Crimes of the Hot

"Crimes of the Hot"
Futurama episode
File:Futurama crimes of the hot.png Futurama explains global warming in a retro public information film.
Episode no.	Season four
Directed by	Peter Avanzino
Written by	Aaron Ehasz
Original air date	November 10 2002
Episode features
Opening cartoon	Unknown

“Crimes of the Hot” is the eighth episode of the fourth production season of the television show Futurama. It originally aired in North America November 10, 2002.

Plot

On Planet Earth, the days are getting hotter and hotter. The crew, looking for an explanation, watch an old movie about global warming. The film explains a temporary solution for global warming was found by dropping a mountainous slab of ice into the ocean on a regular basis to cool it.

The Planet Express crew is assigned the task of gathering a new slab of ice to drop in the ocean. The crew goes to Halley's Comet, but find that it is out of ice. With no ice left, the world’s top scientists are called to a special meeting to find a new solution to the problem. Ogden Wernstrom uses a giant mirror to deflect 40% of the sun's rays but a stray asteroid causes it to reflect the rays into a highly destructive beam. Professor Farnsworth reveals that robots, (which he invented) with their high-pollution emissions, are the cause of the crisis. The scientists, led by Wernstrom, decide that the only course of action is to destroy all the robots on earth.

Meanwhile, Bender is moved to tears after witnessing a news report showing the migration of turtles due to the heat and decides to rescue one from Holland. When questioned by the crew it is revealed that Bender, like the turtle, can not get up if he falls directly on to his back. Earth President Richard Nixon's head organizes a party for the unsuspecting robots on the remote Galapagos Islands, where he plans to destroy the entire population with an electromagnetic blast shot from an orbiting EMP cannon modified by Wernstrom after his mirror. Bender, who was at the meeting of scientists and thus knows of the plan, decides, for the sake of the turtles, that he will accept his fate and attend the party.

At the party Bender is overheard saying that all the robots are doomed, causing panic. Farnsworth arrives with Fry and Leela and delivers a solution to the robots; every last one needs to blast their exhaust vents at the same time, straight up in the sky, in order to push the earth farther from the sun, thus cooling the earth and causing the EMP cannon to miss its target. Unfortunately, during the panic Bender and the turtle are knocked onto their backs and can not get up, which means there is not enough exhaust to move the earth. As Bender is lamenting his fate, the turtle rocks from side to side and rolls to its feet. Shocked, but not to be shown up, Bender does the same, allowing him to release his massive exhaust, just barely saving the robots from the EMP. Farnsworth receives a polluting for pollution medal for his work, and the extra week caused by the new orbit of the earth is declared robot party week. As the robots partied, they exhaust fumes, causing all organics to choke.

Production

This is the second guest appearance by Al Gore who previously appeared in the episode "Anthology of Interest I"

Broadcast and reception

At the insistence of David X. Cohen's father, the episode covers global warming and the episode was nominated for an Environmental Media Award in 2003.. The episode has been used to highlight the dangers of global warming, particularly the retro-style public information film shown to the Planet Express employees at the beginning of the episode. A short clip from the episode was later used in An Inconvenient Truth to humorously explain how global warming works.

Gore's appearance on Futurama was a part of his "carefully choreographed" reemergence after his loss in the 2000 Presidential election. The appearance also allowed him to show a different side of himself rather than the "personified synonym for woodenness" he had previously been known for in order to promote his book Joined at the Heart.

Cultural references

File:Al Gore on Futurama.JPG

Al Gore as depicted in the Futurama episode "Crimes of the Hot".

• Al Gore's head makes reference to the book Earth in the Balance, written by Al Gore in 1992; the second, more popular book, entitled "Harry Potter and the Balance of Earth", is a reference to the Harry Potter book series.
• The episode title is a reference to the 1980's play and movie Crimes of the Heart.
• One of Farnsworth’s failed robots is a parody of C-3PO from Star Wars. The same robot was crushed afterwards by a hydraulic press, like T-800 in the end of the movie The Terminator.
• Farnsworth's "bigger, sportier" bender-like robot prototype looks strikingly similar to the robot on the cover of a certain issue of Startling Comics. [1]
• Farnsworth’s line “The Jedi are going to feel this one!” is a reference to the destruction of Alderaan in Star Wars: A New Hope, after which Obi-Wan Kenobi said, “I sense a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."
• The evil wizard at the scientist meeting looks strikingly similar to Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• Leela calls a beer a “Bender Snack”, a reference to Scooby-Doo’s Scooby Snacks.
• Al Gore’s claim that he has “ridden the mighty moon worm” is a reference to Frank Herbert’s Dune universe.
• Al Gore's robotic body resembles the one of Simon Wright from the Captain Future TV anime series by Toei Animation.
• The documentary shown is titled “Global Warming, or: None Like It Hot!”. This is a parody of the Marylin Monroe film Some Like It Hot.
• One of the robots riding a camel through a desert resembles R.O.B.
• Kyoto and global warming, when put together, is a reference to the Kyoto Protocol.
• Fry's line, "It's so hot, I poured McDonald's coffee on my lap to cool down," might be a reference to the Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants case. The joke was also delivered in the style of former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson.
• The plot device of needing every last robot's exhaust gases to be directed upwards in order for the earth to move is a reference to Dr. Seuss's book (also an animated TV special directed by Chuck Jones) Horton Hears a Who.
• The man with a degree in homeopathic medicine is waving a diploma from Evergreen State College, Groening's alma mater.
• Farnsworth and Hermes eing naked is a reference to "Xmas Story".

Foreign language messages

• The rising thermometer shown after the news has an alien scale. The units are abbreviated with an Alien Alphabet "F". There are only two markings (also in Alien): 2, and 7.
• The “Curious Pussycat” sign in Kyoto, Japan, reads 「私は、あなたのことをあなたのお母さんより愛しています。」, which is Japanese for “I love you more than your mother does.”