ivan_fry

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« : 11-08-2006 02:49 »
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Recently myself, as well as fifteen or so friends, watched disc four of Futurama Season 4 (The Farnsworth Parabox, Three Hundred Big Boys, Spanish Fry, The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings). I'm not going to talk about the first two episodes as much as I will about the last two, because SF and TDHAIP are the best examples for what I am going to say. I haven't really been at PEEL much. I am more frequently found at the NHC, which specializes more in Simpsons discussion. There, a lot of fans dislike sex jokes, testicle jokes, fart jokes, and the like, so I suppose the same would most likely apply for Futurama fans. Anyway, when we watched Spanish Fry, which is basically a 20-minute 'joke fest' (which I give only a 3 out of 5 due to the sexual nature of the story), everyone was laughing whenever there was a "lower horn" joke, or Bender's "Whooo"'s (of which I enjoyed only the latter, and cringed almost everytime all the other people were in fits of laughter). What shocked me even more was when we watched Devil's Hands, at the end (after one of the most dramatic as well as touching scenes in the entire series) everyone [minus me] passed it off as one of the worst pieces of television they had ever seen. Now, I am the only 'hardcore' fan out of that group, I don't think some of the others had even seen Futurama beforehand [it hasn't been on here tv here since it's cancellation], but I really didn't like the fact that no one except me actually paid much attention to the storyline and what was actually happening (everyone else was more paying attention to stupid one-liners or visual jokes rather than any character emotion). Like I said above, the other people are really more of 'casual' viewers, so they probably wouldn't even know Devil's Hands was the last episode of the show ever made, but even if it wasn't then it's emotion, as well as the great work and writing put into it would have still made it one of the greatest episodes of all time (which raises another question: would Devil's Hands have been as good if it were not made to be the final episode?). Of course, hardcore fans would see and explore the show a totally different way to casual viewers, but to me it only seems a lot of casual viewers only watch the show for the sake of a cheap laugh, rather than actually noticing anything heartfelt and meaningful that the characters say. What are your opinions?
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ivan_fry

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« #4 : 11-08-2006 05:02 »
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Originally posted by coldangel_1:Re: low-brow humour in Spanish Fry - I think the lewd jokes were intended as being cringe-inducing. I laughed at the fact the jokes were being told, not the jokes themselves, if you catch my drift. It was making a mockery of the characters' own immaturity and by extension the immaturity of anyone who would find those jokes genuinely amusing. I do agree with what you said about how it seems to be intended, because basically the whole episode is a whole heap of low brow jokes (from as early as a minute or two in with the "droppings of someone who saw bigfoot" right up until the closing seconds with Lrrr and Ndnd having sex in the forest); I think the main reason I actually felt uncomfortable with the people surrounding me actually finding a lot of this to be hilarious was probably because I was the only one that that knew there is basically no other episode of the show that is all-the-way-through lowbrow humour (or, at least to my recollection). There was actually a "joke" i forgot to say in my first post, which is from Three Hundred Big Boys. The shot of Mushu barfing at first was "sort of" humorous, but the overall length actually causes me to feel queasy and makes me cringe (probably moreso than anything from Spanish Fry), but like the outcome of all the above examples from Spanish Fry, everyone else seemed to find this lowbrow humour in Three Hundred Big Boys to be absolutely wonderful. But I suppose you would have to watching the episodes of the show over and over until you actually start appreciating them. I will admit, the first time I watched a lot of episodes of Futurama, I didn't understand a lot of it and paid hardly any attention to what was going on, but now I actually watch it for great moments (as well as the ocassional laughs) like in Devil's Hands, Luck of the Fryrish, and Jurassic Bark. (Dave B, I read your post too, and I agree with absolutely everything you said).
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LuvFry

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« #8 : 11-08-2006 11:38 »
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Well, the very first ep of the show I saw was "The Honking"- and not the full ep. I came in when Car Bender is chasing Leela. I had no idea what was going on, so I chalked it up to a Simpsons halloween ep, and went on my merry way. The next ep I saw was "The Sting"-again not the full ep- this time I came in at the very end, Fry's picture telling Leela he loved her, and Leela waking up. I was hooked. For one, I had no idea what the heck was going on, and now it involved a love story. Now I wanted to figure out this ep and this show that I had previously believed to be a Simpsons copy, so I attempted to watch the show, but never could thanks to Fox and its irregular viewing times. Eventually I found out it was on Cartoon Network, and I began watching it faithfully. To reply to the original posting (finally) I think it is hard for people who are not hard core fans to pick up all of the subtleties of the show. I, too had to watch them more than once. I also think it has to do with how willing you are to dedicate your time to figuring a show out. Me, I just searched on-line to get the general break-down of the plot. I probably wouldn't have given the show a second thought if I hadn't seen the end of "The Sting." Just goes to show how much of a girl I am. Oh, and I love "The devil's hands..." but, could it be that certain people are turned off by it because it's parodying operatic plot? Anywho, people who aren't invested in the relationship (or lack there of) between Fry and Leela, may have found the ep boring. Not me, I am far too invested in this relationship. As stated above, I am such a girl! In an attempt to quote Matt Groening from the DVD commentary (don't remember which ep, or if it was even MG who said it, or if this is even close to what he said): "Sci-fi fans have been waiting for everyone to burst into song. We're just fulfilling that fantasy." Feel free to correct me. Man, I should really watch the DVDs again, if only to figure out where I got this from. The logical place to start would be in the musical episodes, but since I have never been logical: To the first episode!
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totalnerd undercanada

DOOP Ubersecretary
 
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« #23 : 11-10-2006 16:58 »
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I believe that there is a middle ground in between die-hard fanboy who thinks he understands, and casual armchair critic who doesn't care what it means as long as he's laughing.
The majority of "active PEEL" falls into this middle group. They do understand the majority of it, but also understand that there are layers that they probably haven't managed to peel back yet. At the same time, they're not rabid foaming-at-the-mouth "OMGILUVFUTRAMMA" idiots. They like it, they may like Family Guy or The Simpsons more, they probably prefer Firefly, but they do like Futurama, and they do understand the show.
If you're not in this group, if you're at one end or the other, then you won't agree.
However, in the event that you do disagree with me, you're wrong, and that's fine. Because you're entitled to hold an opinion, even if your opinion isn't worth shit.
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roustie
Poppler

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« #36 : 11-13-2006 13:15 »
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I don't think it's so much "understanding" the show, it's more of knowing the story line of the show. I think Crash_7 said it best, if you haven't seen those two episodes then you can't really understand the final one.
Really, if you don't know the relationship between Fry and Leela, you won't see where that storyline is coming from.
So it does have to do with casual fans over dedicated fans, because the dedicated ones are obviously the ones that have seen every episode, and like the intricacies of the relationships.
Generally speaking, I think a lot of people don't care about such stories that they have to follow along with. They want a quick laugh, or some passionate sex scene, or some violence. It's pretty simple.
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NJ_Bella

Crustacean

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« #37 : 11-13-2006 14:56 »
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Originally posted by coldangel_1: Simpsons = family sitcom = fairly shallow.
Futurama = space adventure with ongoing mythology, complex characters and sci-fi hilarity = quite a lot deeper. i agree. i also feel (which i've stated in another thread i believe) that most people tend to follow family guy more than any other cartoon show these days. in my opinion family guy is ok. it's mostly full of one-liners and sight gags, which i believe to get old. futurama on the other hand has a story behind it as well as one-liners and sight gags which makes it stand the test of time in my opinion.
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roustie
Poppler

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« #38 : 11-13-2006 16:00 »
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Originally posted by NJ_Bella: it's mostly full of one-liners and sight gags, which i believe to get old.
futurama on the other hand has a story behind it as well as one-liners and sight gags which makes it stand the test of time in my opinion.
I agree with that. Also: Family Guy rips off quite a bit. Not even in the way that everybody rips off everything, I mean they directly lift jokes and even characters from other sources and call them as their own. Also, the Simpsons didn't used to be fairly shallow, it used to be really, really good with meaning and funniness and a full gammet of emotions. Then about 4/5 years back it just started going downhill. It used to be really intelligent, you all remember that?
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NJ_Bella

Crustacean

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« #39 : 11-13-2006 20:19 »
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Originally posted by roustie: I agree with that. Also: Family Guy rips off quite a bit. Not even in the way that everybody rips off everything, I mean they directly lift jokes and even characters from other sources and call them as their own.
Also, the Simpsons didn't used to be fairly shallow, it used to be really, really good with meaning and funniness and a full gammet of emotions. Then about 4/5 years back it just started going downhill. It used to be really intelligent, you all remember that? thanks for the comment and agreeing!! to be fair the simpsons have been on for what, 18 years? that's a long time to provide fresh, interesting, and funny shows. they are bound to lose something after all that time.
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