Futurama/A Pharaoh to Remember

A Pharaoh to Remember
Season 4, Episode 7
Airdate	March 10, 2002
Production Number	3ACV17
Written by	Ron Weiner
Directed by	Mark Ervin
← 4x06 Where the Buggalo Roam	4x08 → Godfellas
Futurama — Season Four

A Pharaoh to Remember is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Futurama, and is the fiftieth episode overall. Bender, Fry and Leela travel to a Egypt-like planet to deliver a large stone, they're enslaved and forced to build a tomb for the pharaoh. But when Bender becomes the new pharaoh, his desire to be remembered may end him.

Guest Stars: Dave Herman (Osiran), Phil LaMarr (Hermes), Lauren Tom (Amy)

Plot Overview

At Planet Express, Bender gloats about robbing a pool locker room in hopes of being remembered but the credit is given to someone else. He leaves Planet Express in order to get remembered by the world. Unfortunately, he's twarted at every corner. He returns of Planet Express to see that his friends have thrown him a surprise funeral, to prove that Bender will be remembered after he dies. Bender isn't pleased by their attempts and storms off in the coffin. Afterwards, the crew is send to Osiris 4 to deliver a giant stone cube. Upon delivery, Fry, Bender and Leela are put into slavery.

The three are put to work with some other slaves to pull stone blocks up the pyramid. Hamenthotep arives at his tomb to free his slaves and marvel at their work, but is killed by a falling stone nose. The pharaoh is buried soon after with his possessions, some cats and someone resembling Elton John. Bender sneaks out of the slave quarters that night to change the wall of prophecy so that it'll reveal him as the next pharaoh.

Bender begins to work his slaves even harder than Hamenthotep did, demanding that they build a tomb bigger than they've ever built before. The tomb is completed, but Bender demands they destroy it and rebuild it because people will remember the statue and not him. His servants decide, instead, to throw him in the tomb with Fry and Leela. In the tomb, they discover that Bender has extremely explosive alcohol being made in the distillery that can be used to blow a hole in the statue, ultimately destroying it. As they fly back to Earth, they reassure Bender that he'll be remembered as a cruel dictator.

Notes

Alien Language Sightings

• Wall of Prophecy: "Rock On! Eddie Rosas 22"

Referbacks

• 2x14 - How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back: The Australian guy was also enslaved on the planet that Dr. Zoidberg suggested for Hermes' vacation. He doesn't seem to have very good luck, because he's enslaved by the Pharoah in this episode.

Trivia

The Show

• Opening Caption: Psst... Big Party At Your House After The Show
• Bender's Compound: In this episode, Bender is revealed to have a .05 nickel impurity.

Behind the Scenes

• Fun With Censorship: The censor objected to the use of the Camel Joe alien because it could be argued that he promotes smoking. "Kids love him" was taken at face value, rather than as a satirical comment.
• Cut Scene: Originally when Fry was pushing a block up the side of the pyramid it chased him back down. The scene was cut for being too corny.

Allusions and References

• Mad Magazine: When Bender's graffiti is destroyed it falls into a form resembling a Mad Magazine fold in. The fold-ins are a staple of the magazine, drawn by Al Jaffee. There have been over 350 MAD Magazine fold-ins to date.
• Millions of Snakes: The snakes filling Bender's tomb from cracks in the walls is a direct reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones finds himself trapped in a room that's filled with snakes.
• Chariots of the Gods: The book Chariot of the Gods by Erich Von Daniken details the theory that the ancient Egyptians were visited by space aliens. This episode, of course, is about aliens who resemble the ancient Egyptians.

Memorable Moments

• Bender's surprise funeral.
• The creation of Bender's massive monument.
• Blowing up that same monument with hyper-explosive alcohol.

Quotes

• Osiran: We learned many things from the mighty Egyptians, such as pyramid building, space travel and how to prepare our dead so as to scare Abbott and Costello.

• High Priest: Great Wall Of Prophecy, reveal to us God's will that we will blindly obey.
  Priests: (chanting) Free us from thought and responsibility.
  High Priest: We shall read things off you.
  Priests: (chanting) Then do them.
  High Priest: Your words guide us.
  Priests: (chanting) We're dumb.

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