A Head in the Polls

"A Head in the Polls" is the sixteenth episode of Futurama, the third of the second production season and the seventh of the second broadcast season. It aired 12 December, 1999 on FOX. It guest stars Claudia Schiffer as herself in a jar. Richard Nixon announces his entry into the 3000 presidential election after obtaining Bender's body. Despite the attempt to get Nixon out of the race, Nixon wins the election.

Act I: "How are you going to live without a body?"
Bender and Fry are on the couch at Planet Express watching "The Scary Door" when Leela runs in and changes the TV to C-SPAN9, which is showing the Presidential Debates of the year 3000. The candidates, Jack Johnson and John Jackson, are clones, with identical views on nearly every subject. Fry says he's not even registered to vote, so Leela makes him go register immediately. Fry meets representatives from all the political parties, and begins to become interested in politics. Back at Planet Express, they see a news report about a mining accident on Titan traps over 1000 robots and sends Titanium prices through the roof. Bender, whose body is 40% titanium, sells his body to a pawn shop.

Act II: "My body loved me and I turned its back on it."
Bender begins living it up with his new wealth. After speaking with the presidents' heads at the Head Museum, Bender realizes he has made a mistake and tries to buy back his body. But when he gets to the pawn shop, his body has already been sold - to Richard Nixon's head. It unfolds that Nixon is using Bender's body to run for President of Earth on a technicality ("nobody can be elected more than twice").

Act III: "You've got real charisma from the neck down."
Nixon&#8217;s Head, thanks to his shiny new robot body, sweeps the robot voters in early polls in spite of his miserable performance in the debates. Bender and friends try to get Bender's body back from Nixon. When Nixon refuses to return it, they break into his hotel room at the Watergate Hotel to steal it back. They are successful, but Nixon just buys a new body, a bigger one, with heavy weapons, and slides into office on the robot vote anyway. The regular characters all lament that Nixon won by just one vote, and that they all forgot to cast their own votes (apart from Bender, who wasn't allowed to vote anyway due to his criminal record). The episode ends with Nixon rampaging through the streets of D.C. and making a himself a new entrance to the White House.

Trivia

 * Among those on the shelf of the TV Stars section of the Head Museum is Katey Sagal, the voice of Leela.
 * The title caption was used for an Adult Swim bumper, which promoted their final Futurama marathon (seeing as how they were moving to Comedy Central).
 * C-SPAN9 is a parody of the television network and its three channels, C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, and C-SPAN3.
 * When the binary scene appears a few seconds later you can see a 2 at the bottom left corner.

Allusions

 * Books in the library in The Scary Door episode include:
 * Antigravity's Rainbow (referencing )
 * Quantum Relativity for Dummies ()
 * The Preppy Handbook
 * The Newer Testament (The )
 * The Red Dwarf of Courage ()
 * Robot Run ()
 * 2984 ()
 * The Scary Door itself is a spoof of ', aparticularly of the episode '.
 * President Nixon sings a line of  with his pawned electric guitar while on TV.
 * The stoner who represents the "Dudes for the Legalation of of Hemp" tells Amy that "Dave's not here, man". This line is likely a reference to the famous  routine "Dave", in which a man named Dave argues through a door with his stoned friend to let him in, but his friend just yells out "Dave's not here!".
 * Bender uses the famous "shaken, not stirred" line from  while ordering a martini.
 * Nixon saying that he wouldn't give up his dog Checkers is a reference to the famous "" that then-Senator Nixon gave on 23 September, 1952 after being nominated for Vice President, in which Nixon defended himself against allegations of financial impropriety.

Censorship

 * When this episode was broadcast on Sky3/Pick TV in the United Kingdom, Bender's explanation of "That dirty, double-crossing bastard! How dare he run of with Richard Nixon!" after he discovers that his body is being used by Richard Nixon's head was removed, probably because it was on before 8pm.

Goofs

 * Leela and Bender's Arms are overlapped incorrectly in one scene
 * The White House is in Washington DC now but in "When Aliens Attack" it was destroyed on Monument Beach. However they could have built a new one.
 * When Bender is on the roulette wheel the only numbers to remain in the same positions between the horizontal and birds eye shots are the 21 red and 33 black.
 * Bender states he has a self destruct button yet in "Space Pilot 3000" he requires a suicide booth to kill himself.
 * However he may simply prefer the booth.
 * When Bender is taping, his pupils do not look like the recording symbol, as they did in "Brannigan, Begin Again".
 * In "Hell Is Other Robots", Bender ends robot grace with 2, but in this episode Fry tells him there is no such thing as 2.
 * It's religion.
 * Scoop Chang tells Richard Nixon that "the constitution clearly states that nobody can be elected president more than twice". Nixon has never run for President of Earth, but for President of the United States.
 * It is possible that "president" refers to both titles.
 * The Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution actually states "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice," using the word "person" rather than "body."
 * It's also possible that there is a new Earth constitution with a different wording.

Alien Language Sightings
Time:08:36

Location: Sign next to Planet Express

Language: AL1

Translation: drink

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Brain Slugs
 * Bill Clinton's head
 * Debut: Checkers' head
 * Debut: Claudia Schiffer's head
 * Fry
 * George H. W. Bush's head
 * Gerald R. Ford's head
 * Hermes
 * Debut: Jack Johnson
 * Debut: John Jackson
 * Jimmy Carter's head
 * Leela
 * Linda
 * Morbo
 * Debut: Pawnshop Worker
 * Poster Guy
 * Farnsworth
 * Debut: Scoop Chang
 * Zoidberg
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * George Washington's head

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * J. Stewart Burns
 * Director
 * Bret Haaland
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Phil LaMarr
 * David Herman
 * Lauren Tom
 * Special Guests
 * Claudia Schiffer
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * J. Stewart Burns
 * John DiMaggio
 * Billy West
 * Scott Vanzo
 * David X. Cohen
 * Bret Haaland
 * Rich Moore