For many of us who grew up in the 90s, watching the first episode of Futurama was a defining moment in our lives. Just when the wholesome Simpsons were beginning to lose their appeal, the Planet Express crew showed up with nerdier jokes and better conflicts. Matt Groening had struck gold a second time and gave the world another cartoon masterpiece. From start to finish, Futurama has the perfect ba🤪lance of slapstick and high-brow humor, of absurd aliens and relatable robots, of weird situations and heartfelt moments that leave you reeling, and it never gets old no matter how many times you watch it.
It’s obvious that a lot of work went into making Futurama because there’s so much detail packed into each second; you can’t watch an old episode without stumbling upon a joke you missed, or catching a gag in the background you never noticed before. Any series this complex is bound to have a few dark secrets hidden away, but it’s surprising how intense Futurama is just beneath the surface.
It’s no surprise that a satirical cartoon set in a mildly dystopian future comes with a weird sense of humor, but some of these twisted facts might change how you look at things if you think about them too much. Still, a true Futurama fan takes the bad with the good because the series gave us both in equal measure, so it’s fitting that the story behind Futurama isn’t always pleasant. Get ready, because these Futurama facts are guaranteed to make you think.
25 🥂 Seymour Was Real 🌠
Remember that Emmy-nominated episode, “Jurassic Bark,” in which Fry finds a fossil of his dogꩲ Seymour, and almost clones him? I dare you to say you didn’t cry when you saw it. It doesn’t get much sadder than a good, loyal dog waiting in vain for years for his best friend to return. That episode is absolutel𒈔y stuffed with all the feels.
Speaking of stuffed, there’s a museum exhibit in Japan dedicated to an Akita dog who was basically Seymour in real life.
Hachikō greeted his master at the train station every day when he would return home from work, and when his master passed away, Hachikō continued to wait at the station each day. Hachikō waited for over 9 years until he passed away as well. To this day Hachikō’s love inspires people, and he is widely remembered🔯 in Japan as a symbol for faith and loyalty.
24 🌌 The Hypnotoad Episode
Hypnotoad is the greatest character in the whole Futurama universe, and anyone who disagrees just hasn’t been touched by his glorious power. He makes his first appearance competing i🦩n a pet show, using his hypnotic powers to herd sheep, force the judges to give him perfect scores, and inspire the audience’s perfectly synchronized applause. Hypnotoad even stars in his own television show, which is just 22 minutes of uninterrupted hypnosis.
Turns out that Hypnotoad’s show is a real thing.
Included as an extra in the DVD special, "Bender’s Big Score", is an episode of “Everybody Loves Hypnotoad.” If you haven’t seen this episode, you are missing out. I was lost and withou🐟t purpose before I watched it, but now I SERVE ONL🌸Y THE HYPNOTOAD.
ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD.
23 🎃 Zapp’s Portraitꦉ
When the bumbling war hero, Zapp Brannigan, tries to seduce Leela in his bedroom, the painting on his wall might look familiar. That’s because, in classic Futurama style, the writers left an easter egg for observant viewers: Zapp Brannigan’s portrait is a reference to John F. Kennedy’s official White House portrait. This is a pretty surprising comparison: Futurama’s most pa🍌thetic, war crime-committing character posed l𒆙ike the president with the in United States history.
On the other hand, Zapp Brannigan’s public image is fantastic because most civilians don’t see what he’s really like, and none of us were there for JFK’s famous acts of heroism. Perhaps the writers used Zapp’s portrait to make a statement, but many artists say a painting has no meaning beyond that which the we give it. It’s just one more reason to love Futurama: there’s a layer of poigna💝ncy underneath all that comedy.
22 Owls Were Responsiಌble
Like many running gags in Futurama, it’s easy to miss the implications of New York’s booming owl population because no one really addresses it. Instead of rats or pigeons, owls are the new vermin. It’s just how things are in the year 3001. We’re left to assume that owls were introduced into New York’s ecosystem to counter the rat problem, graduཧally becoming the new problem themselves.
Futurama certainly loves its jokes about short-sighted decisions with ironic, long-term consequences.
The other layer to this running gag is that Futurama counters what owls traditionally symbolize in science fiction. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick uses robotic animals to represent the destruction of nature: so many specie🦩s have 🦂gone extinct that people keep artificial animals around to make the world feel less barren, and the most prominent animal imitation is an owl.
21 ♎ Four Times?!
Fans of Futurama were pretty sad when Fox didn’t renew it for another season back in 2003. “The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings” was Futurama’s series finale until Comedy Central picked it up five years later, to the excitement of everyo🎀ne with a goodꦏ sense of humor.
What you probably didn’t realize is that throughout its run, the series ended three more times after Fox canceled it.
It may be tedious at times watching Fry’s and Leela’s on-again, off-again relationship play out, but the reason behind their drama is that the writers were often unsure if the story would continue, so they wrote multiple finales that each give Fry and Leela a happy ending. When Futurama returned for another season, the writersꦰ had to split them up again to create conflict.
St💟ill, it’s a small price to pay for ano⛦ther hilarious season.
20 𝐆 What 🎃If Nothing Happened?
In the spirit of the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes in The Simpsons, Matt Groening used Professor Farnsworth’s “What If” Machine as a literal plot device for episodes that feature three non-canon stories. The “What If” Machine has a monitor that plays out hypothetical situations when characters ask it what would happen if things were different, and the results 🏅are predictably wacky.
Ironically, we’re left with an even bigger question: what if they never turned off the “What If” Machine?
Some fans theorize that this episode is the true series finale because there’s no way to r🌺eally know that any episodes after that point aren’t “What If” scenarios playing out. A device that lets you vicariously undo your mistakes and achieve your greatest dreams would be incredibly addictive, so it’s not far-fetched to imagine the crew just kept watching.
19 🌊 Not The Same
In the very first episode, Bender is introduced as a depressed robot who cannot act against his programming. 📖When things look grim, Fry’s rousing speech fails to inspire Bender toward rebellion, but a jolt of electricity complete⭕ly reverses Bender’s decision. Some fans theorize that Bender’s personality derives entirely from his surroundings when booting up: he reboots in a jail cell, and suddenly, crime appeals to him.
Unfortunately, this also means the original Bender doesn’t survive the first episode.
We see evidence of this when Bender reboots in his tuxedo amidst a colony of penguins. Bender’s programming takes in the surroundings to surmise that Bender must also be a penguin, so he spends the episode waddling around and bringing food for baby penguins. He later reboots as a “human” when the first thing he see꧟s is Leela.
18 🐠 𝓰 The Futurama/Simpsons Paradox
The Simpsons and Futurama share a creator in Matt Groening, and it’s always a pleasure when the two shows reference each other. In each universe, the other series is a fictional television show, but that creates an interesting problem: they can’t canonically both be fiction because of these references. It wouldn’t make sense for Futuramaℱ characters to see themselves making cameos in a cartoon, and the rev🍒erse is just as true.
These crossover moments create a paradox.
Interactions between The Simpsons and Futurama characters further complicate things because that implies that these fictional-within-fiction characters are also real enough to interact with. Canonically, both shows are simultaneously TV shows and not TV shows. Seymour is actually threatening the foundation of his universe when he passes by the minigolf course from The Simpsons.
17 Fry’s Mom
Flashbacks show a strained relationship between Fry and his mother, who was more excited about the Mets winning than giving birth to her son. Her outrageous obsession with sports left Fry emotionally neglected, and doubtless𝕴 her lack of parenting is a defining factor for Fry’s personality.
It’s part of what makes Fry such a compelling protagonist: everyone can relate to Fry’s low 🌃self-esteem, his hunger for validation, and his dreams of adventure as an escape 𓂃from a loveless home.
If you thought “Jurassic Bark” couldn’t 😼possibly be more emotional, imagine if the crew set out to clone Fry’s mother instead of his dog, as the writers initially intended. With all that pain and emotional baggageᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ, it’s no wonder they decided that would be too upsetting for audiences.
16 🐼 Wasting Fines
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder is a straight-to-video film that served as one of the show’s finales. Since they didn’t know if Futurama would ever return, production spared no expense: one scene shows up to 200 minor characters on the screen in a single shot. While it is fantastic fan service to remind us of all the random characters that have shown up throughout Futurama’s run, the scene was less pleasant to create.
The animation studio Rough Draft Studios fined Futurama for the immense difficulty taken in creating tಌhat scene. It’s hard to imagine how many hours and animators it took to put together that massive crowd of distinct characters, but just knowing how much work went into it makes these scene a bit more special. You could spend hours poring over that picture, reminiscing over past episodes.