Thoughts on Episode 8ACV03 – How the West Was 1010001 (SPOILERS)

[on:]

Original Release Date: August 7th, 2023.

Bender and the crew head west to join the bitcoin mining rush.

Discuss.

[Reply #1 on:]

6/10

It was decent. Had a few chuckles. It needs to sit with me for a while.

[Reply #2 on:]

I think that was the worse of the three so far. Can't get anymore mediocre. Meh out of meh.

[Reply #3 on:]

I’m genuinely curious now, why was a fake name used for the writing credit? Were they/the crew that disappointed in this episode that they didn’t want anyone to be credited for it?

While I can’t call the episode thaat bad, it did feel really off. It reminded me for some reason of a lower end Season 12 episode of The Simpsons. It gave a few stray laughs, I wasn’t really offended by what was happening, but it had this aura of laziness and nothing amounting to anything that put me off.

Nothing clever was really done with the cryptocurrency aspect, a lot of it was standard stuff I’d see in any “western episode” of a show. The twist in the third act of robot heads being used over servers for mining could’ve been interesting, I honestly wish most of the episode just focused on that.

Instead its an ensemble episode full of several stories, none of which that funny or amounting to anything.

Dwight looks up to Roberto instead of Hermes. That goes nowhere.

Borax Kid turns out to be plagiarizing his books and fights Fry for Leela. K.

Bender owns a Burro. So he can sing a really cringy song about his ass while riding an ass, which ends on a conveyor belt background? Ech. At least Zoidberg/Roberto/Farnsworth were consistently funny.

Also lets name drop Bitcoin a few times, which still exists without any real twist or commentary made on it. Also mention Ethereum. Apple Maps. Yelp. ….

I didn’t hate this, I just didn’t really care for anything that was happening, or laugh that much. Definitely the worst Ken Keeler episode (we’re positive he wrote this right?), and worst of the 2023 run so far.


5/10


Notes:

-Speaking of laziness, the Robot Mafia just teleporting to the town at the end. Also Roberto and Bender’s heads still being in the museum in that last shot.

-That 3D shot of Dwight limboing to that 3D model of mood-swing woman, mmm. I don’t think I’ve ever winced more at a CGI scene on this show. Looked like the friggin’ PS2 game.

[Reply #4 on:]

Think I've got an hour to go until I can watch it here in the UK.

[Reply #5 on:]

I thought it was pretty lame, I can see why there's some sort of false writing credit. I wonder if it really was Keeler, because it felt to me like a newcomer entirely. The plot was forced - the robot mafia just appear, Bender gets a random song, then a joke bartender woman is the villain? Also, isn't Roberto dead? All the crypto and modern day stuff just wasn't funny. Most of it went over my head to begin with, and I just don't get why any of this takes place in the future. Why write this? Maybe I'm just not interested in the old west tropes. Dwight felt a bit out of character, or weird somehow - I can't remember if was ever so disconnected and angsty in the older seasons, he felt generic. Talk about that jank 3D shot.

There were some funny lines and moments though. "Bullets in every dimension" was good. I really like Amy, Zoidberg and Bender in these episodes so far. It's interesting how Fry isn't very focused on... honestly he and Leela have been a bit boring. But we'll see where the season goes. The musician robot was real cool, too, Borax Kid is fun, and Roberto's always great.

I hate to be so negative because I really believe in the show, but this was some early season 6 tier stuff. Way too slow, unfunny and forced. Not a totally terrible one or anything, but still, very uninspired. Not something I'd want to watch again outside of a full season binge.

[Reply #6 on:]

I liked it better then the other two, in terms of jokes, but it felt pretty eh to me.

[Reply #7 on:]

This episode was sort of like an old-west themed version of "Three Hundred Big Boys"... except not very funny at all. I don't think I even smiled. A big step down from the previous two.

Also, isn't Roberto dead?

He was already back inexplicably in "Stench and Stenchability", actually.

[Reply #8 on:]

Dire.

I really hated the trend in the Comedy Central seasons to just focus on a current day topic and this is just that plus some old west set dressing. It doesn't cohere into an interesting premise, and all the myriad storylines are so disparate that nothing has the opportunity to develop into something more engaging.

I laughed exactly once (Dwight's surprisingly harsh tone in like the first thing he says in the episode).

[Reply #9 on:]

Bleh. I can take it or leave it. I think I'll leave it. Worst of the eps so far, deep down I was kind of waiting for an episode like this one to come up. This was boring & uninteresting, even the Hermes subplot sucked as much as I hate to say it. Hopefully there aren't any more that is like this. Kinda upsets me that this episode confirms the show undid the events of Meanwhile with Leela getting hit on by the Borax Kid and all that. Glad to see that character return, ngl, but it certainly didn't save this episode.

4/10

*Edit: Agreed Cube_166, I never liked how the CC seasons, especially Season 6A, decided to put focus on a trending topic. Those always turned out to be the worst eps of the series.

[Reply #10 on:]

I’m genuinely curious now, why was a fake name used for the writing credit? Were they/the crew that disappointed in this episode that they didn’t want anyone to be credited for it?

I'd love to know the story here, too. My only guess is that maybe Ken Keeler has some bitcoin holdings and he didn't want to be seen to be disparaging of the concept. Perhaps he was offered some startup coins for free somewhere but had to sign a non-disparagement agreement for them.

Nothing clever was really done with the cryptocurrency aspect

I think the clever part was using it as a (fairly decent) excuse for getting them into a wild west scenario. I love the idea of Silicon Valley reverting back to life as it was in the old west because of crypto, actually. It's a great set up.

Dwight looks up to Roberto instead of Hermes. That goes nowhere.

That's not true. He realises that Roberto is a bad guy because he murders and lets him get trampled. He then learns to appreciate limbo, Hermes' passion, and the two of them are able to bond over it as he saves his father. It's nothing amazing but it's a solid story arc for a subplot in a cartoon.

Also lets name drop Bitcoin a few times, which still exists without any real twist or commentary made on it. Also mention Ethereum. Apple Maps. Yelp. ….

I wish they'd gone with "BitBucks" or something like that. Name-dropping bitcoin just felt off for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I'm also torn on the Apple Maps gag -- it was probably the funniest joke for me, but it was also stupid that Apple Maps would still exist in 1,000 years -- especially when every other Apple product is a MomCorp product in this universe.

I wonder if it really was Keeler, because it felt to me like a newcomer entirely.

This felt very Ken Keeler to me. The guy isn't a magic, guaranteed win. Remember, he wrote "Forty Percent Leadbelly" too. There were a lot of his sensibilities on show in this episode. Bender's song, for example -- Ken Keeler seems to love folk singing and he's the show's songwriter. Then you had all the science/math jokes in his style -- Bender's line "Any number you can think of, there's a number bigger than that!" is pure Keeler.

[Reply #11 on:]

Anyway, I guess I'm alone here, but I thought this was a good episode.

The most assured and funniest one of the new season yet. I preferred "Children of a Lesser Bog" because it had a stronger emotional core, but, once again, I'd take these first three episodes over the first three season 6 episodes, easily.

I wish they'd distanced themselves from actual bitcoin a little bit, but I liked the basic premise they used it for.

Great art design and music from Christopher Tyng in this one too.

Also, I enjoy the Easter egg in the title. 1010001 = 81 in binary code = element #81 = thallium

7/10 from me

[Reply #12 on:]

I pretty much agree with what's been said above.

The changeable temper of the saloon keeper was entertaining. The 3D bullets had the spark of Ken Keeler and mathy complication, and were a twist on the old-west gunfight similar to the vertical flight through space of the Enterprise at the end of All Good Things.

The characters seemed to mostly follow their established personalities, though more on the edge; Fry was the  especially stupid Fry, for example. Hermes was good, though.

Overall, I've never been a fan of the crew-takes-on-some-new-occupation-for-one-episode type plots, and this episode didn't change my opinion on that. 5/10. Episodes with a package delivery: 0/3

Pedantic, but using the term bitcoin itself was either a clever joke or nonsense: one of the ideas of those things is that a limited number of 'coins' are planned. FWIW Wiki sez the last one is expected to be mined in 2140.

In the comments that Patric Verrone made about the episode Comic Con, he implied that the binary number 1010001 => decimal 81 had two meanings, one which is a word, another which is a meaning for the number 81 itself.

The speculation around the ASCII mapping of 'Q' seems like it was wrong. As cyber_turnip said, maybe it was 81 => Atomic number for Thallium. And, binary numbers sound like the English word 'won' when said out loud (=> How the West was Won); it even sounds a bit sing-songy when you say the whole episode title (with ones and zeros) out loud.

[Reply #13 on:]

Ah, Ken Keeler Nona di Spargement does it again! I guess I'm with cyber_turnip in the minority here, because I thought this was by far the strongest episode of the season to date, in terms of both concept and execution. I'd say it's a 7.5/10, which I'll round up for the poll.

I'm not a fan of (or especially familiar with) the Western genre, beyond what I've absorbed via cultural osmosis, but I thought the Old West stuff was done pretty well—which is to say, it hit all the beats you'd expect, and did so entertainingly. I especially enjoyed Bender and Rusty's storyline (his affection for a cute animal reminded me fondly of "Crimes of the Hot") and the stuff with the Borax Kid (though Leela swooning over him was pretty dumb, if also sort of required by the plot). The multiway shootout at the end was the obligatory climax, of course, but the animation was neat and I was tickled that Fry's offense at a quasi-plagiarism scheme was what set the whole thing off.

In terms of the story: I was fond of the mood-swinging barmaid and most of the other new (or repurposed, in Roberto's case) characters. The current-events angle with the crypto stuff didn't bother me, as I am always inclined to mock bitcoin and the people who trade in it. My main story complaint is one that's already been noted by others upthread: this episode had waaay too many subplots, and not all of them hit the mark, with the Hermes/Dwight one feeling most unnecessary and superfluous (also, apparently Dwight's still 12 years old despite the show acknowledging the passage of 23 years; I'm going to proceed under the premise that all the characters are just staying frozen in time age-wise despite calendar time progressing in its usual fashion). With that said, the first act was exceptionally tight and quite funny—and once the bitcoin mining scheme was uncovered, the pace picked up and everything started to come together nicely. This episode just suffers, as many of us do, from a sagging middle.

But, again, I found myself consistently entertained and amused by this episode. It wasn't exactly laugh-out-loud funny, but it had the kind of corny, kind of clever gags I've come to expect from Ken Keeler. Some of the puns were a bit cringeworthy (I didn't love Bender's ass song, for example), but the humor in this episode felt like a decent enough approximation of an average-to-good episode from the original run, so I'll take it. If the rest of this season can be just about as good as this episode, I'll be rather content.

[Reply #14 on:]

If I wanted to be negative I could be really negative; for instance, the first few seconds really soured me - "oh no, I'm suddenly bankrupt because it's suddenly 2022 again!" followed swiftly by showing a periodic table that seems to give no consideration of a millennia of intergalactic-wide discoveries, and I'm not even a scientist.

But then, bugger it, I just started enjoying it. And I enjoyed it so much I just overlooked it's many other flaws. I liked it more than the previous episodes. I definitely laughed out loud at Fry's failing to grasp the back-room, and smiled through a lot of the rest, even if a few jokes fell utterly flat.

It's remarkable, there really are so many reasons for me to hate this episode, but I just enjoyed it way too much.

Then I got too excited when grading it; it's closer to 7 or 8, in case anyone wonders who gave it a 9. It's not a 9. Sorry about that...

I don't think it was just Leela's attire... No, the episode was a romp and it was well paced and the new characters interesting, even if the episode would have lost not a jolt if Dwight had stayed home, though I kind of get his about-turn.

Also, delighted to see Dee Bradley Baker's name in the credits, though I'm wondering who - or what - he voiced...

[Reply #15 on:]

I found this one a bit meandering and shallow, and no way near as funny as the preceding two episodes.

I thought they could have done a lot more and been a lot smarter with the western theme, but it was a bit predictable and... lazy? Unambitious? Safe? There was such potential to draw on some of the stylistic and cinematic elements of classic spaghetti westerns and riff off them with clever gags, but it all felt quite basic and forced. Even the premise of everyone being very "western" because all electricity was used for bitcoin mining, and the crew having to "do western stuff" because they were poor, felt clumsy. I'm cool with a well-executed flimsy and forced premise, but this just left me feeling, "meh".

I thought more could have been done with bitcoin "mining", too. Would have loved some kind of virtual reality with the robots actually mining a wall of cascading green ones and zeros with pickaxes, or something, rather than just sitting on shelves.

I also agree with those who said Dwight felt off. Like he had a personality transplant just to fuel the story where he discovers limbo and reconciles with Hermes.

All in all, a bit meh.
4/10

[Reply #16 on:]

These sorts of episodes are my jam. Sorry.

The bitcoin stuff was goofy enough and took enough of a back seat that not only did it not feel overly current, I’m cautiously optimistic it won’t even date the episode down the line.

A big part of whether you like this ep or not is probably dependent on how you feel about “the gang go to the old west” trope, and I personally enjoy it.

I also have a irrational fondness for episodes with lots of quick plots where all the crew have something to do, and this was no exception. They could’ve been intertwined better but it was certainly good enough for me.

Roberto was fine, as was the 19 seconds we saw of the robot mafia, but the new characters all smashed it for me. The saloon owner and the player piano both had me giggling pretty dumbly.

I had a lot of fun, and that’s enough for an 8/10

[Reply #17 on:]

I will say, I found this episode funnier than the last two, but the story is definitely the weakest of the season so far.

It's like the writers made a list of every possible storyline that could be made with a wild west setting, and forgot to narrow it down to one or two.

With 5 or 6 storylines the episode becomes more of a series of sketches than anything resembling a normal episode, which I'm fine with in complete honesty.

Don't think the episode is going to last for long in my memory, but a lot of the jokes landed for me and that's all I'm really after for now. Hopefully we start to get stronger episodes though, because the season cant sustain much more disposable episodes.

7/10

[Reply #18 on:]

One nice thing I will say about this episode was I genuinely enjoyed Delilah, the barmaid/brothel madam character.  Reminded of the "I like that" lady from the Simpsons who was also voiced by Tress MacNeille.

Speaking of Tress, I'm pretty sure that was Lauren Tom voicing the saloon girl robot that gets killed by Roberto, using the high pitched nasal voice she used for Ruth in The Bots and the Bees.  Normally that's the kind of role that's a shoe in for Tress.  Also counting the hair and makeup robot who got crushed by the execubots in TIS, I think that's already the second time we have seen a new fembot character be introduced and be killed onscreen in the same episode.  Just an observation, I wonder if that's going to be a running joke or something.

Also I noticed that the robot heads being used to mine bitcoin: a lot of them are modelled after minor and recurring robot characters from throughout the show: I spotted the honeymooning couple who went to watch Gearotica, Bender's recurring floozies from the original run, Lulubelle 7, Monique, Fanny, Fatbot, the small nerdy robot fromU whose name escapes me, and that's off the top of my head.

[Reply #19 on:]

One nice thing I will say about this episode was I genuinely enjoyed Delilah, the barmaid/brothel madam character.  Reminded of the "I like that" lady from the Simpsons who was also voiced by Tress MacNeille.

Ooo, yes, good call! Those two characters do have the same basic (bipolar) shtick. In any event, that’s two weeks in a row Tress MacNeille has hit it out of the park with incidental characters—first the Grand Midwife, now Delilah. The woman does not miss.

[Reply #20 on:]

The wild west thing was so f%$ing tired, and I hate the Borax Kid. Having said both those intense statements, the setting was forgivable due to the Madam Delilah's fun appearance, and the episode shit on Borax so much it justified his appearance.

Do I care for cryptocurrency humour in 2023? Absolutely not. Am I sick of the entire ensemble embarking on episodes together? Yep. Yet somehow, with all this negativity I have associated with these components, it made for a silly episode which I consider less heinously boring and charmless than the previous 2.

I don't know why- it reeks of filler episode and yet, it got into such a familiar groove by the end that the nostalgia factor actually started working its spell on me for the first time in this new batch.

5/10 for now - unremarkable, but not a stain on the show's run like Butterjunk or last week's attempt at canon.

My wishlist is still for an adventure with a) a package delivery and b) the core trio to do something alone for once.

[Reply #21 on:]

You know, no matter if you like or dislike the episode, it's so fun to come here and see everyone's opinionated opinions on Futurama again every Monday. Long Live PEEL

[Reply #22 on:]

I found this episode very disappointing. The plot wasn’t great and the setting didn’t compliment Futurama’s strengths. I thought for a while maybe that was why I wasn’t getting into this episode, not enough future theme and sci-fi, but then I thought back to Roswell that Ends Well and even Where the Buggalo Roam and how much better they were.

The jokes mostly fell flat and even Roberto couldn’t save this one. Worst of the three so far by quite a way.

[Reply #23 on:]

The theme-of-the-week episodes have always been on the weaker side. This was no exception.

6, and it deserves worse.

There are so many things I thought were just stupid, lazy, or done for the sake of having done them - like the song that served as Bender's excuse to say "ass" a whole bunch. There are continuity goofs. There are characters whose motivations feel out of character until they suddenly serve the plot, and there's a selection of enmeshed plots that are all pretty awful.

The idea that primitive conditions are all that people know because every erg of electricity is being used by bitcoin mining is kinda fun. The idea that this means a very specific set of historical themes and movie tropes are all that's going on in the area as a result is... ...lame.

The knife-gun was worth a chuckle. The 3D sequence was wasted. What even the fuck was it? Why?

And "bullets in every dimension" should have either been "in every direction" or "along all dimensional axes".

The Borax Kid was a letdown (kinda the point though, maybe?), and Leela's sudden interest in him was so far out of left field, it was pitched from the right by somebody facing the wrong way.

Zoidberg was the star, honestly. And he was barely in it.

The bar is now really low for the next episode, at least.

[Reply #24 on:]

Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of this one either. If this was indeed written by Keeler, then I don't think it was his absolute worst. I at least liked it a little more than that awful "Forty Percent Leadbelly" episode last season, but not by much.

Going into this, I knew it was going to be bad since these topical episodes have a poor track record. Personally, I really did not like how they didn't even attempt to "futurize" Bitcoin/Etherium/Apple Maps (wtf?) in any way, like they've done in the past (Kid-Nappster, Eyephone, etc.) It's really just an odd episode overall. There is a lot going on, but at the same time nothing actually happens?

- Zoidberg shiftily taking over as the town doctor the moment the doc drops was a funny premise with a lot of potential...and it goes nowhere.

- Robots being enslaved for an illicit mining operation could have led to some interesting scenes, but we get nothing more than seeing some heads on shelves. Hell, the whole episode should have been about the crew going into virtual Bitcoin-land to destroy it from the inside, or something.

- You would think Leela working for the saloon should lead to the discovery of the Bitcoin farm, or maybe she would at least help the crew escape the room. But nope, this doesn't tie in with this plotline whatsoever.

- Dwight joining Roberto for escapades doesn't lead to any actual escapades!

It's just a mess all round. Still, I'd be lying if I said there was nothing I enjoyed: The emotionally wild barkeep was entertaining. I loved Roberto's knife-gun thing. I appreciated the assayer's compulsive laugh, and the commitment of the prospector reducing the town's population indicator as he was dying. The "Brothel" "Soup kitchen?" exchange got a genuine chuckle out of me. Oh, and the Farnsworth/Pyjamas deep cut was really unexpected, but didn't feel out of place unlike a lot of other things in this episode.

I can easily see this ranking near the bottom of all episodes though. It just wasn't very good overall.

Also, isn't Roberto dead?

Roberto had actually already reappeared in "Stench and Stenchibility".

[Reply #25 on:]

Maybe I'm just really sour on last week's episode, but as with others in the minority, I found myself enjoying this one. It gave me many chuckles and snickers, and I was delighted by many of the gags presented. Sure, several of them were really stupid, but I didn't mind. My favorite gag was definitely the deep cut back to the pilot with Farnsworth's PJs. It hit all the better because I've started going around the horn from SE01.

I do agree that Leela's sudden interest in Borax Kid feels completely out of left field, but I also get that they wrote her that way because a barmaid typically falls for the hero of the story. By the end of it, she was right back to gladly loving Fry. She genuinely seemed happy to have him take care of her grazed hand. And everyone else was given a stereotypical role to play too, so it didn't feel terribly jarring.

The Hermes/Dwight sub-plot was ok. Nothing amazing. Could the episode have gone on without them? Yeah. Would this have been a tighter episode with the core trio + Farnsworth? Maybe so. But as it stands, eh. Bloated cast or not it was ok.

As for the robot heads doing the mining... I'm fine with that bit in the episode being more of a surface-level thing. Would it have been interesting to see it explored further? Sure. But I'm ok with it not having happened here.

In summary: Is this episode clunky at times? Sure. Is it imperfect? Yeah. But this, like the two preceding episodes, have brought smiles to my face. Also, no matter how corny the writing's been, nobody's been trying to hit me over the head with a proverbial plot-shaped baseball bat to tell me I'm a terrible person (knock on wood for the future). So the show's got that going for it.

7/10

[Reply #26 on:]

This one won't be as in-depth, but it was definitely the weakest of the three. Not as bad as some of the CC episodes, but it felt like they were trying a little too hard to create something memorable and gimmicky, and there was just too much going on at once. The writers ought to take a break from the B-plots (and in this case the C- and D-plots) and just distill it to one main plot. I'm also not too keen on the "commentary on current events" episodes; it's going to become another South Park (which, in spite of all the respect I have for Matt and Trey, has all but completely lost its original charm).

I agree with the above poster that Leela's sudden infatuation with the Borax Kid was a play on the "barmaid falls in love with the hero of the story" trope, but it still felt extremely OOC for her after an established relationship with Fry. I'm glad it returned to the status quo.

The gag with the barmaid's mood swings seemed a little long and drawn-out, but I gave her a pass because she reminded me of Tress's "I like that" diner owner from the Simpsons.

Definitely the worst Ken Keeler episode (we’re positive he wrote this right?), and worst of the 2023 run so far.

I agree that this is the weakest of all the runs. _{Offhand comment about Caroline Premish redacted because I am a dumb-dumb who hasn't listened to the episode commentary}

[Reply #27 on:]

I know people like to rag on episodes that deal with "current" trends, but surely we're past the point where bitcoin is considered current, right? It's been around for ages.

Side note, I'm now remembering people thinking the Twitter references in "Attack of the Killer App" would date the episode, but Twitter X is more trendy than ever nowadays. For now.

[Reply #28 on:]

You all affirm my suspicions that Nona di Spargement is related somehow to "In a Gadda-Da-Leela"s elusive Caroline Premish, and that both only appear when Ken Keeler isn't particularly proud of his work.

While I'm fully on board with the conspiracy theory that Caroline Premish is some sort of pseudonym for a writer who was unhappy with how bad "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" ended up being, I can't see that being the reason for Ken Keeler going under "Nona di Spargment" given that it's so clearly a play on "non-disparagement". I suspect there was some sort of legal issue that meant he didn't want to be credited.

[Reply #29 on:]

Also is there a reason we think Caroline Premish was Ken Keeler specifically now?

[Reply #30 on:]

Also is there a reason we think Caroline Premish was Ken Keeler specifically now?

Yeah, I mean, are people just that desperate to know who was responsible for that episode:-)?

[Reply #31 on:]

I think we’re attributing way more self-awareness to the writers than they actually possess. I don’t think they thought  “In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela” or “How the West Was 1010001” to be unusually bad or shame-worthy episodes—I’m sure the pseudonyms (assuming Premish even is a fake name) were either inside jokes or legal requirements.

I mean, Keeler put his name on both “The Tip of the Zoidberg” and “The Six Million Dollar Mon,” the first of which was not so great and the second of which was absolute dog shit. I’d take the most recent episode over either of those any day. (For whatever it’s worth, I thought “Forty Percent Leadbelly” was goofy and charming in the same way this episode was—not Keeler’s strongest work, but still ultimately unobjectionable and in fact somewhat enjoyable.)

[Reply #32 on:]

I didn’t realize my offhand comment would spark this much debate. I do remember a few threads speculating on Premish’s true identity back when "In a Gadda-Da-Leela" first aired, and the Nona di Sparagement alias made me think of that. It’s been many years since I actually saw some of these episodes, and I don’t pay enough attention to which writers wrote what to pick up subtleties between their writing styles, so that comment was purely out of ignorance.

“Non disparagement” wordplay makes more sense and is quite obvious in hindsight. It also took me many years to realize “Sam Etic” (Dustin Hoffman) was a pun on “semitic”. I am dumb

[Reply #33 on:]

There’s no real way for anyone to know, BUT, it is worth saying that around the time the show was cancelled (uh…again), DXC said on Reddit that In a Gadda da Leela was one of his few regrets with the show, feeling that they tried too hard to make the show racy and in the process may have hurt Zapp’s character with a “rapey” plot. Who knows exactly why a pseudonym was (seemingly) used. It could be that it was a freelancer who didn’t want credit. It could also be that it was so room written that they couldn’t even attribute it to a writer - everyone in these conversations seems to forget that these shows are largely written by the whole staff and that writing credits are already a legal formality to a certain extent, meant to divvy up fees and residuals essentially. In any case, “Carolyn Premish” was probably not Ken Keeler because he was credited on four other season 6 episodes anyway, which is a lot even with how long those seasons were.

It’s also unlikely Keeler used a pseudonym now because of embarrassment. This wasn’t one of my favorite episode of the series by any means, but it’s clearly a joke about bitcoin/crypto people being famously touchy and litigious. See everything going on with Sam Bankrun-Fraud going on right now. If Keeler was trying to protect his identity, his buddy Patric Verrone would not have outed him as the writer at a panel. It’s just a joke. It’s a comedy show.

[Reply #34 on:]

After rewatching this episode, it might be the most futuramaey episode of futurama ever, with an emphasis on the fu and the tur.  It starts in the old west, and doesn't get more futur than that.  Plus by my calculations, there was an attempted joke every approximately .87 seconds... That's the most humor in attempted jokes probably through out.  I LIQ'ed while trapped on the couch for the whole runtime.  LIQ is like LOL, except it doesn't mean Laugh Out Loud.  Plus Roberto was there.  And this is the only episode where the Borax Kid was actually watchable.  Such a good episode.  And there were new characters!  Like the barmaid/brothel owner/good crypto samaritan, or the robot that plays the piano and jamaica, or the Cackle Man.  I give this episode a 1010001.  Is Thalium actually that rare?  Also Roberto had a knife gun, and the 3 dimensional shootout limbo contest was fun.  Had this episode been in season 2 or season 3

[Reply #35 on:]

I liked this episode mostly just because it was fun to watch. Though, I am impartial to that old west piano style, so the music was what I was paying attention to for most of it.

[Reply #36 on:]

Creative and funny enough episode. Nice twist and future-angle to current topic. Too many subplots but somehow they were handled pretty well and much better than in the covid ep, where it kinda fell apart into autonomous scenes with no clear direction. Still miss the trio episodes, and Fry somehow got sidelined, even in Fry centric episode like TIS.

Some highlights:
- Bender's song - dumb but fun
- the twist
- Delilah
- I am already with my pijamas!
- Liked western setting mixed with some S-F stuff
- Pianola Bot

So I would rate it 8/10. Even when Ken Keeler writes something weaker, it still holds up pretty well.

[Reply #37 on:]

Good episode. Highlight for me was the ill repute/cat house/brothel routine. Not crazy about the Borax Kid. I kind of wish they had created a new character to fill that role.