The Planet Express crew's latest mission is to deliver a crate to Professor Farnsworth's office at Mars University. While touring the campus, Bender comes across a chapter of his old fraternity, Epsilon Rho Rho (Err) and Fry enrolls in college so he can drop out and gain the kudos of being of a college drop-out.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Animal House.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Guenter's parents after Fry sets them free. They're normal monkeys and behave as normal (agitated) monkeys do.
- Big Eater: One of the members of Robot House, Fatbot, eats whenever he gets nervous. Unfortunately, among the things he eats are Dean Vernon's model ship and portrait.
- Big "NO!": When Professor Farnsworth realizes his pet monkey wants to be only moderately smart and get a degree in business, instead of a being a genius.
- Big "WHY?!": Farnsworth again, after learning that Guenter has escaped.Prof. Farnsworth: Why? Why? Why didn't I break his legs?!
- Break the Haughty: Poor Guenter. He starts out as an Insufferable Genius who takes every chance to insult, one-up, and antagonize Fry. However, after seeing his parents acting like regular monkeys and wreaking havoc, he enters a depression over how he can't really fit in and knows he is still just a monkey. This eventually causes him to have a mental breakdown, discarding his hat to return to his normal monkey self and run away to the jungle.
- Computer Viruses Are Computer Illnesses: Bender says that he should take the members of Robot House, to Tijuana so that Fatbot can lose his virginity. In the epilogue, after Robot House won the fraternity competition, Bender took the Robot House members to Tijuana to celebrate, where Fatbot got infected by a computer virus and had to be rebooted.
- Crying Critters: Lampshaded when Guenter cries over not being happy despite gaining super-intelligence.Leela: I didn't know monkeys could cry.
Guenter: They can't. It's all the hat. (continues sobbing) - Dance Party Ending: The episode ends with a party at Robot House, with everyone dancing. There is an epilogue shown in the style of frat movies with captions explaining that Fry successfully dropped out of college and returned to Planet Express, Guenter went to business school to get his MBA and became The FOX Network's latest CEO, Fatbot caught a virus in Tijuana and had to be rebooted, Leela went on a date with Dean Vernon (and Vernon never called her again) and Bender stole everything of value from Robot House and ran off.
- Dean Bitterman: Dean Vernon. Rooobooot Hooooooouse!
- Dumb Is Good:
- When Guenter wears the bowler hat that Professor Farnsworth invented that makes him super-intelligent, he's a snobbish know-it-all, especially towards Fry. However, it also makes him unhappy since his super-intelligent self isn't his true self. Later, when Guenter's hat is damaged and only gives him average intelligence, he finds that he's much happier that way and decides to attend business school, much to Farnsworth's ire.
- Mars University also parodies this trope with its motto, "knowledge brings fear."
- Dung Fu: When Fry releases Guenter the intelligent monkey's parents on a fancy party:Farnsworth: What's that they're flinging at us?
(splat noises are heard off-camera)
Guenter: Oh dear lord! All over the dean! - Escaped Animal Rampage: Guenter's parents ruin the parents' reception party.
- Everybody Do the Endless Loop: Done at the end of the song "Shout!"
- Fanservice Faux Fight: There is a pillow fight at the sorority house.
- "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Subverted. Guenter decides he's unhappy being smart, and throws the hat away. Then he realizes he doesn't like not being sapient either. When the hat becomes damaged, he decides he likes it that way as it bestows a moderate amount of intelligence.Guenter: When I had [super intelligence] there was too much pressure to use it. All I want out of life is to be a monkey of moderate intelligence who wears a suit. That's why I've decided to transfer to Business School.
Farnsworth: NOOOOOOOOOOOO! - Future Imperfect: When Fry mentions jungles on Earth, the Professor starts laughing.
- Genius Serum: The Professor invents a hat designed to give genius intellect to a monkey named Guenter. After several Break the Haughty moments, Guenter snaps and runs away, stating he was miserable as a genius and hates being dumb when he's a regular monkey. When the hat gets damaged, it gives him moderate intellect, which he's okay with.
- Grade System Snark: Fry, Amy, and Guenter participate in a class on 20th century history. Not only is the professor in charge of the class thick on the sarcasm, but every seat in his lecture hall is rigged to electrocute any student who makes a snide remark, calls out of turn, or answers incorrectly.
- Great Big Library of Everything: Spoofed. Mars U's library has the largest collection of literature in the Western universe — on two disks (Fiction and Nonfiction).
- Homage: Bender's B-Plot is based directly on Animal House, though it mixes in various parodies of the 80's era college frat film genre as a whole.
- I Ate WHAT?!: When Leela mention that Guenter's father was in the punch bowl, Fry, who was drinking punch, does a Spit Take.
- I Gave My Word: At the boat race, Dean Vernon makes a suspiciously specific statement that if the winning house is on any sort of multiple secret probation (say, Robot House and their dodecatuple probation), he will lift it and force himself to host a parade in their honor. When Robot House wins to his surprise (as he had intentionally fired the starting pistol at their boat to scuttle it), sure enough he's next seen leading their parade...with a pretty sore look on his face.
- Inevitable Waterfall: Bender's shortcut leads his team to a waterfall. And he drags Fry, Leela and the Professor into the calamity.
- Insufferable Genius: Guenter — 'til the hat works at half power, giving him moderate intelligence.
- Literal Metaphor: Guenter finally decides he wants a corporate job, wearing a suit. Yes, a literal monkey suit.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: Being normal, non-sapient monkeys, Guenter's parents cause chaos at the parents reception party.
- Noodle Implements: When the nerdy bots at ERR beg Bender to teach them how to be cool:Bender: Hmm... okay, but I'll need ten kegs of beer, a continuous tape of "Louie, Louie", and a regulation two-story panty-raid ladder.
- Noodle Incident:Dean Vernon: You robots are a disgrace to this university. Whenever a fire alarm is pulled, it's Robot House. Whenever the campus liquor store is looted, Robot House! Whenever a human corpse is desecrated-!Bender: Now I Can Explain THAT!
- The members of Robot House reference one of Bender's when they learn who he is.Oily: Bender from Bending State Bender? Wow, you're a legend around here!
Fatbot: I heard that in one single night you drank a whole keg, streaked across campus and crammed 58 humans into a phone booth.
Bender: [modest] Yeah, well, a lot of 'em were children.
- The members of Robot House reference one of Bender's when they learn who he is.
- Oh, Crap!: Bender's reaction to finding out that the new members of his fraternity are nerds."Uh oh! NERDS!"
- Only in It for the Money: The Professor doesn't care which Nobel Prize he is gonna win with his monkey hat invention. They all pay the same.
- The Peeping Tom: One of the shenanigans that Bender takes the Robot House crew on is using a ladder to peep on a girl's computer. They very much enjoy the computer being subjected to Percussive Maintenance and getting opened up, but Bender's extendable eyes accidentally push against the glass and cause the ladder to fall over.
- Powersuit Monkey: Guenter's intelligence is controlled by his hat, causing a Type 3 rivalry between him and Fry.
- Secret Handshake: Bender proves he was part of the Epsilon Rho Rho Fraternity with this. His version is described as "close enough" — and he accidentally tears one of the other guy's fingers off.
- Short Cuts Make Long Delays: Subverted. It looks like Bender's idea to take a shortcut via the waterfall is a failure but then their boat emerges on the finish line ahead of the competition.
- Shout-Out:
- Homer and Bart appear as plush toys during the flashback to Fry's college days.
- Guenter holding up the girl's number through the window saying, "How do you like them bananas?"
- Dean Vernon's name is a reference to John Vernon, the actor that played Dean Wormer in Animal House.
- The Dance Party Ending is a reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Skyward Scream:
- The Professor, first when Guenter escapes from class into the jungle and then when he learns that Guenter wants to go to business school.
- "ROBOT HOUSE!!!"
- Smart People Play Chess: "Mate in 143 moves." "Ah, pooh! You win again!"
- Spit Take: An odd one because Fry didn't have the cup when he was walking back to his dorm:Guenter: But the Professor has been like a father to me!
Leela: But he's not your father. That guy in the punch bowl is your father.
[Fry takes a sip of said punch; cue spit-take] - Surfer Dude: If you expected Snooty House to have posh British accents, they don't—while they look, dress and act like a bunch of snooty Englishmen (right down to having I Am Very British-dialogue), but their accents make them sound more like a bunch of Californian surfers.
- Take a Third Option: Guenter realizes he is depressed having Super-Intelligence because there is too much pressure to use it, but finds that he isn't happy as a normal monkey either because of how dumb he is, like trying to wear a hat on his butt. After surviving a potentially fatal fall, his hat is damaged so it only works at half power, but Guenter decides he likes it that way, and wants to be a sapient monkey of moderate intelligence and get a business degree.
- Take That!:Farnsworth: Please Fry, I don't know how to teach. I'm a professor!
- Guenter becoming the FOX Network's latest executive after his hat gets crushed giving him moderate intelligence.
- Utah being described as a desolate wasteland.
- Colleges in Fry's pre-freezing days being described as "expensive daycare centers."
- Tempting Fate: After putting Robot House on dodecatuple probation, Dean Vernon wants to get back to his model ship, which he calls the only thing that's kept him sane for years. He then sees Fatbot took the model off the desk and is starting to eat it.
- Terraform: Leela explains that Mars has been terraformed by the planted traditional college foliage.
- Unconventional Electives 101: Professor Farnsworth teaches a course at Mars University with a name that he purposefully made sound as complicated and difficult as possible so no one would want to take it. Fry signs up for the course so he could get by on nepotism, causing Farnsworth to panic.Farnsworth: Fry please, I can't teach, I'm a professor.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Subverted.Leela: What we should do is... (Leela, Fry, and Farnsworth all lean in while she covers her mouth and whispers.)
Farnsworth: (puts his hand to his ear) What?
Leela: I said, we'll go to the jungle and let Guenter decide once and for all.
Farnsworth: (puts his hand to his ear) What? - Wacky Fratboy Hijinx: All over the place, needless to say, in Bender's Animal House-parody subplot. There is a reason Dean Vernon blames Robot House for a lot of things.
- What We Now Know to Be True: When talking about Guenter.Fry: Is he genetically engineered?
Professor: Oh please, that's preposterous science-fiction mumbo-jumbo. Guenter's intelligence actually lies in his electronium hat, which harnesses the power of sunspots to produce cognitive radiation. - "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Fry successfully drops out of college just like he wanted in the first place, Guenter becomes the FOX network's latest executive, Leela dates the Dean (who doesn't call her back afterward), Fatbot (the nerdy robot with the beanie) gets a virus in Tijuana and has to be rebooted, and Bender robs Robot House and flees.
- Worthless Foreign Degree: Leela and Professor Farnsworth explain to Fry that being a college dropout in his pre-freezing days is the academic equivalent of being a high school dropout in the 31st-century. Wanting the same respect he believes college dropouts have, Fry enrolls at Mars University just to drop out—he even took it as a compliment when Leela told him he wouldn't last two weeks.
- You Are a Credit to Your Race:Fry: My roommate's a monkey?
Guenter: Brilliant deduction. You are a credit to your species.
