FUTURAMA: Rebirth

[MeanJoePhaser]

The "zoidberg's going to be in the cage" joke was obvious, but then he had the floor mat, which was funny.

So far Zoidberg hasn't done much this season.

The Kiff being the slime spot was obvious, too. His vaguely defined anatomy allows for that whackiness.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Hmm. Futurama is not quite as funny when they stray from satire that is linked to an actual sci fi trope (which cats taking over the planet is not) or politics (ditto). And NO I have not been brainwashed by Hellcat and Psycho Kitty despite the fact that they monitor all my TV viewing. Surprisingly large amount of humor that worked anyway. My favorite: Consolidated Head-Melter.

The Bones ad at the beginning was the funniest part. More of that, please.

Next week looks promising.

Spoiler: next week!

Jurassic Park parody?

 

[Mr Light]

Aww, I just thought of something. How cool would it have been if the cats took over the entire world... and then the Hypno Toad stepped in and defeated their mind control powers, because the Earth is his! And the characters don't realize the implications of this of course.

 

[shivkala]

^
You are, of course, assuming that the cats were acting contrary to the Hypnotoad's wishes. Which of course, is preposterous, as they were obeying the Hypnotoad's wishes. As were the humans. The Hypnotoad gets off on watching various creatures under his control fight it out.

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

 

[Ryan]

The Bones ad at the beginning was the funniest part. More of that, please.

The show is really at its best when it uses the future to satirize the inanity of the present.

The episode had its moments but it felt like they were just recycling the old Hypnotoad/Nibblonian plot elements.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

The episode had its moments but it felt like they were just recycling the old Hypnotoad/Nibblonian plot elements.

"Hypnotoad plot elements" is an oxymoron. The Hypnotoad has never had any plots. He's a gag character who who pops up for a few seconds then disappears. Hypnotism/mind control is a staple of schlock sci-fi, and bound to show up frequently on Futurama.

As for Nibbler, I thought the episode made great use of the fact that Nibbler no longer hides his intelligence. It adds a fun new dynamic to his stories that I'd hardly dismiss as recycling old material.

 

[Ryan]

The episode had its moments but it felt like they were just recycling the old Hypnotoad/Nibblonian plot elements.

"Hypnotoad plot elements" is an oxymoron. The Hypnotoad has never had any plots.

But he has his own show!

 

[Meredith]

If the earth was spun backwards and you flipped the poles, the sun would rise and set properly.

 

[David cgc]

Well, technically, north, south, east, and west are based off of the rotation of the planet, so the sun still sets in the west, but New New York is now on the west coast of North America. Which is now in the southern hemisphere. Oh, dear. Maybe they should just grandfather in the old directions.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

No doubt they'll work in the gag that the sun rises in the west, sometime when we least expect it.

 

[Starbreaker]

I'm pretty sure The Late Phillip J. Fry is my favorite episode. I laughed out loud all the way through.

 

[TemporalFlux]

If the earth was spun backwards...

Fry - "If Superman taught us anything, it's that we're now traveling backwards in time."

 

[Starbreaker]

Last night's episode was probably the weakest of the season. Can't say I was very impressed. A lot of the jokes in the first 10 minutes fell flat. Things picked up, but still was never really great.

 

[Christopher]

This was pretty weak. I'm all for attacking Creationism, but it was done too heavy-handedly here (and got too wishy-washy at the end). I mean, why did this "Creature-ism" catch on so quickly? That was totally contrived to force the plot along. There was some potential in the idea of robot evolution not being as accepted, but the Professor-Bender dispute here felt a bit like a rehash of "Proposition Infinity." And the evolution on the robot planet happening so quickly, but only when the main characters weren't watching, was a gag that wore out its welcome when we got to the point that they were spending what seemed like days interacting with the robot people.

The one really good bit was Fry screaming, "This is a cool way to dieee!!!" as the robot pterosaur carried him off.

 

[Starbreaker]

I liked the triceratops on wheels. That was just stupid enough to be funny.

 

[shivkala]

I laughed at the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

So, I think we're all agreed, Futurama doesn't handle the social commentary well.

 

[Christopher]

So, I think we're all agreed, Futurama doesn't handle the social commentary well.

I'd only agree that a couple of recent episodes handled the social commentary badly. I'm not prepared to assert it as a universal rule.

 

[Mr Light]

I really liked last night's episode! Besides I thought it took a pretty balanced look at it; the robots evolved but they were created by an outside force. I thought the Professor's angry denials of their evolution pretty funny. And it had a good ending.

 

[shivkala]

So, I think we're all agreed, Futurama doesn't handle the social commentary well.

I'd only agree that a couple of recent episodes handled the social commentary badly. I'm not prepared to assert it as a universal rule.

I've been watching episodes on Netflix, and after seeing the popplers episode, the penguin episode, the Lucy Liu-bot episode, I'm closer to making it universal.

The kidNappster thing really didn't age well. It was a little over the top when it first aired, to begin with.

 

[Christopher]

"My Problem with Popplers" and "I Dated a Robot" (the Lucy Liu episode) are classics, especially the latter. Not crazy about "Bird-Bot of Ice-catraz" (the penguin one), though.