Talking Simpsons - Bonus New Year's Episode - Talking Futurama "The Late Philip J. Fry"

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

The Talking Simpsons Network is taking a week off for the holiday season, so to fill the content gap, we've decided to post an episode of our Patreon-exclusive Talking Futurama podcast miniseries! If you like this episode and want to hear the rest (with more to come every month), head over to Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and sign up at the $5 level. Once you do, you'll have immediate access to all of our limited miniseries, covering animated shows like King of the Hill, Mission Hill, The Critic, and Batman: The Animated Series. (That's over 200 bonus episodes to date!) So visit Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and sign up today! This episode was originally posted on December 8, 2024.

Once again, television has given me a reason to live. Good news, everyone. It's Talking Futurama recorded on a mountain of skulls near Blood Lake. I'm one of your host, the crap face sack of crap, Bob Mackie, and this is the Talking Simpsons' Chronological Exploration of Futurama, who is here with me today, as always. Henry Gilbert, and thanks for the air and whatnot. And this month's episode is The Late Philip J. Fry. Is it possible? It must be possible. It's happening. By the way, what's happening?

This episode originally aired on July 29th, 2010. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this day in real world history. Welcome to the world of tomorrow. Good news, Bobby. The Benedict Cumberback Martin Freeman Sherlock Show debuts. The long-awaited StarCraft 2 is released. And Ellen DeGeneres American Idol after only one season. Wow, I didn't even know she was a judge.

The famously loved Ellen DeGeneres. She, everybody loves her. It's, yeah, she was put on it because they were trying to rebuild, you know, was like American Idol was losing some of its popularity. And she was trying to booster it as a big hire, you know, because they hired like, they've hired Katie Perry. They've hired Jennifer Lopez. They get famous people, but they never want to commit very long to the show. You know, she really picked the wrong time to hang out with George W. Bush.

If she did it during this election cycle, she would have been praised for, you know, crossing the aisle and trying to mend fences and all that stuff. By the way, we're recording this in October. We don't know what happened during the election. Surprise us. Yes. She could have, well, if they had been nice to her, if everybody had been nice to Ellen, they could have used her connection to get George W. Bush to officially endorse Kamala Harrison. It would have been an even better October of events for her. I think what you need to do is go to a football game with the even more liked Dick Cheney.

And then you work your way up to other war criminals that you hang out with and find things in common with. It's a great strategy. God, she's so awful. And then on top of that, she just put out like her own Netflix. Of course, the next thing you do after everybody finds out you're an asshole is you make a Netflix stand-up special about how everyone was too mean to you. and how you're the victim here. So she did that. I saw some very embarrassing clip where she doesn't really even say a joke.

She just talks about how I'm a strong woman and everyone claps for about three minutes. And that's what I look for in my stand-up comedy specials. People being brave and also people clapping at people being brave. Finally, a woman is strong enough to be cruel and hateful to her co-workers. Not co-workers. Underlings, who she said. Lessors. Lessors, yes.

Yeah. Sherlock, I've never watched this. I thought it was good until I watched the H. Bomber guy video about it. And then I didn't know what to think. But obviously, I'm coming from a point of ignorance. I don't think this is for me, even though I like mysteries and British things. But I can't really pin this down if it's good or not. No, I really, I maybe watched one episode of it.

At the time, I think it was being, you know, pushed against, or contrasted against the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock movies that were happening around the same time. And it was seen as like the better one. And it also had, you know, it was the Doctor Who or A Doctor Who guy, Stephen Moffat. Then is like, well, I'm making a Sherlock except it's in the like future. And it's got, it made a international star out of Benedict Cumberbatch. And Martin Freeman, you know, well, he already was pretty well known. He was already in the Hobbit movies, I think, by the point. But he was at least in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Yes. I watched, I first saw online that while people like the early seasons, that it really fell out of favor in the later seasons and people really hated the end of the show. And the N. H. Bomber guys, great video, very long video that pulled me in just by having an

Evangelian cover to it. It got me to watch it. And he made a very convincing argument, as he often does in this case why it was a terrible show. Even though I've never watched the show, I also feel that H. Bomber guy is never wrong, so I don't know what to think. He hasn't steered us in the wrong direction yet. Oh, and I should say on that Ellen Jenner's thing, she was on American Idol just long enough to appear on a crappy episode of the Simpsons two months earlier from this.

Oh, based on her American Idol judgeship? When Moe was hired to be a judge, she was on the panel with him. and Simon Cowell. So yes, it was... We'll get to it. In seven years, six years maybe? Yeah, I'd say, let's say seven. So when we tell you this again,

look surprised. And also StarCraft 2. This is one of those games where I forget it actually came out because there was, I think, a 12-year gap or 11-year gap between StarCraft and StarCraft 2. And then I'm sure this is very, very popular game, but in the back of my mind,

Starcraft 2 is one of those games that will still never release, like a Duke Nukem Forever, if you will. Which also, yeah, better to forget that it did happen and have it just be a thing you imagine. Same with like, oh, well, the last Guardians never came out. No, it came out many years ago now. Like, that's the same thing I got to reprogram myself. Shenlu 3.

Well, yeah, but Half-Life 3, still no Half-Life 3. But, yeah, I know that the StarCraft 2, I remember it being a big event in the, because I was working at a video game website at the time, and it was a big deal to the PC gamers, but I was not a PC guy. And I think now it still isn't even on console, though it is part of,

I could play it right now whenever I felt like it on my PC game pass with Microsoft because, of course, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard in a wonderful bit of monopolizing of the industry. Things are going great behind the scenes of Blizzard right now. Yeah, everybody's sticking around. around. They're making great moves. Everybody's confident in their jobs. It's great at Blizzard. But in 2010, even better. Yeah, I am a PC gamer. I primarily game on PC. And I'm just abysmal at RTS games, except for Pikmin, which is kind of one of those. So I would poke and prod at Starcraft,

but I had friends who were way more into it than me. I could never hope to even beat single player campaigns, let alone be online in doing all the, all the fun Zerg rushes we talked about in the Oh, yes. Man, that's classic, classic time now. I wonder if it did, did Starcraft 2 supplant it as the, like, supplant the first Starcraft as the game to play? Because it had a huge, the original Starcraft when StarCraft came out. I remember had a big online competitive footprint. I wonder how, where that's at these days. There are probably a ton of wonderful freaks who still play the original StarCraft. And I know it's also a good game. That's, aged well because even if a new game comes out, there will be a huge online base for the old one. People still play Final Fantasy 11. People still play the first EverQuest. My stepdad is one of them. Ha! That's great. For 25 years, he plays EverQuest too, but he still has characters on another monitor in original EverQuest. It's great as well that it's all these years later

that the reference to Nancy Kerrigan lives on as the big bad of the series. Oh, Kerrigan, right. Okay, I didn't know that was a reference, but hey, the game came out in the 90s, I think. So yeah, I guess that's what happened on this day in history, July 29th, 2010. We have another history segment, a beloved one that everybody looks forward to. It's the history segment in which we highlight the things Henry and I tweeted on the day this episode aired, and it's called... This Day in Twit's Story. Yes, it's This Day in Twit Story, and this is a fairly innocuous one. There's not going to be any talk of ejaculation. Any racial tensions will not be found within this segment because it's just us being nerdy about video games. So this is what I tweeted on July 29th, 2010. Quote, one of the dumbest things on game-specific message board threads is people posting physical proof that they bought said game. And yes, this was a pet peeve of mine back when I was more into message boards. There would be a mega threat about a game.

And the day the game came out, people would post not only the game, but their receipt. and I thought, well, we're all going to buy the game. It's why we're all talking about it. I don't need proof that you actually went to GameStop and gave a man $60. So that's just me being cranky. I don't think I'd be that cranky online 14 years later. I forgot all about how people would do that back then and just like got mine and just showing the, I mean, because physical media is very rare these days.

Like even I who held on to buying physical game media for. such a long time. I accidentally, well, I wanted the fancy Alan Wake 2 collector's edition thing that Limited Run Games is putting out. And so I bought it. And I did end up with a physical copy of Helen Wake 2. And I was like, oh, an actual box. One of these things. How are you like that? What do I do with this now? Yeah, I think now if I'm really into playing a new game or I want people responding telling me what they think, I'll post, you know, an early screenshot on Twitter or other social media. Just say, oh, look, I started this.

And that's basically it. But yeah, this is back in the day where you'd be posting in the Dead Rising 2 mega thread, let's say, in 2010, and you would be posting the open box showing off the disc and having your receipt visible in the photo to prove that, yes, I did buy this on October 7th at 1159 a.m. An exaltation of consumerism that will surely lead gamers in a good direction. Nobody's posting receipts now. I don't know if that copy on Steam was gifted to you. There's no proof. So let's move on to Henry's suite.

Henry says, quote, posting the Civ 5 box art makes me wish I could drop everything in startup Civ Rev DS again and not stop for 10 hours. So of course, Henry is talking about the game Civilization, that series. And I guess you were posting the box art for, I guess, the newly released Civilization 5. But you really wanted to play the DS game, which is something I. never played but I know they made a simpler version for the Nintendo Portable. Yes, yeah, because at this time my job was to, I was still in a lower level position at the video game website. So I was building the web pages for like every entry of a game and the

that would then have, you know, articles attached to it, reviews, all that. So I built the one for SIV 5. And yeah, you know, SIV games and I tried with the most recent one, they are too complicated for my little brain. Like they're a little too much. But the Civilization Revolution series that was made to be the simpler entryway that could also be playable on consoles. I love it so much. And to say, I would say a low estimate of how much I played across the multiple entries in the series across multiple consoles would be 300 hours. That's how much I've played of it. Yeah. You know what, Henry, too complicated for me too. I am a PC game. and I swear to go. I bought Siv 2, 3, and 4.

In Christ, I probably owned 5. It was probably on sale on Steam for like 5 bucks one day, so I bought it. And I made an honest attempt to get into those games, but I feel like there's not enough onboarding for me. So at a certain point, once I get started, there are just so many options and I have no idea what to do. And every time I experiment, it just leads to failure and wasted hours. So I feel like I didn't get into the series early enough for me to learn enough to play the sequels. I know we probably have a lot of fans out there. I really respect this series, but God, I wish I could play it. I wish they'd make another Sivreb for simpletons like me who could,

because they only made, so they put it out on all the consoles, and I played it the most on the DS, but I also played it a whole lot on the Xbox 360. And then when I got an iPhone, I found out it was on the iPhone, and it must have done so well there. They actually made a Siv Rev, too, but only for phone apps. And that's still, to this day,

if I am on a plane with no service, I'm like, well, if I need to kill two hours to make them immediately disappear, I will listen to a podcast and play just start up, Civ Rev on the highest difficulty, and boom, I got it like every time.

And as of this recording, Civilization 7 is coming out in February of 2025, so it's still going. You know, those titling of those games, once they get to nine and they're going to have to, they have been good so far at integrating those Roman numerals into the word of civilization. But once they get to nine with the X in it, that won't fit into the title. I'm looking at six and seven.

It looks like they abandoned that after five. Oh, wow. I thought they at least did it for six, man. So, okay, well, it's already over as it is. A few, thank goodness, this was just me talking about an obsession I have with a video game. Let's see what happens next month. Who will be incriminated. But yeah, that was this day in Twitstery.

And before we begin, notably this episode, the late Philip J. Fry, won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. And I just wanted to talk about what it was up against. This is the clear winner. When you sit down to watch this episode, you think, well, this should win an Emmy. This should be submitted for an Emmy.

I can see why they went with this one. It's a great episode. So The Simpsons, they submitted once upon a time in Springfield. In this episode, Krusty hires a new character for his show, played by Anne Hathaway falls in love with her nearly marries her I watched this

when Nino was doing a Simpsons watch through of all the seasons I think she petered out around the 20s, mid-20s, but this is one of the ones I watched with her. It was perfectly fine

but unlike the one we're covering today it doesn't seem like oh, this is your Emmy episode, submit this one. I think maybe just because Anne Hathaway had a lot of star power in 2010. So that's why they wanted

to submit this. that one. I think that's the one where Eartha Kid appears posthumously, right? Like they recorded her for it and then she died before it came out. She's definitely in it. I don't know when she died, but that sounds right to me. Yeah, yeah. And so South Park

was another nominee. They nominated the two-parter 200 and 201. If you don't know what this is, I've never seen it. I'd look this up, but it was another big stunt by the show to force Comedy Central to allow them to to pick the prophet Muhammad.

They were not allowed once again, probably for the best. I was really wrapped up in the initial cartoon wars episode. I think that's where this all began with them. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. That was the cartoon wars.

Well, I guess technically they showed Muhammad in the Super Friends parody they did and nobody noticed or knew that was a thing. And then by cartoon wars, then they do it. And that was the entire point of it. And that 200, 201, I'm shocked it got was the Emmy nominee one because like that one I think still isn't on streaming. And like the, it's been disavowed by the creators because they seriously could not say Muhammad in it.

And they were very pissed about that. And I think they've like intentionally held it back. Yeah, that sounds right. You know, going back to the cartoon wars one, I was invested in that. I was still watching the show. But I was also in my early 20s and thinking, yeah, free speech. They should get to say whatever they want. And I was annoyed with Comedy Central.

By the time this came around, I had grown up a little bit, and I thought, well, it's possible that people who aren't Matt Stone and Trey Parker could be hurt by this because that threat was on the table, I believe. So this is probably for the best. If they were the only people credited with this show and the only people that could possibly be hurt by doing this, then sure, go for it. But they are atop an empire of people that would be hurt before them if anything were to happen. also yeah i mean i was definitely i thought like oh they could just show mohammed and it's not it shouldn't be a problem like that was that was how i felt when the the cartoon wars first appeared though another thing i don't like about it looking back on it uh is that i mean uh in general the free speech movement as far as it pertains to american politics often is a way of hiding behind uh it was it was a

it was a thing you hide behind to just say hateful things about in this case mussel And it's just like, well, I just hate Muslims. I don't care about free speech. That's what people are saying. Yeah, that was also, I had also grown out of the new atheism or whatever you want to call it. Because I quickly realized, you know, you guys hate Christians, but boy, you really hate Muslims and you're just really focused on that, aren't you? Yeah, same with Bill Maher. He really, he's like, oh, man, all these religions are stupid.

And then the one he really truly only hates is Muslims for some reason. Yeah, look forward to religiousness coming soon to what a cartoon movie for a live action month. That will not be happening. And also the Cleveland show, it's only Emmy-nominated episodes. And it's in its four short years. This is all it achieved. Didn't win. But it's called Murray Christmas.

And here's the episode synopsis from IMDB. A quote, Rallo, I believe that is a Cleveland show character. Befriend's a Jewish man at the retirement home during the holidays. And Cleveland finally stands up to his father physically, but gives him a heart attack. Now, when I saw the title of the episode without knowing anything, I thought, oh, did Bill Murray do a voice in this? And the entire episode is based around that. And I thought, it could be a weird thing Bill Murray did, but no, the Murray character is voiced by Carl Reiner. So, yeah, I was wrong about that.

So that didn't win. Out of all of these, obviously, this is the clear winner. And I'm glad it took home the Emmy gold. Very deserving, extremely deserving. The lot of deserving things lose to the same. Simpsons in these years. Like, but this, it's so funny on the commentary, which is recorded before Emmy nominations, they're like calling their shot.

Like, they're saying like, this deserves to win an Emmy. And it's like, wow, you really called it, guys. Like, they were rightfully confident in the quality of this one. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure they knew they'd submit this one. But I'm really glad it won because it gave a lot of people hope for this era of Futurama. For whatever reason, I was watching up until a certain point in this. chunk of the season, but I miss this one, and I feel like if I would have seen this one,

I wouldn't have tapped out as early as I did in my late 20s. Yeah, I forget, I guess we'll get to it after this one. There was, at some point I was like, this is an appointment viewing for me, but this one I did catch in the first week of its airing. And yeah, I loved it. I was like, oh, this rules. Futurama is back. Like this is still my favorite of the Comedy Central era and top 10 Futurama for me, I think, honestly.

Like every time I rewatched it for this, I was like, even when you know the twists, the construction of it, like it is a heartfelt one that I don't think cheats to be heartfelt. Yeah, it really earns it and it has a great sci-fi plot with some fun twists. And I'm surprised it's not written by Ken Keeler, but also Lou Morton is very talented. And something the writer and director half in common, they both. spoken to us. Hey, wow. Yeah,

that's right. Peter Avanzino and Lou Morton, by the way, if that Peter Evansino interview isn't up soon, it will be. It was recorded at a very busy time in our lives,

and it's still on my back burner. As of this recording, on Halloween. And if you haven't listened to our eight crazy nights podcast yet, you can hear Lou Morton talk about how, of his many credits in his long career,

he's also the co-writer of the original Hanukkah song with Ian Max Stone Graham and Adam Sandler. That is probably why Hitler gets murdered in this episode. I mean, it's always fun to murder Hitler, but when you have a Jewish writer, I think there's more to it. It's really great to see Lou Morton back. I think this is his last one

on Futurama, because honestly, he got too big for it. Like, you look at his career, he starts creating TV shows and working on movies. Honestly, when I looked at where he was at this point in his career, this was basically, basically like a favor almost or that he wanted to do Futurama that much that taking on a freelance Futurama script, money wise and prestige wise, and even for his schedule, is beneath a guy at where he was in his career by 2010. Yeah, he will actually write a few more in production season 10. Sorry, I don't know.

I think it's production season seven because technically there's only two. He's got two more in the works. I don't want to do the episode broadcast production math right now, but there are two more. But David X. Cohen is very upfront on the commentary, and we mentioned this before when we covered Rebirth. Comedy Central is not giving them as much money, which means they can't hire back their entire stable of writers. So people you like who wrote for the show are now a little too expensive to be full staff. Or at least they're getting low-balled with cable TV money and they're used to the broadcast paycheck, which is totally fair. So in this case, people like Lou Morton come on to write a few episodes.

I think it's the same with Bill Odenkirk in the newer runs. He's at least written one in the new run of episodes on Hulu. Or Disney Plus if you're in Canada. Right, right. I also looked up that at this point, Lou Morton was deep in with Comedy Central because he was the creator of one of the most, like, interesting behind-the-scenes stories in, like, recent-ish comedy.

history, the show Big Lake, which I don't know if we've talked about that before on here, but it's really interesting. I've never heard about this. I'm not sure if we did talk about it, actually. Okay, so he's the creator of the show Big Lake, which I really know because Chris Getherd is the star of it, and he is a very funny comedian and podcaster, and he, part of his comedy is talking about how close he gets to success, and then it like falls away from him, like how he gets cut out of Iron Man 3. He has funny. stories about that. And so this story is crazy. Like so the Adam McKay Will Ferrell production company, Gary Sanchez, they've worked with Lou Morton some on some other projects. And they have a pitch

for a show that's going to be called Big Lake, which is about basically after the recession, a crummy, shitty investment banker guy who loses everything, has to move back in with his parents. and it's him learning to be less of an asshole. And he moves back in with his parents in a small town. And so they're getting the 90-10 or the 10-90 deal that was all the rage back then of like if it gets renewed for one season, it's a 90-episode season to get to 100. So is this company central? It was going to be a comedy. And it was a comedy central show.

But here's what's very interesting about it. Apparently like seriously right before production begins, they lose their star. The entire show is built around John He, Peter. And I don't know why. And I couldn't, I was really looking up like, is anybody said why? But he drops out of it for some reason. And so they're like, we have to like film tomorrow kind of deal. Maybe not, but very soon. And Adam McKay is a big fan of Chris Getherd, who's a up and up and coming UCB and improv comedian and writer. And so he's like, this guy, I'm making him the star. We're discovering him. We're building it all around him. And it flops. The

show nobody watches it. It is not successful and it gets canceled in 10 episodes. So it actually aired. Okay. It actually aired. Several people I like like another podcaster Hayes Davenport. He wrote for it. Several people who'd go on to work on Family Guy in a couple seasons after me. Chris Gether talks about how it was not very good for his self-esteem that the entire show is betting on him becoming a star. And when it fails, he's like, well, I'm the only I'm the only part of this that hasn't been successful before, so I must have destroyed this thing. Wow, that's fascinating.

So you come to this podcast for Futurama Info. You get big lake info. You walk away with that in your pocket. I think the only other, like Chris Parnell's on it and a couple other of the Adam McKay guys. And James Reborn, the character actor you've seen a million things. Like he's the dad in the show. Oh, cool, cool.

I think that was the aluminum sighting salesman who battles Artie, the strongest man in the world and the two-parter of Goodbye Young Viking or whatever that one was called. Yeah, yeah, that sounds familiar. So I'm sure there's no place to watch this, but if you do, I'm sure it's funny. Yeah, I think

I watched an episode I remember thinking it was funny. And I think Lou, Lou Barton's a funny guy. I would bet he, I feel bad for him that the show he created, the first show that his created by credit did do, it was like a famous flop. But

it's not I don't blame him. Well, we know he's doing just fine even if A Crazy Nights misspelled his name. That's true. So more on this episode. Based on the commentary, this was a pitch from Matt Graining because he was sitting around thinking, what are some of the ideas I had that I wanted to do that we didn't get a chance to do during the Fox run? And one of them was his concept of something involving a time machine that can only go forwards in time. That's all he had.

Lou Morton gets this pitch, runs with it. and he is the guy who fleshes it out, adds all of these fun nooks and crannies, and adds the Leela Fry relationship element, which is not really overdone in this episode. I feel like there is a light touch here that I appreciate. Even though it's like such a major moment for them in their relationship, like I really do think this is the, you know, maybe I'll see another episode in the Comedy Central run that changes by mind. But this feels like it finally commits to like, they will, in will they won't they, they will. Definitely. So let's talk about the episode. We open with Fry asleep in his bed. Bender in the background is being a terrible roommate. He's leading this giggling Fembot through the apartment telling her to not wake Fry, but she is the one who's giggling. And then we immediately cut to Bender, shaking Fry awake, telling Fry's about to get down and funky with a ladybot. And he'd appreciate it if as many people as possible knew about it. And then he shouts at Fry. Now, can we get some privacy? And he heads out.

across the hall to his own room. So we're seeing a number of times that Frye will be awoken during this night of trying to sleep. I love the design on that Fembot that I would assume she always looks like that, not just when she's traipsing around the bedroom and that her skin just is lingerie. Like that's just her her chassis design, I guess you'd call it. And I would bet you can blame some of Fry's problems just on living with Benchrist. vendor. The fact that he's always late and never sleeps. Yes, very inconsiderate roommates.

So I'm glad I never had the situation because in college I lived at home to save money and to be extra cool. And then when I eventually had roommates, well, one, I lived with my best friend and his wife, so there was none of this business happening. And then I lived in Berkeley with a few guys who were like so quiet. It was great. Nice, man. Yeah, my only roommate I had, she was in a committed relationship, but they were not, they were very considerate on any sex things going on. The closest I had was like one time my next door neighbor I could hear through the wall having very loud sex. And that was, but it was only once.

That's how much it sticks in my mind, like hearing the girl who lived there on the other side making a lot of noise. And I was like, should I hit the wall or I'll let her have her fun? She was having a good time, you know? Yes. But though I love John DiMaggio. His sex noises as good as you would expect. Oh, yeah. He's doing all of the, I guess, stereotypical, like what you would hear in porn from the 90s in earlier, like back it on up and things like that.

And you hear the sound of jack hammering. When Bender tells her to back it on up, you hear the sound of a truck backing up. It's all the jokes you would expect. It's good. Yes, with the backing on up sound effect. Like, that's a really good of a truck backing up. I chuckled at that. So then it's the morning.

We go back to Fry's room and we see Bender and this Fembot have assembled this two-person jug band at the side of Fri's bread. But the handbone break is over. They go back to the bedroom for more sex. And the sex also involves handboning because Frye pulls a pillow over his head as he hears the combined noises of. of robot sex and jug band activity. You get to paint the picture in your head, like, where is the handboating taking place on these robobodies behind this close door? It paints a wonderful picture.

That is where our friends at Deviantr step in to let us know what's happening. These creators are too cowardly to show us. But in our next clip here, Bender wakes up Fry once again. Wake up and feel the coffee. Oh, no. I'm late for work. Sorry, I'm late. Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up.

I've had it with your tardiness fry. I expect you to arrive the same time as everyone else. Well, wait a second. Lila's not here yet. She left a while ago. She said some idiot was taking her to lunch for her birthday. Oh no, I'm late. Since you got stood up, I thought this might cheer you up a notch. That's not necessary.

What day is today? Today, it's Leila's birthday. Please stop. What a day for a birthday. I really would like you to stop singing. Cake. You want to buy a slice of birthday cake for 1195? Yes, please.

Ooh, nice cake. Sorry, I'm late. Where have you? It's fine. You're not mad? I was, but then I realized it's actually my fault for thinking you might be on time for once. I'm always a fan of the return.

of the royalty-free birthday song they created and I second that emotion. Just a sly went to the audience letting them know we didn't want to pay for the actual birthday song. But I knew it went to the public domain fairly recently and I looked it up. It did in 2016. Wow, it's only a bit...

Is that why everything's been wrong since 2016 is because that was the price we paid as a society for getting happy birthday as a free song again? Yeah, it was this evil exchange where you get four years of Trump, but happy birthday, put it in all your media. the Chicago Cubs break the World Series history and that you get the happy birthday song. I actually do like, what a day for a birthday.

It's a great song. I wish we heard it more in the show. Yeah, whenever a happy birthday is sung at a restaurant, I always think of this version of it. And this, what's happening in this scene is really what one of the key factors that unites my wife and I, because we hate lateness and we hate phonies too. but more late people are our enemies. So we're always habitually on time. We're often too on time.

We're on time when we need to meet each other because we realize it indicates respect. And I have no time for lateness. Henry is never late either, by the way. Yes, I was going to say, I was on time today. I was. I was the one who was hanging laundry and I said I might be five minutes late,

but I got here on time, damn it. No, no. You're very good at communicating when, or if in the rare cases, you might be running late like you're very good at that too no i i love i mean that lila she hurts fry by not even being mad she's just like oh yeah i treated you like you would show up on time but you're a fuck up like of course you're not on time you're but they at least give you a reason fry is late like it is bender messed up his entire schedule like it's not just that he's a forgetful idiot

i i also like the the great cut of bender woke him up at 11 3rd And then you just have this hard cut to him arriving and Bender's there to tell him like, well, look, who showed up. Somehow he's at the office too. He can move very fast. In terms of lateness, the only, I mean, people being late for things, it can happen, it becomes habitual, it gets annoying. What I don't like is when you have to change the rules of reality for people who just can't ever be on time. It's like, okay, we're going to say we have to meet it at 1230. let's tell them 12.

It's like, no, I refuse to subscribe to this. They have to observe what the actual clock says. I worked with somebody back in the day when the job market was really tight. And this person was like constantly being giving favors and outs. And they had a lot of due dates and they're like, okay, they have to get this article done today. Or they have to get this article done in a week. Let's say it's due in two days. And then they'll get it done.

And I was just thinking, you know, a lot of other people need jobs. I don't need to keep, why do I, why do I need to keep a second calendar for this person's life, period? Just to, just to trick them. No, I mean, yeah, I worked at another place I worked at, too. There was this feeling from a person who always came in at like 10 in when, and 9 was the expected, like, this is the start time. Or it definitely would arrive between 930 and 10 at least twice a week. and the person would say like, oh, you know, I, you know, traffic or this or that or the other thing. And it's just like after the fifth time, you should know, okay, traffic's usually bad.

I should leave earlier then. Like that's all you have to do. Yeah. Well, not to linger too long in this. On our last job, I did appreciate how little people cared at our last real job because there was always a morning meeting where nothing happened. It was a waste of an hour. It gave the management something to do. You know how morning meetings are, everyone out there.

I mean, Henry and I were there. we were there in person all the time but as time went on more and more people were at the meeting on their phones while walking to the job and I was like well I'm sure you're listening to this and can you know contribute in valid ways while you're crossing

the street avoiding people in San Francisco picking up your coffee all of these things it was so awesome how people were so tipped out if anything we were stupid for being there bright and early with our coffees I think I eventually nearing the end I think I started also So like, fine, I'll just be walking to the office too and call into this thing.

And I'll just make up some excuse too if that's how it's going to be. Though also, that was when it was being drilled into our heads by our bosses like, yes, you got to be in the office. This is before COVID. Who knows what would have happened in that situation. But we were told like, no, you always got to be in the office. Always. This is an office job.

But half of every other person who wrote things for the website who weren't doing video games lived in a different state and always called in. Yes. I would say if you want people to write about breaking news, you should hire more than two writers, and that's all. Yes. They're not doing well.

I've seen they're not doing very well lately. Yeah, no, I remember. Like, I remember one time when news like did break, no, it wasn't even breaking news. It was that, okay,

there's going to be the live stream of announcing the next call of duty at this time during a meeting. And we're like, okay, we got to leave to cover this. And we were treated like, we were like making up a lie to leave a meeting early. And we're like, no, this is when the news is breaking.

If you want us to cover it, it is now. This is it right now. And they didn't believe us. But then again, I do understand that like they, we were surrounded by some very amateur non-writers who were given writing positions. So I get that some of them thought, oh, you're as stupid as like these other guys. You don't have over 10 years of combined experience. Yeah, let me show you how Reddit works. It's fun.

Yeah. Oh, man. But that, but yes, I mean, we also did work with some people who were like head B guys type. Yes. People that would say, oh, we did bad. And God bless them. I don't, I wasn't even mad of those guys at a certain point. I'd be like, you're not supposed to be here.

Like, I know. Like, who cares? This is a joke. Like, if anything, I'm proud of you for making it this far. Yes. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, the lateness. Also, I, I love the joke.

about how people think of you like, oh, if they say it's my birthday and like you get a free cake. It's like, no, they'll just serve you a cake they charge you for. Like, it's not a free cake. It's, you don't get a free cake just because it's your birthday at some restaurant. Yeah, I never cash in on my birthday because I'm afraid that people will start singing to me. So whatever meager benefit I can get is absolutely not worth it. Have you been at any, I have been on the receiving end and a couple times on the other end of it of at a like business function

a work group trip of it's this person's birthday let's do the friendly prank of one of us sneaks away and tell the waiter it's the person's birthday to then get them sung at well I'm glad you never do that to me because as I get to know people better as I get to hang out with people I let them know

that is that is a no go that I will sever ties immediately if this happens to me in public and I'm a guy who likes doing things for my birthday I'm not like I don't talk about my birthday I hate birthdays, et cetera, et cetera. I love going out to eat for my birthday, having a fun day on my birthday. I don't want to be the subject of attention at a restaurant.

I had a very nice birthday cake with you that looked like your lovely bird just a couple of years ago. And nobody sang. Yes, we knew. We knew as your friends, we knew that we could all enjoy that night without singing a song. Though I guess we could start singing the Futurama birthday song. to you. See, I would like that, but restaurants aren't going to do that for you because they don't know these things. Also, seeing Elzar deliver it, it does remind me, last year for a special occasion, we ordered some Buddy Velastro's cake slice, which is like one slice of cake delivered made by the cake boss. Well, not made by the cake boss himself, made by a place named after the cake boss.

Rubber stamped by the cake boss's subordinates. Yes. It was a perfectly fine cake slice. that I think probably was with delivery fees from DoorDash $12. Hmm. That sounds a little cheap even for DoorDash. I'm surprised it wasn't $20. I guess I'm just saying what it listed is $12 on DoorDash and I'm not including the fees and whatnot there. Yeah, after like all the many fees like Washington State corruption tax and all the things you have to pay.

Yeah, no, it's again, that's where it feels like when I go to an actual restaurant, I'm reminded every time like, oh, the prices aren't that crazy if you don't order a DoorDash delivery. It really is just or Uber Eats or whatever. That's what makes a chicken sandwich $20. Yes. So Lila announces to Fry that she ate both of their lunches and she says, you order the lobster pile up. It wasn't cheap.

She slides it across the table at Fry. We get one BAM from Elzar in the background as Lila lives the table. That really, it just made me think, like, how weird was it to hear a BAM in 2010 because I don't think Elzar's made any appearances in the Hula episodes, although there have been 20 and they're all running together in my head. Man, I feel like he must have some point, but yeah, nothing is sticking out to me though. Also, because later in this episode there were, I had to re-look up an episode from Hulorama just to double check my notes on an episode that references back to this one. Oh yeah, and we have a deleted scene in this episode. So this is why. What happens at the Planet Express office? We get a little bit with Zoidberg after Fry is scolded with coffee.

Wake up and feel the coffee. Oh, no. I'm late for work again. You're not going anywhere without a good breakfast. It's a great charity, why not? Planet Express adopts an underprivileged grid, and we send 12 cents a day to feed the squid, and the squid mails are some cute crayon drawings, and when it grows up, I get to eat the squid.

Aw. Sorry, I'm late. It's mostly built around Dr. Zoidberg saying squid. It's great. Billy West says Squid very funny. I mean, this shows you what a great episode it is, that the deleted scenes, and they describe a couple other deleted scenes

that aren't on the DVD in on the commentary. They're like, man, these are so funny. They're like too good for this. They're too good to cut, but they have no time for it to fit in all the wonderful future videos. you'll see later. Yeah, there are no B plots.

It's all set up until we get to the time machine. Also when Bender says he's going to feed Fry something. When Fry starts gagging, that's eggs he drops into his mouth. Okay, I do not have access to the video, only the audio for that one. Don't imagine something grosser is being shoved into Fry's mouth. I wasn't even thinking that, Henry. Okay. Me neither.

Interesting. Okay, we're going to move on. So we go to Fry and Lila at Planet Express. They're cleaning out one of the ship's tubes with a giant Q-tip. And Fry wants to make it up to Lila with a dinner at Cavern on the Green. And Lila is very skeptical that Fry will even show up, but he swears he'll be there. And at this point, Bender runs in to tell them that Heatonism Bot is going to settle down and marry a nice house in the suburbs. But tonight he's throwing the wildest bachelor party of all time.

And Fry responds with, whoo-hoo! Cares, I'm having dinner with Lila. So he realizes about halfway through that reaction that, oh, I have plans. and I have to make, I'm really in the doghouse here and I have to make it up to Leela. Though in a, like, if this was a season two joke, he wouldn't hide his disdain as much. Like he actually is like, you know what,

I would like to spend time with Leela rather than all this debauchery. And the, you know, the Cavern on the Green, I like this specificity. Obviously, it is used for a plot purpose that it's the Cavern on the Green parody of Tavern on the Green. But also it is like they're living in New New York. So it's a Ritzie Central Park. West location. It's a very, it is pulled from real New York City. And Lila tells Fry that he can go to the party and they can just have dinner on her birthday some other year. But Fry grabs Lila's hand and says the most romantic thing possible. Quote, no, I can throw up on a stripper anytime. Tonight I want to not throw up on you. Really? I do love the torture at Futurama sentence. Tonight I want to not do this to you.

And it really touches Lila. It's very sweet. I also like that they need. Bender has to describe hedonism bots party as the girls gone wildest because that I definitely feel like they write hedonism bot as more interested in male robots. But this is putting it more as a pansexual party that people of all sexualities can enjoy. Yeah, he seems to have had an orgy when we hear about the after. But it's going to be a fun party nonetheless. So Bender dubs Farnsworth, his wingman, and Farnsworth asked the Selim Seed Cuber to

fetch his drinking teeth. And we see this is just a pair of dentures with a straw embedded between the top and bottom teeth. And I've seen this before. And I called out the Cubert appearance because I thought, well, this is weird. They hate Cuberts. And he's only really in episodes when it's about him. Well, he's in this for a reason.

It's not that important. but he needs to show up in the future to imply a few things. So that's why he's here now. Yeah, it should always tip you off that if Cubert has a line, they would never do it to like add. There's times where Abe Simpson, for instance, will just show up for no reason. Or let's say, Zoidberg, he's in the room for no other reason than he's going to say a funny joke.

They would never write a funny joke for Cubert to say because they don't think he's funny. So he has to be there for plotting. I think they try to make him funny. And he's not like a completely worthless. but there's only so much you can do with a smug, annoying child. And Kath Sousy does a good job with what she's asked to do, but it's just, you know, her annoying kid voice that she's so good at doing. Maybe that also always counts against Kuberth,

that especially as the budget titans on the show, that, you know, Kath Sousy is not one of their, she's not a regular appearing actress. She's always brought in special for it. And that's, you know, another bill to pay. Out of your budget is getting her on for a specific episode. Yeah, apparently, Cuberd is only in 14 episodes,

and he's only been in two of the recent 20 on Hulu. So he's not a character that's used very often. And the last time we saw him was actually Jurassic Bark. Wow. I mean, he was in the movies. He was in the movies a little bit, but episode-wise, Jurassic Bark was his last real appearance. And even then, he barely does.

It also is funny with these kid characters that they have been, immune to aging, same with Hermes' kids, even though time is moving forward and they're set in, you know, 3024, like that I was thinking about that because this episode will flash forward to 3040, which will be a year in Futurama in a regular episode eventually, I would bet. Actually, I think it's only 3030. So if Futurama continues for a few years, they will be in 3030. Actually, that's way sooner. You're right.

It used to seem so far away. So in our next clip here, Fry has to work over time. How do you spell X-O? Gah, it's to record your own message card. You don't sign it. You leave a nude video grading. Does it have to be nude? I guess not.

That never occurred to me. If I leave now, record a birthday greeting on the way, score some fancy cologne at the newsstand. I'll be exactly on time. You're not going anywhere. But I have a date. You were late this morning. So you have to stay and test my latest invention.

Behold! A time-traveling machine! Time! I can't go back there! Ah, but this time machine only goes forward in time. That way you can't accidentally change history or do something disgusting, like sleep with your own grandmother. I wouldn't want to do that again. We're going to test it by going forward in time one minute. Get him.

Okay. Hurry, let's get it over with. I can record Leela's birthday card while we're in there. So this is a very cool idea. It is based on the time machine from the 1960 movie, The Time Machine, which is based on the old H.G. Wells novella. And back to the future, I've really tainted my vision of a time machine because that was one of the first instances of which the time machine moved. In most cases, it was a thing you got into and was stationary. Right, right.

that it, which makes all the difference in it being an exciting movie. I think it was either you or your wife very cleverly put it in Letterbox, just watching Back to the Future One recently that despite you've seen it a million times, every time you watch it anew, it's like, I don't think that, I don't think that Doc Brown's going to reach it in time. I don't think he's going to get the connector. Yeah, I was like, oh, did they make a new version where he fails? Yeah, so good.

Yeah, now this design of the HD Wellstile is really good. I did see online, I'll put this as an iffy as a maybe, but in season two's a clone of my own, right before he introduces Hubert to the world, he's talking about Farmsworth's talking about all of his half-finished things. And one of them is a time machine. And while it's not the exact insides of this, it does look like a half-built H.G. Wells-style time machine that isn't not like this one. I see. I think Matt Graining never wanted to do time travel because then the audience would ask,

well, why don't they just use time travel to fix this? So in Roswell, that ends well, there were very specific circumstances that let them go back in time. And in this one, there is a limitation, a very harsh limitation on how it works. So it's not the freewheeling time travel that could potentially ruin the show. And I love their calling back to the two previous big time travel things, one of once again shaming Fry for being his own grandfather, which he takes in stride now. And I also take when Bender says, time, I can't go back there. It's a good just one off line, but you could take it to mean, oh yeah, he almost destroy the universe from his constant time travel and Bender's Big Score. Right. Yeah, I forgot about Bender's Big

score. And I think that's definitely a callback to that movie. Also, I like that Amy is just such a nice person. She's always sending nudes as messages. Like she's just, that's just the kind of friendly lady she is. You don't need to tell people send nudes in the future. They just do it. And yes, by the way, this time machine is central to the plot of the Hulu episode. I know what you did next X-Miss, which unfortunately aired in late August. So their episodes drop never, episode drops really never line up with Christmas. And that was actually the same on Comedy Central. I think their Christmas episode aired in like September or early October or something like that. Because they would always launched the seasons in the summer, I think, to draft off of a big launch they do at

San Diego Comic-Con in July. So that's why you end up with Christmas in September. Though now, this is a good reminder for me to re-watch that Hulu-ROM episode. At the time, this episode comes out on our Patreon, because it'll be December a good time to watch that pretty good X-Mis episode, which has, by that point, he has made a backwards time machine in it. Yeah, it's a great episode. I think it's one of the better ones of that order of episodes. So in this one, though, they enter the time machine, Fry starts up his greeting card recording. He apologizes to Lila for being one minute late. And in a rare instance of overlapping Futurama dialogue, the professor gets things started by explaining the control wheel and

nudging it a bit so they'll travel one minute into the future. But he loses his balance. He pulls the lever down dramatically as he falls down and they start going further in time more than one minute. And if you've seen this episode, you know, like as the professor does his thing, Fry continues recording his card message with his back to the camera and you can barely hear the audio, but he is saying the rest of the message that we will hear when Leela gets the card in Act 3. It syncs up beautifully. And they also said like for, I think a frame, you can see the future Leela that will get the card like for one frame you can't even see it in Morbotron

it goes so fast yeah as they go to one some unknown date in the future Fry's card flies out the window and I counted it because I was watching this through VLC if you frame by frame there are three frames before the scene cuts where you see the back of year 20 year sorry year 30 50

Lila so you see it all happening but it's too fast for any viewer not framing through the episode to notice but it's there and there's one minute in the future planning has actually is pretty similar to Doc Brown's original test of the Delorean with Einstein, right? Yeah, that's right. I completely forgot it was just a minute. Yeah. So that's when you're going to see some serious shit.

So the machine eventually comes to a stop. Through the windows, they see the desolate wasteland. They read the display. They see they're now in the year 10,000. And we pull out to see a ruined new New York around the time machine. And hear the professor say, whoopsie. so that ends act one I that is an act one to be like oh they just moved forward in time

7,000 years and they said this can't go backwards like what is going to happen how do you get out of this one? Yeah you know they'll fix it but it's a real how are they going to get out of this one scenario and we come back in act two

we're in the year 10,000 Fry is worried about breaking his dinner date with Lila but Farnsworth tells him relax Frye. Everyone we ever knew died thousands of years ago. Which Bender is fine with. Yeah. Everyone we ever knew? I never liked those guys. And I love this next bit. It's too, it's so complicated to describe, but they see the Statue of Liberty buried in Rebel when they emerged. So of course Frye reenacts the ending

of Planet of the Apes. But then we see an ape statue of liberty next to the regular Statue of Liberty. And Fry says, and then the apes blew up their society too. And then the birds took over and ruined their society. And, of course, next to the ape statue of liberty, there's a bird statue of liberty. And then we end the scene by pulling out to see there's a cow statue of liberty. And then some kind of monster statue of liberty. And as Fry's freaking out, it's like, it's a slug baby, I don't know. And Billy West does some great screaming.

It's, ah, man, you have Evan Zino's team. They did a spectacular job on an episode that calls for huge amounts of design work. and basically the creation and destruction of the universe. Like, it's insane what they have to do in this one. Yeah, on the commentary, they said they hired a person just to do extra backgrounds for the show for this episode because there are just so many new locations. Well, I guess the location is the same, but the time period is different. So there are a lot more assets are needed for this episode compared to a normal Futurama.

I do believe to this whole episode, like starting from this point, especially, but like the construction of this episode and conceptually, I feel like Rick and Morty owes a bit to it. Like especially when the first Rick and Morty episode, the first big ones in season one that everybody talked about feels very similar to this one. Yes, I have a big note about that, but it's going to come at the end when we see the resolution. But I do want to talk about that. So yes, what's happening next is we go to the year 3010, the presence at this point. And we see Lila waiting alone at her table at the council. Cavern on the Green, which was first seen in Alila of her own.

A different joke, different kind of setup. Because in this one, it's a cavern you go into to have dinner in Alila of their own. Sorry, Elila of Her own, a very stupid but fun title. We're panning across an establishing shot and we see Cavern on the Green and it's just people eating underneath a rock formation. And they make it a joke about how boring it is, like and how she's bored to be there. but it's actually very important dialogue. The waiter describes dripping water and how it forms things over centuries and centuries.

Like, it's a very important line. Yeah, let's hear that in our next clip. While you await your friend, allow me to read from a prepared history of our cavern. These unique rock formations were created over millions of years by mineral rich water dripping from pores in the ceiling. Dripping and dripping year upon year. Century upon century.

What day is today? Hey, aren't you the loser who got stood up at my other restaurant? Just shut up and bring me two dinners. Has anyone seen Fry's ass? It's late for a date with my boot. Fry's not here. Obviously, he went to that pervert party with Bender and the professor. Fry went to the party?

We interrupt Hypnoto-Tode on Ice to bring you breaking coverage of the disaster at hedonism bot's Bachelor Party. Oh! Linda, what began as innocent fun ended in tragedy tonight when a nuclear-powered robot stripper suffered a catastrophic reactor meltdown. There is only one survivor. Everywhere I looked, there were piles of bodies, and then the explosion struck. Ruin the Orgy I want to go back to Cabern on the Green

So Tavern on the Green Open in 1934 It was closing around the time This episode aired And then it reopened I think in 2016 Or something like that Now actually I went to look at the menu

While the clip was playing And this doesn't seem that Ritzy It seems like a nice touristy restaurant But no entree is over $38 So I normally would not pay I don't know, $29 for a salmon burger. But if you want to have the experience of eating a tavern on the green,

it's sort of like the Tamo Shanta. It feels like a similar kind of experience. Like you're in the famous restaurant, therefore a hamburger is now $30. But you have the experience. I'd do it at least once. I'd do it once. Just like I don't know if I'd ever go back to the Tamo Shanter either.

Maybe I would to hang with friends. But, no, that's good. I am also happy to hear. I didn't look into, because on the commentary, they say, oh, it just closed, I think is what they say. I didn't look into if it had reopened or now to hear that not only reopened, but it even survived the pandemic and has remained open after 2020. And it's impressive. Yeah, I looked at the Wikipedia entry really quickly. From 2010 to 2012, the building was used as a public visitor center in a gift shop run by New York City.

and then after a renovation, it reopened in 2014. So you can go there and have, again, a $32 burger, and it's fine. I'm sure it's perfectly fine. I love that hedonism bot joke as well. It's such a great silly setup of just like their bodies everywhere. And then the explosion happened. And it does remind me, too, in Hula Rama, there is a really funny in the most recent season. There's a joke I really laughed at when it's in the one where Lila finally

has female friends and they go to the winery that's owned by hedonism bot. And LaBarbara, after one day of, like, after one scene of hanging out with hedonism bot, and he said a gross thing, she says, we get it. You're a dirty old couch. It's such a dirty old couch. Yeah. I did laugh at that. That was a really great line.

So a heathenism bot still paying dividends a decade, a decade and a half later. Yeah, I can take, I'll take less hypnoteode, more hedonism bot. He's the better late Futurama, late Fox Futurama, fine, I think. Yeah. We find out about the sorrow at the soire. Zordberg says, the three co-workers I liked, all dead. Meanwhile, Lila isn't sure to be angry or sad about Fry standing her up and then dying. And she asks, can I be both?

And Hermes tells her, it's what he'd want. And then she says, then that's what I am. Like, I got such a great reply to. And she does, ha, yeah, ha. And then she cries as she kicks a hole. And weirdly enough, in the future, we're going. back to CRT TVs. It's not fun to smash a flat screen TV, so they're not

doing it in the future anymore. I assume we're going to go back to hanging up our phones with a big slam in the future. We're going to go back to that technology. Those are all very satisfying, as opposed to just like tap on things and how light, yeah. For some reason,

by the year 3000, the tube TVs are still being used. The retro gamers have won in the future. It's a terrible place to be. Now, I was at the movies last night, weirdly never talking about old technology like CRT TVs. And, you know, there's the message about turn your phones off and people are getting their phones out making sure they're off. Someone in front of me I saw I had a flip phone and I'm thinking, how is this still functioning, sir? Are we in the

year 2012 and the last flip phone like just crumble to dust? It was just your classic flip phone. And this is not a hipster. I think it was just like an older person who didn't want a smartphone. But I'm surprised that it was still receiving a signal and could function. Yeah, like I've felt like an old adopter because I had a flip phone up to like 2011 I think like that's when I finally got a smartphone and only because I got a free Windows phone that was sent to the the aforementioned video game website to review so it's like well if you review the Xbox app on this on this Microsoft phone you can have your first smartphone and speaking of changing trends this is really unrelated but I need to tell Henry this on the air my parents are visiting

and we were buying souvenirs for my niece and nephew and we went to a nice clothing store in Vancouver Roots. They sell some pretty nice things, very functional too. And I hold up a t-shirt with the Roots logo on it.

It's a very classic thing you'll see in Canada. It's sort of like the North Face or whatever, but for Canadians. And I said, oh, how about this one? I'm sure he'll like it. It says Canada on it. And my mom told me, kids don't like things with logos anymore.

And I consulted Nina, and this is true. the children today don't want logos we love logos we love wearing shirts with things on them because they didn't have as many of those when we were growing up so as soon as we came adults they started marketing directly to us now every child born in like 2010 is like these fucking adults if i see one more rocco's modern life t-shirt one more stranger things backpack etc etc they're rejecting the IP and i say good for them man well bet you know hey that's something I could never do I know why you children buy these things but it's something I could never do but wow they they just see old people like us wearing logos on everything like I'm double logoed up right now like actually I want to say this

uh Henry wore a Halloween costume recently it was Peter B Parker that was actually him wearing less Spider-Man stuff than he does in real life not on Halloween There was a time when I think I counted five Spider-Man items on your body. Well, because there would probably be a Spider-Man t-shirt, of course. A Spider-Man hoodie. I would likely be wearing a Spider-Man hat. And it's not impossible that I would be wearing Spider-Man socks that could be worn as well.

And I do have Spider-Man shoes that I could wear as well. So, yes. Or a Spider-Man watch. If a 14-year-old was there, they'd say, look at that old man. Boy, is this, is this not cool for a 42-year-old to be doing? Wow. It's like, it's like the modern equivalent of wearing like suspenders in a bow tie now. It's what it's turned into.

Oh, man, this is hurting. This hurts. Yeah, yeah. It's, again, it's scary, but I'm wearing a shirt now from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo with Jason on it from the NES Friday the 13th. This immediately marks me as a senior citizen. Yeah. No, well, what I'm wearing right now is an Epcot shirt, a new Epcot shirt I got, because I was also happy to wear a size large now. But I also wanted it because it is to celebrate the 40th anniversary, the then 40th anniversary of FCod.

So it's got 82 on it. There. I see. Yeah, there's 82 on it. He's not lying, folks. So it's also my hour birth year. So it's another reason I wanted it. But now I realize it marks me as over 40 as well.

Did the retirement home take a field trip, old man? Also, it might even imply I'm like in my 50s because if you can remember the, like it almost implies, yeah, I was there in the opening of Epcot, meaning I was like eight when it happened, making me 50 now. So I'm actually overaging myself. I just want to let everyone know that children now see us as old men, especially when we are festooned with IP. Well, we'll see if I pull it back, Eddie. I'd have to, I'd have to burn all my all my t-shirts to not. to not wear anything with I think I don't I'm about to buy a nice new suit for my husband's company's big Christmas party, which is usually like referred to as prom internally because it's like technically there's no dress code.

But if you show up in jeans and a t-shirt, you will look like shit because everybody wears a suit and tie to it or a nice dress. Well, I think I've said this on another podcast recently, but I recently just bought some nice t-shirts with nothing on them. And it felt good. I felt I'm walking outside. Nobody knows who I am or what I like. It's complete mystery. I'm blending into the environment. I do have a nice pink polo with no picture on it.

I just got from the gap a little bit ago, along with a Spider-Man t-shirt and bought from the gap. But, you know, it's baby steps, baby steps. Yeah. We're just letting everyone out there know. We're providing a service. We're letting you know about Big Lake. We're letting you know about what 14-year-olds are wearing today. it's all the information we're bringing to you

that is going to enrich your lives I think So we then go to the year 10,000 Where Frye, the professor and Farnsworth Are huddled around a fire Bender tosses two books And an OG Kindle into the flames You might not recognize this as a Kindle At first, it's their off version of the Kindle

But I had one of these Kindles in 2010 The original Kindles had a little keyboard on them And I missed that thing Wow, I didn't have a Kindle Until they had gotten rid of the keyboards And I only had it one Kindle once, and it was the cheapest version of it, though. It was pretty nice to read, you know, the screen faked the feel of paper pretty good. Not the feel, but the coloring.

Yes, I love the E-ink screens, but now they're all touch, and it is the slowest interface possible, and I miss my little keyboard, which was so nice. But anyways, the books they are burning are the history of the human race, and backwards time travel made easy. The title is an alienese. And I look this up on the infosphere, but thankfully, David, Cohen gives the title in the commentary. And by the way, like, if you want to look up the logistics of time travel in this episode, there are multiple wiki entries about it in which scientific theorems are discussed and

equations are written down. Lou Morton was not doing this. He was thinking, what's a funny idea for a time travel episode? But people have really taken this apart. I'm not going to even go into it. I decided to start reading these things, but I thought nobody wants to hear this. Instead, please read them if you want to. I mean, forwards only time travel certainly makes more sense than backwards because there's no causality problems.

It just is, yeah, you freeze yourself in time and then it moves forward without you. Like, that's what it does. And that's simple enough to understand. But I love that alienese reveal because it's like none of them are reading the book and they're burning the book that is the exact answer they need to get home. And also, it would be nice to have a record of human civilization on hand. And they only mention on the commentary. The deleted scenes not on the DVD. But God damn, it sounds funny and I wish they'd kept it in.

I don't know if it was like cut at the script level, but the scene where they say that in the year 10,000, they also come upon Zoidberg. Yes, and they find that he's alive. And he explains, yeah, my lifespan, I only live a thousand more years after this. And then they immediately get back in and go forward in time a thousand years because they don't want to be with Zoidberg. It's such a funny joke.

I wish they'd have kept it. It's so funny. They could have lost the verse of their song, which I do like, by the way, but it does go on for a bit. So they're burning the books. Bender angrily declares the future as a real crap hole, and that whoever lives here is a real crap face sack of crap.

And we pan over to the survivors, other humans. And Bender says, no offense. And they go, don't sweat it, man. Because they're used to people showing up and calling Earth a sack of crap. And Fry is bummed out about never seeing Lila again. And Farnsworth admits that without a backwards time machine, they're stuck in this crap hole and we hear one of the survivors say,

dude, give it a rest. You know, they're trying to be friendly, but they're like, hey, all right, we get it. You think this place sucks. We got it. And then Farnsworth has an idea. They can't go back in time, but they can go forward

until people invent the backwards time machine. And by the way, there was a much more complicated solution about finding a certain element that only existed in certain periods of the future. But then Mac Graney was like, no, no, no, no, no. Just have them keep going forward

until they get to a point in which society has invented the backwards time machine, and that is going to be their solution. And it's so simple and beautiful and it works. Yeah, great. The graining had a lot of good fixes for this. Several parts of this feel very graining, including just the philosophical nature of this definitely feels like the graining style of philosophy, too. And then we have a montage, which is set to a parody of, in the year 2525,

Exordium and Terminus, the 1969 song by Zager and Evans, which I have only heard through parody. I only through this episode have I actually sat down and listened to the full song. And it's fun. It's what got a young Mac Graining interested in learning about the future and perhaps planted the seat for Futurama in his brain. But this is really for all of the late boomers, early Gen Xers on the staff, to dig into this kind of corny but interesting song that was somehow,

number one on the Billboard 100 for six weeks. People were doing a lot of acid in 1969. I mean, it is a fun novelty song about just like a vision of the future and how things are all going to get bad for humanity and we're going to waste all our time. I had never heard of this song until the sci-fi channel debut episode of Mystery Science Theater 300 because when they all returned back to the satellite of love and meet Bobo. informs them that it's the year 2525 and then they just ask all of the questions

that are lyrics from the song and the Bobbo's like, yes, yes, and this too. And then later you learn that cute reference screwed them because they can't really do anything on regular planet Earth because it's nothing like we would know it. They don't have the money to depict it in a way that would be different enough.

So eventually Pearl, Bobo, and Brangai go back in time and the show then has a contemporary setting where they're living in a castle and the satellite of love is in the present day as well. It was very smart of them to start season nine with just them. We're in the Forster Castle and that's it. Like we're not going to, no more of these storylines,

no more of being stuck in ancient Rome anymore, none of this stuff. Yeah, that was getting pretty tiring, although that was forced on them. So I don't blame them for making the most of it, but some of those sketches are kind of embarrassing where they're trying to have stakes and cliffhangers and stuff like that. and you're like, they'll just do fun sketches. It's fine.

The best parts of those were when the characters would say, like, yeah, who cares, Mike? Like, I don't care. Like, Mike's trying to catch everybody up in the audience. Like, so this is what happens and we're here. And then sort of was like, yeah, whatever. Come on. I have a silly joke I want to tell. Yeah, I did like the satellite of love folks not really being that invested in what's

happening to the other characters. Oh, sorry. When I looked up the song in the year 25, 25, 25, I did find another. fun connection with this episode and a reason to use it. The song ends, the story of the song ends in the year 95, 95, and then it says like, you know, and after 10,000 years, where's humanity left at? It's all over. So I think it's really clever that the original, the song they're parodying ends basically at the year 10,000, and that's where they start their future journey. It's very clever. This version of the song, I believe like the other version.

of the song is all about what can we rhyme with the year we're telling you about yes uh so we start with the year 105 105 we see this icy watesland with Inuit soldiers riding walruses they're firing laser guns at them but the really funny rhymes start

with the year 25 2525 25 where the lyric is the backwards time machine still won't have arrived I love I also do love the only technology is a rusty sword that practices rockology that's the art just and also why they have to say it so fast 25 25 25 just to hit the speed

yeah they hired some new singers to ape the zager and evans kind of vocal styling so yeah in 25 25 25 25 25 it's a medieval world where knights ride ostriches and this is when bender gets a sword in his ass um in the year 35 11 20 oh sorry sorry we see 35 11 20 and the lyric is in the future year that ends with a 20, a schlubby mermaid's going to try and get chummy. It's so good. And I mean, maybe you have this later in your notes to talk about, but at some point in this flash forward must be disenchantment, right? Oh, oh, I guess so.

I completely forgot about that. Was there only one Futurama not in disenchantment? Okay, so then I have a little bit about this here. I think it's a good point to put it. So, yes, we asked in the first season of D'SECHMENT. disenchantment in the season finale, there's a bit of, they're rewinding like a playback of things that happened. And when they paw, you can pause and spot the, the trio of characters, Farnsworth, Bender, and Frye in the back, four words only time machine from this episode.

You pause and you see it. And we asked Josh Weinstein about that. He's like, yeah, that was, they paid Fox to use it. It wasn't a loud thing. And it was an intentional thing to say that disenchantment happens some point in the same universe as Futurama. Okay. You're asking me to recall disenchantment information. That's a non-starter. But I know they showed up in that episode. I forgot they were in the time machine when they're seeing the visions of things that have happened. Yeah. So it's even closer to this episode and the connection. It is, it implies that the guys in this episode flashed through this at some point moving forward. So between the end of the universe and the year 3000 disenchantment happens on Earth. And then I did, so I looked up, did they do anything else?

There are lots of other references in disenchantment, but no, nothing as direct as that even up to the end. However, in the I knew what you did last X-Miss, that episode starts with Farnsworth in this time machine going backwards. and there is a very quick clip of a different moment in disenchantment from his viewpoint inside of the machine, once again saying disenchantment happened in between the year 3,000 and the year like 20,000. So really disenchantment, stealth commercial for new Futurama, ultimately. Yes, yeah. It's a fun handoff too because basically they end Dishenchant, they did end Futurama and Comedy Central. They start working on Disenchantment when Disenchantment ends, then all of the production moves over to FutureRum.

Rob on Hulu. There's another disenchantment thing in here, which is a similar idea. I'll talk about when we get to it because I feel like it's something that MacGraining is obsessed with. The song is still continuing. By the way, you'll hear it at the end of the episode, so don't worry. We find out the merman they see is actually the lure attached to this bloodthirsty shrimp's head. It's a giant shrimp. And then we go to the year one million and a half where humankind is enslaved by a giraffe. And we see enslaved humans wheeling the giraffe out to eat the single leaf off of a bear tree. So they're covering all the bases here. They're covering all the scenarios in which what can happen will rhyme with the year they end up at.

And it seems like technology keeps getting reset so they never have a chance to get a backwards time machine either. And I think MacRaining said on the commentary, he thinks it's very fun that he created a show in which they can go to the year $1 million. No other TV show is doing that. It's really, it's such a clever idea for just a whole episode of like just the middle act. is a dozen visions of the future when this show is all about the future now it's like no but this is the way future ahead of a thousand years from the future

so we end the song and we head to Planet Express in the year 3030 and we can see it's now a huge business with multiple Planet Express ships coming and going out of many garages and we catch up with all the characters in our next clip sometimes I can't believe how successful Planet Express became once the professor was killed

in UC's control There were tough times, but we all pulled together. I've been crunching the numbers on our transgalactic strategy. What are you doing here? I laid you off 20 years ago. Oh, the claws can't flee like they used to. Success is nice, but I do kind of miss the old days. Hey, Leels.

Hi, Kubert. May we help you, strange ones? We are travelers from the past, my good run. I see. Since your time, human evolution has diverged. There are we, advanced in intellect and morality. And the dumblocks, stupid, vicious brutes who live underground. Advanced in intellect, you say?

Have you invented a backwards time machine? No, but if we apply our superior minds, we could perfect such a device within five years. See you then! So before we talk about the year that they end up in, let's talk about 30-30, we see slightly older, convincingly older Lila and Hermes. Hermes is not the head poke going on a single, like, pneumatic thing yet, is he? No, no, he's just, his dreadlocks have a, they're farther back. He's lost a little hair, though, yeah, I mean, this is six years from now in the current timeline and they all look the same now.

instead. Yeah. Yeah. And Cubert is really here because there's an implied romance between himself and Lila. And it's only because he looks like Frye. He reminds Lila of Frye because she's looking at a picture of Fry's arm around her shoulder while Fry's chugging a slurm. And she pulls the picture down to see a very gross middle-aged Cubert drinking up soda while standing in front of the fridge in the same Fry pose. It's great that they set up like What's the future for Cuberd? Well, like he's a dorky screw-up who must have inherited stuff from Farnsworth as well

But then he's, all he is is the the boy toy of Cougars basically To use 2010's terminology on Lila and Amy later. Yeah, hey, yeah, we're in 2010. We're all living in Cougar Town. We're renting property there. I like the design of the sexy inner 50s Lila that she's, you know, she works hard and she plays hard, I guess. Or it does seem to imply that she hasn't dated anybody since Fry died.

And like this is only now she notices, oh, Cubert reminds me of Fry. Let's give this a shot. Yeah, she's on her way to seducing Cubert. So we go back to the distant future. We see the text five years later appear on the screen. And unfortunately, the society of small pink and purple creatures has been conquered by the dumblocks someone bashes Bender over the head as they fly away. I think Matt Graning is so anti-Smirf.

He's worked this idea and has so many things he's done. So there's happy little elves. There's this. And then in this enchantment, we have the elf people who are all like killed by these ogre-style creatures. Man, you're right. He loves ogres killing little guys. He really, I mean, look, the smurfs are annoying. I get it.

But he's carrying an anger towards the smurfs that is long. Like the smurfs, they're still around. like there's going to be another Smurf movie pretty soon actually. But still, they are not the dominant force in media. They have been 40, they were 40 years ago. Yes, we won our battle against the Smurfs and it's all over now. I also like that they imply the way Lila was able to make it a successful company, not just because Fry, Bender, and Farnsworth are gone, thus holding it back from being successful.

But also, she immediately laid off Zoidberg, and that's why everything's, going great and Zoidberg walks in like he still works there. Yeah, I like the fact that he was immediately fired as soon as Farnsworth died. Yeah, because Lila, now the characters

who know what they're doing, Lila and Hermes, they're in charge and things aren't funny anymore. It's just a functioning business. That's doing very well. So we go to the year 10 million next. This is a real terminator situation where giant robots are scanning their surroundings and firing their weapons and

Farnsworth flags down some approaching soldiers To ask them like what this era is like And the wounded man basically gives him the plot of Terminator Or at least like the footage we see Before the movie proper begins The Skull Mountain basically is the vision of one of the T-800 skeletons Stopping on the Skull at the opening Of course Bender loves this place

And he wants to stay here, live on the mountain of skulls The one that's by the Blood Lake And yeah, of course, the other two guys veto that on old Bender. And after leaving this, they end up at an ideal era for the heterosexual non-robot men in the craft. And they do put out in the commentary, yes, Lou Morton did write Amazon women in the mood. So maybe that's why they end up at this year 50 million where society is busty science babes. Barely wearing clothing. Yeah, wearing very little clothing.

And Bender is sulking about this. and Fry is surprised to know that the babes know their time travelers. So the babes explain that they've studied the time travel enigma and they have perfected a means to go backwards in time. But Farnsworth is too horny for all of this. He just goes, my name's Hubert.

So they get a little help from the babe planet in our next clip. All right, we can go home. We can talk of our research tomorrow. Men are very rare in our society. Even very old and stupid males are prized. Tonight, please be the guests of honor at our fertility banquet. Well, there's certainly no harm in a fertility banquet. I could eat and fertilize.

Very well. Let us anoint our guests in oil without using our hands. Oh, so we can stay in the future you like, but not the future I like? Next! No! I was about to close the deal. Bender, they had a backwards time machine. The other place had a lot of good things, too. Do you even see that mound of skulls?

Why, you? Oh, no, you didn't. Stop. Somewhere, sometime, Lila is waiting for me. We need to keep looking for a backwards time machine. Fry's right. Yes, we have to work together, not have this fight, which I was definitely winning. So Bender robs them of being oiled up and letting them fertilize later that evening.

And I assume have some nice food. Bender had forgotten that he is a robosexual and that he is attracted to human women too. I guess in this moment he was too pissed off to even notice how hot these ladies were. Though I love on the commentary that I think is DiMaggio is goofing on the women of saying they have lopsided breasts, like finding imperfections. And then Claudia Katz, one of the rare women on the commentary who's an artist, she is joking like, that's what makes them realistic. These women are not realistic. They're a ridiculous super bottle buddies. I think their breasts are symmetrical

and they just, the way that their weird like boostier-style swimsuits are drawn on make them look like irregular because they're like kind of turned. I don't know. You can look at the footage yourself, everyone. I think they're fine. They're perfectly fine breasts. Henry's the breast evaluator on our podcast. This bit does remind me of a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the Castle Anthrax sequence, where

the character, I believe is Michael Palin's member of the roundtable. He ends up at Castle Anthrax where it's just hot ladies all the time who want to have sex with him and then he is pulled away by John Cleese's character who won't let him have sex with all of these sexy ladies. I forgot that bit.

You know, it's been a while since I gave that movie a spin and I loved it as a 14-year-old. I mean, the Castle Anthrax, that was just the bit that held up to me the funniest. But yeah, I like that they are denied they are denied Paradise again. I mean, that is also a very

graining thing. The same thing when Homer got to go to the world where it rains donuts, he's denied that too. So they bring the machine to a stop again, and they're now in the year $1 billion. And Farnsworth has a good feeling about this point in time, but when they get out of the craft, they just

see a sunblasted, featureless wasteland. And Farnsworth goes, nope. And Frii wants to keep going forward, but Farnsworth tells them, no, this is the end of all things. There is no going forward. There is nothing after this. So Frye decides to venture off across the wasteland, but he stops when he recognizes that the cavern on the green. And we have a big cliffhanger act break because he walks in and he says, I made it, Lila. Sorry I'm a billion years late. And then

he gasped because he sees the beginning of a message to him spelled out in a rock formation on the ground and we're left to think, what could this be? I love that setup and that it's, you know, unlike in Bender's Big score where they work overtime to build a super duper mystery for one big reveal like an hour later in this case they give you a good mystery but they only make you wait

the commercial break and then a few more minutes like I like that they they set it up just long enough to not overstay its welcome as a mystery. Yeah it's almost immediately uncovered so we come back to Act 3 we're now in the year 3

30-50, where Planet Express has grown even bigger. So let's catch up with everybody in the year 30-50. You'll get your alimony check, Hubert. Now get lost. Chill out. Just here to see Amy. Move it, boy, toy. Granny's taking you to Atlantic City.

I don't know why you ever married that big nose punk. I don't know either. I'm married to the job now. I used to think there was someone for me, but... Oh! How odd. It's one of those old. record your own message birthday cards.

Happy birthday, Lila. I'm really sorry I'm going to be one minute late because we're testing the professor's dumb time machine. But, you know, happy birthday and all, and I love you. My card. My whole life I've been mad at him, and it wasn't his fault.

Really cool reveal, especially when you go back to Act 1 and see that the second it flies out the window, that's when it ends up in 2050, but we have to wait, I don't know, 12, 13, 14 minutes to see that all play out in 20, in 30 50, in 30 50. And I love the animation that from, the way they animate, from the perspective of the camera on the card, you see it leave facing Fry and then fly out and hit Lila. You see it from the perspective of the card's camera, which is like very, that's a complex shot in an episode full of complex shots. Yeah, and I love how when Lila says I'm married to the job now, that's when we see the flash of the time machine and the card coming through. So it's all, everything is linking up. Amy now has a sexy C3PO body. Hermes, like in Bender's big score, is now back to being a head in a jar. On a pogo stick even more uselessly. I mean, too, that they're still calling Cubert pig-nosed, which has been a defining feature of him from his first episode. Oh, and I also like, too, that they've done.

this so many times of, okay, what's the first time they say, I love you to each other, and then they can take it back. And in this case, Fry says, you know, I love you, but he says it to a Leila that dies without ever seeing him again. And I mean, it's so, that is something that is just so powerful to me again this episode, because what we're seeing here with Leela, this is the Leela who has been on the show the entire time, the timeline, this is the end of the timeline we see of the show that we've known. Like the real Leela or the original Leela dies without ever seeing Fry again seemingly.

Yeah, yeah, I keep forgetting to think of it in those terms where this is the Leela that we followed for six seasons. And in her world, Bender, Frye, and Farnsworth just died in 3010. And she just lives out the rest of her life wondering, like, what could have been? And then suddenly she gets this card in 30-50 and wonders like how do I what do I do I do I do

talk to Frye when he's so far in the future? Like for her to say like you know for 40 years my whole life I've been mad at him and it wasn't his fault like it's so which that also feels like maybe some guys dream of this of like finally a woman will realize she was mad at me

for no reason. It seems like well it's a very rare scenario so in this case you get an out if you're trapped in A4 its traveling time machine. So Lila mopes outside and we see the trends of 30-50 are basically early 20th century trends all futureed up. So clothing, top hats with rings around them. People are riding basically the future version of old-timey bikes.

So it's fun. They have to create a conceivable scenario for 30-50 just for a few seconds. And this is good enough to get her to the cabin on the green. So much design in this episode. God damn. And even they have to find like what's a future-eer future, but not too future-y-year-e than 30. a tan which they normally appear in. So on her walk,

Leila finds the cavern on the green and the sign is still hovering, albeit very creakily, and she pulls out her laser gun once inside. She blasts into the ceiling and nods, like she knows what she's done and she's done a good job, walks out, and we don't see what she shoots into the ceiling again,

but water begins dripping in very specific places after she leaves. Clearly she was listening to the waiter while waiting for Fry at the cavern on the green. It finally registered for her. And it's important to show that the cavern on the green is closed now. So nobody can come in and interrupt these things. And it's going to be empty this whole time. And they discovered a thing like, oh, yeah, what would exist a billion years from now in the same place?

Then it would be the cavern on the green would still be there. And then we do a time cut to Fry's time period, which I believe is the year one billion. And we see Lila's message in full. It says, Dear Fry, our time together was short, but it was the best time of my life. Lila and another drop of water hits this message and it's one of Fry's tears. So very meaningful. And I just love this device. It's something that is just so perfect for time travel, but it's something that I would not have thought of naturally. So this did surprise me. It is a great, clever turn. You know, it also fits with what they set up before in Bender's Big Score where she says,

I'll never love anybody like I loved Lars, which transitive property means like Fry is the greatest love of her life if he can be good enough for her. And so this shows too that if Fry died, seemingly the only guy she'd ever marry afterwards would be a loser who reminds her of Frye. Very tragic.

Who's somewhat related to him. Very tragic end for Lila. I'm glad we don't see anything of her after this. But now it's time to watch the universe end. You know, all in all, I had a good life. What do you say the three of us grab a six-pack and watch the universe end? Here, here. That's basically what I do every day.

To the end of the universe. Thanks for the air and whatnot. Hey, uh, what was the purpose of life anyway? Who knows? Probably some hogwash about the human spirit. Sounds about right. The stars are receding all the vast emptiness. Yeah, yeah, I can take a hint. The last proton should be decaying about now.

My last proton. And here we are. The end of the universe. If only you could see it, I suspect you have watched this episode, folks home, but if not, this is a very visual scene with not a lot of big jokes because they are just selling the grandeur and profundity of watching the universe end in front of you. and just sitting in creaky lawn chairs while it's happening. It's beautiful. This is another reason I love this episode. Like not just the gorgeousness of, say, all of the stars in the sky going supernova eventually,

looking like fireworks. Like that's so great. But that and that it's like three bros broing out over a cooler with beer essentially as they watch the end of the world of everything. But also I love how Fry and the rest of them are faced with. well this is it. Your life's over, you're dead, nothing exists anymore. And I guess eventually after you see the end of the universe, you'll either starve to death or kill yourself first. And instead of being sad about that, Brian's like, you know what, I had a nice life, all

and all. Like, let's hang out together. And it's just that feeling of acceptance after all that, like, it feels really beautiful. Yeah, yeah. He's seen the message and he's ready to go or see what happens next and there's there's no regrets or anything like that. And yes, the animators are asked, animate the death and rebirth of an entire universe twice. Yes, yeah. I mean, I feel like the fact that it has to happen a second time might have killed a little time that could have been devoted to other things. But the fact that it just, they just do it is very impressive. So we pull out from the ship and see nothing but emptiness around it.

And Farnsworth sits back down. in his cheap, creaky chair, Fry says, well, now what? You guys want to talk? And Bender goes, no thanks.

And as soon as that happened, a huge explosion happens in front of the time machine. Farnsworth says, oh, that's the second Big Bang. And we cut outside the ship to see outer space is absolutely teeming

with all of the outer space stuff created by the Big Bang. And suddenly, the earth forms in front of them. And Farnsworth wonders if this is possible. That's when we have our opening line. It must be possible.

It's happening. By the way, what's happening? That's so great Because it's like their answer to science nerds who say Really? This is happening? And they're like, well, yes, it must happen because it is. It's happening now. And Farnsworth says,

This universe is identical to the old one, meaning they now only need to go forward in time To the point when they left. This brings us back to the episode The Cryonic Woman Where Fry works at the Cryonic Center And he asks the guy why he froze himself And the guy says, I thought time was cyclical

And I can meet Shakespeare. And Fry says, nope, linear. So that guy was right the entire time. Yeah, he was right. Oh, God, that's so great. Like, yeah, the, that, so the cyclical nature of the universe thing, too, I had heard of before seeing this episode, but for dorky-ass reasons, because I looked it up, it's called the big bounce, which means the death of the previous universe becomes the big bang for this universe and all that. It was barely popularized in the 80s, and I know that because in Marvel comics in the 80s, They explained that the supervillain Galactus from Fantastic Four, that's how he, his origin, he existed in the previous universe and was birthed from the Big Bang and he's the only survivor of the previous universe.

Have we debunk the big bounce yet? You know, I think it's, the Wiki page seemed to say it is still a possibility and not been fully debunked. So again, up next is a very visual scene. we get to see the progression of history through the ship's windshield. So first the oceans get created. Then we see the moon being formed. And then we see the first fish come out to land and Bender crushes it by saying it was coming right at me, which very similar to time and punishment when Homer smashes everything that's vital to the development of humanity. Wow, you're right.

He kills the same walking fish, actually. I wish I hadn't killed that fish. You know, that creation of the moon thing, that is still apparently. a prevailing theory on how the moon existed, that it used to be part of the planet, that NASA's website still says that is a likely scenario that happened 4.5 billion years ago by their estimates. Though, if you ask me, the moon was formed by the Human Instrumentality Project in the third impact, as we all know, from Evangelion.

Another popular theory that has not been debunked yet. And they point out on the commentary, well, of course, when you go forwards in time or you go through the dinosaur period. You're going to see dinosaurs. It's what everybody wants to see. And they purposely don't show you them. And they show that Fry misses them because I think Bender says,

you're going to miss the dinosaurs when Fry is going into his cabinet for a beer. And Fry says, it's okay. They're not going anywhere. Where'd they go? So he says where do they go after he turns around. So he misses the dinosaurs entirely. And they draw so much crazy stuff in this

that them saving themselves the time of drawing like the jury. Jurassic era. I forgive them for taking a slight out here of not showing it and making it a joke. Me too. And then we have a little scene where it's just about like the cruelty of humanity towards each other over time. There are no real jokes even though it's like not entirely accurate. So you see indigenous folks using tools to kill cavemen but they're killed by pilgrims. The pilgrims are killed by colonial soldiers but they're killed by will look like union soldiers. And then like as they're doing this, the backgrounds are fading to different time periods.

and when the soldiers die, they crumble to dust and fade away. It's all very tragic and sold sincerely, I think. Yeah, this is like the deeper philosophical vision. Like that's where it does feel very greeninging to me of just like that, oh, yeah, grainy-esque that, you know, oh, this is just the tale as old as time is like war and suffering and sadness and death. Let's laugh at it at the very least. If you speed it up and look at it in a fast way, you can laugh at it instead of just thinking like, oh, war is all we know as human beings.

But before they head back to the year 3010, it's time to make one little pit stop. Now what's going on there? History. Hang on. I just want to make one stop. Easy, easy, taking her in for a landing. One year to go, six months. I'm almost there, Leela. One month. Two weeks.

One hour. 30 seconds. And here we have to bring her around again. A real screw you because they're almost there and there's a big mishap. It's so great. He's like at 30 seconds and then for no reason he just falls over and puts him into a hyper drive again. Yeah. I mean, they work some jokes into the going through the cycle again.

But I feel like, oh, I love to screw you there. but we could have had more scenes of Lila living her life through those time periods but it's fine I have no real complaints about this what I especially love is that after Farnsworth kills Hitler by the way you could still make a baggage free Hitler joke in 2010 it was a better time to be alive

I think maybe possibly but we see the same scenes of societies rising and falling that we saw through the window behind Fry when he froze himself in the first episode it's all the exact same stuff except we're seeing it from the perspective of the windshield of the time machine. Oh, so good.

I love seeing it from that angle of the joke. That joke for just one little quickie bit in the pilot happening in the background in like the first two minutes of the episode. They've come back to it so many times in so many different angles. And this is one of my favorite uses of it. I love, though now we know from Bender's big score that that's Bender flying those spaceships that destroy everything. Yeah, yeah. I completely forgot about that, too. We have to learn a lot about futureoma for this podcast.

I apologize. But then eventually the Planet Express building forms around them. And we see a shot of the crews sitting around the conference table from Love's Lavers Lost in Space. And there are a number of scenes from past episodes except we're seeing them from a different perspective. We see scenes from Amazon women in the mood, feature stock, a taste of freedom, the beast with a billion backs. And one from this season, attack of the killer app. So they're all conference room scenes, except we're seeing them from a different perspective. of 10 feet in the air.

I think my favorite is seeing the freedom dance from from that shot instead. And yeah, Avonzino on that commentary, I think he's the one who said that they worked hard to look up previous scenes that were set in the conference room. Like, it's so, God, so clever, so clever. And also I just love hearing Farnsworth say, just bring it around again like you missed your exit and you're like, all right, well, just going to have to go in a circle. We'll get back. we see the similar scenes again of the craft plowing forwards through time. Very brief glimpses of all the time periods we've seen so far. Farnthor still wants to kill Hitler.

He says, just slow it down. I'll shoot Hitler out the window. But he kills Eleanor Roosevelt by mistake. So a big whiff on his part. That's important, though, because it lets them have their cake and eat it too, because basically we get three timelines now. And so we saw the end of the original timeline. In the middle timeline, they kill Hitler, but seemingly everything happened the same, even if Hitler were to be killed before World War II really begins.

And then we get this third universe where Hitler still existed, but I guess Eleanor Roosevelt, at the very least was shot with a laser, maybe died, maybe didn't. We can only hope for the best. But after instructing Bender to slowly and carefully adjust the lever, they finally end up exactly at the point where they left in 3010, our final clip. We're going to test it by going forward in time one minute. Get in. Okay, hurry. Let's get it over with.

Uh-oh. This new universe is about 10 feet lower than our old one. Pow! We took care of the time travel paradox. Oh, right. Jabba-dabadoo! Uh-oh. I'm late for dinner with Leela.

Welcome to Cavern on the Green. May I offer you some meatloaf while you wait? Sorry, I'm late. Actually, you're on time. Really? I have to admit, I was afraid you wouldn't make it. That was the old fry. He's dead now.

Happy birthday, Leela. I got you a card, but I guess I kind of lost it. That's okay. I don't really like cards. What I'll remember is our time together. Very sweet ending. Everything pays off. I love the line.

That was the old fry. He's dead now. It's so great. it's too clever for Frye so it has to be him just telling the truth. God, no, I love everything. I love everything about this ending. One thing that hit me this time watching it is that for it to be a workable time loop, they actually didn't need to kill them off.

Like if their other selves went into the future with no way back, then they just wouldn't return. So there wouldn't be any doppelganger or causality issues anyway. But instead, they just kill them. And how little they care that they watch. themselves die and that they killed themselves is so funny. They could have waited another minute for themselves

for their other timeline selves to leave and then they could fall safely but no, they kill their other selves and also the episode was going to end with a shot like whole inside the the whole Bender is digging P-O-V of Bender dumping the bodies and the last thing you

would see is Frye the corpse of Fries mangled face pressed up against the camera thankfully they cut that because I feel like all of the corpse digging up jokes in luck of the Fryerish. They don't ruin the ending, but I feel like they were so worried about being too sentimental that they added those in. Here, I feel like they pulled back at the exact right time and let this end sweetly, while still showing Bender digging a grave for fresh corpses underneath Fry and Lila as they're sharing

their love for each other. Yeah, the only other deleted scene on the DVD is the storyboard of that. And there's no new lines in it, but you just see it. Yeah, the blackout is Fry's corpse covering up the screen. Like, it's basically from the hole. And once his body is dropped in there, that covers the camera and it's the blackout to the title cards or the credits. Yeah. And even Graining said, you know, I'm glad we didn't end on that sour note.

But you mentioned Rick and Morty earlier. And I only watched the first three seasons because I felt like, well, that was enough Rick and Morty for me. And then there was like a huge gap. And I just kind of forgot about the show. I'm sure it's still fine. It's still funny. But what really sold me on Rick and Morty was the episode Rick Potion Number 9, where they screw up so bad that Rick and Morty have to live in a completely different universe, one in which they die. And they have to bury their own bodies too.

So they don't kill themselves in that parallel universe, but they have to show up in one in which they die in an explosion or something happens like that. But Futurama beat them to the punch with a very similar idea three and a half years earlier. So I really like that they landed on this first. Rick and Morty did a little more with it because I thought it was just a one-off joke but later I would learn no Rick and Morty will reference this this event as something very important

in the lore of the show I don't think Futurama does that but I like that they went this far it was like baby steps towards the kind of crazy stuff Rick and Morty would be doing in just like four years on Adult Swim I fully believe there would not be a Rick and Morty

as we know it without Futurama like no way And so I end that it ends with the bearing of them. But yeah, that that episode was a major moment for Rick and Morty. It showed people that show can make you sad. It can play a Mazzie Star song and just like break you at the end of it. And then they would follow it up in the same season and further on from then. But I remember in the intergalactic cable, interdimensional cable episode,

which was just a set of scenes of characters. goofing around and improvised lines over silly things. It also has summer learning that her Morty is dead and that this is another universe is Morty and they actually deal with it in that episode. And that's just the first of many times they use it. It is a major, major moment in the series. But then when you see this episode ending with them burying the corpses of their main universe ones, I'm like, yeah, Rick and Morty owes a lot to this, I would definitely say.

Yeah, I think if we can get it to Rick and Morty really briefly here before we wrap up, I think I stopped watching after season three because I really hated the season three finale, and I completely forget all the details because I think it's been seven years, but it's the point of what was like, oh, Beth is actually a real monster herself, and we're going to explore why. And I was just like, I don't know if I need this twist. I watched the next season and they deal with that a little better because I think they needed a, now definitely the reveal of the Sezwan sauce thing and that like,

Rick is the awesomest dude in the world. Like that one was a bad taste. But I've gone back and rewatched it. And certainly, as you learn later, when Justin Royland became just a voice actor on the show, I think it did improve some. And I watched a few episodes from this last season. It's still a good show. And unbelievably, we're not unbelievably, even though it doesn't feel as popular in smiling friends,

feels like it's totally replaced it as the hot show on Adult Swim. Rick and Morty just got renewed into, I believe, 2030, I think. It just got renewed again. Whoa. Oh, my God. You know, I was looking at the Rick and Morty episode list, and the reason why I didn't watch season four is because literally more than two years passed between season three and four, they had a real Venture Brothers break where I forget shows exist.

And then I find out I've missed three seasons a decade later. I'm like, what? That show came back? Now, when you turn on whatever app it's on in Canada, there's probably 70 episodes of Rick and Morty you haven't seen. One of these days. If you were to watch one after the point you stopped, I would suggest the Vad of Acid episode.

That is a very funny episode. And I guess it even now isn't even modern Rick and Morty. It's like three seasons ago, Rick and Morty. But I really love the Vat of Acid episode. Maybe we'll go back to it at some point. I want a cartoon. This episode, though, well deserving of an Emmy, both for the emotional content.

Again, it's a light touch. I do like they do as much as they need to with Fry and Leela. They're not overbearing. It's just these little moments. And also a very cool time travel plot that I have not seen before. And I am a huge sucker for time travel plots. And I feel like this is going to be my favorite of the Comedy Central run. They really went all out for this one.

And this is well deserving of an Emmy. I'm sorry Cleveland Show. You had your chance. You probably shouldn't have even existed in the first place. But this was the clear winner. I absolutely agree. Easy choice for the winner. The right one won that year. I think that from beginning to end, it's just great. It uses alternate timelines to tell a story, but without invalidating them. Like, that timeline happened. And it just did happen. There is a Leela that lived and died without ever meeting Fry again. And then there's actually, I guess there's two of them because they had to go around twice. And so, but yeah, so, again. So, again, gives you an alternate timeline, but doesn't negate it by going back in time. And also, I just love in the closing moments, Fry saying that was the old Fry, he's dead now.

I think that's funny enough to be the end of the episode. And that could, they could black out on that, but that they went with a sweet moment of Lila saying, like, what I'll remember is our time together. Like, and you know that's true because you saw the other timeline, Lila, say that exact thing. It's just so it does make you feel warm and fuzzy, but then you also get to see Bender underneath them burying corpses in Central Park, so you still get a dark laugh too. A little bit of the Futurama Snarkiness. So yeah, it's really a perfect episode,

and it shows that this era is worthwhile, and especially when they bring a guy like Lou Morton on board to write an Emmy Award winning episode. Yeah, so thank you, Lou Morton, for another great episode and for talking to us in your free time, as always. Yes, and hey, to plug Lou Morton's stuff, which he doesn't need me to plug his stuff, but it sounds like there will be new Beavis and Butthead soon, and I am such a big fan of that new run,

and I can't wait for the third season of it to arrive. Whatever channel it shows up on, whatever Paramount-based streaming platform, it might not appear on. I want to watch it. 100%. Yes, yeah, I can't wait too. But yes, thank you so much for listening, everybody, and thank you so much for being patrons. We will see you again next month in the year,

2525. No wait. In the year 2025, when we cover that darn cats and we'll see you that. If the robot can survive. A time machine still won't have arrived. In all the world, there's only one technology. A rusty sword for practicing proctology

in a future yearnette a slubby merman's gonna try to get shunning. He may look like a rudder. back he's a bloodthirsty shrimp humankind is enslaved by giraffe man must pay for all his misdeeds when the tree tots are stripped of their leaves