Futurama: I'm Not Back Baby

[El Hozzo]

this went the way of so many comedies, where instead of having the brief brilliant 'background' characters invented purely for one great joke, kept thinking pulling them back in for the same joke in a later episode would be hilarious.

So less of Cylon and Garfunkel, Brain Slugs etc, and more of Roberto again, Hypno-Toad again, etc, with each appearance getting less funny ...

same as Red Dwarf for example, with Dwayne or Ace Rimmer ...

If they can come up with new stuff, great ... but its just going to be a nostalgia-fest ..

[The Mollusk]

You know what, I'm gonna say it, most of the voice actors in Futurama outside of West and DiMaggio are pretty shite (Certainly almost all the characters Maurice LaMarche does, just hammy over the top rubbish). West is a voice acting marvel and he's the flagship star of the show, without him it would be considerably less funny.

I can't help but compare it to The Simpsons where even the very occasional characters like Comic Book Guy, Raphael (fuck you, it's just Sarcastic Guy to me) and Kirk Van Houten are superbly voiced by the in-house cast. I can't really think of any particularly badly voiced characters in the golden years (except maybe Database) and the result is a show which flows effortless between jokes/scenes. The comparatively naff voice acting in Futurama sucked a lot of the potential out of the gags for me. I still like the first four seasons but they do feel lacking and I feel that's a big part of it.

Anyway yeah this new stuff will obviously be shit.

[Petey Pate]

(Certainly almost all the characters Maurice LaMarche does, just hammy over the top rubbish).

Well in the case of Calculon, that's entirely intentional.

I do agree to some extent. Tress MacNeille is talented and can be funny but she's overexposed and many of her voices sound distractingly similar to ones she did in many other cartoons.

Billy West is definitely one of the voice acting GOATS though. Even the weakest episodes of Futurama may have at least one redeemable Farnsworth or Zoidberg delivery.

[The Mollusk]

Agree that Calculon is mint.

Agree about MacNeille too, she's voiced so many characters and half of them are good/great but the other half are samey or just plain bad. She also voices that dreadful Lindsey Neagle character in the Simpsons who coincidentally came into the show around the time it started turning to pap.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Part of the problem with keeping Futurama rolling after a few years was that almost every character is a ridiculous exaggeration, which needs everyone involved to still think they're extremely funny. When enthusiasm dips its very obvious. Brannigan and Calculon in the last series are good examples, all the jokes had been done and now they're just loud stereotypes. Who is still going to find Bender funny enough as a concept to give it the full blast DiMaggio did 20 years ago?

[Thursday]

If it's on Hulu does that mean no more Simpsons crossovers? Will we get a Handmaid's Tale crossover episode instead?

They could be competent and do interesting science fiction plots and it could be quite good, but that's a lot harder than having Fry find a Tesla or someone stealing The Weeknd's head.

ETA: Maybe they should reboot it, because Fry can't keep coming up with 90s references in 2022? Pretend they froze him last year, and a whole new world of jokes awaits where Fry finds his Facebook profile.

They could not just do contemporary pop culture jokes because it wouldn't make sense to do so, and those things are usually crap anyway.

[zomgmouse]

They could not just do contemporary pop culture jokes because it wouldn't make sense to do so, and those things are usually crap anyway.

"Oh hello head in a jar of [famous person], oh hello [clone of this other TV character], oh good you found the interdimensional time travel portal [meme image]"

[RetroRobot]

Ah cool the cartoon sitcom that really hates women is back. At least the robot was funny.

[Thursday]

How can it hate women when it loves their naked arses and cleavage so much???

[RetroRobot]

How can it hate women when it loves their naked arses and cleavage so much???

I reckon I'll get shit on for this but the way women were written in Futurama was like incel tier before incels were a thing. Everyone's either a vindictive bimbo or vindictive nag. No other kinds of women on the show.

[Thursday]

I feel like that's a little unfair, but yeah it's every evidently a show written by horny male science club nerds.

[evilcommiedictator]

Leela's not a nag, in fact, the Professor has been working on this new fangled Horse Ray. Zoidberg, please test fire it against this chicken standing next to Leela

[madhair60]

I reckon I'll get shit on for this but the way women were written in Futurama was like incel tier before incels were a thing. Everyone's either a vindictive bimbo or vindictive nag. No other kinds of women on the show.

yep

How can it hate women when it loves their naked arses and cleavage so much???

yep

[Menu]

yep

yep

Still better than the paedo cartoons you watch though.



(joke)

[madhair60]

Still better than the paedo cartoons you watch though.



(joke)

nope

[jimboslice]

I don't agree with the consensus that S1-4 is the golden era. I think Futurama really started showing some cracks in Season 4, although it's been absolutely ages since I watched any of it so I can't point out stinkers or make anything resembling a cohesive argument.

 I've also unfairly taken against "Jurassic Bark" as an episode because everyone fawns over it, I reckon it'll be a mawkish load of old shite if I ever rewatch.

[Jerzy Bondov]

The ending of Jurassic Bark is so good though to be fair

Spoiler alert

because I hate dogs and I like seeing them lie down to fucking die

[close]

[Alberon]

Latest update from DiMaggio. Doesn't look like any movement on the salary issues so far.

[QDRPHNC]

I don't agree with the consensus that S1-4 is the golden era. I think Futurama really started showing some cracks in Season 4

Agree with this, I thought 4 was pretty poor. But even the golden era of Futurama isn't all that, to be honest. It's one of those shows that at it's best is pretty good.

[greenman]

I reckon I'll get shit on for this but the way women were written in Futurama was like incel tier before incels were a thing. Everyone's either a vindictive bimbo or vindictive nag. No other kinds of women on the show.

To be fair early on I would say Leela originally was less a nag and more just a sensible reaction to various stupidity around her and Fry's advances being leery blokishness but as things went on and the show shifted me to catering to the randy geek that relationship changed making him less oafish and her more of a nag.

[madhair60]

I don't agree with the consensus that S1-4 is the golden era.

I agree that 4 is a step down, but still hosts some of the series' best episodes. And yeah, the original run (again 1-4) is better than any of the subsequent material by a country mile.

[Jumblegraws]

I'm hoping they get Ricky Gervais to be Bender. He's got a funny laugh.

You've given me horrible visions of them actually doing this, with it being explained away as Bender getting a new "voice module" or something.

[JamesTC]

Bite my bulbous award winning atheist arse

[idunnosomename]

*Bender farts in Leela's face*

Oh Bender, you're such a kind robot

[QDRPHNC]

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Fry, you're a lonely cunt. Make a delivery.

[BritishHobo]

In the wake of this news, I tried to start rewatching the last season, and the back-half of the season before it, because I can't remember almost anything of either of them. I remember really liking the first episode back after the films, being on a high until the absolute low of an iPhone episode brought me down, and then being won round again by the one where Fry, Bender and Farnsworth go forwards in time. Everything after that is gone from my memory.

Christ I'm bored though. Even on the first post-movie season it feels like it's running on fumes.

[The Late Satoru Iwata]

If it's on Hulu does that mean no more Simpsons crossovers? Will we get a Handmaid's Tale crossover episode instead?

Hey, as long as there's a Scientologist involved somewhere, go nuts.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I'm so sad Bender died but at least I have my new friend Bonder. He works down the factory bonding steel girders together. He keeps saying he wants to maim all humans and that I should kiss his reflective plate posterior.

oh god they'd actually do this an all

the episode that turns into an extended Married with Children Parody is fucking cringe

some of the Comedy Central era episodes rely too much on current events and are dated as shit

it's like the writers don't trust the world they've created and have to rely on references to current celebs/That Thing You Remember from the 80s/90s for jokes or even worse to drive the plot

[Magnum Valentino]

oh god they'd actually do this an all

the episode that turns into an extended Married with Children Parody is fucking cringe

some of the Comedy Central era episodes rely too much on current events and are dated as shit

it's like the writers don't trust the world they've created and have to rely on references to current celebs/That Thing You Remember from the 80s/90s for jokes or even worse to drive the plot

I daresay you've misremembered that - it's a single scene that parodies the Al/Peg relationship but it doesn't dominate the episode and the scenes on either side aren't impacted by it. It IS shit though.