Bendin' in the Wind

"Bendin' in the Wind"
Futurama episode
File:Futurama ep45.jpg Amy, Leela, Zoidberg, and Fry in San Francisco for Beck's charity concert
Episode no.	Season three
Directed by	Ron Hughart
Written by	Eric Horsted
Original air date	April 22, 2001
Episode features
Opening cartoon	A Coy Decoy (1941)

"Bendin' in the Wind" is the thirteenth episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired April 22, 2001. The title comes from the Bob Dylan song "Blowin' in the Wind". In South America, this episode was #1 in "Bender's Best" top ten Bender-related Futurama episodes.

Plot

Fry gets a free Volkswagen microbus, excavated from the ruins of Old New York. He pushes it back to the Planet Express office, and has to fuel it with whale oil, which replaced gasoline. Bender lifts the barrel of whale oil to the can opener, and is caught by the opener's magnet and horribly damaged. At the Cedars-Sinewave Robot Hospital, the doctor informs Bender that he will never move again. Bender falls into a state of depression, which is not helped by Patch Cord Adams; but when he finds out that Beck's disembodied head is occupying the bed next to him, his spirits are lifted. Beck loans Bender a set of neck-mounted robotic mini-arms. Using the arms to scrape across his mangled body, Bender earns the position of Beck's washboard player.

Bender goes on tour with Beck, and Fry, Leela, Amy, and Dr. Zoidberg pile into Fry's van to follow them. Unfortunately, their money is destroyed in the laundry, so they are unable to buy food to live on. Things are eventually solved, however, when Zoidberg coughs up some pretty pearls, which Leela and Amy string together as jewelry to sell. While on tour, Bender is insulted by the treatment of other broken robots. As the tour continues, Bender writes a song about broken robots. Together with Beck, he decides to put on a benefit concert in San Francisco to help all the broken robots.

Fry and the crew catch up with Bender, who is relaxing in a San Francisco hotel. To everyone's shock, they discover that Bender has miraculously been fixed. To keep his music career, Bender decides to fake still being broken. The concert goes on as planned, but when the time comes to perform Bender's song, he cannot restrain himself, and dances around the stage. Having been found out, Bender runs off with the oversized benefit check in Fry's Volkswagen.

Bender, being pursued by an irate Beck, drives the microbus into the San Francisco Bay. Beck catches Bender, and recovers the check, but he forgives him since Bender has done so much for broken robots. The crew floats back to New New York in the microbus.

Broadcast and reception

In its initial airing, the episode received a Nielsen rating of 3.6/7, placing it 79th among primetime shows for the week of April 16–22, 2001.

The United States in 3000

In the shot of the United States map it is shown that some states have been renamed in the future including "Nukevada", "East West Virginia", "'Ucky", and "WyΩing". Ohio is called eHIO. California is split into "HighCal" and "LoCal" (which contains the San Andreas Gorge rather than a fault line) and the state of Pennsylvania has become the "Penn Republic" and "Sylvania"—a parody of Czechoslovakia splitting into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. One state (contiguous with present-day Utah) is named, in Alienese, "Human Farm". Conflicting issues involve the fact that despite this episode, Washington, D.C. is referred to as such, rather than Washington A.C. and "New New Jersey" is often referred to as just "New Jersey", although this is in line with today's common practice of referring to the state as "Jersey". Additionally, in the episode The 30% Iron Chef, Bender references Eugene, "Oregon", differing from "XORegon"; also, Idaho is shown as "UserID:aho" and Washington as "Washingtron". Presumably these state parodies were only thought up for this episode as they are not used at any other point in the series.

Music

• The song "My Broken Friend", performed by Beck and Bender, was written by Christopher Tyng, Eric Horsted and Ken Keeler.
• The song "Scarborough Fair" is traditional, famously performed by Simon & Garfunkel. Although his name is credited as Cylon, not Simon.
• At one point the score of Bender's song is shown. It is actually the theme from Beethoven's 5th Symphony in C minor (although it is shown in the key of D minor).
• The two other songs played during the episode are "Where It's At" from the album Odelay and "Sexx Laws" from Midnite Vultures, both by Beck.
• While playing "Where It's At", Bender sings a mock-up of the line "I got two turntables and a microphone" by singing "Got a washboard stomach and a microphone." Also, instead of singing "That was a good drum break", Beck sings the line, "That was a washboard break."
• While telling Bender to write a song about broken robots to express his feelings Beck mentions that's what he did when he wrote "Devil's Haircut," although he couldn't quite remember what the song was about. "When I'm upset I write a song about it. Like when I wrote 'Devil's Haircut,' I was feeling really...what is that song about again?".
• Beck's album Odelay is mentioned in this episode when Bender says that he will use real words to write a song, "Not phony ones like 'Odelay'!" to which Beck responds "Odelay is a word! Just look it up in the "Becktionary'!".

External links

• Bendin' in the Wind at The Infosphere.