When it comes to making fun of a TV-obsessed culture, Matt Groening's shows are pretty great. His first animated sitcom "The Simpsons" would frequently feature its characters sitting around watching lazy television, from the over-alarmist Kent Brockman to the absurdly-inappropriate-for-kids "Itchy & Scratchy Show." The first layer of this running joke is that TV is bad and it rots your soul; the second layer is that this criticism is coming from a TV show itself, which we're watching. We can laugh at Homer and Bart as they amuse themselves over a braindead "When Buildings Collapse" documentary, but we can't judge them because we know we're guilty of the same thing.
Groening's next sitcom "Futurama" takes place in the same basic world of "The Simpsons," but a thousand years in the future. The world here has all the same problems as our current one, but they're taken to their logical extreme after centuries of rampant consumerism.
Groening's next sitcom "Futurama" takes place in the same basic world of "The Simpsons," but a thousand years in the future. The world here has all the same problems as our current one, but they're taken to their logical extreme after centuries of rampant consumerism.
- 12/25/2023
- by Michael Boyle
- Slash Film
In the 2001 "Futurama" episode "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid," Leela (Katey Sagal) has chosen to enter her beloved pet Nibbler into an intergalactic pet show. Fry (Billy West) comments that the animals at such shows are well-trained and difficult to beat. Leela points out that the dogs aren't an issue, but one really has to look out for the Hypnotoad. The Hypnotoad, true to its name, is a hefty amphibian, about the size of a medicine ball, that can swivel its eyes toward sheep and hypnotically force them to enter a pen themselves far more efficiently than any sheepdog. When the pet show judges look at the Hypnotoad a little askance, the toad stares at them and hypnotically forces them to give it a perfect 10. Inevitably, the Hypnotoad will be awarded first prize. The audience, under its spell, claps somnambulistically in unison.
In later episodes of "Futurama," the Hypnotoad...
In later episodes of "Futurama," the Hypnotoad...
- 9/8/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
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