# Futurama: That Darn Katz! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378 "2010-08-06T07:03:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/41 "2010-08-08T20:01:03Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > > [@Marley23](#): > > > > Katz sounded like James Mason to me. > > Nah. The character was an obvious homage to John Houseman as Professor Kingsfield, from [The Paper Chase](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070509/). I should have been clearer, but I meant the cat leader sounded like James Mason. Professor Katz does look like and sound like Houseman. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/42 "2010-08-08T22:48:53Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, my point was rather than make fun of the idea of aliens influencing the Egyptians (as in the earlier episode), _Futurama_ just casually embraced it. This, I thought, ran somewhat counter to the norm, where _Futurama_ consistently ridicules anything New Agey and pseudoscientific (the “You’ve got a degree in baloney!” bit kills me every time). I actually think that story effectively _does_ ridicule the “Chariots of the Gods” trope by making it so outlandish. That part of the episode is more-or-less a parody of all those New Age theories. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/43 "2010-08-09T00:32:34Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > (the “You’ve got a degree in baloney!” bit kills me every time). It kills me too; he’s holding a diploma from my college. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/44 "2010-08-09T03:18:53Z")
> [@Tanbarkie](#): > > > [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > > > Well, I loved it. My husband was decidedly ‘‘meh.’’ He said the entire premise of the episode is that cats are irresistibly cute (they are, duh) so if you’re not on board with the premise, the comedy is mostly lost. I say if you don’t love cats, you _deserve_ to be bored. > > For me, the premise of the episode was that cats act irresistibly cute because they have Ulterior Motives. I suspect a cat-hater would therefore enjoy the episode just as much as a cat-lover. Only the cat-indifferent will find it unamusing. Hmm. My husband pretends he hates cats, but secretly he loves our cat. So I’m guessing he found the episode so unsettling because it reminds him of his own conflicted and hidden feelings about cats. That kind of cognitive dissonance must be unbearable. Cats definitely do have ulterior motives. I wouldn’t say those cats were evil, though. I mean their planet was dying. They were desperate. Poor kitties… ☹ (My cat kept looking up every time they meowed, running to the front window to see where all the cats were, but never quite managed to figure it out.) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/45 "2010-08-09T03:33:18Z")
I think this one didn’t click for me because of the cat factor. I neither love them nor hate them. And honestly, “cats are evil” is something I hear from cat owners more often than cat haters. So an extended cat in-joke doesn’t do very much for me. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/46 "2010-08-09T04:00:17Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > > [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > > > Is it just me, or did the cat sound and act like Stewie from Family Guy? > > \By the way, Professor Katz was voiced by Billy West, but [the evil cat _was_ Maurice LaMarche](http://theinfosphere.org/Thubanian_leader). I was convinced upon hearing the voice (of either the Professor or the Cat Leader or both, actually I think I thought it was the same voice) that the voice actor must have been Michael McKean and was disappointed to find that I was wrong. I heard the voice as Michael McKean doing [this character from Mr. Show with Bob and David](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxMS59sxwxs). ---
**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 9, 2010, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/47 "2010-08-09T06:18:16Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Cats definitely do have ulterior motives. I wouldn’t say those cats were evil, though. I mean their planet was dying. They were desperate. Poor kitties… ☹ You need to stop petting that kitty. The cats were definitely portrayed as evil. There was no element of “we hate to do this but we really must.” In fact, the leader especially rubbed it in the human’s faces. Furthermore, their planet wasn’t dying (although those on earth probably didn’t know that). When we see them getting their rotation back, the cats on the planet are perfectly fine, and there are no flames in the atmosphere, like there later are on Earth. It seems like that, in the time period since they were sent off, they’d come up with a solution–or the leader was lying about how bad it was. Either way, the inhabitants of Thuban 9 are perfectly fine. I liked the episode. I didn’t find it hilarious, but I usually don’t find Futurama hilarious. I did enjoy watching it, however. And I especially love the reference to an old movie I watch a while back where the cats could only speak because of their collars. That definitely seemed to be the case here. BTW, the [Futurama Wiki](http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/That_Darn_Katz!) is really, really behind the times. I had to use Wikipedia to remember the cat planet location. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/48 "2010-08-09T08:04:09Z")
Try [The Infosphere](http://theinfosphere.org/) instead. ---
**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 9, 2010, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/49 "2010-08-09T08:07:40Z")
I understand it has the capacity of three ordinary Futurama websites. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/50 "2010-08-09T08:22:47Z")
No, it has _twice_ the size of three ordinary Futurama websites. It exists for no particular raison, however. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/51 "2010-08-09T14:38:53Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > > [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > > > Cats definitely do have ulterior motives. I wouldn’t say those cats were evil, though. I mean their planet was dying. They were desperate. Poor kitties… ☹ > > You need to stop petting that kitty. The cats were definitely portrayed as evil. There was no element of “we hate to do this but we really must.” In fact, the leader especially rubbed it in the human’s faces. I probably did miss something, but I was mostly joking that they were poor and helpless. That’s what they _want_ us to believe. ---
**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 10, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/52 "2010-08-10T17:37:30Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > > [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > > > Is it just me, or did the cat sound and act like Stewie from Family Guy? > > Stewie is supposedly based on Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady (I haven’t seen the movie). Katz sounded like James Mason to me. On re-watching this one I still didn’t think it was a great episode but I did think it’s a fantastic James Mason impression. And if I’m right about that, it’s a clever choice because apparently [James Mason really loved cats.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mason#Private_life) > > By the way, Professor Katz was voiced by Billy West, but [the evil cat _was_ Maurice LaMarche](http://theinfosphere.org/Thubanian_leader). Ah, that’s the one who sounded like Stewie, then. I didn’t notice the difference between the Katz puppet’s voice and the cat-leader until I replayed the show. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/53 "2010-08-10T19:08:47Z")
How many references to the Statue of Liberty have there been in _Futurama_. There was the _Planet of the Apes_ reference when they were travelling to the future. When the cats stopped the rotation of the Earth, the Eiffel Tower tumbled away to be replaced by Big Ben, and then the SoL. And last night was a rerun where the Omicronians came to Earth demanding to see the last episode of _Single Female Lawyer_. As the camera pulls back at the end of the episode to show the devastated New New York, the Statue is burning and it’s arm falls off. The Infosphere has a picture of the Statue holding up part of the travel tube network. Any others? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378/54 "2010-08-29T16:04:17Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > A minor little thing, but I really enjoyed it: the bar they went to, the opening pan was a near frame-by-frame of a Jetson’s episode! There are many references to classic bits of animation. I re-watched it last night, and Kip’s dance at the club contained a direct quote of [Oskar Fischinger’s](http://www.oskarfischinger.org/) classic [Spiritual Constructions](http://seeshort.com/53-seelische-konstruktionen-spiritual-constructions.html). That is some hard-core animation geekery right there! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futurama-that-darn-katz/549378.md?page=2)