Godfellas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Futurama episode | |
| "Godfellas" | |
 Bender the god. |
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| Episode no. | 52 |
| Prod. code | 3ACV20 |
| Airdate | March 17, 2002 |
| Writer(s) | Ken Keeler |
| Director | Susie Dietter |
| Opening subtitle | PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND TRICORDERS |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"Godfellas" is the twentieth episode of the third production season of Futurama. It first aired in North America March 17, 2002 as the eighth episode in the fourth broadcast season. The episode was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Susie Dietter. It heavily features Bender as he becomes the God of a tiny civilization, allowing the series to explore various religious issues. The episode won the first Writers Guild Of America Award for animation.
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[edit] Plot
During a noisy space pirate attack, Bender—trying to find some peace and quiet in the torpedo tube—is launched into interstellar space beyond the reach of Fry and Leela (As they were going top speed when they fired Bender, Bender was therefore going faster than the ship's top speed). After an asteroid crashes into him, a civilization of tiny humanoids ("Shrimpkins") grows on Bender and they begin worshipping him as a god. At first, Bender enjoys his new-found status, and has his followers brew what for them are vast quantities of "Lordweiser" beer (Bender needs alcohol to fuel his power cells). The tiny denizens living on him begin praying for rain, sun, and wealth, and Bender attempts to heed their prayers -- failing comically and harming the Shrimpkins in the process. Eventually, the Shrimpkins who migrated to his backside feel their prayers are unheeded and become atheists. The atheists on Bender's backside threaten war with Bender's loyal worshipers on his chest. However, Bender is horrified at how his earlier attempts to help the Shrimpkins only harmed them, and he refuses to intervene again. The micro-civilization is ultimately destroyed when the front-side and back-side factions launch atomic weapons out of Bender's nuclear pile.
Bender soon meets a cosmic entity who turns out to be the remains of a space probe that collided with God. When Bender mentions his experiences with the Shrimpkins, God responds, "I saw... you were doing well until everyone died." He notes that the best way to deal with worshippers is to use a light touch so they will neither lose hope nor become dependent on supernatural intervention, saying "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
During this time, Fry and Leela search for a way to contact Bender, which leads them to a sect of secretive monks who use a giant radio telescope to search for God in space. Leela overpowers the monks, and Fry spends the next three days searching for Bender, while the imprisoned monks eat their own shoes for sustenance. Fry finds God by accident, and God flings Bender back to Earth, just as Fry and Leela are leaving the monastery. Bender quickly recounts his tale (simply saying, "first I was God, then I met God") and Fry boasts they "climbed up a mountain and locked up some monks", which reminds Leela that they never let them out. Fry is reluctant to return to the monastery and claims that as monks, God will surely help them (or at least provide them with more shoes to eat.) Bender however, tells them that God cannot be counted on for anything, and demands they rescue the monks themselves. The camera zooms out from Earth, past planets, through space, and back to God, who then chuckles and repeats his advice: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
[edit] Production
- Coolio, who guest starred in the third season episode "A Tale of Two Santas" and the 2007 movie Futurama: Bender's Big Score, appears on the 2996 quarter.
- Billy West states on the audio commentary that the voice of "God" was based on the opening announcer from The Outer Limits.
- When Bender is drifting through Space the images of space behind him are taken from real Hubble photo's of Space. Initially the background was only going to be starfields but because a large portion of the episode was to be set in space the production crew decided to make it more detailed.
[edit] Themes
This episode is one of only a few that deals with the religious issues of the Futurama universe. After Bender's unsuccessful attempt at godhood he encounters a god-like entity in space. During the conversation between these two, the episode touches on the ideas of predestination, prayer, and the nature of salvation, in what Mark Pinsky referred to as theological turn to the episode, which may cause the viewer to need "to be reminded that this is a cartoon and not a divinity school class".[1] By the end of the conversation, Bender's questions still have not been fully answered and like many of the conversations between humans and God in the Bible, Bender is left wanting more from the voice than it has given him.[1]
The book Toons That Teach, a text used by youth groups to teach teenagers about spirituality, recommends this episode in a lesson teaching about "Faith, God's Will, [and] Image of God".[2]
[edit] Broadcast and reception
This episode won the first Writers Guild Of America Award for animation in 2003,[3][1] where it competed against animated specials, long form programs and episodic animation.[4] Series creator Matt Groening has cited it as one of the best episodes of the series.[5] The Reno Gazette-Journal called the episode amazing and noted it as one of the prime episodes in season three.[6] In 2008, Empire placed Futurama 25th on their list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time" and cited "Godfellas" as the show's best episode.[7]
[edit] Cultural references
The title references the 1990 Martin Scorsese film, Goodfellas.
This episode explores themes similar to "Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon[8], The Twilight Zone episode "The Little People", and Alan Dean Foster's short story "Gift of a Useless Man".
Pinsky asserts that the monks visited by Fry and Leela occupy the monastery of "Teshuvah", which is the Hebrew word for repentance[1]; however the monastery's name is often transcribed differently. The observatory located in a monastery is also a reference to The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke[8].
When Bender says "Ask not for whom the bone bones, it bones for thee," he is referencing John Donne: "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee,"[9] most famously quoted as the title of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.
When Bender finds the God-like-being and speculates that it might be "The remains of a space probe that collided with God," he is most likely referencing the climax of the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in which a similar event occurs. The TOS episode "The Changeling" is also a likely candidate.
The "God-space entity" is likely a reference to the God in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.
The musical pieces, "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "The Beautiful Blue Danube" are played in scenes were Bender is floating in Space. A reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Pinsky, Mark [2003]. The Gospel According to the Simpsons. Bigger and possibly even Better! edition, 229-235. ISBN 978-0-664-23265-8.
- ^ Case, Steve [2005]. Toons That Teach: 75 Cartoon Moments To Get Teenagers Talking, 84-85. ISBN 0310259924.
- ^ 55th Annual Writers Guild Of America Award Winners (2003).
- ^ Futurama Wins First WGA Animation Award (2003-03-13).
- ^ Nathan Rabin (2006-04-26). Matt Groening.
- ^ Robison, Mark (2004-04-22). DVD resurrects underappreciated TV show ‘Futurama’. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. Empire. Retrieved on 2008-03-29.
- ^ a b Cook, Lucius (April 26, 2004). Hey Sexy Mama, Wanna Kill All Humans?: Looking Backwards at Futurama, The Greatest SF Show You've Never Seen. Locus Online. Retrieved on July 2, 2007
- ^ Meditation XVII
[edit] External links
- Godfellas at the Internet Movie Database
- Godfellas at TV.com
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