This may be the lightest, slightest episode Futurama has ever done (barring maybe “300 Big Boys”).

The stakes are incredibly low – outside of a few bits of slapstick comedy, no one’s ever in any peril, and the only consequence for failure is Bender having to give up this latest get-rich-quick scheme. There’s nothing here that pushes the characters to grow or explores new sides to who they are (they suggest there’s been some growth between Bender & Jambone, but it’s so utterly perfunctory, I don’t want to count it). The sci-fi elements aren’t anything weird or high concept – it’s just regular old Earth stuff, except put in space and given a coat of sci-fi gloss. And while there is some social satire here … c’mon. This isn’t tackling religion or climate change or corporate greed – it’s a satire of the truffle industry. That’s like playing laser tag in Amish country: you can make all the brilliant shots you want, but who’s going to notice? Or care?

There’s nothing meaningful or significant about anything in this ep – it’s just Bender deciding to get rich truffle hunting, with the aid of a talking truffle big, and getting into mild misadventures along the way. Not much else to it. It feels like, in other episodes, this story would be the B-plot that gets Bender out of the way while Fry and Leela do the A-plot – or like something that’d be the focus early on in the episode, only for it to lead into the real story. But here, it’s the main event all by itself.

Despite all that, “The Trouble with Truffles” is never dull. The joke writing is solid throughout, and it’s enlivened by the fun double-act of Bender and Jambone. Pairing Bender with dweeby little fellows who inexplicably worship the asshole robot, it’s a dynamic that always works gangbusters for this show (see: the tiny aliens who built a society on Bender’s body – or the orphans Bender adopted/enslaved – or the nerdy droids of Robot House). It lets Bender be as selfish and cruel as you’d like without seeming too harsh, because the victims of Bender’s malice eagerly embrace their victimization. Plus, it creates a delightful push-and-pull between Bender’s conniving side (which can’t not exploit such an obvious chump) and Bender’s egomaniac side (which can’t help growing attached to anyone who’ll loudly agree that Bender is, indeed, great).

This makes for aperfectly fine episode, an enjoyable way to spend half-an-hour. But it just has so little going on, I won’t be surprised if, a month or two from now, I struggle to tell you anything that happened in it.