To the Year 3014 or Bust - General Futurama Discussion

[#160 :]

Warning: Spoilers from the new episodes below. Proceed with caution.

Okay, it seems like Mars is totally ruined following the events of "A Farewell to Arms", and if it isn't, it's waaaay out of orbit.

Could "Viva Mars Vegas" possibly be about rebuilding Mars or getting it back in it's place? I would be very disappointed if everything was suddenly good as new without any explanation.

[#161 :]

It is another Weinstein episode. But I think it's cool that Mars is sorta acting like a moon for Earth. When the two planets sorta collided, my mind was blown. It was pretty damn awesome! Anyway, I remember one of the staff mentioning an arc for this season. Maybe it's Viva Mars Vegas.

[#162 :]

Weinstein also wrote That Darn Katz!, where the Earth's direction of rotation was reversed.  As far as I know, its rotation had returned to normal by the next episode, so I expect the same to apply here.

It does appear that he tends to assume a Simpsons-style reset after the end of every episode he writes.

[#163 :]

Earth's rotation was clearly shown rotating the opposite way in the Holiday Spectacular episode. Not sure if they've been 100% consistent on that though.

[#164 :]

Why do so many people think the heads in the head jars are frozen?! It's so annoying... They wouldn't be able to talk or move if they were frozen!

Example from this article:

The pair, who met when working together in the 1990s at Groening's The Simpsons, recently began hosting the Futurama video podcast, which runs on iTunes and the Comedy Central website. They appear on the show with their (illustrated) frozen heads in a jar — a nod to a joke on Futurama about how some of us will stay alive in later years.

[#165 :]

Clearly the author of that article knows his sci fi and is able to make the distinction between being frozen in ice and being frozen in a time/space bubble.

[#166 :]

Exactly... it's called.... phrasing.

He means as in 'frozen' i.e. suspended in time to continue on without transformation/death.

I really enjoyed the videos... Matt and David are fun.

I also love having shows on disc format, nice to hear Matt's stance on the future... aka the coming kingdom of fear.

[#167 :]

I didn't even read the article, I was just teasing.

I should probably go read it now.

[#168 :]

It is another Weinstein episode. But I think it's cool that Mars is sorta acting like a moon for Earth. When the two planets sorta collided, my mind was blown. It was pretty damn awesome! Anyway, I remember one of the staff mentioning an arc for this season. Maybe it's Viva Mars Vegas.

Good to know... that someone else is excited about the after effects of everything that went down and will internally affect the series.

I'm excited to see what will happen to the Wong's.

[#169 :]

I'm excited to see what will happen to the Wong's.

"Hey Amy, we even closer to you than we were before, why you no visit us more often? And where are those grandchildren?"

[#170 :]

Loved Matt's bit about the drones and how you can't reason with them.  Sounded exactly like what he said back in the commentary for "Fear of a Bot Planet" I think, where he talked about how he was afraid of robots as a kid for that same reason.

Nice to see him plug King of the Hill, too.

Also this bit:

Cohen: "A major use of the Internet here at Futurama, which I wouldn't have seen when we started … we go to fan-run sites to see what we did on old episodes. (The show launched in 1999.) We don't have our own resources and don't need them. The fans have taken over them, and we go there every day."

So that's who all of the non registered visitors are on PEEL.

[#171 :]

Maybe Viva Mars Vegas will be about the Wongs hitting rock bottom, having lost their entire business empire, and then regaining their fortune through Mars Vegas?  Perhaps Leo and Inez actually have to move in with Amy.  I can see her being more distressed by them living with her, then her losing pretty much her entire inheritance, so she comes up with a zany business scheme to get them out of her apartment.  I also see her and the Professor using their smarts to get Mars back in its proper place (and thus putting her parents in a place where they can't meddle in her life so easily).    Or Amy actually gets thrown out of her apartment since she can no longer afford it.

[#172 :]

Look, I really wanted to post more but I've just been busy/lazy. But just hours before "Decision 3012" comes on, I just want to set the record (or make a fool out of myself) and state that the sci-fi twist at the end of this episode is going to be that Chris Travers doesn't have a birth certificate as he wasn't born, he was hatched or created or spudded/etc. So, yeah, he's an Earthling, just not natural-born. I can imagine the argument would be made that it doesn't matter how someone's beginning is, it is what they do with it.

[#173 :]

That's an interesting theory.  I can see that idea actually being the twist of the episode.

[#174 :]

That's an interesting theory.  I can see that idea actually being the twist of the episode.

THANK YOU!

I have more theories, but I'm too lazy to bring them up. I should change my avatar to a Frida Waterfall-Sal, but that's too much effort.

[#175 :]

Maybe in the future, you can grow all types of humans, from teachers to presidential candidates, in the same way you can buy sea monkeys in their powder form.  Just add water!

[#176 :]

Maybe in the future, you can grow all types of humans, from teachers to presidential candidates, in the same way you can buy sea monkeys in their powder form.  Just add water!

Never quite understood sea monkeys. I still associate them with miniature sea-dwelling primates. If not, the advanced nuclear civilization of sea people in South Park.

Now that the episode has aired, I can rightfully say I was [mostly] incorrect with my prediction. The conclusion, I must say, was much more sci-fi than I ever could have imagined. I'm cool with being wrong this time because that was a refreshing twist, but can't I be right just once (well, I was right in my prediction of the romantic conclusion of "Bender's Big Score", but who couldn't see that coming)?

[#177 :]

To be honest, I prefer your idea.  The whole Terminator storyline has been done to death.  I was hoping for something a bit more... original.

[#178 :]

Yep, the "not being born, but otherwise created" idea was great.
I also would have pre.ferd that one

[#179 :]

I was watching season 6A with some friends who are casual fans of the show, and surprisingly the biggest laugh from them came from the Clownitis gag from PI.

Strange...

[#180 :]

So Comedy Central is doing its part to celebrate the Fourth of July by showing a block of four politically-oriented episodes: "A Head in the Polls," "300 Big Boys," "All the Presidents' Heads," and "A Taste of Freedom." I find this immensely amusing, for some reason (the inclusion of "300 Big Boys" in particular tickles me; it's like, "Let's celebrate America by pointing out how frivolous its citizens are with their money!" Very festive).

[#181 :]

They played 'A Taste of Freedom' earlier today.

[#182 :]

Friend sent me this from her trip to Germany.

[#183 :]

Which town?

[#184 :]

So, the 3 arcs we have going on (so far) this season are:

• What's going on with Mars? I'm assuming it will have to be destroyed, as it was the end of the world for it...
• Is Calculon dead for good?
• How does the PE prom come into everything? (Remember, DXC said in one of the podcasts that there will be a full PE prom, but he didn't say it wouldn't be in 'A Farewell to Arms'...)

[#185 :]

What the hell is the PE prom?

[#186 :]

Planet Express prom.

Fry cuts Leela's head out of the photo and sticks it on his ticket to Mars. The photo was released way back near the start of the Countdown.* When they talk about it on one of the Podcasts, DXC says we get to see a full PE prom.


*

[#187 :]

So exactly what I presumed it to be?  Weird.  I think it might be a time travel thing, this.

[#188 :]

Yeah someone suggested that in the review thread too.

[#189 :]

The graffiti was from Wiesbaden, Germany.

Which podcast was it where they talked about the PE prom? I'd like to listen to it again just to get a better sense of this, but from their tone I thought it was pretty clear that they were just joking, after someone jokingly said that the prom is something fans would "actually want to see." Even in the actual episode I feel like the very idea of it is really just treated as an absurd passing joke (why would a small delivery company with so few employees and only one real couple even have a prom? It wouldn't make any sense). I mean yeah it's kind of sweet, but I feel like it's still the equivalent of whenever someone shows a picture of Homer fulfilling one of his "lifelong dreams" on The Simpsons. It's funny precisely because it's completely ridiculous and is only mentioned in passing as some past event we'll never get more details of.

[#190 :]

I don't remember which one exactly, but it was one of the earlier podcasts, maybe even the first one.  I remember DXC saying that we would see a "full PE prom" (using those exact words) and it didn't sound like a joke to me.  He was using his regular disseminating info tone of voice.  It's usually pretty obvious (judging from the commentaries, interviews and podcasts) when he is telling a joke or being sarcastic because his tone changes.

Also, I don't care if it's unrealistic or nonsensical for PE to have a prom, I want one anyway because I love it when they have parties at PE for any reason.

[#191 :]

Also, I don't care if it's unrealistic or nonsensical for PE to have a prom, I want one anyway because I love it when they have parties at PE for any reason.

Ah, so maybe it could be like Clone High's Winter Prom. "A Magical Night in the Hangar Angry Dome..."

[#192 :]

If there is, indeed, a "full prom" rather than it just being a quick gag, then my money is on it being in "Fun on a Bun". I mean, the whole episode is a sort of "Eternal Sunshine" type affair, right? My guess is they re-live old memories including that of the prom, or alternatively, the characters throw a prom in an attempt to get Fry and Leela to remember each other.

[#193 :]

Hangar

Meat Locker.

[#194 :]

That's a very plausible idea, cyber.  Maybe the only way they can get Fry and Leela to remember each other is for the Professor to invent some machine that forces them to 'relive' the prom. (I don't think time travel would work because the prom takes place before S7 started, and none of the others have indicated any foreknowledge of the events of FOAB.  Though I could be wrong.)

[#195 :]

Hangar

Meat Locker.

I know, I was just trying (and failing) to make a further joke out of a PE version of the prom.

[#196 :]

Watching Ricky Gervais show and just had a thought. Id love to see them do a Hanna Barbara animation style segment.

[#197 :]

That's a very plausible idea, cyber.  Maybe the only way they can get Fry and Leela to remember each other is for the Professor to invent some machine that forces them to 'relive' the prom. (I don't think time travel would work because the prom takes place before S7 started, and none of the others have indicated any foreknowledge of the events of FOAB.  Though I could be wrong.)

Possible, though I doubt it.

I think it would be just too much time consuming, as the Oktoberfest, the sausage making contest, and the Neanderthal battle are already strong motives.
My bet is on a shock effect during the Fry/Leela fight, in which they realise after a few strikes that they in fact do not really want to hurt each other. Would also come full circle with my other guess of Leela losing her mind to a certain degress after realising the ingredients of the Fry sausage:
One shock to lose the memory, another one to restore it, a common comedy trope.
Might also fix the splitting up: Making a scene for someone being drunk is one think, seeing the death of that person might make you reconsider wether some drunken shenanigans are really worth such a fuzz...

[#198 :]

Watching Ricky Gervais show and just had a thought. Id love to see them do a Hanna Barbara animation style segment.

They're doing a Scooby Doo segment in Saturday Morning Fun Pit - an episode, that I believe will replicate the animation styles of its respective shows, too. So, yeah. They're doing it.

[#199 :]

Yeah but the Scooby-Doo HB animation is older than the one The Ricky Gervais Show is based off of.