Proposition Infinity

Plot

While bailing Bender out of jail after he was arrested for vandalism, Amy flirts with several inmates. Infuriated at her obsession with "bad boys", Kif breaks up with her. The break-up severely upsets Amy, and to make her feel better, Leela, Fry, and Bender take her to Forbidden Planet Hollywood. Bender mocks Amy all night, insulting and infuriating her, but this leads the two to have sex because of her interest in "bad boys". After this, Amy and Bender discover a mutual attraction for each other and enter into a "robosexual" relationship, which is taboo in the 31st century. Because it is frowned upon, they keep quiet about their relationship, even to their friends and co-workers. The co-workers grow suspicious, but think little of it.

However, during a mission, Amy and Bender are discovered cuddling together. Professor Farnsworth immediately disapproves of this, but the rest of the crew accepts Bender and Amy's relationship. The couple is thankful, since Amy knows that her family would disapprove. However, the Professor immediately informs Amy's parents and then calls Reverend Preacherbot to deal with Bender, who is sent to a robosexual rehabilitation camp. While at her parent's ranch, where her parents continuously introduce her to non-robot suitors, Amy is saved by Fry, who poses as her new non-robot beau to get her parents off her back. The crew then rescues Bender from the rehabilitation camp. At the Planet Express building, Bender proposes to Amy. The Professor reminds them that robosexual marriage is illegal in New New York. To fight against this, Bender and Amy launch a campaign for the legalization of robosexual marriage.

They launch "Proposition Infinity" ("Proposition ∞") which, in days before the election, slumps in the polls. Amy loses hope, but Bender says that they will win due to his upcoming debate against Professor Farnsworth, the leader of the Proposition Infinity opposition. At the debate (moderated by the head of George Takei) Bender gives a heartfelt speech, which the audience applauds. The Professor follows with his rebuttal, relaying a story from his past where he was in love with a fellow scientist named Eunice whom he later discovered in bed with a robot, breaking his heart. Because of this, the Professor hates robosexuals. This does not impress the audience. Frustrated by the audience's lack of sympathy for his cause, he accidentally admits that Eunice was actually a robot. Having suppressed the truth for so long, Farnsworth reveals that the robot's name was actually Unit and that he caught her in bed with another robot. With his heart broken, he takes his anger out on other robosexuals. After admitting the truth, the Professor withdraws his argument, now fully in support of Proposition Infinity. The next day the proposition is approved. Amy is ecstatic, but Bender quickly dumps her when he realizes marriage means that he must be monogamous. Amy is dejected, but Kif wins back her heart by adopting a bad boy persona and the two ride off together on a motorcycle.

Production

The episode was inspired by the controversy that arose from California Proposition 8 in the United States during 2008 and was written by Michael Rowe. The episode was directed by Crystal Chesney-Thompson. George Takei returns as a guest star, voicing himself.

According to Cohen, the writing team's approach when using pop culture references as an episode's main subject is to modify them into futuristic versions to avoid being dated, noting that being a science fiction show, "some topics are probably not going to be around by the time the show airs." In particular, with "Proposition Infinity", they paid specific attention to developing the plot in a way that would "history-proof" the episode and avoid being over-politicized or "preachy." When taking on "real" social issues in the show, Cohen stated that one of their methods of keeping controversy from overwhelming the episode is to "futurize" issues until the audience is unlikely to have developed a strong opinion one way or another about the presented conflict. This was the method used for "Proposition Infinity", as the team felt that most viewers would not have a strong opinion for or against robot and human intermarriage, thus lightening the potentially polarizing nature of the source material.

Broadcast and reception

"Proposition Infinity" originally aired July 8, 2010 on Comedy Central. In its original American broadcast, "Proposition Infinity" was viewed by an estimated 2.013 million households with a 1.3 rating/2% share in the Nielsen ratings and a 1.0 rating/3% share in the 18-49 demographic, going down one tenth of a point from the previous week's episode "Attack of the Killer App". In interviews leading up to the premiere of season six, David X. Cohen stated that he considers this one of his favorite episodes of Futurama's sixth season.

"Proposition Infinity" received mostly positive reviews from critics. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club wrote: "This is the series I've been missing for years. It was goofy, spastic, over-stuffed, occasionally cruel, and bizarrely sincere." He graded the episode A-, praising the "No on Infinity" ad parody and reappearances of George Takei and Hedonismbot in particular. Sean Gandert of Paste wrote: "I’d like to see them lay off the contemporary commentary episodes for a bit, but other than that it was exactly what any fan of the show would hope for." Danny Gallagher of TVSquad stated that the episode's "robotic take on the needless hysteria and blatant hypocricy [sic] of gay marriage was not only steeped in satiric goodness, but it was downright hilarious." He felt that the episode's writing was an improvement over the previous episodes in the season and that it "really used the storied and rich history of the characters to its advantage." In particular, Gallagher praised Takei's cameo as one of the episode's funniest, even stating it to be one of the series' best. Alasdair Wilkins of io9 also praised the episode, calling it "a triumph for the new Futurama, and just the sort of episode that leaves me convinced that the show's revival was completely worthwhile." Michelle Castillo of Television on Today enjoyed the attack on California Proposition 8, stating that the episode "poked fun at the issues in the unique way that only 'Futurama' can pull off."

Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a more mixed review, stating that he felt the relationship between Bender and Amy was only used to serve the purposes of the story and felt unnatural compared to the relationship between Fry and the Lucy Liu-bot in the similarly themed season 3 episode "I Dated a Robot". He found the jokes funny, stating that they "delivered plenty of hilarious observations regarding gay marriage and the movements surrounding it, but the story was incredibly hollow."