War is the H-Word
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War is the H-Word is episode 17 in season 2 of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 26, 2000.
Plot
As part of an attempt to scam a convenience store, Fry and Bender enlist in the Earth Army. However, before they can use their 5% military discount to buy chewing gum, Earth declares war on Spheron 1 - a planet that commanding general Zapp Brannigan says, to his troops, is devoid of any natural resources, and possesses no strategic importance whatsoever.
Concerned for her friends' safety, Leela attempts to enlist, but the Army has a men-only policy. While Earth's flagship, the Nimbus, makes its way to the enemy planet, the soldiers undergo training and we discover that Leela has snuck aboard disguised as a man, under the name of Lee Lemon, to whom Brannigan finds himself strangely attracted.
They arrive and discover the enemy is a race of pink, sentient, ball-like creatures. In their first battle Fry fails to stop an attack and instead blows a hole in the ground to hide. Bender manages to stop an enemy bomb by covering it with himself. For his act of cowardice, Brannigan sentences Fry to a demeaning punishment - being Kif's assistant.
After the initial battle with the balls, the soldiers regroup at camp. The Commander-in-chief, President of Earth Richard Nixon's Head, sends Bender and Henry Kissinger's head to negotiate with the Spheron leaders, the "Brain-balls".
Brannigan, however, tells everyone the true plan - a voice-activated bomb has been planted inside of Bender, and will detonate, destroying the whole planet, when Bender says his favorite word: "ass". Leela and Fry steal a chopper and fly to the negotiating-hall; Fry saves the day by telling Bender the plot just in time. However, Bender realizes that he now has the power to make the Brain-balls surrender. While Spheron 1 is actually their homeworld, and it is the humans who are the "evil invading aliens", Bender simply demands that they "get the Hell off my planet!", and they all evacuate. An Earth newspaper headline reads "Balls Thoroughly Licked!".
Back at the Planet Express office, Professor Farnsworth cannot remove the bomb from Bender's body. Instead, he resets the bomb from a list of words Bender hardly ever uses. The word is "antiquing", which Bender successfully guesses.
References
- The title is a reference to General Sherman's famous statement that "War is Hell", and is also possibly a dig at censors within American television networks who will usually object to the inclusion of the word "Hell" in animated television shows.
- Bender is treated by a robot doctor named iHawk - a parody of Alan Alda's "Hawkeye" Pierce (voiced by actor/impersonator Maurice LaMarche), and the Apple line of iProducts. At one point, the robot flips a switch from "irreverent" to "maudlin", a reference to the duality of Alda's character portrayal. Additionally, Todd Susman provided the voice of the P.A. announcer as he did in M*A*S*H.
- An extended M*A*S*H joke is played in the episode when Bender is evacuated to a mobile hospital. A "Suicide Is Painless" soundalike appears in the score, and many of the ensuing jokes are in M*A*S*H style. (The alienese on the tent says *M*E*A*T, hence "mash meat".)
- Bender's Top Ten Used Words list is a reference to David Letterman's Top Ten.
- There are numerous references to the ball aliens as being that of the male organs: "We've seen too many bodybags and ballsacks."; "These balls are making me testy!"; Brannigan's referring to the "Brain Balls" as having a lot of brains, and a lot of chutzpa (The latter he says while cupping his hand and raising it); and the formerly mentioned newspaper headline, "Balls Thoroughly Licked", are a few.
- A sign outside the shop Fry and Bender are in at the start of the episode reads "Free bag of Ice-9 with 6-pack", a reference to the substance Ice-9, created by Kurt Vonnegut in his novel "Cat's Cradle".
- The Piñata scene has reference to Star Wars to Jedi Training and also sports a helmet similar to that which the Rebels wore as pilots.
Trivia
- The episode's original east coast airing was interrupted by a special news bulletin. Unfortunately, the interruption came a minute before the very end of the episode, right before the audience was to learn Bender's fate after supposedly triggering the bomb on Earth.
- 'Bender's Top Ten Most Frequently Uttered Words' in full:
- 10. 'Chump'
- 9. 'Chumpette'
- 8. 'Yours'
- 7. 'Up'
- 6. 'Pimpmobile'
- 5. 'Bite'
- 4. 'My'
- 3. 'Shiny'
- 2. 'Daffodil'
- 1. 'Ass'
| Preceded by: Anthology of Interest I | Futurama episodes | Followed by: The Honking |
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