Amazon Women in the Mood

"Amazon Women in the Mood"
Futurama episode
Femputer sentences the male prisoners to "death by snu-snu".
Episode no.	Season three Episode 1
Directed by	Brian Sheesley
Written by	Lewis Morton
Production code	3ACV01
Original air date	February 4, 2001
Opening caption	"Secreted by the Comedy Bee"
Opening cartoon	Unknown
Guest stars
Beatrice Arthur as the Femputer [1]
Season three episodes
January, 2001 – December, 2002 Amazon Women in the Mood Parasites Lost A Tale of Two Santas The Luck of the Fryrish The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz Bendless Love The Day the Earth Stood Stupid That's Lobstertainment! The Cyber House Rules Where the Buggalo Roam Insane in the Mainframe The Route of All Evil Bendin' in the Wind Time Keeps On Slippin' I Dated a Robot A Leela of Her Own A Pharaoh to Remember Anthology of Interest II Roswell That Ends Well Godfellas Future Stock The 30% Iron Chef
List of all Futurama episodes

"Amazon Women in the Mood" is the first episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on February 4, 2001.

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 and are also captured. They are taken to the giants' leader, observing Amazonian society along the way. Fry, Zapp, and Bender ridicule the women's 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 wall-sized computer (Beatrice Arthur stars as the voice of the Femputer). Bender is spared for not possessing male body parts, but Zapp, Fry, and Kiff 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 refers to as the "stereotypical women's fantasy": a world without men, a theme featured often in science fiction. The cliché, much like 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 its initial airing, the episode placed 79th in the Nielsen ratings for primetime shows for the week of January 9 - February 4, 2001.^[8]

References

1. ^ Schulte, Elizabeth (2009-04-30). "Right on, Bea". http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/30/right-on-bea. Retrieved 2009-04-30. 
2. ^ ^{a b} McCarthy, Wil (2005-02-07). "Two Girls for Every Boy". Archived from the original on 2007-11-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20071104161236/http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue407/labnotes.html. Retrieved 2007-11-17. 
3. ^ "2001 Emmy nominations". Variety. 2001-07-12. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117802665.html?categoryid=14&cs=1. Retrieved 2007-12-27. 
4. ^ Azrai, Ahmad (2004-10-31). "Farewell to the funny future". Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-14221036_ITM. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 
5. ^ "Top 25 Futurama Episodes". http://tv.ign.com/articles/716/716663p3.html. Retrieved 2006-11-04. 
6. ^ "Other picks.(Sapphic Screen)". Curve. 2004-08-01. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-4743704_ITM. 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. ^ "BroadcastWatch.(Illustration)". Broadcasting & Cable (Reed Business Information). 2001-02-12. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-70505934.html. Retrieved 2009-03-07. 

External links

Futurama portal

• Amazon Women in the Mood at The Infosphere.