Leela is scouted to be the first female blernsball pitcher, but only because her lack of depth perception makes her a terrific novelty as she continuously "beans" every batsman. Once she becomes aware that she'll be known as the worst blernsball player in history, Leela swears to be slightly better than that.
Tropes
- Anti-Role Model: Leela jumps on the chance to be the first female professional blernsball player to serve as an inspiration to women, but ends up being this in-universe. She's such a horrible player that she encourages hundreds of other female athletes to train and get into the game to prove women aren't as bad as she is.
- As Himself: Baseball great Hank Aaron, who also plays his own descendant Hank Aaron XXIV. Bob Uecker also appears as himself. According to the DVD Commentary, Aaron only agreed to appear in the episode when he learned that Uecker would also be in it.
- Athletically Challenged: Leela becomes the first female professional blernsball pitcher. But her poor depth perception means she can't aim properly and leads her to becoming the worst blernsball player of all time. She even manages to beat out Hank Aaron XXIV for that title (even though he still holds the title of worst football player of all time).
- Bad "Bad Acting": Leela's stilted script readings during her commercial recordings.
- Baseball Episode: Well, Blernsball Episode, which is about the closest thing to baseball in the Futurama universe.
- Beyond the Impossible: Hank Aaron XXIV's career batting average was .000. And Hank Sr. lampshades this.
- Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Leela becomes the first female pitcher in the professional blernsball league — because someone thought it would be funny.
- Brick Joke: The Cygnoids mention making their pizza with live bees and produce a jar full of them to confirm it. Later in the episode, when Fishy Joe asks how they make their crusts so fizzy, they produce the same jar again.
- Calvinball: Once again, blernsball seems to make no sense whatsoever.
- Censor Box: The locker room has a machine that generates these, allowing the players to walk around naked without actually revealing anything. When Bender walks in, he accidentally unplugs it, forcing the players to scramble for towels to cover themselves up. One guy takes a look around at his fellow players and declares "I win!"
- Chekhov's Skill: Fry genuinely knows how to make a good New York pizza, having worked for Mr. Panucci before being frozen, and he teaches the Cygnoids how to emulate that.
- Comically Missing the Point: Leela is told point-blank she's only being put on the Mets as a freak-show act, repeatedly, but still sees this as a good thing.
- Comically Small Bribe: Thanks to Bender's negotiating skills, one of Leela's advertising jobs lands her a solid 1001 pesos. Bender's demand for every deal is "put a one and two zeroes in front of that, or we pass!"
- Continuity Nod: Bender recognizes Abner Doubledeal as the sleazebag that owned the Ultimate Robot Fighting League.
- Downer Ending: Despite her efforts, Leela goes her entire career without getting a single out and goes down in history as the worst blernsball player of all time.
- Epic Fail: In her career, Leela manages to go without getting a single out, although she comes very, very close.
- Exact Words: When Leela claims she’s been training with Hank Aaron, her coach incredulously asks "the Hank Aaron?" Leela awkwardly replies "a Hank Aaron." (And both Aarons were played by Hank Aaron, too!)
- Famous for Being First: Leela becomes the first woman to play professional blernsball, although only as a novelty (her poor depth perception meant that every ball she threw would hit the batter). She is beaten by Jackie Anderson, who, according to the announcer, is the first woman to play the sport well.
- Fantastic Racism: Professor Farnsworth hates the Cygnoids. There's no Aesop delivered (unless you count Leela saying that the world is not going to get any better until man- and alien-kind pretend to like each other), and he doesn't learn to tolerate them.
- Generation Xerox: Hank Aaron XXIV became a famous baseball player like his namesake. Subverted in that he's the worst player in the history of the game until Leela went down in history as a WORSE player than him. He's actually pretty sad to have the title taken away from him.
- Had the Silly Thing in Reverse: Hank Aaron XXIV holds the bat upside down. That Fry is the one who points it out speaks volumes as to why he's considered the worst blernsball player ever.
- High Hopes, Zero Talent: Downplayed; when Hermes points out that Leela's dream of becoming the best blernsball player is statistically impossible, she scales down her goal to becoming not the worst player.
- Hope Spot: Leela trains, and very nearly scores her first out by getting two strikes, but then the rival hits the next pitch so hard the string breaks and the ball flies into the "win the game" hole, leading to her going down in history as the worst blernsball player of all time.
- Idiot Ball: Leela, who is normally super-competent at just about anything you care to mention, not only proves to be a terrible blernsball player, but shows no self-awareness at all regarding her lack of skill until Jackie gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Insult Backfire:
- When Bender calls Abner Doubledeal a sleazebag, he doesn't deny it, only telling Bender he's now the sleazebag who owns the NNY Mets.
- The Cygnoids apparently take the statement of food tasting like vomit as a compliment until Leela reminds them of its awful taste.
- Jackie Robinson Story: Parodied with Leela, because she's only the first woman player in the league as a joke. Played straight with Jackie Anderson, the first woman to play professional blernsball well.
- Non-Natural Number Gag: Because all the whole numbers have been retired, blernsball players have fractions and other numerical functions on their uniforms.
- Noodle Incident:
- Apparently a short while before the episode began, a strip club across the road from Planet Express had its wall fall down, much to Fry's delight.
- Abner Doubledeal says Leela draws a bigger crowd than a cowboy in a shark tank, and then mournfully adds "Poor Tex. He was quite a shark."
- Pet the Dog: When Leela breaks down crying in the middle of an autograph session upon learning what people really think of her, Bender shoos out the customers to give her some privacy.
- Shout-Out:
- Among the hall of historical blernsball greats is one alien who is half-white, half-black (or half-black, half-white), as seen in the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".
- The last scene with the cygnoids has them recreating the old Calgon commercial.
- Spit Take: Upon learning that the Cygnoids crush rats to make the wine he's drinking, Fry does this... right in Bender's face. Bender retaliates by spitting it right back at him.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Leela's lack of depth perception bites her hard in blernsball, as she's unable to aim properly and does horribly during her tenure as a player.
- Upon realizing what a terrible player she is, Leela then makes a vow that she will practice and train until she's the greatest player ever... only for Hermes, who's examining the statistics, to point out that's mathematically impossible, and that she's well on her way to being considered the worst player ever. Leela decides that if she can't be the best, she'll at least not be the worst.
- Take That!: Apparently only a sleazebag would own the Mets. Or owning the Mets makes one a sleazebag. Either way.
- Weird World, Weird Food: The Cygnoids seem to have no idea of what humans eat, judging from the way they prepare their pizza, which is why Fry has to teach them.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Just when Leela is about to get an out during the final game of her career, not only does Jackie hit the ball, but she hits it into the "win the game" hole, causing Leela to lose the game and go down in history as the worst-ever blernsball player.
- You Go, Girl!: Played with. Leela isn't this, but her poor form inspires other women to prove they're better than her.
