Amazon Women in the Mood

"Amazon Women in the Mood" is the first episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 4, 2001.

"Amazon Women in the Mood"
Futurama episode
Episode no.Season 3
Episode 1
Directed byBrian Sheesley
Written byLewis Morton
Production code3ACV01
Original air dateFebruary 4, 2001
Guest appearance(s)

Bea Arthur as the Femputer[1]

Episode features
Opening captionSecreted by the Comedy Bee
Opening cartoon"Art for Art's Sake" (1934)

Plot

Amy has been receiving phone calls for a year, where the caller stammers and then hangs up. The calls are from Kif, who is in love with Amy but is too nervous to speak. Zapp realizes that Amy and Leela know each other, and asks the two of them to go on a double date with him and Kif. Leela agrees as a favor to Amy, and they go to a restaurant aboard a space liner.

Kif uses Zapp's characteristically boorish pick-up lines, offending Amy. To prevent her and Leela from leaving, Kif sings karaoke. Amy is touched by this, but Zapp pushes Kif off the stage and sings to Leela, causing the passengers and crew of the ship to flee the restaurant in terror. Zapp crashes the ship into the planet Amazonia, where the Amazonians, a race of giant, muscular, tribal women, capture them.

Fry and Bender travel to Amazonia to rescue their friends but are also captured. They are taken to the Amazonians' leader, observing Amazonian society along the way. Fry, Zapp, and Bender ridicule female values, which makes Leela and Amy appreciate how good life would be without men. When the Amazonians ask what the purpose of men is, Amy explains, and the Amazonians realize that what she is describing is snu-snu, something they have heard of, but never experienced.

The leader of the Amazonians is the Femputer, a giant computer (voiced by Bea Arthur). Bender is spared for not possessing male anatomy, but Zapp, Fry, and Kif are sentenced by the Femputer to death by snu-snu—a fate that both excites and horrifies them—and are repeatedly snu-snued by Amazonians. Before being taken away, Kif tells Amy that he was the one who kept calling her and hanging up, that the offensive pick-up lines were not his own words, and that he loves her. Amy resolves to save him.

Leela and Amy convince Bender to reprogram the Femputer. He discovers that the Femputer is actually a computer operated by a fembot, who created the Amazonian society because her home planet was extremely chauvinistic. Amy rescues Kif; the Amazonians chase after them, cornering them in the Femputer's chamber. By this time, however, Bender and the fembot have become romantic. They order the Amazonians to release their captives and bring gold.

The crew returns to Earth where Fry and Zapp receive treatment for their crushed pelvises. Bender has a pile of gold bricks, and Kif and Amy are a couple. They all agree that Amazonia was their best mission ever.

Cultural references

The episode's title is a reference to the movie Amazon Women on the Moon.[2]

Themes

The episode features what Science Fiction Weekly calls the "stereotypical women's fantasy"—a world without men, a theme featured often in science fiction. The cliché, unlike the opposite male fantasy of having all women enslaved, represents the desire "not to be marginalized in one's own society".[2]

Broadcast and reception

This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001 for "Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming Less Than One Hour)"[3][4] but lost to The Simpsons episode "HOMR". In 2006, it was named by IGN as the best episode of Futurama, praising it because it is both "crude and hilarious".[5] The episode was also noted as the "most hilarious" episode in Futurama's third season by Curve[6] and in the book 5000 Episodes and No Commercials: The Ultimate Guide to TV Shows on DVD.[7] In 2013, it was ranked number 10 "as voted on by fans" for Comedy Central's Futurama Fanarama marathon.[8]

In its initial airing, the episode placed 79th in the Nielsen ratings for primetime shows for the week of January 29 - February 4, 2001.[9]

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gollark: Repeatedly on our call.
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gollark: What? You said I was Host! Repeatedly! Was that just signalling?
gollark: Say, do you have any secret scrypt ASICs?

References
  1. Schulte, Elizabeth (2009-04-30). "Right on, Bea". Retrieved 2009-04-30.
  2. McCarthy, Wil (2005-02-07). "Two Girls for Every Boy". Archived from the original on 2007-11-04. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
  3. "2001 Emmy nominations". Variety. 2001-07-12. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  4. Azrai, Ahmad (2004-10-31). "Farewell to the funny future". Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. Archived from the original on 2 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
  5. "Top 25 Futurama Episodes". Retrieved 2006-11-04.
  6. "Other picks.(Sapphic Screen)". Curve. 2004-08-01. Retrieved 2007-11-17.
  7. Hofstede, David. 5000 Episodes and No Commercials: The Ultimate Guide to TV Shows on DVD. Back Stage Books. p. 120.
  8. "Futurama Fanarama marathon". 2013-08-25. Retrieved 2013-08-31.
  9. "BroadcastWatch.(Illustration)". Broadcasting & Cable. Reed Business Information. 2001-02-12. Archived from the original on 2012-10-23. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
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