Among others, Jack and Karen from Will and Grace often facilitate the same type of inconsiderate humor as Bender, so there must be something very funny about being exposed to inconsiderate characters and the considerate people who tolerate them. And when Bender is paired with Fry, who doesn't even seem to realize how tolerant he is, the result is fantastically comedic interaction that I could watch (and have watched) over and over again. Unfortunately, that dynamic was missing from this episode.
Nevertheless, this season's premiere easily rivaled last year's ("Roswell That Ends Well"). After languishing all summer without any new episodes, I couldn't stop laughing during the season premiere. The fact that The Simpsons has adopted some Futurama-style humor recently shows that Futurama's style is popular, at least among those dedicated fans who are willing to risk its constant preemption by football. With the series on its way out, the least we can hope for is that a part of Futurama will live on in the more popular series.