Fry Am the Egg Man

"Fry Am the Egg Man" is the one hundred and tenth episode of Futurama, the twenty-second of the sixth production season and the ninth of the eighth broadcast season. It aired 11 August, 2011 on Comedy Central. Fry nurtures an alien egg that hatches into a horrific monster.

Act I: "There's nothin' wrong with a little fast food once or twice a meal."
After a dangerous delivery, the crew eats at Fishy Joe's, and Leela becomes upset because of the vague sources of fast food. They go to the local farmer's market to buy known foods (and some Zuban cigars for Bender). She blackmails the crew to eat them, but Fry decides to hatch an egg after learning that the ones bought are fertile.

Act II: "Kill it before someone names it!"
Fry raises the egg for a week, and it hatches into a horrific monster that he names Mr. Peppy. Mr. Peppy grows to full size in a few days, and Farnsworth discovers that Mr. Peppy is a ravenous Bone Vampire. Realizing they can't keep it on Earth, they send it back to its homeworld, Doohan 6, to repopulate the species.

Act III: "This is gonna kill him more than it does me."
After setting Mr. Peppy free, the crew goes to a nearby barn where they tell the villagers that they set the creature loose, thus threatening the populace. Leela's friend Angus McZongo spearheads the hunt as Fry assures them that Mr. Peppy is harmless. After Leela is attacked by Mr. Peppy, Fry decides to kill his pet himself. When he shoots, however, it is revealed to be McZongo dressed in a bone vampire costume, who admits that he was responsible for the attacks. Suddenly, they notice Mr. Peppy sucking the skeleton from some sheep, and Fry decides to kill him until the villagers spare the beast because they can use it as a way to slaughter their excessive livestock.

Production
During May and June 2011, Countdown to Futurama released three items of promotional material for the episode: concept art of a new character, Mr. Peppy, on 30 May, part of the storyboard showing Bender and Fry at the drive-thru on 31 May, and a video clip featuring Bender and Mr. Peppy playing fetch on 19 June.

Reception
In the original U.S. broadcast on 11 August, 2011, the episode scored a 0.7 share among adults aged 18-49, down a tenth from the previous week, and 1.462 million viewers, up about 3,000 views from the previous week.

Trivia

 * This is one of four episodes of broadcast season 8 to be broadcast in production order. The other three are "Cold Warriors", "Overclockwise" and "Reincarnation".
 * The song heard during the montage of Fry keeping the egg safe is "Eggman" by Eli Wolfe.
 * If Leela is correct about her having 205 bones, she would have one less than normal humans.
 * It is unclear what bone she is missing. It may be that she has one lacrimal or nasal bone instead of two due to her strange head shape (i.e., her one eye).

Allusions

 * The title is a play on the lyric "I am the egg man" from ' song "".
 * The plot bears some resemblance to The Simpsons episode "".  nurtures two orphaned "bird" eggs until they hatch, but they turn out to be two s that wreak havoc on.
 * Incidentally, that episode was the last full one written by David X. Cohen before he began working on Futurama.
 * The "Local Group Farmers Market" refers to the, which is the group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way.
 * When Fry says to Dr. Zoidberg "Leggo my egg-o, crab-o," this is a parody of the famous Eggo Waffles commercial slogan.
 * The Medieval Monster Manual that Professor Farnsworth shows the crew is titled "Gygaxicon" with a picture of a dodecahedron above the title. This is a reference to Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons.
 * After Professor Farnsworth announces that the creature is a "Bonus Vampirus", or bone vampire, Dr. Zoidberg exclaims "Dios Mio!" and crosses himself in the Catholic fashion, followed by continued crossing using dance moves from the Macarena.
 * After setting Mr. Peppy free, Bender announces, "Hold up! There's alcohol around here somewhere. My Tanqueray-dar is goin' crazy." Tanqueray-dar is a of the words "" and "radar".
 * The planet Doohan 6 and its Scottish-like inhabitants are a reference to, "Scotty" of Star Trek fame. Incidentally, he was the only living Star Trek: The Original Series cast member at the time of production (he died in 2005) to refuse to appear in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before".
 * The name of the character Angus McZongo is a reference to, a comic book company founded by Matt Groening.
 * Zuban cigars are an obvious reference to the coveted Cuban cigars.
 * Fry's "would not, could not" speech mimics the style of Dr. Seuss, specifically the children's book .
 * When Amy says "Jinkies, he Scooby-Dooed us," this is an obvious reference to  and its character Velma's catchphrase "Jinkies".
 * When Fry says, "He's not a fighter, he's a lover, like Dwayne 'The Rock' 'Tooth Fairy' Johnson," This is a reference to former wrestler, now-actor and the movie  which he starred in.
 * When the sheep farmer woke up to find his sheep deboned he let out a string of words including "Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff"; Famous houses of Hogwarts in Harry Potter. He also says the names of three Akira Kurosawa movies (Dersu Uzala, Yojimbo, Rashomon) before announcing that Mr. Peppy should live.


 * The overall plot of the episode resembles the legends of the and the.

Continuity

 * At the start of the episode, Fry, Leela, and Bender appear to be wearing the same uniforms they received from Awesome Express in "The Route of All Evil".
 * Bender watches All My Circuits, a TV program that has appeared several times before.
 * Fishy Joe's makes its first appearance since "The Problem with Popplers".
 * He appeared briefly in The Beast with a Billion Backs
 * Despite the fact that Fishy Joe's sold popplers (Omicronian young) as food in "The Problem with Popplers", Lrrr is still eating at Fishy Joe's.
 * Lrrr is seen driving the 3011 Thundercougarfalconbird that he bought in "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences".
 * Fry suffers his fifth heart attack in this episode, and his second in season 6 after Bender induced one in "Ghost in the Machines".
 * This episode also shows the cure for heart attacks mentioned in "The Cryonic Woman"
 * The Amazonian women reappear at the Local Group Farmer's Market selling "Aunt Snu-Snu's Maple Syrup". The term "snu-snu" on Amazonia means "sex" as established in "Amazon Women in the Mood".
 * Also, Fry is once again "scare-roused" by the presence of the Amazonian women.
 * Zuban Cigars are re-established as fine smokables since "Three Hundred Big Boys".
 * Fry and Leela's relationship appears to be completly reset by writers; Leela refers to Fry as "strictly platonic friend."
 * Leela could have been buttering up McZongo.

Goofs

 * At the end of the previous episode, "That Darn Katz!", as a result of the earth rotation being reversed, the sun is shown setting to the east side of the Planet Express headquarters. However, the sun is shown rising on that same side the morning Leela makes breakfast for the crew.


 * When Mr. Peppy takes Bender's arm off, there are wires seen in his arm hole opening. However, in many other episodes in which Bender's arms are removed (such as "Space Pilot 3000"), there are no wires that connect them to his body.
 * They may be connected to the sockets his arms plug into.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Boxy Robot
 * Calculon
 * Debut: Doohan Sheep
 * Fishy Joe
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Hydroponic Farmer
 * Leela
 * Lrrr
 * Debut: Angus McZongo
 * Monique
 * Debut: Mr. Peppy
 * Ornik
 * Thog
 * Debut: The smart-ass teen
 * Zoidberg