"A Big Piece of Garbage" is episode eight in season one of ''
Futurama''. It originally aired on the
Fox network
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...
in the United States on 11 May 1999. The episode was written by
Lewis Morton
Lewis "Lew" Morton is an American television writer. He has written for several shows, including ''Saturday Night Live'' (from 1993-1995), ''NewsRadio'', ''Family Guy'' and ''Futurama''. He worked as a producer for ''Undeclared'', but never autho ...
and directed by
Susie Dietter
Susan E. Dietter, usually credited as Susie Dietter, is an American director, known primarily for her work on television cartoons. She has directed episodes of the popular series '' Futurama'', ''Baby Blues'', ''The Simpsons'', '' Recess'' and '' ...
.
Ron Popeil
Ronald Martin Popeil (; May 3, 1935 – July 28, 2021), was an American inventor and marketing personality, and founder of the direct response marketing company Ronco. He made appearances in infomercials for the Showtime Rotisserie and coined t ...
guest stars in this episode as himself.
Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress. She is the long-time voice of Bart Simpson on the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', for which she has received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Perform ...
also has a brief cameo as a
Bart Simpson doll. Much of the episode is a spoof of the 1998 film ''
Armageddon
According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...
''; however, instead of
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
being threatened by an
asteroid, it is threatened by a giant ball of garbage.
Plot
Professor Farnsworth invites the crew of Planet Express to join him at the Academy of Inventors' annual
symposium, where inventors display their latest creations. He will be presenting his invention, the Deathclock, which displays the date of a person's death after that person's finger is stuck into the machine. At the symposium, the crew encounter one of Farnsworth's former students,
Professor Ogden Wernstrom. When he was still a student, Wernstrom received an A-minus on a pop quiz and vowed revenge, even if it took him 100 years. Just over 99 years have passed, so Farnsworth considers himself to be essentially in the clear. Wernstrom presents his invention, a reverse
SCUBA
Scuba may refer to:
* Scuba diving
** Scuba set, the equipment used for scuba (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving
* Scuba, an in-memory database developed by Facebook
* Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, either of two in ...
suit that allows fish to breathe water while walking about on land, demonstrated by his fish, named Cinnamon. He then taunts Farnsworth over his invention from the previous year—the Deathclock.
Mortified that he had previously presented the device and forgotten about it, Farnsworth hastily begins drawing on a napkin. He presents the drawing, which depicts both a Smelloscope, a device that allows people to smell distant cosmic objects, and a doodle of himself as a cowboy. As the audience laughs, he sweats and wipes the napkin on his head by accident, blurring the picture. Wernstrom announces that the invention deserves "the worst grade imaginable: an A-minus-minus." Back at Planet Express, Farnsworth invites everybody to see the Smelloscope that he had constructed last year and also forgotten about.
Fry begins smelling
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
,
Saturn, and other objects around the solar system and quickly discovers the smelliest object in the universe. After calculating its trajectory, Farnsworth announces that the object will collide with New New York City in 72 hours, reducing it to a "stinky crater" (Bender immediately starts
looting at this news).
After some research, they find a video that reveals the object to be a giant ball of
garbage from Old New York, launched into space from a
mob
Mob or MOB may refer to:
Behavioral phenomena
* Crowd
* Smart mob, a temporary self-structuring social organization, coordinated through telecommunication
Crime and law enforcement
* American Mafia, also known as the Mob
* Irish Mob, a US crimin ...
-obtained rocket in 2052. After warning Mayor Poopenmayer, a plan is hatched to destroy the garbage ball. The Planet Express crew (being the only ones who will take on such a suicidal mission) is sent on a mission to plant a
bomb on a fault line next to coffee areas and deposits of
AOL floppy disks on the ball. Farnsworth also reminds them that if it blew up any time later, the explosion would cause garbage to rain across the entire Earth, killing millions. Then, once activated, the bomb will be set to allow the crew twenty-five minutes to escape. When the crew lands on the ball, Fry is amazed by all of the 20th-century items on the ball, including a
Beanie Baby
Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed toys created by American businessman H. Ty Warner, who founded Ty Inc. in 1986. The toys are stuffed with plastic pellets ("beans") rather than conventional soft stuffing. They come in many different forms, m ...
, a
Mister Spock collectors plate, and
Bart Simpson dolls, but Leela reminds Fry that these things were garbage, which is why they are in the garbage ball in the first place.
Unfortunately, after starting the bomb, they find out the Professor put the bomb's countdown display in upside down, and it actually only allows 52 seconds. The crew panics, and Bender throws the bomb into space to save them, where it explodes harmlessly. The crew returns to Earth in shame. The Mayor then sends for Wernstrom for help. Wernstrom demands
tenure
Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...
, a grant, and five
research assistant
A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, a research institute or a privately held organization, for the purpose of assisting in academic or private research. Research assistants are not in ...
s, at least three of whom must be
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
. When the mayor agrees to his conditions, Wernstrom reveals that he has no plan, declares that he is set for life, and leaves. In a last-ditch effort to redeem himself, Farnsworth comes up with a second plan to save the city: launching a second ball of garbage to bounce against the first one and sending it flying into the sun without smashing to bits. The Mayor exclaims that there has not been garbage in New New York for 500 years, so there is no way to make such a ball. Fry seizes the moment and demonstrates how to make garbage.
An announcement is made to tell the city to throw away everything. The city quickly generates a second ball of garbage, which is fired at the first garbage ball. The rocket flies into the air and hits the other garbage ball, which first slingshots around planets, then sending it into the sun, while the new ball flies out of the solar system. For saving the city from the garbage ball, Professor Farnsworth is given the inventor's award, which was confiscated from Wernstrom as punishment for him being a jackass. Wernstrom comments "I will get you for this Farnsworth, even if it takes another 100 years!" The others quickly dismiss
Leela's concerns that the new garbage ball will return and destroy a future generation. Professor Farnsworth replies that it will not be for hundreds of years, presumably by the year 4000, prompting Fry to say "That's the 20th Century spirit!" Over the closing credits, the song "
We'll Meet Again
"We'll Meet Again" is a 1939 song by English singer Vera Lynn with music and lyrics composed and written by English songwriters Ross Parker and Hughie Charles. The song is one of the most famous of the Second World War era, and resonated with ...
" plays instead of the standard ''Futurama'' theme.
Cultural references
The plot of the episode is a reference to the 1998 film ''
Armageddon
According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...
'', in which a group of astronauts attempt to destroy an asteroid heading towards Earth with a
warhead
A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb.
Classification
Types of warheads include:
* Expl ...
. It also references
Mobro 4000, a garbage barge that originated in New York and was rejected from multiple ports in 1987.
The garbage ball contains
Bart Simpson dolls that utter Bart's catchphrase "eat my shorts" to which Bender does, and later he would respond "mmm...shorts" the same way
Homer Simpson does when he gets hungry.
During the credits, the song "
We'll Meet Again
"We'll Meet Again" is a 1939 song by English singer Vera Lynn with music and lyrics composed and written by English songwriters Ross Parker and Hughie Charles. The song is one of the most famous of the Second World War era, and resonated with ...
", by
Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 191718 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is honorifically known as the " Forces' Sweetheart", having giv ...
, sung by
Kate Smith, is heard in reference to the ending of the film ''
Dr. Strangelove
''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'', known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'', is a 1964 black comedy film that satirizes the Cold War fears of a nuclear conflict between the Soviet Union and t ...
''.
Reception
Zack Handlen of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' gave the episode an A−, stating, "More than anything else, 'A Big Piece Of Garbage' gives a taste of what’s to come. Other episodes will have more challenging, mind-boggling plots, and still others will find ways to move us more deeply than we thought possible from such a silly, weird little show. But this half hour is proof that the show can tell big, legitimately exciting (if utterly ridiculous) adventure stories without breaking a sweat."
This episode was nominated for an
Emmy award in 1999 for Best Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less)".
However, it lost to the ''
King of the Hill
''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It aired its original non-syndicated run from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, and centers on the Hills, an Am ...
'' episode "
And They Call It Bobby Love
"And They Call It Bobby Love" is the second episode in the third season of the Fox animated series ''King of the Hill'' and the 37th episode overall, which aired on Fox on September 22, 1998. The episode's plot follows protagonist Hank Hill's so ...
".
References
External links
"A Big Piece of Garbage"at The New York Times Movies
*
"A Big Piece of Garbage"at ''the Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki''
at IMSDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Piece Of Garbage, A
Futurama (season 1) episodes
1999 American television episodes