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Bender Bending Rodríguez, more commonly known as Bender (assembled c. 2998 in Mexico) is a fictional sapient robot in the Futurama animated cartoon television series. He is voiced by actor John DiMaggio.
A comic anti-hero, Bender was described by Turanga Leela as an "alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler," which largely sums up his personality. He curses, fights, argues, smokes cigars (to make himself look cool), drinks constantly (though, in his defense, alcohol is his primary fuel), reads robot pornography (in the form of circuit diagrams), and constantly demands attention and praise from everyone around him (he even created Bender Day). He also has a strictly voluntary sense of morals, being a kleptomaniac who snatches wallets and other valuables at every opportunity. He is easily the most offensive of the Planet Express crew. It is often stated that he has no emotions, though this is quite clearly not true ("We robots don't have any emotions, and sometimes *sniff* that makes me feel very sad!")
Though it also refers to his occupation, the name Bender is a reference to John Bender, the rebel stoner played by Judd Nelson in the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club. It may also be a pun on a drinking binge, noting his gluttonous consumption of booze, and his body's resemblance to a type of cocktail shaker.
Character history
Bender was built in the Mom's Friendly Robot Company plant in "America's heartland", Tijuana, Mexico, circa AD 2998. He is a Bending-Unit 22, serial number 2716057, chassis number 1729. As his name indicates, he was created for the task of bending metal girders. On December 31, 2999, Bender was waiting in line to use one of New New York City's public suicide booths (he claimed he couldn't go on living when he found out that the girders he bent were used for suicide booths) when he met Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy from the 20th century who'd just been revived from cryonic stasis earlier that day. After meeting Fry, Bender decided to put off killing himself until later and ended up getting a job with Fry and Leela at Planet Express, an intergalactic package delivery business. Bender is hired as the ship's cook, which was clearly a mistake, as it is frequently mentioned (and, when he attempts to prepare food, shown) that the rest of the crew is unable to eat Bender's atrocious cooking.
Despite his vices and macho posturing, Bender has several tender traits, such as his semi-secret aspirations to be a famous cook and/or a folk singer. Bender has a soft spot for turtles (because much like a turtle, he has great difficulty getting back on his feet after he has been knocked onto his back), penguins, and has also shown affection towards orphans. Bender desperately wants to be a part of the Harlem Globetrotters, but was turned down. He shares an apartment with his human friend Fry, who said he always wanted a robot for a best friend when he was growing up in the 20th century. If magnets are placed close to his head, they interfere with his inhibition unit, which causes him to act out his desire to be a folk singer by performing folk staples. He sometimes improvises variations on the songs' lyrics, such as "I'll be blasting all the humans in the world" in "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountain."
Bender's tenderness is also shown through his loving relationships. After winning his five gold olympic medals in 'Bend Her', Bender has to undertake a robot sex change to physically become a fully fledged fembot and pass the gender testing. During his time as a fembot, Bender attracts the amorous attentions of Calculon and they eventually become engaged. In order to avoid the marriage and return to his life as a manbot, Bender fakes his own death at the altar. Bender's love for Calculon lives on however, shown when he sheds a tear after watching the movie tribute by him, dedicated to their relationship. Bender also falls in love with another robot in the episode 'Bendless Love'. This time it's a female robot called Angleyne. Their relationship crumbles, however, when Bender disguises himself as Angleyne's ex-lover, Flexo, in order to entrap her; this backfires when Angleyne realizes Bender has shown her she is still devoted to Flexo.
Bender has periodically stated a desire to kill all humans, possibly a reference to the many movies set in the future in which robots turn against their creators. (He clarified his plans at Fry's funeral in the episode 'The Sting': "Whenever I said 'kill all humans', I would always whisper 'except one'. Fry was the one.") He is clearly not bound by Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. At one stage, on a robot controlled planet, he became a celebrity for his false reputation for killing humans. Interestingly, in the episode "I, Roommate", Bender contradicts his misanthropic personality with this description of "human stuff": "He laughs, he learns, he loves" (to which Fry responds with: "Boring.").
Ultimately, it may be said that Bender's sense of morality or conscience is highly situational, based on his mood at the time and/or the comedic needs of the script. At times, he seems to respond with sympathy or guilt towards human suffering, at other times he is perfectly happy to join Robot Santa in killing much of the population of New York City.
Notable events in Bender's life include his 'birth' (which he remembers), his previously mentioned hiring at Planet Express, and a brief stint as pharaoh of the planet Osiris IV. Bender has met an intergalactic super intelligence which may or may not have been God. He also cheated his way to five gold medals in the Earth Olympics by disguising himself as a fembot (female robot). He won a war medal as a hero of Earth. During his brief stint as a superhero, he went by the name Superking.
Hardware
There is very little consistency in Bender's hardware from episode to episode, and his internal workings vary as required for the story or for comic effect.
Bender's habit of hard drinking is a result of his design; like many robots on Futurama, he uses alcohol as fuel. Ironically, Bender only suffers intoxication when he stops drinking, becoming disoriented and developing a kind of stubble which is actually rust around his mouth as his systems break down. While alcohol is his primary fuel source, he is also capable of processing mineral oil and dark matter. He is also equipped with a nuclear pile, the effectiveness of which is unknown, although it did keep his robot brain operational for over 1000 years when he was buried in Roswell That Ends Well.
His "extend-o-matic" limbs are extendable, detachable, and capable of functioning independently of his body. In most cases, his eyes are shown to be extending cylinders with rounded ends, but in at least two episodes ("Anthology of Interest I and A Flight To Remember"), his eyes fall out and are shown to be spheres (in "A Flight To Remember", they are more like cylinders). Additionally, in the episode "The Farnsworth Parabox", Bender replaces his normal, cylindrical eyes with a set that feature a 90-degree bend. These are then used to check the surroundings from a concealed location, presumably for guards.
He also has a cavity in his chest that seems to give him access to hammerspace in order to store his beer, loot, and whatever dials or buttons he requires for a gag in a given episode, although it was filled to capacity when Bender stole almost everything of value in "A Bicyclops Built For Two". It is also large enough to fit a person in it, shown when Fry gets trapped accidentally in "The Honking." The interior of Bender's chest cavity is seen in Futurama: The Game, wherein there are a variety of cogs, wheels, giros and various other mechanical components (some of which are outdated even by today's standards), and the interior is indeed seen to be fairly large. However, as with most spin-off material for television shows, the videogame may not be considered canon. In "Insane in the Mainframe", an X-ray like Gamma Scan reveals a variety of axles and cogs, as well as a small bird.
A frequently used item in his chest is his pink camera. On different occasions, he will say the word "Neat!" and take a picture with the camera. No explanation has yet been given on why he does this, or where he puts the pictures. It is likely to assume that the camera is stolen, because it is pink.
His head is detachable, can continue to function when not attached to his body, and has been seen functioning as an audio tape recorder, answering machine, CD player, camera, martini shaker, credit card terminal, and a spray can. He also uses it as a distraction when pickpocketing, although whether this is an intended function is unknown. Bender may also be used as a film projector as shown in the episode "Crimes of the Hot". Bender can also perform great feats of strength, such as bending an "unbendable" girder. He is also water-resistant and can operate in a vacuum.
He claims to have a total of eight senses, known to include vision in the human ranges, hearing and "smision", but not, much to his own dismay, taste. His eyes also function as cameras (still and video, both of which can be recorded or transmitted on demand); he has a total of three cameras on his body (the location of the third is unknown, but implied to be in the "below the waist" area). Other sensory equipment he displays in the series, such as "gaydar" and X-ray-glasses, are external devices and probably do not count as part of his eight senses. He has a built-in, but unreliable, "Cheating Unit" for predicting the outcome of his own dice rolls. Bender makes mention of a Hilarity Unit (an opening subtitle for one episode of the show claims this unit may be powered by "Microsoft Joke"). One can assume he has other units devoted to displaying certain emotional states. Bender's computational abilities are self-admittedly poor. He is quite sensitive about his antenna, which is multifunctional and can work as a radio transmitter, a remote control receiver, or a toilet flusher, to pick a few. The antenna is implied to be analogous to a penis; in a scenario where he becomes human in Anthology of Interest II, it moves down to in-between Bender's legs. In "I, Roommate", Bender responds to Leela's suggestion of removing his antenna with, "You're not a robot or a man, you wouldn't understand." URL later remarks on its small size.
According to information from various episodes, he is composed of 30% iron, 40% zinc, 40% titanium, 40% dolomite and an unknown quantity of osmium with a 0.04% nickel impurity. No explanation for the total of over 150.04% was offered in the series, though it is pointed out in the DVD commentary. However, it could be implied that when Bender refers to "his body" being a certain percentage of alloy, it could possibly only refer to Bender's main chest plate and abdomen, excluding his arms, legs, and head. In Raging Bender, he is announced as weighing 525 pounds, but in a later episode Leela was easily able to tip him off a couch. Fry and Leela also roll Bender up after he is flattened in the fight and carry him away without any problem. Dwight was able to carry a safe within which a sleeping Bender was locked.
Bender's serial number is 2716057, which is expressible as the sum of two cube numbers ((952)³ + (-951)³). He shares this trait with another Bending Unit he meets called Flexo, whose serial number is 3370318 ((119)³ + (119)³). (This is one of several joke references to obscure mathematical facts; see Hardy-Ramanujan number.)
Bender's CPU is a MOS Technology 6502 (Fry and the Slurm Factory), an extremely primitive choice even nowadays for a such sophisticated piece of technology, let alone in AD 2998. Of course, in AD 2998 the 6502's clock speed could be manufactured to meet any need.
The series provides contradictory information about Bender's origin. In several episodes he is portrayed having been assembled in a factory in his current form only a few years prior to the start of the series, as an ordinary machine would be. However, in Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles he is shown as going through growth and development like an animal and said to have "robo- or RNA", a DNA equivalent. He also claims to have been assembled in a plant in Mexico, hence his surname of "Rodriguez". The episodes Raging Bender and Bendless Love confirm this, as his origins are announced as "America's heartland - Tijuana, Mexico." His full name is revealed in The Luck of the Fryrish during the following conversation:
| Bender: "Bending is my middle name!" |
| Fry: "It is?" |
| Bender: "Yep. My full name is Bender Bending Rodriguez." |
This is also confirmed in The Cyber House Rules when the "Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium" is renamed the "Bender B. Rodriguez Orpaharium" in light of Bender's gererous donation of twelve orphans and a government check for $1200.
Software
Bender is unique among robots in the universe in that he does not follow his programming. In the first episode, Bender was deprogrammed after first hearing Fry's arguments about becoming a robot that determines his own life ("You're full of crap, Fry!") and then being electrocuted by a hanging light bulb ("You make a persuasive argument, Fry!"). So it can be assumed that all the other robots act the way they do because they are following their program. Bender makes up his own rules. However, whenever his brain (in the form of a floppy disk) is removed, his vocabulary reverts to "I am Bender. Please insert girder." Also, he, like all other robots on earth, is built in with a "patriotism" chip in the event of war. When activated, he immediately becomes willing to obey orders from the military, and even offer himself for suicide missions.
Possible Inspiration
Although unconfirmed, Startling Comics No. 49 may be the source of Matt Groening's depiction. * Coincidentally, in the episode: Roswell That Ends Well, Bender and the crew of the Planet Express ended up in the year 1947 wherein Bender was mistaken as flying saucer debris at Roswell, New Mexico. It should also be noted that in the episode Crimes of the Hot the robot in Professor Farnsworth's flashback he remembers building is the Phenotype of all modern robots and looks almost identical to the robot in the comic.
Trivia
- Bender has appeared in several episodes of Matt Groening's other show, The Simpsons. These appearances are largely as cameos, including one in the episode Future-Drama where Bart and Homer go through a portal/tunnel on a hovercraft. At the other side, Bender is seen in between Bart and Homer, saying "Alright! You guys are my new best friends". Homer then says "You wish, loser" and throws him out of the car. Where he then fell apart (literally).
- Bender still has over 8 billion dollars laying out of circulation from the sale of popplers. He made 1 dollar per dozen popplers sold, with 198 billion sold with 'help' from Fishy Joe's Fast Food Chain.
- It is widely believed that Bender and the Planet Express ship have fused their programming, much like a marriage ritual.
- Throughout the series, Bender appears in various different forms. Some examples are:
- a golden form and a bobbleheaded form, both from parallel universes, and seen in the episode "The Farnsworth Parabox",
- a 500-foot version, seen in "Anthology of Interest I";
- a human form, appearing in "Anthology of Interest II";
- a hovering space-ship at the end of the episode Roswell That Ends Well.
- "The Gender Bender", his cross-dressing persona in the episode "Raging Bender";
- After Leela murdered him using a microwave oven, she made him into a Go Kart in order to dispose of his remains;
- a wooden form;
- "Coilette", his/her name in the episode "Bend Her" when s/he receives a gender swap);
- the monstrous, violent werecar;
- the Momneto-constructed Planet X-press Man Benderine, featured in issue 8 in the Futurama Comics.
- a cowboy version of himself in the 'only' other alternate universe in "I Dated a Robot", whose only difference seems to be that he has a cowboy hat.
- Bender as a superhero, Super King (however, wanted to rename himself to El Zilcho), in Less Than Hero
- In both episodes featuring the What-If Machine, the outcome for Bender's what-ifs end in his own macabre death: in the first, he becomes 500 feet tall, and is impaled on a skyscraper when a giant Dr. Zoidberg snaps off his legs; in the second, he becomes a human and dies of overeating, drinking and smoking. It also should be noted that the line "Good night sweet prince." is spoken after Benders deaths, first by Fry in Anthology of Interest I and then by Farnsworth in Anthology of Interest II.
- While against human-robot relationships, such as Fry and his Lucy Liu-bot, Bender himself had an affair with Lucy Liu's head, who appears once more in his chest cavity in "Love and Rocket".
- Bender is Flexo's evil twin, which was revealed in the first episode ("Lesser of Two Evils") to feature Flexo. Flexo has a goatee, which is a reference to the goateed Mirror Universe Spock from the Mirror, Mirror episode of The Original Series. Bender is unlike most "evil twin" characters as he is not just the twin without the goatee, but is also a main character. A similar storyline was used in a Halloween episode of The Simpsons and also (surprisingly) a South Park halloween special.
- In addition to his twin, Flexo, Bender has a "family" of sorts. He has two "mothers": one is the industrial robot that assembled him, the other is "Mom" of Mom's Friendly Robot Company. Bender also has a screwy aunt named Rita, who, in fact, is a screw. He also has a (deceased) Uncle Vladimir, from whom he inherited the family castle (which he presumably still owns, even though he did not technically spend an entire night in the castle as he was supposed to as stipulated in his uncle's will).
- Bender's apartment number is 00100100, which when translated into ASCII, is the $ symbol.
- Some argue that Fender of Robots, another 20th Century Fox cartoon, bears a resemblance to Bender.
- It has been suggested that Bender has inspired the character of HK-47 of Knights of the Old Republic, particularly his usage of the term "meatbag" to describe humans.
- Bender's self destruct code is 1A2B3, a reference to the destruct code of the original starship Enterprise.*
- Bender, much like a turtle, has great difficulty getting back on his feet after he has been knocked onto his back.
- Bender's color is foghat grey.
- In the episode "The Sting", he mentioned that he is not allowed to sing by a court order.
- Although Bender is five years old (at the end of fourth and final season of the animated series), if one takes into account the episode Roswell That Ends Well (S04E01) from the 3rd production season (4th broadcast season in North America), Bender could be considered 1060. In that episode, Benders head was dropped from the Planet Express ship just outside the Roswell Air Force base in the year 1947 where it stayed buried in the sand until the crew dug his head up 1056 years later in the year 3002. This is widely seen as a reference to the Time's Arrow episode of The Next Generation, in which Data's head is left in the past in a similar way.
- Bender's serial code is 2716057, incidentally expressible as a sum of two cubes. Bender mentions this in the episode Lesser of Two Evils.
Catchphrase and favorite words
Bender's most memorable catchphrase is "Bite my shiny metal ass!" This is his first line of dialogue in the show. Some later derivatives include:
- "Bite my glorious golden ass!" (said by a golden Bender during "The Farnsworth Parabox")
- "Bite my red hot glowing ass!" (said by Bender during "When Aliens Attack" just before he realises his rear end is on fire)
- "The modern world can bite my splintery wooden ass!" (said by a wooden Bender during "Obsoletely Fabulous")
- "Bite my colossal metal ass!" (said by a giant Bender during "Anthology of Interest I")
- "Lick my frozen metal ass!" (said by Bender during "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz")
- "Bite my shiny metal-OH NOOOOO!!" (said by Bender when he realizes his crotch plate, and thus, his ass, was taken by the Robot Devil)
According to a database referenced by Zapp Brannigan in "War is the H-Word", the ten words Bender utters most frequently, in descending order, are:
- 10. Chump
- 9. Chumpette
- 8. Yours
- 7. Up
- 6. Pimpmobile
- 5. Bite
- 4. My
- 3. Shiny
- 2. Daffodil
- 1. Ass
Several of these words are meant to be jokes; on the show, he almost never says "daffodil" and only says "pimpmobile" in that episode. "Up" and "yours" are clearly meant to go together, as are "bite", "my", and "shiny". Bender almost never says the words thanks, sorry, funderful, non-alcoholic, compassion, and shrimp toast. The word antiquing appears to be the word he uses the least (and thanks to a bomb in his chest, will destroy the planet should he ever say it).
Other catch phrases include:
- "Kill all humans."
- "Cheese it!"
- "I'm back, baby!"
- "Well, I'm/we're boned."
Bender also enjoys referring to himself in the third person (example: "And then Bender ran" from "Leela's Homeworld") and never misses a chance to compliment himself.
Words used to describe humans:
- Meatbag
- Skintube
- Porkpie
- Bloodbag
- Pork pouch
- Organ sack
- Fleshrod
- Coffin-stuffer
- Sausage-link
- Meaty-meaty meat lumb
Items Kept Inside Chest Cavity
Throughout the Futurama series, Bender has used his chest cavity to store a variety of weird and wonderful items, most commonly Beer (appears 19 times) and Cigars (appears 9 times):
| Season 1 |
Fictional alcoholics | Fictional gamblers | Fictional Mexicans | Fictional robots | Fictional sociopaths | Fictional thieves | Futurama characters | Fictional criminals | Fictional narcissists | Suicidal fictional characters
Bender | Bender Bending Rodriguez | Bender | Bender | Bender Bending Rodriguez | Бендер | Bender (tecknad figur)
"Bender (Futurama)"