Law and Oracle
Encyclopedia
"Law and Oracle" is an episode of the animated
sitcom Futurama
. It aired on Comedy Central
in the United States on July 7, 2011 as the sixteenth episode of the show's sixth season
.
The episode was written by Josh Weinstein
, and directed by Stephen Sandoval.
, and are rewarded with a promotion to the Future Crimes Division
. The division works to prevent crimes from occurring, by using an "oracle
" robot named Pickles who has detective's brain cells in order to calculate the future and predict crimes in advance.
Meanwhile, at Planet Express, the crew struggle with the loss of Fry. Leela and Bender are sent on a delivery to Pandora, the "3-D planet" (meaning that it is depicted as an anaglyph image
). Without Fry accompanying them, the two find it difficult to be in each other's company. Professor Farnsworth
, Amy
, Hermes
and Doctor Zoidberg find working at Planet Express to be boring without Fry's antics. At the precinct, Fry receives a vision of a future larceny
, and discovers that the culprit is Bender. Fry questions Bender about the details of the crime, hoping to prevent him from committing it. Instead, Fry inadvertently informs Bender about the target of the crime; a priceless bottle of strong malt liquor
stored in Hedonismbot's wine cellar. Upon examining the vision in closer detail, Fry sees that he will fatally shoot Bender to prevent him from stealing the bottle. He decides that he will deliberately not shoot Bender, which causes a vision of an alternate future to be created, in which Bender escapes. The alternate vision shows that Bender will share the stolen liquor with the crew at Planet Express, poisoning them (because apparently the liquor is fatal to humans) and killing all of them.
Bender arrives at Hedonismbot's mansion and proceeds to the cellar. Bender obtains the bottle, but is stopped by an armed Fry. Bender declares that he will not steal anything, and Fry happily exclaims that the oracle was wrong. Suddenly, Pickles appears, aiming a gun at both Bender and Fry. Pickles reveals that both visions were a set-up to allow him to steal the liquor and frame
Fry and Bender for the robbery. Pickles states that he wants the liquor to destroy his human brain cells, as he finds his precognition
to be an unbearable burden. Fry attempts to shoot Pickles, but the invisible safe guarding the liquor ricochets the bullet and strikes Bender, knocking him down. Pickles shoots Fry down, and proceeds to drink the liquor, successfully damaging his brain and precognitive abilities. The Chief and URL choose this moment to appear from behind prediction-proof glass, and Fry and Bender stand up and expose their bulletproof armor. They reveal that they became aware that Pickles was intending to commit a crime. They realized this when the Oracle showed Bender sharing the liquor, because Bender would never share anything with anyone, thus realising the vision Pickles had shared was an attempt to deceive them. Accordingly, they set up a plan to catch Pickles, a charade based on Speed Buggy
.
Fry receives his investigator's shield for stopping Bender, but is also fired for tipping off Bender in the first place. The Professor welcomes Fry back to Planet Express, promoting him to "executive delivery boy" at Fry's request. Hermes notes that the "executive" title is simply a psychological trick
to help insecure people feel better about themselves. Immediately after, the credits for the Executive Producers appear on screen and Fry states that he feels better about himself.
of the long-running NBC
legal drama television franchise Law & Order
. Also, The Sound Effects 5000 is a direct parody of Sgt. Larvelle Jones (Michael Winslow
) from the Police Academy films. The sign in front of the police academy also states that they are not affiliated with Police Academy IV
. Bender and Leela make a delivery to the 3-D planet of Pandora, and Leela asks if they can use their avatars. Circuit City is a reference to the American retailer of the same name, Circuit City.
The light cycle chase scene, featuring Fry and URL in Circuit City, is an obvious reference to the 1982 science-fiction movie Tron
and its sequel, Tron: Legacy. The man being chased in the light cycle scene is Erwin Schrödinger
, a 20th-century Austrian physicist known for his Schrödinger's cat
paradox. The cat is found alive in a box inside Schrödinger's car, along with a lot of drugs. The box resembles those found in the Futurama episode, "The Farnsworth Parabox
".
When Fry stayed alone in the police office and just before getting the information from Cybernetic Oracle he cites Charlton Heston
's hero from "The Omega Man
" (second screening of the "I Am Legend" novel by Richard Matheson
).
Also, the idea of the "Future Crimes Division" and the Cybernetic Oracle is based on the story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick
, which was later filmed as the Steven Spielberg
film Minority Report
.
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
sitcom Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
. It aired on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
in the United States on July 7, 2011 as the sixteenth episode of the show's sixth season
Futurama (season 6)
Futurama sixth production season originally aired on Comedy Central from June 24, 2010 to September 8, 2011 and consisted of 26 episodes. The season marks the change of networks from Fox to Comedy Central.David X...
.
The episode was written by Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
, and directed by Stephen Sandoval.
Plot
The episode opens with a video game rendition of Fry on a delivery. Afterwards, we see Fry was merely playing a video game. He then proceeds to do the same thing in real life (bike to a delivery). When he arrives at Applied Cryogenics, he reads a prank name and discovers he has been pranked yet again by the staff of the cryogenics lab. He complains to the staff but is interrupted by criminally insane robot Roberto, who is promptly subdued by Smitty and URL, and Fry decides that joining the police force would be a more fulfilling role. He resigns at Planet Express, and applies at the Police Academy, from which he graduates. Upon joining the force, Fry is paired with URL. The pair soon make a major arrestArrest
An arrest is the act of depriving a person of his or her liberty usually in relation to the purported investigation and prevention of crime and presenting into the criminal justice system or harm to oneself or others...
, and are rewarded with a promotion to the Future Crimes Division
Minority Report (film)
Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C...
. The division works to prevent crimes from occurring, by using an "oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
" robot named Pickles who has detective's brain cells in order to calculate the future and predict crimes in advance.
Meanwhile, at Planet Express, the crew struggle with the loss of Fry. Leela and Bender are sent on a delivery to Pandora, the "3-D planet" (meaning that it is depicted as an anaglyph image
Anaglyph image
Anaglyph images are used to provide a stereoscopic 3D effect, when viewed with glasses where the two lenses are different colors, such as red and cyan. Images are made up of two color layers, superimposed, but offset with respect to each other to produce a depth effect...
). Without Fry accompanying them, the two find it difficult to be in each other's company. Professor Farnsworth
Hubert J. Farnsworth
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, or simply The Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a combination of impressions of Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan. Farnsworth is the proprietor of the Planet Express delivery...
, Amy
Amy Wong
Amy Wong, voiced by Lauren Tom, is a fictional character, one of the main characters from the Fox and Comedy Central television animated series Futurama. She works as an intern at Planet Express...
, Hermes
Hermes Conrad
Hermes Conrad is a fictional character in the Futurama animated series. He is voiced by Phil LaMarr.- Appearance and personality :Born in 2959, Hermes is a grade 36 bureaucrat from Jamaica. He manages the Planet Express delivery business with responsibilities that include paying bills, giving out...
and Doctor Zoidberg find working at Planet Express to be boring without Fry's antics. At the precinct, Fry receives a vision of a future larceny
Larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law. It has been abolished in England and Wales,...
, and discovers that the culprit is Bender. Fry questions Bender about the details of the crime, hoping to prevent him from committing it. Instead, Fry inadvertently informs Bender about the target of the crime; a priceless bottle of strong malt liquor
Malt liquor
Malt liquor is a North American term referring to a type of beer with high alcohol content. In legal statutes, the term often includes any alcoholic beverage above or equal to 5% alcohol by volume made with malted barley. In common parlance, however, it is used for high-alcohol beers made with...
stored in Hedonismbot's wine cellar. Upon examining the vision in closer detail, Fry sees that he will fatally shoot Bender to prevent him from stealing the bottle. He decides that he will deliberately not shoot Bender, which causes a vision of an alternate future to be created, in which Bender escapes. The alternate vision shows that Bender will share the stolen liquor with the crew at Planet Express, poisoning them (because apparently the liquor is fatal to humans) and killing all of them.
Bender arrives at Hedonismbot's mansion and proceeds to the cellar. Bender obtains the bottle, but is stopped by an armed Fry. Bender declares that he will not steal anything, and Fry happily exclaims that the oracle was wrong. Suddenly, Pickles appears, aiming a gun at both Bender and Fry. Pickles reveals that both visions were a set-up to allow him to steal the liquor and frame
Frameup
A frame-up or setup is an American term referring to the act of framing someone, that is, providing false evidence or false testimony in order to falsely prove someone guilty of a crime....
Fry and Bender for the robbery. Pickles states that he wants the liquor to destroy his human brain cells, as he finds his precognition
Precognition
In parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...
to be an unbearable burden. Fry attempts to shoot Pickles, but the invisible safe guarding the liquor ricochets the bullet and strikes Bender, knocking him down. Pickles shoots Fry down, and proceeds to drink the liquor, successfully damaging his brain and precognitive abilities. The Chief and URL choose this moment to appear from behind prediction-proof glass, and Fry and Bender stand up and expose their bulletproof armor. They reveal that they became aware that Pickles was intending to commit a crime. They realized this when the Oracle showed Bender sharing the liquor, because Bender would never share anything with anyone, thus realising the vision Pickles had shared was an attempt to deceive them. Accordingly, they set up a plan to catch Pickles, a charade based on Speed Buggy
Speed Buggy
Speed Buggy is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on CBS from September 8, 1973 to August 30, 1975.-Production:...
.
Fry receives his investigator's shield for stopping Bender, but is also fired for tipping off Bender in the first place. The Professor welcomes Fry back to Planet Express, promoting him to "executive delivery boy" at Fry's request. Hermes notes that the "executive" title is simply a psychological trick
Psychological manipulation
Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. By advancing the interests of the manipulator, often at the other's expense, such methods could be considered exploitative,...
to help insecure people feel better about themselves. Immediately after, the credits for the Executive Producers appear on screen and Fry states that he feels better about himself.
Cultural references
The title of the episode is a parodyParody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the long-running NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
legal drama television franchise Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
. Also, The Sound Effects 5000 is a direct parody of Sgt. Larvelle Jones (Michael Winslow
Michael Winslow
Michael Winslow is an American actor and a comedian billed as the "Man of 10,000 Sound Effects" for his ability to make realistic sound effects using only his voice.-Early life:...
) from the Police Academy films. The sign in front of the police academy also states that they are not affiliated with Police Academy IV
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol is the fourth comedy film in the Police Academy series. It was released in 1987.A group of Police Academy graduates are sent to train a group of newly recruited civilian officers. The original Police Academy cast reprise their roles in the film. Capt. Harris,...
. Bender and Leela make a delivery to the 3-D planet of Pandora, and Leela asks if they can use their avatars. Circuit City is a reference to the American retailer of the same name, Circuit City.
The light cycle chase scene, featuring Fry and URL in Circuit City, is an obvious reference to the 1982 science-fiction movie Tron
Tron (film)
Tron is a 1982 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Lisberger, and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It stars Jeff Bridges as the protagonist Kevin Flynn; Bruce Boxleitner in a dual role as security program Tron and Tron's "User", computer programmer Alan Bradley; Cindy...
and its sequel, Tron: Legacy. The man being chased in the light cycle scene is Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
, a 20th-century Austrian physicist known for his Schrödinger's cat
Schrödinger's cat
Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, usually described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The scenario presents a cat that might be...
paradox. The cat is found alive in a box inside Schrödinger's car, along with a lot of drugs. The box resembles those found in the Futurama episode, "The Farnsworth Parabox
The Farnsworth Parabox
"The Farnsworth Parabox" is the fifteenth episode of the fourth production season of Futurama. It first aired June 8, 2003, as the tenth episode in the fifth broadcast season. The episode was written by Bill Odenkirk and directed by Ron Hughart.- Plot :...
".
When Fry stayed alone in the police office and just before getting the information from Cybernetic Oracle he cites Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
's hero from "The Omega Man
The Omega Man
The Omega Man is a 1971 American science fiction film directed by Boris Sagal and starring Charlton Heston. It is based on the novel I Am Legend by American writer Richard Matheson...
" (second screening of the "I Am Legend" novel by Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson is an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is perhaps best known as the author of What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, A Stir of Echoes, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and I Am Legend, all of which have been...
).
Also, the idea of the "Future Crimes Division" and the Cybernetic Oracle is based on the story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, which was later filmed as the Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
film Minority Report
Minority Report (film)
Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C...
.