# Futurama: Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences (8/26) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699 "2010-08-27T18:10:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/41 "2010-08-29T00:35:44Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Sergio Aragones has had an influence on MAD readers for almost 50 years. He’s an institution. I was enjoying his “Drawn Out Dramas” and larger format sketches since I was in elementary school. As for Cheech and Chong, they reunited and went on tour and have a couple of new projects in the works. I’d give Futurama a pass on mentioning them, too. So? None of that changes the fact that he is dated as a cultural reference. Most people under 30 just aren’t going to _get_ 20- and 30-year-old references like these. It makes the show feel as though it’s written by culturally out-of-touch 40-somethings or 50-somethings still mostly stuck in the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/42 "2010-08-29T00:50:40Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Most people under 30 just aren’t going to _get_ 20- and 30-year-old references like these. It makes the show feel as though it’s written by culturally out-of-touch 40-somethings or 50-somethings still mostly stuck in the 1970s. Fuck 'em. They got the whole inner nets to play with. Let us have this. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/43 "2010-08-29T01:02:55Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Most people under 30 just aren’t going to _get_ 20- and 30-year-old references like these. It makes the show feel as though it’s written by culturally out-of-touch 40-somethings or 50-somethings still mostly stuck in the 1970s. And that’s what makes it good. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/44 "2010-08-29T01:15:53Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Most people under 30 just aren’t going to _get_ 20- and 30-year-old references like these. It makes the show feel as though it’s written by culturally out-of-touch 40-somethings or 50-somethings still mostly stuck in the 1970s. You make it sound like _Futurama_ is written by, I dunno, some kinda _nerds_. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/45 "2010-08-29T01:32:45Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > > [@cochrane](#): > > > > Sergio Aragones has had an influence on MAD readers for almost 50 years. He’s an institution. I was enjoying his “Drawn Out Dramas” and larger format sketches since I was in elementary school. As for Cheech and Chong, they reunited and went on tour and have a couple of new projects in the works. I’d give Futurama a pass on mentioning them, too. > > So? None of that changes the fact that he is dated as a cultural reference. > > Most people under 30 just aren’t going to _get_ 20- and 30-year-old references like these. It makes the show feel as though it’s written by culturally out-of-touch 40-somethings or 50-somethings still mostly stuck in the 1970s. Actually most comic book nerds do know him recently for his _ **Groo the wanderer** _ comic book. The last series of it, “Groo The Hogs of Horder” is being published right now. > **[Groo the Wanderer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groo_the_Wanderer)** > > Groo the Wanderer is a fantasy/comedy comic book character created by Sergio Aragonés. His stories are written and drawn by Aragonés, dialogued and edited by Mark Evanier, lettered by Stan Sakai and colored by Tom Luth. Over the years, Groo has been published by Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics (one special issue), Marvel Comics (under its Epic imprint), Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics. > Groo was among the first widely successful creator-owned comics creations, one of the few successful humorous... ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/46 "2010-08-29T01:43:39Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > So? None of that changes the fact that he is dated as a cultural reference. > > Most people under 30 just aren’t going to _get_ 20- and 30-year-old references like these. It makes the show feel as though it’s written by culturally out-of-touch 40-somethings or 50-somethings still mostly stuck in the 1970s. What about references to 1930s space adventure serials or abstract algebra? Or in the '90s, when Martin Prince made a joke about winning tickets to Supertramp on _The Simpsons_? It’s a show by geeks, for geeks, not hipsters and trendsetters. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/47 "2010-08-29T02:21:51Z")
This episode bored me, frankly. Didn’t like it much at all, though Fry’s drawings were cute. On the other hand, I rewatched last week’s episode and found that it was even funnier than I remembered. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/48 "2010-08-29T03:14:08Z")
I think mathematician Ken Keeler must’ve come up with the news vans joke. Square Root 2 News and 4th Root 4 News, indeed! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/49 "2010-08-29T04:15:10Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > It’s a show by geeks, for geeks, not hipsters and trendsetters. Yeah, OK, but it doesn’t have to be a series by and for _old_ geeks. Geekiness and youth are not mutually exclusive, you know. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/50 "2010-08-29T04:36:02Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Yeah, OK, but it doesn’t have to be a series by and for _old_ geeks. No, it doesn’t, but it kind of is…if, by “old” you mean GenX. I mean, it operates on the philosophy of giving enough laughs for everyone, but GenX geeks are the core target audience, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/51 "2010-08-29T04:43:01Z")
Let’s put it in perspective. A lot of the people you find living in the Head Museum are going to be at least 1000 years old. In the year 3010, it’s _all_ dated. Throw us oldsters a bone. That’s what makes the show great. Just because you don’t get a reference doesn’t mean it’s unimportant to a lot of us. The show is mainly for adults, after all. Even those of us who lived before the 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/52 "2010-08-29T12:44:26Z")
Oh I get the references. I’m no kid myself. I just question whether the show can draw a young audience (and thus stay on the air) with inside jokes about stuff that happened 30 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/53 "2010-08-29T14:38:11Z")
I didn’t know who Sergio so and so was, and I still laughed at Fry enthusiastically presenting his crappy comic. You don’t \*need \*to know who he is. Context made it clear that he’s a famous comic creator, and he’s about to dis Fry’s work. Anythng else is bonus. The reason Futurama is so great is \*because \*it has obscure jokes mixed in with the slapstick. Don’t get the joke about the quantum horse race? That’s okay, because a minute later, Fry’s going to be climbing a telephone pole during a lightning storm while holding a rake. If the writers decided to make the show more “easily accessible” by nixing the jokes most people wouldn’t instantly get, it would destroy the show. And what person over the age of, say, 20 doesn’t know who Cheech and Chong are? As for the episode itself, I thought the individual gags were great (anyone notice the Australian man working in the mine?) but the ending was unbelievably obvious. I knew from the moment Ndnd pulled the gun that someone was about to get teleported. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/54 "2010-08-29T17:11:38Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Oh I get the references. I’m no kid myself. I just question whether the show can draw a young audience (and thus stay on the air) with inside jokes about stuff that happened 30 years ago. My sister is 21 and all her friends are about that age, and they love Futurama even if they don’t get every single reference. Some people don’t need to have every second be all about them and their cultural touch stones to enjoy comedy. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/55 "2010-08-29T18:47:35Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > Oh I get the references. I’m no kid myself. I just question whether the show can draw a young audience (and thus stay on the air) with inside jokes about stuff that happened 30 years ago. I wasn’t talking about you in particular, just people in general. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. But if they take away the Cheech and Chong jokes or the Soylent Cola gags just to cater to the 20-somethings, they are going to lose a lot of their viewers. Not a lot of people remember Mork and Mindy, but I howled when Bender said “Dork calling Orson, Dork calling Orson.” That joke definitely wasn’t wasted. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/56 "2010-08-29T19:01:32Z")
References to before-my-time pop culture are the primary way I know about a lot of stuff that happened before I was born, so I kinda like them in TV even when I don’t completely “get” it. Obviously a show with nothing but Mork and Mindy references isn’t going to last long, but one or two isn’t going to hurt. Plus, the premise of Futurama is basically built on referencing old sci-fi stories, so not doing anything pre-1990 would be pretty limiting. I watched the last couple episodes all at once and thought that in general the show has gotten much better over the streatch of the new season (I thought the first few were really weak), but that this last one was actually the only one that didn’t follow the trend of each episode being better then the last. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/57 "2010-08-30T00:28:51Z")
Okay, I’m 25, and you’d better bet I know about Mork and Mindy, and the War of the Worlds broadcast. Sergio whatever–nah, but I’m not sure why I needed to get it–he’s obviously a comic book writer, and that’s all I need to know for the rest of the scene. That said, I don’t usually laugh at Futurama, and this was no exception. But I don’t think laughter is necessary to enjoy a series like this. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/58 "2010-08-30T02:38:50Z")
Well, if you introduce a transporter gun in the first act, you better use it by the third. I think it’s called “Kirk’s rule”, or something else Trekkish. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/59 "2010-08-30T04:36:09Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, if you introduce a transporter gun in the first act, you better use it by the third. > > I think it’s called “Kirk’s rule”, or something else Trekkish. [Chekhov’s Gun](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlexn9xzsjd5fif) And no, it is not referring to the Star Trek Russian guy, but to the playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. > [@](#): > > “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.” > —Anton Chekhov (From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.) ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699/60 "2010-08-30T14:00:58Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Okay, I’m 25, and you’d better bet I know about Mork and Mindy, and the War of the Worlds broadcast. Sergio whatever–nah, but I’m not sure why I needed to get it–he’s obviously a comic book writer, and that’s all I need to know for the rest of the scene. > > That said, I don’t usually laugh at Futurama, and this was no exception. But I don’t think laughter is necessary to enjoy a series like this. I agree with everything written here (Even the age) cuz it applies to me. Not counting the end because I actually DO laugh at Futurama. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-lrrreconcilable-ndndifferences-8-26/551699.md?page=4)