Thoughts on 7ACV25 - Stench and Stenchibility - SPOILERS

[Reply #80 on:]

Squeeeee!!! It's Louiswuenator! I'm really happy to see you back here.

I'm a softie

Yes. Yes you are.

[Reply #81 on:]

Marianne was a cool character, but wish we got to see more of her, but sadly, I feel this was it.

Since there's only one episode left in the season (and possibly the entire series), that's not a very bold statement to make

I enjoyed seeing something work out well for Zoidberg. He's been pathetic for the entire series, so it's nice that things end well for him for once.

Incidentally, Bender weighs 525 pounds. He should have crushed that little girl into a pulp while doing his dance.

[Reply #82 on:]

Good episode, not brilliant. I like character centered episodes but too much screen time was given to Zoidberg. Some of the jokes were hilarous. Nice to see some bonding between the little girl and Bender.

7/10.

[Reply #83 on:]

But anyway, the dead/dying child thing in Bender's storyline made me feel uncomfortable. Bender's supposed to have a tiny speck of heart in his cold metallic chest.

True. But he is also not designed as a character who takes shit. So, opposition by Bender was fitting, and not undeserved. He did not dance on the corpse because it was a child. He did dance on the corpse because it was a major asshole who hurt him before. Which is huge difference motivation wise.

A German Punk Band once said : "Even handicapped, black lesbian women can be assholes".

Futurama has always had grave injuries and death as part of it's humor. While early run had it's PC conceptions, holy cows and double standards, it was refreshing to see that they for once acutally dared to take the stance "When violence is acceptable humor towards one group, it's acceptable humor towards everyone". (Took them long enough, after all )

[Reply #84 on:]

I second Hein, although I much more gingerly second the "FINALLY they're beating up little girls" part.

[Reply #85 on:]

I second Hein, although I much more gingerly second the "FINALLY they're beating up little girls" part.

She was actually not beaten up. When she was alive, Bender did not inflict physical injury on her. The "dancing on the corpse" (while certainly crude and respectless) was not aimed to harm/hurt/kill a living person. He took no active part in "creating" the heart attack, his dancing was actually a (though shocking) "Haha...serves you right".

So -when looking at the cold facts- Bender's action was de facto still below e.g. Homer strangling Bart (which imhO hardly anyone considers objectionable humor).

[Reply #86 on:]

I really enjoyed this one. It contained everything I liked about The Tip of the Zoidberg last season (the inspired use of tertiary characters - Mom then, Randy now - and the emotional heft given to Zoidberg - in his relationship with the professor then, and his love affair with Marianne now) without the over the top elements that annoyed me about TTOTZ. (The yeti transformation and Zoidberg's medical butchery were just too "cartoony" for me to enjoy them. This episode, on the other hand, felt a lot more grounded in its established world. The nose transplant is crazy but feasible, in a way the Garfield / Simpsons / Smurfs illnesses just weren't.)

Highlights :


- RAAANNNDDDDDYYYYYYYYYYYY! I love that this episode doubles up as a goodbye to Randy. Since Scruffy became more of a presence in the cast, Randy has moved up to become my new favorite minor character. ("Hit it, me!"   )

- Leela's response to seeing Randy.

- Randy telling Bender he'll be the greatest tap dancer in a three block radius.

- Parolee's Choice Bus Lines.

- The Flowering Inferno. Best name for a florist cart, ever.

- Scenic New Jersey. (Nice callback to All The Presidents' Heads, when New Jersey was decreed the new America's "official joke state".)

- "Something's come up. It's vomit!"

- "That extra clickin' you'll hear is gonna be my hip."

- "I don't know what's wrong with this location."

- "This here's a bayonet! It's some kinda kooky half-gun, half knife!"

- "My name's Marianne." "Hello, you!"  

- The crew's response to Zoidberg and Marianne making love. Ughhh.

- Bender actually does put sequins on his hat later, bahaha.

- "Then let's begin this delicate procedure." *SNIP*

- "Woohoo! In your dead face, little girl! I'm not even gonna wait to dance on your grave - I'm gonna dance on your corpse right now!"  

[/b]]
Good episode, not brilliant. I like character centered episodes but too much screen time was given to Zoidberg. Some of the jokes were hilarous. Nice to see some bonding between the little girl and Bender.

7/10.

I don't think so. It was a Zoidberg-centered episode, sure, but I thought S&S did a great job of balancing its A and B plots. The reduced running time of the Comedy Central episodes has meant that B plots are mostly abandoned or feel rushed. That wasn't the case here. Bender's tap dancing subplot was given enough attention that I felt invested in it, but it didn't detract from the A plot either. I was impressed.

I don't know what's going to happen in the last episode of Futurama but at least I can rest easy knowing Randy got a good send-off. That's how you say good-bye to a somewhat enjoyable and oft-forgotten tertiary character.

But anyway, the dead/dying child thing in Bender's storyline made me feel uncomfortable. Bender's supposed to have a tiny speck of heart in his cold metallic chest. For me, I would rate this episode somewhere between 70/100 and 80/100, and the Bender subplot is really holding things back. It really ruined some of the momentum in the otherwise feel-good Zoidburg story, which I enjoyed.

It's a shame this is coming at the end of the show's run. It would be fun to have an episode where Marianne's trash collector job earned them enough to buy a small apartment and Zoidburg was able to move out of the dumpster -- but kept one in the apartment to sleep in, anyway. ("What can I say? Old habits, they die hard.") Her character could have been a bit deeper, but I suppose they could have embellished on that in later episodes.

Hmm. Bender does have a heart, but he's not human - what moves a human won't necessarily move him. And even when he does show some heart, it's usually quite selfishly meant. For instance, his affection for Fry - he cares about Fry because Fry makes him happy. He's fond of that turtle in Crimes of the Hot because it reminds him of himself. He's revolted by Tonya when he thinks she's just a sickly sweet little girl, but is impressed by her nasty side, because, again, it reminds him of himself. Empathy is just not in Bender's nature. Plus I think he understood Tonya's true nature better than anyone there. If the situation had been reversed and she could get away with it, I think Tonya would have quite happily danced on a dead Bender. From his point of view, he'd "won" and cackling over her corpse would have been something she understood, so he doesn't get why everyone else is so horrified. If it doesn't bother the dead girl, why would it bother everyone else? Bender just doesn't have that "basic human decency" filter.


 

[Reply #87 on:]

I found this episode enjoyable mostly because of Bender's subplot.  Bender acting like an asshole always makes me laugh.  I loved when he tap danced on the dead girl.  That scene would have been even funnier if he ground her into a pulp like he did with the bugs earlier in the episode.  Maybe that will show up as a deleted scene on the DVD.  I'll give it a 7/10

[Reply #88 on:]

So -when looking at the cold facts- Bender's action was de facto still below e.g. Homer strangling Bart (which imhO hardly anyone considers objectionable humor).

The Simpsons writers themselves actually sort of phased it out for a while simply because a lot of them found it too horrifying to be funny. They did bring it back, somewhat, but that's basically the reason that said joke actually really appeared on the show as often as the t-shirts would suggest.

Also I'm not sure where this idea comes from of the Futurama writers being too "PC" (in the original run, it was probably one of the edgier shows on television) but whatever. I think they just have a good sense of whether something is uncomfortable vs. when it's funny. E.g. they found a way to make Bender dancing on a child's corpse funny rather than horrifying. Not an easy thing to do!

Anyway, pretty solid episode, if not especially memorable. It was consistently funny and I thought the Zoidberg storyline was genuinely sweet. It's one of those episodes that doesn't really have enough sci-fi or hard-hitting moments in it that I would instantly think of it in regards to the show, but which I think whenever I do watch it again on DVD I'll think "hey, I forgot how good this one is." All in all, probably a better penultimate episode than Spanish Fry was a decade ago (also a good but not especially memorable outing).

I'm also really glad they just let Zoidberg stay with Marianne at the end. Normally, that would be a bad idea, because his patheticness is what makes Zoidberg such a funny character, but with it being so close to the end of the series, there's no reason not to finally give the poor lobster-man some kind of happiness. I'd have been bummed out if they went status quo on it, so I'm glad they ended it as they did.

[Reply #89 on:]

I'm very glad Zoidberg is going out happy- Although his mood shouldn't really effect the ending, I feel like it just makes it that much happier. Plus, Bender finally found somebody who is just as evil- If not even moreso- as he is, so it was technically a double-whammy of happy endings.

That just makes me even more exited for Meanwhile, actually. I have a feeling that it will really wrap up the story, without much of a cliffhanger like ITWGY or even, to some extent DHAIP, and leave all of the charcters in a happy tone.

[Reply #90 on:]

One thing I loved from this episode that I haven't seen anyone mention yet is the second Randy callback from "I, Roommate" this season:

"The robot has to go!" 

[Reply #91 on:]

Squeeeee!!! It's Louiswuenator! I'm really happy to see you back here.

Really? Shucks well that made my day, sparky. I didn't think anyone would actually miss me.

Yeah, gotta love Randy.  I'm really pleased with his role in this ep, and I had a bit of a realization of how good of a character he is.  When he is used as a person, and not as a Look at the gay guy, isn't it funny how gay he is? - Adam Sandler type humor, he's perfect.

[Reply #92 on:]

Did anyone else enjoy The Professor calling Fry "Orange Joe"? I thought that part was great and funny and when Fry said that in "Fun on a Bun" I though it was hilarious. I'm really not sure why I found it so funny, there's probably something wrong with me. 

[Reply #93 on:]

I have a huge weak spot for characters not knowing the names of other characters that they see constantly, so yeah, I lost my shit at that.

[Reply #94 on:]

I really love this episode and something really nice happens to Zoidberg. Good for him.

[Reply #95 on:]

I loved when he tap danced on the dead girl.  That scene would have been even funnier if he ground her into a pulp like he did with the bugs earlier in the episode.  Maybe that will show up as a deleted scene on the DVD.

That's one dark callback. I like your attitude.

[Reply #96 on:]

This was a wonderful episode, was so happy to see Zoidberg have a happy ending, and it was really funny too.

The bender sub-plot was great too, loads of dark humour.

Great one for the guest voice actors too, they both did a really good job and are people I'm super-happy to hear on the show.

[Reply #97 on:]

I suppose I'll have to concede that Bender's corpse dancing wasn't exactly out of character, after thinking about it. The term "sacred cow" was brought up in this discussion and it made me realize I suppose I hold children as a sacred cow when it comes to limits on humor. Isn't this great? Futurama is making me learn things about myself!

[Reply #98 on:]

Children getting abused in cartoons is never not funny.

[Reply #99 on:]

Huh, I thought I had a good ear for recognising voices and noises but I genuinely thought Tonya was Lauren Tom...

I enjoyed the episode  - it won't rank amongst my absolute favourites but it was by no means poor. I liked the fact that Zoidberg had a happy ending for once - it was actually a nice, feel-good story all around.

Emilia Clarke's voice though... just wasn't quite up to scratch.

7/10

[Reply #100 on:]

Am I the only one who liked Emilia Clarke's voice acting?

[Reply #101 on:]

Am I the only one who liked Emilia Clarke's voice acting?

I didn't see anything wrong with it either.

[Reply #102 on:]

Am I the only one who liked Emilia Clarke's voice acting?

I didn't see anything wrong with it either.

Third.

[Reply #103 on:]

Fourth...ed. I thought she provided a very normal voice for a very normal character; Marianne's sweetness came through in Clarke's acting, and that sweetness is what made her relationship with Zoidberg both realistic and compelling.

[Reply #104 on:]

Fifth. I liked her voice, don't see why so many people complained about it? Bare in mind she recorded her lines in London and most likely just sent them off to the Futurama production crew, so maybe that's why people think she sounds a little off.

[Reply #105 on:]

Part of it might be that it's a rather jarring contrast to have perfectly enunciated and accented British English in the middle of Futurama, where the only British accents we've heard before are the bloody awful ones from ATPH.

Anyhow, I was only somewhat pleased with this episode. Zoidberg getting a happy ending was nice, but I really didn't see the point of shoehorning in a "Bender becomes a tapdancer" B-plot. They could have expanded the Zoidberg/Marianne story a little.

Bender dancing on the fresh corpse of a child was pretty dark humour, and was really the only part of that story that I enjoyed. Until they spoiled it by having his rhythmic footcup-pounding act as life-saving chest compressions. Whilst I saw it coming, I was still disappointed when it happened (I prefer it when TV subverts my expectations).

I gave this 6/10, but on re-watching and re-evaluating, I think I should have given it 7/10. I mean, Zoidberg actually got a happy ending. That alone is worth the extra point. It's just a shame that all the tapdancing stuff had to be in there. Honestly, it felt pretty pointless.

[Reply #106 on:]

I feel as though the Bender plot was funny enough to justify itself. I in fact, enjoyed it more than the main plot.

However, it should've been woven into the story a bit better. On the other hand, I'm relieved that they didn't tie things together with an incredibly stupid and forced reason like in "The Bots and thee Bees." The B-plot in that episode was awful.

[Reply #107 on:]

Alright, saw this one.

It actually wasn't bad. It was sweet for Zoidberg to have a female counterpart, and who actually enjoyed his smell by the end of it! These last episodes are getting really touching endings. I also like though that they didn't forget to play to their dark side; I thought it went far with killing the six year old, then Bender stomping on her body was outrageous...but they saved it by bringing her back. It was reminiscent of that scene from The Cyber House Rules I believe where Bender notices a doorstep baby, smashes it, and it turns out just to be a card. Now THAT is a great instance of the writers utizilizing this "have your cake and eat it too" type of thing. "It was so wrong, but it's ok to laugh now because it didn't actually happen! Hooray I'm not as much a terrible person as I was 5 seconds ago!"

I'm debating on a 9 or 10 on this episode, I can't really find any flaws with it...and I wholeheartedly approved of the use of Randy once again (maybe it's just because I like to hear my name repeatedly on screen and delude myself into thinking they are making subtle shoutouts at yours truly)

I think I am going to settle on a 9 on this one. Wasn't too keen on Bender stomping on everyone's heads, ha.

[Reply #108 on:]

I guess I also shouldn't complain about the oh-so-dated, unnecessary Tonya Harding reference that ended act two...so, even though that also kind of bugged me, I will elaborate no further on my annoyance; ultimately it didn't adversely affect my opinion of this episode too much.

This is exactly why I disliked this episode. I didn't care for the Bender subplot and as soon as Tanya appeared in the locker room, I thought "Oh please don't go there." And then it did. Pity because I enjoyed Zoidberg's plot-line. We already had an episode dedicated to Bender's hobbies and I much preferred the 40 Percent Leadbelly story to this one. At least in that episode only fictional or 3-D printed characters were at real risk for demise. Bender's done a lot of things (grave robbing in Luck of the Fryrish, boasting about having Charlemagne's body parts, hawking Fry's blood and kidneys, calling a Chinese restaurant to sell orphan meat) but they were done in either an implied or offscreen way. Tap dancing on top of a dead child, even if it did restart her heart, really took it beyond a tolerable level of onscreen disembodiment such as with the Professor's hand in Bender's Big Score. For me it just wasn't funny.

Maybe it will improve during a re-watch, but my initial reaction was that this one was a dud.

[Reply #109 on:]

I just realized John DiMaggio's Randy voice is almost exactly the same as the one he uses for Coilette in S4's Bend Her. If I hadn't watched the two episodes so close together I probably wouldn't have picked up on it, but it's really striking when you do.

Anyone else notice this?

[Reply #110 on:]

I swear Goodensexy's boobs get bigger with each appearance.

The following post is proof that -right now- I am rather bored, without having anything useful to do:

The images show Cahill from (left to right):
Ghost in the Machines - Neutopia - All The Presidents Heads - All the Presidents Heads - Stench and Stenchability



Her proportions are rather constant.

The only big* exception is in fact Stench and Stenchability, when she lifts her breasts with the defibrillator. Not a very fitting joke, acutally, as Cahills default setting was not mainly an oversexualised design/behaviour. But rather countering the "dumbe blonde" stereotype with competence, to nearly undo it the next moment (forgetting Hermes head on the floor, holding her cleavage over Fry who just had a heart attack, etc...). Cahill CAN be used for oversexualised jokes, but those should be rather sidegags, with the main joke based on the "questioning and reinforcing the dumbe blonde bimbo stereotype at the same time". (As said: "Ghost in the machines" was about her accidently causing further damage to Fry. Showing her cleavage was the means to that damage, but not the main joke).

*(I could claim that word was not intentionally used with a double meaning. Yet, I doubt anyone would actually believe so...)

And again: The kind of analysis is how far "Bored and got nothing useful to do" can go.

[Reply #111 on:]

.....Best. Boob-Related. Post. Ever.

[Reply #112 on:]

I'm not sure if anyone else had thought of this, but I have a possible explanation for Roberto's unexplained return in this episode...
Maybe the Roberto in this one was simply a different Roberto unit, similar to how Flexo and Billy West are other Bending units. It has never been stated that Roberto is one of a kind, so there may very well be others - and this may have been one of them.

[Reply #113 on:]

Uh, oh ... That ... may mean ... that ... there are ...

MULTIPLE

CALCULONS

as well!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Reply #114 on:]

different Roberto unit

That really doesn't make sense with the logic of the show as (all the human-like) robots have unique personalities. And there is a suitable explanation; he got backed up to new body (like Calculon). Problem is, it wasn't addressed.

[Reply #115 on:]

Hey guys... sorry for vanishing so much and ignoring you all but I really didn't want to talk to anyone anymore.  Long story.

Anyhow.  This is the only episode of this season I enjoyed.  It was gross, cute and funny.  I only have one problem with it: whilst i loved the character of Marianne, having her be human just pulled too many suspensions of disbelief for me: why would an attractive human female be interest in Zoidberg?  Why would a baby with such a crippling disability (a lack of smell) not have it be corrected in the 31st century?  Plus not having Marianne be an ugly or ugly cute alien like Zindy passed up some excellent chances for the grotesque but adorable interspecies romances that Futurama does so well.  So here's what I would have done.

Either: have Marianne be an ugly cute alien: maybe make her have the same proportions of a human female, but mix it up: give her five eyes, tentacles, multiple arms, sideways jaws, a tail, a second mouth on her stomach. Even give her a second mouth inside her mouth like the Alien: she can use this to give Zoidy a peck on the cheek, or make out with the horrible creature inside HIS.   The kicker?  Her species has no sense of smell: she only knows about it from reading about it.  Yes she loves plants and flowers and wrote her college thesis on earth flowring plants but born without a sense of smell because her species has no nose and no part of the brain to deal with it.   So the Professor either gives her a transplant of not justa  nose, but the part of the brain to recognise it and an extension of her nervous system so she can relay the scent sensations (hehe) to her brain.   But keep everything else the same: her sweet personality and charming voice.

Or have Marianne be a fembot: again a non-human and again no sense of smell and again has to be given software to recognise smell and an artificial nose to smell it with.   So ain both scenarios we have the same setup: a non-human with no natural sense of smell that must be given a revolutionary new operation to install it in her brain. 

The end results are also the same, but in the final shot, Zoidberg has taken Marianne for a picnic in the botanical gardens surrounded by flowers she can enjoy due to having a similar horrible smell to Zoidberg: raffleslia flowers and titan arums.

[Reply #116 on:]

Glad to see you back, Spacefish

...Even give her a second mouth inside her mouth like the Alien: she can use this to give Zoidy a peck on the cheek, or make out with the horrible creature inside HIS...

Something unexpected that is revealed in a manner similar to the lizard tougue dude at The Hip Joint?

[Reply #117 on:]

Glad to see you back, Spacefish

...Even give her a second mouth inside her mouth like the Alien: she can use this to give Zoidy a peck on the cheek, or make out with the horrible creature inside HIS...

Something unexpected that is revealed in a manner similar to the lizard tougue dude at The Hip Joint?

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

[Reply #118 on:]

Hey guys... sorry for vanishing so much and ignoring you all but I really didn't want to talk to anyone anymore.  Long story.

Feel like talking about it? We still have a rant thread in Offtopic.

Anyhow.  This is the only episode of this season I enjoyed.  It was gross, cute and funny.  I only have one problem with it: whilst i loved the character of Marianne, having her be human just pulled too many suspensions of disbelief for me: why would an attractive human female be interest in Zoidberg?  Why would a baby with such a crippling disability (a lack of smell) not have it be corrected in the 31st century?  Plus not having Marianne be an ugly or ugly cute alien like Zindy passed up some excellent chances for the grotesque but adorable interspecies romances that Futurama does so well.

I think that the main reason for having Marianne be human is that 31^st Century Earth is still very much a human-oriented planet, and humans are the majority species there. With much of the show's cast being human, and most of the show's viewers being human, it makes sense that the writers didn't make her overtly "weird" in any other way than her lack of smell. Besides which, Zoidberg can't date a Decapodian (well, he could date her, but it'd either be a sexless relationship or a lethal one), and he's been shown to be lady-bait for certain humans before (remember his girlfriend from that previous crew?), as well as spending the majority of his time around humans.

They've already done the whole "robosexual" thing, so having her be a robot might have been seen as re-hashing that particular bag of weasels, and having her be a human also gives the whole "relationship with a crab monster" thing an extra squick factor for the human audience.

Not that I don't think you have some good ideas there for an alternate treatment of the episode, but I think that Marianne's being human shortcuts/sidesteps a few potential problems and therefore makes a neat and tidy writing solution that allows the episode to concentrate more on the actual story (rather than bulking out two minutes of plot with eighteen of exposition).

[Reply #119 on:]

So, we meet again, Spacegoldfish. 

Anywho, I kind of understand the point you are making about how this episode could have been improved on.