Recap / Futurama S2 E18 "The Honking"

"Somebody tried to run me over, and not with a normal hovercar. It crept along the ground on round rubber feet like a wolf."

— Bender

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In this Halloween Episode, the gang travels to Thermostadt, capital of the Robo-Hungarian Empire for the funeral of Bender's Uncle Vladimir, who has willed him his castle on the condition that he stays for one night inside. However, Bender is soon driven out of the castle and run down by a mysterious machine on wheels. When he gets back to New New York, reports start coming in of people being attacked by a wheeled machine after the clock strikes twelve. Could Bender's attacker have followed him back? Or is there something darker going on?

Tropes

• Affectionate Parody: Of classic horror films.
• Amusing Injuries:
  • Bender is run over by a car, leaving his head momentarily backwards and his case and antenna deformed. This has no effect on his functioning and he's back to normal in the next scene.
  • Bender returns to his normal self while Fry is at the steering wheel of his Werecar form. Bender worries that he might be dead, but Fry opens the door in Bender's chest and walks out unharmed.
• Banana in the Tailpipe: Leela tries to kill the Werecar with a silver potato to the tailpipe... only it doesn't have a tailpipe because it runs on the electric motor from Ed Begley, Jr.'s car, "the most evil propulsion system ever conceived."
• Being Evil Sucks: After seeing him crying Leela begins to think Project Satan feels this way. He does not. He's just bummed that he hasn't had any victims in a while.
  "Misery, what misery? I love killing people, squishing them until their organs come out like chunky mustard."
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: A Werecar victim in an icy area turns into an "abominable snowmobile".
• Bigger on the Inside: Fry effortlessly fits inside Bender's body.
• Big "NO!": Project Satan yells this after he inadvertently drives right into the furnace, killing himself.
• Biblical Motifs: The Werecar was created for something called Project Satan. Its current location was in the (Anti) Chrysler Building.
• Bottle Episode: The group never leaves Earth, and don't have to make any delivery in this episode.
• Captain Obvious: Lampshaded by Fry:
  Leela: The tracks end here.
  Fry: Thanks eagle eye.
• Deader than Dead: According to Hermes, human ghosts died out 200 years ago. Yeah.
• Death Notification: The episode begins with Bender getting a letter about his uncle Vladimir dying. The team attend the will reading, which sets off the rest of the plot.
  Hermes: and for Bender... Uh, oh! A black-bordered envelope.
  Amy: Oh, no! Someone you know must have died.
  Bender: I hope it was one of my enemies. Those guys suck.
• Demythification: As usual in Futurama, supernatural creatures are 'recast' as robots.
• Doing In the Wizard:
  • Parodied when Farnsworth finds a 'mundane' explanation for the robot ghosts, after the fact. Their programming leaked into the castle's old modem as a result of being buried in improperly shielded coffins, allowing them to project themselves as holograms within its walls.
    Hermes: Of course, it's all so obvious!
    Professor: Yes, that sequence of words I said made perfect sense.
  • And there's this exchange between a superstitious robot villager and the Professor.
    Robot Villager: Mumbo, perhaps. Jumbo, perhaps not! With all your modern science are you any closer to understanding the mystery of how a robot walks or talks?
    Professor Farnsworth: Yes, you idiot! [opening the villager's chest door] The circuit diagram is right here on the inside of your case!
    Robot Villager: [slamming the door shut] I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe!
• Dying Vocal Change: After driving into the furnace and incinerating himself, Project Satan's screams eventually devolve into digital beeps; these beeps translate to a deactivation code that purges the virus from all werecar victims.
• Everyone Has Standards: Bender is genuinely horrified at the idea of unknowingly running people over, to the point of a full-on nervous breakdown.
• Evil Feels Good: All Werecars seem to enjoy being killers after they get used to the initial painful transformations, including Bender. Thankfully he seems to snap out of it once he is cured.
• Exact Words:
  • Vlad leaves his "spoiled son Tandy, who never learned the value of a dollar" his entire fortune of $10 million. Tandy then asks his girlfriend if said fortune is a lot.
  • The superstitious robot villager who drives Bender, Fry and Leela to Uncle Vladimir's castle suddenly stops the hover-carriage, exclaiming in a fearful voice: "I will go this far and no further!"
    They're right at the castle's front entryway.
• Extinct in the Future:
  • We don't get why, but human ghosts apparently went extinct 200 years ago.
  • We also don't get a history class on the Robo-Hungarian Empire, but it seems English-speaking robots largely replaced the humans of whatever part of Europe it's in.
• For Science!: Exactly why the scientists of Project Satan wanted to create an evil car isn't clear, nor is what they expected to gain from it.
• Franken-vehicle: "Project Satan" was an attempt to build the most evil car ever from pieces of other evil cars. The first car the project created included the steering wheel from Adolf Hitler's Mercedes-Benz limo, the left turn signal from Charles Manson's Volkswagen van, the windshield wipers from the Pontiac that played KITT in Knight Rider, and the electric motor from Ed Begley Jr.'s car.
• Gone Horribly Right: Played for laughs with Project Satan. Somehow, the people involved in building a car from pieces of the most evil cars in history are surprised that it turned out evil.
• Halfway Plot Switch: The plot at first seems to be about robot ghosts haunting a castle Bender inherited, but that threat is easily explained and dealt with; it's mainly just a reason to get Bender running around outside where he's hit by the Werecar.
• Halloween Episode: Unlike its sister show, this particular episode (which first aired on November 5th of 2000) is the closest that Futurama ever got to a Halloween Special and is devoted to spoofing classic horror tropes.
• Haunted House: Bender inherits a castle and finds it's haunted by robot ghosts. The haunting is stopped when they find that it was caused by improperly shielded cables from the robot cemetery. Still it led to this great exchange:
  Uncle: Come to us, Bender. You'll like being dead!
  Bender: That's what they said about being alive.
• Hey, You!: Vlad's Butler is named in his will as You There.
• How Unscientific!: Subverted, the ghosts turn out to have a 'perfectly mundane' explanation. For Futurama.
• Hypocritical Humor: After being confronted by the former Werecar, Leela claims she, Bender and Fry are "sophisticated New New Yorkers". She then commands Fry and Bender to "whup his butt."
• I'll Kill You!: Bender screams the phrase and tries to strangle Fry after realizing the latter took his last beer.
• "Join Us" Drone: Vlad's ghost and others within the mansion try to convince Bender to join them, even chanting "Join Us" as they come out of the paintings.
• Joke of the Butt: Bender's observation after Farnsworth states that the portrait with moving eyes at the castle Bender inherited from his uncle Vladimir has motorized sensors attached to motion detectors.
  Bender: So does my butt, but I don't frame it and put it on the wall! Although...
• Julius Beethoven da Vinci: Calculon was all of history's greatest robot actors: Acting Unit 0.8. Thespo-mat. David Duchovny.
• Kill It with Fire: Project Satan falls into an open furnace, and melts to death on screen.
• Lightmare Fuel: The episode contrasts the frightening concept of Bender turning into a monster with the fact that the monster he's turning into is a Werecar, complete with the ridiculously-accented "honk, honk!" that ends his every howl.
• Lost Common Knowledge:
  • The Robo-Hungarian villagers don't know how a robot works. Despite being robots. And having their circuit diagrams on the inside of their cases.
  • The Werecars roll on wheels instead of hovering. Bender describes them as "round rubber feet, like a wolf".
• Made of Evil: Project Satan is made from the most evil parts of the most evil cars in all the world: The steering wheel of Hitler's staff car, the left turn signal of Charles Manson's VW, the electric motor of Ed Begley, Jr's car and, uh, Knight Rider's windscreen wipers.
  Fry: Knight Rider wasn't evil!
  Calculon: His windshield wipers were. It didn't come up much in the show though.
• Magical Romani: Bender is diagnosed as a Werecar victim by a robot booth shaped like a Romani Fortune Teller.
• Mix-and-Match Man: Project Satan is a vehicular version of this, incorporating parts from all the evil cars in history such as Hitler's staff car, Charles Manson's VW minibus, Ed Begley Jr's propulsion system and the windshield wipers of the car that played Knight Rider.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Project Satan's lair has a giant, open, flaming furnace and a wooden rampart leading to it. He's led to run over the rampart and into the fire with ease.
• No Indoor Voice: Bender starts the episode singing his name at Planet Express, unconcerned for everyone else. Rather than arguing with him, Hermes just presses the "Mute" button of a remote control to make him silent.
• Non-Human Undead: During the first act, Bender is chased throughout the mansion by robot ghosts, which include the ghost of a flying toaster and a Windows 95 logo.
• No Ontological Inertia: The only way to cure Bender and others of the were-car curse is take out the original. Once they do, Bender goes back to normal. Justified as it is said that Project Satan will beam out the antivirus to the werecar transformation as it dies.
• Number of the Beast: Bender freaks out over the binary code 1010011010, which is the binary equivalent of 666. Arguably doubles as Bilingual Bonus.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Vlad's will specifies that Bender won't receive the castle if he's responsible for Vlad's death.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Played for laughs. Werecar Bender chases two vandals into a building, then appears inside the building's elevator somehow.
• Oh, Crap!: Project Satan's eyes bug out when he realizes he's about to drive into a furnace.
• On One Condition: Bender gets Vlad's castle... but only if he stays the night there. Bender actually wants to spend the night before the condition is announced, but once it is he grumbles about it. There was also a condition that Bender only got the castle if he wasn't responsible for Vlad's death.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: According to Hermes ghosts don't exist anymore, since the last one died out long ago. Bender rebuts that was the last human ghost, not a robot one.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Werecars. They are robots that turn into murderous cars at midnight. Though they apparently lack the healing abilities common to were-beings. The gypsy-robot informs Bender he can die, and even offers to help Bender with that one.
• Painful Transformation: At least in the beginning, the transformation is painful and affects one limb at a time. Obvious throwback to An American Werewolf in London.
• Persecution Flip: The only visible human inhabitant of the Robo-Hungarian Empire is Vlad's human butler.
• Portrait Painting Peephole: At first it appears to be the case with Uncle Vladimir's portrait, but it turns out the "portrait with moving eyes" is because it has motorized sensors attached to motion detectors.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": After realizing he's about to drive into a furnace, Project Satan lets out a rapid string of "no"s, before eventually releasing a Big "NO!" as he dies.
• Really 700 Years Old: Calculon's revealed to be over a thousand years old—when the main trio questions him on it (as Bender notes that Calculon's bio says that he's only 27), Calculon claims that he changes it up every few decades or so to keep people from getting suspicious.
• Ruritania: The Robo-Hungarian Empire is a backwards, 19th-century looking country in central or eastern Europe, populated by rural and superstitious robots.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Famous!: Mentioned by Bender when he says "I can't keep running people over. I'm not famous enough to get away with it."
• Series Continuity Error: Calculon claims to be David Duchovny, but his head is shown in the background of the first epiode Space Pilot 3000.
• Serious Business: Fry is angry when Werecar!Bender attacks Leela, because the legend says that he will kill his best friend, which he thinks he was for Bender.
• Shaped Like Itself: Vladimir's will states that his loyal butler You There shall receive "a pittance, to be paid in 20 equal installments of 1/20th of a pittance each."
• Shout-Out:
  • Most of the plot takes after The Wolfman, An American Werewolf in London, and Christine.
  • The travel to Vladimir's castle is closely modeled on the Transylvania chapter of Dracula.
  • The Windows 98 startup sound can be heard a couple of times in the mansion's dining room.
  • The scary message on the wall that is revealed by a mirror and Bender finding ghosts after turning a corner in the castle, to The Shining.
  • The title references/parodies The Howling.
  • Bender learns that he has been turned into a Werecar from a Magical Romani... in the form of a fortune teller machine similar to Zoltar from Big.
  • The robot on the painting with moving eyes is named Commodore LXIV.
  • The Werecar that runs Bender over bares a strong resemblance to the aforementioned Christine.
  • Bender's Werecar form resembles the modified Lincoln Continental of The Car.
  • The original Werecar being created by wielding the parts of different cars together and then turning against its creators, an obvious parody of Frankenstein.
• Silly Will: Besides Bender, Vlad's will also leaves to his human butler You There... a pittance, to be paid in twenty equal payments of 1/20th of a pittance each. He bursts into tears upon hearing it. There's also the fact Vlad stipulated Bender only inherits the castle if he wasn't responsible for Vlad's death. Which, given that we're talking about Bender, is actually pretty sensible.
• Sinister Car: This episode has Bender transform into a sinister Werecar.
• Spelling Song: Bender sings a song that largely consists of spelling his name.
• This Is as Far as I Go: The villager who takes the Planet Express team to Vladimir's castle says it... after driving them to the front door.
• Too Dumb to Live: Fry spends the later half of the episode sulking because Bender isn't trying to kill him, because the legend says the Werecar will kill its best friend. When it finally does happen, he's overjoyed. Note that there is no indication that Bender wouldn't try to kill him later. Fry really is just that dumb.
• Transformation Horror: Bender undergoes an Forced and Painful Transformation into a Werecar.
• V8 Engine Noises: Project Satan makes traditional engine sounds even though he's an electric car.
• Victory by Endurance: The gang defeats Project Satan by tricking it into falling into the incinerator.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: It’s never explained that the number that sends Bender into a panic is 666 in binary.
• The Virus: The Werecar transformation is triggered by a computer virus.
• Weird Moon: The full moon is massive in the Robo-Hungarian Empire.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: In the year 3000, Uncle Vlad has a human butler and the coach that takes the main characters to his castle is pulled by horses, despite hovering over the ground.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve: The transformations are triggered when the robot's inner clock reaches 0:00. In military and internal clock mechanics, that's midnight.
• Wolves Always Howl at the Moon: Being the robot equivalent to werewolves, werecars howl (and honk) at the moon.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The last part of the episode has Bender, Fry, and Leela going from former Werecar to former Werecar until they can find the original and kill him.

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