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When Futurama does it right, it really does it right. Just like it did with its latest episode titled  “The Thief of Baghead”.

In my previous review of Futurama which was the hour-long premiere made of two episodes, Futurama of any sort is better than no Futurama at all, but for as much as the show was trying to pull on our heart strings, it felt false or coming up a bit short. In a way, the episodes felt like they were trying too hard to being something akin to “Jurassic Bark” or “The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings” and just really missed the mark.

How quickly they recover: the following episode “Decision 3012” was brilliant and hilarious, and even “The Thief of Baghead” continued that winning streak of hilarious and brilliant episodes. In “The Thief of Baghead”, Bender’s new role of “paparazoo” is heralded further not by Calculon but by another actor, a man who wears a bag over his head in anything and everything he does. The actor is named Langdon Cobb, and Calculon even has problems with out acting the guy.

The real thing is that Zoidberg upon watching a documentary explains to Bender who complains on not having anything new to capture via his camera, is that Cobb has never been filmed with his bag off his head. Upon attempting to obtain pictures of Cobb with his bag off ends up being fruitful for Bender at first: he obtains the sacred photograph, but Cobb pleads with Bender that the consequences are too much.  Bender of course ignores this and shows the picture to Fry, Amy and Hermes, who are then instantly killed. 

Professor Farnsworth quickly explains that this is probably because Cobb is from Byoria 6 home of the quantum lichen people creatures that draw attention from their prey. If any living thing looks at Cobb,  his ego will absorb the attention he gets. The ego is usually separate from the quantum lichen beings, and look like a giant mushroom or fungus. When Bender exclaims he saw a weird dog with mushrooms all over his bag that grew in size as he saw it, they all realize what his ego is.

This episode showcases exactly why when Futurama works it just works.  From the comedy involving classic characters such as Calculon, it also tells a great sci-fi yarn poking fun at something in our pop-culture such as celebrity.  The joke of Bender being in the “paparazoo” in itself is hilarious, but to see the sci-fi bent on it being a being that gets off and is fed by admiration is hilarious as it is genius.