Difference between revisions of "A Head in the Polls"

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=== Censorship ===
=== Censorship ===
When this episode was shown 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!" was removed, because it was on before 8pm.
*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.


=== Quotes ===
=== Quotes ===

Revision as of 18:02, 28 September 2011

Season 2 episode
A Head in the Polls
A Head in the Polls.jpg
Nixon with Bender's body
No.16
Production number2ACV03
Written byJ. Stewart Burns
Directed byBret Haaland
Title captionFrom the Makers of Futurama
First air date12 December, 1999
Broadcast numberS02E07
Title referenceBeing "ahead in the polls," indicating a likely election win
Opening cartoonKo-Ko Needles the Boss (1927)
Special guest(s)Claudia Schiffer
Additional
Commentary
(Transcript)
Transcript

Pictures

Season 2
  1. I Second that Emotion
  2. Brannigan, Begin Again
  3. A Head in the Polls
  4. Xmas Story
  5. Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?
  6. The Lesser of Two Evils
  7. Put Your Head on My Shoulders
  8. Raging Bender
  9. A Bicyclops Built for Two
  10. A Clone of My Own
  11. How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back
  12. The Deep South
  13. Bender Gets Made
  14. Mother's Day
  15. The Problem with Popplers
  16. Anthology of Interest I
  17. War Is the H-Word
  18. The Honking
  19. The Cryonic Woman
← Season 1Season 3 →

"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.

The Story

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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’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.

Additional Info

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 C-SPAN 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:
  • The Scary Door itself is a spoof of The Twilight Zone, aparticularly of the episode Time Enough at Last.
  • President Nixon sings a line of White Rabbit 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 Cheech & Chong 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 James Bond while ordering a martini.
  • Nixon saying that he wouldn't give up his dog Checkers is a reference to the famous "Checkers speech" 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.

Quotes

    Professor Farnsworth: The problem with both parties is they always want to give your tax dollars to the less fortunate.
    Fry: The less fortunate get all the breaks!

    Bender's head: Game's over, losers! I have all the money!! Compare your lives to mine and then kill yourselves!

    Bender: Bodies are for hookers and fat people.

    Nixon's head: Listen here, missy. Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973, but your average voter is as drunk and stupid as ever. The only thing that's different is me: I've become bitter, and, let's face it, crazy over the years. And once I'm swept into office, I'll sell our children's organs to zoos for meat, and I'll go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place. Muahahaha!

    Nixon's head: Hello, Morbo. How's the family?
    Morbo: Belligerent and numerous.
    Nixon's head: Good man! Nixon's pro-war and pro-family. [He takes a baby from Bender's chest cavity, kisses it, then shoves it back in.]
    Bender's head: Great! First, he steals my body. Now, he's touchin' my stuff!

    Morbo: All hail our gargantuan, cyborg president. May death come quickly to his enemies.

    Nixon's head: [Playing Jefferson Airplane's "[[wikipedia:White Rabbit (song.] |White Rabbit]]".] Re-mem-ber what the Dormouse said. Feed your head! I'm meeting you half way, you stupid hippies!

    Nixon's head: [Screaming.] Nixon's back!

Political Parties

  • National Ray-Gun Association
  • One Cell, One Vote
  • People for the Ethical Treatment of Humans
  • Rainbow Whigs
  • Tastycrats
  • Voter Apathy Party

Goofs

Bender's arm through Leela's shoulder
  • 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

(In alphabetic order)

Episode Credits