Futurama: "Proposition Infinity"

'''"Proposition Infinity," also "Proposition ∞." Futurama,''' season 6, episode 4 (8 July 2010), Comedy Central.

Summarized on WatchACartoon website (21 November 2014): The sympathetic non-human character "Kif breaks up with" young, pretty, human female "Amy when she begins showing interest in 'bad boys,' which leads her to become attracted to" the comic robot and small-time criminal "Bender. The two engage in a secret robosexual relationship, a taboo romantic relationship between a robot and a human, much to the prejudice of [Dr.] Farnsworth," their boss, "since one of his girlfriends from his youth left him for a robot. With the support of the rest of the crew, Bender and Amy become engaged and hold a ballot proposition called Proposition Infinity, which they hope will lift the ban on robosexual marriage, with Farnsworth representing the opposing party. While arguing against Bender, Farnsworth suddenly remembers that his old girlfriend was also a robot. Not wanting to lose the debate after revealing he too was robosexual, Farnsworth has a change of heart and supports Proposition Infinity, which is passed as law and legalizes robosexual marriage. However, Bender leaves Amy and begins dating fembots again when he realizes that robosexual marriage is monogamous. Fortunately for Amy, she gets back together with Kif after discovering that he has by now adopted a 'bad boy' attitude for her."

Wikipedia entry discusses in sufficient detail the allusion in "Proposition ∞" to the 2008 debate on California's Proposition 8, an amendment to the Constitution of the State of California banning same-sex (homosexual) marriage. For its primary audience, the episode clearly supported gay marriage, but the politics and satiric method are nuanced. An argument against legal recognition of any marriage except that between a man and a woman would be to send (as such arguments were mocked) the thin end of the camel's nose down the slippery slope to legalizing polygamy or man/dog marriages. As science fiction, the episode extrapolates the debate a thousand years into the future where robosexuality would be a parallel concern; as satire, the episode pushes the man/dog argument to the absurdity of woman-on-robot sex and marriage (reductio ad finem, reductio ad absurdum). Also satirized are attempts to "straighten" gays when Bender is sent to a robosexual rehabilitation camp. Note "Proposition Infinity" as part of a continuing theme on Futurama: "The episode revisits the concept of robosexuality as a social taboo in the future society depicted in Futurama and is more explicit in its analogy to prejudice and stigma surrounding homosexuality. The stigmatization of robosexuality and the term "robosexual" were first mentioned in the series pilot "Space Pilot 3000". The issue is expanded upon in more detail in the season 3 episode "I Dated a Robot" in which Fry dates a robot Lucy Liu, to the disapproval of the other characters. Co-producer David X. Cohen noted that the writing team had tried to maintain robosexual relationships as a taboo throughout the series."

5. DRAMA, RDE, 21/XI/14, renamed 26Ap19