Difference between revisions of "A Pharaoh to Remember"

From The Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Fixing poor grammar and wording in the synopsis.)
Line 20: Line 20:
|broad next=Godfellas
|broad next=Godfellas
}}
}}
[[Bender Bending Rodriguez|Bender]] is getting desperate for being remembered when he's gone, and a trip to [[Osiris 4]], where he becomes Pharaoh, seems to be just the satisfaction he needs.
[[Bender Bending Rodriguez|Bender]] fears that he will be forgotten in the future, and after a trip to [[Osiris 4]] becomes a [[Pharaoh]] in an attempt to immortalize himself.


== The Story ==
== The Story ==

Revision as of 13:10, 4 July 2017

Season 3 episode
Broadcast season 4 episode
A Pharaoh to Remember
A Pharoh to Remember.png
No.49
Production number3ACV17
Written byRon Weiner
Directed byMark Ervin
Title captionPsst... big party at your house after the show!
First air date10 March, 2002
Broadcast numberS04E07
Title referenceAn Affair to Remember
Opening cartoon"Toys Will Be Toys"
Additional
Commentary
(Transcript)
Transcript

Pictures

Season 3
  1. Amazon Women in the Mood
  2. Parasites Lost
  3. A Tale of Two Santas
  4. The Luck of the Fryrish
  5. The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz
  6. Bendless Love
  7. The Day the Earth Stood Stupid
  8. That's Lobstertainment!
  9. The Cyber House Rules
  10. Where the Buggalo Roam
  11. Insane in the Mainframe
  12. The Route of All Evil
  13. Bendin' in the Wind
  14. Time Keeps on Slippin'
  15. I Dated a Robot
  16. A Leela of Her Own
  17. A Pharaoh to Remember
  18. Anthology of Interest II
  19. Roswell that Ends Well
  20. Godfellas
  21. Future Stock
  22. The 30% Iron Chef
← Season 2Season 4 →

"A Pharaoh to Remember" is the forty-ninth episode of Futurama, the seventeenth of the third production season and the seventh of the fourth broadcast season. It aired on 10 March, 2002, on Fox. Bender fears that he will be forgotten in the future, and after a trip to Osiris 4 becomes a Pharaoh in an attempt to immortalize himself.

The Story

Act I: "This is the worst funeral ever."

Bender is outraged when he robs a swimming pool, an act which should land him on the nightly TV news, but no one realizes it was him, with witnesses mistakenly calling the criminal human. He then makes a variety of attempts to become famous, only to be ignored or ridiculed by witnesses. He heads to work, depressed, where the rest of the Planet Express crew try to cheer him up by throwing him a funeral to show how he'll be remembered. He is highly disappointed by the group's efforts and becomes angered by their idiocy. This is especially true with Dr. Zoidberg, who sings Danny Boy, only to be hit in the head with Bender's martini glass. After the disappointing funeral, Bender storms off, outraged that no one will remember him when he dies. The next day, the crew has to deliver a giant sandstone block to the planet Osiris 4. After the block is signed for, they are taken as slaves of the Pharaoh Hamenthotep.

Act II: "Quit giving the slave drivers pointers."

On the boat to the work site, Bender admires the Pharaohs' tombs and realizes that everyone would remember him if he could have a memorial like them. He begins to give the slave drivers pointers on how to make slaves work harder and faster to get the job done sooner. Hermenthotip arrives and is happy with the work of the slaves and just as he is about to free them he is crushed by his statue's nose and killed. It is announced the pharaoh's succesor will be determined the next day after consulting the Wall of Prophecy. The slaves all party in their quarters since only that night they're not slaves of anyone. Bender is upset by the death, but changes the Wall of Prophecy to make it look like he is supposed to be the Pharaoh's successor. After a short ceremony to determine the new Pharaoh looking at the wall everyone believes Bender to be the next pharaoh, so he is chosen, despite his crude drawing on the Wall of Prophecy.

Act III: "Crawl pigs."

Bender becomes a crueler pharaoh than Hamenthotep, and makes the slaves work hard to build a much larger statue (1 Billion cubits tall, or 284,000 miles) of him so he will be remembered for all eternity. Bender is unhappy with the statue because it is so big, people will probably remember the statue instead of him. He demands to have it torn down so that the slaves can start over and build a smaller statue. The slave drivers have had enough of Bender's orders and attack him, tying him up like a mummy and throwing him in his tomb, announcing that he suddenly died. He requests his loyal servants to be entombed with him, and Fry and Leela are thrown in as well.

Act IV: "Let's blow this tomb."

Bender’s tomb turns out to have a working casino in it, along with an eternity's worth of liquor. Fry and Leela try some pomegranate schnapps and determine it is 100% alcohol. Leela wants to use the explosive alcohol to blow the tomb open and escape, but Bender refuses to allow her. Leela and Fry pretend to forget who Bender is, and he then reluctantly agrees. Moving all the liquor to one wall, Leela uses Bender's wrappings as a makeshift fuse and blow the tomb open. The explosion causes the rest of the statue to fall apart, saddening Bender. Leela tells him that he will still be remembered as a tyrannical ruler, even though there is no monument left. As they return home, Bender mentions that he will try to take over Earth next.

Additional Info

Trivia

  • The non-human people of Osiris 4 are based on various Egyptian gods.
  • Fry says, "call it a hunch, but I have a bad feeling about this!". This is an oft-used phrase in Star Wars.
  • A cubit is eighteen inches, which means one billion cubits is about 457,200 kilometers, about 36 times Earth's diameter, about 1/3 the diameter of the sun, or a little larger than the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
  • Leela's sandals are shaped like her boots.

Quotes

    Fry: [After Bender having angrily throwen a beer bottle at the TV, breaking it.] [annoyed] Hey!? Now what am I supposed to watch and drink all day!?

    Bender: Danny Boy?! You're at my funeral, singing about some stiff named Danny Boy!? You really are a massive bonehead!
    Zoidberg: I'm expressing my sorrow!
    Bender: Get lost! I'd say don't quit your day job, but you're awful at that too!

    Bender: [furious] I hope you're all happy! You've succeeded in showing me life is worth living... by showing how bad my funeral will suck!

    Amy: [After Bender having throwen a bouquet and that lands in the Professor's lap.] I know whose funeral we'll be attending next.
    Professor: [blushing] Oh, stop.

    Fry: Incredible. This place is just like the Ancient Egypt of my day.
    High Priest: That is no coincidence. For our people visited your Egypt thousands of years ago.
    Fry: I knew it! Insane theories, one; regular theories, a billion.
    High Priest: We learned many things from the mighty Egyptians, such as pyramid-building, space travel and how to prepare our dead so as to scare Abbott and Costello.

    High Priest: Great Wall of Prophecy, reveal to us God's will that we may blindly obey.
    Priests: Free us from thought and responsibility.
    High Priest: We shall read things off you.
    Priests: Then do them.
    High Priest: Your words guide us.
    Priests: We're dumb.

    Farnsworth: News, everyone! Today you're going to Osiris 4 to deliver this enormous sandstone block. [He points to a block the size of the ship sitting next to them.]
    Fry: I thought something looked different in here.

    Leela: This society is a bunch of idiots!

    Australian man: Oh, bloody chunder!

Allusions

  • The funeral singer, a look-alike of Elton John, performs a parody of the songs "Daniel", "Bennie and the Jets" and "Crocodile Rock" at the funeral of the Pharaoh. This may be a reference to when Elton John performed at the funeral of Princess Diana.
  • Abbott and Costello are inscribed into the wall. The purpose of the drawings was explained when the newly enslaved Leela and Fry are given a tour of the underground.
  • After becoming Pharaoh, Bender enters to address the slaves in the manner of Steve Martin in his famous "King Tut" routine.
  • Fry imitates Costello's scared reaction when he encounters mummy Bender.
  • The snakes beneath the desert are taken from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • The "Bender Lives Large and Kicks Butt" picture turning into "Bender Licks Butt" after Sal blows the building up is a reference to the MAD magazine fold-in joke pages in which the punchline is given when the reader folds the picture down the middle to get another picture. Another example can be found on The Simpsons episode "Team Homer" where the question is "What higher power do televangelists worship?" and the answer when folded in is "The Almighty Dollar."
  • Hamenthotep's organs are in jars labeled "Pharaoh's Own", possibly a reference to the brand of salsas and sauces, "Newman's Own" (later referenced in "31st Century Fox").
  • Zoidberg sings Danny Boy to the tune of the Londonderry Air.
  • When Hermes notices Bender's speedos he states, "Holy Spitz, he's wearin' skin tight speedos." This could be a reference to Olympic Gold Medal Winning swimmer Mark Spitz.

Goofs

  • Before the building is destroyed Sal is wearing a green shirt. Then in the next scene he is wearing his usual white shirt.
    • During the same scene, the lower half of the building with the text is made slightly taller than in a previous shot.
  • When Hamenthotep's organs are being lowered into the tomb, his brain is in one of the jars. However, Ancient Egyptians did not preserve the brain during mummification because they did not believe it was significant (they were unaware of the brain's function in the human body). One would think an alien culture that has gone so out of its way to imitate the Ancient Egyptians would have adopted this practice as well.
  • Hamenthotep's organs that are lowered into his tomb included four eyes.
    • Hamenthotep wasn't human, he just looked human. He might have had eyes somewhere other than his head.
    • Hamenthotep might be able to remove his eyes and put new ones in or he kept the eyes as a status symbol.
    • They might have been his testicles.
  • Bender lifts the large stone nose off of Hamenthotep, however, in "Bendless Love", Bender states that "[he doesn't] know anything about lifting". He could have been sarcastic, so he seems more heroic by bending the unbendable girder.
  • The slave driver to whom Bender was giving pointers decides to take Bender's advice by counting to 1/2 instead of counting to three, but uses the fraction as a whole number instead (i.e., shouting 'One-half pull! One-half pull!') The proper command would have had the slave driver whipping twice for every command to pull.

Continuity

Alien Language Sightings

    Time: 14:30
    Location: On the Wall of Prophecy
    Language: AL1
    Translation: Rock on! Eddie Rosas

Characters

(In alphabetic order)

Episode Credits