missy_linville
New member
C'mon guys, I wanted to discuss Futurama in this thread. Have any of you rewatched the show recently? What do you think of it now compared to when you originally saw it?
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In retrospect, how well do you feel Futurama has aged?
- Thread starter Iamfootball
- Start date
I still think Futurama holds up well. I still find it as funny now as I did then.
Regarding the show's "tech": I agree that much of the show's depiction of the future doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes, it seems odd that in the year 3000 people would be still using dial-up internet and VHS tapes when they're old hat now, and pretty much everything about the robots is absurd. I mean, take the Robot Mafia; who would build robots to be criminals? What purpose do they serve? Same deal with Tinny Tim; who would build a robot to be a poor orphan? Or how about Flexo and Angleyne being divorced in "Bendless Love"; why would robots need to get married in the first place, let alone divorced? Or Santa-Bot? If the people of Earth know what planet he lives on, why haven't they sent Earth's armies over to Neptune to destroy him? After all, he's just one robot.
The Old World robot village in "The Honking" kind of make sense, if you apply the thinking of the Red Dwarf episode "Meltdown" and assume that the village was originally a theme park attraction and in time the robot inhabitants learned to break their programming and have become capable of independent thought, well, almost: as one robot villager put it: I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe!"
No, a lot of the technology on Futurama doesn't make sense; but I'm usually willing to chalk that up to simple "it's a cartoon, it doesn't have to make perfect sense" logic. If you want a canonical reason for the anachronisms, one could recall "Space Pilot 3000", where over time, civilization was destroyed and rebuilt not once but twice, so perhaps mankind lost some of its' past technologies and by the year 3000 had to start over again from scratch.
Regarding the show's "tech": I agree that much of the show's depiction of the future doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes, it seems odd that in the year 3000 people would be still using dial-up internet and VHS tapes when they're old hat now, and pretty much everything about the robots is absurd. I mean, take the Robot Mafia; who would build robots to be criminals? What purpose do they serve? Same deal with Tinny Tim; who would build a robot to be a poor orphan? Or how about Flexo and Angleyne being divorced in "Bendless Love"; why would robots need to get married in the first place, let alone divorced? Or Santa-Bot? If the people of Earth know what planet he lives on, why haven't they sent Earth's armies over to Neptune to destroy him? After all, he's just one robot.
The Old World robot village in "The Honking" kind of make sense, if you apply the thinking of the Red Dwarf episode "Meltdown" and assume that the village was originally a theme park attraction and in time the robot inhabitants learned to break their programming and have become capable of independent thought, well, almost: as one robot villager put it: I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe!"
No, a lot of the technology on Futurama doesn't make sense; but I'm usually willing to chalk that up to simple "it's a cartoon, it doesn't have to make perfect sense" logic. If you want a canonical reason for the anachronisms, one could recall "Space Pilot 3000", where over time, civilization was destroyed and rebuilt not once but twice, so perhaps mankind lost some of its' past technologies and by the year 3000 had to start over again from scratch.
Two Pretty in Pink
New member
I think some of the dated jokes from the show were done on purpose, and that the producers knew that the joke really couldn't be true in the future. For instance, in the episode Hell Is Other Robots, Fry makes a comment to the Beastie Boys saying that he owned all five of their albums(which was correct up until that point) when he lived in the 20th century, and the Beastie's reply was that they now have six albums, over a century later. The thing is, that's not true, they've made two albums since that episode aired, a third one is on it's way, and there are bound to be more Beastie Boy albums released in the future. I think the writers included that joke because they knew it was so stupid and that it would be proven false in a matter of a few years.
There were similar jokes about Pam Anderson and Lucy Lu as well.
There were similar jokes about Pam Anderson and Lucy Lu as well.
I think it has aged okay. The only thing that bothers me a bit is how inconsistent Fry and Leela's relationship is. One episode they're deeply in love and in a following episode they are dating others like nothing happened. Seems like the writers weren't able to make up their mind of whether to make them a couple or not.
I think one amusing thing Futruama did well in one of the movies, the third one to be exact, "Bender's Game."
Minor spoilers I suppose:
Moderator Note: Edited to include spoiler tags.
Minor spoilers I suppose:
Leela and Amy's kiss. Which oddly, I'm so desensitized to lesbian kissing nowadays that it didn't even phase me.
Moderator Note: Edited to include spoiler tags.
The technology is the joke. Clearly you must have realized that. Most people have. Its like watching some old 1950's Flash Gordan or retro sci-fi shows. Where despite the fact its the future, they're using tapes to store computer information, TAPES! Not even floppy disks.
The point of using VHS or floppy drives is to give it that silly retro sci-fi feel. Its a comedy after all!
Anyway, its still funny. I like it. I think one of the things that helps make it really timeless is that fact, while they use a lot of topical humor they also through in some dated (even for the time it aired) topical humor, like Richard Nixon comes to mind.
What makes it funny is that is pokes fun at pop culture like any other animated comedy, but with a sci-fi gimmick attached to it. And lets face it, the future is just cooler then the present, so I give it bonus points.
But I can agree with everything some of the people's critiques , that it is pretty much bottle necking its popularity by targeting the sci-fi fan. But if that was true, why did it get such monster rating from Adult Swim?
Also, just because its not popular, doesn't make it bad. I personally like lots of unpopular stuff, and at times just because something is unpopular makes me like it more, but only sometimes.
The point of using VHS or floppy drives is to give it that silly retro sci-fi feel. Its a comedy after all!
Anyway, its still funny. I like it. I think one of the things that helps make it really timeless is that fact, while they use a lot of topical humor they also through in some dated (even for the time it aired) topical humor, like Richard Nixon comes to mind.
What makes it funny is that is pokes fun at pop culture like any other animated comedy, but with a sci-fi gimmick attached to it. And lets face it, the future is just cooler then the present, so I give it bonus points.
But I can agree with everything some of the people's critiques , that it is pretty much bottle necking its popularity by targeting the sci-fi fan. But if that was true, why did it get such monster rating from Adult Swim?
Also, just because its not popular, doesn't make it bad. I personally like lots of unpopular stuff, and at times just because something is unpopular makes me like it more, but only sometimes.
I think Futurama does hold up well. It being dated in some parts is inevitable because it uses referential humor and science which is constantly changing. The older episodes can only stay current for so long with those elements. Considering it's more character/story driven overall, I think it works.