The Lesser of Two Evils

"The Lesser of Two Evils" is the nineteenth episode of Futurama, the sixth of the second production season and the eleventh of the second broadcast season. It aired 20 February, 2000 on FOX. It is the first episode to be aired out of sync. It guest stars Bob Barker as himself in a jar. After running into Flexo, another Bending Unit, Fry begins suspecting Flexo of being the evil Bender, but at the Miss Universe pageant, he discovers the opposite.

Act I: "Shut up and get to the point!"
Bender, Fry and Leela are watching Cop Department when an advertisement for Past-O-Rama appears on the television, Bender wishes to see a time before life was cheapened by heartless machines. They look around Past-o-rama at various attractions such as a telephone booths and Al Sharpton’s burial chamber, then they come across a ancient car, Fry attempts to drive it but instead takes it through a wall. Unable to stop they hit Flexo, a bending unit with a beard.

Act II: "He's the evil Bender."
The crew are nervously pacing around while Bender is looking at a robot pornography book and Flexo is successfully fixed. Flexo and Bender take Fry to a robot gentlemen's club where they pay a robot to give Fry a lap dance which results in injuires. Fry begins to think Flexo is evil. The crew go into the Professor's bedroom to see what he has to show them. He reveals to them the atom of Jumbonium which is so expensive, that if stolen it will cause Planet Express to go bankrupt, so the Professor hires Flexo to help out.

Act III: "And the winner is..."
Fry falls asleep during his watch because he spent his sleeping time watching Flexo. When the ship lands they discover the atom is gone, and they begin to search for Flexo. Fry knows he stole it and starts watching Bender who is all the time covering his chin with different things, so Fry suspects he could be Flexo covering his beard. Then he learns it was Bender anyway. They can't find find Flexo so they tell Bob Barker's head and he orders them to find the atom. When they finally find Flexo, he and Bender begin to chase each other through the beauty pageant but Leela doesn't know who is Flexo because they're covering their chins and Flexo's beard can't be seen. Later it is revealed that Bender in fact stole the atom, and not Flexo. Flexo saw Bender steal the atom and ran to tell Bob Barker's Head. The atom is returned; however, Barker mistakes Flexo for Bender, and Flexo is locked up in Bender's place.

Trivia

 * Sponsored by Arachno Spores.
 * Past-o-rama's logo is based on the Futurama logo. Title caption: Located on the former side of Brooklyn.
 * Flexo has a goatee, which is a reference to the goateed Mirror Universe Spock from the Mirror, Mirror episode of the original Star Trek.
 * Electric Ladyland is the name of the third Jimi Hendrix album.
 * From Leela and Bender's guesses on the value of the Atomic Tiara, its value should be exactly $200,000.
 * Bender states that both his and Flexo's serial numbers are expressible as the sum of two cubes. For Flexo's serial number, 3370318 = 119^3 + 119^3.  Bender's serial number 2716057 = 952^3 + (-951)^3.
 * Contestants in the Miss Universe contest include
 * Miss Heaven (who looks like M5438)
 * Miss Arrakis
 * Miss Unnamed Planet
 * Miss Demeanor
 * Miss Perfect Little
 * Miss Amazonia (Not labeled on the sash, but obviously from Amazonia)
 * Miss Methane Planet, Halitina Smogmire
 * Miss Earth's Moon, The Crushinator
 * Miss Pluto
 * Miss Vega 4 (Also known as the Parameciums Homeworld), Gladis Lenux (Info found during "Raging Bender")
 * Jellyfish Nurse
 * The judges in the Miss Universe Contest are:
 * Florp
 * Calculon
 * Zapp Brannigan

Continuity

 * Miss Universe reappears in "Raging Bender" and The Beast with a Billion Backs.
 * Flexo reappears in "Bendless Love".
 * This is the first time Zapp Brannigan appears without Kif.

Allusions

 * Past-o-rama shows that people in the 31st century have little knowledge of the distant past a few mistakes include:
 * Mammoth hunts in New York
 * Star Wars 9: Yoda's Bar Mitzvah
 * Appearance of primitive robots
 * Albert Einstein and Hammurabi (ancient King of Babylon) existing at the same time as each other and at the same time as disco
 * Cars running on tanks of burning fossils
 * Cars being called Auto-mo-cars
 * The Miss Arrakis is from Arrakis, the planet of the novel Dune, by Frank Herbert.
 * One of the contestants plays Rossini's William Tell Overture on her nose.

Alien Language Sightings
Time:03:45

Location: Sign in subway

Language: AL1

Translation: laser tentacle surgery

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Bob Barker's Head
 * Calculon
 * Florp
 * The Crushinator
 * Debut: Gladys Lennox
 * Debut: Flexo
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Jellyfish Nurse
 * Leela
 * Number 9 Man
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Smitty and Url
 * Debut: Stripperbot
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Eric Horsted
 * Director
 * Chris Sauve
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Phil LaMarr
 * David Herman
 * Lauren Tom
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Rich Moore
 * Eric Horsted
 * Peter Avanzino
 * John DiMaggio
 * Special Guest
 * Bob Barker