I Know What You Did Next Xmas

Season 8 episode Broadcast season 11 episode
I Know What You Did Next Xmas
Bender receives a cryptic Xmas card
No.	146
Production number	8ACV06
Written by	Ariel Ladensohn
Directed by	Crystal Chesney-Thompson
Title caption	HIVE MIND SAYS RELAX
First air date	28 August, 2023 [1]
Broadcast number	S11E06
Title reference	I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan (1973)
Opening cartoon	"Jack Frost" by Ub Iwerks (1934)
Special guest(s)	Cara Delevingne Coolio Mark Hamill
Additional
Commentary (Transcript) Transcript Pictures
Season 8
The Impossible Stream Children of a Lesser Bog How the West Was 1010001 Parasites Regained Related to Items You've Viewed I Know What You Did Next Xmas Rage Against the Vaccine Zapp Gets Cancelled The Prince and the Product All the Way Down ← Season 7

"I Know What You Did Next Xmas" is the one hundred and forty-sixth episode of Futurama, the sixth of the eighth production season and the sixth of the eleventh broadcast season. It aired on 28 August, 2023 ^[1], on Hulu.

It is Xmas time once again, and Professor Farnsworth may have finally discovered a way to pacify the Robot Santa Claus through time travel.

Plot

Act I

Act II

Act III

Production

The writer of record for this episode is Ariel Ladensohn.^[2] This episode is dedicated to the Kwanzaa-Bot's voice actor, Coolio, who passed-away on September 28, 2022. According to series producer David X. Cohen, he had recorded his lines for this episode prior to his death.^[3]

Reception

Additional information

Trivia

• This is the first episode to feature Kevin Michael Richardson as Url, succeeding the role from John DiMaggio.

Allusions

• The Professor intends to "reverse the polarity" of Santa's naughty-nice sensor, which is a common phrase used for technobabble in sci-fi media and first popularized by Doctor Who.

• At Kautzman's Second-hand Meats in 2801, the following labels of meat can be seen in the glass meat display:
  • Alien Shank (likely referring to xenomorph from the Alien franchise, judging by the other names)
  • Loin of Predator
  • Na'viwurst (Na'vi is the blue humanoid race from the Avatar film series)
  • Chudder Cheese (alludes to the humanoid monsters from C.H.U.D.)

• The penny that the Professor uses to reverse Santa's naughty-nice sensor is decorated with a picture of the Laverne Memorial, which visually resembles the Lincoln Memorial. And on the heads side is that of Penny Marshall, in reference to her role on Laverne & Shirley.

• While the Professor travels backwards in time; Luci, Bean and Elfo from Matt Groening's fantasy animated series Disenchantment are briefly seen. This recalls a similar gag from the Disenchantment episode "Dreamland Falls," where Fry, Bender, and the Professor are seen traveling in the Forward time machine when Luci looks through a back-in-time globe.

• The scene where Zoidberg and Bender try to dissolve Santa's body with acid and end up dissolving the ceiling/floor is a nod to an iconic Breaking Bad scene, where the two protagonists similarly tried to dispose of a body with acid.

• Zoidberg's exclamation "Damn it, Bender. I'm a doctor, not a time machine guy." is a parody of the catchphrase of Dr. McCoy from Star Trek.

Continuity

• The time machine from "The Late Philip J. Fry" returns, now capable of traveling backwards in time as well.
  • The events from said episode also briefly appear when the Professor takes the scenic route back to Xmas 3023.
• The Professor insists on going alone to prevent anyone from becoming their own grandfather, exactly what Fry did in "Roswell That Ends Well".
• When going backwards in time, some events play out from "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder".
• The creation of Robot Santa in 2801 by the Friendly Robot Company was first mentioned in "Xmas Story".

Quotes

Alien Language Sightings

Goofs

• In "Xmas Story", it was explained that Robot Santa believes everyone to be naughty because he was programmed with extremely high standards. However, here, it is explained that his Naughty-Nice sensor was not turned in the proper direction.

Characters

(In alphabetic order)

References