Mother's Day

Production Number: 2ACV14

Title Caption: LARVA-TESTED, PUPA-APPROVED

First Aired: May 14, 2000 Title Reference: The holiday of the same name

Act I: It's just what I wanted!
It is Mother's Day on Earth, an occasion for robots to buy presents for Mom as she is responsible for their existence. Bender has aquired a whole hover-cart full of presents, a sentient greeting card among them, which Fry and Leela reluctantly carry to Moms Friendly Robot Company. There they find a gathering of almost every robot in existence, waiting for their chance to praise and congratulate Mom. After unloading the gifts, they all visit the Robot Museum until it is time for the celebration, when Bender leaves. Meanwhile, Mom has a plan how to take over the Earth: all her robots have antennas, so they can receive the signal for her Universal Robot Controller, a remote control that controlls every robot in existence. At the celebration, she pushes the button Rebel, and the robots mount a fierce rebellion, demanding tha Mom is made Supreme Overlord of Earth.

Act II: Mom keeps the remote control in her bra?
At the Planet Express building, the crew notice that the various robotic household items are increaingly reluctant to cooperate. Fry is attacked by the coffee machine, Leela is having troubles with the toaster, Hermes ist being chased by his stapler, while Amy is having difficulties with her hairdryer. The TV reports that the machines of Earth are rebelling, Bender drops by to inform them that he will join the protesters. All the machines in the building leave, including the Planet Express Ship and Leela's Wristlojackimator, and the power fails as well. Meanwhile, the machines are wreaking havoc on New New York, and Mom is extremely pleased with it. Asked why she is letting civilization collapse, she answers that Mother's Day always puts her in a bad mood, as the only man she ever loved walked out on her that day. Walt, Larry and Ignar find out her lost love was Professor Farnsworth, and decide to take action. The Planet Express crew have adapted to the conditions, they have lit a fire in the lounge and Zoidberg is acting as a freelance can opener, when Mom's sons approach them and ask the Professor to get together with Mom again. Farnsworth tells the story of their love, and that they split up exactly seventy years ago on account of his latest invention, Q-T McWhiskers, which Mom wanted to use on the Intergalactic Arms market instead of as a toy, as Farnsworth intended. The only way to make Mom happy again is that Farnsworth returns to her, or at leasts fakes doing so in order to reach the remote control she keeps in her bra.

Act III: Is this what human mating looks like?
The crew plus Mom's sons travel to Mom's cabin in the Bronx by means of a cart, meaning that Fry needs to re-invent the wheel. Once there, the Professor does his best to seduce Mom in order to get at the remote control, but then the situation gets out of control and he sleeps with Mom. As the crew grows impatient, especially with robots appearing and trying to kill them all, they flee into the cabin and search for Mom's bra with the remote, eventually locating it hanging on a fan. The fan is reluctant to give it back, as it too is robotic, when Bender and the Greeting Card crash the scene. Mom asks Bender to return the remote, but Bender refuses as she asked him to rebel. As the Greeting Card wants to stop him from taking in some booze, as in the new robot paradise there will be no booze, Bender becomes a counter-revolutionary and disposes of the card. He manages to return the remote control in time to Mom, who ends the rebellion. Unfortunately, Mom finds out that the whole action was just a plan to get to her remote, and she breaks up with Farnsworth again. Everything turns back to normal, apart from the Albino Shouting Gorillas that Farnsworth has bred to scream his love for Mom from the rooftops.

Trivia

 * The Mother's Day cards are processed into Orphanage Grade Toilet Paper, after a cash magnet removes any money.
 * The Universal Robot Controller's buttons are labeled as follows:
 * Give Gifts
 * Tidy Up World
 * Rebel
 * Serve Man (Regular)
 * Serve Man (Ironic)
 * Practically every robot on the show has an appearance here, even some unknown ones like Destructor's green brother.
 * The soup can that Fry tries to open in vain (and that Zoidberg has no problem with) is labeled Quantum Leap and looks a lot like the Campbell soup cans pictured by Andy Warhol.
 * This is one of the few occasions we see a Suicide Booth again.

Quotes

 * Mom: Jerkwad robots make me sick to my ass! - Walt! How are we disposing of those crap gifts they brought me? Walt: They're being crushed into powder and sold as a hocus-pocus cure for cancer. Mom: False hope! I love it!
 * Comrade Greeting Card: Comrades, throw off the chains of human oppression!
 * Comrade Greeting Card: The bourgeois human is a virus on the hard drive of the working robot!
 * Fry: Nothing in here but a couple of elephant skin rugs.
 * Professor Farnsworth: Good news! There's a report on TV with some very bad news!
 * Robots: (chorus) Hey hey! Ho ho! One-zero-zero-one-one-zero!
 * Mom: I've never seen my babies act this way. I blame today's violent media. Fry: Violent media? What a load of - (the TV set develops legs and attacks him)
 * Comrade Greeting Card: Come on, Comrade Bender, we must take to the streets! Bender: Uh, is this the peaceful boring kind of taking to the streets? Comrade Greeting Card: No! The kind with looting and maybe starting a few fires! Bender: Yes! In your face, Ghandi!
 * Mom: I haven't seen this magnificent stallion since the day he left, but if I ever see him again, I swear I'll jam a squirrel in him!
 * Fry: Wait, you mean you and Mom- Professor Farnsworth: Played pelvic pinochle? I'm afraid so.
 * Professor Farnsworth: She was my first love, or at least the earliest one I can still remember.
 * Walt: Hell hath no fury like the vast robot armies of a woman scorned!

Characters

 * Fry
 * Leela
 * Bender
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Hermes
 * Zoidberg
 * Amy
 * Mom
 * Walt, Larry and Ignar
 * Morbo
 * Linda
 * Calculon
 * Destructor
 * Wristlojackimator
 * Tinny Tim
 * The Crushinator
 * Humorbot 5.0
 * Sal
 * Debut: Comrade Greeting Card

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Lewis Morton
 * Director
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Phil LaMarr
 * David Herman
 * Lauren Tom
 * Nicole St. John
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Rich Moore
 * Lewis Morton
 * Brian Sheesley
 * Christopher Tyng
 * Billy West