The Flexo Mistake That Bothers Futurama Fans
Futurama will always hold a special place in fans' hearts. While Futurama's timeline may be on a perpetual loop thanks to the series finale where Fry and Leela travel back in time to the beginning of their courtship, there's always the possibility we'll get to see new adventures of the Planet Express crew should the show ever come back.
Fans would absolutely love the chance to see Fry, Leela, Bender, Professor Farnsworth, and the rest. It would even be a delight to see minor characters like Scruffy and Hedonismbot come back to deliver just a single hilarious one-liner. Plus, if the show came back, then perhaps fans could get some closure on a Bender detail that doesn't quite make sense. Although, in a universe where Fry's his own grandpa, nothing really has to add up.
The detail noted by Redditor u/huggles7 has to deal with Bender's doppelganger, Flexo, who pops up in a few episodes. He looks identical to Bender with the only exception being a stylish goatee. In the episode "Bendless Love," Bender disguises himself as Flexo to try to catch Angelyne "cheating" on him. The problem with this is that the goatee seems to be magnetized, and as we know from "Bendin' in the Wind," Bender malfunctions and starts singing folk songs when he's near a magnet. How can Bender wear the goatee if it's established magnets turn him into a folk singer? Sure seems like a plot hole.
Fans offer several explanations for why the goatee doesn't affect Bender like other magnets
Redditor u/Sith_Zen argues that the goatee could in fact be, "3M velcro or rubber cement." However, that doesn't quite add up with what we see in the episode. When Bender (dressed as Flexo) and Angelyne go to the club, Bender's goatee flies off and attaches itself to the posterior of another robot. Later in the episode when Bender and Angelyne get "busy," the goatee comes off of Bender and adheres to Angelyne. It's clear there's some kind of magnetic force at play causing the goatee to stick to other metallic objects.
Other Redditors, like u/doop73, seem to think that while the goatee is a magnet, it's not powerful enough to interfere with Bender's systems. As that user puts it, "Maybe its not a magnet but has a magnet at its core so interference or something [isn't] that bad cause the edge of the magnetic field only reaches up to and including his shell." Redditor u/Pasta-hobo also points out, "Everytime [sic] a magnet has affected his inhibition unit it's either on his forehead or large/powerful enough to cause interference."
Therefore, since the goatee is on his chin, it's nowhere near his inhibition unit, allowing him to act normal. It also doesn't seem like a particularly strong magnet considering it comes off multiple times throughout the episode. In "Bendin' in the Wind," Bender acts like a folk singer due to the magnet in the can opener, which is massive. The simplest explanation seems to be that the magnet needs to be relatively powerful and close to his inhibition unit (top of his head) for him to suffer in any noticeable way.
This isn't the only confusing thing to emerge about Bender on Futurama, and as fans continue rewatching the series, it definitely won't be the last.