Mars University
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- This article is about the episode. For the university featured in the episode, see Mars University (place).
Season 1 episode Broadcast season 2 episode | |||||
Mars University | |||||
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No. | 11 | ||||
Production number | 1ACV11 | ||||
Written by | J. Stewart Burns | ||||
Directed by | Bret Haaland | ||||
Title caption | Transmitido en Martian en SAP | ||||
First air date | 3 October, 1999 | ||||
Broadcast number | S02E02 | ||||
Opening cartoon | "Pigs in a Polka" | ||||
Additional | |||||
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Season 1 | |||||
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"Mars University" is the eleventh episode of Futurama, the eleventh of the first production season and the second of the second broadcast season. It aired on 3 October, 1999, on Fox. Farnsworth has a laboratory experiment, which he needs to develop in his lab at Mars University. Meanwhile, Fry enrolls at the university to be a drop-out, and Bender teaches the Fratbots how to be cool again.
The Story
Act I: "Is it dangerous?"
The Prof. Farnsworth tells the crew they'll be delivering a package to him at his office at Mars University (MU). When Fry asks if it's safe, Farnsworth insists it is. Then the crate starts shaking and something inside growls, and Farnsworth loads a tranquilizer gun and shoots whatever is inside.
Act II: "Are you here to fumigate the moosehead?"
When the crew arrives on Mars, Fry says that back in the 20th century no one had any idea there was an university on the planet, but according to the Professor it became a liveable planet much later when the university was founded. They tour the campus and see the Wong Library (with the largest collection of literature in two discs) and the Epsilon Rho Rho fraternity house, Bender's college fraternity. He finds out three nerdy robots live there now. Fry remembers his college days at Coney Island Community College where he learned physics in a Community College Booth; however, he is outraged when Leela informs him that by 31st century standards, he is merely a high school dropout. He decides to enroll in classes at MU so he can drop out and get the respect he feels he deserves. In the student registration lines Fry meets Amy and she asks what class he will take. He chooses "The Mathematics of Quantum Neutrino Fields", the class the professor teaches every semester, though he made up the title so that no student would dare to take it. Farnsworth doesn't know how to teach but Fry doesn't care. At night, Bender and the Fratbots, Gearshift, Oily and Fat-bot, spy on a Sorority House, where sexy blondes pillow fight in their slinky underwear. One of them is using a Mac, and when its front panel comes off, the robots stare at its circuits until they fall off the ladder and end up destroying a portion of Snooty House, and as the members rush out to see, complaining that they damaged their servants' quarters (and their servants), they start to run.
Act III: "My roommate is a monkey?"
Fry gets to his room. He thinks it's a single though there are two beds. He learns his room-mate is a monkey. It turns out the monkey, Guenter, was in the crate they were delivering. By wearing Farnsworth's latest invention, the Electronium Hat, Guenter receives heightened intelligence. Fry starts to dislike Guenter but they must be room-mates so the professor won't have to remember two numbers. In the 20th Century History Lecture Hall, Fry, Amy and Guenter meet the teacher who says one in twelve of them will not pass the class. When Guenter answers a question on the 20th century that Fry couldn't, and Amy says he's smart and cute, Fry gets jealous. Meanwhile, Bender and the ERR fratbots get into more trouble, earning the wrath of Dean Vernon. He is angry about what they did so he decides to put the Robot House members on dodecatupple-secret probation. After that, Fat-bot eats the Dean's model spaceship (the only thing that keeps the Dean sane), which makes him even angrier. In a cafe, Fry tries to chat up a girl, but she prefers Guenter, who gets her number. At the university parent's reception, everyone is with their parents. Amy presents her parents to the dean and Farnsworth presents Guenter's parents in a cage to him. He is horrified, and even more so when Fry frees them. They destroy all the room and throw "something" at the Dean.
Act IV: "I spent months slaving over a hot monkey brain!"
Leela tells Fry what he did to Guenter was cruel. When they enter their room, they see Guenter eating bananas, despite his claim not to like bananas. Guenter says that he, of course, DOES like bananas, and his hat doesn't make him happy. Fry suggests he should go to the jungle, but Guenter says that as the professor's prize experiment, he couldn't do that to him. At the 20th century class, the students have a test, but Guenter is overcome by his animal urges, so he removes the hat and jumps out a window. When Fry tells Farnsworth he told him to escape to the jungle they go after him.
In a rafting contest between the various fraternities, Bender's raft races past Fry, Leela and the Professor; The resulting splash washes them into the river. Bender's team wins the race, but now it's up to Guenter to save the three humans from falling over a waterfall. When Guenter figures out how to put the hat on, he climbs a tree and saves them, but ends up about to fall himself. He says he doesn't want to live like this, then falls crushing the hat which saves him. With the damaged hat working at only half-capacity, Guenter decides he is happy, and decides to transfer to Business school, much to the chagrin of Farnsworth. Because of their victory in the Regatta, Dean Vernon is forced to lead a parade in ERR's honor, and everyone, including Fry, Leela, Amy, Guenter, Farnsworth (now happy with Guenter), Bender, the Dean and the Fratbots enjoy a party in the campus. Captions show the future of each character.
Reception
This episode was named #21 on IGN's list of top 25 Futurama episodes and #3 on TV.com's list of top 10 Futurama episodes.
Additional Info
Character Future Captions
At the end of the episode, they run a musical montage. It features freeze-frames of several characters with subtitles telling their futures (a reference to the end of "Animal House", among other films), to the tune of "Shout".
- Fry: Fry Dropped Out Successfully And Returned To His Dead-End Delivery Job
- Guenter: Guenter Got His MBA And Became President Of The Fox Network
- Fat-bot: Fat-bot Caught A Computer Virus In Tijuana And Had To Be Rebooted
- Leela: Leela Went On a Date With Dean Vernon, But He Never Called Again
- Bender: His Job Done, Bender Stole Everything Of Value From Robot House And Ran Off
Trivia
- This is one among the few Futurama media featuring its title.
- This is the first episode with alternate opening music. The others are "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television", "Spanish Fry" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder Part 1".
- This is one of only three episodes in which Dr. Zoidberg didn't appear, the others being "Space Pilot 3000" and "Brannigan, Begin Again".
- Students in the 20th Century History class include Hess, Pereira, Mandel, Kidd, Cyterski, Fry, Guenter, Wong, Patrizio, Gutrich, Dempsey, and Mignoni (confirmation needed). Since the shock board has Wong on it instead of Amy, it is a list of last names, not first.
- The book Chrissy is reading is called English 101. Her phone number is 784-36λ9, where λ is the Greek letter lambda.
- The Snooty House's water craft is called S.S. Von Snoot.
- Epsilon Rho Rho can Be shortened as ERR, which is a abbreviation of Error.
- Excluding the Beast with a Billion Backs episodes, this is the only episode of Futurama to air in October and the only episode to be the only episode to air in the month that it aired in.
Allusions
- Click here to see cultural mentions made in this episode.
- The plot line involving Bender and Robot House is a spoof of the movie Animal House.
- Guenter's line "You like bananas? I got her number. How do you like them bananas?" is a reference to the movie Good Will Hunting.
- The 20th-century lecturer was based on the stuffy professor from The Paper Chase played by John Houseman. Amy comments, "Boring! Let's hear about Walter Mondale already!" However, in some dubbed versions, Walter Mondale was replaced by Bill Clinton.
- The regatta plot line is taken from the 1980s college movie Oxford Blues, although on the DVD commentary, nobody can remember which movie they got this part of the plot from.
Goofs
- Leela's Wristlojackimator disappears in the shot after she whispers her plan to Fry and the professor.
- The Greek letter Rho is represented as "Ρ", but on Robot House, it is shown as "ERR". The Greek alphabet has no letter that looks similar to the Latin "R".
- There is a splash sound after Guenter falls, though when we see him in the next scene he is not wet and his hat is smashed.
- Guenter was standing on a log which could have been the cause of the splash, while Guenter perhaps jumped off the log and onto land.
- Fry is surprised to see a university on Mars, but the Professor tells him there is one when he is talking about Dr. Ogden Wernstrom's A-minus in "A Big Piece of Garbage".
- Fry's memory is typically not very reliable.
- Normally, Fry gets a "Fryfro" when he gets electrocuted, but in this episode his hair only gets unorganized.
- Fry couldn't have spit out the punch since he hadn't taken in the glass.
- In the commentaries to the episode, the crew talks about this and one points out that that was the joke - they had to specifically tell the animators to have him not come in with a glass.
- When Fry enrolls into the university, Amy is standing right behind him. However, since her last name (Wong) doesn't start with A-L, she should have been waiting in the adjacent line.
- However, she may have only been there just to talk to Fry and later left to join her respective line.
Quotes
Prof. Farnsworth: All he handed in was a paper smeared with feces. He tied with Fry.
Prof. Farnsworth: ...And so by process of elimination we can determine that the electron tastes like grape-ade.
Prof. Farnsworth: Why? Why!? Why didn't I break his leg?!!
Oily: [Playing chess.] Mate in 143 moves.
Fat-bot: No, poo! You win again!
20th Century Professor: What device invented in the 20th century allowed people to view broadcast programs in their own homes?
Fry: Oh! I know this. Whaddya call it... Lite Brite! [Is electrocuted.]
Dean Vernon: You robots are a disgrace to this university! Whenever a fire alarm is pulled, Robot House! Whenever the campus liquor store is looted, Robot House! Whenever a human corpse is desecrated...!
Bender: Now I can explain that!
Dean Vernon: ROBOT HOUSE!
Characters
- Debut: 20th-century lecturer
- Amy
- Bender
- Debut: Carnival-ride operator
- Debut: Chet
- Debut: Chrissy
- Debut: Dean Vernon
- Debut: Dorm Girls
- Dr. Wernstrom
- Debut: Fat-bot
- Fry
- Debut: Gearshift
- Debut: Guenter (Semi-Antagonist)
- Debut: Guenter's parents
- Inez Wong
- Leela
- Leo Wong
- Debut: Meidermeyer
- Debut: Mrs. Fry (mentioned in speech only)
- Debut: Oily
- Prof. Farnsworth
- Debut: Yancy Fry Sr. (mentioned in speech only)
Episode Credits
- Writer
- Director
- Voice Actors