"Bend Her" is the thirteenth episode in the
fourth season of the American
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
''
Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...
''. 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 an ...
in the United States on July 20, 2003. In the episode,
Bender changes into a female robot and adopts the name Coilette.
Plot
While attending the Earth 3004
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
with the crew to see
Hermes
Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...
compete in the
limbo
In Catholic theology, Limbo (Latin '' limbus'', edge or boundary, referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. Medieval theologians of Western Euro ...
event,
Bender feels he should compete as well. However, feeling emasculated by the large male Olympic bending robots, he decides to pose as a
fembot
A gynoid, or fembot, is a feminine humanoid robot. Gynoids appear widely in science fiction film and art. As more realistic humanoid robot design becomes technologically possible, they are also emerging in real-life robot design.
Name
A gynoid ...
in order to compete. Competing as Coilette, he easily beats the female competitors, winning five gold medals. However, the medalists are called in for gender testing prior to the awards ceremony. Desperate, Bender has
Professor Farnsworth
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, commonly referred to in-show as either Professor Farnsworth or simply Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series '' Futurama''. The mad scientist proprietor of the Planet Expres ...
give him a
sex change
Sex change is a natural or artificial process in which an individual's sex is changed.
Sex change may also refer to:
Biology and medicine
*Sex reassignment therapy
*Sex reassignment surgery
*Sequential hermaphroditism, a phenomenon whereby some ...
, turning him into an authentic fembot.
Coilette is invited to go on a late night talk show. Also appearing on the show is robot actor
Calculon
This article lists the many characters of '' Futurama,'' an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a ...
, who falls for Coilette instantly. The two start dating, which Coilette confides to the crew she is doing for the fame and valuable gifts Calculon sends her. Calculon proposes to Coilette. She accepts, scheming to get half his money with a divorce settlement.
However, moved by Calculon's deep professions of love, Coilette finds that though she does not want to be his wife, she also does not want to hurt him with a divorce, and even openly weeps while telling the crew this. Professor Farnsworth concludes that Coilette's new emotionalism is due to her new female
hormone
A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are required ...
s taking over.
Leela offers to help Coilette out under the condition that she reverse her sex change. She reasons that though there is no way for Coilette to get out of her predicament without hurting Calculon, a soap opera parting will hurt him least. At the wedding, Coilette, Leela,
Zoidberg
Dr. John A. Zoidberg, often referred to only by his last name, is a fictional character from the animated series ''Futurama''. He is a Decapodian, a crustacean-like species of alien, who works as the staff doctor for ''Planet Express'', despite hi ...
and
Fry stage an elaborate scene that fakes Coilette's death. As promised, Bender returns to his male persona, and claims to have not been changed at all by the experience. However, under his breath he bids Calculon an emotional goodbye.
Production
The opening scene at the Olympics was changed following the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
. Several brief shots of various country representatives, including countries related to the terrorist attacks, were removed because the writing team did not want viewers to think that the episode was referencing the attacks. Similar minor changes were made to some other episodes in season four.
This episode was considered somewhat easier to animate than others because there were fewer spaceship scenes.
Reception
In a review from 2015, Zack Handlen from ''
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 ...
'' stated "I don’t like the idea of trying to reduce art, no matter how vulgar or clumsy, to something we have to set against a checklist of appropriate viewpoints", although going on to criticize the episode for "gags that all seem to be based on tediously dated notions", for "basic assumptions about how men and women behave that are neither interesting nor particularly insightful", and for "no unexpected spin that throws everything into question". Handlen cited the last bit of the episode as "one of the only times the episode feels legitimately clever and funny".
Cultural references
*The title of the episode is a reference to the 1959 film ''
Ben-Hur''. It is also a reference to Bender's name and the act of
gender bending
A gender bender is a person who dresses up and acts like the opposite sex. Bending expected gender roles may also be called a genderfuck.
Gender bending may be political, stemming from the early identity politics movements of the 1960s and 19 ...
. In the
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
audio commentary, producer
David X. Cohen claims the episode title is a "
triple joke".
References
External links
*
Bend Her
"Bend Her" is the thirteenth episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series ''Futurama''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on July 20, 2003. In the episode, Bender changes into a female robot an ...
at
The Infosphere
''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...
.
*
{{Futurama episodes, 4
Futurama (season 4) episodes
2003 American television episodes
American LGBT-related television episodes
Transgender-related television episodes
LGBT-related controversies in television
LGBT-related controversies in animation
Impact of the September 11 attacks on television