Stench and Stenchibility

From The Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Season 7 episode
Broadcast season 10 episode
Stench and Stenchibility
Stench and Stenchibility infobox.png
Dr. Zoidberg giving Marianne a flower.
No.139
Production number7ACV25
Written byEric Horsted
Directed byCrystal Chesney-Thompson
Title captionNot The Episode With The Dead Dog
First air date28 August 2013
Broadcast numberS10E12
Title referenceThe 1811 Jane Austen novel Sense and Sensibility
Opening cartoon"Makin' 'Em Move"
Special guest(s)Emilia Clarke
Tara Strong
Additional
Commentary
(Transcript)
Transcript

Pictures

Season 7
  1. The Bots and the Bees
  2. A Farewell to Arms
  3. Decision 3012
  4. The Thief of Baghead
  5. Zapp Dingbat
  6. The Butterjunk Effect
  7. The Six Million Dollar Mon
  8. Fun on a Bun
  9. Free Will Hunting
  10. Near-Death Wish
  11. 31st Century Fox
  12. Viva Mars Vegas
  13. Naturama
  14. Forty Percent Leadbelly
  15. 2-D Blacktop
  16. T.: The Terrestrial
  17. Fry and Leela's Big Fling
  18. The Inhuman Torch
  19. Saturday Morning Fun Pit
  20. Calculon 2.0
  21. Assie Come Home
  22. Leela and the Genestalk
  23. Game of Tones
  24. Murder on the Planet Express
  25. Stench and Stenchibility
  26. Meanwhile
← Season 6Season 8 →

"Stench and Stenchibility" is the one hundred and thirty-ninth episode of Futurama, the twenty-fifth of the seventh production season and the twelfth of the tenth broadcast season. It aired on 28 August 2013, on Comedy Central. It guest-stars Emilia Clarke as Marianne and Tara Strong as Tonya. Dr. Zoidberg meets the love of his life while Bender squares off in a deadly tap-dancing competition.

Plot

Act I: "It won't be long, Johnny cakes. My space bus gets in at four thirty."

Zoidberg video-chats a creature named Zindy, who he later reveals is his girlfriend to Fry, Leela and Bender. The three agree to help him clean his dumpster. When they begin, Bender attempts to help by dropping in a bug bomb. All of the bugs escape and attack the crew and Bender. He quickly sheds all of the bugs, but compulsively and meticulously stomps every one of them into mush. Arriving in time to observe this "performance", Randy invites Bender to compete in a local tap-dancing competition. Bender accepts the invitation, suddenly discovering his "brand-new dream of being the greatest tap-dancer in all the world!...Of all time!"

Going to meet Zindy at the bus station, Zoidberg decides to purchase flowers. He finds a flower vendor stall parked outside the Planet Express building. The vendor, a pretty woman named Marianne, offers to sell him some. He asks what the cheapest bouquet is ($6), and asks for half of them. He finally meets Zindy as she gets off the bus, where she complains of a terrible smell. The two then walk to the park, where she realises the smell is emanating from Zoidberg, at which point she vomits and leaves him forever.

Act II: "Can I have a refund now?"

Heartbroken, Zoidberg attempts to return his half-bouquet of now-wilted daisies for a refund. Already devastated over Zindy, he is crushed further when Marianne responds that she can't afford to refund the $3 that was his life savings, as her stall is unpopular due to reasons unknown to her. When Zoidberg breaks down in tears, she is moved, saying, "I can't stand to see a living thing cry." Zoidberg is charmed when she confirms with him, "You are a living thing, right?" Roberto appears and attempts to mug them, but Zoidberg finds that he has reached rock bottom. He carelessly confronts Roberto, even inviting Roberto to kill him. Gesticulating, Zoidberg happens to raise his arms, blasting Roberto with his horrible body odor and driving him away. Marianne is very impressed with Zoidberg having been so "brave and frugal". Zoidberg is confused that she isn't repulsed by his stench; Marianne explains that she was born with no sense of smell. After a montage of enjoyable dates, they find themselves having, as Zoidberg later puts it, "a wonderful night of lovemaking in my dumpster!"

At the tap-dancing competition, Bender meets his opponents, notably six-year-old Tonya, a little girl with a heart condition that requires her to live with a pacemaker. Tonya is over-the-top cute, and everyone is taken with her, except Bender.

When Zoidberg introduces Marianne to the Planet Express crew, everyone is amazed at Zoidberg's luck. After Marianne takes her leave, they ask the obvious question. When Zoidberg describes her defect, Hermes laments the lack of a cure. Farnsworth asserts that a skilled surgeon could indeed cure Marianne with a nose transplant. Zoidberg is genuine: he becomes excited while contemplating her happiness without realizing the sad consequence until the others bring it to his attention. With their encouragement but with terrible chagrin, Zoidberg decides he must forever keep the cure secret from Marianne.

As weeks pass, while Zoidberg and Marianne get to know each other, the tap-dance competitors are eliminated one by one until only Bender and Tonya are left. When Randy presents them to the audience, Tonya reminds everyone how over-the-top cute she is, and Bender announces, "I'm gonna kick your ass, little girl!" Later, arguing with Leela, Bender attempts to disabuse her of her notions about Tonya with, "I've looked into her eyes and seen her soul. She's a monster." When Fry and Leela leave, Tonya suddenly appears. She clubs Bender in the left knee with a police baton and runs away. Bender's leg is in need of repair or he won't be able to dance.

While Zoidberg and Marianne have been enjoying each other's company, Zoidberg has often been painfully reminded of his duplicity. After weeks of this, while on a picnic, Zoidberg describes the smell of a flower for Marianne. She responds, "I'd give anything to be able to smell a flower like that." Zoidberg is stricken. He reveals his secret and offers to give her the transplant. She joyfully accepts, as Zoidberg stoically takes on the weight of his new sorrow.

Act III: "Smell you later."

Zoidberg is preparing for Marianne's nose transplant as Bender limps in, asking Zoidberg for help with his badly injured leg. Zoidberg is wrapped up in his own issues and has no time for Bender. As Zoidberg sits at her bedside as Marianne is prepared for the procedure, she is unaware that for him, this is a goodbye. He starts to break down for a moment, but he pulls himself together and proceeds with the operation.

On stage at the tap-dancing competition, Tonya projects her cute image to the audience as she and Bender trade barbs under their breath. Because they have so much in common, Bender mentions that they could have been friends in another universe. She rebuffs him sharply. After their dance, while awaiting the judge's decision, Bender vows to Fry and Leela that he will dance on Tonya's grave. Tonya wins the contest and receives an award, but suffers a fatal "cute little heart attack" in the middle of her acceptance speech.

Marianne wakes from her anesthesia as Zoidberg sits sadly beside her bed. He offers her flowers so she can enjoy the scent for the first time, but she hates the smell. Zoidberg assumes that he is the source of the smell she finds offensive, but she discovers otherwise. She really does hate the smell of flowers, and she really does enjoy Zoidberg's stench.

To the horror of onlookers, Bender decides not to wait for Tanya to be buried, and he dances on top of her dead body, unwittingly dancing on her chest cavity. To Bender's horror, his dance restarts Tonya's heart. She sits back up and seems perfectly fine. To Bender's further horror, the previously horrified onlookers swarm him in order to congratulate and praise him.

Bender and Tonya are found later, having joined forces, tap dancing on the street with a hat on the ground for donations. When Hattie McDoogal arrives and drops money into their hat, they mug her and run away. Back at Zoidberg's dumpster, Marianne drives up in a dumpster truck as Zoidberg has a morning cup of dumpster juice. She explains that she had to get a job, and with Zoidberg's permission, dumps him and his dumpster into her truck. The two are last seen sitting together in the front seat and driving away.

Production

Atom.png
This section is in need of expansion. The reason given is:
Countdown to Futurama
Please add more content or information.

On 11 April 2012, Futurama writer Eric Rogers revealed that "[this episode and "7ACV26"] now [had] stories". [1]

On 5 February 2013, Vulture.com released a preview clip for the tenth broadcast season, [2] which contained footage from the episode.

On 22 August, MTV Geek released a 50-second preview clip featuring Fry, Leela, and Bender at the NNY Recreation Center. [3]

By 23 August, a one-minute preview clip featuring Zoidberg meeting Marianne had been released. [4]

Image Gallery

Additional Information

Trivia

  • The episode premiered on the day that "Futuramarutuf" was released.
  • Both this episode, which is the second-to-last episode of the tenth broadcast season, and "Viva Mars Vegas", which was originally planned to be the second-to-last episode of the ninth broadcast season, have Zoidberg as the main character.
  • The title caption for the episode — "Not The Episode With The Dead Dog" — is presumably a reference to Seymour — Fry's dog. The episode referred to is most likely "Jurassic Bark", in which Seymour famously debuted.
  • Zoidberg says that Zindy will arrive just in time for the "all you can stand" buffet at Chizzler. A restaurant called Chizzler was previously mentioned in "The Problem with Popplers".
  • Emilia Clarke plays Daenerys Targaryen in the T.V. series Game of Thrones. She and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who guest-stars in "Game of Tones", another episode of the season, used to date. [9]
  • Emilia Clarke is a huge fan of the show. The crew learned about it and immediately offered her a role, and she said "yes". The character Marianne is named after the writer Patric Verrone's daughter. [10]
  • The blonde woman in the pink dress, seen at the NNY Recreation Center, resembles Stephanie.
  • Marianne mentions a "falafel guy". This may be the falafel cart man.
  • In a deleted scene, Tinny Tim is selling newspapers announcing the end of World War VIII.
  • This episode is very similar to the Simpsons episode "Dumbbell Indemnity" (1998), in which Moe starts dating Renee, a florist whose stall was across the road from Moe's Tavern. Moe also tries to stop a robber from stealing money from her, very similar to the way Zoidberg stops Roberto from stealing from Marianne. Both Moe and Zoidberg mention how they don't mind being killed as they have nothing to live for.
  • The song that Bender and Tonya dance to is Yes Sir! That's My Baby by Coon-Sanders

Allusions

Click here to see cultural mentions made in this episode.

Continuity

Zoidberg with white eyes.

Goofs

  • When Zoidberg says "Nope", his eyes are white.
  • Roberto runs away from Zoidberg's smell, but it was previously stated that robots don't have a sense of smell. [citation needed]
    • In "The 30% Iron Chef", Bender claims to have the sense of smision. Roberto might have used smision to "smell-see" Zoidberg.
  • Previous episodes have shown that Zoidberg can't tell the difference between male and female humans, yet in this episode he clearly can tell that Marianne is female.
    • He may have finally learned to tell the difference.
    • It may have been a good guess.
  • After the camera zooms out to reveal that Zoidberg and Marianne are not at Burger King but at Limburger King, there is less space to the left of the "B".
  • Zoidberg mentions "lovemaking" to Marianne in his dumpster, yet it was established in "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" that Decapodians die when they mate.
    • Actually what is said is that they die when they pass on their genes, it's possible that since he was mating outside of his species, he didn't die because he didn't pass on his genes.

Quotes

    [Zoidberg and Marianne lean in to kiss each other for the first time, but Zoidberg pulls away.]
    Zoidberg: First, let me pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming! [He pinches his arm with his claw and cuts it open.] [screaming] Owch! I forgot I was a giant crab!

    Bender: The rest of you might as well give up now, 'cuz I'm gonna take home da— Hey. What's my grand prize gonna be?
    Randy: Oh. There is no prize, Dorothy. Unless you count the satisfaction of winning.
    Bender: It... will... be... mine!

    Fry: Dude! You made the finals! Congrats!
    [Fry smiles.]

    Randy: Okay, dance maniacs. Let's have a big hand for our finalists — cute, little Tonya... and mean, old what's-his-name!

Appearances

(In alphabetic order)

Characters

Places

Miscellaneous

References

  1. ^ Eric Rogers (11 April 2012). ERogTweets2Much. (Twitter.) Retrieved on 12 April 2012.
  2. ^ Jesse David Fox (05 February 2013). Watch a Preview of Futurama’s Seventh Season. (Vulture.com.) Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
  3. ^ Charles Webb (22 August 2013). So Do You Think Bender’s Got Talent In This ‘Futurama’ Clip? [EXCLUSIVE]. (MTV Geek.) Retrieved on 22 August 2013.
  4. ^ Futurama "Stench and Stenchibility" date clip. (Comedy Central.) 22 August 2013. Retrieved on 23 August 2013.
  5. ^ Countdown to Futurama: Zindy. (Comedy Central Tumblr blog.) 08 June 2013. Retrieved on 08 June 2013.
  6. ^ Countdown to Futurama: Nurse Amy. (Comedy Central Tumblr blog.) 09 June 2013. Retrieved on 09 June 2013.
  7. ^ Countdown to Futurama: Marianne. (Comedy Central Tumblr blog.) 10 June 2013. Retrieved on 10 June 2013.
  8. ^ Countdown to Futurama: Zoidberg and Marianne Get Robbed. (Comedy Central Tumblr blog.) 11 June 2013. Retrieved on 11 June 2013.
  9. ^ Taryn Ryder (20 March 2013). Seth MacFarlane and ‘Game of Thrones’ Star Emilia Clarke Break Up. (Omg.yahoo.com.) Retrieved on 19 June 2013.
  10. ^ The Futurama Fan Panel at Los Angeles Comic Con 2023.
  11. ^ "czg123" (18 January 2011). The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger (original narration by Randall). (YouTube.) Retrieved on 27 October 2013.