“Futurama” made a habit of exposing — in a funny way — all that was wrong with the world when it ran from 1999-2003 on Fox. But for me and many other “Futurama” fans, all will seem right with the world when the show returns with its two-episode season premiere at 9 p.m. Central Thursday on Comedy Central.
This will technically be considered Season 7 of the show, as Season 6 includes the four DVD movies that were later split into episodes. But it will be the first time in a while that the writers will return to the half-hour comedy format. Although the first movie, “Bender’s Big Score,” was brilliant, and “The Beast with a Billion Backs” was solid, the writers’ wheelhouse remains the boob tube, and the early review from Entertainment Weekly suggests they hit a home run out of the gate.
“Futurama” is the elite science fiction comedy of all media, be it TV, film, books or comics. Taking a page from author Philip K. Dick, who used sci-fi to examine absurdities of his own time, “Futurama” skewers the early 21st century even though it is set in the early 31st century.
The broad joke of “Futurama” is that 1,000 years from now, humans will be at the same level of civilization we are at now. We’ll travel in air cars and spaceships, and New New York will be built on the ruins of Old New York, but people (and aliens who behave like people, natch) will be the same. We had Y2K, they had Y3K, and so forth.
With the show’s return, the writers can finally make fun of 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, which — if we’re being completely honest — were pretty ridiculous years, and 2010 looks like it will fit right in. I can’t wait to see how “Futurama” has fun with the headlines of the past decade. Multi-universal health care? A dark matter spill? The first black robot president? The Omicron Persei-8 aliens watching the finale of “Lost?”
On another level, “Futurama” is timelessly absurd. Doctor Zoidberg, for example, is a cult-favorite character within a cult-favorite show. He’s a doctor who has crab-like pincers and often says “Wub-wub-wub-wub” like Curly from “The Three Stooges.” But, of course, the Planet Express crew keeps going back to him in medical emergencies.
(On the other hand, he was also the first to be targeted when the crew almost had to resort to cannibalism:
“What’s for dinner, Hermes?”
“Lobster Zoidberg. I mean, Lobster Newburg. I mean, Doctor Zoidberg.”)
And as fans know, there’s a level of absurdity even beyond that: In an episode where the crew goes camping, a naked Amy crawls into the tent of a naked Leela. No explanation. No callback. Just a scene that you could — because of FCC regulations — only find in a cartoon, and that you would only find on “Futurama.” It will plumb the depths of space and time to find ridiculous comedy, but if the funniest joke is a straight-up visual gag, it will boldly go there.
It’s good to have you back, “Futurama.”
Comments
I think Thursday’s robosexuality episode ranks as the first new classic since “Futurama’s” return. I love the reference to the horse and ghost getting married. I think we can put to rest any fears that “Futurama” wouldn’t be as funny this time around.# Posted By John Hansen | 7/10/10 11:22 PM