Godfellas

Infobox Futurama episode
episode_name = Godfellas


caption = Bender the god.
episode_no = 52
prod_code = 3ACV20
airdate = March 17, 2002
country = USA
writer = Ken Keeler
director = Susie Dietter
opening_subtitle = PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND TRICORDERS
opening_cartoon = Unknown
season = three
Prev = "Roswell That Ends Well"
Next = "Future Stock"

"Godfellas" is the twentieth episode of the third production season of "Futurama". It first aired in North America March 17, 2002 as the eighth episode in the fourth broadcast season. The episode was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Susie Dietter. It heavily features Bender as he becomes the God of a tiny civilization, allowing the series to explore various religious issues. The episode won the first Writers Guild Of America Award for animation.

Plot

During a noisy space pirate attack, Bender—trying to find some peace and quiet in the torpedo tube—is launched into interstellar space beyond the reach of Fry and Leela (As they were going top speed when they fired Bender, Bender was therefore going faster than the ship's top speed). After an asteroid crashes into him, a civilization of tiny humanoids ("Shrimpkins") grows on Bender and they begin worshipping him as a god. At first, Bender enjoys his new-found status, and has his followers brew what for them are vast quantities of "Lordweiser" beer (Bender needs alcohol to fuel his power cells). The tiny denizens living on him begin praying for rain, sun, and wealth, and Bender attempts to heed their prayers -- failing comically and harming the Shrimpkins in the process. Eventually, the Shrimpkins who migrated to his backside feel their prayers are unheeded and become atheists. The atheists on Bender's backside threaten war with Bender's loyal worshipers on his chest. However, Bender is horrified at how his earlier attempts to help the Shrimpkins only harmed them, and he refuses to intervene again. The micro-civilization is ultimately destroyed when the front-side and back-side factions launch atomic weapons out of Bender's nuclear pile.

Bender soon meets a cosmic entity who is alluded to as God. When Bender mentions his experiences with the Shrimpkins, God responds, "I saw... you were doing well until everyone died." He notes that the best way to deal with worshippers is to use a light touch so they will neither lose hope nor become dependent on supernatural intervention, saying "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

During this time, Fry and Leela search for a way to contact Bender, which leads them to a sect of secretive monks who use a giant radio telescope to search for God in space. Leela overpowers the monks, and Fry spends the next three days searching for Bender, while the imprisoned monks eat their own shoes for sustenance. Fry finds God by accident, and God flings Bender back to Earth, just as Fry and Leela are leaving the monastery. Bender quickly recounts his tale (simply saying, "first I was God, then I met God") and Fry boasts they "climbed up a mountain and locked up some monks", which reminds Leela that they never let them out. Fry is reluctant to return to the monastery and claims that as monks, God will surely help them (or at least provide them with more shoes to eat.) Bender however, tells them that God cannot be counted on for anything, and demands they rescue the monks themselves. The camera zooms out from Earth, past planets, through space, and back to God, who then chuckles and repeats his advice: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

Production

* Coolio, who guest starred in the third season episode "A Tale of Two Santas" and the 2007 movie "", appears on the 2996 quarter.
* Billy West states on the audio commentary that the voice of "God" was based on the opening announcer from "The Outer Limits".
* When Bender is drifting through Space the images of space behind him are taken from real Hubble photo's of Space. Initially the background was only going to be starfields but because a large portion of the episode was to be set in space the production crew decided to make it more detailed.

Themes

This episode is one of only a few that deals with the religious issues of the "Futurama" universe. After Bender's unsuccessful attempt at godhood he encounters a god-like entity in space. During the conversation between these two, the episode touches on the ideas of predestination, prayer, and the nature of salvation, in what Mark Pinsky referred to as theological turn to the episode, which may cause the viewer to need "to be reminded that this is a cartoon and not a divinity school class".cite book |last=Pinsky |first=Mark |title=The Gospel According to the Simpsons. Bigger and possibly even Better! edition |origyear=2003 |isbn=978-0-664-23265-8 |pages=229-235] By the end of the conversation, Bender's questions still have not been fully answered and like many of the conversations between humans and God in the Bible, Bender is left wanting more from the voice than it has given him.

The book "Toons That Teach", a text used by youth groups to teach teenagers about spirituality, recommends this episode in a lesson teaching about "Faith, God's Will, [and] Image of God".cite book |last=Case |first=Steve |title=Toons That Teach: 75 Cartoon Moments To Get Teenagers Talking |origyear=2005 |isbn=0310259924 |pages=84-85]

Broadcast and reception

This episode won the first Writers Guild Of America Award for animation in 2003,cite web |url=http://www.allyourtv.com/awards/awardswga55thwinners.html |title=55th Annual Writers Guild Of America Award Winners |date=2003 |access date=2007-07-01] where it competed against animated specials, long form programs and episodic animation.cite web| url=http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=8219| title=Futurama Wins First WGA Animation Award| date=2003-03-13| access date=2007-07-04] Series creator Matt Groening has cited it as one of the best episodes of the series.cite web |url=http://www.avclub.com/content/node/47771/3 |title=Matt Groening |author=Nathan Rabin |date=2006-04-26 |access date=2007-07-01] The Reno Gazette-Journal called the episode amazing and noted it as one of the prime episodes in season three.cite web|title=DVD resurrects underappreciated TV show ‘Futurama’|last=Robison| first=Mark| url=http://www.rgj.com/news/printstory.php?id=69173|date=2004-04-22| accessdate=2007-11-15] In 2008, "Empire" placed "Futurama" 25th on their list of "The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time" and cited "Godfellas" as the show's best episode. [cite web|url=http://www.empireonline.com/50greatesttv/default.asp?tv=25|title=The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time|accessdate=2008-03-29|publisher=Empire]

Cultural references

The episode's title is a reference to the film Goodfellas. This episode explores themes similar to "Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon, "The Twilight Zone" episode "The Little People", and Alan Dean Foster's short story "Gift of a Useless Man". Pinsky asserts that the monks visited by Fry and Leela occupy the monastery of "Teshuvah", which is the Hebrew word for repentance; however the monastery's name is often transcribed differently. The observatory located in a monastery is also a reference to "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. ClarkeCook, Lucius (April 26, 2004). [http://www.locusmag.com/2004/Reviews/04Cook_Futurama.html Hey Sexy Mama, Wanna Kill All Humans?: Looking Backwards at Futurama, The Greatest SF Show You've Never Seen] . "Locus Online". Retrieved on July 2, 2007] .

References

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756880/ Godfellas] at the Internet Movie Database
* [http://www.tv.com/futurama/godfellas/episode/125571/summary.html Godfellas] at TV.com