Should Futurama discuss 9/11, if the show was renewed?

[on:]

This is more out of curiousity and if that recent rumor comes true.

Futurama is a manner of Social Commentary dealing with many issues, but would discussing 9/11 be too much, since it is the third anniversary of 9/11 attacks?

I've read two fanfics that discuss that issue, one was better than the other, but both were criticized for discussing a touchy issue.

David and Matt said the after the Sept 11 attacks, they had to make a few changes in the episodes that aired after 9/11.

Logically, it would seem doubtful that NNY in the year 3000, would still remember something that happen a 1000 years in the past. However, would it seem messed up to have something like a building with a motion sensor on the roof to blast any enemy ships to prevent them from crashing into the building?  Or how about a few aliens hijacking the PE ship?  Or showing Bin Laden's head.  How would you fans feel if Futurama did return, and dealt with this issue?

Also, how would you go about discussing this issue that is typical Futurama commentary?

[Reply #1 on:]

No, they shouldn't mention it.  Futurama is fiction, and does not necessarily have to include everything that occurs in real life.  Introducing something like 9/11 is useless in the series canon, just like introducting the war in Iraq would be silly.  Let sleeping dogs lie.  In comedy, you write something because it's funny. 9/11 is not funny, therefore does not belong in a comedy show.

[Reply #2 on:]

I don't think they would ever do a direct reference to 9/11. It just wouldn't be in Futurama's taste.

However, the examples you've given wouldn't necessarily be interpreted as a 9/11 references. Aliens hijacking the ship doesn't sound too far off, and it wouldn't exactly be specific commentary on 9/11 - hijackings have happened both before and after that event.

As for Bin Laden's head in a jar... that's just stupid. Why the hell would they save the head of a terrorist leader? That's like saving Hitler's head. No, I think that having a DIRECT reference to 9/11 or Bin Laden in Futurama is just a plain bad idea.

[Reply #3 on:]

In a word, no.

3+ years on, it's not really topical anymore, and it would be kinda difficult to make a humorous satirical point about it. Merely having some sort of 'memorial' would be trite, and I don't need it in my shows.

[Reply #4 on:]

Unless it was just a passing, subtle reference to 9/11, then it isn't really necessary. Futurama isn't South Park. It doesn't really do social commentary.

[Reply #5 on:]

I'd rather they stayed well away. The entire of New York got destroyed by alien invasions since then, along with countless other things. If they need to do anything at all, then do it in The Simpsons...

[Reply #6 on:]

No, why should it?

[Reply #7 on:]

The closest The Simpsons got to really doing anything that could ever be related to 9/11 was The City of New York vs Homer and New Boys on the Bleech!, in that they featured the World Trade Centre and a building exploding, respectively. There is also Bart Mangled Banner, but it's supposed to be terrible. The Simpsons does social commentary, it's been doing it slightly worse as the years creep on, but Futurama did nearly no social commentary. A Taste of Freedom was probably the closest they ever got to social commentary. David X Cohen felt that Three Hundred Big Boys was the most controversial episode because it featured stem cells.

[Reply #8 on:]

Wow, really? I've heard no complaints about the stem cells in 300 Big Boys. I always considered A Tale Of 2 Santas the most controversial episode, for obvious reasons.

[Reply #9 on:]

There probably weren't any complaints about it per se, but DXC mentioned in the commentary for it that it was probably the most controversial episode. What I should have said was that it was the episode that could be considered the most controversial, yet it never caused any fuss. It's not really Futurama's style to actually comment on a recent topic, and thus, wouldn't suit the show.

[Reply #10 on:]

 

Originally posted by M0le:
 It's not really Futurama's style to actually comment on a recent topic, and thus, wouldn't suit the show.

Aside from that horrible Christina Aguilera joke in 'Bendin' in the Wind'...

[Reply #11 on:]

why the hell would people in the year 3004 give a damn about something that happened in 2001? especially given the fact that aliens have destroyed the entire civilization of earth several times over. It would be like me caring or even remembering something that happened back in 1004.

[Reply #12 on:]

Maybe if you had a friend from that time you would care?

[Reply #13 on:]

I dont think they ever even showed the Twin Towers in Futurama. I know that the Chrysler building is in the ruins of Old New York and I think the Empire state building is above ground.

But I Don't ever recall seeing the WTC. I dont see how DXC and M.G. needed to cover up anything post-9/11.

[Reply #14 on:]

There are WTC-like buildings in NNY (see TDTESS), but being 1000 years later, they could explain that by saying they were based on the old WTC buildings (if they really felt some stupid reason to explain it).

But yeah, I don't think 9/11 should be discussed on the show.

Like Otis said, especially since the earth was almost totally destroyed by alien attacks multiple times.

[Reply #15 on:]

 

Originally posted by ShortRoundMcfly:
Maybe if you had a friend from that time you would care?

Fry probably wouldn't know about it either since he was frozen almost two years earlier and doing some kind of research to find out what happened after he left doesn't seem like him (Not that it would help much given the quality of historical records of the stupid ages).

[Reply #16 on:]

Plus everyone he knew back in the 20th century is dead so i doubt it really matters to him how each and every one of them died.

[Reply #17 on:]

Last time I checked, tradgedy is not funny. And, of course, it wouldn't be that relevant or neccessary to do in a show that takes place a thousand years after it happened.

[Reply #18 on:]

Leave some of these terrorist jokes to Family Guy or South Park. I never personally saw, nor cared about, South Park, but I know at one point Cartman chases down Saddam or Bin Laden and says he is 'envious.' And as for Family Guy, the did the whole Hitler talk show and how Hitler was weak and scrawny in the gym next to the buff Jew. Those jokes aren't in Futurama's taste.

It wouldn't be necessary for Shadowstar's reason.

[Reply #19 on:]

Tragedy is funny. Like the downfall of the Native Martians. But Futurama isn't a social commentary. If they did do a thing on the Twin Towers, it would have some really gay sappy ending of Fry, Leela, and Bender standing on top of a really tall building and/or mound of dirt hosting the Earth flag up, and then it would show a transparent Earth flag waving in front of them. Really, does the world need another shitty TV show ending like that?

[Reply #20 on:]

 

As for Bin Laden's head in a jar... that's just stupid. Why the hell would they save the head of a terrorist leader? That's like saving Hitler's head.

Maybe they'll put Bin Laden's brain in a great white shark.

 

David X Cohen felt that Three Hundred Big Boys was the most controversial episode because it featured stem cells.

I haven't actually heard the commentary for that episode, but I'm assuming that was a joke.  There was nothing controversial about the way the episode used stem cells.  (I didn't like the way they implied stem cells were some new technology, when they would have had a millennium to research them, but that's neither here nor there.)

And to answer the main question, no, I don't think a direct reference to 9/11 would make sense for Futurama.

[Reply #21 on:]

I don't think anyone's mentioned that you can actually see the WTC in the ruins of Old New York.  Watch "Luck of the Fryrish" closely and you'll see the top halves of them.  Little did they know...

Anyways, contrary to what some are saying, Futurama was social commentary.  But it was more general than it was topical, much like The Simpsons.  It takes so long to make each episode that they could only really comment on things that would be around for quite a while, thus keeping them from becoming dated.  That's why both Groening shows usually focus on generalized "topics" with their satires as opposed to any specific events.  Only South Park really has the leeway to comment on something right after it happens, and even that is a little inconsistant.

[Reply #22 on:]

Remember on an episode of the Simpsons, Bart and Lisa look at a cartoon called, "Bin Laden In A Blender"?  What if Futurama did something like that?

Also, what if they did an episode where it was revealed that Fry's brother, Yancy, worked at the WTC and was reported missing?  What that be too much?  Or the works of another touchy episode?

[Reply #23 on:]

To do more touchyness about Yancy would be beating a dead horse. The audience's intelligence would probably be insulted.

[Reply #24 on:]

The "Bin Laden in a Blender" thing was more a satire of the American reaction to the event (including all the stupid flash cartoons).  That would be more or less fine I think, and "A Taste of Freedom" even ended up commenting on it on accident.

The Yancy idea is just a bad idea though.  Too depressing and too needless a connection to such a tradgedy.

[Reply #25 on:]

If Yancy died in the World Trade Centre attack, his son would never have been born, would he?

[Reply #26 on:]

That was his Nephew right? I haven't watched it in a while. Besides, he said he was missing.

[Reply #27 on:]

Okay, missing, fair enough. Still, for so many reasons, bad idea.

(Yes, I goofed. Fixed now).

[Reply #28 on:]

Think about it do we know when Yancy's son was born?  He could've been born before 2001.  His son's name is Philip J. Fry as well, named after his nephew to carry on his spirit.

[Reply #29 on:]

To do that, Yancy would have to get married and father a son all in less than two years (between 1/01/00 and 9/11/01).  Pretty damn unlikely.

[Reply #30 on:]

Well, it must have been a short time after Fry got frozen that he got married, since Fry's stuff was still at his parents' house.  So you have the wedding and then the honeymoon and nine months later.  It is more logical than Fry having a dog on the night he got frozen.

Brannigan Begin Again- Zapp tries to use the PE ship to crash into the Neutral Capitol.  This episode aired before 9/11, but what do people think about that episode after 9/11?

I just think Futurama should still do things like that.

[Reply #31 on:]

*raises hand

Uhm...it's still funny.?

[Reply #32 on:]

Yeah, well, the Decapodians knock down the Clinton Monument in "Taste of Freedom."  That episode aired *after* 9/11, and was *written* after 9/11!  What do you all think abou that?

/seriously, including 9/11 at all into *any* sitcom is foolish at the least.

[Reply #33 on:]

According to the commentary DXC said that episode was being developed before 9/11 and originally had the Decapodians blowing up buildings.  However, after 9/11 when they were going to make the episode, they decided to change those scenes.

[Reply #34 on:]

I think adding any mention to 9/11 would be completely unnecisary. Again, a terrorist attack on a few buildings is nothing compaired to aliens taking out the entire civilization of earth several times over. And there would be no reason to link Yancy to the towers because in the past 4 years of the show Fry never tried to find out how each of his friends/family eventually died. The fact that they are dead seems to be all the information he needs. Why would he suddenly after all this time want to know? And what would be the point of the writers even trying to work it in? To look sympathetic? "Everyone else did a 9/11 show so we should too!"

[Reply #35 on:]

I think Venus has provided some of the best reasoning so far.  Besides, a show like Futurama mentioning it (now it's guranteed to be at least four years later) would be like opening up an old wound and then pouring salt in it. 

[Reply #36 on:]

 

Originally posted by fryfanSpyOrama:

Brannigan Begin Again- Zapp tries to use the PE ship to crash into the Neutral Capitol.  This episode aired before 9/11, but what do people think about that episode after 9/11?

I don't think even if someone saw that episode for the first time after 9/11 would take offense to that, seeing that it had nothing to do with the WTC building or The Pentagon.

Here's a point people forget, People have been using Cars/Planes as suicide weapons for a long time. The Japanese had Kamikaze squads in the Air Force during WWII.

[Reply #37 on:]

Like Venus said,
 

Originally posted by Venus:
Fry never tried to find out how each of his friends/family eventually died. The fact that they are dead seems to be all the information he needs.

Remember in Spacepilot 3000, he said something to the effect of "My parents, my co-workers, my girlfriend. I'll never see any of them again. Yahoo!"
He doesn't really care about any of them much and he doesn't plan on thinking about them from that point on (which he doesn't really do much of throughout the series).

[Reply #38 on:]

I sincerly doubt he would look into such trivial things. Knowing Fry, even if he had been around fro 9/11 after a few months he would probably have stopped caring and moved on.

[Reply #39 on:]

No.  It's in the past.  It was a horrible tragedy, but if they were going to mention it, they would have done so long ago.