Episodes that seem less funny on a rewatch

[on:]

Are there any particular episodes that seem to be less entertaining after a while?

I was just watching "The Luck of the Fryish", and it feels like the episode is less interesting than it used to be. I can rewatch similar episodes like "Jurassic Bark" easily, but this one seems to get less interesting...

Does anyone else feel this way about different episodes? I believe that the more action-based ones have a better rewatch value. (If that makes any sense)

[Reply #1 on:]

The Luck of the Fryrish seems to get better with each re-watch for me...

And so does The Futurama Holiday Spectacular...

[Reply #2 on:]

It still remains one of my favourite episodes, but it just seems less entertaining than it used to. Although, the emotional punch still remains, so that's a bonus.

Also, you think the Holiday Craptacular gets better? Yuck. 

[Reply #3 on:]

I like TFHS for its small jokes and gags, but the overall plots are bad. Except for the Robanukah one. And even that is slightly silly. (Why would the crew agree to go to the depths of the Earth for some oil just for some stupid made up holiday? Yes it's non-canon, but still....)

[Reply #4 on:]

Less funny? Nothing is as funny the second time around from my personal experience.

But Luck of the Fryrish has one of my favorite quotes from Futurama.

"And now he broke my hand".

[Reply #5 on:]

The Cryonic Woman I guess, because although the beginning still remains funny on re-watch, the first time I watched it there was a certain humour to the head-fuckery it put you through as the so-called plot progressed, but that was lost upon re-watch...

[Reply #6 on:]

"And now he broke my hand".

I use that quote a lot.

[Reply #7 on:]

None of them!!!!

Cept YLL.

I don't know how you get lower than 0 laff factor though...

I have to be honest though, I haven't seen it snce that awful first viewing.

[Reply #8 on:]

True, YLL needed to be funny to begin with in order to seem less funny on re-watch...

[Reply #9 on:]

The scene where the crew wouldn't shut up was funny...

[Reply #10 on:]

*tumbleweed rolls by*

[Reply #11 on:]

Also:

"I'm on a mostly natural high!"

"Urgh you writers make me sick - nice script though..."

[Reply #12 on:]

[Reply #13 on:]

Oh PEEL is no fun...

And I'm a pessimist!

[Reply #14 on:]

Every episode gets slightly less funny if you rewatch it enough.

This is the case with pretty much every form of comedy - not just Futurama episodes.

[Reply #15 on:]

A lot of things get funnier the more I watch them...

[Reply #16 on:]

Just saying it like it is, Danny.

Fail Biologist!

[Reply #17 on:]

Even if they initially get funnier, keep rewatching them and they'll get less funny.

[Reply #18 on:]

Even if they initially get funnier, keep rewatching them and they'll get less funny.

I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe!

[Reply #19 on:]

I disagree, because there are things I catch upon multiple viewings that I didn't on the first time. For this reason, nearly every great show out there gets better upon subsequent viewings.

[Reply #20 on:]

Yeah, but once you've caught that thing you initially missed, it's usually not as funny the second time you see it.

[Reply #21 on:]

Things won't surprise you into laughter anymore on repeated viewings, sure, but it is possible that you can grow to appreciate the comedic brilliance of something the more you watch it.

[Reply #22 on:]

Things won't surprise you into laughter anymore on repeated viewings, sure, but it is possible that you can grow to appreciate the comedic brilliance of something the more you watch it.

This is true. Most of the Season 1 eps I hardly watch anymore because I've seen them all like fifteen times, but I just watched Series has Landed with my sister and though I didn't really find it funnier, I appreciated it even more.

[Reply #23 on:]

Like Tedward and spira say, I usually find myself enjoying episodes more with each rewatch (not necessarily because I find them funnier, but because I find them, I don't know, richer). The only episode I can think of that I enjoyed at first then came to dislike is "Bender's Game"; I think I was still stewing over the fuckery that went on in "The Beast With a Billion Backs," so the first time I watched BG I was just happy that no one was, you know, committing suicide or being raped by space monsters. But on subsequent rewatches, I am annoyed by almost everything that happens in the second half of BG--the rehash of the Bender's-crazy/robot-asylum thing; the fan service that is Amy the Water Nympho; Leela eating someone's heart (I don't care if it's in bizarro fantasy land--it's still disturbing)--and only find the first two parts of the movie to be worth my time.

Also: "Rebirth" doesn't strike me as quite so great the second time around; I think I was conflating my excitement about episodic Futurama being back with my excitement for the episode itself. It's still good, mind you, but it's not exactly a laugh-out-loud funny affair, and certainly has a number of gags that just fall flat.

[Reply #24 on:]

Man..I am about thining when I can afford a new roof.

[Reply #25 on:]

When I watch the episodes more and more, they really become engrained in my head. I start to remember quotes and lines, funny plot gags...I love watching first season because I know almost every line of every episode, the fact that I can quote along with the tv makes it all the greeter. I don't know why some people would think episodes lose their charm after a while...they lose their "surprise" factor yes, but their comedic level remains in tact and for me, rises with each viewing based on the circumstances of other episodes.

[Reply #26 on:]

I can quote entire scenes out of BBS, I do it when watching to piss off my brother.

[Reply #27 on:]

Also: "Rebirth" doesn't strike me as quite so great the second time around; I think I was conflating my excitement about episodic Futurama being back with my excitement for the episode itself. It's still good, mind you, but it's not exactly a laugh-out-loud funny affair, and certainly has a number of gags that just fall flat.

I think I love Rebirth more than the average, though I agree that some of it fell flat on a rewatch. But I can't help still laughing out loud far too loudly every time the Leela-bot says "I like jellybeans!" That's not even really funny. But it kills me.

I can quote a significant amount of the series at this point and it is fun yelling lines at my laptop.

[Reply #28 on:]

I can quote a significant amount of the series at this point and it is fun yelling lines at my laptop.

I quote along a lot when I'm watching Futurama with someone else, like a parlor trick or something. As if my friends and family members care that I am ridiculously obsessed with a sci-fi cartoon.

More to the point, though: What I still enjoy about "Rebirth" is the more emotional stuff (particularly that scene between Fry and Leela towards the end of the episode, where he's lamenting how everything he dates runs away); that, I think, is really well-done. But a lot of the gags are kind of cheesy and/or flat-out unfunny; there are only a handful of spot-on gags (Hermes hitting the showers and being captured by the PE security cameras; Fry talking about his feelings at the urinal; real Leela and robot Leela snarking at one another). By no means is it a bad episode, but my impression of it was markedly different the second time I watched it.

[Reply #29 on:]

I can quote a significant amount of the series at this point and it is fun yelling lines at my laptop.

I quote along a lot when I'm watching Futurama with someone else, like a parlor trick or something. As if my friends and family members care that I am ridiculously obsessed with a sci-fi cartoon.

This is quite possibly the most annoying thing a person can possibly do. One the last day of school one year, we got to watch 'Shrek' and my friend did this throughout the whole thing, much to the vocal dismay of the class. It was like that scene in 'I Am Legend' except not funny - just plain annoying.

[Reply #30 on:]

I can quote a significant amount of the series at this point and it is fun yelling lines at my laptop.

I quote along a lot when I'm watching Futurama with someone else, like a parlor trick or something.

My friends and I do this with Firefly. I do it with Futurama, Star Wars (I can do most of Empire at this point), Star Trek II, and to a lesser extent, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, Scott Pilgrim, and very occasionally with Lord of the Rings ("And my axe!").

I think it's partially due to this that certain films have a high retention of their entertainment value for me.

[Reply #31 on:]

This is quite possibly the most annoying thing a person can possibly do.

Fair enough, but I can assure you that it is by no means the most annoying thing I can possibly do. It's just the tip of the iceberg, my friend.

I think it's partially due to this that certain films have a high retention of their entertainment value for me.

Indeed. And it's sometimes nice to turn something like that into an almost-interactive experience--though I agree with cyber_turnip that such behavior, assuming you're watching with people who aren't ardent fans, is unbelievably irritating to everyone else.

[Reply #32 on:]

Haha, yeah, I'm not quite a proud enough nerd to quote it when watching with someone else - I still value their lack of annoyance over my immediate gratification. This, though, is subject to change.

[Reply #33 on:]

If you quote it with someone else who also knows the lines, I don't see a problem.
 
Although I did that once with someone, and the jerkoff wanted to watch it in silence, no laughing, nothing...what a creeper.

[Reply #34 on:]

It would annoy me even more if someone did it when I knew the lines because I'd just feel like "We both know the lines so you're not even showing me some sort of 'talen', now shut up and let me watch it".

It's like when you go to a gig and someone next to you is singing along to all the songs really loudly. I paid money and came here to hear the band sing the songs, not you. Shut up. Stop showing off to everyone about how you know the lyrics when we all know the lyrics.


Or maybe I'm just too cynical.

[Reply #35 on:]

It would annoy me even more if someone did it when I knew the lines because I'd just feel like "We both know the lines so you're not even showing me some sort of 'talen', now shut up and let me watch it".

You may be on to something there. Only once have I ever watched Futurama with someone who could just as easily quote along with it as I could, and I was in fact mostly silent throughout the episode in question.

Topic: It just occurred to me that I enjoyed "Proposition Infinity" a lot more the first time I watched it, and on subsequent rewatches it has just gotten worse and worse. Like, the things that sort of bugged me at first about the episode, but didn't detract from it too much, have just really begun to grate on me to the point where I consider PI the worst episode of the series.

[Reply #36 on:]

Well, it depends who your audience is then I guess, cyber_turnip. Myself, the boyfriend, and my cousins all get in a quoting war with each other so it's not really the typical situation if I were to watch it with friends.