I just saw "Why of Fry" the other day and was confused by all the plot holes and time paradoxes that the episode brought up. I decided to sit down and try to figure it out. I thought I'd share it with you guys and in order to validate my efforts in making sense of the quantum mechanics of a cartoon show.
 
Thanks for reading if you do so. Be warned, it's long. Hopefully this will make sense to you.
_____________________________ _______

Here we go. I’ve realized that the Quantum Mechanics don't seem to work in the episode “Why of Fry”. Nibbler says it was foreseen by there sages that Fry, because of his missing delta wave pattern, would defeat the Brain Balls. But how could the Fry in the first episode be without the delta wave if he had not yet gone back in time to father his father? The answer is that the Fry we know in the cartoon is actually the second or third alternate timeline version of the Fry we see in the Pilot. The following theory is not perfect, but this is the only way I can make it make sense. Hope it makes sense to you.
 
Timeline A:
 
- The Fry we know in Space Pilot is Fry (A). He cannot have the missing deltawave because Ennis is his grandfather. He belongs to timeline (A) where he never went back to Roswell. Also, because he never went to Roswell 1947, Zoidberg never went as well and, in this reality, no aliens were ever discovered.
 
- Nibbler (A) freezes Fry (A) in December 1999 (A) because his sages have forseen all I will describe. Fry (A) is frozen until the future. Everything goes along as we have watched it on the show until we get to “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid”. Because Fry (A) does not have the Missing deltawave he cannot defeat the Brain Balls. Somehow, Fry(A) has to survive somehow and assumingly, with his friends, go back in time to Rosewell 1947 (A) for the rest of this to work. For the sake of argument, he and his friends get to 1947 similiar to how they do in the episode
 
- When Fry (A) and gang make it to 1947 (A, here Fry (A) doesn’t kill his grandfather. If he did he would disappear from time before having sex with his grandmother. Jus as Farnsworth says, “If, for example, you were to kill your grandfather you’d cease to exist”. Somehow Fry (A), in the end, has to have sex with his Grandmother to conceive his father. Because of the events Fry (A) sets in motion --creating his father who will in turn father a young Fry with the missing deltawave-- Fry (A) is a paradox and cannot exist. Fry (A) will never be born because Fry (B), the product of Fry (A)’s actions, will take his place in time. To solve the paradox as best as I can figure it, at the moment Fry (A)’s sperm combines with his Grandmother’s egg the universe blinks Bender (A), Fry (A), Leela (A), Farnsworth (A), Zoidberg (A), and Planet Express (A) out of existence totally. They cannot exist because they have prevented Fry (A) from being born and, since Fry (A) caused them to get to 1947 (A), they cannot exist. They come from an impossible future so the universe destroys them. The only existing echo of timeline (A) is the baby created by Fry (A)’s sperm and his Grandmother’s egg. The baby is half impossible future and half possible present so it cannot be destroyed without damaging the possible present of 1947. Timeline (A) no longer exists and is replaced with timeline (B).
 
Timeline B:
 
It continues from 1944 (B) onward until Fry (B) is born and the Nibblonians (B) see his birth and recognize his missing deltawave. They make sure to send Nibbler (B) to make sure Fry (B) is frozen because the key to defeating the brain balls is his lack of delta wave. Fry (B) is frozen in December 1999 (B). Everything goes as we see in the show except that Fry (B) is now able to defeat the Brain Balls because of his missing deltawave. Everything mostly continues as we have seen it on the show after “Stupid” until “Roswell”. Because Fry (B) defeated the Brain Balls, his deltawave is an X factor that causes the events taking him to Roswell to not happen exactly the same as those from (A) timeline. Here, Fry (B) has to do something different that takes the gang back to 1944 (B) before Fry (A) would arrived and conceived his father.
 
- Gang (B) has to arrive before Gang (A) did because, in 1947 (B), the physical damages caused by Gang (A) and the memories of Gang (A) before they disappeared would still exist. Arriving before (A) allows Fry (B), without deltawave, to conceive his father. This action makes any possibility of Fry (A) from coming to Roswell 1947 also impossible. Then shouldn’t Fry (B) and his gang blink out of existence since they depend on timeline (A) to get them there?Not so!
 
- Because Fry (B) has the missing deltawave, the father he conceives will give birth to a son also with the deltawave. This ensures that the new Fry that Fry (B) helps create will do the exact same things that Fry (B) did to get to Roswell 1947 (B). Fry (B) is therefore not a paradox because young Fry (B) will grow and perpetuate the chain of events into infinity. Time is not harmed. When Fry (B) and gang get back to the future that is not compromised by Fry (B)’s existence it as if they never left, and they go to Future Roswell and digs up Bender (B).
 
- Again, everything goes as we have forseen it up to “Why of Fry”. Nibbler (B) again recruits him for his missing delta wave. Fry (B) sends the Brain Ball sphere into another dimension with him inside, and then is sent back to 1999 (B) by the brain balls. Fry (B) is now in the same time as the younger Fry (B) who is his grandson thanks to messing around in Roswell. As long as Fry (B) makes sure that young Fry (B) is frozen he will not be a paradox. He’ll be stuck in 1999 and die but he’ll exist because young Fry (B) will end up in Roswell to be his own grandfather. However, since Fry (B) mention the crappy scooter to young Nibbler (B), he creates another paradox. He cannot exist with young Nibbler (B) and young Fry (B) if Nibbler (B) will go forth and give him a better scooter that allows him to escapee the Brain Ball sphere, thus never to travelling back to 1999 (B) to give news of a crappy scooter. Fry blinks out of existence as we see in the episode. Because of the way young Nibbler (B) will act with the new information, he and The young Fry (B) will now act out different events than those we saw happen to old Fry (B). Time is altered again, timeline (B) ceases to exist, and Nibbler (B) and young Fry (B) become Nibbler (C) and young Fry (C).
 
Timeline C:
 
- For Fry (C) everything takes place EXACTLY as we have seen it on the show minus the first episode. He is able to defeat the brain balls and conceive his father. The flashback in “Jurassic Bark” that shows Fry’s shadow under the desk is from Fry (C)’s point of view and the shadow was Fry (B) who ceased to exist the moment Fry (C) was frozen. Fry (C) is recruited by Nibbler but given a better scooter and makes it out of the Brain Sphere (C) and saves the day!
 
 I know this is not exactly perfect, but it’s the best I could do. The whole thing would have been so much easier if “Roswell” came chronologically before “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid”. As you can see, Fry really is the linchpin of the universe. There’s still some possible paradoxical quantum holes in this theory, but I thought I’d give it a whirl.
 
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.

......................Welcome to Peel

(tries to understand these explanations. Fails.)

In the immortal words of The Mighty One (Fry)

"Magic, got it."

Meh.

people will never agree on this sorta stuff

Your explanation, my explanation, meh

I'd like to hear David X Cohen's explanation tho...

Fry in the pilot's future self, travelled back in time to father the Fry in the pilot!

If time travel exists, than all time exists at once and u can think of future selves existing to interact in the past...

oh my I just went cross-eyed...

Thanks, totalnerduk. It's just that it's hard to get sarcasm across on the internet and I've been in situations when I thought someone was being incredibly satirical, so I had good fun debating with them, yet I found out they were actually being serious. That was scary.

That's the great thing about any of these theories. They're only theories and you can't disprove an idea, especially about time travel which is strictly theoretical at best.

I think one of the most fundamental laws of the universe is that it will always attempt to go to a stable state. This is fairly self-evident, as an unstable state will produce further states, whereas a stable state will remain until environmental variables are changed which cause this "stable" state to become less stable.

From Futurama, I assume they follow the concept of infinite multiple universes. That is, for every event that has occured or will occur in the universe, there is another universe in which that event is altered. Without the temporal paradox of Fry being his own grandfather, the universe ceases to exist (as in AOI1). However, the universe in which "Futurama" is set is one which has a solution to it's own destruction - freezing Fry, which means he will become his own grandfather, which means the universe will not be destroyed (at least in this case). Thus the events themselves are not changeable, as any alteration would result in a shift to an alternate universe (potentially one which would be destroyed).

BTTF was always a little fuzzy on time-travel, sometimes adopting the "ripple-effect", sometimes "effect-precedes-cause", etc. Made for great movies, though  .

Uh...something with this many big words must be correct.

 

Originally posted by evan:
Uh...something with this many big words must be correct.

Plus I posted it. That usually helps.

Fact: Time is not constant.

Fact: You have just created an infinite repeating loop of Frys with that theory.

Fact: Parallel universes would merely exist in potentia until occupied by the knotted and twisted path of Time.

See? Told ya' I was smarter! 

One would think that this is exactly the sort of discussion I would devour.  It's not... but I can see how that would be a comforting thought to have nonetheless. 

I will add this:

We see in this ep that (original) Fry actually falls backward of his own accord -- without any intervention from Nibbler or his future self!  You'll notice that "future" Fry then grabs hold of the chair's leg and prevents this happening, only to cause it himself a few moments later.  Therefore, we learn that Fry's falling into the chamber would have happened no matter what -- that it was an immutable, pre-ordained event in the universe.  The involvement of Nibbler and "future" Fry were effectively irrelevant in that respect.

And this:

So what if some guy actually is smarter than you?  Plenty of guys are smarter than me and it doesn't bother me.  Plenty of other guys are stronger, faster, handsomer, whatever.  I like what I got and it's even in my power to make it better.  Who cares what the next guy has?

   

Originally posted by Chanukah Zombie:
We see in this ep that (original) Fry actually falls backward of his own accord -- without any intervention from Nibbler or his future self!

That might have something to do with Future Fry and Nibbler being out of the camera angle, except for their shadows.  Thus, we cannot see any such intervention.  Besides, they knocked him over by blowing on him.  You expect Rough Draft, etc, to be able to animate a breath?  Furthermore, the one time there was no intervention, AoI 1 (we can deduce this by the fact that Nibbler's shadow does not appear), Fry didn't fall in the tube, and the universe was destroyed.

Also, you'll notice that in the pilot, one can clearly see ONE shadow, Nibbler's.  However, in TWoF, we can clearly see TWO shadows as Past Fry tips over - Future Fry and Nibbler's.  Tell me I wasn't the only one to notice that.

 

You'll notice that "future" Fry then grabs hold of the chair's leg and prevents this happening

You'll also notice that this happens well before the countdown.  Fry, in the pilot, didn't fall in until after the countdown.  Thus, Future Fry keeps the sequence of events the same, by making sure that Past Fry doesn't fall over until he should.

 

Originally posted by Nixorbo:
   You'll also notice that this happens well before the countdown.  Fry, in the pilot, didn't fall in until after the countdown.  Thus, Future Fry keeps the sequence of events the same, by making sure that Past Fry doesn't fall over until he should.

We could ask at least three more questions on that note:

1) Would fry falling into the chamber a bit early make any appreciable difference vis-à-vis his future in the future?  Consider that Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Rangers were confident the only important thing was simply that Fry get frozen at approximately the right time. 

2) Why exactly did he tip over prematurely in this ep and in this ep alone?  Was it the start of that same tipping over we saw in AoI1 when he merely banged his head? 

3) Did Nibbler's "original" subvention [1ACV01] make any difference at all?  Perhaps he blew on that chair leg and the little puff of air had no effect... yet Fry fell anyway despite that.  I understand the point that at the moment when Fry's life literally and figuratively hung in the balance even the breath of a guinea pig could alter his destiny... but who says it actually did?  It is probably no coincidence that the writers gave Rough Draft a plot device that would not be drawn -- invisible air.  Hence, it becomes very difficult to prove that Nibbler really had anything to do with anything. 

 

Originally posted by Nixorbo:
   You'll also notice that this happens well before the countdown.  Fry, in the pilot, didn't fall in until after the countdown.  Thus, Future Fry keeps the sequence of events the same, by making sure that Past Fry doesn't fall over until he should.

I noticed the nibbler and fry shadows also.
and nibbler blew on fry (the 1st time) then fry blew on fry (the 3rd time)... fry was already tipping over, obviously. unless nibbler is part windy shrimp 

It could be argued that in the alternate universe shown in AOI1, Nibbler placed the order but assumed Fry would fall into the cryotube, or would be otherwise prevented from ensuring his freezing. Thus Nibbler does not set up the desk correctly, thus Fry is too far from the cryotube and bangs his head instead of falling into the tube.

 

Originally posted by Totalnerduk
CyberKnight... to refine you theory, the Universe we see in Futurama is the single Stable Reality which connects all other Unstable Realities... it is their one common point. An Unstable Reality would in this case be a synonym for "possibility", meaning that the universe is constantly creating the "time loops" to close off events that I referred to, making them stable, and ensuring the continued existance of Existance.

Exactly.  . As the saying goes, Nature abhors a vacuum.

 

So whether or not Nibbler actually pushed him in the tube is irrelevant. He's still important.

 

Wait up, dude.  There's something in what you say that makes me question what you say.  In AoI1, everything that's supposed to happen does happen, except for two things: Fry doesn't fall into the cryotube and Nibbler's shadow is not present.  However, everything else happens including the order from I. C. Weiner.  If Nibbler wasn't around to place that call, then who did?  Will the real I. C. Weiner please stand up?

You could say as CK did, that Nibbler did everything but the last part, but this is challenged by Ockham's Razor.  In the absence of any evidence to the contrary we must assume Nibbler had absolutely no involvement in the scenario of AoI1.  "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate." 

 

Originally posted by Chanukah Zombie:
   "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate." 

Hey, don't quote in latin unless you provide the translation as well, Mr. I know Latin!

i didnt see anyone else mention this but it seems obvious to me.  Enis was never fry's grandfather.  Fry's grandmother probably told everyone that Enis was because otherwise everyone would think she was a whore who sleeps with strangers to make herself feel better for her boyfriend's death.

 

Originally posted by Nixorbo:
Nixorbo's #1 of science fiction:

Never try to understand or explain temporal paradoxes.  You'll just make yourself go cross-eyed.

Nix, you do have something of a wise man or something similar...