"The Route of All Evil" is the twelfth episode of the third production season of the American 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 ...

'', and the 44th episode of the series overall. 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 December 8, 2002. In the episode,

Dwight Dwight may refer to: People * Dwight (given name) * Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), 34th president of the United States and former military officer *New England Dwight family of American educators, military and political leaders, and authors * ...

and

Cubert Cubert ( kw, Egloskubert)Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF) ...

form their own delivery company in an attempt to impress their fathers.

Plot

Having been suspended from school for salting the bully Bret Blob (who appears to have the same weakness as

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a ...

s),

and

Cubert Cubert ( kw, Egloskubert)Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF) ...

find themselves stuck with their fathers. After the boys send the Planet Express crew on a fake mission to deliver pizza to a nonexistent planet and generally annoy the staff, their fathers order them to get jobs. They decide to start up a company to rival Planet Express: a paper route. They become so successful that they take over Planet Express when it is discovered that the

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

was declared legally dead three years ago (he was really taking a nap in a ditch in the park). The name of the company is then changed to the name of the boys' delivery route, 'Awesome Express'. Humiliated,

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 orat ...

and the Professor leave Planet Express. Meanwhile, Fry, Leela and Bender brew

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

inside Bender, then they treat Bender like an expectant mom. Dwight and Cubert end up taking on too many customers and cannot deliver the papers. In a panic, they run to Hermes and the Professor to solve the problem. All the papers are successfully delivered; however, as they pass Bret Blob's house the boys admit that they broke his window last week. Hermes and the Professor take the boys to apologize. When Mr. Blob does not accept the apology and insults them, the boys' fathers take offense and start a fight. Blob beats them up, but later apologizes in the hospital. Bender comes in with his beers to enjoy, and everything ends happily except for Cubert and Dwight who are swallowed by Bret Blob.

Cultural references

* While Bender, Leela and Fry are buying beer near the beginning of the episode, one brand is called Klein's and is in a

Klein bottle In topology, a branch of mathematics, the Klein bottle () is an example of a non-orientable surface; it is a two-dimensional manifold against which a system for determining a normal vector cannot be consistently defined. Informally, it is a ...

. One other brand on the shelf is St. Pauli's Exclusion

Principle A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a rule that has to be or usually is to be followed. It can be desirably followed, or it can be an inevitable consequence of something, such as the l ...

. The brand "Pabst Blue Robot" is a parody on the brand

Pabst Blue Ribbon Pabst Blue Ribbon, commonly abbreviated PBR, is an American lager beer sold by Pabst Brewing Company, established in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1844 and currently based in San Antonio. Originally called Best Select, and then Pabst Select, the cu ...

. * When Dwight and Cubert deliver the paper the first time round, they also deliver one to

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...

. He even yells ''"Au Revoir"'', after he is shot off his planet by Hermes in the end, referencing to the French origin of the novella. *When Dwight and Cubert are being chased by the dog over the asteroid, an

Exogorth This is a list of creatures in the fictional universe of '' Star Wars'', a space opera media franchise. The types of creatures in this list are listed by category and then in alphabetical order. Humans and humanoid sentient species Humans Huma ...

comes up from the hole in the asteroid and eats the dog. This is a parody of the Exogorth trying to eat the ''

Millennium Falcon The ''Millennium Falcon'' is a fictional starship in the '' Star Wars'' franchise. Designed by Joe Johnston for the movie '' Star Wars'' (1977), it has subsequently appeared in '' The Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978), ''The Empire Strikes Ba ...

'' in ''

The Empire Strikes Back ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a stor ...

''. * Bender's naming ideas for his beer, "Benderbrau" and "Botweiser" are both parodies on the popular alcoholic brands

Baderbräu Baderbräu is a Czech-style pilsner beer first brewed in 1988 by the Pavichevich Brewing Company based in Elmhurst, Illinois. After Pavichevich Brewing declared bankruptcy in 1997, Goose Island took over production of the beer until 2002. Acquisit ...

and

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrelat ...

respectively.

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 2.6/4, placing it 97th among primetime shows for the week of December 2–8, 2002.

References

External links

The Route of All Evil "The Route of All Evil" is the twelfth episode of the third production season of the American animated television series ''Futurama'', and the 44th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on Decem ...

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 ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Route of All Evil, The Futurama (season 3) episodes 2002 American television episodes