Mars University

"Mars University" is the eleventh episode of Futurama and of the first production season, and the second of the second broadcast season. It aired 3 October, 1999 on FOX. Farnsworth has a laboratory experiment, which he needs to develop in his lab at Mars University. Meanwhile, Fry also enrolls at the university to be a drop-out, and Bender teaches the Fratbots how to be cool again.

Act I: "Is it dangerous?"
The Prof. Farnsworth tells the crew they'll be delivering a package to him at his office at Mars University (MU). When Fry asks if it's safe, Farnsworth insists it is. Then the crate starts shaking and something inside growls, and Farnsworth loads a tranquilizer gun and shoots whatever is inside.

Act II: "Are you here to fumigate the moosehead?"
When the crew arrives on Mars, Fry says that back in the 20th century no one had any idea there was an university in the planet, but according to the Professor it became a liveable planet much later when the university was founded. They tour the campus and see the Wong Library (with the largest collection of literature in two discs) and the Epsilon Rho Rho fraternity house, Bender's college fraternity. He finds out three nerdy robots live there now. Fry remembers his college days at Coney Island Community College where he learned physics in a Community College Booth; however, he is outraged when Leela informs him that by 31st century standards, he is merely a high school dropout. He decides to enroll in classes at MU so he can drop out and get the respect he feels he deserves. In the student registration lines Fry meets Amy and she asks what class he will take. He chooses "The Mathematics of Quantum Neutrino Fields", the class the professor teaches every semester, though he made up the title so that no student would dare to take it. Farnsworth doesn't know how to teach but Fry doesn't care. At night, Bender and the Fratbots, Gearshift, Oily and Fatbot, spy on a Sorority House, where sexy blondes pillow fight in their slinky underwear. One of them is using a Mac, and when its front panel comes off, the robots stare at its circuits until they fall off the ladder and the members of the Snooty House see them, so they start to run.

Act III: "My roommate is a monkey?"
Fry gets to his room. He thinks it's a single though there are two beds. He learns his room-mate is a monkey. It turns out the monkey, Guenter, was in the crate they were delivering. By wearing Farnsworth's latest invention, the Electronium Hat, Guenter receives heightened intelligence. Fry starts to dislike Guenter but they must be room-mates so the professor won't have to remember two numbers. In the 20th Century History Lecture Hall, Fry, Amy and Guenter meet the teacher who says one in twelve of them will not pass the class. When Guenter answers a question on the 20th century that Fry couldn't, and Amy says he's smart and cute, Fry gets jealous. Meanwhile, Bender and the ERR fratbots get into more trouble, earning the wrath of Dean Vernon. He is angry about what they did so he decides to put the Robot House members on dodecatupple-secret probation. After that, Fatbot eats the Dean's model spaceship (the only thing that keeps the Dean sane), which makes him even angrier. In a cafe, Fry tries to chat up a girl, but she prefers Guenter, who gets her number. At the university parent's reception, everyone is with their parents. Amy presents her parents to the dean and Farnsworth presents Guenter's parents in a cage to him. He is horrified, and even more so when Fry frees them. They destroy all the room and throw "something" at the Dean.

Act IV: "I spent months slaving over a hot monkey brain!"
Leela tells Fry what he did to Guenter was cruel. When they enter their room, they see Guenter eating bananas, despite his claim not to like bananas. Guenter says that he, of course, DOES like bananas, and his hat doesn't make him happy. Fry suggests he should go to the jungle, but Guenter says that as the professor's prize experiment, he couldn't do that to him. At the 20th century class, the students have a test, but Guenter is overcome by his animal urges, so he removes the hat and jumps out a window. When Fry tells Farnsworth he told him to escape to the jungle they go after him.

In a rafting contest between the various fraternities, Bender's raft races past Fry, Leela and the Professor; The resulting splash washes them into the river. Bender's team wins the race, but now it's up to Guenter to save the three humans from falling over a waterfall. When Guenter figures out how to put the hat on, he climbs a tree and saves them, but ends up about to fall himself. He says he doesn't want to live like this, then falls crushing the hat which saves him. With the damaged hat working at only half-capacity, Guenter decides he is happy, and decides to transfer to Business school, much to the chagrin of Farnsworth. Because of their victory in the Regatta, Dean Vernon is forced to lead a parade in ERR's honor, and everyone, including Fry, Leela, Amy, Guenter, Farnsworth (now happy with Guenter), Bender, the Dean and the Fratbots enjoy a party in the campus. Captions show the future of each character.

Character Future Captions
At the end of the episode, they run a musical montage. It features freeze-frames of several characters with subtitles telling their futures (a reference to the end of "Animal House", among other films), to the tune of "Shout".
 * Fry: Fry Dropped Out Successfully And Returned To His Dead-End Delivery Job
 * Guenter: Guenter Got His MBA And Became President Of The Fox Network
 * Fatbot: Fatbot Caught A Computer Virus In Tijuana And Had To Be Rebooted
 * Leela: Leela Went On a Date With Dean Vernon, But He Never Called Again
 * Bender: His Job Done, Bender Stole Everything Of Value From Robot House And Ran Off

Trivia

 * This is one among few Futurama media featuring its title.
 * This is the first episode with alternate opening music. The others are "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television", "Spanish Fry" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder Part 1".
 * This is one of only two episodes in which Dr. Zoidberg didn't appear, the other being "Space Pilot 3000".
 * This episode was named #21 on IGN's list of Top 25 Futurama Episodes.
 * This episode was named #3 on TV.com's list of Top 10 Futurama Episodes.
 * Students in the 20th Century History class include Hess, Pereira, Mandel, Kidd, Cyterski, Fry, Guenter, Wong, Patrizio, Gutrich, Dempsey, and Mignoni (confirmation needed). Since the shock board has Wong on it instead of Amy, it is a list of last names, not first.
 * The book Chrissy is reading is called English 101. Her phone number is 784-36λ9, where λ is the Greek letter lambda.
 * The Snooty House's water craft is called S.S. Von Snoot.
 * Epsilon Rho Rho can Be shortened as ERR, which is a abbreviation of Error.

Allusions

 * The plot line involving Bender and Robot House is a spoof of the movie Animal House.
 * Guenter's line "You like bananas? I got her number. How do you like them bananas?" is a reference to the movie Good Will Hunting.
 * 20th Century Lecturer was based on the stuffy professor from The Paper Chase played by John Houseman. Amy Wong comments, "Boring!  Let's hear about Walter Mondale already!"  However, in some dubbed versions, Walter Mondale was replaced by.

Goofs

 * Leela's Wristlojackimator disappears in the shot after she whispers her plan to Fry and the professor.
 * The Greek letter is represented as "Ρ", but on Robot House, it is shown as "ERR". The  has no letter that looks similar to the Latin "R".
 * There is a splash sound after Guenter falls, though when we see him in the next scene he is not wet and his hat is smashed.
 * Guenter was standing on a log which could have been the cause of the splash, while Guenter perhaps jumped off the log and onto land.
 * Fry is surprised to see a university on Mars, but the Professor tells him there is one when he is talking about Dr. Ogden Wernstrom's A-minus in "A Big Piece of Garbage". Fry's memory is typically not very reliable, though.
 * Normally, Fry gets a "Fryfro" when he gets electrocuted, but in this episode his hair only gets unorganized.
 * Fry couldn't have spit out the punch since he hadn't taken in the glass. In the commentaries to the episode, the crew talks about this and one points out that that was the joke - they had to specifically tell the animators to not have him come in with a glass.
 * When Fry enrolls into the university, Amy is standing right behind him. However, since her last name (Wong) doesn't start with A-L, she should have been waiting in the adjacent line.
 * However, she may have only been there just to talk to Fry and later left to join her respective line.

Characters

 * Debut: 20th Century Lecturer
 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Carnival Ride Operator
 * Debut: Chet
 * Debut: Chrissy
 * Debut: Dean Vernon
 * Debut: Dorm Girls
 * Dr. Wernstrom
 * Debut: Fatbot
 * Fry
 * Debut: Gearshift
 * Debut: Guenter (Semi-Antagonist)
 * Debut: Guenter's Parents
 * Leela
 * Leo and Inez Wong
 * Debut: Meidermeyer
 * Debut: Mrs. Fry (mentioned)
 * Debut: Oily
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Debut: Yancy Fry Sr. (mentioned)

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * J. Stewart Burns
 * Director
 * Bret Haaland
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Dave Herman
 * Lauren Tom