Miscellany of Bender's Game

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This article is about the trivia, the quotes, the references, etc. appearing in Bender's Game. It does not, however, include DVD information, character listings and cast information.

It is a separate article due to the fact that the amount of information to deal with in a trivia manner is huge when compared to a regular episode.

Quotes

    [Bender jumps next to Nibbler's litter box and startles him.]
    Bender: Foolish leprechaun, I scoop your treasure in the name of the fancy men.

Character cameos

In opening sequence

Space Demolition Derby Crowd

Tea with Titans Intro

Elsewhere

General Trivia

  • This is one among few Futurama media featuring its title within the story.
  • This film marks the first time that Maurice LaMarche is listed as a regular, and the first time that Phil LaMarr, Lauren Tom, and David Herman are listed as "Also Starring". LaMarche was previously listed as "Also Starring", and LaMarr, Tom, and Herman were previously listed as guest stars.
  • During the time this film was being made, E. Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons, and one-time guest star of Futurama, passed away. The film is dedicated to his honour.
  • The plot of there being a dark matter shortage, resulting in higher prices, most likely is a parallel to our current oil crisis, with gas prices going over $4 a gallon.
  • Knowing the price of one ball of Dark Matter, and the price Leela had to pay at the Mombil gas station, one could figure out that the Planet Express Ship uses about 63 balls of Dark Matter.
  • Sal claims the Planet Express ship is puke colored. Interestingly enough, in Into the Wild Green Yonder, while Scruffy and Zoidberg are repainting it, Zoidberg, instead of using a more conventional method, regurgitates green paint.
  • The music heard when the ship flies to the Space Demolition Derby is "RocketShip" by Kathy McCarty.
  • Apparently the Lunar Lander is now in the space demolition derby.
  • While the characters are playing Dungeons & Dragons, one can see the figurines on the table. One of them depicts Bender on a horse, foreshadowing what is to come.
  • When Bender went insane and thought he was Titanius, he considered Fry and Leela enemies. However, when he actually becomes Titanius in Cornwood, he considers them friends.
  • When we first see the Dark Matter mine, a truck comes out. The alien-language phrase written on the side of the truck reads "OBEY MOM".
  • The icosahedron (the shape of the metaparticle) and the dodecahedron (the shape of the Die of Power/Anti-backwards crystal) are duals. See Wolfram MathWorld or Wikipedia for further info.
  • When Mom's three sons get the crystal, she says they will need all their 'stoogely' cunning, referencing the Three Stooges, and the next part of the film.
  • Long before Bender's Game, rumors floated around the net about David X. Cohen saying that Igner was Professor Farnsworth's son. The rumors were proven true in the film.
  • Leegola and Gynacaladriel making out is likely a response to fans with lesbian fetishes frequently fantasizing about Leela and Amy getting together.
  • The characterization "Hermaphrodite" (in the case of the character's name, rhyming with the name of the goddess of love in Greek mythology, Aphrodite, is a word that refers to an animal or plant that has both male and female reproductive organs. Noticeably, this incarnation of Hermes has breasts.
    • "Hermaphrodite" is a combination of names "Hermes" and "Aphrodite". Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, and regarded as the most beautiful in their ancient myths; this is why Hermaphrodite gets the line "Gaze upon me and weep at my loveliness", and Frydo quips "You wish!" when Leegola says "He's a centaur, just like me!" (implying Leegola would wish she is as beautiful a centaur as Hermaphrodite). Interestingly, in Greek mythology, the goddess Aphrodite and the god Hermes (with whom our Hermes Conrad shares his name) once had a love affair and had a child who was the first hermaphrodite, called "Hermaphroditus", which is a combination of her/his parents' names and the origin of the modern word "hermaphrodite".
  • Leegola has a gray cloth replacing her Wristlojackimator.
  • Frydo is the only character not to be physically changed upon entering Cornwood. He is changed during the adventure.
  • Frydo and Leegola are the only characters with memory of the old universe. Though all of them remember Cornwood after returning from it.
  • When Frydo transforms back into human, after turning into a dragon, his hair grows back.
    • And his skin color returns to normal.
  • Mom's (as Momon) snake-hair is drawn from Greek Mythology; the infamous Medusa, like all Gorgons, had snakes for hair.

Allusions

  • The title is a reference to the novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
  • Mombil alludes to Mobil, an existing oil company.
  • The scene where Greyfarn is studying the anti-backwards crystal by the fireside is reminiscent of Gandalf studying the One Ring by the fireside in The Lord of the Rings. The names Frydo and Leegola also resemble the character names Frodo and Legolas from the same book. The map Greyfarn looks at resembles the map of Middle-Earth from The Hobbit. In addition, Leegola suggests slaying a hobbit, which Bender says will result from the copulation of a hobo and a rabbit. See Cornwood for more allusions.
  • The fight between The Great Wizard Greyfarn and Ignus is a reversed parody of the fight between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Dr. Perceptron says, "Stop! Hammer time!" This is a lyric from rapper MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This."
  • One of the patients at the HAL Institute is Rosie the Robot Maid from The Jetsons. She even mentions Elroy and Astro (or "the dog" as she calls him) from the show.
  • Frydo's reflections do a parody of "Cutlery Corner".
    • The item number 1101-1816 is a reference to an incident on that show involving a katana. (YouTube video)
  • One of the ships in the Space Demolition Derby is made of Lego, while another is made out of an Erector Set. Another is the ship from Space: 1999.
  • The Teletubbies are briefly seen during the montage of scenes with Leegola and Hermaphrodite.
  • One of the Trolls says, "Ruh-roh!" This is a reference to Scooby-Doo, because this was the title character's catchphrase.
  • Leela and Amy agree that Sex and the City is "funny".
  • The scene with Farnsworth and Mom both modelling the molecule diagram is a reference to the 1990 film Ghost, where they are modeling clay together to the same music.
  • Wipe Castle is a parody of popular fast food chain White Castle.
  • Leegola dropping a bean bag into a floor tic-tac-toe game is a parody of an old commercial where a dog does the same. (YouTube video)
  • The Bellboy Robot says, "Maintenance shaft 7, service to --," where Farnsworth interrupted with "Shut your mouth!" to which the Bellboy Robot replies, "I'uz just talkin' bout da shaft." This is a parody of the scene from the 1971 film Shaft.
  • Momon says "the dodeca-call's coming from inside the house!" This is probably a reference to the 1979 film When a Stranger Calls.
  • Bender's forced "relaxation therapy" while he is at the HAL institute is very similar to the torture that the protagonist undergoes in Edgar Allen Poe's short story The Pit and the Pendulum, as well as the "re-education" in Room 101 from George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. In fact, while Bender's mouth is taped, it sounds like he's chanting "Hail Big Brother!" (Of course, it was actually "Death to ogres!")
  • Most of the events that occur in Parts 3 & 4 of the film actually makes more references to the Lord of the Rings trilogy than it does of Dungeons & Dragons.
  • The stadium the demolition derby takes place in, Unsafeco Field, is a reference to Safeco Field, the home stadium of the Seattle Mariners baseball team.
  • The Nurse at the HAL Institute is named Nurse Ratchet, similar to the nurse in the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a story about insane asylums
  • Bender's sleeping bag that Frydo stabs reads "Machina ex deo", a reversal of the common plot device "Deus ex machina"
  • This is the first episode to use the "F" bomb and the expletive "Jesus Christ" (these are only heard on the DVD version).
  • Upon entering the Cave of Hopelessness, the characters face 'Morcs', a simultaneous reference to the Orcs of The Lord of the Rings (and various other fantasy material, including the likes of Warcraft) and to the Happy Days spin-off Mork & Mindy. The 'Morcs' bear a slight resemblance to Robin Williams' titular character, Mork, and also make similar sounds to the ones used in his usual comedic routine. Bender remarks that they are aggravating.
  • Hermes says that Leela's collar is "the only collar they had in stock at Office Depot". Office Depot is a chain of office-supply stores in the USA, which claims to have all your office needs, the joke here being that such collars are commonplace office materials at this point in time, although Hermes evidently wasn't able to find one that exclusively controlled anger.

Continuity

  • Somehow the late Free Waterfall Jr. makes an appearance as part of the Space Derby audience even though he was eaten by Lrrr in episode "The Problem with Popplers".
    • Also appearing there is a green haired female mutant, who shouldn't be out of the sewers, but may have simply blended in with standard hillbillies as her mutations are relatively minor.
  • The scene where Leela finds Nibbler on Vergon 6 does not follow the same path as it does in "Love's Labours Lost in Space". In the episode, Fry and Bender converse with Leela before Nibbler begins gnawing on the coconut. There is no time cut in the movie where these missing lines would fit.
    • It is possible however, that the scene shown is simply Nibbler's memory of how things happened, not how they actually did. This would mean that the manner in which Mom captured the Nibblonian ship, and saw Nibbler excreting Dark Matter were simply imagined and may have happened differently.
  • In part one, Zoidberg says he wanted to be a song and dance man, but in various episodes, he said he wanted to be a stand-up comedian. This may indicate that Zoidberg just wanted to be a performance artist, but not necessarily a particular type.
    • Additionally, Zoidberg says that he knew his parents. According to "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" where Decapodians die during childbirth, these parents would have had to be adoptive parents. In "A Taste of Freedom" flashbacks were shown of Zoidberg living with an unidentified woman. We don't know if he lived with adoptive parents or if he simply lived with different family members growing up, although three parent's names are known. It's also possible that this is a mere continuity error.
  • This is the only Futurama movie that doesn't have Bender say "fun on the bun".
  • Leprechauns are mentioned for the second time.

Goofs

  • Nibbler seems to return after having eaten himself in Bender's Big Score with no questions asked or even noticing that he left.
Rich Little???
  • When Zoidberg's head is cut off from his body, it shrinks.
    • This is, however, mentioned in the commentary, where they explain it was the only way to do it for animation.
    • It is plausible that Zoidberg head could shrink because the Tunneling Horror shrinks after Fry defeats it.
  • During the demolition derby, George Takei and Scott Bakula's heads face off. However, Bakula is flying a ship similar to the classic starship Enterprise while George Takei is flying a ship that looks like the NX-01 Enterprise from Bakula's show. However, this is most likely a deliberate joke for Star Trek fans.
  • When Frydo grows big, his voice stays the same, but deepens when he shrinks.
    • A side effect?
  • Nibbler escapes the cage, with no explanation.
    • He could have used his laser from Bender's Big Score.
  • When Fry has a "heart to heart" talk to Bender, he jumps out of the window in the kitchen and the glass shatters, but when Bender lands on the ground there was no glass hitting, or lying, the ground.
  • Waltazar was called Walt in one scene. Also, "Frydo" calls "Leegola" Leela instead when she was killing Zoidberg.
    • While most likely a slip by the actor or writer because of his "regular" name, it could also be a nick name of "Waltazar", however, this is unlikely due to the nature of Cornwood.
    • "Frydo"'s is explained by the fact that only those two remeber our world.
  • When Nibbler asks why they aren't amazed he can speak, Fry replies saying "you forgot to blank our memories after you spoke last time." Fry couldn't have known that their memories were blanked before (although the memory block could've been removed if Nibbler revealed himself).
  • During Morbo's Tea with Titans montage, one of the pictures shows Morbo and Richard Nixon together, but on the jar, it says "Rich Little" rather than "Richard Nixon", but since Rich Little is an impressionist by trade, this could be on purpose.
  • When Cubert is explaining to Bender that he is riding a golden Pegasus the back of the folding chair is transparent.
  • When Fry is sitting alone on the couch before Leela goes to confront him in "I, Roommate", he says, "Sheesh! 40,000 channels and only 150 have anything good on." But in this film he has trouble counting the three Killbots following the crew, evidenced by his lines, "There are so many Killbots following us I can't count them all. Three, I think."
    • He may have read the TV Guide.
  • When you see Leela filling the ship up with fuel at Mombil, you can clearly see the whole balls in the pipe entering the ship. However, as each ball costs $9.999, they need to put in roughly 63.22 balls to owe the $632.14, which is logically impossible with only whole balls going in.
    • Mom would probably not include tax in the advertised price.
  • In Act V, the location of Planet Express is revealed to be on the Hudson River shore of Manhattan Island. According to the DVD commentary during this scene, David X. Cohen gives the location as "...like, West 57th Street, maybe?" This would make the final shot of the film, which depicts the Planet Express ship traveling North on what would be 12th Avenue, geographically impossible due to the ship facing a setting sun.
  • When Nibbler is going in the litterbox, he still has his diaper on.
    • There could be a flap on it.
  • When the ship's engine shuts down due to being out of dark matter, it shouldn't throw the crew around. The ship should just continue moving forward at the same speed.
    • In "A Clone of My Own", Cubert says that the engines don't move the ship at all and instead the ship stays where it is and the engines move the universe around it.
  • When Fry is impaled, the lance goes through him into the tree, but there are no holes in his back.
  • At the Space Demolition Derby some people change seats.