Which episodes to hook a few friends up

[:]

Yo-s you-s all-s!

Ok, this is going to be tough.  First, we have:

- some friends who I secretly want to hook up on the show

- a very, very, very poorly translated show (into Russian, if it matters -- they couldn't have done a worse job of dubbing even if they tried for a long, long time: voices crappy, meanings twisted)

- DVD-quality original episodes sans the crappy translation and sans subtitles.  Importing subtitles doesn't work -- somehow it's poorly timed and the lines don't show in time.

Hence the question.  In what order do I show those friends some episodes (minimum 3, maximum 5) which would demonstrate the best of Futurama?  Keep in mind that we are not very good at perceiving spoken English, so the episodes need to err on the intonation / visual side, rather than spoken jokes.  Great would be episodes with an abundance of such scenes, rather than just one or two.

I've shown them Time Keeps on Slippin' (reaction ok) and Jurassic Bark (ah, the stifled sarcasm of the male spectators and the stifled tears of the female ones at the end :P)

A great example of an intonation joke was in TKOS when Tate kept saying "Are you? - Yes! - ARE YOU? - N-no..." to Bender.

What do I show them next?  And why?

With appreciation,
me

[#1 :]

If the show is poorly dubed, show a chase seen!  Ones from "the honking" and "a clone of my own" are best.

[#2 :]

"Roswell that Ends Well".

Fast paced, lots of great animation, an abundance of jokes and a neat plot.

[#3 :]

I agree with Teral's choice, although you might want to try 'Why must I be a crustacean in love', because everyone likes Zoidberg, and the jokes in that episode are quite visual.

It depends on your friends, I played 'hell is other robots' at college one lunchtime, everyone liked the beastie boys and drug references, although the biggest laugh came from the line "Fry... you're my friend".
Don't show this or any episode with a song in it though, the bad dubbing will ruin it.
Except 'Less than Hero', where the song doesn't make sense anyway...

[#4 :]

I think you have to show Space Pilot 3000 to any newbie so they can get the feel of it, then follow it up with "I Second That Emotion", as well as any of the "AOI" episodes.

[#5 :]

I would agree with Why must I Be a Crustacean in Love

The Farnsworth Parabox would also be a good choice as would Parasites Lost.

[#6 :]

The Xmas episodes are the best choice. Or "A head in the polls". Don't choose any emotional episodes.

[#7 :]

Good suggestions so far, I suppose.  What about "Hell is Other Robots"?  I don't know how well the first half will go over, what with jokes about "jacking on" and such.  I'm sure the Robot Hell Bonanza(the big musical number) would go over well, though.  "War is the H-Word" might work too - there's some good tonation - Bender getting angry with the balls, the fear in the voice of one of the soldiers, Kif's "Use a brush you dunderhead!  And mix those mixed nuts!  I see two almonds touching!", and so on.

[#8 :]

I got my best friend hooked by showing her 300 Big Boys. She loves Roseanne so that was a bonus. I think episodes that are about everyone, (i.e. TML'sH, TFP, XS, etc.) those I think are best. Because if you intoduce Futurama who has no clue about the show than showing them Leela's Homeworld for example (nothing against it, love the ep.) would leave them still clueless. My opinion.

[#9 :]

Ok, if there guys, I'd show them "Amazon Women In The Mood".
If there chicks..... well your guess would be as good as mine.

[#10 :]

War Is The H-Word got me hooked on the show, although I fear most of the ball jokes would probably be lost in the translation. 

[#11 :]

Roswell that Ends Well or Amazon Women In The Mood would probably be the best choices. Although anything with Zapp in it's always a killer with the guys.

[#12 :]

As Bubble Gum said, Space Pilot 3000, definitely. And maybe The Series Has Landed and Love's Labours Lost in Space. Just to introduce all the important characters and relations (Amy, Hermes, Zoidberg, Nibbler, Zapp-Leela, Fry-Professor relations...).

I think it is quite important. The first episode I saw when a friend wanted to get me hooked up was A Taste of Freedom (becasue that was the only one he had at home at that moment). I didn't like it much. In the middle of the episode, I actually asked "Wait a minute. That lady has only one eye!". And then I forgot about the show for some time until I got the first episodes, which hooked me up.

By the way, a friend of mine got hooked on Zoidberg after he saw When Alliens Attack episode. And later on, he compared every Zoidberg scene to the beach one.

[#13 :]

"Roswell" seems like a good choice.  Its gut-bustingly hilarious and sort of works as a good basic introduction to all the principle characters as well.  If someone wants to know if they'd like Futurama, that's a good one to test with.

I wouldn't pick any more serious/emotional ones until they've seen at least a few others though.  As with any show, much of the emotion rides on the viewer already knowing who the characters are, so you'll want them to have a basic idea of that first.

[#14 :]

Definitely Roswell that ends well.. and space pilot 3000 so they can understand the show..
the series has landed so they know the characters...
War is the H word for zapp and kif...
and most DEFINITELY the farnsworth parabox... man i love that episode....

[#15 :]

The episodes that you can invite a few friends over to watch are:

Space Pilot 3000
Roswell That Ends Well
Fear of a Bot Planet
The Deep South
Bender Gets Made
War Is The H-Word
I Dated A Robot
300 Big Boys

[#16 :]

I was with a friend this summer and he was new to Futurama. He was here for a week and we wanted to see as many episodes as possible. It turned out that we had enough time for half of the episodes (that is, no crazy marathons and such). I didn't want to go sequentially, so I had to plan the order of episodes. Here are some basic pointers I discovered:

• Everything in my first post applies.
• Be sure to follow the dependency to avoid spoilers. Don't show Less than Hero or Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles unless you show Leela's Homeworld first. Don't show Leela's Homeworld unless you show A Bicyclops Built for Two first. Don't show The Why of Fry before The Day the Earth Stood Stupid. Introduce Nibbler first. Etc.
• If you find your friend hooked up on Zoidberg,  mix it with some good Zoidberg episodes to keep them amused to death.
• You may want to take care of Fry & Leela relationship. In that case, show Put your Head on my Shoulder and the others involving Fry and other women first.

If you plan to watch just a few episodes, I think it's not worth caring of. But I hope it can help...

[#17 :]

The Problem with Popplers would be a good choice...

[#18 :]

Starter episodes:
-Roswell that ends well
-Amazon women in the mood
-I Roomate
-The Why of Fry
-SP3K

[#19 :]

Gee, thank you everybody for the answers and suggestions!

One thing to clarify: we are going to watch it in the original so as to get rid of the crappity in translation.  That's why I asked for eps that concentrated on easy-to-understand jokes.

I guess we'll go with WMIBACIL, RTEW, TFB, Godfellas, both AOIs and if we have time The Sting and 300 BB.

Also, the moment I heard just HOW those jerks presented what possibly is Futurama's greatest feature (I mean the voice cast), I cut down the size of every episode by 40 Mb.  You guessed right, by cutting the second audio stream leaving only the original soundtrack!

[#20 :]

Good idea to show Godfellas. I wanted to get my grandma to watch the show (she saw bits of Farnsworth Parabox and absolutely hated it), so I decided what would be the best episode. I chose Godfellas, because it has a good story that isn't overly emotional, very funny in certain parts, and impressive animation.

She still doesn't really like the show, but whatever. With people the same age as you, its probably much easier to get them hooked.

[#21 :]

None of my current friends like futurama. 

[#22 :]

I recommend Roswell That Ends Well, A Tale of Two Santas, Parasites Lost, The Problem with Popplers, and either The Sting or The Farnsworth Parabox, depending on how much they appreciate emotionally-oriented episodes.

[#23 :]

30% iron chef!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[#24 :]

The Why of Fry, Nasty? Are you kidding me?

I mean, sure, it's a good episode, but wouldn't showing it without out the several set-up episodes behind it totally defeat the purpose?

[#25 :]

 

Originally posted by heyitssteve:
30% iron chef!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

welcome to peel heyitssteve! Enjoy your stay at nerdworld! thats also a good episode to get some friends up, I agree.

[#26 :]

yer ive converted like 20 people so far just by showing em episodes, If they have never seen it b4 i show em the Mars University one or 30% iron chef, all great and who dosent like a university comedy, with frats and what not 

[#27 :]

 

Originally posted by M0le:
Roswell that Ends Well or Amazon Women In The Mood would probably be the best choices. Although anything with Zapp in it's always a killer with the guys.

Seconded right there, but you forgot "When Aliens Attack". Some of the best jokes from Season One are lurking in there, like buried treasures.

[#28 :]

I would definately suggest Spanish Fry, assuming your friends like those kind of jokes, particularly the brutal one-liners that Bender cranked out.

[#29 :]

My list:

Spanish Fry
When Aliens Attack
Amazon Women In the Mood
Love's Labours Lost in Space