"Bendin' in the Wind" is the thirteenth episode in

season three A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

of the animated television series ''

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 April 22, 2001. It guest-stars

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...

as himself. Bender becomes a folksinger after being broken, and starts touring with Beck. The title comes from the

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

song "

Blowin' in the Wind "Blowin' in the Wind" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was released as a single and included on his album ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' in 1963. It has been described as a protest song and poses a series of rhetorical questions about ...

Plot

Fry gets a free

Volkswagen microbus The Volkswagen Type 2, known officially (depending on body type) as the Transporter, Kombi or Microbus, or, informally, as the Bus (US), Camper (UK) or Bulli (Germany), is a forward control light commercial vehicle introduced in 1950 by the G ...

, excavated from the ruins of Old New York. He pushes it back to the Planet Express office, and has to fuel it with

whale oil Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. Whale oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tears, tear" or "drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil obtained from the ...

, which replaced

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

. While opening a barrel of oil, Bender becomes caught by the opener's magnet and is horribly damaged. Bender is rushed to a hospital, where the doctor informs him that he will never move again. He falls into a depression, but revives upon finding out that

's disembodied head is in the next bed, having checked in to get a

mannequin A mannequin (also called a dummy, lay figure, or dress form) is a doll, often articulated, used by artists, tailors, dressmakers, window dressers and others, especially to display or fit clothing and show off different fabrics and textiles. Pr ...

body attached. Beck loans Bender a pair of neck-mounted robotic arms, which Bender uses to scrape across his mangled chest, and invites him to join Beck's tour as a washboard player. Fry, Leela,

Amy Amy is a female given name, sometimes short for Amanda, Amelia, Amélie, or Amita. In French, the name is spelled ''"Aimée"''. People A–E * Amy Acker (born 1976), American actress * Amy Vera Ackman, also known as Mother Giovanni (1886– ...

, and

Dr. 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 ...

pile into Fry's microbus to follow Beck and Bender on tour. During a stop at a laundromat, their money is destroyed in a washing machine, forcing them to live in the vehicle and scavenge for food. However, Zoidberg begins to cough up beautiful blue pearls, which Leela and Amy string together to sell as necklaces. While on tour, Bender is insulted by the treatment of other broken robots and writes a song about them. Together with Beck, he decides to put on a

benefit concert A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance (e.g., concert, show, or gala) featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate hu ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

to help others like himself. Fry and the crew catch up with Bender, who is relaxing in a San Francisco hotel. Bender miraculously regains the ability to move on his own, much to everyone's shock, but decides to fake being broken in order to keep his music career going. The concert goes on as planned, but when the time comes for Bender to perform his song, he cannot restrain himself and begins dancing around the stage. Having been found out, Bender runs off with the oversized benefit check in Fry's microbus. Bender, pursued by an irate Beck, drives the microbus into the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

. Beck catches Bender and recovers the check, but forgives him since Bender has done so much for broken robots. The crew begins to row the microbus back to New New York, and Bender wades after them with a magnet stuck to his head so that he can have one last taste of being a folk singer.

Broadcast and reception

In its initial airing, the episode received a

Nielsen rating Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...

of 3.6/7, placing it 79th among primetime shows for the week of April 16–22, 2001. 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 a B+.

References

External links

* Bendin' in the Wind 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 ...

. * {{Beck Futurama (season 3) episodes 2001 American television episodes Beck