Where else but Futurama could you have an episode about Nixon's head on a robot's body running for the presidency of Earth in the year 3000? It's an odd portrayal of a dead president whose corruption in real life makes him a ideal villain in a cartoon. In Futurama, as we know, historic figures can be preserved alive indefinitely as heads in jars. How this is possible is never explained, and in fact, this is done even for people who are already dead, like George Washington, and of course, Richard Nixon, who died five years before Futurama began. Perhaps they've been cloned. At any rate, when Bender sells his body, Nixon buys it and runs for the presidency, but Bender, Fry and Leela try to get the body back.
This episode allows for some political satire, about lack of variety among electoral candidates, elderly voters, and voter apathy. But it also becomes a treat for those of us who know American history, with jokes about Ford and voting, Bill Clinton and sex, and Nixon and Cambodia and Watergate. We have an exaggerated portrayal of Nixon as evil, someone who might steal candy from a child, who might sell children's organs, who might break into private homes. It's a personal attack on a dead guy but one we don't have to feel particularly bad about since Nixon really was corrupt. The icing on the cake is a masturbation joke about Fry. This is an episode worth watching.
This episode allows for some political satire, about lack of variety among electoral candidates, elderly voters, and voter apathy. But it also becomes a treat for those of us who know American history, with jokes about Ford and voting, Bill Clinton and sex, and Nixon and Cambodia and Watergate. We have an exaggerated portrayal of Nixon as evil, someone who might steal candy from a child, who might sell children's organs, who might break into private homes. It's a personal attack on a dead guy but one we don't have to feel particularly bad about since Nixon really was corrupt. The icing on the cake is a masturbation joke about Fry. This is an episode worth watching.