Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch
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| Futurama episode | |
| "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch" | |
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| Episode no. | 55 |
| Prod. code | 4ACV01 |
| Airdate | January 12, 2003 |
| Where |  United States |
| Writer(s) | Bill Odenkirk |
| Director | Wes Archer |
| Opening subtitle | BIGFOOT'S CHOICE |
| Opening cartoon | It's a Greek Life, by Van Beuren Studios (1936) |
| Guest star(s) | None |
| Season 4 January 2002 – August 2003 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch" is the first episode in season four of Futurama. It first aired on January 12, 2003.
[edit] Plot
Amy sneaks onboard the Planet Express Ship because it is flying near where Kif is stationed. When Zapp Brannigan sees the ship, the Planet Express crew joins him on the Nimbus. On the Nimbus, Kif shows Amy the HoloShed to show her what life would be like with him. However, the shed malfunctions and the holograms become real, blasting a hole in the wall. Everybody is sucked towards the hole, and everybody grabs onto each other's hands in an attempt to survive. At the hospital later, it is announced that Kif is pregnant.
It is initially believed that Amy is the mother. However, as Kif's race reproduces through touch, due to the fact that their skin is a semi-permeable membrane, and thus able to conceive whenever they are in love, as Kif is with Amy; as Fry points out, everyone on the ship touched Kif, it is unclear who the mother is. Professor Farnsworth uses an invention of his, the Maternifuge, to determine who is the real mother and discovers it is Leela. Amy is instead the "smismar" (person whose love inspired the conception) of Kif's children, which nevertheless makes her the "real" mother by Kif's species' standards.
Later on, at Fry and Bender's apartment for the pre-birth celebrations, Amy decides she can't go through with this and runs away, leaving Kif just as his babies are about to be born.
Planet Express escorts Kif to the planet where he was born, and just as Kif is about to give birth, Amy appears, saying she wants to be with him. After Kif gives birth, the babies, in a tadpole-like state, hop towards the swampy planet's water, nearly attacked by deadly predators that Amy fends off. The kids are left to swim about until they grow up, which Kif reveals won't actually happen for twenty years; Amy is thus satisfied that she will be ready to help raise them when the time comes.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of the episode is a reference to TV chef Emeril's catchphrase "...Kick it up a notch."
- The animation of the Planet Express Ship entering the Nimbus' cargo hold may be a visual reference to the film Moonraker, although a similarity to several shots from You Only Live Twice are also apparent.
- Kif's ability to climb walls is similar to that of several types of gecko.
- The HoloShed (and its frequent malfunctions turning holograms "real") are parodies of the holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Among the holoshed characters who run rampant are Professor Moriarty, Attila the Hun, Jack the Ripper and an evil version of Abraham Lincoln. A holodeck incarnation of Professor Moriarty "came alive" in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation while Jack the Ripper and Lincoln appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series; "Evil Lincoln" is a specific reference to the episode "The Savage Curtain", where aliens pit some of Earth's most storied heroes (including Lincoln) against its most hated villains.
- The sick bay scene is a parody of that from Star Trek: The Original Series, complete with sound effects. The sign references a creature from the series called a Horta that gives severe acid burns. The sick bay's doctor is an obvious parody of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, and is named "Veins" in a deleted scene.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by: " The 30% Iron Chef " |
Futurama episodes | Followed by: "Leela's Homeworld" |
