When titanium prices skyrocket, Bender makes a small fortune pawning his 40% titanium body. But when he decides to get it back, things get sticky as Richard Nixon's Head is using it to run for office!
Tropes:
- An Aesop: One vote can make a difference. If you have a vote, use it.
- And I Must Scream:
- The episode begins with the collapse of a titanium mine, trapping all the robot workers inside (some of whom are seen pinned in the entrance, still twitching). The proposed rescue plan is to "pave over the area and get on with our lives."
- The Brain Slug party representatives. Soon after, Hermes.
- The Bad Guy Wins: At the end of the episode, despite losing Bender's body back to him, Nixon got himself a giant replacement war machine of a body and sweeps the robot vote to become president, where he immediately begins living up to the nightmarish threats he made earlier, rampaging through Washington and smashing into the White House. Making matters worse, the result was Decided by One Vote because Fry and Leela forgot to vote.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Bender finds out that Nixon has his body:Bender: That dirty double-crossing bastard! How dare he run off with Richard Nixon?
- Brick Joke: At the voter registration, Fry talks to the Brain Slug Party. A few minutes later, Hermes turns up and has been Brain Slugged.
- Captain Obvious Aesop: Parodied during the debate between Jack Johnson and John Jackson, where one of them proclaims that "I'm against those things nobody likes!", treating it as if it's some kind of brave proclamation. Not to be outdone, his rival declares that "I agree with everything he says!"
- Caught on Tape: Bender manages to convince Nixon to give back his body after recording Nixon's rant about his plans for when he becomes President again.
- Celebrity Paradox: When walking by the TV stars in the Head Museum, Leela passes her own voice actor, Katey Sagal.
- Combat Tentacles: The bed device "Magic Tentacles" is implied to be of a sexual nature, but ends up tossing Fry around and clubbing him into the wall.
- Dark Horse Victory: Throughout the episode, Nixon lags behind his two competitors, only hanging on in the race due to his appeal to the robot voters. Then at the end of the episode, once said vote is accounted for, Nixon surges ahead from 0% to winning by a single vote.
- Death by Irony: The Scary Door segment, parodying The Twilight Zone (1959), has a man walk into a post-apocalyptic library declaring he can now read all the books he wants... at which his glasses slip off his face and break. Initially, he reacts angrily, but then he realizes he can still read large print. Then his eyes slip out of their sockets. Then he notes that he can read braille, prompting his hands to fall off. At that point, he starts screaming, and then his body falls apart. Somehow, Bender's conclusion from this is that he was "cursed by his own hubris."
- Death Glare: Leela shoots an absolutely furious glare at Fry when he activates the Magic Tentacles and wakes Nixon.
- Decided by One Vote:
- Nixon wins the election for Earth President by a single vote—and only because Fry and Leela forgot to vote. Bender didn't participate because, as he explained to Fry early on in the episode, he's not allowed to vote because of his criminal record.
- The first robot president, John Quincy Adding Machine, was also elected by one vote.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Bender has a nightmare where he sees "1s and 0s everywhere, and I thought I saw a 2!" If you pay attention, you can actually see said "2" during the aforementioned Dream Sequence.
- Funny Background Event: Some of the booths at the voting registration market, such as a Bull Moose Party booth manned by Bullwinkle.
- Get a Room!: Bender tells this to a couple he spots through a window at the Watergate.Guy: We're in a room!Bender: Well, then lose some weight!
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "Oh, expletive deleted!" Doubles as a
Genius Bonus to the Nixon Tapes. - Historical In-Joke: When the subject of voting comes up, Gerald Ford's head states he never considered voting essential, something Nixon agrees on.note
- Hypocritical Humour:
- Despite stating that "all humans are vermin", Morbo considers Nixon a friend.
- Leela forgot to vote, despite making a big deal about the importance of voting to Fry.
- Humongous Mecha: After giving back Bender's body, Nixon gets a gigantic new robot body, which results in him getting the majority of the robot vote.
- Large Ham: Nixon's head.NIXON'S BACK!
- Loophole Abuse: The Earth Constitution states that nobody can be elected president more than twice—but Nixon's head is eligible as it's on Bender's body.
- Low Count Gag:
- The TV news describes the election results for the Earth presidential campaign:Linda: The sheer drama of this election has driven voter turnout to its highest level in centuries. Six percent!
- Nixon says computers are now twice as fast as in 1973.
- The TV news describes the election results for the Earth presidential campaign:
- Mirroring Factions: Played for laughs. The Fingerlicans and the Tastycrats seem to have no meaningful ideological differences, and their frontrunner candidates, Jack Johnson and John Jackson, are literal clones. During their debates, the closest thing they can come up with for a difference is that one wants a three-cent tax on titanium but thinks it should be lower, and the other wants a three-cent tax on titanium but thinks it should be higher.
- Naked People Are Funny: The pawn shop owner offers to buy Fry from Bender for fifty bucks. An angered Fry objects that his clothes are worth that much. The pawn shop owner takes him up on that, and the scene cuts to Fry and Bender back at Planet Express, with Fry completely naked.
- Oblivious to His Own Description:Amy: Only weirdos and mutants join third parties!
Zoidberg: (apprehensive) Really? I'd better keep an eye out at the next meeting. - Orphaned Punchline:Bender: So then the hooker-bot says, "That's not my expansion slot." And my friend says, "That's not my gold-plated 25-pin connector."George Washington: Oh, Bender. Thou robots really cracketh me up.
- Politicians Kiss Babies: When the head of Richard Nixon runs for President of Earth wearing Bender's body, he pulls a baby out of Bender's chest compartment, kisses it, and puts it back in.Bender's Head: Great. First he steals my body, now he's touching my stuff.
- President Evil:
- The first robot President, John Quincy Adding Machine, struck a chord with voters when he vowed not to go on a killing spree. But, like so many elected officials, he promised more than he could deliver...
- Also, as of the end of the episode, Richard Nixon (or rather, his head), which requires no explanation to people familiar with actual American history.
- Shaped Like Itself: The Couch Gag declares the show to be "From the makers of Futurama."
- Shout-Out:
- The episode begins with an episode of the Show Within a Show The Scary Door, a clear shout-out to The Twilight Zone (1959), specifically to the episode "Time Enough at Last."
- Also the Legalize Hemp Party's representative's first line of dialogue is "Dave's not here, man," which is inexplicable unless you catch that it's a reference to a famous Cheech & Chong sketch.
- Somebody Else's Problem: The owners of the titanium mines, faced with the fact that if they don't act within 200 years their trapped workers (who're all robots) will die, decide to just pave over the entire area and get on with their lives.
- Stoners Are Funny: The head of the Dudes To Legalize Hemp party.
- Take That!:
- In the establishing shot of the Presidential Debate broadcast, the sign changes to "Tomorrow: Vice Presidential "Yo' Mama So Fat" Contest".
- When walking through the Head Museum, Leela, Fry and Bender's head walk past increasingly less-fancy shelves containing first movie stars, then B-movie stars, then porn stars, and finally (on a cracked shelf covered with cobwebs with a sign hand-scrawled on cheap paper) television stars, including Lucille Ball, Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Jerry Seinfeld and Tim Allen.
- This Is Gonna Suck:Bender: Not so fast, Nixon! Are you familiar with audiotape?
Nixon: Uh-oh, I don't like where this is heading. - Urine Trouble: Shortly after pawning his body, Bender gets peed on by a dog, which he unsuccessfully tried to bribe into not doing so.
- Villain Has a Point: While Bender repeatedly says Nixon stole his body, Nixon corrects him by pointing out he simply bought it from the pawn shop Bender sold it to.
- Who Needs Their Whole Body?: Bender certainly doesn't think so, as he pawns his off for a quick buck. "Bodies are for hookers and fat people!" Eventually he misses it and tries to buy it back, but finds that it has been sold to Nixon.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: The Apathy party only accepts members who don't care about voting.Fry: Now this is a party I can get excited about! Sign me up!
Recruiter: Not with that attitude.
Fry: Oh, well screw it then.
Recruiter: Welcome aboard, brother!
Fry: All right!
Recruiter: You're out. - Zany Scheme: Fry and Leela sneak into the Watergate hotel in order to steal Bender's body back from Nixon. Funnily enough, this plan was proposed by Leela.
