Thoughts on 6ACV18 - The Tip of the Zoidberg - SPOILERS!

[Reply #280 on:]

So the Alien Alphabet, it's still pronounced in English then ...

True but it was a big lampshade hanging, that just about every alien species we've seen speaks english, even when no Earthicans are around (How Tunk look?).  The only species we've really seen having trouble with it are the Amazonians.

[Reply #281 on:]

My memory is a little hazy, but in Futurestocks when Fry and That Guy leave that building and that big green alien waves to them, I can't really make out what it's saying? Perhaps I need to watch it again, but it seems quite a broken form of English if that’s what it is...

[Reply #282 on:]

the yeti translation is a terrible idea. what's the deal with folks trying to add more amy to the show? she is a side character, and her screen time has been perfect this season.

also, as they mention in this episode, there are several types of Yeti's. are we making the assumption that Yeti's from all over the universe have some sort of universal language? that doesn't work.

It's about making a callback when the opportunity is there. Hardcore fans love that stuff, myself included. Hence the awesome cult following of Arrested Development (btw they will start filming the movie soon).

[Reply #283 on:]

My memory is a little hazy, but in Futurestocks when Fry and That Guy leave that building and that big green alien waves to them, I can't really make out what it's saying? Perhaps I need to watch it again, but it seems quite a broken form of English if that’s what it is...

It says "Thank you, come again!". It's hard to make out, though.

And the Nibblonians don't and seemingly can't speak English -rather, they transmit their thoughts directly to people's minds if they don't speak Nibblonian too. My guess is that this is the case for many of the aliens the show has depicted, such as the rock aliens in Neutopia which seemingly haven't had much interaction with beings from other worlds before.

[Reply #284 on:]

Yeah I guess the alien does say that, it would make sense. I'm trying to think of other aliens in the show that didn't appear to speak English, but it's surprisingly hard...

This is another hazy example, but in Raging Bender at the cinema if memory serves correct then there is a pre-show warning to a certain alien race which the movie isn't approved for. Then those aliens leave the theatre muttering in disgust. Was this muttering in an alien language or could it not be deciphered ...

[Reply #285 on:]

And the Nibblonians don't and seemingly can't speak English -rather, they transmit their thoughts directly to people's minds if they don't speak Nibblonian too.

Ya know, this raises an interesting question I just realized today...if the Nibblonians don't actually speak English but just transmit their thoughts, why did Nibbler order a pizza on the phone?

Oh, continuity.

[Reply #286 on:]

The English speaking bit of Futurama never really bothered me.  I never tried to put a deeper meaning to it like it was the representation of a Common Tongue like it is in The Lord of the Rings and A Song of Ice and Fire or Basic in Star Wars.

A thing like that would bother me in Star Trek; which it did.  Its concept of a 'universal translator' never really caught me.  I always found that to be a cheap cop out.

And the Nibblonians don't and seemingly can't speak English -rather, they transmit their thoughts directly to people's minds if they don't speak Nibblonian too.

I think you are misinterpreting Nibbler's comment 'that name is for your sake' as if they transmit their speech to her as translations (remember, we hear the Nibblonians speak in their native tongue among each other while Leela is listening).

Ya know, this raises an interesting question I just realized today...if the Nibblonians don't actually speak English but just transmit their thoughts, why did Nibbler order a pizza on the phone?

Even if we accept the idea that Nibblonians speak via transmission; would it not be odd to order a pizza without using a phone?  How else would it make sense for Mr Panucci that they ordered a pizza?  Does it not make a lot more sense that Nibbler learnt English while being stationed on Earth?

Sure does to me.

[Reply #287 on:]

In Spanish Fry, the Yeti was thought not to exist.

Yetis are not mentioned in "Spanish Fry", only Big Foot.

Although in the Farnsworth Parabox, Leela is reading a magazine with Bigfoot on the front cover, which makes Spanish Fry a bit ridiculous also.

[Reply #288 on:]

Some suggested that the idea of Nosy Enquirer covering it might be room for questioning whether it is actually true.  But it seems like a strange foreshadowing.

[Reply #289 on:]

Even if we accept the idea that Nibblonians speak via transmission; would it not be odd to order a pizza without using a phone?  How else would it make sense for Mr Panucci that they ordered a pizza?  Does it not make a lot more sense that Nibbler learnt English while being stationed on Earth?

Sure does to me.

That's true. It doesn't really bother me anyway, it was just an amusing thing that I thought of today and realized I had never thought of in the eight (christ) years since that episode first aired.

[Reply #290 on:]

And the Nibblonians don't and seemingly can't speak English -rather, they transmit their thoughts directly to people's minds if they don't speak Nibblonian too.

I think you are misinterpreting Nibbler's comment 'that name is for your sake' as if they transmit their speech to her as translations (remember, we hear the Nibblonians speak in their native tongue among each other while Leela is listening).

I'm sure Leela says something to the effect of "You say you're transmitting your thoughts directly to my mind" or something in her first conversation with Nibbler in 'The Day the Earth Stood Stupid' which, if you recall, was done without Nibbler speaking English. I'm pretty sure that every time we hear a Nibblonian speak afterwards, it's supposed to represent them transmitting their thoughts ala that first scene -just in an easy way for the audience to take in and enjoy.
I know that the characters can hear Nibblonians talk amongst themselves but is it that hard to think that maybe their thought-transmission powers work on a sort of "transmit everything we say without really thinking about it" basis?

EDIT: Here's the exact quote: "If only you could talk. Wait! I understood that! You say you're transmitting your thoughts directly to my brain."


As for the phone, it makes sense for him to order pizza that way. He would ring Panucci up and transmit thoughts to him, otherwise Mr. Panucci would just get a psychic-order for a pizza which he would probably disregard as thoughts in his head.

[Reply #291 on:]

In Spanish Fry, the Yeti was thought not to exist.

Yetis are not mentioned in "Spanish Fry", only Big Foot.

Although in the Farnsworth Parabox, Leela is reading a magazine with Bigfoot on the front cover, which makes Spanish Fry a bit ridiculous also.

how so?

[Reply #292 on:]

I was thinking of when Farnsworth was turning into a yeti. Maybe she could have at least tried to communicate with him.

Maybe she speaks Yeti with a weird Martian/Cantonese accent that's almost un-understandable.

[Reply #293 on:]

I think you are misinterpreting Nibbler's comment 'that name is for your sake' as if they transmit their speech to her as translations (remember, we hear the Nibblonians speak in their native tongue among each other while Leela is listening).

Fiona: The four welcomes of friendship to you as well, Leela. We shall manipulate your mind so we appear to be speaking your language.

[Reply #294 on:]

Another alien I thought about was in My Three Suns near the beginning of the ep in that NNY street scene where Fry says "What Up" to this alien, and I don't remember it saying something in English. It has been like forever since I saw that ep though so I could be having memory issues ...

So anyway, are we supposed to assume that all yeti's speak the same language as most aliens do, or have some of these exceptions (certain aliens possibly, Nibblonians, Alien Alphabet) thrown doubt onto that theory ...

[Reply #295 on:]

Am I the only one who recognized that the "Tritonian yeti" was the Mugato, from Star Trek?  Really?

You beat me to it.

That's the strangest yet arousingest gay yeti porn I have ever seen.   

[Reply #296 on:]

Another alien I thought about was in My Three Suns near the beginning of the ep in that NNY street scene where Fry says "What Up" to this alien, and I don't remember it saying something in English. It has been like forever since I saw that ep though so I could be having memory issues ...

I'm pretty sure it replies with "Word!".

[Reply #297 on:]

Due to the severe lack of non-English speaking aliens on Futurama (although the Raging Bender aliens haven’t been fully clarified yet), I believe that there is potentially many missed hilarious joke opportunities from circumstantial comedy. Jokes involving communication problems with various aliens due to their lack of English speaking, and the hilarity that could ensue. I hope that one day they make use of this seemingly vast untapped joke potential, because clearly there's plenty of scope for it...

[Reply #298 on:]

Very, very silly. But not awful. The Murderator was rather well animated, and I loved the Momcorp attack carrier. Mixed feelings on the overall execution of the episode though.

7/10 for now.

[Reply #299 on:]

Well the Yetis live in Triton right, which is one of Neptune's moons.  So it would not be too hard to believe that they share a language because of parallel evolution, or Triton was used as a Yeti reserve by the Neptunians.  Or... well.  Futurama.   Or Granny Hester did it.

[Reply #300 on:]

The Murderator was rather well animated

Except for the spinning wheel of axes being the wrong way round ...

[Reply #301 on:]

Am I the only one who recognized that the "Tritonian yeti" was the Mugato, from Star Trek?  Really?

You beat me to it.

That's the strangest yet arousingest gay yeti porn I have ever seen.   

Oh you!

Otis I am going to watch that scene again and somehow prove you wrong! Or prove me wrong! Either way, someone's going down.

[Reply #302 on:]

I'm surprised people hated on this one... The jokes about Fry's diseases were lame... and would've been funnier if he hadn't mentioned what they were, cause it was obvious.  But other than that the zoidberg/farnsworth stuff was great.  Unfortunately some of the other stuff was... not even bad... just unnecessary.  There were some good bender one liners (i.e. 'lets set it up and try again'), but they try to give one liners to characters who can't pull them off sometimes.  Still... story was good enough for me... it wasn't completely random and we got to know the characters better.

9/10

[Reply #303 on:]

Otis I am going to watch that scene again and somehow prove you wrong! Or prove me wrong! Either way, someone's going down.

I can't take the credit for this, it was found by Smarty and posted in the Season 6 Goofs thread, but for convenience...

The first time the spinning wheel of axes lands near the tea kettle, it is facing this way:



Then when it rolls down the rig, it's facing the other direction:



 

[Reply #304 on:]

I know, I replied in that very same thread...

I'm rewatching it and I still enjoy the First Act , up until the point where they start splicing the main characters. Whereas in Put Your Head on My Shoulder it was a big deal when Fry's head was missing from his body (it was only second season episode too though), it seems the writers now are eager to splice and dice em up without any explanation as to how they get put back together. Even in Bender's Big Score they used the Torgo's Executive Powder to reattach Hermes' head. I just wish they would stop chopping them to bits just because they can because they have gotten away with it so many times. It's becoming unbelievable.

Hmm. The ending was cute, but unFuturamay. It should have ended when after Amy said "Let's go tanning!" And have Zoidberg do his "awww" but I guess that would go against the whole point of the episode, ha. But to me, that would have been funnier.

Stop trying to be something you're not, TV show!

Otis: Ahh I see what you guys mean. That is a pretty big goof.

[Reply #305 on:]

I know, I replied in that very same thread...

I'm rewatching it and I still enjoy the First Act , up until the point where they start splicing the main characters. Whereas in Put Your Head on My Shoulder it was a big deal when Fry's head was missing from his body (it was only second season episode too though), it seems the writers now are eager to splice and dice em up without any explanation as to how they get put back together. Even in Bender's Big Score they used the Torgo's Executive Powder to reattach Hermes' head. I just wish they would stop chopping them to bits just because they can because they have gotten away with it so many times. It's becoming unbelievable.

I knew that ...

In regards to the body parts, you're right, it was a big deal in past Futurama eps and that made it more believable and justifiable when the outcome had been reached via justifiable means. In this ep it was purely played for laughs without a single thought to believability. Sure now a load of people will come in and go it's Futurama where transparent aliens eat people, where yarn people go about their business in a quiet dignified manner with fellow humans, aliens and robots, and where a Robotic Santa tries to kill people every year… Some things I can accept, others are clearly taking the piss out of any sort of believability just for the joke. That makes the joke cheap to me...

Frys bloody hand which Dr Zoidberg makes even worse is stylistically a classic Mike Scully era Simpsons joke. We get a detailed veiw of all the blood close up, just like in so many Simpsons eps from the Scully years. The wackiness follows, and then continues on and on even after you thought it stopped, just like so many Scully era jokes did. I can't help but think this is the closest to a Scully era Simpsons that Futurama has ever come. Sure it's Futurama, anything goes right? Well no, not in my book, it should still have standards...

[Reply #306 on:]

I always scream whenever I see the Fry's hand bit.  I'm really funny about seeing hands/fingers being gored up on television, so that scene is one of my most hated in Futurama.  The joke could have worked without the gory close up.  It was not nessicery.

And Leela's spine snapping and cracking makes me feel rather ill. 

Like I have said, ITS THE FUTURE! only works if we see it being applied properly.  I can buy some futuristic surgery can graft Fry's head onto Amy's body.  I can buy the heads on jars.   Herme's head surviving on its own with no jar?  Leela being perfectly fine despite being sliced in half?  Not so much.  All they really needed was to hook Hermes/Leela up to some machine, implying that the machine had the function of keeping them alive so the surgery could be done.  Otherwise it just becomes too wacky to be taken seriously.  Matt Groening says he refuses to have his chracters having typical cartoon cliches like their eyes rolling around in their sockets or their hearts beating out of their chests when they're in love, after all.  This is pretty much on the way to that.

[Reply #307 on:]

I love the scene where Zoidberg bashes Fry's hand in, Futurama needs more violence, but not this OTT stuff you're all mentioning.

[Reply #308 on:]

Futurama has always had violence when it served the plot.  The hand bashing was just gory for the sake of being gory.  The joke would have worked fine with the hand being out of shot and the book being slammed down. 

[Reply #309 on:]

The hand bashing was just gory for the sake of being gory.  The joke would have worked fine with the hand being out of shot and the book being slammed down.

Indeed, then it might have actually been funny instead of just gross...

Leela's spine thing did bother me as well, I mean, if it was a non-canon Halloween ep then I might have been ok with it, but in the canon Futurama universe I don't care how bad a doctor Dr Zoidberg is, there's just no point in having that happen. As you mentioned, if there was a machine there hooked up to them then maybe some of the believability would have been restored, but I still don't see it being all that funny even then...

[Reply #310 on:]

It probably wouldnt have been, but it would add some plausibility to it.  I can buy that sort of cartoonishness in Adventure Time or something, but not in a show that generally sticks to whats believable.  (Which is why people smugly using "its just a cartoon" as an answer for everything really bugs me.  Not that i've met anyone like that on here, but plenty on everyone's favorite spawning ground for self important idiots, Youtube)

[Reply #311 on:]

Yeah that was the worst bit to me, splicing Leela in half and then she's talking like nothing's wrong and no pain and everyone is Gumdrops and Fairies and singing! Ugh.

I thought the cactus joke was funny, stemming from Fry thinking that objects are all aliens. THAT was funny and seems more than just a Fry bit, but he still is from the 20th century so obviously a part of him still doesn't know what's real and what's not in the 31st century, which is totally relateable to any one of us had we been frozen 1000 years. Getting cactus through his hand was the Fry bit, heh.

But yeah, that bloody hand...it's like I was watching Itchy and Scratchy for a moment...

[Reply #312 on:]

It is totally relatable, considering most objects aren't aliens... they're robots.  Female robots, considering Bender has got it in with the Probulator, Amy's alarm clock, a suicide booth, a pink fridge, the ship, and made a pass at at a torpedo (Come back when I'm asleep baby!)  Oh and the Washbucket harbors a deep love for a human male.

Plus Mother's Day implied just about anything electronic has sentinence.  The television has legs, the wristlojackimater insulted Leela before rolling off, the coffee machine sprayed Fry and the garbage disposal wanted to shred Amy's hand.

Speaking of that, it does make me wonder what would have happened if they had made that scene today, would they have actually had Amy falling for the garbage machine's promise that someone had dropped a diamond ring down there, and we would have been treated to a close up of it shredding her hand into a bony, muscly goop?

[Reply #313 on:]

It is totally relatable, considering most objects aren't aliens... they're robots.  Female robots, considering Bender has got it in with the Probulator, Amy's alarm clock, a suicide booth, a pink fridge, the ship, and made a pass at at a torpedo (Come back when I'm asleep baby!)  Oh and the Washbucket harbors a deep love for a human male.

Don't forget that Satelite in 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela'!

[Reply #314 on:]

This episode coulda been so much better, but I'm sad to say its undone by the first act- and some too-unbelievable parts like a younger Farnsworth killing a yeti...and the end where its revealed that he suffers from Yeti-ism, or whatever. On the other hand, the relationship between the Professor and Zoidberg is something Ive always wanted to see more of, and much of the episode had a warm feeling to it...which is why it almost hurts to score it 7/10.

[Reply #315 on:]

Btw, thx Goldfish and Otis for welcoming me in my ill-fated thread

[Reply #316 on:]

Speaking of that, it does make me wonder what would have happened if they had made that scene today, would they have actually had Amy falling for the garbage machine's promise that someone had dropped a diamond ring down there, and we would have been treated to a close up of it shredding her hand into a bony, muscly goop?

Probably. I guess it wouldn't be too dissimilar to Fry losing his hands to the T-Rex in I Dated A Robot, but somehow that was tastefully done and quite funny. There's a thin line I guess ...

Btw, thx Goldfish and Otis for welcoming me in my ill-fated thread

No probs, stick around and have fun ...

[Reply #317 on:]

I thought the hand thing was reasonably funny and whilst I appreciate that in ways it would have been better if the blood was off-screen, I think we needed to see it for Zoidberg's "Blood?" and Fry's "Put it back in me!" lines to work.

[Reply #318 on:]

We could have seen some splash on the walls or drip on the floor.  There was no need for the extreme gore porn close up.

Again Otis, I am soooo glad we didn't have the scene with the garbage disposal in that episode.  They so would have shown Amy's hand/fingers being sliced into bits.   

Seriously though, there was no need for the gorn closeup.  In ACO, we saw that Amy lost a finger, and it turned up in the soup. The joke was still funny, and we didn't see Amy slicing her finger off, blood pouring out and her screaming.  The bit with the T Rex chomping off Fry's hands was pretty funny, and again, no gorn closeup of it biting through meat and bone.

[Reply #319 on:]

How is a hand with some blood on it worse than, say, seeing Zoidberg cut Fry's arm of with his claw in Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?

Also, how is having Fry's hands eaten off by a dinosaur without him even noticing okay but none of the things that Zoidberg did to the crew in this episode are?

I'm pretty sure that if aforementioned hand eating happened in a new episode everyone would be complaining about how stupid and cartoony it was.