Fun on a Bun

"Fun on a Bun" is the one hundred and twenty-second episode of Futurama, the eighth of the seventh production season and the ninth broadcast season. Fry is the victim of a horrific sausage-making accident.

Act I: "I had to have the break-up sex by myself."
The Professor decides that the crew should relax from work and suggests that they go to Oktoberfest. Fry arrives at the event with excitement but discovers that it has developed into a sophisticated event over the years, attended by the most renowned and calling for the most proper behavior. Fry, upset at the changes, refuses to behave. Bender wants to enter the Sausage Contest, but Elzar points out that not just any type of meat will be enough and that he needs to be more creative. Bender is determined to find something extraordinary. Meanwhile, Leela is so outraged and embarrassed by Fry's behavior that she breaks up with him.

Act II: "Where happened? What am I?"
Fry continues to cry whilst Bender joins him because everyone has fancier sausage meat than him. Fry is full of anger stating Oktoberfest shouldn't be boring. A historical projection shows that Oktoberfest is held in Neander Valley, where Neanderthals and mammoths lived. Bender decides to use Mammoth meat for his sausage entry betting on its rarity as an advantage. Bender and Fry take the ship out looking for mammoths with an elephant detector. Bender then locates a Mammoth which they proceed to recover using the ship's egines. Bender pulls out a Mammoth then uses a "Mammal Mulcher" to turn the mammoth into sausage. While Fry helps Bender eviscerate the creature, he is caught by the machine and then sucked in. Bender does not hear Fry screaming and continues to create sausages whilst singing. Shreds of Fry's hair and clothes come through with the sausages. Bender then enters the competition, and his sausages are well received moving him to the next round. Leela, congratulating him, then eats one of Benders hot dogs, covered in Fry's clothes and hair. In a panic, Leela screams, believing she has eaten Fry. Back at Planet Express, the crew are seen having a funeral for Fry whilst Leela states that she cannot go on knowing what she has done. Leela goes to Annie's Forgettery, where the pathways for all of her memories of Fry are severed preventing her from remembering him. The crew find it very difficult not to trigger any thoughts of Fry in Leela. Meanwhile Fry is seen frozen in a glacier.

Act III: "Battalion A: smash things. Battalion B: smash different things."
It is then revealed that Fry had survived Bender's sausage machine with only his chicken hat. However, upon escaping, he falls down the hole hitting his head and is knocked unconscious. In doing so, Fry's head swells in cave man manner. Fry is later found in the glacier by Neanderthals, who free him and believe him to be a kindred Neanderthal. Fry is scared for a few seconds whilst gazing upon the Neanderthal world but is convinced that he is one of them. Meanwhile, everyone is still trying to prevent Leela from remembering Fry. However, she still finds traces of Fry and feeling upset for reasons she can't explain. Fry also experiences similar feelings over Leela while looking at the tail of a prehistoric Warthog but due to the amnesia he's under, is only confused by it. Fry learns the story of why Neanderthals were living in the glacier and how Homo-Sapiens came to rule the Earth. During ancient times, the Homo-Sapiens shunned the lesser Neanderthal who wanted to interbreed and be as one and left them to live in isolation. The Neanderthals find the hole in the glacier leading up to the surface that Fry and Bender had made earlier. Fry then leads the Neanderthals to invade Oktoberfest to rightfully take back what is theirs. Leela is still affected by objects that remind her of Fry, Leela believes she should be happy because Bender's sausage had won third place, however Bender is upset stating it as the worst crime that Germany has ever committed. Zapp Brannigan, as one of the judges, tries to flirt with Leela however, before he can, there is a tremor. After the smoke clears Fry is revealed with an army of Neanderthals riding mammoths to attack Oktoberfest. The Planet Express crew are in shock gaping at the army. Fry commands his army to kill all Humans, to which Bender happily cheers before being crushed by a mammoth's foot. The mammoths continue to recklessly smash various stalls and tents whilst the confused Planet Express crew, and others, run. Meanwhile, Bender finds the other contestants who placed higher than him in the sausage competition and arranges their ends in the commotion and steals the contestants' trophy and sashs. Zapp Brannigan makes foolish attempts to stop the army with modern technology but is outwitted. Zapp then tries to use the Nimbus, however that fails, and it crashes to the ground. Leela is outraged by the invaders and aims the Planet Express Ship right at the leader, Fry. Fry and Leela end up in combat with each other after his mammoth downs the ship with its tusks. However, Leela and Fry, unable to recognize each other, feel an oddly inherent connection to each other and embrace in a romanticly passionate kiss. The neural pathways in Leela's memory regenerate in a flood of memories she's shared with Fry as his amnesia lifts and his head unswells. The two are able to finally recognize each other and are back together. Seeing this union between a "Neanderthal" and a Sapien, the Neanderthal Chief forgives Homo-Sapiens for their ancestors' ways and the two sides begin bonding. Oktoberfest is returned to how it was back in Fry's day. Leela asks Fry if he wants to dance the chicken dance on top of the table, as he'd done earlier to her embarassment, to which Fry replies, "just this once I will let you embarass me". The episode ends with Leela dancing the chicken dance.

Production
In 2011, a few revelations concerning the episode were made. On 15 November, Futurama assistant director Aimee Steinberger revealed that "[the production team was] done with [the episode]", calling it "[her] most time intensive grueling ep ever", and that the animatic would be screened "on the FOX lot [on the next day]". On the next day, after leaving the screening, she revealed that "Everyone [had] liked it" and, after watching the animatic, Futurama writer Eric Rogers revealed that it "might be [the best episode of the ninth broadcast season]", calling it "EPIC".

In 2012, more revelations concerning the episode were made. On 29 February, CGEF revealed the episode's title, its writer to be Dan Vebber and its director to be Stephen Sandoval. On 20 April, Steinberger revealed that she "[had seen] fully animated color acts 2 and 3 back from Korea on [her 7ACV08 the previous day]" and that she "still [thought it was] a really great show" and Rogers jokingly asked her if "[she had been] expecting it to be worse". On the next day, she, in reply to him, revealed that "[it had been] demanding a lot" and that "[she thought that] when [it was] done [it would] be nice" and he, in reply to her, revealed that "[it was] a monster, for sure, but [that Rough Draft] always [delivered]" and that "[it would] be awesome as always". By 8 June, had revealed the episode's plot and air date.

In June, Countdown to Futurama began releasing promotional material for the episode. It has so far released seven items: a design of the cover of Unfrozen Dude Magazine on 13 June, a design of a Neanderthal chief on 14 June, part of the storyboard set in a sausage contest showing Bender angry about winning third place and Zapp as a judge on 15 June, a design of a Neanderthal version of Fry on 16 June, a promotional picture showing a drunk Fry on 17 June, a video clip featuring Bender and a drunken Fry, wearing a chicken over his head, searching for woolly mammoth with an elephant detector on 18 June and a promotional picture of a group of Neanderthals charging with woolly mammoth on 19 June. The seventh Countdown to Futurama podcast revealed more information about the episode, including elements of its plot.

On 12 July, following the broadcast of the episode "Zapp Dingbat", the public were given the opportunity to participate in a live chat with the Futurama cast and crew. Several clips of "Fun on a Bun" were shown during the live stream.

Reception
On 3 May 2012, Aimee Steinberger revealed that she had "watched the finalish color, full animation for [the episode] at the FOX lot [on that day]", that "it really did turn out nice" and that she was "Really proud of [it]" and Eric Rogers called it the "2013 Emmy nominee", "Epic fun" and "awesome".

Trivia

 * This episode is among the Futurama media featuring its title within the story.
 * This episode was first broadcast the same day Futurama Comics issue Lost Our Leela was released, both stories feature Leela loosing memories.
 * Polka/rock band recorded two songs to be used in the Oktoberfest scenes during this episode, as well as a cover of the . The band have also appeared in Matt Groening's other show The Simpsons, in the episode . Groening is a long-time fan of the band.

Allusions

 * The episode's title is a reference to Bender's catchphrase "fun on the bun".
 * Bender putting a giant set of ribs in front of Zapp Brannigan is a reference to the closing credits of the.
 * Leela's memories of Fry are erased in Annie's Forgettery, this could be an allusion to the film.
 * The region of Valley corresponds with the modern Bundesland of.
 * The "double dip" might be a reference to a Seinfeld episode where George Costenza is disgusted for the same reason as Leela.
 * The History machine refers to the Woolly Mammoths as Snuffleupagus which is a recurring character in Sesame Street
 * When Hermes first sees a mammoth, he refers to them as "Hairy Elephantes" which is an allusion to American singer/songwriter Harry Belafonte

Continuity

 * Zapp tells Leela that "this time I'm the one criticizing the sausage."
 * When Leela regains all her memories of Fry, scenes of them together are shown from "Space Pilot 3000", "The Series Has Landed", "Fear of a Bot Planet", "My Three Suns", "A Flight to Remember", "Leela's Homeworld", "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", "The Sting", "The Farnsworth Parabox", "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", "Bender's Game", "Into the Wild Green Yonder", "The Late Philip J. Fry", "The Prisoner of Benda", "The Mutants Are Revolting" and "Overclockwise".
 * When Leela regains all her memories of Fry, scenes of them together are shown from "Space Pilot 3000", "The Series Has Landed", "Fear of a Bot Planet", "My Three Suns", "A Flight to Remember", "Leela's Homeworld", "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", "The Sting", "The Farnsworth Parabox", "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", "Bender's Game", "Into the Wild Green Yonder", "The Late Philip J. Fry", "The Prisoner of Benda", "The Mutants Are Revolting" and "Overclockwise".

Goofs

 * The Neanderthals already speak English when they find Fry.
 * Ground sloths and saber-tooth cats were only found in the Americas, thus Neanderthals would have never interacted with them. Furthermore, the Neanderthals would have froze over before these species went extinct
 * During the invasion, the ship is seen firing, but in previous episodes a gunner (Fry) was in place. The gunner position itself is unnecessary if Leela can control the ships guns all from her console.
 * It is most likely that the ship has a targeting system via Leela's console, but a manual gunner position is available to take the strain off of the captain so he/she can concentrate on flying.
 * Or she had an unseen person in the gunner's spot.
 * Although the map of Germany and the location of the famous Neanderthal are quite accurate, the Oktoberfest is actually held in Munich, in the southeast. The glaciers of the Alps nearby would have made a good place for finding prehistoric mammoths and people, since for example Ötzi the Iceman was found there.
 * The history booth specifies that Oktoberfest has been held in the Neander Valley for "hundreds of years," implying that it had been held somewhere else earlier.
 * Bender says that the mammoth will have been aged for 30,000 years -- but freezing meat does not age it.
 * The Neanderthals are shown having a catapult, but the catapult wasn't invented till about three thousand years ago, long after the Neanderthals were trapped.
 * They may have invented it themselves, possibly by Fry's guidance.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Elzar
 * Farnsworth
 * Fry
 * Debut: Grundy
 * Hermes
 * Kif
 * Leela
 * Debut: Neanderthal chief
 * Ron Whitey
 * Zapp
 * Zoidberg