The 30% Iron Chef
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| Futurama episode | |
| "The 30% Iron Chef" | |
 Iron Cook Logo |
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| Episode no. | 54 |
| Prod. code | 3ACV22 |
| Airdate | April 14, 2002 |
| Writer(s) | Jeff Westbrook |
| Director | Ron Hughart |
| Opening subtitle | IF ACCIDENTALLY WATCHED, INDUCE VOMITING |
| Opening cartoon | Unknown |
| Season 3 January 2001 – December 2002 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
“The 30% Iron Chef” is the 22nd episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired on April 14, 2002.
[edit] Plot
Bender aspires to be a cook for the Planet Express crew, but the meals he produces are awful. One day he cooks brunch for the crew but uses disgusting ingredients: a pony for Amy and at least two containers of salt in each meal (which, according to Bender, is 10% less than the deadly dose). Bender accidentally overhears Fry complaining about the meal and after the whole crew agrees with him Bender starts to cry and runs away, dropping his drinks (which have mop water in them), making an acidic hole in the floor. Also, Zoidberg destroys the scale replica of the world's largest bottle that Professor Farnsworth has just made. He frames Fry for the damage and the Professor demands that Fry pay $10 for the material cost. Fry repays him with ease, not having the wherewithal to defend himself. Because Zoidberg is so poor, he sees $10 as a huge sum of money and is riddled with guilt.
After running away, Bender hopes Elzar will teach him how to cook, but Elzar refuses. Bender then finds two hoboes who take him with them on the spacerails. Bender and the hoboes end up in the biggest hobo joint in the universe, "not Eugene, Oregon" according to Bender. There, Bender meets Helmut Spargel—a legendary cook who lost his TV show when a young, upcoming Elzar replaced him. Spargel begins to train Bender how to cook in order to get revenge on Elzar.
Once Bender is finished with his training, Spargel gives Bender the final test: whether he can cook an edible meal for Spargel. Spargel eats the food and tells Bender that it is acceptable. As a result of eating the food, his stomach explodes, and he dies. With his last, dying breath, Spargel reveals the secret to perfect cooking and gives him a vial of unknown liquid to use whenever he needs to spice up a food.
Bender challenges Elzar to a cook-off on Iron Cook. The main ingredient used in this cook-off is Soylent green. Bender prepares terrible looking food, but he applies the liquid that Spargel gave him and somehow wins. As Elzar scrubs dishes, Bender declines the title of Iron Cook and takes the lesser title of Zinc Saucier, which he made up at that moment, stating that it also comes with double prize money. After the contest, Zoidberg becomes remorseful for framing Fry (when Fry is unable to pay for a $10 commemorative turkey baster, having forgotten to bring spending money with him). Zoidberg publicly apologizes before trying to commit seppuku honorably using a ceremonial Wakizashi, only to damage the $5000 sword (seemingly having forgotten his body is a hard shell); and before running away, he falsely says it was Fry who did it.
When the Professor examines the liquid in the bottle Spargel gave Bender, it turns out the liquid was ordinary water. Fry says that all Spargel gave him was confidence, the confidence to beat Elzar-after which the Professor mentions that the water was laced with LSD. The episode closes with Bender proposing a meal for his co-workers. The characters are unsure, but when Bender adds that the meal will include plenty of “confidence”, they joyfully accept.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title and the Iron Cook cooking contest parody the Japanese cooking competition show Iron Chef.
- The song played during Bender’s training montage is “You’re the Best” by Joe Esposito, from The Karate Kid soundtrack.
- Spargel’s character and subsequent death are a parody of Yoda of the Star Wars series, as is the scene in which Bender peels hovering potatoes (also parodied in the season 2 episode "War Is the H-Word"). Also, Spargel's name is a reference to the popular German food, spargel.
- Helmut Spargel may also be a reference to celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck who owns the famous restaurant Spago and regularly caters the Academy Awards. Puck has appeared on Iron Chef America as the owner of Spago.
- Elzar's seduction by the "Dark Side of Cooking" (cilantro, mango salsa, raspberry vinaigrette) was a reference to Darth Vader's seduction by the Dark Side of The Force.
- The Prismatic space rail exchange where Bender and the other hobos disembark resembles the cover of Pink Floyd's 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon, though more than likely it's just referencing the separation of light that takes place in prisms
- The aforementioned train has a car labeled 'Wrath-of-Conrail' which references Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
- The ending, with the LSD-laced water, is a parody of Space Jam, in which a secret elixir that Bugs Bunny (voiced by Billy West) gives the team is actually just water.
- When the winner of the competition is announced, Chairman Koji says to Bender, “Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,” a reference to the popular song “Mr. Roboto” by the band Styx.
- The episode concludes with a clip from Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” a well-known psychedelic song.
- Linda and Morbo appear on “Good Morning Earth,” a parody of Good Morning America.
- The Iron Cook main ingredient is Soylent Green, a parody of the 1973 film. Bubblegum Tate’s Line: “Soylent green is my kind of people” is a parody of Charleton Heston’s famous line “Soylent Green is… people!”
- The Kitchen Coliseum (a play on the Iron Chef arena of Kitchen Stadium) is home to the Kitchen University Wildcats, possibly a reference to Johnson & Wales University (Johnson & Wales's mascot is the Wildcat) where Emeril Lagasse went to college. Chef Elzar is based on Emeril.
- As part of Elzar's Venetian Canal themed dish in the competition, a small shrimp-like creature dresses up as a gondolier and sings "La donna è mobile". The extreme extravagance of the dish, complete with the opera singing gondolier, may be a parody of the The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
- The scene with the hobos is based on the hobo scene from the movie Tampopo where hobos with a love of food come together to share their culinary discoveries under the tutelage of a master of ramen.
[edit] Production notes
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- Bender’s original role, as shown in some production sketches and part of the Director’s commentary, was supposed to be that of the ship’s (horrible) chef. However, it was decided that he would have no real purpose, although he has cooked on occasion.
- It is said that Bender would like to make good-tasting meals but can’t because he has no sense of taste (as alluded to in previous episodes, such as “My Three Suns”). However, near the end of the episode “A Fishful of Dollars”, he could taste, as he spits out Fry’s anchovy pizza (as does everyone else except Fry) however this could be due to the oil in the anchovy which, after a thousand years, might be rejected by Bender.
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