kissinger initially in the holiday spectacular

[on:]

as seen on the volume 5 dvd extras. it was a storyboard animatic with voice acting.

this obviously coincides with the theory that cohen and co. decided to modernize the show a bit with more pop culture references.

personally, i think that they realized that modern pop culture doesn't fit into the universe though, and i expect to see less of this in future episodes.

also, you'll notice someone(i believe it is groening) say something about the 'jared at subway' comment with disdain in the 'killer app' commentary. i believe he says something like 'like that'd be relevant in 1000 years'.

anyways, what are all of your opinions on the pop culture references throughout the recent batch of episodes?

ps: i was watching 'iagdl', and the mention of csi:miami by the zapper irked me. ARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOO

[Reply #1 on:]

The beauty of Futurama is that it can get away with making modern pop culture references and make them relevent to the show.  That's what's so cool about it.  How else do you think they are able to make fun of Nixon? 

Not only that, modern pop culture references do work because all the once dead celebrities heads are in jars. 

[Reply #2 on:]

we are not on the same page, buddy. i'm not going to respond to that.

[Reply #3 on:]

We ended up discussing this in another thread too. The pop culture references, though most likely irrelevant down the line, is where some of the humor comes from. What is with the MarilynMonrobot in I dated a Robot? She's barely relevant now let alone 1000 years from now and they mention that in the commentary too. So they obviously know what's going on but come on how else would you do the show? Even Spock's head is in the first episode, who knows if that will be relevant then (I'd like to think it will be being the Trek optimist I am).

My point is, every single episode does this to an extent. Take that away and you're making a different show, not the one tens of thousands of fans supported each time the plug was pulled.

Even the "eye-phone" reference will most likely be irrelevant. So that episode is filled with irrelevancy (the Susan Boil, mildly humorous at the time for a quick punchline joke, is one of those totally irrelevant jokes that will start to annoy me more in years to come, because it is a "headline joke" - they started employing these in Simpsons in recent years and that's when I stopped watching, became too satire-y and less cartoonish.)

Flesheatingbull, I want to understand your viewpoint: Do you think these eye phone and Monrobots and Spock's head references have made the show irrelevant and thus not worthy to watch? Or are you just annoyed by these and want the show to go a different direction than what it has done for the last six seasons? Or do you approve of some of these references (Star Trek, eye phone) but not others (Susan Boil, Jared)?

[Reply #4 on:]

ps: i was watching 'iagdl', and the mention of csi:miami by the zapper irked me. ARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOO

YES. The joke was the line before. It was a case of continuing the joke one line further than necessary. Anyone who's going to find it funny already got it.

"Making it bigger doesn't make it clearer."/endjoke

When I watched the episode I guffawed at that and immediately stopped laughing when Zapp said his line. If you have to explain the joke, just don't make it, IMO.

I didn't think they had to explain it, though. Who hasn't noticed that about CSI and similar? If you haven't, you probably don't watch CSI or similar. And if you do and you haven't noticed... either it was a slip-up and you usually would notice such things, or you probably don't think enough to find Futurama funny, anyway.

Ugh. The dumbing down and flash-in-the-pan pop-culture of a couple episodes this season annoyed me. Who will remember Jared or Susan Boyle in 15 years? No one! Trek is timeless, so I'm all for that. Star Wars is okay, too, though I didn't find this season's references funny.

[Reply #5 on:]

You disappoint me lemily. I enjoyed the CSI reference

I have seen a few episodes of CSI and know they do that, but I thought that ref landed the joke very well.

Futurama is not the only one of Groening's shows to do this. In "the Seven Beer Snitch" on Simpsons Chief Wiggum in a scene proclaims they need to "give that can the full CSI treatment" when they are talking about weird close up angles and such. I don't know if Groening or anyone commented on that joke or if you're just saying you don't like it FEB, but it's kinda funny that both his shows do the same kind of humor...surely he has enouch jurisdiction to axe a joke when he finds it unfunny, like in A Bicyclops Built for Two when the internet scene called for "three (or four i forget) nerds" to be drawn and Groening was one of them and he told them no.

[Reply #6 on:]

Really? Aw. That's weird of you.

I really need to listen to the commentaries. I'm on a Futurama panel for the convention I needed to pick a ribbon quote for.

[Reply #7 on:]

Is this a convention you and some people initiated yourselves? Pretty cool! Also, no, not weird! Awesome!

[Reply #8 on:]

No. It's like the 45th annual one or something.

[Reply #9 on:]

Flesheatingbull, I want to understand your viewpoint: Do you think these eye phone and Monrobots and Spock's head references have made the show irrelevant and thus not worthy to watch? Or are you just annoyed by these and want the show to go a different direction than what it has done for the last six seasons? Or do you approve of some of these references (Star Trek, eye phone) but not others (Susan Boil, Jared)?

futurama has always had classic sci-fi references(scarydoor/twilightzone, trek, wars), 50's pop culture references((monroebot, this episode brought to you by...) and 80's pop culture references(do i even need to give examples?). that was their thing, their niche, per se.

however, some episodes last season had pop culture references that were just too modern, imo. as mentioned, the subway, susan boyle,  and csi references really bothered me.

as for the ipod reference, it could have been done better. instead, it seemed lazily written, but the boil is really what killed that episode for me.

[Reply #10 on:]

lemily, if you've never watched with the commentaries, you really should.  Not all of them are great, but there's enough that you should.

[Reply #11 on:]

I only watch with commentaries for the most part unless I'm really in the mood for classic Futurama.

FEB: Ok, so you mean the "headline" references I was referring to that Simpsons does so heavily now. Yes, those are a joke where after the first time they lose their integrity. Their shelf life is very limited.

CSI has been around a good while though. Did you not like the Miami reference?

[Reply #12 on:]

as for the ipod reference, it could have been done better. instead, it seemed lazily written, but the boil is really what killed that episode for me.

For me it was the goat. *vomit*

lemily, if you've never watched with the commentaries, you really should.  Not all of them are great, but there's enough that you should.

Will do!

[Reply #13 on:]

Yeah not a fan of that goat thing, and neither was Groening.

[Reply #14 on:]

Thank god. Why didn't he nix it?

[Reply #15 on:]

like i mentioned in my OP, groening seemed like he really didn't like the jared subway joke too. i suppose some things fall through the cracks on a smaller budget.

[Reply #16 on:]

Thank god. Why didn't he nix it?

I think he or one of them joked about him being gone for a day and that's what happens, hehe.

FEB: Jared will always be relevant

Show spoiler

kidding!