Hell Is Other Robots

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Season 1 episode
Hell Is Other Robots
No.	9
Production number	1ACV09
Written by	[[Eric Kaplan]][[Category:Episodes written by Eric Kaplan|Hell Is Other Robots]]
Directed by	[[Rich Moore]][[Category:Episodes directed by Rich Moore|Hell Is Other Robots]]
Title caption	Condemned by the Space Pope
First air date	May 18, 1999
Broadcast number	S01E09
Title reference	Hell is other people from No Exit
Opening cartoon	"Betty Boop and Grampy"
Special guest(s)	Mike "Michael D" Diamond Adam "King Ad-Rock" Horovitz Dan Castellaneta
Additional
Commentary (Transcript) Transcript Pictures
Season 1
Space Pilot 3000 The Series Has Landed I, Roommate Love's Labours Lost in Space Fear of a Bot Planet A Fishful of Dollars My Three Suns A Big Piece of Garbage Hell Is Other Robots A Flight to Remember Mars University When Aliens Attack Fry and the Slurm Factory Season 2 →

The Story

Act I: "I've been waiting a thousand years to see a Beastie Boys show!"

Fry, Leela and Bender go to a Beastie Boys concert at Madison Cube Garden. Bender runs into Fender, an old friend who is now working for the band. After Fender gets Bender and company back-stage, he takes Bender to a party where robots are abusing electricity, or Jacking On. After Bender's addiction leads him to wreck the Planet Express Ship by steering it into an electrical storm in space, nearly killing everyone, they confront him about his problem. After a night of turmoil, he winds up in a Temple of Robotology.

Leela bashes the Robot Devil over the head

Act II: "And as a further cost-cutting measure, I have eliminated the salt water cooler"

Bender comes to work whistling a happy tune, and tells his friends about his new-found religion. Everyone is shocked, and suspicious, but gradually they reach the horrific realization that Bender is being sincere. When his new personality starts driving them crazy, Fry and Leela take him the Power Strip in Atlantic City and tempt him with liquor and cheap Hookerbots. While he seduces a group of fembots in a jacuzzi at the Trump Trapezoid Hotel, the Robot Devil arrives and takes him to Robot Hell.

Act III: "What in Hell happened to Bender?"

Fry and Leela find Bender missing. Nibbler finds and then follows his trail. It leads to an abandoned amusement park called Reckless Ted's Funland in New Jersey, where a fun house mirror is a doorway into an "actual, factual Robot Hell." Meanwhile, the Robot Devil takes Bender on a musical tour of the different levels of hell. When Fry and Leela find them, they take advantage of the Fairness in Hell Act of 2275 and challenge the Robot Devil to a fiddle contest. Leela bashes him over the head with the golden fiddle and they escape with Bender.

Additional Info

Promo pic of this episode

Trivia

• During the musical scene, Bender is strapped to a roulette wheel with different methods of cooking on it, intended to simulate the smell of cigars. Various spaces on the wheel say Parboil, Fricasee, Saute, Pleasant Massage, Deep-Fry, Bake.
• Preacherbot's cleric bears a strong resemblance to Humorbot 5.0, who appears a couple seasons later.
• You can actually see a crate with the label "Replacement Robot Legs" beside the meeting table after Bender was unstuck from the ship.
• The "Good Book" (ver. 3.0) is on an Iomega Zip Disk. In the present, Zip Disks are obsolete.
• The rear airlock of the Planet Express Ship has an outer 'suicide door'.
• This episode is one of the few to feature its own name within itself.
• The jokes poking fun at New Jersey in the episode are due to the fact that David X. Cohen and John DiMaggio both grew up there.
• According to the song there are at least 6 levels of hell, because after the 5th level, they took the elevator down once more.
• The song was originally much longer, but verses were cut due to time restrictions.
• Dan Castellanetta has his own head in a jar in this episode.
• This episode is one of four featured in the Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection, reflecting its popularity with both fans and the creators of Futurama.

Goofs

• During the musical number, the Robot Devil pulls Bender's arm off and promptly kicks him down a hole. However when Bender lands his arm is still attached.
• Despite the battering it takes in the nebula, the ship is back in perfect shape in time for the trip to Atlantic City.
• Bender gets a symbol welded on to his body. When he welds something on to the spaceship, the symbol disappears, but reappears in the next scene.
• When the Planet Express crew are talking to Bender about almost killing Fry and Leela, Fry isn't there in the room. A few seconds later, Fry has suddenly appeared to talk about how he found out his friend was taking drugs.
• When Fry, Bender and Leela are "assigned" to deliver a piece of wrapper to a mailbox, Leela takes Nibbler with her. A few second later, when Fry, Bender and Leela are in front of the robot strip joint, Nibbler is gone. Not even his leash is there.
• When Bender was rolled into a cigar, the animators didn't account for his body. The width of Bender's body versus his head is larger. But when in the cigar paper, his body (in the paper) was the same width as his head. This is mentioned in the second commentary.
• When Fry is outside waiting for Bender, the clock changes from 8.30 to 8.00. The "Millennium" ticker is not there at first, and then suddenly appears. Millennium is spelt wrong, with just one "n".
• When Bender quit drinking in "I, Roommate" (1ACV03)
  
  he developed a five o'clock rust, but here it has little effect on him. Though in "I, Roommate", Bender stopped drinking altogether, but in this episode, he had simply switched to mineral oil. Thus his alcohol level was maintained, just not in a 'sinful' way.
• The Robot Devil says Bender has a soul, but in "Xmas Story" (2ACV04)
  
  , we learn robots have no souls.
• In "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" (3ACV05)
  
  it is revealed that robots must keep their alcohol above a certain level, as they get arrested for not drinking enough. But here, Bender states he is quitting drinking. Isn't he worried he will malfunction and get arrested?
• After Fry and Leela slide down the slide there is one frame where Fry's eyes aren't colored in.
• For some reason, after Bender is deep-fried, he actually moves from Level 2 to Level 5, even though he had progressed from Level 1 to Level 2 initially.
• Near the end of the song, and while describing various tortures, the Robot Devil mentions electric slime. This really wouldn't work as a torture seeing as how Bender enjoys electricity.

The Robot Hell Song

See List of song performances#Robot Hell.

Real-World References

• When the crew travel to Sicily 8, the mob planet, and Fry receives the kiss of death. This is a reference to The Godfather
• When Fry and Leela open the door to Robot Hell, in the bottom right side of the screen there is a heart with an arrow through etched on the wall, reading "H.S 4 M.B", meaning Homer Simpson 4 Marge Bouvier, from "The Simpsons".
• The golden fiddle contest is a reference to the country song "The Devil Went Down To Georgia." In it, the song's subject must beat the devil in a golden fiddle contest, or lose his soul.
• The punishments in Robot Hell are similar to the levels and rationale which are portrayed in Dante's The Divine Comedy, specifically the Inferno.
• The style of the song and the visuals accompanying it reflect the old Betty Boop cartoons that featured swing numbers by Cab Calloway, with demonic imagery flying behind him.
• The part where Bender is forced to sit in the Comfy Chair and take pleasant massages is a play off the Spanish Inquisition skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
• In Atlantic City, Bender stays in a hotel called Trump Trapezoid. This is an allusion to the Trump Organization and its famous hotels.
• Professor Farnsworth refers to Oprahism as a current mainstream religion. This is a clear allusion to Oprah Winfrey, the TV superstar and richest woman in the world.
• Fry's line "Tonight, we're gonna party like its 1999" is from the Prince song 1999.
• When Fry talks about seeing an "actual, factual" Hell. In the Berenstain Bears books and series there is an Actual Factual Bear who dispenses educational tidbits
• In an homage to Red Dwarf the robots (or mechanoids) are programmed to believe in silicon heaven because if it didn't exist "where would all the little calculators go?"
• Above the alter in Bender's baptism ceromony there is a sign that reads:

10 SIN
20 GOTO HELL

This is very similiar to the syntax used in the programming language BASIC, where you put a line number on the left and a statement on the right. In other words, it's a very basic script that says if you sin you goto hell. SIN is often used to indicate the Sine function in trigonomtery.

Quotes

• Bender: Oh, they're tormenting me with up-tempo singing and dancing!
• Robot Devil: Sorry, but I hold all the cards here. There's nothing you can do. Now if you'll just sign this fiddle contest waiver...
• Bender: Well, we're boned!
• Bender: From now on, I'll just be me.
  Leela: Uhm, do you think you could be a little less evil than that?
  Bender: I don't know. Do you think you could survive a seven hundred foot fall?
  Fry: Hehe, good ol' Bender.

Characters

(In alphabetical order)

• Amy
• Debut: Beastie Boys' Heads
• Bender
• Dr. Zoidberg
• Debut: Fender
• Fry
• Hermes
• Debut: Hookerbot 5000
• Leela
• Nibbler
• Debut: Preacherbot
• Prof. Farnsworth
• Debut: Robot Devil
• Debut: Robot Demons
• Scruffy

Episode Credits

• Writer
  • Eric Kaplan
• Director
  • Rich Moore
• Voice Actors
  • Dan Castellaneta
  • Billy West
  • Katey Sagal
  • John DiMaggio
  • Tress MacNeille
  • Phil LaMarr
  • Lauren Tom
• Special Guest
  • Mike "Michael D" Diamond
  • Adam "King Ad-Rock" Horovitz

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