The Futurama Side Character Who Almost Successfully Destroyed Earth
Futurama rarely extends its plots beyond the length of a single episode. As a result, the villains are usually equally short-lived as its stories. There are a few rare exceptions to this rule, however. Occasionally, the antagonist of an episode makes a grand return to the stage, poised to once more threaten the Planet Express crew. Several of these antagonists exist in the series, but few are as especially devilish as the maniacal businesswoman, Mom.
Mom is an interesting figure in the world of Futurama. As the CEO of MomCorp and its subsidiaries, she's one of the universe's richest, most powerful figures. She supplies Earth with everything from dark matter for their spaceships to oil for their robots (as well as the robots themselves). Yet, she also often has personal business with the Planet Express crew. Professor Farnsworth is one of her on-again, off-again flames, and the resentment born from their numerous failed relationships often brings the two parties in conflict with one another.
However, Mom is more than just a threat to the main characters of Futurama. She's a threat to the whole world. There are numerous episodes where Mom's schemes are so self-interested, that they would topple society or worse. These are just a few examples from those times.
The time Mom caused global warming
In the season 4 episode "Crimes of the Hot," we see that climate change is still an issue for Earth even in the future. The planet's temperature is spiking due to the high concentrations of greenhouse gasses trapped in the atmosphere, and people are feeling it. Usually, the overheated earthlings dump a massive ice cube into the ocean to cool the planet down. Unfortunately, Halley's Comet (their only source of ice) is now mined dry. Then, the Professor reveals something few others know.
Back when he worked for Mom's Friendly Robot Company, the Professor was tasked with building a more rugged, heavy-duty robot. Unfortunately, designing them this way came at the cost of fuel efficiency. Most robots at the time of the episode were based on the Professor's flawed design, making both him and Mom partially responsible for climate change. Earth's president tries to solve the issue by exterminating every robot on the planet but is thwarted by the Planet Express crew just in time to save the robots and prevent climate change.
When Mom tried to monopolize two separate industries
As an economic powerhouse on a mission to dominate everything, Mom is never shy about making her massive companies into more massive monopolies. The episodes "A Fishful of Dollars" and "Future Stock" both see her doing her best to dominate a certain industry.
The first episode focuses on her efforts to monopolize the oil industry via the last known tin of anchovies. Through some morally questionable means involving the genetic modification of a third world child, Mom is poised to turn anchovies into oil. However, Fry (recently endowed with billions of dollars) buys the anchovies first. Mom robs him blind, but lets him keep the anchovies once she realizes he just wanted to eat them.
"Future Stock" sees Mom once again butting heads with Fry. In this episode, Fry meets a successful businessman from the 1980s, who quickly becomes CEO of Planet Express. With Fry as his co-chairman, they rocket to the top of the delivery industry. At this point, they pose a threat to Mom's delivery business, and she attempts to buy out the company for millions. Thankfully, Fry stops her from becoming a true monopoly, though Planet Express is reduced to a small business once more.
When Mom monopolized dark matter and enslaved aliens
In the third straight-to-DVD movie Bender's Game, Mom puts a stranglehold on most of the universe through an artificial shortage in her dark matter business. Dark matter is used as spaceship fuel in the Futurama universe, so practically everyone is in dire need of the substance. Mom claims that her mines are running thin, but the truth is much more sinister.
There is no shortage and there are no mines. Mom is creating artificial demand for her product by claiming there's a shortage. She's actually sitting on mountains of the stuff thanks to her dark matter farm. That's right, a farm, not a mine. Nibblonians (the same species as Leela's pet, Nibbler) famously defecate dark matter. Mom has actually been supplying the universe with fuel via the enslavement of an intelligent alien race. Through some fantastic shenanigans in an alternate reality similar to Dungeons & Dragons, Planet Express does manage to stop her dark matter monopoly. Unfortunately, they aren't very inclined to help the Nibblonians. Instead, Farnsworth uses them to pull his spaceship home in the absence of any functioning dark matter.
How Mom enslaved humanity
In the episode "Attack of the Killer App," everyone on Earth becomes enamored with the new eyePhones. These futuristic cellular devices are installed behind one's eye and basically do everything an actual iPhone can do. Of course, the company producing these devices is MomCorp. She plans to use these eyePhones as a way to market specific products to millions right under their eyeballs.
However, Mom's evil plans act as more of a backdrop to Fry and Bender's competition on social media. The Planet Express crew is neither aware of, nor cares very deeply about, Mom's schemes. When the episode ends, Fry and Bender settle their differences and everything seems alright. Meanwhile, Mom has a computer virus installed on every eyePhone to enslave Earth's population. Everyone begins lining up to purchase the next eyePhone. This is one of the few times Mom actually gets a win, but it's mostly because Planet Express is just as much under her thumb as everyone else.
How Mom overthrew humanity
The episode "Mother's Day" is one of the most important Mom stories. It's the episode where we learn of her scandalous affairs with the Professor. It's also the episode where she comes closest to completely annihilating everyone on the planet.
In the future, Mother's Day has become quite the celebration among robots, who all take the day to pay tribute to their creator. Even Bender buys into the holiday affairs. For Mom, however, Mother's Day makes her enraged. It's the anniversary of the day the Professor dumped her. After all these years, she becomes so angry that she commands all robots on the planet to revolt and overthrow humanity. Widespread looting and bloodshed from the robot population brings humanity to its knees as Mom relaxes in her private cabin.
The revolt only ends when the Planet Express crew hatches a plan to reunite the Professor and Mom. The Professor succeeds in seducing Mom and convincing her to stop the robots. However, she quickly dumps him after learning that the whole endeavor was a ruse, leaving the Professor heartbroken.