Futurama/I Dated a Robot

I Dated a Robot
Season 3, Episode 15
Airdate	May 13, 2001
Production Number	3ACV15
Written by	Eric Kaplan
Directed by	James Purdum
← 3x14 Time Keeps on Slipping	4x01 → Roswell That Ends Well
Futurama — Season Three

I Dated a Robot is the fifteenth episode of the third season of Futurama, and the forty-third episode overall. When Fry starts dating a robot clone of Lucy Liu, his friends worry for his health. But when they go to shut down Nappster, they uncover a plot more sinister than they expected.

Guest Stars: Lucy Liu (Herself), Phil LaMarr (Hermes, Billy), Lauren Tom (Amy, Monroebot), David Herman (), Frank Welker ()

Plot Overview

The episode begins with Fry demanding that he do everything he dreamed of in the past including destroying a planet, riding a dinosaur and going to the edge of the universe. His last dream was to be able to date a celebrity. Leela and Fry go onto the internet and visit Nappster, a place where the personality and image of celebrity is downloaded into a blank robot that's programmed to love the buyer. Fry decides to download Lucy Liu from the service.

After Fry gets over his initially giddiness at having his own Lucy Liu-bot that loves him, the two go out on the town. In the montage, they feed a sea creature, eat at a restaurant and make out constant. When the two get stuck in an infinite loop, Fry's friends begin to worry about his health. They show him the government mandated propaganda video that tells a tragic story of why humans shouldn't date robots. When the video doesn't take, Leela, Bender and Zoidberg go to Nappster personally to shut them down. They discover that they've actually kidnapped real celebrities and download directly from their brains when a customer asks. The three break into the back room and escape with the real Lucy Liu's head, much to the chagrin of George Michael.

In order to stop them from escaping, the Nappster employees create an army of Lucy Liu clones set to "Erotic Assassin" mode and send them after them. They run into one and defeat her somewhat easily, until they find themselves face to face with an army of Lucy Lius rampaging through the streets. They find Fry at the movie theater. They all escape to the projection room and slow down the robot clones using popcorn seeds. Unfortunately, they shoot the seeds back at them in the projection room. Using the hot lights from the projector, Fry's Lucy Liu makes them explode from within, saving the day.

Notes

Alien Language Sightings

• Bidding Paddle At eBay: 667
• Space Pope Logo: Crocodylus Pontifex

Referbacks

• 1x01 - Space Pilot 3000: The aliens that destroy the planet in the movie are the same aliens who destroy civilization twice in the pilot while Fry is frozen.
• 1x09 - Hell is Other Robots: The Space Pope is mentioned by name in the opening caption "Condemned by the Space Pope" in the earlier episode.

Trivia

The Show

• Opening Caption: No Humans Were Probed In The Making Of This Episode
• In The eBay Crowd: Several members of the crew make an appearance in the eBay crowd including David X. Cohen, Eric Kaplan and Ken Keeler. An additional design was made for Matt Groening, but he opted out of the scene.
• Nappster: The celebrities that appear in the Kidnappster room include: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Cheech Marin, Nicole Kidman, Madeleine Albright, Harrison Ford, Pamela Anderson and George Michael.

Behind the Scenes

• Alternate Title: This episode is also known as "J-Lo Dolly" and "Love at First Cyborg."
• Alien Language #2: This is the only episode in which the English translation of the alien language words appear on screen at the same time.
• No Swastika?: In the Scary Door episode, the Nazi armband is missing its swastika. This is because the FCC has banned public display of the symbol from public television outside of a documentary or biography setting.

Allusions and References

• Dinkin Donuts: A play off the business Dunkin' Donuts, the name of the store refers to former New York City mayor, David Dinkins.

Memorable Moments

• Fry travelling to the edge of the universe and seeing the cowboy parallel universe.
• The unusually long 50s style information video on why humans shouldn't date robots.
• Bender, Leela and Zoidberg fighting the Lucy Liu robot.

Quotes

• Fry: I've only got two fantasies left. To be invisible in a chocolate factory and to be romantically linked linked to a celebrity.
  Bender: I could pound your head till you think that's what happened.
  Fry: Ok!

• Auctioneer: Are there no further bids for this exquisite galaxy? Sold! To the being of inconceivable horror.

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