"31st Century Fox" is the eleventh episode of the seventh season of the animated sitcom '' Futurama''. It originally aired on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...

on August 29, 2012.

Plot

After a mission in which the uniforms of the Planet Express crew are ripped to shreds by a gigantic

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

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 Express ...

and

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, wikt:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travelle ...

agree to buy new ones. They pay a visit to a clothing store and buy a set of uniforms commissioned by the professor a year ago, but were never picked up, complete with the Planet Express logo. Bender purchases fox hunting attire and joins a hunting club, dragging Fry and Leela along with him. Leela protests the injustice of such an activity, much to the dismay of the Master of the Hunt (voiced by

Patrick Stewart Sir Patrick Stewart (born 13 July 1940) is an English actor who has a career spanning seven decades in various stage productions, television, film and video games. He has been nominated for Olivier, Tony, Golden Globe, Emmy, and Screen Actors ...

) and other club members. It is revealed that the

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

they are hunting is actually a robot, as are the

hunting dog A hunting dog is a canine that hunts with or for hunters. There are several different types of hunting dog developed for various tasks and purposes. The major categories of hunting dog include hounds, terriers, dachshunds, cur type dogs, and g ...

s and

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s, leading Bender and Leela to launch a protest movement called B.A.R.F. (Bender's Animal Robot Front), culminating in attempts to legally abolish the injustice against robotic animals. Though B.A.R.F. succeeds in banning the butchering of robotic animal flesh and liberating robotic chickens from laying eggs as they were designed to, they fail to outlaw robot foxing via injunction due to the judge being a member of the hunting club. Bender kidnaps the next robot fox to be hunted and takes its place in the cage. The fox is taken back to Planet Express and quickly becomes popular with the crew, until it rips apart their new uniforms, kills Amy's beloved chicken, scratches Fry in the face, tears up Leela's sign and flees, prompting Fry and Leela to hunt it. Bender is discovered with the fox hunt about to start. His plan backfires as the Master of the Hunt makes Bender the new target of the hunt. He flees into the forest and meets with the robot fox, which assists him out of a leg trap by chewing off his foot. They evade several traps laid by the hunters and catch the Master of the Hunt. Fry and Leela catch up to them as Bender is poised with a rifle aimed at the Master of the Hunt, though Bender ultimately declines to kill him. The Master of the Hunt reclaims the rifle and is about to shoot Bender, but the robot fox attacks and kills him, revealing the Master himself to be a robot. This prompts Bender to state that robot-on-robot violence is OK.

Reception

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 this episode, in conjunction with the episode "

Naturama Naturama was a widescreen movie technique used by Republic Pictures, during the 1950s. Films produced in ''Naturama'' format *'' The Maverick Queen'' (1956) *''Juvenile Jungle'' (1956) *''Lisbon'' (1956) *''Accused of Murder'' (1956) *''Thunder ...

," a B. This episode had 1.352 million viewers and a 0.8 rating in the (18-49) demo.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:31st Century Fox 2012 American television episodes Futurama (season 7) episodes Hunting in popular culture