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DannyJC13

DOOP Secretary

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« #369 : 01-21-2012 14:53 »
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Would Fry really listen to Lady Gaga though?
I don't purposely listen to Lady Gaga, but I've heard her songs millions of times. Not only that, but I doubt Earth would be the only planet producing music in the entire universe, so there would almost certainly be vast amounts of music available from other planets all over the universe too...
Maybe he went to a 20th/21st century themed disco party or something when he was feeling homesick?
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Otis P Jivefunk

DOOP Secretary

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« #375 : 01-21-2012 16:32 »
« : 01-21-2012 16:35 »
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How long has it been since that Christina Aguilera joke in Futurama's original run? The answer is a relatively tiny amount of time compared to the 1000 years in which Fry makes a joke referencing Lady Gaga, thus highlighting the obvious flaw...
The Christina Aguilera reference was made by Bender so that kinda makes it about as stupid at the Lady Gaga reference being made by Fry but, of course, no one cares about that because pop culture references from the original run are totally fine.
I'm also highlighting the flaw in the Christina Aguilera joke too by what I was saying, I'm not letting that off, no way! I remember people complaining about it a long time ago, possibly even in the review thread for that ep. The Christina Aguilera joke was absolutely terrible and I'm sure most Peeler's will agree on that... The ironic thing is, had Fry made the Christina Aguilera joke it would have made much more sense because she was relevant at the time he was frozen, and therefore could still be fresh in his memory. It would still have been very bad and unnecessary all the same though, make no mistake... Bender making the Christina Aguilera joke was almost as bad as Fry making the Lady Gaga joke. I say almost, only because as I pointed out above the amount of knowledge Bender's capable of absorbing and storing is infinitely higher, so theoretically he could have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all pop music right down the smallest detail... How it was relevant for him to make such a comparison though, is harder to justify...
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Otis P Jivefunk

DOOP Secretary

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« #378 : 01-21-2012 17:10 »
« : 01-21-2012 17:20 »
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I'm glad we somewhat agree, then. It's just that everyone seems to think that current pop culture references in Futurama are something that are just now being introduced in the new episodes and that annoys me, especially because I'm watching through the original run at the moment and noticing a lot of pop culture references that seem dated now. I do think the Lady Gaga joke is perhaps the worst pop culture joke to date on the show (edit - oh wait, after Susan Boyle of course), but when I referred to the Christina Aguilera joke I was also pointing out how bad that was too. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough with the way I wrote it... What I meant was that it was a relatively tiny amount of time since the Christina Aguilera joke and now, and yet already she's fallen somewhat by the wayside now, let alone by the time period in which Bender told that joke. I was using that example and applying the same theory to the Lady Gaga joke to highlight its flaw... In my honest opinion, the Lady GaGa reference was pure filler, and it filled that moment with crap. It was just so squished in there, and wasn't funny in the first place. And we all know the error of how Fry would be aware of GaGa. God, sometimes it feels like this episode ruined the series.  It hasn't ruined the series, but it's certainly tarnished it a little bit more after the tarnishing Holiday Craptacular already gave it. It also unfortunately proved just how low Futurama can sink, which worries me somewhat about the potential future prospects of the show...
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Otis P Jivefunk

DOOP Secretary

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« #382 : 01-21-2012 17:44 »
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Had the show not been cancelled then you're probably right, they'd have probably shoehorned in pop-culture jokes relevant to the years it aired beyond, but not to the future where they're actually being told. I still think we'd have been complaining about them though, just like we are now. It's just that there wouldn't have been such a bold line between then and now, it would have been more gradual...
It would be best if they just dropped the pop-culture jokes from after Fry's time altogether if you ask me. Let The Simpsons have them, at least they're more relevant there. I like a certain amount of plausibility with what the characters say, I like it to be natural rather than forced for the purpose of telling a bad pop-culture joke which is not only unfunny, but as it's from after Fry's time, takes me away from the future setting and leaved me questioning it...
The Susan Boyle joke, apart from not being funny in the first place, will date horribly. Perhaps it will be the most dated joke on the show in 10-20 years time...
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Otis P Jivefunk

DOOP Secretary

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« #384 : 01-21-2012 18:24 »
« : 01-21-2012 18:26 »
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While it is good that no character said "Like the singer?" regarding the Susan Boyle joke, it was still horrible. I like to think of Futurama as having a timeless quality given that it's set in the future. Instead, with these pop-culture jokes what we get is something which destroys that timeless quality...
For example, if I have kids and in 15 years time I watch Yo Leela Leela with them (oh god, the thought of subjecting them to such a thing!), they could potentially ask me who Lady Gaga is when her name is mentioned. What am I going to say? "Oh, she's some famous pop singer from about 15 years ago." Then my kids ask me; "But daddy, I thought this show was meant to be set in the future?". After all, the show will still be set a long long time in the future even when watching it in 15 years time, and there we have a problem...
The writers simply aren't thinking this through properly. Do they want a brilliant show with a timeless quality? The amount of development which has gone into the show, along with the deep character relationships and back-story, the emotion built up over time, and the design of the whole future setting all suggest yes, they do. So why drop cheap pop-culture jokes to appeal to the lowest common-denominator only at the time of airing, which will only take away from the shows overall longevity and timeless quality when watched beyond that? It really is sad, and highly unnecessary...
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totalnerd undercanada

DOOP Ubersecretary
 
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« #390 : 01-21-2012 20:32 »
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The only pop-culture references allowed should be eighties and nineties ones, by Fry.
This. This is why this.... I was also pointing out that a lot of people get all angry at the new episodes for having current pop culture references and seem to forget the ones that the original run had.
...is a bit daft. I mean, the original run had pop culture references that weren't out of place. People are complaining about things like the Kardashians and Lady Gaga and Facebook being mentioned because it's unlikely they'll still have the same place in society or status in a thousand years, plus Fry should be totally ignorant of them. He was frozen before they became famous.
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totalnerd undercanada

DOOP Ubersecretary
 
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« #393 : 01-21-2012 21:32 »
« : 02-13-2012 22:25 by totalnerduk »
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I already pointed out the pop culture references in the original run that were similarly out of place (the Beastie Boys and Beck still being celebrities, Bender referencing Christina Aguilera, etc.) on this very page.
You're missing the point. Yes, there were occasional pop culture references that were slightly off (Beck being the major one here), but they were all at least from a period that Fry would be familiar with. Bender's reference to Christina Aguilera is probably the least easily forgiven, due to him being from the 29th Century. But there were a lot that were funny and well done in context. The newer pop culture references are almost entirely all out of place. They're not funny. They feel shoehorned in. They're therefore not as easily forgiven. Remember how the whole point of the head museum was so that there was a reason why long-dead celebrities were making guest appearances or being name-dropped? The new pop culture references feel different. It's like the writers have abandoned all pretense at trying to make a show set in the thirtieth century, and are setting it today but with a futuristic "art upgrade". The whole idea of the Head Museum is sort of flawed.

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Jezzem

Urban Legend
  
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« #394 : 01-21-2012 21:56 »
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Remember how the whole point of the head museum was so that there was a reason why long-dead celebrities were making guest appearances or being name-dropped?
How does the head museum not provide a reason for this particular celebrity's name being dropped? He could have referred to "Lady Gaga's head" but they usually just refer to the heads as their name rather that "so and so's head" more often than not. The new pop culture references feel different.
Of course they do. They're different references to different things. The old pop culture references were references to things from Fry's time because that's still the time we were in before the show got cancelled. As I already said, if the show hadn't been cancelled in the first place, the later episodes would still have references that were more current at that time rather than Fry's time. In the end I don't really care about any of the pop culture references (including the ones from the original run and the new ones) I don't think it would affect my enjoyment of the show if they weren't there from the beginning, but them being in there doesn't harm my enjoyment of the show, because when there are ones that I don't like (I don't particularly like the Lady Gaga one myself, but that's mostly because I can't stand Lady Gaga) I can just think "well that wasn't very funny" and move on. I just think it's a little drastic to say that the show is just full of pop culture references now and it's like it's not even set in the future anymore. I guess it doesn't really matter anyway.
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Otis P Jivefunk

DOOP Secretary

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« #398 : 02-12-2012 15:51 »
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I was looking forward to The Beach soundtrack until Prodigy and Robert Del Naja pulled "No Souvenirs" from it at the last minute because it was "too good". It's still never been released since either!  ... As for the movie, it was ok. As for it being a Futurama reference from Fry, it could be another pop-culture joke which doesn't quite work, or it could be as cyber_turnip says; something which Fry knew about before he got frozen and was looking forward to watching, and then he caught up in the future...
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