[7.3/10] This one is pretty much a gag-fest, with just enough of a story to do some amusing folk-ish alterna-rock parody stuff along the way. But it’s a very funny gagfest, so it works!
I have to hand it to Beck! Lots of musicians are very image-conscious and not willing to make themselves look silly. But between lines like him using annoying noises “all the time in my music” to not knowing what “The Devil’s Haircut” is about, to using words only contained in the The Becktionary, he was so game and self-deprecating in a way that makes for great celebrity appearances in comedy shows. “Bendin’ in the Wind” isn’t necessarily an all-time great Futurama episode, but Beck is an all-time great guest star.
The main story features Bender getting injured by the giant can opener, and then learning to rediscover his value and inspiring other broken robots when he joins Beck’s band as a washboard player. It’s out there as premises go, even for Futurama, but again, it works as a spine to hang the jokes on. The twist, with Bender recovering just in time to be a phony, is a solid enough resolution, even if the chase at the end feels a bit tacked on.
(Though I love the line where Bender laments that he can’t sing about being broken when he isn’t really broken because it’s like Christina Aguilera singing in Spanish, only to realize “That’s it! I’ll fake it!” It’s probably a super dated joke by now, but it still tickles my funny bones.)
The B-story is Fry discovering an old VW van and convincing his coworkers to become Beck groupies and accidental hippies. It leads to a spate of amusing hippie jokes, and Zoidberg regurgitating- “pearls” that the group sells is a funny bit as well. (“These will go great with my soul!”)
Overall, there’s lots of laughs here, and a super guest star performance, which helps cover for the fact that the story is a little weak. But hey, if all an episode does is produce steady laughs, it’s doing just fine in my book.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-07-16T17:11:24Z
[7.3/10] This one is pretty much a gag-fest, with just enough of a story to do some amusing folk-ish alterna-rock parody stuff along the way. But it’s a very funny gagfest, so it works!
I have to hand it to Beck! Lots of musicians are very image-conscious and not willing to make themselves look silly. But between lines like him using annoying noises “all the time in my music” to not knowing what “The Devil’s Haircut” is about, to using words only contained in the The Becktionary, he was so game and self-deprecating in a way that makes for great celebrity appearances in comedy shows. “Bendin’ in the Wind” isn’t necessarily an all-time great Futurama episode, but Beck is an all-time great guest star.
The main story features Bender getting injured by the giant can opener, and then learning to rediscover his value and inspiring other broken robots when he joins Beck’s band as a washboard player. It’s out there as premises go, even for Futurama, but again, it works as a spine to hang the jokes on. The twist, with Bender recovering just in time to be a phony, is a solid enough resolution, even if the chase at the end feels a bit tacked on.
(Though I love the line where Bender laments that he can’t sing about being broken when he isn’t really broken because it’s like Christina Aguilera singing in Spanish, only to realize “That’s it! I’ll fake it!” It’s probably a super dated joke by now, but it still tickles my funny bones.)
The B-story is Fry discovering an old VW van and convincing his coworkers to become Beck groupies and accidental hippies. It leads to a spate of amusing hippie jokes, and Zoidberg regurgitating- “pearls” that the group sells is a funny bit as well. (“These will go great with my soul!”)
Overall, there’s lots of laughs here, and a super guest star performance, which helps cover for the fact that the story is a little weak. But hey, if all an episode does is produce steady laughs, it’s doing just fine in my book.