Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch
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Season 4 episode Broadcast season 5 episode | |||||
Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch | |||||
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No. | 55 | ||||
Production number | 4ACV01 | ||||
Written by | Bill Odenkirk | ||||
Directed by | Wes Archer | ||||
Title caption | Bigfoot's choice | ||||
First air date | 12 January, 2003 | ||||
Broadcast number | S05E05 | ||||
Title reference | Elzar's trademark phrase | ||||
Opening cartoon | It's a Greek Life, by Van Beuren Studios (1936) | ||||
Additional | |||||
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Season 4 | |||||
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"Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" is the fifty-fifth episode of Futurama, the first of the fourth production season and the fifth of the fifth broadcast season. It aired on 12 January, 2003, on Fox. When Kif gets pregnant, Amy questions her readiness to become a parent.
The Story
Act I: "No-shoot fire stick in space canoe! Cause explosive decompression!"
Kif just can't stand his long-distance relationship with Amy any more - he wants more. Just at this moment, the crew is sent to deliver pain medicine to the hive mind of Nigel 7. The Nimbus is patrolling nearby, with Kif onboard. Amy smuggles herself on board of the Planet Express Ship and changes course towards the Nimbus while the crew is in hibernative naptosis to save oxygen.
Kif and Amy share an intimate moment on the Nimbus' Holo-Shed where he tries to display his romantic feelings to her, when the Holo-shed malfunctions and the holographic characters come alive. Kif and Amy flee towards the bridge, pursued by the holograms. Zapp fires on the pursuers, causing an explosive decompression that whirls everyone around on the bridge. In the process, Kif loses his right glove and has skin contact with everyone present. Later in sickbay, the doctor finds that Kif is pregnant.
Act II: "So the toilet seat is the uncle or something?"
It turns out that Amphibiosans can exchange genetic material over their skins when romantically engaged. Kif is delighted, but Amy does not quite share his enthusiasm. Besides, it is unclear who is the sire of Kif's offspring. They travel back to Earth and let the Professor figure it out with the Alien Cross-Species Genetic Analyzer - after expelling Fry, Zapp (much to Kif's relief), Zoidberg (who lives in the machine), and finally Amy, it turns out that Leela has provided the DNA.
But Kif states that his romantic involvement is with Amy, his smizmar, and according to the rules on his planet, she is considered the mother. At Kif's baby shower with the crew and Zapp in Fry's and Bender's apartment, everyone gives presents to Kif and Amy, and her parents' present is an ironing board (made out of Amy's party board) symbolizing her new responsibilities. Amy can't stand it any longer - she's not yet ready for the responsibility of motherhood and runs away in tears, leaving Kif behind alone.
Act III: "It's a poisonous froad!"
Just then, Kif's birthing process is about to start and he returns to his home world Amphibios 9 - accompanied by Leela, Fry, Bender and Zapp. They enter the ancestral birthing grounds of Clan Kroker in a swamp, where they meet the Grand Midwife. Since his smizmar Amy is not with him, he has to go through the beginning of the birthing ceremony alone, but then Amy arrives and assists in the birth of the several hundred tadpole-like offspring. Leela and Amy defend the little creatures as they are attacked by predators on the way towards the water and succeed. In twenty years time, the offspring will crawl onto land as children, and Amy thinks she will be ready then. Leela indeed turns out to be the genetic mother - many of the tadpoles have just one eye.
Additional Info
Trivia
- Outside the Nimbus' sickbay, the sign reads "Sick Bay & Horta Burn Clinic", referring to a Star Trek: TOS episode featuring a race of crystalline beings named the Horta, which, among other things, had very high surface temperature.
- Only in this episode, we see Amy's wristlojackimator in operation - as a holographic day-planner. (See Items on Amy's Calendar.)
- The doctor in the Nimbus' sickbay greatly resembles Dr. "Bones" McCoy from Star Trek, as such he is named "Veins" in a deleted scene.
- Fry has only 9 lines in this episode.
- This episode's title is likely a reference to the catchphrase of Elzar.
- The title caption is "Bigfoot's Choice". Bigfoot would later appear in "Spanish Fry".
Items on Amy's Calendar
This is the full list of items that appear on Amy's holographic day-planner. The calendar starts with the 1st on a Monday and ends with the 31st on a Wednesday. Unreadable portions are shown with question marks, while guessed portions are marked in italics.
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Th | Fri | Sat |
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Bimonthly dimple rotation | Yoga Rave | Girlicure | Baby Shower | Shop | Drop | |
Lunch with Molly | Trash Molly with Tina | Trash Tina with Molly | Find new friends | Pony aerobics | Cuteness Trainer | 10P??? Wang ??? |
Recharge Bra | Extreme Aromatherapy | Finish Thesis; Buy Stocks | Adopt All Puppies | Pity Party for the Less Popular | Green Shirt Day | New friends announced today |
Hang with Walter Koening [sic] | Tolstoy Seminar | Neutron Croquet | Search Couch for Spare Millions | Do Something for Myself | Hair-t??? Olympics | |
Benefit for Divorced Princesses | Snub All Dark-Haired Boys | Rearrange Teddy Bears; Promote Mr. Fluffy |
The only month that the calendar dates corresponds to in the year 3002 is March. The only month that the calendar dates corresponds to in the year 3003 is August.
The names "tina" and "molly" are slang for the drugs crystal meth and ecstasy, respectively.
Allusions
- The Nimbus' Holo-Shed is a clear reference to the holodeck on Star Trek.
- The docking bay door mechanism on the Nimbus is a reference to a similar docking mechanism on the rocket used by SPECTRE in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice. In the audio commentary for this episode, Maurice LaMarche states that it references the 1979 Bond film Moonraker, further asserting that he cannot be stumped in James Bond trivia. He is, however, incorrect.
- Evil Lincoln and Attila the Hun seams to be references to Star Trek: TOS "The Savage Curtain", Professor Moriarty, to the character's appearances in Star Trek: TNG, and Jack the Ripper to Star Trek: TOS "Wolf in the Fold".
Quotes
Amy: Spirit! Kif, that's the pony I always wanted but my parents said I had too many ponies already.
Kif: Yes, I programmed it in for you. Four million lines of BASIC!
Kif: The Holo-shed's on the fritz again! The characters turned real!
Zapp: Damn! The last time that happened, I got slapped with three paternity suits!
Zapp: Kif, I'm sensing a very sensual disturbance in the force. Prepare for ship-to-ship intimacy.
Kif: Well, I suppose I might have gotten pregnant that way. Or even from a toilet seat. Though that's impossible as I have a separate washroom.
Zapp: [He leaves Kif's bathroom.] By the way, Kif, your flush seems to be set on "stun", not "kill".
Kif: As long as Amy is with me in my heart, I will have the strength of two. *gnarg* Apparently, Amy hasn't been working out much lately...
Grand Midwife: I will now take my leave. I live here, so I won't actually be going anywhere, but you don't have to talk to me anymore.
Attila the Hun: Stop! No shoot fire-stick in space-canoe! Cause explosive decompression!
Zapp: Spare me your space-age techno-babble, Attila the Hun!
Evil Lincoln: Real holographic simulated Evil Lincoln is BACK!!!
Fry: Check it out, y'all! Everyone we invited is here.
Zoidberg: Also Zoidberg.
Amy: Kif's on patrol near there! You could drop me off on the way!
Prof. Farnsworth: We could, but we won't! It's a spaceship, dammit, not a prom limousine! [He growls.] If anyone needs me I'll be in the Angry Dome.
Goofs
- Spirit the pony has cloven hooves. While cloven hooves are typical of animals like cattle, deer, goats, and sheep, equine mammals do not have them.
- In the shot after Zoidberg is ejected from the Maternifuge, it looks as if he's got no pants on - belly and legs are carapace-coloured.
- On Amy's Calendar, Sunday the 21st says "Hang with Walter Koening", but his name is properly spelled "Koenig".
- Amy may have just misspelled his name by accident.
- It's also possible that "Walter Koening" is a different person to Walter Koenig.
- This episode blurs the definition of the word species. Technically, two organisms are only members of the same species if they can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. However, from this episode, one can conclude that amphibiosians can interbreed with any organism in the universe.
- There's no guarantee that the offspring were fertile.
- In the scene where there was explosive decompression, Kif's hand only makes contact with Leela's hand.
- That's why Leela turned out to be the mother. It's likely that Kif was so shaken by the incident he didn't realise he didn't make hand contact with Fry, Amy or Zapp.
- Kif may not have made hand to hand contact with Amy, but she did grab his face after he slipped.
- In the scene where there was explosive decompression, there should not have been that much wind. It certainly wouldn't have drawn Bender (who apparently weighs over a ton) from the floor of the ship.
- Depending on the radius of the centrifuge (assuming a range of 3ft-6ft), the characters would have experienced 100000xg-200000xg force for up to a minute if it was spinning at 10,000RPM.
- This is probably a case of cartoon physics, but relative g force that high would crush a human being within seconds.
Characters
- Amy
- Debut: Attila the Hun
- Bender
- Debut: Bigfoot (mentioned in text only, title caption)
- Debut: Evil Lincoln
- Professor Farnsworth
- Debut: Froad
- Fry
- Debut: The Grand Midwife
- Hermes
- Debut: Jack the Ripper
- Kif
- LaBarbara (on the "TITANIC SURVIVORS" note)
- Leela
- Debut: Professor Moriarty
- Leo and Inez Wong
- Scruffy
- Debut: Spirit
- Zapp Brannigan
- Zoidberg
- Debut: Dr. Veins McGee
Episode Credits
- Writer
- Director
- Voice Actors
- DVD Commentary