User Reviews

There's few problems with The Problem with Popplers, making it a highlight of volume 2 of Futurama. In it, Fry, Leela and Bender are out of food while in space and go looking for something to eat on a strange planet. They find tasty meat they call popplers, which Fry describes as being "like sex," except he's having it. They bring a ship load of popplers back to Earth and begin selling them, but Leela turns against the consumption of popplers when she finds out they're not only alive, they're intelligent. Indeed, popplers are the young of Omicron Persei 8, which had previously invaded Earth in When Aliens Attack. The aliens return to Earth looking for revenge.

This is a funny episode for a few reasons- we can laugh at Fry and Bender's dubious business skills and the even more dubious claim that no one can own property. The episode makes fun of hippies, who are apparently still around in the year 3000, and the jokes about Lrrr being fascinated by his hands, and Bender's remarks about titanium and aluminum, are priceless. Mainly though, this episode stands out for its dark humour, as popplers, a monkey, a hippie, and even a dolphin are eaten. This raises the question as to what animals are okay to eat- the popplers aren't human, so it's not cannibalism for people to eat them, but if intelligence is taken into consideration, the popplers are an alien equivalent of humans. The same paradox exists regarding Leela, an alien woman who sleeps with the human Zapp, and who's loved by the human Fry- given they're different species, this is potentially bestiality, but no one seems to think of it that way (probably, rightfully so) since Leela is like a human. At any rate, this is a good episode.

After a visit to the Planet of the Moochers the crew of the Planet Express ship find themselves with no food for the journey home. Far from civilisation they put down on a remote planet to look for something edible. They find a delicious and plentiful prawn-like creature that they later dub 'Popplers'. These Popplers are so tasty that soon they go into business and the people of Earth devour billions of them. Apart from a few dirty hippies everybody thinks eating them is great... until one of them talks to Leela. It soon becomes apparent that these Popplers are in fact the offspring of the creatures from Omicron Persei 8, first seen in the episode 'When Aliens Attack'. Lrrr and his fellow Omicronians want justice and demand that they should be allowed to eat the same number of humans; it is pointed out that there aren't that many so eventually they agree to eat one symbolic human; the one who first ate a Poppler... Leela! If she is to survive it will take some quick thinking and as the person doing the thinking is Zapp Brannigan she might be in trouble!

This episode is up there with the best; it provides plenty of laughs; the best being at the expense of the vegetarian hippies; in particular they spokesman Free Waterfall Junior. It was great to see Lrrr return; his reaction to eating the hippie was priceless! Zapp is good as usual and his put upon lieutenant Kif Kroker can raise a laugh just by the way he sighs. As to the episode's flaws ; I honestly can't think of any.

This is one of my all-time favorite episodes from this season. It's even one of my all-time favorite episodes from the entire series. I just love it so much.

In this episode, The Planet Express ship crashes onto a planet, where the gang discover this unusual food, which they think are delicious. They bring them home with them, calling them Popplers, and selling them. Only, it turns out that they're intelligent, and one talks to Leela. She desperately tries to get the world to stop eating them, but she can't. Then the aliens from Omicron Persei 8 come, and reveal that Popplers are actually their young. And the leader demands to eat the first person who ever ate his children, which in this case, is Leela.

Title Card: For External Use Only.

Fun Fact: Bender, and Fry would've earned $16.8 billion, based on the original deal made with Fishy Joe.

Best part of the episode: The adorable talking Poppler.

Worst part of the episode: Zapp Brannigan being a tool.

Overall, I give this episode a 10 out of 10, which in my ratings book is: Freaking Ridonkulous.

This story, the second appearance of the aliens of Omicron Persei 8, has many side-notes worthy of taking interest in. First off is the question that Jrr has to ask of his fellow Omicronians, whether it's okay for them to eat humans as the humans have eaten their young. Eventually, Lrr, the leader of the planet, does eat a certain human hippie, noting that something was wrong before acting as if he is under the influence of a perception-altering drug.

Although it does comment on some social difficulties, such as whether or not it's natural for a carnivorous feline to learn to eat a plant-based product (no), it should be remembered that this show was never intended to be a commentary on the social welfare, just a satire on how things are today. That's not a contradiction, as it's not suggested how these problems could be fixed, but that they'll still have them in the future. And the fact that certain beloved species now are vermin (in the case of owls) or foodstuff in the future (for instance, the fact that the dolphin they ate wasn't that smart in that he gambled his money away) is merely a satirical statement as to how paradigms are likely to shift in the future.

As per other determinations that loving Leela is, somehow, supposed to be associated with bestiality, all I have to say about that is "come on." It's not as if Captain Kirk was accused of it, and he slept with plenty of alien women. And, should you care to investigate further, it turns out Leela is actually a mutant human after all, not knowing until a later season.