Image Credit: Futurama TM 2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Last week, I asked if the resurrected Futurama would still be funny. I was pretty sure the answer would be “No.” The show’s original run is still fresh and funny seven years later because it still feels like a show conceived in a fit of passionate desperation. Low-rated and ignored, Futurama was shuttled all over the Fox schedule like unloved radioactive space detritus. You get the sense that the creators felt like every episode could be their last, like they had to cram in everything before the giant Fox laser beam blasted them into the Negative Zone. I worried that those same creators – blessed with a second life on a new network that will protect them like a sainted franchise and let them use the S-word – would descend into self-congratulatory backslapping and fan service. Self-congratulation gets you nowhere in comedy – just look at the drearily unfunny Bender’s Game.
Well, we’re now three episodes into the new Futurama. And viewers, I’m in robot heaven. The show hasn’t been perfect, and the first two episodes were a little bit all over the place. (Curiously, those two episodes also featured “Story By” credits for Matt Groening, which I think is the first time in over a decade that the Simpsons overlord has had credited input on an episode.) But last night’s iPhone-themed ep was fast, funny, angry, nutso, and as good as anything the show produced in its prime.
Futurama lucked out a little bit in timing. A whole episode making fun of Apple might have seemed outdated, if America hadn’t just suffered from the twin hurricanes of the new iPad and the latest iPhone model. But part of the fun of the satire was its utter precision: you could tell that at least a few people in the Futurama writers’ room probably go Apple crazy, even if they hate themselves hilariously for doing so.
Putting aside the plot specifics, what made me love the episode was the rat-a-tat speed of it all. Great lines spewed out nonstop. The first three minutes introduced the notion that all of Earth’s garbage gets sent to the Third World…of the Antares system. Rimshot! (Gloriously, this plotline had nothing to do with the rest of the episode.) Also, if you’re going to do a Susan Boyle parody, you might as well use a singing butt-boil named Susan. And that ending! Apocalypse, wow!
Do you like the new Futurama, viewers? And what was your favorite line from last night? Vote now! And be sure to let me know which ones I missed.
The best line was the infosquito: “This guy sure loves porno”. HILARIOUS!
I abstain from the formal vote until we get a write in option for this.
Vp wants adulthookup.net
I absolutely agree. The first two episodes were so so. The only real enjoyment I got out of them was the fact that they were new episodes. And the comedy central channel line. But the eyephone episode was great. Just when it started to get a little to apple-y, it turns around into hilarity. Why was that goat so funny?
Enjoyed it, except I really felt the goat thing went too far. Not funny, just awful.
Actually, I thought the second episode was the best of the three for “The Transcredible Exploits of Zapp Brannigan” alone.
Agreed. “Mr. President…What the hell?”
i read a lot of mac users whining about it… i guess they don’t have a sense of humor
Shocking.
I have a house full of Apple devices, and I thought it was bloody hilarious.
I thought all three new episodes were really good, but you’re right, last night’s was the best so far. The goat thing WAS a bit overdone. Goat puke and poo can be funny, but it was a bit much. Overall though, top notch stuff.
The movies were a letdown, with overly-complicated storylines and too much time spent on trying to cram in cameos by every minor character who ever appeared on the series. Too much “zany,” too little heart. But good news, everyone… the new Comedy Central episodes prove that “Futurama” works best in half-hour doses. Buying the eventual DVD collection of a season’s worth of these news episodes will definitely be money much better spent than on a DVD of “Bender’s Game.”
Futurama does work best in the 30 min format but I don’t think you give the movies fair credit. The story lines were “complicated” because most fans of the show are thinkers and can handle a plot line that is difficult at first viewing. I would suggest you re-watch the movies a couple times they are very smart and (for the most part) very funny.
I agree. I didn’t really enjoy the movies the first time I saw them (except Benders Big Score), but upon repeated viewers they were actually quite funny.
Fry: Can I charge it to my eyePhone account?
Mom: Hell, yes!
Give Bender’s Game a break. Some great stuff in there.
UMM…Everyone who said Bender’s Game wasn’t any good–DID YOU READ THE BOOK “ENDER’s GAME”???????
This movie was brilliant parody. Go READ
I’m absolutely loving the new season – I just can’t wait until Comcast adds Comedy Central HD so I can see the goat vomshitmit in all its crystal clear glory.
My personal favorite lines of the night:
“Is there an app for kissing my shiny metal ass?”
“Several!”
“OOOOooooooooooo!”
That was my favorite too.
I loved when Fry jumped in the pool and the board broke. I laughed out loud. Also, Craig Ferguson was the voice of “Susan the Boyle”, hi-larious.
Brillant. It was funny. sweet, and charming. Just what I want from a cartoon parody.
The best line was definitely came directly after the “It’s from the kidnappers! My nephew is alive…and he’s INSIDE THIS ENVELOPE!” line: “They stole one of my dimensions!”
I loved the eye-phone sales guy: It’s 500 dollars, you have no choice in carrier, the battery can’t hold a charge…
Also- you can check your email while being run over by a train!
And on what they were feeding Mr. Chunks, the puke-me-poop-you: what comes out one end we feed the other. Also, Indian food.
This ep is my favorite new one so far! My husband and I each have an iPhone and MacBook, and he has an iPad. We couldn’t stop laughing.