leela mentioned she had unsubscribed from Fry's Twitcher feed the day before, and was implied not to be a follower of Bender when Bender tweeted and no beeps were heard in the room.
 * The second time Fry and Leela hug, Fry has 4 legs.

Allusions
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 * Fry refers to Mr. Chunks as a puke-me-poop-you, possibly his species name, but surely a play on the two-headed pushmi-pullyu from the classic children’s series.
 * Susan Boil is a parody of Scottish internet singing sensation.
 * eyePhones are parodies of s.
 * Twitcher is a parody of the popular social networking site.
 * The scene of Leela exiting Elzar's Fine Cuisine is a parody of the famous scene of in .
 * The floating Screens are just like the hoverchair screens from 

Characters

 * Amy
 * Debut: Antarians
 * Ben Beeler
 * Debut: Ben Beeler's wife (deleted scene)
 * Bender
 * Bolt Rolands
 * Calculon
 * Scoop Chang
 * Chaz
 * Debut: Mr. Chunks
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Flexo
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Hoschel
 * Hypnotoad
 * Igner
 * Debut: Infosquito
 * Debut: Japanese toilet
 * Larry
 * Leela
 * Mayor Poopenmeyer
 * Mom
 * Monique
 * Morbo
 * Neutral President (cameo)
 * Sal
 * Scruffy
 * Stephanie
 * Debut: Susan the boil
 * Walt
 * Zoidberg