The Day the Earth Stood Stupid

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Futurama episode
"The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"
Episode no. 39
Prod. code 3ACV07
Airdate February 18, 2001
Writer(s) Jeff Westbrook
Director Mark Ervin
Opening subtitle 80% Entertainment By Volume
Opening cartoon Unknown
Guest star(s) None
Season 3
January 2001 – December 2002
  1. Amazon Women in the Mood
  2. Parasites Lost
  3. A Tale of Two Santas
  4. The Luck of the Fryrish
  5. The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz
  6. Bendless Love
  7. The Day the Earth Stood Stupid
  8. That's Lobstertainment!
  9. The Cyber House Rules
  10. Where the Buggalo Roam
  11. Insane in the Mainframe
  12. The Route of All Evil
  13. Bendin' in the Wind
  14. Time Keeps on Slippin'
  15. I Dated a Robot
  16. A Leela of Her Own
  17. A Pharaoh to Remember
  18. Anthology of Interest II
  19. Roswell That Ends Well
  20. Godfellas
  21. Future Stock
  22. The 30% Iron Chef
List of all Futurama episodes...


"The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" is the seventh episode in season three of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on February 18, 2001. The title of this episode comes from the science fiction movie The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode begins with Tweenis 12, one day's brain flight from Earth, collapsing due to an attack by giant brains.

Meanwhile, there is a pet show on Earth. After hearing that the top prize was $500 and dog food, Bender and Zoidberg plan to enter to win. Leela and Nibbler also enter. After a series of tests, the Hypnotoad wins by hypnotizing the judges. Nibbler is crowned the "dumbest pet in show" while Bender and Zoidberg the "whooping terrier" win second prize, much to Bender's disappointment.

Later the Planet Express staff discovers an ominous trend of destroyed planets leading toward Earth, Nibbler begins gibbering excitedly and runs away. Tracking Nibbler to an alley, Leela is attacked by giant floating brains. Leela is rescued by Nibbler, who has donned a uniform and is piloting a tiny flying saucer. Nibbler and Leela leave New New York and fly away from Earth.

The next day, Fry discovers that all the citizens of New New York have been rendered stupid, except himself. Meanwhile, Nibbler begins communicating to Leela telepathically, and they travel to the planet Eternium, at the exact center of the universe. There, in the Hall of Forever (10 miles west of the exact center of the universe), the Nibblonian council tells Leela of the threat of the Brainspawn, the giant brains that have invaded Earth and are attempting to wipe out all thought in the universe. While the Nibblonians have been fighting them for billions of years--since the beginning of the universe--they are powerless against the Brainspawns' powers of stupidity; in fact, Fry is the only being in the universe immune to the Brainspawn's mental attack, and is the only one capable of combating them.

Leela arrives on Earth to tell Fry of his mission, and retains just enough intelligence to remember what it is. In a successful leap of logic, Fry seeks the leader of the brains at the New New York Public Library. There Fry discovers that thinking hurts the brains, but the brain leader traps Fry and Leela in a mental realm based on Moby-Dick. Fry and Leela pursue the giant brain through The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and into Pride and Prejudice. Fry breaks free of the illusion, and attempts to attack the giant brain. Fry's efforts result in him being crushed by a bookcase, but this is then revealed to be an illusion based on a story Fry has quickly written, one riddled with "plot holes and spelling errors". In accordance with the story the giant brain leaves Earth, and the people of Earth regain their intelligence. Unfortunately for Fry, no one remembers the events of the brain invasion. Nibbler returns to his undercover position observing Earth.

Fry's immunity to the Branspawn's attacks is due to his lack of the Delta brainwave which is revealed in the episode "The Why of Fry". This deficiency is caused by the events of another episode "Roswell That Ends Well".

  • During the Feast of 1,000 Hams, Leela and Nibbler can be seen sitting in the spacecraft outside, although they are actually inside the Hall of Forever.
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.