Futurama episode
"Godfellas"
Bender the god.
Episode no.	52
Prod. code	3ACV20
Airdate	March 17, 2002
Writer(s)	Ken Keeler
Director	Susie Dietter
Opening subtitle	PLEASE TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND TRICORDERS
Opening cartoon	Unknown
Season 3 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...

"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. This article is about the television series. ... Image File history File links Futurama_ep52. ... is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... Keeler at the 2003 Writers Guild Awards, after winning in the animation category. ... Susan E. Dietter, mainly known as Susie Dietter, is a television director. ... Tricorders (TNG era) In the Star Trek universe, the tricorder is a handheld device used for scanning an area, interpreting and displaying data from scans to the user, and recording information to isolinear chips. ... The complete Futurama DVD collection The following is an episode list for the FOX animated television series Futurama. ... Amazon Women in the Mood is the first episode in season three of Futurama. ... Parasites Lost is the 2nd episode in series 3 of Futurama. ... A Tale of Two Santas is the third episode in season 3 of Futurama. ... The Luck of the Fryrish is the fourth episode in season three of Futurama. ... The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz is the fifth episode in season three of Futurama. ... Bendless Love is the sixth episode in season three of Futurama. ... The Day the Earth Stood Stupid is the seventh episode in season three of Futurama. ... Thats Lobstertainment! is the 8th episode in season 3 of Futurama. ... The Cyber House Rules is the ninth episode in season three of Futurama. ... Where the Buggalo Roam is the tenth episode in season three of the animated television series Futurama. ... “Insane in the Mainframe” is the eleventh episode in season three of Futurama. ... The Route of All Evil is episode twelve in season three of the Futurama DVDs. ... Bendin in the Wind is the thirteenth episode in season three of Futurama. ... The subject of this article may not satisfy the notability guideline for Television episodes. ... I Dated a Robot is the fifteenth episode in season three of Futurama. ... A Leela Of Her Own is the sixteenth episode in the third season of the animated series Futurama. ... A Pharaoh to Remember is episode seventeen of Futuramas third season. ... Anthology of Interest II is the eighteenth episode of the third season of Futurama. ... Roswell That Ends Well is the nineteenth episode of the third production season of the TV show Futurama. ... Future Stock is the 21st episode in the third season of Futurama. ... “The 30% Iron Chef” is the 22nd episode in season three of Futurama. ... The complete Futurama DVD collection The following is an episode list for the FOX animated television series Futurama. ... This article is about the television series. ... is the 76th day of the year (77th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... Keeler at the 2003 Writers Guild Awards, after winning in the animation category. ... Susan E. Dietter, mainly known as Susie Dietter, is a television director. ... Bender, full name Bender Bending Rodríguez or designated Bending Unit 22, is a fictional robot character in the animated television series Futurama. ... 55th WGA Awards 2003 Best Adapted Screenplay: The Hours Best Original Screenplay: Bowling for Columbine The 55th Writers Guild of America Awards, given in 2003, honored the film and television best writers of 2002. ...

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. Philip J. Fry is the protagonist of the animated television series Futurama and is voiced by Billy West. ... Turanga Leela (often referred to simply as Leela) (born A.D. 2980) is the primary female character in the animated television series Futurama. ... For information about the band, see Atheist (band). ... Nuclear power station at Leibstadt, Switzerland. ...

Bender soon meets a cosmic entity who turns out to be the remains of a space probe that collided with 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." The 64 meter radio telescope at Parkes Observatory A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy and in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes. ...

Production

• Coolio, who guest starred in the third season episode "A Tale of Two Santas" and the 2007 movie Futurama: Bender's Big Score, 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.

This article is about the hip hop artist. ... A Tale of Two Santas is the third episode in season 3 of Futurama. ... Futurama: Benders Big Score is the proposed name of the straight-to-DVD movie based on the animated series Futurama to be released around Christmas 2007. ... The Outer Limits is an American television series. ...

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".^[1] 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.^[1] Divinity is seen as the existence of some entity or entities which are greater than humankind. ... Predestination (also linked with foreknowledge) is a religious concept, which involves the relationship between the beginning of things and their destinies. ...

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".^[2]

Broadcast and reception

This episode won the first Writers Guild Of America Award for animation in 2003,^[3][1] where it competed against animated specials, long form programs and episodic animation.^[4] Series creator Matt Groening has cited it as one of the best episodes of the series.^[5] The Reno Gazette-Journal called the episode amazing and noted it as one of the prime episodes in season three.^[6] 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.^[7] 55th WGA Awards 2003 Best Adapted Screenplay: The Hours Best Original Screenplay: Bowling for Columbine The 55th Writers Guild of America Awards, given in 2003, honored the film and television best writers of 2002. ... Matthew Abram Groening is an American cartoonist (Life in Hell) and the Emmy Award-winning creator of the animated series, The Simpsons and Futurama. ... Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Emap Consumer Media since July 1989. ...

Cultural references

The title references the 1990 Martin Scorsese film, Goodfellas. Goodfellas (also spelled GoodFellas) is an Academy Award winning 1990 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, the true story of mob informer Henry Hill. ...

This episode explores themes similar to "Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon^[8], The Twilight Zone episode "The Little People", and Alan Dean Foster's short story "Gift of a Useless Man". Theodore Sturgeon (February 26, 1918 Staten Island, New York – May 8, 1985) was an American science fiction author. ... The Twilight Zone is a television series created by Rod Serling. ... “The Little People” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. ... Alan Dean Foster (born November 18, 1946) is a prolific American writer of science fiction and fantasy novels and movie novelizations. ... Gift Of A Useless Man is a short story by Alan Dean Foster. ...

Pinsky asserts that the monks visited by Fry and Leela occupy the monastery of "Teshuvah", which is the Hebrew word for repentance^[1]; 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. Clarke^[8]. The Nine Billion Names of God is the name of a famous short story by Arthur C. Clarke, and of a collection of his short stories in which it was published in New York by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1967. ... Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, Sri Lankabhimanya (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008) was a British (lived in Sri Lanka since 1956) science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, written in collaboration with director Stanley Kubrick, a collaboration which led also to...

When Bender says "Ask not for whom the bone bones, it bones for thee," he is referencing John Donne: "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee,"^[9] most famously quoted as the title of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 — July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. ... For other uses, see For Whom the Bell Tolls (disambiguation). ...

When Bender finds the God-like-being and speculates that it might be "The remains of a space probe that collided with God," he is most likely referencing the climax of the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in which a similar event occurs. The TOS episode "The Changeling" is also a likely candidate. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Paramount Pictures, 1979; see also 1979 in film) is the first feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series and is released on Friday, December 7. ... The Changeling is a season two episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast on September 29, 1967 and repeated May 17, 1968. ...

The "God-space entity" is likely a reference to the God in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. This article is about the film director. ... For other uses, see Its a Wonderful Life (disambiguation). ...

The songs, "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and "The Beautiful Blue Danube" are played in scenes were Bender is floating in Space. A reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

References

Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 72nd day of the year (73rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 112th day of the year (113th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 319th day of the year (320th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Emap Consumer Media since July 1989. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 88th day of the year (89th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Locus Online (1997-) is the online component of Locus Magazine. ... is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Godfellas

• Godfellas at the Internet Movie Database
• Godfellas at TV.com