Thoughts on [2ACV03] - A Head in the Polls

[on:]

Next up for the classic reviews:

 

A Head in the Polls:
Bender sells his body to a pawn shop when the value of titanium soars. While Bender's head hangs out with Claudia Schiffer's at the "Hall of Heads", Richard Nixon's head joins the race for President of the World using Bender's body.

Please try to watch the episode again before reviewing it. It's on this monday on CN and all the time on your season 2 DVDs.

[Reply #1 on:]

I personally thought it was great. The whole election theme was done really well, considering very few shows can pull it off in a funny way - and the different political parties were hillarious. However, Nixon easily stole the show here, especially with the terrific ending.
"Nixon's baaaackk!!!" 

Overall, a great episode. I'm giving it a 4/5.

[Reply #2 on:]

One of the most underrated episodes IMO.
Bender is great, Nixon is hillarious...
When a friend and I watched it the first time we had about 2 weeks of fun imitating Nixon's arouuuuuuu...   
...so definitely 10/10.

[Reply #3 on:]

I my goodness, this is one of the funniest political satires I'm every seen!  Just the very idea that Nixon would be president 1,000 years from now is something only Matt Groening could think of.  Practically every line in this episode in quotable.  Not just one of the funniest episodes of the 2ACV block, but one of the funniest at all.  It was really funny that, as pointed out in the commentary, this episode was made before the year 2000 election.  The episode feels like it was a parody of that election and the presidential debates preceding it (i.e. during the debates in 2000, Bush and Gore kept agreeing with each other).  Really strange and Matt Groening, DXC, and all the writer inadvertedly predicted the future.

[Reply #4 on:]

very funny. John Jackson and [edit:Jack Johnson] were great.

"don't let their identical DNA fool you, they differ in many key issues."

"I say your 3 cent Ti tax goes too far!"
"I say your 3 cent Ti tax doesn't go too far enough!"

great, one of my favorites. one of my favorite quotes was: "ya know, nothing i can do legally counts as sex anymore" -clinton

also, the Fingerlicans and Tastycrats were a great idea.

9/10

[Reply #5 on:]

One of my favorite episodes, and one of the best political satires in the world of animation.

Candidates so alike they might as well be clones. Wait a minute they are clones!

The various parties, voter apathy, form over substance (more fitting now than ever, what with the Governator and all), etc. So great.

Introducing Richard Nixon's Head was a stroke of genius. He's just so damn funny with his harsh, nigh on hostile comments to everything, and as Matt mentioned on the commentary the staff loved every minute of it. "NIXON'S BAAAAACK!!!"

Benders sidestory was up to par, great jokes, and suddenly it combined so flawlessly with the election story, now that's writing.

I could go on about this episode, but I'm not very coherrent at the moment. Suffice to say, this is one of my favorite episodes, and if I didn't give it a clearcut 10/10 I would make a mockery out of democracy. And the voters will see through it, they aren't the peebrained idiots of Nixon's time.

Nixon: ""Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973 but your average voter is as drunk and stupid as ever. The only one who's changed is me. I've become bitter, and let's face it, crazy over the years. And once I'm swept into office, I'll sell our children's organs to zoos for meat. And I'll go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place! Muhuhahahaha!"

[Reply #6 on:]

 

very funny. John Jackson and john Jackson were great.

Have we got a humourous typo thread? 

On topic though
Head in the polls had some great moments, the different parties were great... The Voter Apathy party, (all names aside...) the brain slug one, and the one the professor goes to, are all crack-ups.

Fry - "I've got an idea"
Leela - "I've got a better idea"

Bender - "Psst, there i am!"

"Bender - My body loved me and i turned it's back on it"

Bender and Nixon's attemted 'fight'

Many other great moments, too many to mention here, i gave it a 3/4 on the Classic episode thing.

[Reply #7 on:]

I shan't wax lyrical - my favourite part was the secret service heads. cracking.

[Reply #8 on:]

"Hey Morbo hows the family?"

"Belligerent and numerous"

"Good man! Nixons prowar and profamily"

[Reply #9 on:]

What can I say? 'Nother great season 2 episode. Fantastically funny, couple of slightly too obvious jokes, plot not quite as good as some 3/4ACV stuff, some of the best satire I've ever seen. Highlights include the Apathy Party and the awesome PE 3D sequence.

"I apologize for his rudeness ma'am, he gets this way around meaty-looking women."

"I'm meeting you half way you stupid hippies!"

"I've got one last thought... ARGH!"

Another classic. Nixon's rampage is one of my very favourite scenes from the show.

B+

[Reply #10 on:]

A good, solid episode. It introduces one of the major recurring jokes of the series (Nixon), and even has a little bit of cross-seasonal continuity (the previous Earth president having been vaporised in 1ACV12).

Perhaps not part of my top 10, but as I say, a solid episode and I can't fault it.

Of course, being a whippersnapper, I am compelled to have no interest in politics whatsoever.   

B

[Reply #11 on:]

I love this episode. And I don't like politics at all!  It's such a classic, it was a Laugh All The Way Through (tm) episode.

Soem of my favorite lines were mentioned. Rage mentioned some quick, funny ones and Teral mentioned htta hilarious Nixon part. 

A

[Reply #12 on:]

FXJKAR 60th president. One of the best parts of the episode.

[Reply #13 on:]

Personally, I thought the whole "Rich Bender Without Body" bit was a high point of the series.  I made wavs of most of the things he said like:

"YES!  The Rich get richer."

"Hellloooo, Peasants."

and my favorite:

"Compare your life to mine and then kill yourselves."

[Reply #14 on:]

I always like political satire, and this one reaped untold harvests of hilarilty in that department...
The sequence of bender's head on the wee car was both  visually impressive and funny.
Best line in the ep, which i think i remember correctly:
"You see this? Biological super pox... for duck huntin'"
sorry if i mangled it.

[Reply #15 on:]

i think this episode was good

[Reply #16 on:]

I gave it a good rating, my favorite parts were the hemp part, and the John Jackson and Jack Johnson parts

[Reply #17 on:]

Please, anything with Nixon in it you know is gonna kick ass, everything the man says is a stitch.

[Reply #18 on:]

Nixon's voice is hilarious.  Need I say more?  9 out of 10.

[Reply #19 on:]

Big UP here!  Arooo!  I laughed almost non-stop.  One of many high points:

Dole: Bob Dole needs company, Larouche won't stop with the knock-knock jokes.

Bender: PASS!

That one word, and the exact tone he uses, sums up my whole attitude towards politicians.

@Britz: On the commentary, they refer to Nixon as a "real-life cartoon character".

[Reply #20 on:]

This was a corking episode if only for the fact that it was so damn original. Bender sells his body for big bucks and looks down on everyone else even though he's just a head? Richard Nixon's head acquires Bender's body, dances and plays electric guitar? Robots vote Nixon president because he gets a whopping great new body after Bender and friends retrieve the old one? No-one else could've thought that up if they'd tried.

  And yet, the realism of the political satire is just dead-on. The clone candidates, Nixon under the truthoscope, the Presidents heads sequence and, of course (paraphrasing):
 "One of these two men will become President of the World."
 "What do we care? We live in the United States."
 "The United States is part of the world!"
 "Wow, I have been gone a long time."   

 A genuine classic, whether you know who Nixon is or not.

[Reply #21 on:]

[Scruffy]Second![/Scruffy]

"Tell us Bender, what hath happened to your body?"
"I hocked it."
"Hocked it?! Why wouldst thou do that?"
"Same reason you hocked your teeth."
"Ah.  Booze money."

And also, from the commentary:

"What's this? Chicken chow mein? Its good.  Aroo!"

and

"Rubber baby buggy bumpers."

It's one of my favorites, and I can't believe that it was rated so low in the Fall Madness!

[Reply #22 on:]

"Rrrrubber baby buggy bumpers!" 

I don't get it, but it's so funny. And "Aroo, I'm glad you couldn't!" It's a pity that commentary was a second or two ahead, though.

[Reply #23 on:]

I know, it sucks.
*imagines Nixon singing 'Hail to the Chief' and collapses with laughter*
  The other one is HHRHGB that's really noticeable in the first series, its got a slight lapse.
The worst by far is 'The Route of all Evil' in Season three - that has a lapse of about 15-20 seconds for half the commentary, which is irritating as hell!

[Reply #24 on:]

Also, TKOS and Godfellas commentaries have a slight lapse, although I reckon they probably did that deliberately to make themselves look more on the ball when they go "Ah, the smelloscope!" or "Judge Whitey!" 

[Reply #25 on:]

I didn't notice that... *rushes off to be a geek with her DVD player*

[Reply #26 on:]

heh! it was a great episode! i like the "hey i have a final thought" beep beep "AAAAAAHHHHH"
when fry is on the bed!

[Reply #27 on:]

i smell a new topic!

[Reply #28 on:]

The smell of an old topic being ressurected is stronger. 

[Reply #29 on:]

An episode that never NEVER gets old, at least not to me. One of my all-time favorites, and definitely one of the funniest ones.....

"Shutup, dammit!"

[Reply #30 on:]

Edit

[Reply #31 on:]

I like when Fry says, "Too bad you can't spend it." and bender says, "Oh, can't I?""No."
 

[Reply #32 on:]

Okay this episode was okay but I dont think it was as good as it could have been...

The one part that I did like was when Nixon is in his dressing room and Leela, Fry, and Bender's head pop out of the trunk and...(it goes a little something like this)

BENDER: Gimme back my body!
NIXON: Never! I'd as soon give you this body just as soon as I'd give you my little cocker spaniel dog, Checkers.
(Checkers' head in a jar)
CHECKERS: Bark!
NIXON: SHUT UP DAMN IT!!!

hi-larious!

[Reply #33 on:]

The best part was Nixon strumming his guitar.
"Remember what the door mouse said, feed your head! I'm meeting you half way, you stupid hippies!" Oh, and the ending was maybe the funniest of the whole series. "Knock knock!"
Defintely one of season two's finest.
EDIT: Ahahahahahaha! Thanks for reminding me about "Rubber baby buggie bumpers!"

[Reply #34 on:]

QUESTION: (Gonna get a little off subject) What would be season 2's other best episode in your opinion, Shadowstar?

[Reply #35 on:]

7.5/10

Meh, it was a little overrated, but it had some great moments.  Nixon's appearance was great, and I love Morbo's support of him.  I do love that little CG sequence with Bender piloting the miniature car.

[Reply #36 on:]

Best. Episode. Ever! Such great well timed humor.

[Reply #37 on:]

Good Episode. A little overrated as a classic political satire though. Go and watch Dr. Strangelove (or how i learnt to stop worrying in love the bomb).
I think that's the subtitle anyway..i may be a word or two out.
B-

[Reply #38 on:]

I gave it a good rating.  The letter grade would be B-

Like SimPurist mentioned. The scene of Bender driving the little car along with the chase on the Near Death Star in "A Clone Of My Own" are two of my favourite animated moments of the series.

[Reply #39 on:]

My favorite quote from this episode has got to be this one:

Bender: Get a room, you two!
Male voice: We're in a room!
Bender: Well then lose some weight!