Tag: Futurama
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Futurama Season 11 Just Inverted The Plot Of A Classic Episode
This new “Futurama” season has been anything but shy about satirizing hot topics in 2020s culture. The latest one? “Cancelation,” or powerful people being ostracized/held accountable for misuses of authority. The episode’s title is the blunt: “Zapp Gets Canceled.”Zapp Brannigan (Billy West) is a starship captain in the Democratic Order of Planets (Doop). Befitting the…
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The Classic Hollywood Inspiration For Matcluck, Futurama’s Alien Chicken Lawyer
This post contains spoilers for “Futurama” season 11 episode 8.On top of its hilarious main ensemble, “Futurama” is home to a stable of eccentric recurring characters, ones who could only exist in a science-fiction comedy like this. One of my favorites is Matcluck, better known as the Hyper-Chicken. Matcluck (voiced by Maurice Lamarche) is a…
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One Of Futurama’s Funniest Recurring Characters Was Only Meant To Be In One Scene
The character of Roberto, the homicidal robot, first appeared on the “Futurama” episode “Mother’s Day”, although he would become more of a star in the following season’s “Insane in the Mainframe”. Roberto, played by the amazing Dave Herman, was a vicious criminal often frustrated that he was programmed to be as violent as he was.…
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Futurama’s Hulu Revival Made A Small But Crucial Change To The Show
When Matt Groening’s and David X. Cohen’s “Futurama” debuted in 1999, it aired on Fox and fit neatly into the traditional network TV 30-minute time slot. Most half-hour TV shows were typically only about 22 minutes of actual programming, allowing for two extended commercial breaks roughly at the 10-minute mark and the 20-minute mark. Because…
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Futurama Season 11 Brings Back The Angry Dome, One Of The Show’s Best Random Gags
Episode 2 of “Futurama” season 11, “Children of a Lesser Bog,” was a sequel to an episode from back in season 5, “Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch.” Amy Wong (Lauren Tom) and Kif Kroker (Maurice Lamarche) had children, but Kif’s species (the Amphibiosians) live as tadpoles in a swamp for 20 years before maturing.…
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Futurama’s Covid Episode Brings The Show’s Timeliest Satire Yet
“Futurama” has never been shy about tackling current events and season 11 is no different. Fresh off satirizing Amazon and online shopping two episodes ago, the series’ latest episode — “Rage Against The Vaccine” — is about the Covid-19 pandemic.In this episode, Planet Earth (and Planet Express) deal with the outbreak of a new virus,…
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Futurama Season 11 Offers A Rarity: A Hermes-Centric Episode
Although those early seasons of “Futurama” were probably its strongest overall, one of the show’s flaws was the way that minor characters didn’t receive enough focus. The first two seasons were very much the Fry, Bender, and Leela show; Professor Farnsworth got plenty of attention too, but the other members of the crew were frequently…
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Futurama Season 11 Finds The Show Once Again Pitting Science Against Faith
The newest episode of “Futurama,” called “Rage Against the Vaccine,” is 25 minutes of every Covid-19 anxiety all rolled into a condensed ball. “Rage” opens with a celebration hosted by the head of Bill Nye (himself), finally declaring that Covid-19 has been defeated. Note that “Futurama” takes place in the year 3023. “It’s felt like…
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How Family Guy Paved The Way For Futurama’s Many Revivals
Matt Groening’s and David X. Cohen’s animated sci-fi comedy series “Futurama” debuted on March 28, 1999. Only a few months earlier, on January 31, Seth McFarlane’s animated sitcom “Family Guy” also premiered. They were both primetime animated sitcoms on the same network, and both were part of a wave of “Simpsons”-adjacent shows that tangled the…
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Futurama Season 11 Features The Return Of The Show’s Fiercest Villain
“Futurama” has the strangest approach to Christmas episodes of any sitcom, animated or otherwise. Not only does the show stray away from the typical sappy holiday vibes, but “Futurama” establishes Santa Claus as a terrifying menace from day one and has never changed its tune since. Santa in this universe is a robot gone bad,…