# Matt Groening has faith in the relaunch of Futurama **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 20, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407 "2005-12-20T04:43:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/41 "2005-12-20T19:57:04Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > **Excalibre** : That was strange, I got a strong sense of Deja Vu all over again from that post. 😃 Dammit! Halfway through, and I accidentally hit the tab and clicked the submit button! I figured I hit stop in time. Could any passing mod do me a favor and kill that post? ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/42 "2005-12-20T20:02:13Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > Dammit! Halfway through, and I accidentally hit the tab and clicked the submit button! I figured I hit stop in time. > > Could any passing mod do me a favor and kill that post? Since you axed nicely, maybe you’ll get it for Ecksmas. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/43 "2005-12-20T20:07:44Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > …snip… > I’m surprised, actually, that people like both Family Guy and Futurama, because the shows strike me as such polar opposites. …snip… > Futurama was based on absolutely brilliant writing. Not only was an overarching plot for the show apparently established in the first episode - with Nibbler’s pushing Fry into the cryo-booth - but it simply had some of the funniest writing and best situations of any comedy I’ve seen. It’s very similar to the Simpsons in that respect, only possibly better as it’s a tad less syrupy: the humor in Futurama is very rarely “easy” humor - it was always based upon funny situations revolving around plot and character. That sort of thing is not easy to do. I miss that show dearly; it certainly ended on a strong point, but I’d still love to see it return no matter what. I agree with everything you said. I loved early Simpson’s (Let us say first 8 years) and I loved Futurama. (The Star Trek Episode and Blurnsball was as funny as the best Simpsons episodes) I like South Park and some episodes are brilliant. (“Lemiwinks” and “The Return of the Lord of the Rings” as examples or “Simpsons did it”) No Family Guy show was a great show. They have funny skits and funny jokes but no great shows. Jim ---
**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:** [December 20, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/44 "2005-12-20T21:12:41Z")
In order to get all the references on a typical _Family Guy_ episode, you have to have watched a lot of television between 1975 and 1995. In order to get all the references on a typical _Futurama_ episode, you have to have been a serious computer/sci-fi geek. I qualify on both counts, but _Futurama_ is simply more intellectually challenging. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/45 "2005-12-20T21:35:17Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > In order to get all the references on a typical _Futurama_ episode, you have to have been a serious computer/sci-fi geek. You really think so? Maybe I’m a bigger geek than I figured, then, because either a lot of references sailed over my head without my even noticing, or else I must have understood them and just didn’t even think about what a geek I was to recognize them. ---
**Author:** ![BluePitbull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@BluePitbull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BluePitbull)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/46 "2005-12-20T22:20:54Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > Yeah, and a lot less censorship. Look at Japanese OVA series for adults. Futurama is fine the way it is. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/47 "2005-12-20T22:31:00Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > Futurama is fine the way it is. I dunno, given that censors on AS have cut out things like, “Great zombi Jesus!” and Fox censors are notoriously fickle (see the _Wish Upon a Weinstein_ episode of _Family Guy_) and I doubt that Groening would seriously entertain the idea of a Fry/Leela/Amy threeway scene. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/48 "2005-12-20T22:32:50Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > You really think so? Maybe I’m a bigger geek than I figured, then, because either a lot of references sailed over my head without my even noticing, or else I must have understood them and just didn’t even think about what a geek I was to recognize them. How’s’about "'CHR$(77)=\>“many things she gave me” ? It’s the geek equivalent of “Sneed’s Feed and Seed”. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/49 "2005-12-20T22:41:25Z")
> [@pizzabrat](#): > > Family Guy is “absurdist”, and there’s nothing new about that type of humor to call any other types “traditional”. […] I can’t think of any classic absurdist examples off the top of my head. Little help: [_Hellzapoppin’_](http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=94794) Much of the sensibility of Warner Brothers’ cartoons was borrowed from _Hellzapoppin’_. (1941) A typical example of the sort of absurdist humour that drives _Hellzapoppin’_: Periodically, the action is interrupted by a uniformed messenger coming through the scene, pulling a potted plant, holding a waybill, and plaintively calling, “Mrs. Jones? Mrs. Jones!” Everyone watches without comment as he passes through, and then resumes whatever they were doing. With each appearance, the plant is bigger, until finally it’s the size of a giant redwood, and the messenger is riding on top of it. The stage play it was loosely based on featured a Yiddish Adolph Hitler as an opener. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/50 "2005-12-20T22:43:54Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > How’s’about "'CHR$(77)=\>“many things she gave me” ? > > It’s the geek equivalent of “Sneed’s Feed and Seed”. I don’t get it - character 77 is “M”, right? I don’t remember ever seeing that anyway. So at this point, we can assume that I’m not a geek, but simply so out of it that I missed most of what was going on in each episode. I have seen every episode several times, incidentally. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/51 "2005-12-20T22:51:56Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > I will never forgive those bastards over at Fox for killnig Futurama. They are quite possibly the WORST people ever to take a great show too. Nonsense. Futurama had a four season run, which is two or three seasons longer than most shows run. No other network would have EVER put Futurama on the air… or The Simpsons, or Famly Guy. Without FOX, you would never have seen a single episode of any of those programs. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/52 "2005-12-20T22:57:31Z")
> [@](#): > > In order to get all the references on a typical Futurama episode, you have to have been a serious computer/sci-fi geek. It certainly helps, but the references come from all of pop culture, as they do in Simpson, Family Guy and South Park. Just for example, the “Fry and the Slurm Factory” episode was fantastic, and made of references from beginning to end, but darned if I can think of any that were science/sci-fi specific. On the other hand, anyone who can’t appreciate the “horse wins by a quantum finish” joke will not be enjoying Futurama to its fullest. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/53 "2005-12-20T23:07:27Z")
Wooo! I win X-Mas! ---
**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:** [December 20, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/54 "2005-12-20T23:09:32Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > I don’t get it And that is why you fail. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/55 "2005-12-20T23:23:27Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > I don’t get it - character 77 is “M”, right? Wow, you never got exposed to that trope in song or sampler form? > [@](#): > > M Is for the Many things she gave me, > O Means only that she’s growing Old. > T Is for the Tears she shed to save me, > H Is for her Heart of purest gold. > E Is for her Eyes with lovelight shinning, > R Means Right and Right she’ll always be. > Put them all together, They spell MOTHER. > A word that means the world to me. > [@cmkeller](#): > > On the other hand, anyone who can’t appreciate the “horse wins by a quantum finish” joke will not be enjoying Futurama to its fullest. You could argue that the Uncertainty Principle isn’t even in the domain of geekdom anymore – it’s practically popular culture. Even _Six Feet Under_ did an extended riff on it, without feeling any need for exposition. I think the real “geek” jokes are things like Bender’s “6502” brain. If that means a damned thing to you, it’s a safe bet you’re a double-dipped geek. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/56 "2005-12-20T23:26:39Z")
That’s from the _Fry and the Slurm Factory_ episode, by the way. 😃 ---
**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:** [December 20, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/57 "2005-12-20T23:29:29Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > the “Fry and the Slurm Factory” episode was fantastic, and made of references from beginning to end, but darned if I can think of any that were science/sci-fi specific. Fry: Maybe Slurm is made out of… _people!_ Leela: They already have that. It’s called Soylent Cola. Fry: Really? How’s it taste? Leela: It varies from person to person. Of course, that’s been used so often, it’s probably become mainstream. A joke unquestionably in the realm of geekdom is when the F-Ray (which Bender and Fry would later use to find the winning bottle cap) reveals that Bender’s brain is a 6502 chip, the same as in the Commodore 64. ---
**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:** [December 20, 2005, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/58 "2005-12-20T23:30:42Z")
Huh. I see Larry Mudd is my cowboy-hat counterpart. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/59 "2005-12-20T23:44:54Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I think the real “geek” jokes are things like Bender’s “6502” brain. If that means a damned thing to you, it’s a safe bet you’re a double-dipped geek. 🙂 Or that Bender and Flexo’s serial numbers are both expressable as the sum of two cubes. (They are. I figured it out (after a long time.)) How about beer that comes in Klein bottles? (Zero fl. oz.!) Old Fortran Malt Whiskey! An alien language that was really just a monoalphabetic substitution for English plaintext, which when it proved to easy to crack, was replaced by a modular sum cipher? A “quantum finish” ruined because the judges observed it! A plausible explanation for faster-than-light travel, which it turns out really isn’t. A robot planet named Capek. It goes on and on. Futurama is the shizzle fo’ rizzle. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2005, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407/60 "2005-12-21T00:06:43Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Or that Bender and Flexo’s serial numbers are both expressable as the sum of two cubes. (They are. I figured it out (after a long time.)) How about beer that comes in Klein bottles? (Zero fl. oz.!) Old Fortran Malt Whiskey! …snip… [QUOTE] I missed some of these and I am a computer geek. The Chip I knew, Old Fortran of course and Capek etc. But what is a Klein bottle and why 0 oz? I came up [with this from Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klein_bottle) and [Get an ACME KLEIN BOTTLE](http://www.kleinbottle.com/) So never mind the what, but even a Klein bottle would hold liquid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matt-groening-has-faith-in-the-relaunch-of-futurama/336407.md?page=4)