Insane in the Mainframe

"Insane in the Mainframe"
Futurama episode
Fry in the mental asylum.
Episode no.	Season three Episode 11
Directed by	Peter Avanzino
Written by	Bill Odenkirk
Production code	3ACV11
Original air date	April 8, 2001
Opening caption	"Bender's Humor by Microsoft Joke"
Opening cartoon	The Mild West (1947)
Season three episodes
January, 2001 – December, 2002 Amazon Women in the Mood Parasites Lost A Tale of Two Santas The Luck of the Fryrish The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz Bendless Love The Day the Earth Stood Stupid That's Lobstertainment! The Cyber House Rules Where the Buggalo Roam Insane in the Mainframe The Route of All Evil Bendin' in the Wind Time Keeps On Slippin' I Dated a Robot A Leela of Her Own A Pharaoh to Remember Anthology of Interest II Roswell That Ends Well Godfellas Future Stock The 30% Iron Chef
List of all Futurama episodes

"Insane in the Mainframe" is the eleventh episode of the third season of the American animated sitcom Futurama, and originally aired in North America on April 8, 2001. The episode was written by Peter Avanzino and directed by Bill Odenkirk. In the episode, Fry and Bender are admitted to an insane asylum for robots after being charged for their roles in holding up a bank. Fry's attempts to convince the asylum's staff that he is a human fail; he is eventually made to believe that he is a robot, and is deemed "cured" and released from the asylum. After being released, the Planet Express crew try to make him rediscover his humanity; these attempts fail, until Fry bleeds and realizes he is in fact, human.

The episode introduces the recurring Futurama character Roberto.

Plot

While at Big Apple Bank to open a retirement fund, Fry and Bender become involved in a holdup. The criminally insane robot Roberto hands them bags of cash for their trouble, and after he runs off, Fry and Bender are charged for their role in the robbery. At the trial, Roberto surreptitiously threatens to kill Fry should Fry testify against him. After pleading insanity on the advice of their lawyer, Fry was going to be sent to a human asylum, and Bender to a robot asylum; yet since Fry's is overcrowded (as poverty has been deemed a mental illness), both Fry and Bender are sent to the HAL Institute for Criminally Insane Robots.

Once there, Fry takes a body test to Bender's enjoyment, but to his own torture. To make matters worse, the doctors refuse to acknowledge that Fry is human, due to their use of the logic that, if Fry is a patient in a robot asylum, he must be a robot, completely disregarding that he is biological life being. Fry is roomed with car-dealer Malfunctioning Eddie, who is undergoing treatment for his exploding problem when surprised or shocked. Fry perseveres, surviving on food coughed up by a sick vending machine robot.

But just when Fry thinks he is going to be released, Eddie gets released instead, and Fry gets a new roommate: the insane bank robber Roberto, who was captured after robbing the same bank again. The day after suffering a complete mental breakdown, Fry is released, having been "cured" of his delusion of humanity, causing him to think he is a robot. Roberto, fed up with life in the asylum, breaks out and takes Bender with him.

Back at the Planet Express building, Fry attempts to discover his function as a robot but has no success as a foodmotron since no one wishes to eat the sandwiches from his "compartment" (the crotch of his pants), has even less success as a calculator since he cannot identify a plus sign, and has no success as a toolbot since he cannot unscrew a bolt (even after he puts oil in his armpits). Fed up with Fry's attempts at proving he is a robot, Leela passionately kisses Fry in order to remind him of his humanity - but it fails to work.

A newly escaped Roberto decides to rob the Big Apple Bank a third time, and Bender takes him back to the Planet Express building to hide out after nearly getting caught. New New York police surround the building, and Roberto takes the staff hostage including Bender who is now convinced that Roberto is a maniac. After waking up from a drunken stupor, Fry, now convinced that he is a battle droid, takes on Roberto, who jumps out a window after stabbing a can of oil in Fry's chest pocket (thereby "proving" to Roberto he really is a robot and thus a battle droid) and is apprehended by the police. Fry, seeing that he was cut and bleeding after Roberto threw the knife at him before jumping, overcomes his insanity completely. The Planet Express crew praises him for his bravery and Bender tells Fry that he has the heart of a robot inside - just like the severed human heart Bender has in his own body.

Cultural references

• The title is a reference to the 1993 Cypress Hill song "Insane in the Brain".
• The name "Hal Institute for Criminally Insane Robots" refers to HAL 9000, a spaceship-installed robot from the Space Odyssey series that murderously turns against its human crew.
• Robotic nurse Ratchet is an allusion to another nurse from Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It may also be a reference to the Autobot in Transformers.
• Fry's being assumed to be insane because he is in an insane asylum is a reference to the Rosenhan experiment.

External links

• "Insane in the Mainframe" at the Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki.