Where the Buggalo Roam

Infobox Futurama episode
episode_name = Where the Buggalo Roam
episode_no = 42
prod_code = 3ACV10
airdate = March 3, 2002
country = USA
writer = J. Stewart Burns
director = Pat Shinagawa
opening_subtitle = Krafted with luv by monsters
opening_cartoon = The Emerald Isle


caption = Bender, Fry, Leela, Amy, her parents, Professor Farnsworth,Amy's pet buggalo and Zoidberg at The Wong Buggalo Ranch.
season = three

"Where the Buggalo Roam" is the tenth episode in season three of the animated television series "Futurama". It originally aired March 3, 2002. The title is a reference to the folk song "Home on the Range".

Plot

The Planet Express staff head to the Wong Ranch on Mars for a Mars Day barbecue. Amy Wong's parents are happy to see her, but considerably less enthusiastic about her co-workers, especially Dr. Zoidberg, who immediately begins making a nuisance of himself. Kif arrives, and is nervous about meeting his girlfriend Amy's parents for the first time.

The barbecue proceeds, with Amy's parents being thoroughly unimpressed with Kif. Everything is going well until a strange sound begins, and a dust storm rolls in. Everyone takes cover in the Wong's mansion, but the unprotected buggalo outside are rustled during the storm, ruining the Wongs.

Kif sets off with the last remaining buggalo, Amy's personal pet, in an effort to draw out the rustlers. Professor Farnsworth sends Fry, Leela, and Bender along with him. As the group tell ghost stories, including Bender's story of the screen with the Windows logo, Amy jumps out of the bushes to join them. Kif and the crew find the stolen buggalo hidden in the crater of Olympus Mons. They find a way to eject the buggalo from the crater, but when they are about to head back to the ranch, the same strange sound from the barbecue begins, and another sand storm whirls in.

While the crew is trapped in the center of the storm, the rustlers fly in on buggalo. The rustlers are the native Martians, who are angry over their ancestors' sale of Mars for one bead. The crew are surprised to learn the buggalo can fly and the Martians indicate only those who truly love the planet can fly a buggalo. The Martians also reveal they had planned to ruin the Wongs by stealing the buggalo; but with the opportunity staring them in the face, they kidnap Amy. Kif and the crew return the buggalo to the Wong Ranch. Initially the Wongs are very impressed with Kif, but another mini-sandstorm brings a ransom note.

The Wongs, more unhappy with Kif than ever, call in Zapp Brannigan to resolve the situation. Brannigan, Kif, and the crew set off for the face on Mars, one of the two entrances to the Martian reservation. The other is the 'giant stone ass' of Mars, but it is on the other side of the planet. Brannigan botches the negotiations, and the Martians call up another sand storm, which engulfs Amy. Kif jumps on the back of Amy's buggalo, and flies it into the whirlwind, recovering Amy. The Martians, impressed by Kif's ability to ride a buggalo, call off the storm and offer peace.

Unfortunately, when smoking the Martian peace pipe, Kif chokes on the smoke, angering the Martians. The Martians sentence him to be killed, crushed by the bead they traded the planet for. As the bead lowers from the ceiling, the crew discovers that the "bead" is a gigantic diamond. When they inform the Martian chief of the bead's value, the Martians call off the execution, and leave to find a planet they can purchase. The Wongs cannot believe Kif saved Amy, and credit Zapp with the rescue.

On the Wongs' porch, Kif still feels bad Amy's family doesn't like him, to which she replies that if they liked him, she wouldn't. They kiss while the buggalo stampede and shake the ground, fooling Kif into thinking they had made love.

Continuity

* Even though Leo and Inez Wong introduced Kif to Amy in "A Flight to Remember", they have no recollection of him in this episode. As well as Kif says he is meeting them for the first time when they had already met in "A Flight to Remember". In the same episode, Bender needed Hermes to appraise the value of the diamond on the Countess de la Roca's bracelet (with Hermes stating that her bracelet is fake). In this episode, Bender has apparently learned how to appraise gems himself.
* Mars University is one of the landmarks seen being destroyed (or partially damaged).
* Zoidberg fertilizes the caviar at the barbecue, although in Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?, when a Decapodean passes on its genetic material, it dies (unless he didn't use that much genetic material to fertilize the caviar).

Production notes

* 17.9 billion acres (72,400,000 km²), the size given for the Wongs' ranch, which consists of the entire western hemisphere of Mars, is accurate.

Cultural references

* The appearance and apparent culture of the Native Martians is similar to that of Native American Indians. They even share a similar history of having their land taken from them by unfair methods. For example, when Mr. Wong says that his ancestor bought all of Mars' western Hemisphere for a bead, it is a reference to the time that New York was bought for a bunch of beads worth approximately $24.
* Kif's experiences taming and riding buggalo are reminiscent of Paul Atriedes riding sandworms in Frank Herbert's famous novel "Dune".
* The theme music heard while showing Zapp and Kif's ship, the "Nimbus", is reminiscent of the theme to "".
* The tornado sucking people and buggalo, as well as the use of the Face on Mars as an alien home is probably a spoof on the 2000 movie "Mission to Mars".
* The name of the cigarette-smoking cowboy R.J. is a reference to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. He bears a resemblance to the Marlboro Man, a mascot of another tobacco company, Philip Morris Companies.
* The camel-like character Joe is an obvious reference to the Camel cigarettes mascot Joe Camel, also of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
* The Martians use the same symbol as the alien race possessing Data in "" episode "Masks". It can be seen in the chamber where Kif is going to be killed and in one of the ships leaving Mars.
* When Zapp Brannigan throws the Slurm can to the ground, one of the Martian natives cries. This is a reference to the anti-littering television advertisement featuring Iron Eyes Cody, a Native American who cries when a bag of trash is thrown from a moving car. However, in this case the Martian native cries because "Cynthia used to drink Slurm".
* A newspaper on Mars is called the Martian Chronicles, as in the Ray Bradbury stories collected under the same name. In the novel many native Martians are killed by chickenpox. Another reference to the plight of Native American Indians, many of whom were killed by smallpox.
* When Zapp Brannigan appears after Amy's been kidnapped, he declares, "I am the man with no name. Zapp Brannigan." This statement is a nod to Clint Eastwood's character in "A Fistfull of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", and the fact that, despite being called this, he had a name in the latter movie, "Blondie".
* The Martians appear to summon these dust storms via throat singing in a Tuvan style.
* The term "buggalo" is an obvious portmanteau of "bug" and "buffalo" which seem to be the animals that buggalo are a hybrid of.
* Leo says that buggalo are "number one money maker," a reference to Charlie Chan and his "number one son".
* The Native Martians' "laser bows" projectiles resemble Lightsabers.
* The Wong Ranch is shaped after the Benedict family's ranch Reata in the 1956 film Giant.