"A Clockwork Origin"[1] is the ninety-seventh episode of Futurama, the ninth of the sixth production season and the seventh broadcast season.
The Story
Professor Farnsworth, fed up with Creationists on Earth, moves to a planetoid to escape the ignorance of humanity. Only to inadvertently create mechanical life which evolved from small cleaner robots designed to clean tainted water on the rock.
The crew goes with him but leaves Zoidberg and Cubert on Earth.
Additional Info
Trivia
- Zoidberg appears to be Cubert's godfather. This fact was not mentionned in "A clone of my own".
Allusions
- Fry says the Professor's water supply looks like diet Doctor Pepper, a 21st century soft drink.
- Scenes in which the crew fights and tries to escape from robot dinosaurs are in reference to the novel turned movie Jurassic Park.
- The "NANDerthal Cave Painting" exhibit at the robot museum is a pun on the Neanderthal, an extinct hominid, and NAND flash, a data storage medium.
- The "Ascent of Bot" displayed in the robot museum includes R2-D2, a robot from the Star Wars movies.
- The iFad is a reference to Apple's iPad.
- USB Today is a reference to USA Today. USB is presumably a shortening for the United States of Bot or similar. USB is also a reference to the USB ports (Universal Serial Bus) for computers.
- The Superior Gort is a play on words, being a reference to both the Supreme Court and Gort, a robot in the science-fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Gort was designed as part of an interstellar police force created to maintain peace in the universe.
- The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a reference to the god of the Pastafarians. This is a double joke because the FSM and Pastafarianism started with a letter to the Kansas School Board parodying the idea of creationism being taught in schools.
Continuity
Characters
- (In alphabetic order)
References