The Bender Moment In Futurama That Grossed John DiMaggio Out The Most
Seven times in its history, "Futurama" has presented anthology episodes that exist outside of the show's normal continuity. Sometimes these episodes will be bookended with recognizable in-continuity material that binds the disparate anthology segments together, but just as often they are offered without context. In "Anthology of Interest II" (January 6, 2002), the Professor (Billy West) reveals that he has repaired his What-If Machine, a prognosticating TV screen that displays short films as answers to what-if questions. The What-if Machine was also responsible for the segments seen in "Anthology of Interest I."
The alcoholic robot Bender (John DiMaggio) steps forward and reveals that he has always wondered what it would be like to be a human. The Professor puts that question to the What-If Machine, and out pops the hypothetical short "I, Meatbag." Within "I, Meatbag," the Professor uses a scientific process he calls reverse-fossilization to instantly turn Bender into a flesh-and-blood person. Bender learns immediately that he can spit and puke and get horny, all of which he finds great. He also takes more pleasure in smoking and drinking, comforted by the fact that such habits are now immensely bad for him.
Then someone makes the mistake of giving the human Bender some nachos. He can taste for the first time. Bender sees no reason to practice any sensual moderation, and flees into the night, determined to eat hot dogs, dance with strippers, and indulge his every appetite. By the end of "I, Meatbag," Bender is sickeningly drunk, weighs over 800 pounds, and stores grilled cheese sandwiches in the folds of his fat.
According to DiMaggio, an element of the hedonist Bender grossed him out a little bit. He admitted as much on the DVD commentary track for "Future-Drama," an episode of "The Simpsons" in which he appeared.
Hedonist Bender
In "I, Meatbag," the overweight hedonist Bender is presented by the Professor to a panel of Nobel judges. The Professor is booed off stage because his robot/human transformation experiment only produced a "bloated man-ball" (sadly, the humor is not without its fatphobia). Bender, however, appeals to the scientists to try hedonism for a short while to understand what he went through. Gloria Estefan's "Conga" fires up on a nearby stereo, and the scientists begin to party.
The next morning, the scientists are all drunk, half-naked, and happy. Bender was right. Bender, however, is also now dead. When they push on the folds of his fat, pockets of air escape, and it sounds like Bender is saying "Wooo!" DiMaggio vocally provided the "wooo" sounds.
The "wooo" sounds were what grossed DiMaggio out the most. "Simpsons" producer Al Jean asked DiMaggio on the commentary what the wildest Bender moment was, to which DiMaggio replied:
"Umm, I think when Bender turns human, and the fat is breathing and making noises [...] when he's already dead. You know, 'Woooo! Wooooo!' That's what he's doing the whole time but it's not him, it's a pocket of air being squeezed out. Really kind of gross."
The "Futurama" writers certainly outdid themselves when inventing a repellant situation for "I, Meatbag." At the very least, audiences — and the "Futurama" characters — all learned that if Bender was a human, he would eat and drink himself to death within a week.
Not incidentally, in the episode "The Farnsworth Parabox" (June 8, 2003), Leela (Katey Sagal) briefly visits a parallel universe wherein all the human characters are robots. It's not shown, however, whether or not Bender is a human in that universe as well.