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Tachyon
DOOP Secretary
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Indeed! My life would certainly be very different had Futurama never existed.
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SolidSnake
Professor
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Hip hip, to the greatest animated show on television! And even though it's cancelled, it still beats probably just about any other series out there today. Now we wait for Simpsorama. We wait......
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MuchAdo
Professor
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Happy Futurama Day!
What? It's not a day... screw that, this is bigger than flag day at least!
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Motor Oil
Starship Captain
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What day is today? It's Futurama's birthday! What a day for a birthday! Let's all have some cake.
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Tachyon
DOOP Secretary
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Looks too nice to eat!
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Beamer
DOOP Secretary
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Yep, the decision to alter free speech was 100% unanimous among all 12773 members of the forum.
Also, it's pretty easy to get around the macro for 0nuki's username.
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Motor Oil
Starship Captain
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Also KurtPikachu. Eh, I can understand having feelings for a cartoon character, especially if you're a fairly lonely individual. Not that it should be encouraged, but I can understand it. I like discussing the characters for who they are, what they would do in certain situations, their motivations, etc. I usually don't care if anything bad happens to them. Unless they die or something, in which case I'll be sad, but not crying sad.
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Tedward
Professor
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« Reply #660 on: 04-04-2014 22:03 »
« Last Edit on: 04-04-2014 22:11 »
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Oh, I see Motor Oil beat me to it, and in a more succinct and less pretentious way. Oh well, I wasted far too much time typing this rambling response anyway, so I may as well post it... Looked around here and I noticed some people were upset about bad things happening to the characters?
Mind if I ask? Who was this person who complained?
Wait, so had you already looked around here to see who was saying those things or not? Well, anyway, besides the aforementioned Unmentionable, the answer would more likely be KurtPikachu2001. He thought that the writers were unfarily singling out Leela for negative and regressive damsel-in-distress scenarios, and in his fanfics and episode ideas (which tended to involve inserting the characters into "spoofs" of other shows and movies) often would result in Fry being tied up and in need of rescue, perhaps as a way to balance out the canon injustice. However, arguments like this... Come on it's a cartoon! So what if bad things happen to a cartoon character? It happens because it's funny. Those people were wimps and idiots. They probably thought they were real. I'm not like that.
...are something that bothered me when they were made before, against Kurt and in general. Yes, it is certainly possible to read too much into things, and yes, it is certainly problematic when one can't seem to distinguish between fantasy and reality, but that doesn't mean that what "happens" in fiction isn't worth critical analysis just because it isn't real, or that a cartoon is somehow inherently less worthy of thoughtful consideration than any other literature. As an animated comedy its primary purpose by far is to entertain (rather than, say, to attempt to spur social change like a satire, or to instruct or inform like an allegory, parable, or fable), but it is still--whether its creators are aware of this or not--both a product of and a reaction to the environment and society in which it was created. Even with a fantastical futuristic setting, robot and alien characters, and a presentation of an impossible world which neither exists for us nor could be rendered as intended without animation, the show still is based on things we can understand and appreciate--relatable characters (or, if not what the characters themselves physically are, then their personalities), relationships, societal structures, and situations, and then the humor to be found therein. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that people might not be particularly entertained when certain bad things happen to characters they've grown to like--characters who, while they are not real, are representations of actual people, or at least traits that actual people have--or when they see representations of things in their own society that they don't like. This is not to say that nothing bad or violent or unpleasant should ever be portrayed in fiction, of course--conflict of all sorts is pretty much what makes stories interesting, after all (plus, what else is real life but "conflicting things happening," so of course the stories people create to entertain themselves and try to find some sense of understanding, comfort, or humor in the world are going to reflect that)--but people shouldn't be discouraged from questioning the various visions of the world that are being presented to them in their entertainment, the very thing which can be an escape from the harsher realities of the real world, or a catalyst for change (or for things staying the same, perhaps) in the real world after seeing the way things could be. When the conclusions people reach are clearly nonsensical and wrong, of course, then those conclusions should probably be discouraged. Discouraging people from even bothering because "it's just a cartoon," though, should itself be discouraged.
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TheMadCapper
Fluffy
UberMod
DOOP Secretary
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Well Tedward, I skimmed your lengthy comment. I think we're on the same general page. Do we agree upon the following points?
1 - Futurama is an entertainment product first and foremost.
2 - People can find certain tropes familiar, relateable, and entertaining, such as the typically bumbling oaf male lead paired with the generally sensible, rational female lead. That is one extremely common TV stereotype that not a lot of people seem to get wound up about.
3 - There is nothing wrong with recognizing and understanding these themes in your entertainment, but in the case of Futurama it's best not to get literally angry with rage over it. The show is not exactly an unremitting stream of strong, competent male characters outshining weak and ineffectual female characters.
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Tedward
Professor
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Yes.
I'm kind of tempted to disagree with 3 in that I think the show perhaps could be worth getting upset about depending on the context, although yeah, being literally angry with rage over it is indeed not ideal. My point is more that just because something's a cartoon and/or a work of fiction and/or meant just as entertainment doesn't automatically mean it's not worth it to be emotionally invested in its characters and stories, or to question why it presents them in the way it does.
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TheMadCapper
Fluffy
UberMod
DOOP Secretary
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No, people shouldn't just give cartoons a free pass to perpetuate negative stereotypes just because they are animated. But I don't think Futurama is especially guilty of that particular transgression. Leela is usually a competent hero, while Fry is usually a complete idiot.
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transgender nerd under canada
DOOP Ubersecretary
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You are welcome, you gumblefumping, garbblarging wobbelsnock*.
* The terms "gumblefump" and "wobbelsnock" are © by TNUK.
You've managed to misspell both of those terms. Source. I am disappointed by your discromulence, Heiney.
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Tonya Rodriguez
Crustacean
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I give cartoons the aforementioned free pass because they are meant to be funny, and people should be able to tell that by watching them.
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cyber_turnip
Urban Legend
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"Meant to be funny" doesn't necessarily mean "harmless". War of the Worlds was supposed to be funny, but that doesn't mean it was a good thing to do or that it deserves a free pass. The line between and is a thin and poorly defined one.
If, as I suspect, you're talking about the Orson Welles radio play adaptation of The War of the Worlds, then no, it was absolutely not supposed to be funny. It was a radio play and it contained countless messages throughout that indicated its fictional nature, along with ad breaks and the like. It wasn't a prank; it's just that people are stupid. If you're talking about any other adaptation of The War of the Worlds that I know of, or indeed, the original book, then no, it wasn't supposed to be funny. Parts of the Tom Cruise film arguably are and I always find the "larger than a bear" comparison amusing in Jeff Wayne's concept album, but none of these things are intentionally funny.
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Motor Oil
Starship Captain
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Your suspicions would be correct. I interpreted it as a prank, though I may have misinterpreted it. My reasoning lies in the following quote (taken from this script). The Mercury Theatre's own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! It could easily be that I am mistaken, but I used War of the Worlds as an example because I had always seen it as a prank (especially since it was also aired on one April 1st).
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