The Bender Quote That Lives Rent-Free In Futurama Fans' Heads

When it comes to fan-favorite characters on the sci-fi comedy animated sitcom "Futurama," there's no shortage of choices. The Matt Groening-created show follows the antics and escapades of a planetary delivery service crew in the year 3000. Much like in other Groening creations (e.g., "The Simpsons" and "Disenchantment"), the show's unique brand of humor acts equally as a parody and commentary on modern-day culture and how its trends might appear in the future, and it has helped the show receive icon status. Today, "Futurama" is known as one of the best and most influential adult animated shows to ever exist.

Picking a favorite character out of its colorful assortment of personalities is practically impossible. Whether it be Fry, Leela, Professor Farnsworth, Amy, Zoidberg, Hermes, Zapp Brannigan, Nibbler, or Scruffy, fans are bound to have a hard time choosing one character or any of their endlessly memorable quotes. However, one of the show's most enduring faces is everyone's favorite foul-mouthed, alcohol-guzzling robot, Bender Bending Rodriguez. While the beloved comic relief is chock full of gut-busting lines, one of his quotes stands above the rest for fans.

In Season 2, Episode 10, a brief cutaway joke featuring Bender has become one of the show's most memorable moments. In the episode, Fry and Amy get together after a mission on Mercury and tell the crew about it the next morning at a meeting. The entire crew reacts in their own comedic ways, with Zoidberg commenting how jealous he is and that he would do anything to get out of his depressing loneliness.

Hearing that there's money to be made off of people looking for love, Bender starts conjuring up a scheme to do just that, only for the scene to cut to Bender, Leela, and a pair of robots stereotypically stylized as sex workers in a courtroom. The judge tells Bender he owes $500 and time served. Annoyed, Bender tells Leela to pay the judge as he walks out of the court with the other robots following. As they leave, they tell him, "Bender, honey, we love you," only for him to respond, "Shut up, baby, I know it!" John DiMaggio, the voice of Bender, delivers the line with perfect timing, and Bender's goofy walk as he swaggers away amps up the joke even more. 

As with many of Bender's zany, darkly comedic one-liners, the quote has become popular with fans. A Reddit thread by user u/PrestigiousCoffee asked fans about which quotes from the show they find themselves saying, and its highest-rated reply with over 400 likes came from a now-deleted user who used "Shut up, baby, I know it!" as their pick. Other fans of the catchy quote began mentioning how often they would say the line in response. u/SaltyBabe wrote, "Lol I say this to my kids. Bender had basically raised my kids and no one in my family but me knows it."

In a separate thread started by u/Jordaann_ that posts the scene as a GIF, other commenters started mentioning their love of the line and admitted to their constant usage of it in day-to-day life. Another deleted user replied, saying, "My other half and I say this to eachother [sic] sometimes when the other [one] says 'I love you.'" Similarly, commenter u/LooneyJuice said in the thread, "Guilty of using this phrase way more often than I should." 

They're in good company, as the thread currently sits at over 3,800 upvotes — and thankfully, none of the fans mentioned their using the quote being taken as more than the tongue-in-cheek reference to Bender that it was. (It's probably best to make sure someone else has seen "Futurama" before quoting this line to them, though.)