Plot
After a disastrous attempt at stand-up comedy, Dr. Zoidberg informs the crew that his uncle, Harold Zoid, was a star in the silent hologram era. Zoidberg writes to his uncle, asking for help with his comedy act. The washed-up Harold Zoid sees this as an opportunity to restart his career. The crew sets off for Hollywood.
While taking a bus tour of movie stars' homes, Bender leaves the tour, and scams his way into employment as Calculon's water heater. Shortly afterward, Zoidberg meets his uncle in a fancy restaurant. Harold Zoid tells him to give up comedy, because he would be perfect for drama, leading him to tell him that he needs Zoidberg to finance a drama to the tune of a million dollars. Always a source of bright ideas, Bender tells Calculon that he can star in the movie if he provides the production money. Calculon initially refuses on account of disliking the font, but after learning Harold Zoid wrote the script, and getting a guarantee from Bender that he will win an Oscar, he accepts.
The film, The Magnificent Three, is a story about a son (the Vice-President of Earth) not wanting to follow in his father's (the President of Earth) footsteps. Unfortunately, the movie is terrible, and at the premiere, the entire audience walks out. Furious, Calculon threatens to kill Bender, Zoidberg, and Harold Zoid if they cannot find some way to get him an Oscar. After failing to convince Calculon to act better, they all agree that the best way would be to rig the awards. Meanwhile, Leela and Fry are busy attempting to free their ship from the La Brea Tar Pits.
When the awards reach the Best Actor award, Dr. Zoidberg tosses presenter Billy Crystal off the stage (much to the satisfaction of the audience), and takes his place. In place of the fifth nominee, he substitutes Calculon. But when he sees his uncle's depression at being a has-been, Zoidberg announces him as the winner. Calculon, somewhat chastened by Harold Zoid's acceptance speech, decides not to kill him or the others (he says that he "respects Harold Zoid far too much to beat him to death with his own Oscar!"). Fry and Leela eventually escape from the tar pits and are allowed to enter the after party when the caveman's skeleton they are dragging is recognized as that of Sylvester Stallone.
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Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The westward march has stopped, upon the final plains of the Pacific; and now the plot thickens ... with the change, the pause, the settlement, our people draw into closer groups, stand face to face, to know each other and be known.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)