Bender (Futurama)

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Bender Bending Rodríguez (Bending unit 22)

Bender Bending Rodríguez (known simply as Bender) is a fictional sapient robot in the Futurama animated cartoon television series. He is voiced by actor John DiMaggio.

A comic anti-hero, Turanga Leela described Bender as an "alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain smoking gambler", which largely sums up his personality. He curses, fights, argues, smokes cigars (to make himself look cool), drinks constantly (though, in his defense, alcohol is his primary fuel), reads robot pornography (in the form of circuit diagrams), and constantly demands attention and praise from everyone around him. He also has a strictly voluntary sense of morals, being a kleptomaniac who snatches wallets and other valuables at every opportunity. It is often stated that he has no emotions, though this is quite clearly not true ("As a robot, I don't have any emotions, and sometimes *sniff* that makes me feel very sad!")

Though it also refers to his occupation, the name Bender is a reference to John Bender, the rebel stoner played by Judd Nelson in the John Hughes film The Breakfast Club. It may also be a pun on a drinking binge, noting his gluttonous consumption of booze.

Bender was built in the Mom's Friendly Robot Company plant in "America's heartland", Tijuana, Mexico, circa AD 2998. He is a Bender – Unit 22. As his name indicates, he was created for the task of bending metal girders. On December 31, 2999, Bender was waiting in line to use one of New New York City's public suicide booths (he claimed he couldn't go on living when he found out that the girders he bent were used for suicide booths) when he met Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy from the 20th century who'd just been revived from cryogenic stasis earlier that day. After meeting Fry, Bender decided to put off killing himself until later and ended up getting a job with Fry and Leela at Planet Express, an intergalactic package delivery business.

Despite his vices and macho posturing, Bender has several tender traits, such as his semi-secret aspirations to be a cook or a folk singer as well as a soft spot for turtles and penguins. He has also shown affection towards orphans and shed a tear during the soap opera tribute to himself from Calculon. Bender desperately wants to be a part of the Harlem Globetrotters, but was turned down. He shares an apartment with his human friend Fry, who said he always wanted a robot for a best friend when he was growing up in the 20th century. If magnets are placed close to his head, they interfere with his inhibition unit, which causes him to act out his desire to be a folk singer by performing folk staples. He sometimes improvises variations on the songs' lyrics, such as "I'll be blasting all the humans in the world" in "She'll be Comin' 'Round the Mountain."

Notable events in Bender's life include his birth (which he remembers), his previously mentioned hiring at Planet Express, and a brief stint as pharaoh of the planet Osiris IV. Bender has met an intergalactic superintelligence which may or may not have been God. He also cheated his way to five gold medals in the Earth Olympics by disguising as a fembot (female robot). He won a war medal as hero of earth. During his brief stint as a super hero, he went by the name Super King.

Hardware

Bender's habit of hard drinking is a result of his design; like many robots on Futurama, he uses alcohol as fuel. Paradoxically, Bender only suffers intoxication when he stops drinking, becoming disoriented and growing a beard of rust as his systems break down. While alcohol is his primary fuel source, he is also capable of processing mineral oil and dark matter. He is also equipped with a nuclear pile, the effectiveness of which is unknown.

His eyes and "extensomatic" limbs are extendable and detachable, although the shape of his extendable eyes is inconsistent. In most cases, his eyes are shown to be cylinders with rounded ends, but in at least one episode ("Anthology of Interest I"), his eyes fall out and are shown to be spheres. He also has a cavity in his chest that seems to afford limitless space to store his beer, loot, and whatever dials or buttons he requires for a gag in a given episode (however, once he was seen overstuffed with loot). His head is detachable, can continue to function when not attached to his body, and has been seen functioning as an audio tape recorder, camera, credit card terminal, and a spray can. He also uses it as a distraction when pickpocketing, although whether this is an intended function is unknown. Bender may also be used as a film projector as shown in the episode ("Crimes of the Hot"). Bender can also perform great feats of strength, such as bending an "unbendable" girder.

He claims to have a total of eight senses, known to include vision in the human ranges, hearing and "smission", but not, much to his own dismay, taste. His eyes also function as cameras (still and video, both of which can be recorded or transmitted on demand); he has a total of three cameras on his body (the location of the third is unknown, but implied to be in the "below the waist" area). Other sensory equipment he displays in the series, such as "gaydar" and X-ray-glasses, are external devices and probably do not count against his eight senses. He also has a built-in, but unreliable, "Cheating Unit" for predicting the outcome of his own dice rolls. Bender's computational abilities are self-admittedly poor. He is quite sensitive about his antenna, which is multi-functional and can work as a radio transmitter or a toilet flusher, to pick a few. The antenna is an analog to a penis. In a scenario in "Anthology of Interest", Bender's antenna moves down to in between his legs.

According to information from various episodes, he is composed of 30% iron, 40% zinc, 40% titanium, 40% dolomite and an unknown quantity of osmium with a 0.04% nickel impurity. No explanation for the total of over 150% was offered in the series, though it is pointed out in the DVD commentary.

Bender's serial number is 2716057, which is expressible as the sum of two cube numbers ((952)³ + (-951)³). He shares this trait with another Bending Unit he meets called Flexo, whose serial number is 3370318 ((119)³ + (119)³). (This is one of several joke references to obscure mathematical facts; see Hardy-Ramanujan number.)

Bender's CPU is a MOS Technology 6502 (Fry & the Slurm Factory). It is implied that Bender's operating system is Windows 98 (The Honking).

The series provides contradictory information about Bender's origin. In several episodes he is portrayed having been assembled in a factory in his current form only a few years prior to the start of the series, as an ordinary machine would be. However, in Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles he is shown as going through growth and development like an animal and said to have "robo- or RNA", a DNA equivalent. He also claims to have been assembled in a plant in Mexico, hence his surname of "Rodriguez".

Trivia

• Bender has appeared in several episodes of Matt Groening's other show, The Simpsons.
• Still has over 8 billion dollars laying out of circulation from the sale of popplers. He made 50 cents per dozen popplers sold, with 198 billion sold. He may not know this.
• In both episodes featuring the What-If Machine, the outcome for Bender's what-ifs end in his own macabre death: in the first, he becomes 500 feet tall, and is impaled on a skyscraper when a giant Dr. Zoidberg snaps off his legs, and in the second, he becomes a human and dies of overeating/drinking/smoking.
• There are various forms of Bender: Golden Bender from Earth 1 (since he flipped a coin to decide his final coating and the difference between Earths 1 and A is the outcome of coin tosses, Earth A Bender is Foghat Grey, while Earth 1 Bender is Gold.), Cowboy Bender, Human Bender, Mega Bender, The Gender Bender, Wooden Bender and Bobble-Head Bender. The printed comic has also featured the Momneto-constructed Planet X-press Man Benderine.
• While against Human-Robot Relationships, such as Fry and his Lucy Liu-bot, Bender himself is in love with Lucy Liu's Head who frequently appears in Bender's "Chest cabinet".
• Oddly enough, Bender is, in fact, his own evil twin. In other words, Bender is the Evil Bender. This was brought up in the first episode to feature Flexo, whose face has the stereotypical "evil twin" look (i.e., his beard, seeing as a common difference between a character and his evil twin is facial hair.)
• In addition to his twin, Flexo, Bender has a "family" of sorts. He has two "mothers:" one is the industrial robot that assembled him, the other is "Mom" of Mom's Friendly Robot Company. Bender also has a screwy aunt named Rita, who in fact, is a screw.
• Bender's apartment number is 0100100 which, when translated into ASCII, is the $ symbol.
• Bender has an uncanny resemblance to Fender of Robots, another 20th Century Fox cartoon.
• It has been suggested that Bender has inspired the character of HK-47 of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, particularly his usage of the term "meatbag" to describe humans.
• Benders self destruct code is, A12B3C.

Catchphrase and Favorite Words

Bender's most memorable catchphrase is "Bite my shiny metal ass!" Some later derivatives include:

• "Bite my glorious golden ass!" (said by a golden Bender during "The Farnsworth Parabox")
• "Bite my red hot glowing ass!"
• "Bite my colossal metal ass!"
• "Bite my splintery wooden ass!"
• "Lick my frozen metal ass!"

According to a database referenced by Zapp Brannigan, the ten words Bender utters most frequently, in ascending order, are:

1. Ass
2. Daffodil
3. Shiny
4. My
5. Bite
6. Pimpmobile
7. Up
8. Yours
9. Chumpette
10. Chump

Bender almost never says the words thanks, sorry, funderful, non-alcoholic, compassion, and shrimp toast. The word antiquing appears to be the word he uses the least.

Another of his common sayings is "Cheese it!", usually uttered before he runs away from trouble.