Thoughts on 6ACV21 - Yo Leela Leela - SPOILERS!

[Reply #240 on:]

True, but it would be fair to say that the average Slurm drinker would be sober most of the time as it's highly addictive and non-alcoholic. This is of course, the average non-robot Slurm drinker...

Yea but what about the Slurm drinkers who are also alcoholics? Addicted smokers can be alcoholics too, so I figure the same principle applies to Slurm drinkers. Plus, you'd have to be drunk to attend an awards ceremony where one of the nominated shows is about teenage, incestuous sluts.

If you're drunk all the time your liver will turn into a patty and collapse. If you drink Slurm all the time your teeth will all fall out, but you'll still be alive...

[Reply #241 on:]

You can drink and smoke at the same time, though.

Like Bender!

[Reply #242 on:]

There's an art to being drunk just enough to avoid liver destruction.

[Reply #243 on:]

What, like visiting this guy?...

[Reply #244 on:]

I believe his name is 'Organ Dealer'...

[Reply #245 on:]

That's his career choice. I highly doubt it's what his mother named him.

[Reply #246 on:]

It's what we named him. And we're more important than his mother.

[Reply #247 on:]

I haven't actually counted, but they seem to be really getting the gags-per-minute rate back up to original run levels in the back half of this season, which was my main disappointment with the first half last fall. Probably natural as the writing staff gets back into practice at it and hits their strides.

WTF is with this episode's reviews on cgef, tho? user rating is 40%, far lower than any other in this run so far, and it has almost twice as many total reviews (120+ compared to 60-80 for the rest). That is not agreeing at all with this review thread.

[Reply #248 on:]

I haven't actually counted, but they seem to be really getting the gags-per-minute rate back up to original run levels in the back half of this season, which was my main disappointment with the first half last fall. Probably natural as the writing staff gets back into practice at it and hits their strides.

I really didn’t find much funny in Yo Leela Leela and it was very poor on the humour front in my opinion. Like I said; there were a few chuckles, however nothing really stood out to me and really made me laugh. In fact it didn’t even have anything to rival the Albino Humping Worm joke from Holiday Craptacular. Although I think Holiday Craptacular is marginally worse, at least it had jokes that I remember and which made me laugh (the other being Dr Zoidberg turning and facing the wall)...

WTF is with this episode's reviews on cgef, tho? user rating is 40%, far lower than any other in this run so far, and it has almost twice as many total reviews (120+ compared to 60-80 for the rest). That is not agreeing at all with this review thread.

Although statistically this episode has faired better on Peel, it has still been widely panned in this very review thread. I’m glad that the ratings on CGEF are so poor because to me it’s a more accurate reflection of this episodes quality and it creates a clearer more defined contrast to the best episodes of the show. With a quick glance it is easily identified by those ratings. I rated Yo Leela Leela 4/10 and on CGEF it currently has 40%, so it looks like my rating is dead on the average at present...

[Reply #249 on:]

If you're drunk all the time your liver will turn into a patty and collapse. If you drink Slurm all the time your teeth will all fall out, but you'll still be alive...

Yeah, but at least people can't tell you have a crapped-up liver just by looking at you. I'd rather have multiple organ failure than have no teeth, but that's more a symptom of our appearance-obsessed culture than anything else. Also, I have really nice teeth.

I haven't actually counted, but they seem to be really getting the gags-per-minute rate back up to original run levels in the back half of this season, which was my main disappointment with the first half last fall. Probably natural as the writing staff gets back into practice at it and hits their strides.

I thought the first  half of this episode was hilarious (the first act, in particular, had a very classic feel to me); the last act petered out a bit, but overall I thought it was solid. "Neutopia," "Benderama," and "Law and Oracle" have been the three most laugh-out-loud episodes for me thus far this season. That said, there have been a few duds for me in terms of non-stop laughs ("Ghost in the Machines" isn't all that funny, and the emotional aspect of the episode isn't poignant enough to really make up for the lack of solid jokes; "The Silence of the Clamps" had a decent first act, gag-wise, but everything else was pretty much garbage)--but basically I agree with you.

[Reply #250 on:]

If you're drunk all the time your liver will turn into a patty and collapse. If you drink Slurm all the time your teeth will all fall out, but you'll still be alive...

Yeah, but at least people can't tell you have a crapped-up liver just by looking at you. I'd rather have multiple organ failure than have no teeth, but that's more a symptom of our appearance-obsessed culture than anything else. Also, I have really nice teeth.

There is one way; if someone has yellowed eye whites it's often a good indication that their liver is screwed. I'm sure you do have good teeth though, obviously that means I've not given you enough Rolo's yet ...

[Reply #251 on:]

I just watched this an hour ago and can't remember anything about it. That's not a good sign.


Well, I mean, at least I didn't remember it for being especially bad...

[Reply #252 on:]

I really disliked this episode. The kids show storyline was a really bad idea, and it wasn't very funny.

I'm just glad that I didn't register last week when this episode aired. It would've been inauspicious if my debut review bashed Futurama.

[Reply #253 on:]

I just watched this an hour ago and can't remember anything about it. That's not a good sign.


Well, I mean, at least I didn't remember it for being especially bad...

You forgot it, you can't unforget it!

[Reply #254 on:]

Unless he watches it again.

I think we've finally discovered something that can be 'un-'d.

[Reply #255 on:]

"Don't I need a degree to write gibberish for toddlers?"  I hear you, Leels.  I don't know why I am bothering with studying illustration, when its Peppa Pig that rakes it in.  She talks through a gash in the side of her cheek, for christ's sake.

[Reply #256 on:]

After a rewatch I'm going to have to massively go against the grain and say that this is my favourite episode of this second half of the series so far, by quite a long shot. It's as good as the late phillip j fry, but only in a much different way. Futurama doesn't have to have some epic adventure plot to be really good, and this was just one of those episodes that some of us will love for the humour and others won't due to there not really being much of a plot.

It's just my kinda humour, plain and simple, the dark humour stuff that made me love futurama in the first place. Organ harvesting clowns still make me smile.

The songs were brilliant, when Futurama gets them right, it really gets them right, and these were good ones due to the sheer ridiculousness of them. Katey Segal's voice acting was perfect too, totally cracked me up.

I think a lot of people simply recoiled at the overload of sugary cuteness and missed the "so bad it's good" humour behind it.

You kinda have to walk into this episode with a "hipster" mindset... something which was even lampshaded in the episode itself. It's supposed to be horrible, that is the intent.

I guess I've ended up seeing way too much really stupid kid's TV over the years (with "boobah" being the absolute worst acid-trip-mindfuck show of the lot) so a parody of them was very welcome. I think the higher rating here on PEEL simply shows that more on here people "get it" than CGEF since we're more familiar with futurama and know when it's just screwing around with an ep. Of course, getting it doesn't always correlate with liking it, but I'd say you do have to get it before it becomes possible to like it.

In short, the episode is pretty much "Futurama does hipster humour" in a jar.

Also, bonus points for the subtle reference to crimes of the hot. I like turtles!

[Reply #257 on:]

luckily, most futurama fans are hipster's. every person i talked to was sickened by it, like me. let us pray that they never do an episode that bad ever again.

[Reply #258 on:]

Too bad these polls don't give you an average number rating out of ten cumulative of all the votes...hey that's something for the wish void...

[Reply #259 on:]

Here's something you can do: calculate the average yourself. It's not hard. The poll even represents the mode graphically. The mean is obtainable from simple mathematical calculations based on the numbers you can see. Overall, 492 "points" out of 840 were given (as the poll stands right now). 492 divided by 84 will therefore reveal the mean.

The mean (at this point in time) is 5.857 and the mode is 7.

Besides which, it's not really possible to implement this in the poll without having two different types of poll - one for text questions, one for a numerical vote.

Your laziness is impressive though.

[Reply #260 on:]

I know how to calculate it, duh, but I'm too busy editing members' posts...

[Reply #261 on:]

I totally agree with you, Zmithy (except this isn't my favorite episode of season 6B; it's certainly one of the better ones, though), especially about the songs. I'd take the songs in YLL over the ones in the Holiday Spectacular any day, if only because YLL's songs were so hilarious and ridiculous (and, yes, patronizing--but that's sort of the point). I also think the first two acts of the episode are really solid, in terms of pacing and the frequency of jokes (and the number of jokes that really hit), and I'm only bothered by the reveal that the Humplings are real because it seems a bit too far-fetched. But it's rectified a bit in act three, what with Leela's intense guilt and protracted confession and desire to be punished for what she's done, even if her intentions were good.

And I love whenever the Orphanarium is used. I hope that we see it again, even though all of the orphans have presumably been adopted (though I can't decide if the twelve orphans in this episode are the only orphans, or if they're just the ones that get to go on fun trips to the TV set and hear stories and play with dust motes. The implication at the end of the episode is that they're the only orphans, in which case the Orphanarium's lack of funding makes little sense. It shouldn't be so difficult to support a dozen kids).

[Reply #262 on:]

Average point scores for the Production Season 6 episodes as of right now:

9.377 The Late Philip J. Fry

<gap>

9.017 The Prisoner of Benda

<big gap>

8.429 The Mutants Are Revolting
8.427 Lethal Inspection
8.282 Law & Oracle
8.238 Ghost in the Machines

<gap>

7.941 Rebirth
7.922 All the Presidents' Heads

<gap>

7.495 The Duh-Vinci Code
7.444 Proposition Infinity
7.424 Benderama
7.361 A Clockwork Origin
7.228 That Darn Katz!
7.198 Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences

<gap>

6.888 Attack of the Killer App
6.826 The Silence of the Clamps
6.636 Neutopia
6.411 In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela

<big gap>

5.857 Yo Leela Leela

<gap>

5.447 Futurama Holiday Spectacular

[Reply #263 on:]

Have the writers lost their way with Leela? She had some classics like 'The Sting', but in S6, the Leela-centric eps rate near the bottom?

[Reply #264 on:]

In fairness, I don't think it's the Leela-centric nature of the episodes themselves that leads to such low ratings (after all, "The Mutants Are Revolting" centers of Leela, and it's among the top-rated episodes for season six); I just think that episodes like "Attack of the Killer App" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" and "Yo Leela Leela" have a lot of other crappy things going for them, in a many viewers' eyes. It's not just some possible slipshod writing of Leela's character--it's the stupid pop culture references and crappy plotting and weird pacing. That said, Leela's writing has always been kind of inconsistent, so I don't think that's an innovation (read: misstep) of the new run exclusively.

[Reply #265 on:]

Not to mention that Leela-episodes have never been universally strong. A Leela of Her Own is almost universally regarded as one of the worst episodes of the original run (and rightfully so).

[Reply #266 on:]

Eh, I really like "A Leela of Her Own" (and most other Leela episodes, for that matter), but I agree with you in terms of general fan opinion on the episodes. And anyway, Leela is probably at her best when the story is more emotional and less jokey; "Leela's Homeworld" and "The Sting," for example, are amazing episodes, and most shippy episodes are pretty well-received, too. I think the problem arises when Leela is pushed into this position of self-righteousness, which is what tends to happen in an episode where she's acting as the crusader for a particular cause, or trying to realize a self-indulgent dream. She can come off as such a whiny, cloying jerk.

She's definitely at her best when she's both fairly competent but also hapless, which is what happens in an episode like "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz": she kicks some ass, but she also ultimately fails in some respects. Ditto for "Less Than Hero" and "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles." Any episode that kind of puts Leela in her place, or has her acting silly or lighthearted, tends to be a winner for me. It's her casual bitchiness in episodes like, say, "Neutopia" or "The Beast With a Billion Backs" that bothers me. So, in some respects, I prefer Leela in those episodes where she's the focus--the episodes where she's more a supporting character tend to play up her less attractive attributes, like selfishness and offhanded cruelty. I get that I'm probably alone in that opinion, though.

[Reply #267 on:]

I know how to calculate it, duh, but I'm too busy editing members' posts...

yeah, thanks for deleting my post on why AOTKA was terrible. mucho appreciato.

[Reply #268 on:]

I hear what you're saying, Gorks. But I'm also a little concerned about the upcoming 'Mobius Dick' - screening this week, I believe. Leela hunting a space whale? The same Leela who 'loves all living things' and let a muck leech live off her own blood for weeks? Either she's been written incredibly out of character or they have to come up with a darned compelling reason for such a flip-flop.

[Reply #269 on:]

I'm hoping it's the latter, definitely, El-Man. (And, not to get too off-topic, but you've actually reminded me of another reason to hate "Bender's Game": Leela is so keen on killing the Tunneling Horror and eating his freaking heart, even though he's a living creature. Blah.) My guess is that Leela sees killing the whale as being for the greater good, much like killing the penguins in "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz." But the writers have an uneven track record this season, in terms of crafting plots that are organic to the characters vs. shoving characters into plots that don't fit them, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

And to make this post somewhat on-topic: I actually thought Leela was pretty much in character in YLL. The lying was a bit egregious, but at least Leela lampshaded it with that line to Bender about how much she hates being dishonest.

[Reply #270 on:]

What about her undeserved sense of accomplishment even though she herself knew it was undeserved and that it was eating at her personally?

[Reply #271 on:]

Hmmm. You bring up an interesting point, sir. But are you pointing to that as something that's in character or out of character? Because Leela's been overcome by guilt in the past, and practically begging to be punished for it (in "The Sting" specifically). And she's always been a bit egotistical, and of course the accolades, though undeserved, were quite the confidence-booster--and Leela is essentially an insecure person who fears she'll never be loved and yadda yadda yadda--so it makes sense to me that she would accept them while still secretly feeling terrible about the whole thing.

[Reply #272 on:]

Well, I was suggesting her egotistical behavior was out of character. It's interesting to hear you refer to Leela as egotistical, because although I've found her to be rather confident, I never thought of her as having much of an ego. You bring up a great point that, due to her insecurity, she might lap up the praise and attention she's getting (similar to when she momentarily won Miss Universe, and when she thought she was a role model as a female Blurnsball player). Still, in those examples I gave, I could see why Leela might believe she was deserving of those awards (ok, the Miss Universe is a stretch lol). In the case of being completely fraudulent, what is she really proud of?

I mean, if she's insecure and worried people will never love her, I could see why she would keep up the charade and accept the positive comments. But to go so far as to actually believe she's better than other people and more creative? I don't know; I really felt that her whole egotistical behavior was a way for the writers to trick the audience into thinking, "Hmm, well Leela would never act like that if this was a fraud. She must really be creating the show by herself!" since, before that point, I was actually becoming suspicious that Leela wasn't really making up her material. (And that's a significant statement, because I almost never can predict plot twists and conclusions to stories!)

[Reply #273 on:]

She didn't seem that bad in this episode to be honest.  Aside from one or two arrogant statements, she was EXTREMELY mild for the usual "Normal character gets ahead somehow, it all goes to their head before they taken down a few pegs" type storyline.

[Reply #274 on:]

She didn't seem that bad in this episode to be honest.  Aside from one or two arrogant statements, she was EXTREMELY mild for the usual "Normal character gets ahead somehow, it all goes to their head before they taken down a few pegs" type storyline.

But Leela's better than normal, she's ab-normal, and that's what makes her so great!

[Reply #275 on:]

Well, I was suggesting her egotistical behavior was out of character. It's interesting to hear you refer to Leela as egotistical, because although I've found her to be rather confident, I never thought of her as having much of an ego.

I'd say that she's confident-bordering-on-cocky; "egotistical" might have been too strong a word on my part. At the very least, she seems to operate under the assumption that she's right about most things (which I guess you'd more accurately call self-righteousness), including constantly rejecting Fry ("I've been a fool--a fully-justified, prudent fool"), being smart and beautiful ("That is so true and sweet"), and saving endangered wildlife (she goes on crusades in both "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder").

You bring up a great point that, due to her insecurity, she might lap up the praise and attention she's getting (similar to when she momentarily won Miss Universe, and when she thought she was a role model as a female Blurnsball player).

Exactly. Leela wants praise--secretly believes she deserves praise--but still tends to be faux-modest about most of her successes. It's a relateable aspect of her character, at least for me (I tend to be the same way about certain things), but it certainly doesn't do wonders for her likability.

In the case of being completely fraudulent, what is she really proud of?

Showing the orphans that someone like them can become successful. Of course, Leela lies by claiming that her success is the result of her own hard work, but she does admit in the first act that dumb luck plays a huge role in making it big. (That's actually some nice foreshadowing, because Leela is not only lucky that Doubledeal liked the Rumbledy Hump stuff--she's also lucky to have come across her "quiet place" in the first place.)

I don't know; I really felt that her whole egotistical behavior was a way for the writers to trick the audience into thinking, "Hmm, well Leela would never act like that if this was a fraud. She must really be creating the show by herself!" since, before that point, I was actually becoming suspicious that Leela wasn't really making up her material. (And that's a significant statement, because I almost never can predict plot twists and conclusions to stories!)

That's a possibility, though I will admit to not seeing the twist coming. (Hey, at least I knew that Billy wasn't really Bender-in-disguise in "The Silence of the Clamps." Isn't that enough, damn it?) I'm not entirely willing to give the writers that much credit, though; it seems much more likely to me that they were writing Leela unevenly because they have a history of doing so, and not for any greater plot purpose.

[Reply #276 on:]

*sigh* I hope this season comes out on DVD soon... I'm missing so much good stuff and am trying not to watch it online...

OT for a sec - SpaceGoldfish, you need to post a pic in the caption thread before someone else does.

[Reply #277 on:]

Yeah Gorky, perhaps I assumed too much about the writers' intention. Still, if the reason you propose for Leela being cocky is that she was proud of inspiring the orphans, I would have preferred her egotistical remarks to be less focused on her "creativity" and more about her success as a role model. I mean, she openly comments at how her peers' shows are inferior, and how she's more creative than anyone else at the table. She can't be proud about those boasts though, because she knows them to not be true!

As for the dumb luck line, I possibly misinterpreted it. It's strange how two people could hear a relatively simple line in a Futurama episode and interpret it rather differently. All I heard was a simple joke about how people who hit it big often did so out of pure luck (right time, right place, yadda yadda); I felt it was more of a commentary about worldly circumstances rather than internally relevant to the episode. You saw more depth to it and found both an instance of foreshadowing and an admonition on Leela's part that her success was not fully warranted and that she was being humble about her new-found fame. I need to be more open-minded with these jokes lol. o_O

You bring up a great point that, due to her insecurity, she might lap up the praise and attention she's getting (similar to when she momentarily won Miss Universe, and when she thought she was a role model as a female Blurnsball player).

Exactly. Leela wants praise--secretly believes she deserves praise--but still tends to be faux-modest about most of her successes. It's a relateable aspect of her character, at least for me (I tend to be the same way about certain things), but it certainly doesn't do wonders for her likability.

Right, now that makes sense. So didn't you find her openly boastful behavior rather off-putting this episode? I know exactly what you mean by her faux-modesty; that's a nice way of putting it and I never was able to articulate how I felt about her behavior (hurr hurr). That's precisely why I didn't like Leela being so arrogant in this episode, especially since she was being arrogant about something so knowingly undeserved.

Finally, I didn't even predict the Billy not being Bender thing (admittedly, I felt stupid for not having done so).  So consider yourself an inspiration to blind fools like me. Just don't let it get to your head. : P

[Reply #278 on:]

As for the dumb luck line, I possibly misinterpreted it. It's strange how two people could hear a relatively simple line in a Futurama episode and interpret it rather differently. All I heard was a simple joke about how people who hit it big often did so out of pure luck (right time, right place, yadda yadda); I felt it was more of a commentary about worldly circumstances rather than internally relevant to the episode. You saw more depth to it and found both an instance of foreshadowing and an admonition on Leela's part that her success was not fully warranted and that she was being humble about her new-found fame. I need to be more open-minded with these jokes lol. o_O

You give me too much credit, sir. Please, continue.

Seriously, though: I came up with that interpretation of the dumb luck line as I was writing my response to you. I didn't see it as foreshadowing the first (or, I guess, second) time I watched the episode, but it makes sense to me in that context now that I think about it. So you could say you don't need to be more open-minded about the jokes--you just need to finely hone your ability to bullshit an explanation for a line that was most likely a throwaway gag. You know, like I just did.

So didn't you find her openly boastful behavior rather off-putting this episode?

Oh, yeah, I definitely found it obnoxious. I'm just saying that it's not out of character for Leela to act that way generally (though, in the past, when she's been conceited about things, they've been things that are mostly true or deserved--she is gorgeous, and she does have every right to keep Fry at arm's length until she's sure of how she feels about him.) It's true that YLL is probably the first instance of Leela getting a big head about something that's disingenuous, so it makes sense to view it as out of character behavior. I just think there's a precedent for, at least, Leela being full of herself regardless of how deserved her self-congratulatory attitude is.

[Reply #279 on:]

I'm just saying that it's not out of character for Leela to act that way generally (though, in the past, when she's been conceited about things, they've been things that are mostly true or deserved--she is gorgeous, and she does have every right to keep Fry at arm's length until she's sure of how she feels about him.) It's true that YLL is probably the first instance of Leela getting a big head about something that's disingenuous, so it makes sense to view it as out of character behavior. I just think there's a precedent for, at least, Leela being full of herself regardless of how deserved her self-congratulatory attitude is.

Is there though? I suppose the Blurnsball situation would be an example of where she had an air of pomp that was undeserved, but the pomp was expressed in a way that was all about Leela pointing out her success and abilities absolutely, rather than framing her success relative to others by essentially insulting them. Yeah, I guess at this point we're just wondering at what degree of cockiness does Leela become out of character, if ever? Perhaps my naivete and positive image of Leela have blinded me to her shortcomings.

Also, your bullshitting skills humble me : )