It doesn't make sense

[on:]

I'm sorry if this has already been posted but I couldn't find anything about it.

Earlier today, I was re-watching the episodes 'Less than hero' and 'Crimes of the hot' and I noticed something;

Since Leela is apparently the only one-eyed person on Earth (Other than her parents) wouldn't they have figured out that she was Cloberella? Also, later in the episode she rips off her clothes, then her Cloberella outfit and then she has her black pants and white tank top on. How could she be wearing pants underneath, since the legs are bare?

In 'Crimes of the hot', near the end the robots are all rejecting gas, which then turns into flames. Leela then says that 'One lazy or polite robot is holding it in', which turns out to be Bender. When he finally starts rejecting, they show that the flames he ejects are blue. Since his were the only ones that were blue, wouldn't they have known that Bender was the one 'holding it in'? 

[Reply #1 on:]

It's simple - the Rule of Funny is in effect. Once you understand that, Futurama makes much more sense.

And maybe they didn't know Bender's flames were blue.

[Reply #2 on:]

bender burps orange flames. the logical assumption would be he also farts orange flames.

[Reply #3 on:]

bender burps orange flames. the logical assumption would be he also farts orange flames.

Burping is not the same robophysiological process as farting. Trust me. I know Science.

[Reply #4 on:]

Well - I've been here nearly 12 years and never figured that out Angelyne. So good job making us all look like fools (or just me, heh).

[Reply #5 on:]

Regarding Leela's eye, I think it's safe to consider it standard cartoon logic. I mean, those tiny little masks wouldn't do anything to hide her identity. It would be like trying to hide behind a paperclip.

[Reply #6 on:]

Ok, this doesn't make to much sense either.  In the episode Bender gets made at the start Fry, Leela and Bender go through the P entrance instead of the VIP entrance yet they get the best seat in the house.

What's up with that?

[Reply #7 on:]

Ok, this doesn't make to much sense either.  In the episode Bender gets made at the start Fry, Leela and Bender go through the P entrance instead of the VIP entrance yet they get the best seat in the house.

What's up with that?

The front seats increase the possibility of being blinded by Spice Weasels...

[Reply #8 on:]

So I'm watching a "Leela of her Own" and noticed that Hank Aaron the 24th drank some of the Wade Bogg juice from his jar and didn't go back in time.

What's up with that?

[Reply #9 on:]

So I'm watching a "Leela of her Own" and noticed that Hank Aaron the 24th drank some of the Wade Bogg juice from his jar and didn't go back in time.

What's up with that?

The episode was made around ten years prior and with it being such a small scene from such an unmemorable episode, the writers obviously forgot about it...

[Reply #10 on:]

Hey that is a REALLY good point though. 10,000 Quatloos goes to the new guy!

[Reply #11 on:]

Hey that is a REALLY good point though. 10,000 Quatloos goes to the new guy!

Hey, I might be new to posting here but I have been watching the show since it first aired a long time ago on a channel lower on the dial.

[Reply #12 on:]

So I'm watching a "Leela of her Own" and noticed that Hank Aaron the 24th drank some of the Wade Bogg juice from his jar and didn't go back in time.
What's up with that?

The episode was made around ten years prior and with it being such a small scene from such an unmemorable episode, the writers obviously forgot about it...

In "A Big Piece of Garbage", Ron Popeil claims to have invented the technology to keep human heads alive in jars. So maybe Wade Boggs was in a "Ronco Head Jar" filled with H2OGfat and not one supported by Crystalline Opal to create a time stasis bubble. So no time traveling while enjoying Wade Boggs.

[Reply #13 on:]

How exactly does the Professor own Bender?
Isn't he just an employee of the Professor?
He has been fired from Plant Express.

[Reply #14 on:]

The Professor still owns Bender when he's fired, he just doesn't have to pay him.

[Reply #15 on:]

How exactly does the Professor own Bender?

I think he means how did the Professor obtain ownership of Bender? He didn't purchase him. Bender was a job deserter just like Fry and Leela. But I suppose that the Professor does indeed have ownership or some registration of him, the Professor had to agree to benders license agreement in the episode "Overclockwise"(6ACV25). But still how? Lol

[Reply #16 on:]

Property laws in the future operate in accordance with the highly evolved, time-tested rule of "finders keepers losers weepers."

[Reply #17 on:]

Huh, that is actually a really good point, Diabedo, one I didn't even realize (which has made me feel bad). "Overclockwise" has that scene that makes it look like Farnsworth purchased Bender, but we all know from the pilot he didn't. Of course, we don't know who owned Bender before Farnsworth (do we?) Maybe he wasn't owned by anyone prior to that, so that was the first time his license agreement came up.

[Reply #18 on:]

Well the very first time we see Bender he is in line waiting for use of a suicide booth. He said that he can't stand to live anymore cuz the girders he was employeed to bend were for suicide booths. So I guess Bender true owner is the Suicide Booth Company.

[Reply #19 on:]

Electronic devices can choose to stop working for their owners whenever they want.

Proof: Every computer I've ever owned.

[Reply #20 on:]

About Leela's mask:
I think the IWGY commentary mentions how ridiculous it's for the only human cyclops to wear such a thing (they forgot Leelas parents. Yet, as the remained in the sewers by that time, they probably did not count).

(On a slightly OT note: Think of the new Green lantern movie what you want: But the scene where he was told by his girlfriend that ANYONE will recognise him with that kind of mask was just priceless )

[Reply #21 on:]

Leela's parents were actually in the audience in that ITGWY scene. (The commentary did mention them, if I remember correctly... whoever brought up the point about the mask being ridiculous was all "oh, yeah, I must be operating in Season 3 before we knew them, haha.")

The mask is just Rule of Funny. I know I'm heartily amused.

[Reply #22 on:]

I agree with spira, it is the rule of funny with the mask.

[Reply #23 on:]

I think it was a joke itself that no-one realised who the superheroes were, even though it was obvious: Fry jumps out of window and immediately comes back as superhero.

[Reply #24 on:]

What about Bender being a ghost in "Ghosts in the Machines" because he was trapped in a loop over the global net but was able to go to the Amish planet where the only machine was the Robot Devil.

Since the Robot Devil was the only machine there would be no global net yet some how Bender was able to go there.

[Reply #25 on:]

Most of the plot doesn't make sense in that episode.

[Reply #26 on:]

Am I the only die hard fan to admit and not care that the whole series doesn't make one lick of sense???  None of it does...  It's just insanely funny.  I mean how can anyone argue that something with Bender doesn't make sense?  The whole idea of Bender doesn't make sense.  But he's still wonderfully funny.

[Reply #27 on:]

Well, I don't think you'll find anyone claiming that the concept of the show is even remotely plausible, but it still usually gives some kind of scientific explanation, which may or may not be total gibberish. Very rarely does the show resort to "magic", and in the cases where it does, it's usually quite deliberate. (Example: "Where no Fan has Gone Before")

So with literal thinking, the show is pretty unrealistic and nonsensical most of the time. However within it's own boundaries and typical sci fi "rules", it's not too shabby at all, at least in my opinion.

[Reply #28 on:]

I've always thought it does a very good job of maintaining at least some degree of plausibility, with the glaring exception of Farewell to Arms. It seems like they even go to great lengths sometimes to keep things Futurama-realistic, like coming up with a real theorem for Prisoner of Benda. Even though much of it is extremely far-fetched, there's almost always an attempt to keep things from seeming too insane and impossible.

[Reply #29 on:]

I've always thought it does a very good job of maintaining at least some degree of plausibility, with the glaring exception of Farewell to Arms. It seems like they even go to great lengths sometimes to keep things Futurama-realistic, like coming up with a real theorem for Prisoner of Benda. Even though much of it is extremely far-fetched, there's almost always an attempt to keep things from seeming too insane and impossible.

I don't have too much of a problem with AFTA. The arm-ripping was no more gory than Fry and Zoidberg's fight in Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love? - I was surprised so many people took issue with it, to be honest. I did wonder about the planets passing each other, and whether the gravity would work like that . . . but frankly I'm not smart enough to argue with it, and it worked for the episode, so who cares?

I found The Butterjunk Effect far harder to swallow. Most of the episode was fine, but the ending just felt . . .  lazy. It was the only time I've ever felt that with Futurama. Even an episode like Yo Leela Leela (which I found so-so, at best) had a coherent structure. You felt like it was going somewhere. The orphans' hero-worship of Leela set her up for a nice gag, where she's almost begging to be punished and have her guilt assuaged, but everything turned out great and the orphans don't care that she lied. 300 Big Boys played with the trope when Bender mentions that his story kind of petered out without him learning anything, but in fact, the episode does come together in quite a neat way. The Butterjunk Effect didn't. It just felt sloppy.

The costumes in Less Than Hero were clearly part of the joke though. In the tradition of all great superheroes, none of the three was particularly well-disguised. It was one of the things that made their scene with Mayor Poopenmeyer so funny.

[Reply #30 on:]

With AFTA, I have enough rudimentary knowledge of physics that the way the planets "interacted", combined with the arms ripping off, just crossed the line into too crazy for me to accept; I did really love the rest of the episode, though. In the case of the costumes in Less Than Hero, like you said, it was shown very clearly as being a joke, whereas I don't think AFTA had that same distinction. I feel like they happen in completely different contexts, in that the end of AFTA had a more serious vibe than Less than Hero, so I expected something less impossible.

I completely agree about The Butterjunk Effect; I thought the ending was a pretty big let-down and cop-out.

[Reply #31 on:]

Futurama is science fiction, so it doesn't have to be true, if it can be explained scientifically from some aspect. I don't think AFTA was that crazy. What about all the time travel, parallel universes and intergalactic travelling?

[Reply #32 on:]

I actually tough that a solar flare was the thing supposed to happen December 2012(IF anything was going to happen anyway)
Also, I believe there might be a slim change paralel universe excist as well as foreward time travel But I'm a bit of a Fantasist/optimist....

[Reply #33 on:]

Well, physics theory many-worlds interpretation kind of suggests there is parallel universes. But those were just comparison to physics in AFTA.

[Reply #34 on:]

With the time travel, parallel universes, and intergalactic travel, there was always an attempt at an explanation, even if the explanation was bizarre and extremely far-fetched. With AFTA, the way planets interacted and the way the arms ripped was just so blatantly impossible and had no attempt at any sort of explanation, even a half-assed one. I know that probably shouldn't make a difference to me, but I just appreciate when there is a small degree of justification for what happens.

[Reply #35 on:]

But planets have acted strangely before in the series. After Vergon-6 was destroyed, Leela comments that some of the animals survived. You know, by clinging to debris with no atmosphere or air to breathe. There's cartoon magic throughout the series so planets blowing up, having close shaves as they pass one another, being attacked by flying brains- it's all acceptable and enjoyable.

[Reply #36 on:]

That's true, and even though it stuck out to me as particularly impossible, I still enjoyed AFTA. I think what made me feel differently about AFTA than what happened to Vergon-6 was that the sight of the animals on the planet-debris was simply a minor gag that didn't affect the episode in any meaningful way. In AFTA, the planets and arms-ripping-off were major parts of the episode, but I thought they made no sense and seemed to be slightly thoughtless. I think I appreciate the impossible things that occur with no explanation when they aren't major parts of the story line or used to resolve an episode.

In the case of the flying brains, I realize it's a very bizarre idea, but to me it fits in the Futurama universe very well since there are already brain slugs and Hypnotoad. However, laws of physics generally aren't broken on the show when it comes to major story lines, especially not without any sort of reasoning, so AFTA really stood out to me.

[Reply #37 on:]

I agree with the OP. The same can be said as her disguise in the feminist group in The Wild Green Yonder. It is so obvious it is Leela. Doesn't make sense.

[Reply #38 on:]

I don't believe "A Farewell to Arms" was any more far-fetched than anything else they've done the series.

Although I agree that it is great that they try to explain things in the show, the whole point of the show to me is that it is so unrealistic that it is funny.

There have been several things that haven't been explained or have been lazily explained in the past, AFTA is not the first time.

AllEggsIn1Basket sums it up beautifully...

"But planets have acted strangely before in the series. After Vergon-6 was destroyed, Leela comments that some of the animals survived. You know, by clinging to debris with no atmosphere or air to breathe. There's cartoon magic throughout the series so planets blowing up, having close shaves as they pass one another, being attacked by flying brains- it's all acceptable and enjoyable."

[Reply #39 on:]

The Vergon 6 thing was just a throwaway gag; while the Mars thing was a cheap resolution to a decent plot.