Futurama/Tropes A To D: Difference between revisions

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* [[Action Girl]]: Leela.

** Mark Hamill voices Hanukkah Zombie, who flies around in a [[Star Wars|TIE Fighter]] with Stars of David on the solar panels. We see it when facing a bunch of solid gold Death Stars.

** When Fry visits the deserted remains of Old New York, he shouts, "Howard Stern is overrated!". Billy West was a member of the Howard Stern Show for several years.

** From "Silence of the Clamps," when Bender's friends are looking for him at a farm, and they find a Bending Unit whom they believe to be Bender:

'''Bending Unit:''' Sorry mister, but I'm no Bender. I'm just a simple farmer. Name's [[Billy West]]!<br />

'''Fry:''' ''*laughs*'' [[Hypocritical Humor|Billy West? That's a]] [[Fail O'Suckyname|stupid phoney made-up name.]] }}

* [[Adam and Eve Plot]]: Invoked in "In-A-Gadda-De-Leela."

** As well as in "A Bicyclops Built for Two."

* [[Affably Evil]]: Robot Devil is actually most of the time rather polite as a character, despite being a robot [[Satan]], and the depths to which Bender sinks at times [[Even Evil Has Standards|leave even him appalled]].

* [[Affectionate Parody]]:

** Almost anything you can name, especially in the fields of science and science-fiction.

** An entire episode ("When Aliens Attack") was dedicated to making fun of ''[[Ally McBeal]]'' and the [[Viewers are Morons]] philosophy.

** Also, the season 6 finale, "Reincarnation", [[Art Shift|reimaging]] Futurama in 3 different animation styles (30's Max Fleischer style, pixelated 80's video-games and 70's [[Anime]]), while parodying their respectives tropes.

* [[Alien Autopsy]]: Dr. Zoidberg [[Historical In-Joke|is revealed to have been the alien the autopsy was performed on]] in the episode "Roswell that Ends Well," but he's still alive and conscious and makes comments like, "Take [my heart], [[Bizarre Alien Biology|I've got four of them]]." He seems to find the whole thing bemusing, but not unpleasant.

* [[All Just a Dream]]: The episodes {{spoiler|''The Sting''}} and {{spoiler|''Obsoletely Fabulous''}}.

* [[All Part of the Show]]: Lrrr (RULER OF THE PLANET OMICRON PERSEI 8!!!) invades Earth. He happens to land on the stage for the Comic Con costume contest. He gives his "You will be conquered" speech. Everyone applauds politely, then he gets ushered off the stage.

* [[Almost Out of Oxygen]]:

** In "Love and Rocket", the Planet Express ship computer (which has [[Yandere|developed a crush on Bender and gone completely insane]]) cuts off the oxygen supply, so Leela and Fry have to wear spacesuits while they try to switch it off.

** Also occurs in "The Series Has Landed", when Fry and Leela get lost on the moon.

** One episode implies there are an infinite number.

** Professor Farnsworth creates dozens of boxes which act as gateways to parallel universes. Each one of those universes has doorways to all the other universes. [[Mind Screw|That sound was your brain overloading.]] And it doesn't help that in the end, two of the universes end up with the boxes to their ''own universe.''

** "The Beast With a Billion Backs" reveals the existence of yet another universe, this one accessible from a tear in the fabric of space-time. It is home to only one sentient being: Yivo, the infinitely huge, love-lorn ball of [[Naughty Tentacles]].

** Another episode has Farnsworth, Fry, and Bender get into a time machine that only goes forward. They discover that {{spoiler|when the universe ends it is replaced by another, identical universe (except Farnsworth killing [[Adolf Hitler]]). They end up returning to their correct time period in a THIRD identical universe, inadvertently killing that universe's version of themselves as well as Eleanor Roosevelt instead of Hitler.}}

** The gang is at a club, and Bender's built-in gaydar shoots down the girls' hopes when they see good looking men. It might have been interference from a gay weather balloon...

** Also in "The Cyber House Rules" with Leela and her old friend Adlai Atkins when they're at the Municipal Aboretum.

* [[Alternative Number System]]: Robots sometimes use base 2.

* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

* [[Amazing Technicolor Population]]: Though they may just be aliens.

** Despite being set in the future, [[Eternal English|stereotypes associated with American accents still apply]], even with respect to alien life forms. Amy comes from a rich family and has a [[Valley Girl]] accent (even though her parents have stereotypically Chinese accents), while Zoidberg and his species speak with Yiddish accents and sometimes display Jewish stereotypes.

* [[America Takes Over the World]]: Although only THE world, and not any of the millions of others.

** Don't you mean thoroughly licked?

** No, that was just its inhabitants.

* [[Anal Probing]]: Fry is [[Alien Abduction|abducted by a flying saucer]] whose vanity plate reads "PROBE #1."

** Special mention goes to The Probulator.

* [[And the Rest]]: In the episode ''Less Than Hero'' where Fry, Leela and Bender form a crime-fighting trio called Captain Yesterday, Cloberella and Superking. Their theme tune becomes:

** It also occurs in "Rebirth":

'''Fry:''' And the rest! }}

* [[And You Were There]]: Parodied in "Anthology of Interest II," where Leela tells Fry that she had a wonderful dream, "...except you were there, and you were there, and you were there!"

* [[Anticlimax]]: There are many moments of this in the series.

** The ending scene of ''Into The Wild Green Yonder'' {{spoiler|where the main characters are on the run from the law and to escape, they flee into a gigantic wormhole which is to take them light-years away without anyway of knowing if they can return. Originally intended to by the final scene of the series, it is made dramatic by having Leela and Fry kiss for the first time as the ship flies into the wormhole and it morphs into the familiar pattern of lights shown in the opening sequence of each episode}}. In the first episode of the renewed season, a [[Snap Back]] is pulled and the characters find themselves back at Earth as they come out of the wormhole.

** In Season 6, {{spoiler|Mom's plan to turn people into zombies}} ends up being this too (and again, bloody hilarious).

* [[Anti-Gravity Clothing]]: In [[Homage]] to ''[[The Jetsons]]''.

** "Happy Freedom Day, ladies! Come on, show me something. Anything. Seriously, I'd take an armpit." Needless to say Zapp Brannigan isn't picky.

** And then there's Yivo, an [[Another Dimension|extra-dimensional]] being that had sex with every single person in the universe ''at the same time''. Except for Leela.

** As well as Hedonism Bot, of course.

** Leela doesn't do "anything", but does do Zapp, Alkazar, and Fry-in-Zoidberg's-body of her own free will.

* [[Applied Phlebotinum]]: Naturally almost every episode, especially thanks to Professor Farnsworth having an invention for every occasion.

** However, it is beautifully ''subverted'' almost as often. For example, in the 2nd-season episode ''Fry and the Slurm Factory'', the Slurm drink manufacturer runs a contest where the grand prize is won by finding one golden bottle cap hidden in a Slurm can. Fry wonders if there could be a way to find the bottlecap without having to buy millions of cans. As expected, he shortly comes into possession of the professor's "F-Ray" (which can see through anything) and uses it on every can of slurm in the city of New New York. But while this wins him lots of "minor" prizes (including a jetski!), he still doesn't find the golden bottlecap. He's so frustrated that he declares he will never look at another can of slurm again. Of course, he immediately goes to the fridge to get another one to drink. It's the winning can.

* [[Ascended Meme]]: The [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/futurama-fry-not-sure-if-x "Squinting Fry"] image macro showed up in a recent Comedy Central promo for the new 2012 season.

** As did the "Why Not Zoidberg?" meme. Bonus points for both memes being voiced over by their respective voice actors.

* [[Author Appeal]]: Deliberately parodied at numerous points.

** While the future doesn't have Fry's "[[No Nudity Taboo|primitive notions of modesty]]", the only characters who seem to have no sense of modesty are Farnsworth (over 150 years old), Hermes (obese), and Cubert (twelve, overweight, and only really immodest when he's first taken out of his cloning vat).

** There's a speculative fiction fetish for [[Rule 34|nearly]] everyone, and they're all going down.

* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: Invoked in-universe with the "Goofy Gopher Revue" from "The Series Has Landed".

** The show has plenty, but possibly none so great as when visiting the President's heads in season 6.

'''George H. W. Bush's head and George W. Bush's heads:''' [[Big No|No!]] }}

* [[Axe Crazy]]: Roberto, the criminally insane, psychotic stab-bot.

* [[Bad Bad Acting]]: Fry's episode of "Single Female Lawyer", the cast's interference with Calculon's wedding (soap opera style), Bender's audition for "All My Circuits".

** Subverted in "Yo Leela Leela". The crew gets to act on Leela's kids show. While it sounds like [[Bad Bad Acting]] on the surface, it actually fits with the more deliberate and easy to follow style of a real kids show.

* [[Bad Santa]]: Robot Santa.

* [[Bandaged Face]]: Parodied, natch.

* [[Being Good Sucks]]

* [[Beleaguered Assistant]]: Kif is practically the poster boy for it.

'''Brannigan:''' You. You lay out my formal shorts. }}

** Lampshaded in ''Into the Wild Green Yonder'':

* [[Beneficial Disease]]: In "Parasites Lost", eating a bad sandwich gives Fry worms that rebuild his body, making him stronger and smarter.

* [[Berserk Button]]: The three Benders make fun of the ugly alien giant for being ugly which he accepts, but Fry's big mistake when he talks about his mother.

* [[Big Applesauce|Big Big Applesauce]].

* [[Big Damn Movie]]: there are a ''couple'' of ordinary episodes that threaten reality, but the movies generally raise the stakes.

* [[Big Eater]]: Nibbler (and the rest of the Nibblonians). Let the Feast Of A Thousand Hams begin! Also Zoidberg, whenever he's not rummaging through garbage cans. He destroys an entire buffet table in "[[Roswell That Ends Well]]" There were hints of Amy of being one throughout the series, but it wasn't until "The Prisoner of Benda" when she switched bodies that she wanted to satisfy her ''food lust''.

** In Mars University, when Professor Farnsworth realizes his pet monkey wants to be only decently smart and [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|get a degree in business]], instead of a being a genius.

** Fry cuts loose with one after invading aliens destroy his sand castle.

** [[Large Ham]] acting unit Calculon has one in one of his movies. The whole clip is just the Big No, and yet he says it needs no context. It's then hilariously [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]]:

'''Calculon''': Interesting side note: the script called for me to say "Yes", but I gave it a little twist. }}

** The newest season likes this trope. First Fry did this when {{spoiler|the censoring satellite V-Giny refused to censor Leela and Zapp's copulation}}. Then the Professor did one when he realized he'd lived to see the day when {{spoiler|Amy and Bender got engaged}}. And most recently {{spoiler|and more seriously}}, Bender had this reaction when {{spoiler|he learned that he didn't have a back-up unit and will die one day}}.

[[Skyward Scream|Noooooo!!!]] }}

** In "A Flight to Remember", there's one from Bender after losing Countess de la Roca in the black hole while evacuating from the Titanic(also sucked in the black hole), and one from Hermes in his flashback from the 2980 Olympics when one of his fans attempts to limbo the stick, which is very low, causing him to break his back.

** Leela gets one in "Yo Leela Leela," after {{spoiler|lying about the Rumbledy-Hump planet leads to sweatshop-like jobs for the Humplings and the orphans.}}

** In the global warming episode, the crew goes to Kyoto and passes a "[[Bland-Name Product|Curious Pussycat]]" billboard that states "I love you more than your mother."

** Whenever Amy gets angry and [[Pardon My Klingon|curses in Chinese]], though according to the audio commentary for the second episode, what Lauren Tom yelled in Chinese was harsh and insulting, but not obscene.

* [[Bizarrchitecture]]:

** When Fry and Bender are looking for a new apartment, and get a tour of Relativity.

** An elevator that moves the building up and down. Complete with people screaming like its a carnival ride.

** The Central Bureaucracy has a giant Rubik's Cube made out of smaller Rubik's Cubes, which are in turn made out of offices. [[Stealth Pun|So a Rubik's Cubicle]].

* [[Bizarre Alien Biology]]: Zoidberg and Kif. Plus most of the other Bizarre Aliens in the show.

** {{spoiler|The Leela/Zapp plot of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela".}}

** Not to mention "Amazon Women in the Mood".

** "Prepare to be boarded again and again."

* [[Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word]]:

* [[The Blank]]: "The Farnsworth Parabox" - When the group is going through various alternate universes, the alternate Amy stumbles upon a universe where everyone is faceless.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: "Good news, everyone!"

* [[Blind Idiot Translation]]: The German dub suffers from this - starting even before Fry gets frozen. "Doomsday Prophets cautiously upbeat" - "Weltuntergangspropheten vorsichtig verprügelt" (which translates back to English as 'End of the world prophets beaten up carefully').

* [[Boot Camp Episode]]: Fry and Bender enlist in order to take advantage of a discount for recruits, with the understanding that they can quit unless "War were declared". Three seconds later, [[Not My Lucky Day|"War were declared."]]

* [[Borrowed Catchphrase]]:

'''Scruffy:''' Bite my shiny metal ass. ''(the graph rises)'' }}

** Also parodied, as they have the head of ''every'' US president going back to Washington.

*** [[Historical In-Joke]]: There are two nonconsecutive [[Grover Cleveland]] heads.

** The sixth season makes a concerted effort to show her assisting more with Farnsworth's experiments, and finally getting her doctorate after interning with him for 12 years.

** Fry becomes one in 'Neutopia' after being [[Attractive Bent Gender|turned into a woman]]

* [[Break the Haughty]]: In the "Mars University" episode, Gunther, the professor's arrogant and hyper-intelligent monkey, gets taken down a peg or two when his [[Amazingly Embarrassing Parents]] are unleashed on Parent's Weekend.

** In one of the earliest episodes, Fry's hands get eaten by a T. rex. He's then taken to a "Handcrafters" store to get new hands. He says "I'll break them in tonight."

** In "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", Fry switches hands with the Robot Devil. While the Robot Devil's hands immediately try to choke Fry, the robot devil complains that Fry's hands "keep touching me! In places!". Fry responds: "Yeah, they get around".

* [[Breakout Character]]: Bender.

* [[Brick Joke]]:

** When the gang goes to get Bender's brain back from the Central Bureaucracy, the elderly man in front of them states that he's still waiting for his birth certificate. Later in Season 6...

'''Teller''': Sorry, that's Section C. Next! }}

** Also in the hundredth episode, Barbados Slim is shown dancing with Hermes' wife, LaBarbara Conrad. In "Bender's Big Score", she leaves Hermes for Barbados because {{spoiler|Hermes loses his body}}

** In ''X-mas Story'', Leela tells Fry that the word "ask" is now pronounced "axe". It's pronounced this way for the rest of the series!

** When Fry slams the brakes on the antique car in ''"Lesser of Two Evils"'', Bender slams headfirst into the dashboard and complains about receiving ass whiplash. Five seconds later, we see Flexo on the ground, complaining about Ass Whiplash as well, but, from his condition, it seems to be more severe than Bender's.

** In ''A Clockwork Origin'', Farnsworth reveals that Zoidberg is Cubert's godfather. This seems like a typical "Zoidberg is a loser" joke, but ''The Tip of the Zoidberg'' shows that {{spoiler|the two have been close friends for decades}}, meaning it actually makes sense that Farnsworth asked Zoidberg to be the godfather.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Zoidberg and Kif, presumably unrelated to their biology, though Fry falls into the category many times as well.

* [[Caffeine Bullet Time]]: Fry, in the episode ''Three Hundred Big Boys''

* [[Call Back]]: In the episode "The Late Philip J. Fry", at the very end, when Fry, Bender, and Farnsworth return to their own age (well, two universes later), they inadvertently crush the ones already existing in that time, provoking Farnsworth to remark "That takes care of the Time Paradox!" a reference to "Bender's Big Score," where the Time Paradox is a huge plot point.

** In the same episode, you can see various scenes from previous ''Futurama'' episodes and movies, such as Fry and That Eighties Guy entering the conference table, and Professor Farnsworth attached to Yivo.

** In "The Silence of the Clamps", Zoidberg uses his mating head crest.

** In "All the Presidents' Heads", we get this exchange in reference to Bender's various claims throughout the 1999-2003 run of the series of the different percentage of materials that he was composed of:

'''Bender''': I'm 40% scrap metal, baby. ''(pounds on chest)'' }}

* [[Calvin Ball]]: Blernsball, the game that baseball has evolved into by the year 3000. It's as impossible for Fry to follow as it would be for someone from the year 1000 to understand modern baseball. Of course, the writers are actually just making stuff up.

* [[Can-Crushing Cranium]]: Bender, with [[Exaggerated Trope|a whole keg]].

** The Professor gives advice to this effect in "War is the H-Word".

** Hermes claims to have once swallowed a calculator to gain its power.

*** Claims nothing. We saw the X-Ray!

* [[Can't Live Without You]]: After Fry is critically injured in a car crash, his head is placed on Amy's body to keep him alive until his body is healed.

** "Bender, on the screen! It's that guy you are!"

** "Bender need brain for smart-making!"

** "I'm a gigantic brain!"

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''The Honking'', when Bender, Leela, and Fry follow some tire tracks, which lead directly under a garage door.

'''Fry:''' Thanks, eagle eye. }}

* [[Captain Obvious Aesop]]: Parodied:

'''John Jackson''': I respect my opponent. He's a good man. But frankly, I agree with everything he just said! }}

* [[Captain Space, Defender of Earth!]]: Zapp Brannigan.

* [[Casual Interplanetary Travel]]: Used for a few gags, most notably in the second episode where Fry counts down to the ship launching, only to arrive when he gets to about 3.

'''Fry:''' ''*quickly*'' Sixfivefourthreetwoone blast off! }}

* [[The Cast Showoff]]: John DiMaggio's beatboxing skills pop up a few times.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Plenty.

** Farnsworth:

"Eh-Wha?"<br />

"WERNSTROM!" }}

** His short lived catchphrase to explain why he lacked motivation to do things: "Although I am already in my pajamas."

** Bender:

"I'm X% <material under discussion>!" }}

** Scruffy:

"I'm on break." }}

** Hermes has two which [[Mad Libs Catchphrase|vary somewhat]]: "Great [animal] of [place or deity that rhymes with animal]!" and euphemisms involving green snakes and sugarcane. The first one is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in a scene in one episode, where Hermes is so weak from fatigue that he can only say, "Great... something, of... someplace."

** In ''Into the Wild Green Yonder'', Hermes' wife LeBarbara attempts these a few times, to Hermes' disapproval.

** Zoidberg:

** Leela:

"Oh, Lord." }}

** Elzar:

"Bam!" }}

** Kif's exasperated sigh.

* [[Channel Hop]]: Twice over, only once over as it concerns original episodes.

* [[Charity Ball]]: "The Mutants Are Revolting" features a charity ball for a mutant scholarship program.

* [[Chekhov's Armoury]]: Although Fry's lack of a delta wave is the most prominent [[Chekhov's Gun]], there are ''heaps'', with some things returning in the same episode they were introduced to become something significant (e.g. the card for Leela's birthday in 6x05), to returning episodes or even seasons later to become something important (this comes to a head in the movie ''Bender's Big Score'' when everything (and everyone) introduced that may seem insignificant early on becomes absolutely essential to the plot later on).

** [[Chekhov's Boomerang]]: That thing with Fry's head? That comes back more than once.

** [[Chekhov's Gag]]: Considering the above list and the fact that this show is primarily comedy, what do ''you'' think?

*** The Quantum Gemerald in ''The Mutants are Revolting''; the powerful beam it emits turns out to be very useful when Fry {{spoiler|uses it to save the mutants from a tidal wave of sewage.}} Better still, the Quantum Gemerald was first mentioned in "Less Than Hero" where the supervillain the crew was fighting against wanted to steal it.

*** In ''Insane in the Mainframe'', Fry (thinking he's a robot) takes a can of oil from Leela and puts it in his inside coat pocket after using it. Later in the episode when [[Ax Crazy|Roberto]] stabs him, the knife penetrates the oil can, making Roberto think that Fry really '''is''' a battle robot, causing him to [[Freak-Out]] and run away, saving the crew.

*** Nibbler. {{spoiler|Starting from the very first episode.}}

*** On a less significant scale, these characters show importance later on (in the form of a [[Chekhov's Army]]): Scruffy (the janitor (owns half the company)), Robot Santa (important in the movies), President Nixon (introduced as a throwaway and then proceeds to fuck up the earth royally more than once (no surprise)), the Harlem Globetrotters (... they're all brilliant applied physicists), Amy (turns out she's a brilliant grad student), the Robot Devil (sorta).

** [[Chekhov's Hobby]]: A few, from Professor's Farnsworth's proclivity for inventions (mainly doomsday machines) right down to Hermes' ability to limbo.

** [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Fry learns how to pilot the ship. And how to play the holophoner, a futuristic musical instrument.

*** In "The Series Has Landed", Amy spends a lot of time playing The Crane Game, in order to get the keys to the ship back. {{spoiler|All that practice sure came in handy at the end of the episode, when she needed to save Fry, Leela and Bender using a magnet.}}

* [[Chirping Crickets]]

* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Robot 1-X, who is introduced as a new Planet Express staff member in "Obsoletely Fabulous" and is gone without a trace in the next episode.

* [[Clark Kenting]]: Fry, Bender, and Leela somehow manage to pull this off in the episode "Less Than Hero."

* [[Cleavage Window]]: Many of the one-shot outfits Leela and Amy wear.

** In Leela's case, many of her one-shot outfits feature a bellybutton window instead. Probably a [[Shout-Out]] to the old prohibition on showing navels on television.

* [[Clockwork Creature]]: Animatronio in "The Duh-Vinci Code"

* [[Closer Than They Appear]]: "Objects may be less sexy than they appear" shows up on a clothes shop mirror.

* [[Coattail-Riding Relative]]: Fry's initial plan in the pilot is to avoid work entirely by mooching from the Professor. He settles for low-grade employment via [[Nepotism]] instead.

* [[Comatose Canary]]

* [[Conspicuously Public Assassination]]: The end of Bender's reign in "A Pharaoh to Remember".

* [[Context Sensitive Button]]: The antennae on Bender's head seems to do everything from cooking popcorn to interrupting TV signals ''and'' it's [[Freud Was Right|a metaphor for a penis]] on top of all that.

** Fry's {{spoiler|nephew}} was revealed to have been buried in Orbiting Meadows Cemetery in season 3's "The Luck of the Fryrish". Now, whenever a character that is important to that episode's plot or important to the main cast dies, his or her funeral is always held at Orbiting Meadows.

** Cosmic Ray's Pizza was used as a throwaway gag in season one's "A Fishful of Dollars." Now, it's the common place for the Planet Express crew to order or eat out.

** And now a '''major''' one in "Law & Oracle." Let's see what we have here: The episode starts with Fry playing an arcade game, and fails miserably. Someone says "You stink, loser" in response to his failed attempt to play an arcade game. Someone comes in with a pizza and shouts "Hey, Fry, pizza going out. Come on!" Fry takes his (hover)bike out to the Applied Cryogenics building, where he realizes he's been duped once again. These are all taken, almost from context<ref>The main difference from this and the pilot is that instead of getting dumped and repeatedly saying "I hate my life," Fry simply gets run over by a hoverbus</ref> from [[Pilot Episode|Space Pilot 3000]]. He even [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshades]] his tendency to not look at the customer name before making the delivery!

** The most recent episode, "All the President's Heads" features a major nod back to the third season episode "Roswell That Ends Well". In the most recent episode, the crew discovers a new method of time travel and goes back to Revolutionary days. Fry {{spoiler|removes one of the lanterns from the "one if by land, two if by sea" church, prompting Paul Revere to exclaim "the British are coming! By land!"}}. Upon seeing Fry's error, the Professor exclaims "Fry, you've really {{spoiler|screwed the granny this time!}}".

** "Overclockwise" shows a profile of Bender, including his full name (Bender Bending Rodriguez), serial number, and the fact that he was inspected by Inspector #5.

** Also from that episode, a sewer mutant is seen serving on the jury, a nod to them now being able to come to the surface from "The Mutants Are Revolting".

** The episode ''Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles'' shows Bender aging backwards into a smaller and smaller robot, then finally into a CD of blueprints. However he previously showed a picture of himself "just 4 months old" that he was going to send to Mom, which showed him at his current size, contradicting the whole 'robot aging' thing. It is possible to justify this, however. If one is willing to remember the scene where he was built in the factory, he was not 'born/finished' until fully produced. Meaning that the smaller robots and cd and blueprints would effectively be the robot equivalent of being a fetus. By this argument, He could be fully grown at 4 months, as he was effectively born fully grown. [[MST3K Mantra|This is all probably overthinking the gag a bit, though.]]

** There was an episode of the original run about Bender coming to terms with his mortality, having ''two'' funerals for himself. There is an episode of the new run about Bender claiming the be immortal and shocked when he discovers he isn't.

** The most glaring one occurs with the show's treatment of ''[[Star Trek]]''; in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", even mentioning the show's name will send people in the immediate vicinity in a panic and will likely get you arrested, and Leonard Nimoy seems adamant on denying any involvement with it. Yet in episodes before that, not only was ''Star Trek'' mentioned without incident, but Nimoy seemed perfectly comfortable talking about being Spock.

*** Possible [[Fridge Brilliance]], Nimoy first wrote the book I am Not Spock, which dealt with his feelings towards Star Trek and his conflicting identity as himself and as Spock, who was he was often conflated with by fans. Later, he wrote I Am Spock, which detailed his acceptance of the role and how it played into his life from there on out.

*** Might only apply when both partners are Decapodians, also their method of reproduction is probably different so it wouldn't count.

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: In "Godfellas", Bender's return to Earth is only prompted after a ''very'' lucky spin of the radio telescope's trackball and then Fry crossing his [[Despair Event Horizon]] in earshot of the microphone. Leela [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshades]] this:

** That's more of a subversion if anything. Farnsworth isn't upset about lack of concern for proximity to the lava, but the fact that people are going swimming in it.

* [[Conveniently Cellmates]]: Bender and Fry get implicated in a bank robbery with Roberto, a maniacal robot. Once they are imprisoned in the robot insane asylum, Fry's cellmate turns out to be... Roberto!

** Farnsworth may count too, despite being one of the protagonists. After all, the planet express slogan is "Our crew is expendable, your package is not!"

* [[Couch Gag]]: The tagline below the logo at the beginning of the theme song and the animation clip at its end. Some taglines:

* [[Courtroom Episode]]: Several examples including part of the most recent movie.

* [[Cranial Processing Unit]]: Bender is shown more than once to be able to completely remove his head and continue to function in any way his head normally would.

* [[Crapsack World]]: Any place that has insane head of [[President Evil|Richard Nixon as president of Earth]], [[Miles Gloriosus|Zapp Brannigan]] as supreme commander of its military, a snooty WASP as a powerful judge, alien invasions being quite frequent, and numerous other awful things... it's no wonder there are Suicide Booths in conveniently placed locations.

* [[Crazy Memory]]: [[Subverted Trope]] and parodied, twice. In the episodes "Fry and the Slurm Factory" and "A Clockwork Origin," Professor Farnsworth is declared crazy and everything he has just said has been lunacy. In retaliation, he begins ranting and shouts "and he's my uncle" pointing to the much younger character, Fry. This is actually true, as Fry comes from the distant past and is Farnsworth's great great great great great uncle. However, nobody believes him, writing him off as nuts.

* [[Credits Gag]]: In ''Law&Oracle'', Fry is being promoted:

([[Self-Deprecation|Credits for the Executive Producers]])<br />

'''Fry''': ''I feel better about myself!'' }}

* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Arguably, {{spoiler|Nibbler, of all people. Despite his overwhelming cuteness, he is a soldier...}}

* [[Crying Indian]]: Subverted. It looks as though he's crying about the litter, but it's because the Slurm can reminded him of how much he missed someone named Cynthia.

* [[Cryptic Background Reference]]: A thousand years of history have passed between the time Fry was frozen and let out, characters will often make casual references to events that occurred during that period of time much in the same way people in our time do with our own history.

** In ''Cold Warriors'', everyone seemingly knows about a [[Noodle Implements|specific, incredibly vague]] plan:

'''Zoidberg''': They're {{spoiler|flying Manhattan into the sun}}! They mustn't have had enough piranhas! }}

* [[Cryptid Episode]]: In "Spanish Fry", Fry goes to look for Bigfoot, who appears at the end to act as a [[Deus Ex Machina]].

* [[Cut Apart]]: "Beast With A Billion Backs" shows Brannigan's ship, the Nimbus, fighting fruitlessly against the tentacled creature while Brannigan narrates. {{spoiler|We then find out he's piloting the ship by remote in an Applebees on earth.}}

* [[Cutaway Gag]]: In "The Mutants Are Revolting", the series' 100th episode, one of the ways that the mutants plan to take their revenge against the humans is by forcing the West Manhattan Sewer Line back up to the surface, prompting this exchange:

''(scene then cuts to Bender, in a Hugh Hefner-style jacket, wearing sunglasses shaped like the number 100, throwing a wild party with every single minor character in the series)'' }}

* [[Cute Giant]]: The episode ''Mother's Day'' reveals that Farnsworth and [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Mom]] used to be in a relationship...until she tried to make his latest toy, Cutey McWhiskers, 18 feet tall with lasers, causing him to angrily proclaim, "Eighteen-foot-tall things aren't cute; you don't understand me!" and break up. Later they reconcile, Farnsworth admits they're still cute at 18 feet tall {{spoiler|then Mom reveals that there's an even taller model and he gets angry again...[[Slap Slap Kiss|at first]]}}.

** Also the Comedy Central episodes, with more part-nudity and adult jokes.

* [[Deaf Composer]]: Bender loves cooking, but can't taste food.

** "A Head In The Polls"

** "Future Stock" - Farnsworth is replaced as the CEO of Planet Express by one shareholder vote.

* [[Deliberately Cute Child]]: Tinny Tim.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Kif at his best and Hermes in the 2010 season.

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: Zapp Brannigan and Fry being the two poster boys of the show for this trope.

** Also, Bender's full name is Bender Bending Rodriguez. When he says "bending is my middle name" he means it.

* [[Deus Ex Nukina]]: [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] wants the Brain Balls dead.

* [[Development Gag]]: One of the crew members justified his six years of graduate school all for the sake of Bender and Flexo's serial numbers joke, i.e. "We're both the sum of two cubes."

* [[Devil but No God]]: Seems to be one of the driving principals of Robotology; the Robot Devil is even a reoccurring character. Though, Bender ''did'' meet God once, or at least "the remains of a space probe that collided with God".

** Actually, in an interview, [[Word of God|Ken Keeler]] specified: "I took great pains in the script never to say that the Galactic Entity (as we called it) was in fact God, and fought some battles over that point during the rewrite."

** This was actually brought up on the DVD Commentary. "If there's a Robot Devil, where's the Robot God?" "There is no Robot God." Yet at a 'bot mitzvah' it's revealed there was a Robot Jesus.

* [[Disability Superpower]]: Fry's lack of the delta brainwave grants him immunity to the evil Brainspawn's powers. It also makes him immune to mind readers as seen in "Into the Wild Green Yonder."

* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Bender is one, as we find out in [[The Movie]], when he returns to his son... [[Complete Monster|so he can give him to the Robot Devil as payment for a robot army.]]

* [[Disney Death]]: Fry gets many.

** {{spoiler|Kif}} has one in ''The Beast With A Billion Backs''.

** In "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings," Bender walks in on Fry practicing his holophoner ... an oddly shaped, multi-coloured pipe which (when played badly) exudes smoke-like whisps of holographic image. When Bender enters Fry's room, Fry frantically waves the "smoke" away and attempts to hide the holophoner.

* [[The Dog Bites Back]]: The cast hates and mistreats Zoidberg. He gets payback when Fry calls him for help.

'''Zoidberg''': ''Screw you!'' }}

* [[Dogged Nice Guy]]: Fry may be an [[Idiot Hero]], but Leela does treat him pretty awfully sometimes. This is actually sort of a [[Tear Jerker]] when you consider that Fry ''regularly'' risks or outright sacrifices his life to save Leela, yet, {{spoiler|up until the conclusion of the last movie}}, he still can't win the affection of Leela, which is all he wants from her.

* [[Dojikko]]: Amy, for comedy reasons. The creators wanted to have a female slapstick character that's always getting herself hurt, since they're almost always male (in western animation, at any rate).

** During "The Farnsworth Parabox", the parallel benders do a nifty reverb-double-[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_49iNqxOnH4 DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM]!

* [[Downer Ending]]:

** "Jurassic Bark", among others.

* [[Dressed in Layers]]: Parodied when Leela became a superhero. She wore her costume under her street clothes, and then another set of street clothes under her costume. It was a cold day. Furthermore, neither of her outfits could hide under the other (her superhero outfit has a collar and shoulders that would be visible under her tanktop, and her tanktop covers her navel while her super hero outfit doesn't.)

* [[Dumb Blonde]]: Totally [[Zig Zagged]] for laughs in ''Bender's Big Score''. There's a sexy blonde female doctor whose entire joke is alternating between being a competent doctor offended by dumb blonde stereotypes to... well... being a dumb blonde.

* [[Dutch Angle]]: Crops up in the series from time to time. For classic examples, look at the episodes "I, Roomate" and "All The Presidents' Heads".

 

{{reflist}}