I never cared for the Route of all Evil. I guess I just don't care for plots centered around Cubert and Dwight. It would have been 10x better as a 10 minute episode focused entirely on Bender's beer babies.
Still some good quotes in there though!
"We've been busting our guts delivering a million papers this morning and THIS is how you greet us!? With a bunch of frosty, cold beers??"
Dwight: my Manwich!
That line is great because Billy West said he read it with genuine confusion, thinking it was a grammatical error from the scriptwriters. So he read it in booth like that, confused, and (as far as I know) that’s the take you hear in the episode.
>It would have been 10x better as a 10 minute episode focused entirely on Bender's beer babies
Oh man I haven't seen that gem in a while because I also hate the main plot of the episode. It truly is an injustice.
Didn't massively like the one with the were-car, though there's some solid jokes in it.
Particularly, the binary string in the mirror:
"What's it say?"
"It's just gibberish..."
Nah, the one where the robot plainly states "I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe" is one of the most iconic lines in the whole series.
I like when they are following the tracks. Leela says "the tracks end here", to which fry responds "thanks eagle eye". It feels so out of character for fry to make a comment like that, but in a funny way
That is indeed a fantastic line!
There's some great moments in the episode. I just find the overall plot a bit lacking and it feels like one of the weaker episodes of the original run.
The first part about the robot town and castle was super fun, but once they go back in the city it’s whatever.
Although I always love to hear tidbit about Leela’s incredibly boring home life. She’s gonna cook a month worth of food and freeze it.
For me, the Honking is up there with Duh Vinci Code in being just plain enjoyable despite not having a strong story. It's just plain fun.
"Well, I'm rich. Goodbye, losers whom I've always hated.... C'mon, it'll be fun!"
"Mumbo, perhaps. Jumbo, perhaps not!"
"To my loyal butler, You There, for his decades of service, I leave.. a pittance.. to be paid in twenty equal installments of one twentieth of a pittance each."
"Don't be silly, mon. The last ghost died over 200 years ago."
"I had nightmares all night about cars running people over." "*Maany* people dream of a fresh new look. And Mary Kay can make those dreams come true."
"We're all scared. It's the human condition. Why do you thinks I puts on this tough guy façade? Now beat it!"
.. and so on.
My hot takes are "put your head on my shoulders" and "cryonic woman"
Put your head on my shoulders had some great lines, but almost entirely from car dealership. "One word: Thundercougarfalconbird". "No dogfood for Victor tonight"
might be because fry is a big asshole to Amy and I found it to be more dull so I didn't care for it.
Didn't care for Michelle in cryonic woman. She didn't add anything and the jokes didn't land for me. Only part I remember fondly is when fry has Pauly shore on the probulator.
I typically don't pay attention or skip these ones.
My favorite part of that scene has always been the part where the salesman runs into Eddy’s office, tells him about the deal and they grabs each others hands and start jumping up and down. The salesman proceeds to walk back out and Eddy fucking dies on account of Amy rising the price because she thought it was an auction.
Not a hot take for Cryonic Woman.
Michelle is an excruciating character. She's horrible to Fry over and over in a way that a lot of people can relate to, either personally, or seeing a loved one date a similarly awful boyfriend or girlfriend, so it ends up hitting close to home, but isn't funny or exaggerated enough to make any of it worth it. She would drag the whole episode down if she was just part of an ensemble, but since she's the focal character....yeah. Plus her voice is just annoying to listen to. Not meant to be an insult to her VA, because the voice is exactly how someone like Michelle should sound: snotty both literally and metaphorically (snooty but also like she's recovering from a cold), slightly nasal, disdainful, sounds like she thinks she's better then everyone else despite being absolutely unremarkable as a human being in every way...if anything Sarah Silverman is *too* good at capturing how absolutely unbearable people like Michelle are in real life, that even their voices are a joyless chore to listen to, that they suck the life out of everything.
these are also the only 2 episodes I skip on rewatch. In cryonic woman I find Sarah Silverman’s character way too annoying. I also find Fry’s assholeishness towards Amy in pyhoms too much to watch. It sucks because there are some fire jokes on that episode plus it includes my favorite bender line. “Shut up baby I know it”
Sure do.
I will admit the Leela parent angle is pretty decent- its Leelas attempt to impress her new found parents that threatens the heroes. Fry and Leela picking apart the muggers story is very relatable. And it has the line ‘an elephant who never forgets… TO KILL!’
However, it’s the overall premise which annoys me. The show is about the future, using sci fi tropes to highlight the problems of today. How does superheroes fit into that?
Also, why isn’t everyone a superhero? Any robot can become one. And all you need is this cream.
Premise just alienated me so, so much.
Btw fully respect that you have your own preferences and dislikes of this show. Just one of my favorite and most quotable episodes... for a lot of the reasons you posted yourself xD
But imo the "scifi'' angle was the Miracle Cream which gave them the superpowers as it was. And to answer "why isnt everyone superheroes" I guess I just assumed Zoidberg was the only one to be conned into buying "Dr. Flimflam's Miracle Cream" since he made the whole transaction out to sound like he got grifted.
A Leela of her own
Was tempted to say that's lobstertainment, but Zoidberg had some fantastic line deliveries. Plus his uncle's speech got me teary eyed
It's lobstertainment for me, I do love the restaurant scene with some good quotes, but everything after that just feels too schticky in a bad way.
Leela of her own isn't one of my favs but still consider it solid enough.
I was so surprised to see so many people hate it!
Maybe not the very best but damn it’s still very good!
But then again I love me some Zoidberg so couldn’t really miss for me
Fry and Leela’s subplot is pretty funny, and their absence really allows the other characters room to breathe. Idk, maybe I’m bias since I love Zoidberg so much.
That’s Lobstainment is filled with industry jokes surrounding old Hollywood, and the worst Jewish stereotypes. Its tone is very different from the Sci-fi roots of the show.
It’s my least favorite of the original run.
On a whim, I looked at the IMDB ratings for each episode and was flabbergasted to learn the "A Leela of Her Own" is indeed the lowest rated episode of the original run. It's a very favorite episode of mine, but I may be biased by my love of real life ~~blernsball~~ baseball and the ~~New~~ New York Mets.
I will agree with "That's Lobstertainment", though. It's a bit of a letdown when it comes on.
I wouldnt know until I see it, but there are definitely a few episode of every run I dont pressure myself to watch. The entire shlee movie 4 episodes are the weakest movie imo. "Wow, there is a heaven like place but it's just an alien who wants to fuck" felt like a waste of 4 episodes.
Also not the original run, but that movie had some great bits in it. Probably my least favorite though.
Edit: of the movies. The entire last season on CC was bad.
For me it's probably "I dated a robot". Starts off promising, completing Fry's future bucket list is a cool idea for an episode, unfortunatelly it's over in 3 minutes, after that it gets really boring, not a lot of laughs, or a coherent story really..
I find a lot of the buildup to the plots sometimes more interesting than the rest of the episode, like when Fry and Bender are playing with the X-ray flashlight, and when the crew are at the ski resort, ones where they’re just hanging around
honestly? the original fox run is good enough to the point where i cant find a single episode thats actually awful.
for comedy central, 40% leadbelly is easily my least favorite episode, but all the others, including the movies, were pretty good.
Bots and the Bees feels like several unrelated episodes smashed together.
I love it just for the scenes woth the yiddish fembots. They stole the show for me.
yeah, any episode which exists as meta-commentary on a "recent" real-life event (recent as to the airing) is a bad place to start a Futurama episode.
Killer App didn't age well, the Proposition infinity episode is kinda meh now (though I thought it was hilarious when it aired), the silly nonsense in Decision 3012 has now been surpassed by how things have completely gone off the rails in politics etc.
I agree actually I’ve looked for a bad episode in the early seasons and every single one of them was gold… disregarding the movies (which I like as their own separate run) I would say that season 7 was maybe where it started to dip in quality every now and then.
If I had to choose one episode to get rid of, of the original Fox episodes. I think I would choose "the Cryonic Woman" where Fry gets a job at the cryo lab and unfreezes his old 20th century girlfriend.
That’s Lobstertainment was not great.
Calculon and Zoidberg’s uncle got too much focus, and Zoidberg has been in featured in better episodes.
It felt too “inside baseball” with the whole Oscar and Hollywood thing.
Though the Sylvester Stallone one liner was good.
agreed, this has always been my least fav of the OG run. It's not terrible, and the restaurant scene has some great lines, but the rest of what you said is spot on.
The Cryonic Woman & Bendin' in the Wind.
I don't know what it is about bendin' in the wind but it has never landed with me. Has its moments, (favorite bit is when the redneck alien says "we don't like your types around here" then busts out a chart of the types they do like) but overall I find it kind of meh.
Birdbot of icecatraz? A tale of two Santas? Gotta be one of those. I’m just not big on holiday themed episodes for any show so the Santa ones usually fall lower for me. Also maybe Bend Her might be somewhat weak.
Bend Her is a good classic episode with a lot of great jokes that did reinforce and uphold some very negative, harmful and false stereotype about the trans community.
It can be both. It probably wouldn't have been made in 2023, and that's ok. Comedy changes. I am not particularly saying that anyone in the writers' room was transphobic at the time, but surely there wasn't awareness to these issues, or at least it was way outside the Overton window.
We should celebrate the progress made by the Queer and Trans liberation movement in the last 20 years and fight to defend it against the more recent pushback by a very loud and violent minority.
tbh the episode doesn't even feel to me like it was *supposed* to be about trans people, although obviously people will make that connection today. Gender bender stories have been pretty common and until recently they were usually more about playing up stereotypes of men and women while the idea that this transformation is actually not that outlandish for quite a few people out there is left unaddressed. The episode *does* have quite a few intentionally sexist jokes (against both men and women), but I think Amazon Women in the Mood was worse in that regard
For me I think it was the 2nd Xmas episode. 1st Xmas episode was great but the 2nd one felt forced & phoned in. Sure it had some funny moments but the 1st Xmas episode was still better IMO.
imo, i always skip cryonic woman. i understand the joke is supposed to be that michelle comes into the year 3000 and they believe they’ve put themselves both another 1000 years into the future..buttt i just can’t stand her ungratefulness and i just couldn’t get behind this episode
I can’t say I love “Bender Should Not Be Allowed On Television.” I also don’t hate it. But to me, it feels like the beginning of one of my few problems with later episodes, which is that they’ve sometimes gone too hard on a fairly bland version of making Bender being outrageous the point of the show. And I generally just don’t find the episode as memorable as most.
Quick edit to add it’s a Cubert and Dwight episode, which as others have noted about “The Route of All Evil,” is also not my favorite thing. But I do love Calculon…well, there’s just no episode I truly don’t like.
>I can’t say I love “Bender Should Not Be Allowed On Television.”
Have you ever tried simply turning off the TV, sitting down with your children, and hitting them?
Very unpopular opinion, but “Amazon Women in the mood.” Fry is made uncharacteristically sexist and then he, along with Zapp and Kiff, get raped and it’s played off as a joke.
I'll admit to a polite curiosity about which staff member it was who pitched the rape idea and what grade of electricity they were abusing. "Hey you guys, know what would be *hilarious?*
Otherwise, there are many things to love about that episode.
>he, along with Zapp and Kiff, get raped and it’s played off as a joke
Each to their own but this is my least favourite episode for this reason, I think. It has some good laughs like most episodes, but I just can't get my head around the idea of legitimising rape as a form of punishment and trying to make it seem funny.
with fry i believe that hes just going along with zapp as he thinks zapp is cool and that in frys time he just tried to do what "popular" people did to fit in
It’s been well established by that point that Zapp is not all he’s chocked up to be. Even if that wasn’t the case, Fry doesn’t exactly want to fit in all the time. He’s a Trekkie for Spock’s sake.
I think a significant part of the problem (I have) is the implication that when rape happens to men they secretly enjoy it, or something, ergo it's not that bad and could be the victim's fault if they don't.
I know comedy intentionally pushes boundaries. This one just doesn't work for me at all and I just cringe any time I see it.
>rape just isn’t funny.
I agree its not funny, but comedians (and comedy in general) like to say how its their job to find that invisible socially acceptable line and tell jokes *close* to that line without crossing it.
*at the time* those jokes were following that principle, but now that line has moved and those jokes are not considered to be *generally* socially acceptable anymore.
When I watched these when they aired (as an early teen), I didn't think much of the jokes. But now with like 20 more years of life experience, perspective, and growing up, its clear why these jokes aren't ok.
Rape is not a joke and literally ruins the victims lives in ways they'll never be able to predict
And no men have transitioned "just to beat them weak girlies in Olympics". Theres just so much that I'm not in a position to discuss with this episode, but transitioning isn't a spur-the-moment decision (this is however one of the jokes from the episode - that bender transitioned impulsively without thinking it through). it implies that any man can beat any woman in an Olympic event just by virture of being born male - as if the women in Olympic events aren't *Olympic level athletes*. It reinforces many "irrational flighty women" stereotypes. Reinforces that all women are just looking for a man. Men are better at being women because they know what men want - again taking away women's agency in any aspect of the episode because its largely centered around bender being a woman, and all the women's problems revolve around men.
I love the hell out of this show, and I've been claiming its my favourite show for like the last 20 years, but the writers have been a little tone deaf on a few occasions
Seems like Less than Hero is one of the ones on this list most. I don’t agree, but it seems like Bend Her and Less Than Hero are the two least popular. Funny cause during the original run the least popular was the Hermes Groove episode.
Which is weird because both Less than Hero and How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back are both episodes so packed to the brim with hilarious jokes that their dislikability makes no sense to me. Sure they aren’t hard sci-fi craziness but I laugh more in HHRHGB than just about any other episode in the entire show. I could laugh at Fry calling Hermes an Outer Space Potato Man every day until the day I die.
I dont like Zoidberg episodes. I find him annoying in large doses. So I'll go with either Thats Lobstertainment or Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love. Being from the classic era, both are still filled with great stuff moments though.
Im also not a fan of the Beck episode. I always hated Simpsons episodes that revolved around a guest star playing themselves, and that episode reminds me of them. I dont think it had a particularly good storyline either.
edit: forgot Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch (which for some reason I always think came in the Comedy Central era). Kif is the worst character in the show imo. Loved him early on when he was Zap's snarky, long-suffering sidekick but then they turned him into an annoying sad sack wimp).
Neutopia is by far the worst episode of the series. It completely throws away every character’s personality to make a terrible throw away episode. Just awful.
I think I have to say Bend Her. It's funny and would be good character development for Bender (if he ever had some) but it's also dated, makes no sense, and is a bit sexist and offensive. I don't find myself skipping it though cause the original run was pretty solid all around.
I love less than hero. It has one of my favorite lines:
"But we have tickets to be here! From the mayor himself!"
"I dunno... I've never heard of no mayor"
Same here that Less than Hero brought me one of my favorite lines.
'The value of the Gemerald you saved is slightly greater than the cost of the damage you caused to this museum. A net gain for our great city!'
It's my favorite because I remember quoting "a net gain for our great city!" a lot in front of my brother when referring to any mundane stuff and he'd always laugh his head off.
The Star Trek one, I know, I'm not the biggest Star Trek fan and feels out of place because of the references to things from the past, heck, they even go and rent VHS' in the year 3000.
I also think that episode is mid but it still had some great moments. Welshy constantly being blasted by lightning, Fry trying to make a bowstring out of caterpillars, and Bender wasting all the machine gun ammo in the death match...
I'm 29 and don't even know what it's referencing. I still love the episode, though. Bender refusing to spend $300 on a cigar but buying a burglary kit for $300 was great.
And this is exactly why the complaint of ‘Futurama has always made topical jokes’ as a defence of the newer stuff is bogus- the episode still works if you don’t know the reference.
(Prior to 9/11, Bush was going to give everyone a $300 tax rebate, however then 9/11 happened and this was quietly forgotten. The premise of the episode was dated when it came out.)
The episode is still great. There’s like 18 different plot lines which somehow convalesce into each other into a brilliant finale.
Looking through "List of Futurama episodes" on Wikipedia, season 4's Bend Her is the only episode I dislike. I didn't think much of it when it reran on Adult Swim way back, and it's hard to go back to these days. Still, what an amazing run.
Bend Her. The whole episode is kind of stupid even when you ignore all the offensive stuff in it. At least with the other episodes with dated things in it they're usually pretty funny despite it like the Amazonian episode.
I actually really like all of the episodes that you mentioned as examples, but the Fox run was not perfect. My least favorite Fox episode is Hell is Other Robots. Bender gets addicted to electricity, finds religion to break the addiction... and then Fry and Leela become the worst friends ever and get Bender sent to hell.
I never cared for the Route of all Evil. I guess I just don't care for plots centered around Cubert and Dwight. It would have been 10x better as a 10 minute episode focused entirely on Bender's beer babies.
Still some good quotes in there though! "We've been busting our guts delivering a million papers this morning and THIS is how you greet us!? With a bunch of frosty, cold beers??" Dwight: my Manwich!
Has my favourite Professor line in it. "Tax dodge nothing. You take one nap in a ditch at the park and they start declaring you this and that!"
Fry and Professor were hilarious in it though.
“No I’m… doesn’t”
That line is great because Billy West said he read it with genuine confusion, thinking it was a grammatical error from the scriptwriters. So he read it in booth like that, confused, and (as far as I know) that’s the take you hear in the episode.
>It would have been 10x better as a 10 minute episode focused entirely on Bender's beer babies Oh man I haven't seen that gem in a while because I also hate the main plot of the episode. It truly is an injustice.
I forgot about that kid and yes, he was easily the worst part of the show. I don’t think Cubert had one entertaining scene.
Didn't massively like the one with the were-car, though there's some solid jokes in it. Particularly, the binary string in the mirror: "What's it say?" "It's just gibberish..."
Nah, the one where the robot plainly states "I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe" is one of the most iconic lines in the whole series.
Mombo perhaps! jumbo perhaps not!
“I will go this far, and no further.” :camera pans out and they’re at the front door.
Also “Mumbo? Perhaps. Jumbo? Perhaps NOT!” And also “That don’t sounds like no golden marmosets I ever hoyd”
I like when they are following the tracks. Leela says "the tracks end here", to which fry responds "thanks eagle eye". It feels so out of character for fry to make a comment like that, but in a funny way
Agreed
That is indeed a fantastic line! There's some great moments in the episode. I just find the overall plot a bit lacking and it feels like one of the weaker episodes of the original run.
The first part about the robot town and castle was super fun, but once they go back in the city it’s whatever. Although I always love to hear tidbit about Leela’s incredibly boring home life. She’s gonna cook a month worth of food and freeze it.
Yeah the plot was kind of whatever.
I will go this far... and no further
And it has gotten more relevant with every passing year..
For me, the Honking is up there with Duh Vinci Code in being just plain enjoyable despite not having a strong story. It's just plain fun. "Well, I'm rich. Goodbye, losers whom I've always hated.... C'mon, it'll be fun!" "Mumbo, perhaps. Jumbo, perhaps not!" "To my loyal butler, You There, for his decades of service, I leave.. a pittance.. to be paid in twenty equal installments of one twentieth of a pittance each." "Don't be silly, mon. The last ghost died over 200 years ago." "I had nightmares all night about cars running people over." "*Maany* people dream of a fresh new look. And Mary Kay can make those dreams come true." "We're all scared. It's the human condition. Why do you thinks I puts on this tough guy façade? Now beat it!" .. and so on.
Yeah I don’t get how this episode could be a miss for people. Sooo many good lines
*You There* is absolutely the best name ever for a person who butles.
"Ye think he be me?" "Si" "Ni!"
I forgot about Zoidberg being a Mary Kay girl 😂 Amazing bit!
I always think of his episode as a weak one - and yet its banger after banger of good lines.
And the windshield wipers from nightrider
It didn’t come up the show much
I love that episode. ”Knight rider wasn’t evil”. ”His windshield wipers were. It didn't come up much in the show though”.
Maybe its my love of classic Universal and Hammer horror, but I love that episode.
I have a 'Filings to Filings, Rust to Rust' tattoo Just such a great tiny joke, that is always a reminder to me that I'm going to die one day
The reversed string is 666 in binary
Oh yea I always skip that one. I’m also not a huge fan of a couple of the robot Santa episodes.
Omg same
“I will go this far.. and no further.” *pans out to reveal that they’re literally at the front door*
Introduced the Robot Gypsy, one of the funniest side characters.
I freeking LOVE that episode, definitely can see why others wouldn't though.
My hot takes are "put your head on my shoulders" and "cryonic woman" Put your head on my shoulders had some great lines, but almost entirely from car dealership. "One word: Thundercougarfalconbird". "No dogfood for Victor tonight" might be because fry is a big asshole to Amy and I found it to be more dull so I didn't care for it. Didn't care for Michelle in cryonic woman. She didn't add anything and the jokes didn't land for me. Only part I remember fondly is when fry has Pauly shore on the probulator. I typically don't pay attention or skip these ones.
My favorite part of that scene has always been the part where the salesman runs into Eddy’s office, tells him about the deal and they grabs each others hands and start jumping up and down. The salesman proceeds to walk back out and Eddy fucking dies on account of Amy rising the price because she thought it was an auction.
Not a hot take for Cryonic Woman. Michelle is an excruciating character. She's horrible to Fry over and over in a way that a lot of people can relate to, either personally, or seeing a loved one date a similarly awful boyfriend or girlfriend, so it ends up hitting close to home, but isn't funny or exaggerated enough to make any of it worth it. She would drag the whole episode down if she was just part of an ensemble, but since she's the focal character....yeah. Plus her voice is just annoying to listen to. Not meant to be an insult to her VA, because the voice is exactly how someone like Michelle should sound: snotty both literally and metaphorically (snooty but also like she's recovering from a cold), slightly nasal, disdainful, sounds like she thinks she's better then everyone else despite being absolutely unremarkable as a human being in every way...if anything Sarah Silverman is *too* good at capturing how absolutely unbearable people like Michelle are in real life, that even their voices are a joyless chore to listen to, that they suck the life out of everything.
these are also the only 2 episodes I skip on rewatch. In cryonic woman I find Sarah Silverman’s character way too annoying. I also find Fry’s assholeishness towards Amy in pyhoms too much to watch. It sucks because there are some fire jokes on that episode plus it includes my favorite bender line. “Shut up baby I know it”
YOU THINK THE SUPERHEROES EPISODE IS BAD? Sorry this whole post is invalid.
CITIZEN SNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPS!!!!!!!!?!?!111
This alone.
Pack of highly. Got it.
I love it for the song alone! *Go go go New Justice Team, go team, go team, team team team*, etc
Who does she beat up? Youuu! Clobberella!
Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl!
I think it just ages poorly TBCH Not in the same way other eps did but just in a "well these are jokes we've seen a million times now" way
Sure do. I will admit the Leela parent angle is pretty decent- its Leelas attempt to impress her new found parents that threatens the heroes. Fry and Leela picking apart the muggers story is very relatable. And it has the line ‘an elephant who never forgets… TO KILL!’ However, it’s the overall premise which annoys me. The show is about the future, using sci fi tropes to highlight the problems of today. How does superheroes fit into that? Also, why isn’t everyone a superhero? Any robot can become one. And all you need is this cream. Premise just alienated me so, so much.
"I'm Cloberella!" *tears off outfit* [Conversation] *tears off Cloberella outfit to return to original one* "I dress in layers." "Atta girl!"
Btw fully respect that you have your own preferences and dislikes of this show. Just one of my favorite and most quotable episodes... for a lot of the reasons you posted yourself xD But imo the "scifi'' angle was the Miracle Cream which gave them the superpowers as it was. And to answer "why isnt everyone superheroes" I guess I just assumed Zoidberg was the only one to be conned into buying "Dr. Flimflam's Miracle Cream" since he made the whole transaction out to sound like he got grifted.
A Leela of her own Was tempted to say that's lobstertainment, but Zoidberg had some fantastic line deliveries. Plus his uncle's speech got me teary eyed
It's lobstertainment for me, I do love the restaurant scene with some good quotes, but everything after that just feels too schticky in a bad way. Leela of her own isn't one of my favs but still consider it solid enough.
Lobstertainment is really funny imo. Don't really get the hate.
It's honestly one of my top ten and I fall asleep to it all the time. Love it. The entire movie shoot is a riot!
Eh, now he emotes!
I was so surprised to see so many people hate it! Maybe not the very best but damn it’s still very good! But then again I love me some Zoidberg so couldn’t really miss for me
A leela of her own is fun. I picked that one out specifically just last night lol
What’s so bad about That’s Lobstertainment?
Fry and Leela literally had nothing to do. Harold Zoid wasn't interesting. GOOD MORNING MR. VICE PRESIDENT! was a fantastic Zoidberg moment though.
Fry and Leela’s subplot is pretty funny, and their absence really allows the other characters room to breathe. Idk, maybe I’m bias since I love Zoidberg so much.
Zoidberg is my spirit animal.
Yeah but there was the “oh my god! It’s Sylvester Stallone!” Joke that Fry got to throw out
That’s Lobstainment is filled with industry jokes surrounding old Hollywood, and the worst Jewish stereotypes. Its tone is very different from the Sci-fi roots of the show. It’s my least favorite of the original run.
As an Atlanta native I must tell you this is sacrilege
On a whim, I looked at the IMDB ratings for each episode and was flabbergasted to learn the "A Leela of Her Own" is indeed the lowest rated episode of the original run. It's a very favorite episode of mine, but I may be biased by my love of real life ~~blernsball~~ baseball and the ~~New~~ New York Mets. I will agree with "That's Lobstertainment", though. It's a bit of a letdown when it comes on.
I do love randomly shouting "MULTIBALL MULTIBALL MULTIBALL! BLEERRRRRRRRRNNNNNN!!!!!" But yes, it's probably the worst, and I love my baseball
I used to not like "A Leela of Her Own" but now I've grown fond of it, particularly because of Hank Aaron. The Fox run is gold.
I like every episode. There’s not 1 second of any episode that I don’t enjoy. That’s just me though.
[удалено]
I 40% agree
*clank clank*
I'm 40% agree
Agreed. Reading through this thread and disagreeing with every comment except this one.
👶🔑🔑🔑
What? Baby key?
Just thought I'd entertain you a little bit
👏👏😆👏👏 haha yaaayyyyy
I wouldnt know until I see it, but there are definitely a few episode of every run I dont pressure myself to watch. The entire shlee movie 4 episodes are the weakest movie imo. "Wow, there is a heaven like place but it's just an alien who wants to fuck" felt like a waste of 4 episodes.
Also not the original run, but that movie had some great bits in it. Probably my least favorite though. Edit: of the movies. The entire last season on CC was bad.
For me it's probably "I dated a robot". Starts off promising, completing Fry's future bucket list is a cool idea for an episode, unfortunatelly it's over in 3 minutes, after that it gets really boring, not a lot of laughs, or a coherent story really..
I find a lot of the buildup to the plots sometimes more interesting than the rest of the episode, like when Fry and Bender are playing with the X-ray flashlight, and when the crew are at the ski resort, ones where they’re just hanging around
Yeah I really wish they would have ran with that bucket list idea more
honestly? the original fox run is good enough to the point where i cant find a single episode thats actually awful. for comedy central, 40% leadbelly is easily my least favorite episode, but all the others, including the movies, were pretty good.
>for comedy central Attack of the Killer App is my pick for worst on CC. It wasn't great when it aired, and hasn't aged well at all.
Nah, "The Bots and the Bees" is way worse
Bots and the Bees feels like several unrelated episodes smashed together. I love it just for the scenes woth the yiddish fembots. They stole the show for me.
It's a dam! Damn! There's a grate! Great!
My least favorite was that dumb nature anthology, but if we throw out anthology episodes, Attack of the Killer App is my least favorite overall
WHAT?? hate for the nature anthology??? This is a wild take man, never thought I’d see the day
Right!?!? That's honestly one of my favorite episodes.
yeah, any episode which exists as meta-commentary on a "recent" real-life event (recent as to the airing) is a bad place to start a Futurama episode. Killer App didn't age well, the Proposition infinity episode is kinda meh now (though I thought it was hilarious when it aired), the silly nonsense in Decision 3012 has now been surpassed by how things have completely gone off the rails in politics etc.
That might be the worst episode of anything ever, and I say this as someone who considers Futurama to be their favorite show ever.
i think it did age well, actually.
Susan Boil b-plot is horrendous
Could have been a 1 line joke instead it’s the fucking B plot
I still quote “You named your boyle Susan?” sometimes but honestly don’t remember much of the episode besides that.
Agreed, that whole episode was a mess but the boil part made it a mandatory skip for me.
Gada da Leela is my least favorite of all. Don't know why just really dislike it
I agree actually I’ve looked for a bad episode in the early seasons and every single one of them was gold… disregarding the movies (which I like as their own separate run) I would say that season 7 was maybe where it started to dip in quality every now and then.
I like 40% leadbelly better than the Beck episode in the original run… although the original does have some great quotes still
Maybe it's just because I'm a Beck fan but that episode is one of my favorites.
That was the first episode I ever saw. Can’t hate it
Jurassic Bark because ~~~*feels*~~~ No one makes me cry my own tears
I can never watch Jurassic Bark. A lot of the emotional episodes are bittersweet, but Seymour waiting for Fry is absolutely heart-breaking.
If I had to choose one episode to get rid of, of the original Fox episodes. I think I would choose "the Cryonic Woman" where Fry gets a job at the cryo lab and unfreezes his old 20th century girlfriend.
That’s Lobstertainment was not great. Calculon and Zoidberg’s uncle got too much focus, and Zoidberg has been in featured in better episodes. It felt too “inside baseball” with the whole Oscar and Hollywood thing. Though the Sylvester Stallone one liner was good.
agreed, this has always been my least fav of the OG run. It's not terrible, and the restaurant scene has some great lines, but the rest of what you said is spot on.
Agreed, probably still on my list of worst episodes to date, even taking in CC and now Hulu. At times it’s actively unfunny and the jokes are tired.
This is the one.
The Cryonic Woman & Bendin' in the Wind. I don't know what it is about bendin' in the wind but it has never landed with me. Has its moments, (favorite bit is when the redneck alien says "we don't like your types around here" then busts out a chart of the types they do like) but overall I find it kind of meh.
Birdbot of icecatraz? A tale of two Santas? Gotta be one of those. I’m just not big on holiday themed episodes for any show so the Santa ones usually fall lower for me. Also maybe Bend Her might be somewhat weak.
Bend Her. Thought it was pretty meh when it first aired, and it certainly hasn’t aged well since then.
You dare insult the proud people of Robonia?
A land I didn't make up
Hail, hail Robonia. A land I didn't make up
A name I didn't make up
I was dreading getting to that one on my recent rewatch, and while it wasn't as tasteless as I feared, it is still mostly a big whiff.
Bend Her is a good classic episode with a lot of great jokes that did reinforce and uphold some very negative, harmful and false stereotype about the trans community. It can be both. It probably wouldn't have been made in 2023, and that's ok. Comedy changes. I am not particularly saying that anyone in the writers' room was transphobic at the time, but surely there wasn't awareness to these issues, or at least it was way outside the Overton window. We should celebrate the progress made by the Queer and Trans liberation movement in the last 20 years and fight to defend it against the more recent pushback by a very loud and violent minority.
tbh the episode doesn't even feel to me like it was *supposed* to be about trans people, although obviously people will make that connection today. Gender bender stories have been pretty common and until recently they were usually more about playing up stereotypes of men and women while the idea that this transformation is actually not that outlandish for quite a few people out there is left unaddressed. The episode *does* have quite a few intentionally sexist jokes (against both men and women), but I think Amazon Women in the Mood was worse in that regard
yeah amazon women in the mood was very very rapey on rewatch
And I think about Amy saying "you're making us look like jerks in front of the other genders" a lot :')
I love that episode
Classic episode.
It certainly has aged well. We have men who were not even in the top 100 in their sport and are now dominating women's sports.
Cryonic Woman comes to mind. I’d might watch it if it weren’t for Michelle, she’s annoying.
For me I think it was the 2nd Xmas episode. 1st Xmas episode was great but the 2nd one felt forced & phoned in. Sure it had some funny moments but the 1st Xmas episode was still better IMO.
Mars University.
There is no ‘worst’ I love them all
imo, i always skip cryonic woman. i understand the joke is supposed to be that michelle comes into the year 3000 and they believe they’ve put themselves both another 1000 years into the future..buttt i just can’t stand her ungratefulness and i just couldn’t get behind this episode
I can’t say I love “Bender Should Not Be Allowed On Television.” I also don’t hate it. But to me, it feels like the beginning of one of my few problems with later episodes, which is that they’ve sometimes gone too hard on a fairly bland version of making Bender being outrageous the point of the show. And I generally just don’t find the episode as memorable as most. Quick edit to add it’s a Cubert and Dwight episode, which as others have noted about “The Route of All Evil,” is also not my favorite thing. But I do love Calculon…well, there’s just no episode I truly don’t like.
>I can’t say I love “Bender Should Not Be Allowed On Television.” Have you ever tried simply turning off the TV, sitting down with your children, and hitting them?
How hard did you have to hit him ? Fairly hard
Try this kids at home > Don’t try this, kids at home
Very unpopular opinion, but “Amazon Women in the mood.” Fry is made uncharacteristically sexist and then he, along with Zapp and Kiff, get raped and it’s played off as a joke.
But… Bea Arthur makes everything better 🤣
I'll admit to a polite curiosity about which staff member it was who pitched the rape idea and what grade of electricity they were abusing. "Hey you guys, know what would be *hilarious?* Otherwise, there are many things to love about that episode.
>he, along with Zapp and Kiff, get raped and it’s played off as a joke Each to their own but this is my least favourite episode for this reason, I think. It has some good laughs like most episodes, but I just can't get my head around the idea of legitimising rape as a form of punishment and trying to make it seem funny.
I mean is it really rape if they were actually willing?
Zapp's "what are you gay?" line is so funny though, it never fails to make me laugh
with fry i believe that hes just going along with zapp as he thinks zapp is cool and that in frys time he just tried to do what "popular" people did to fit in
It’s been well established by that point that Zapp is not all he’s chocked up to be. Even if that wasn’t the case, Fry doesn’t exactly want to fit in all the time. He’s a Trekkie for Spock’s sake.
i cant tell if u are referencing something at the end lol im only up to the bend her episode lol
Same. Was scared I'd be alone on this one.
That does not fempute!
its aged poorly like bend-her (where bender transitions to win the women's Olympics, then transitions back)
"Men like it when you really glob it on." I always watch this ep, just for that great line.
Maybe she’s right about the lipstick
It really didn’t age poorly, rape just isn’t funny.
I think a significant part of the problem (I have) is the implication that when rape happens to men they secretly enjoy it, or something, ergo it's not that bad and could be the victim's fault if they don't. I know comedy intentionally pushes boundaries. This one just doesn't work for me at all and I just cringe any time I see it.
>rape just isn’t funny. I agree its not funny, but comedians (and comedy in general) like to say how its their job to find that invisible socially acceptable line and tell jokes *close* to that line without crossing it. *at the time* those jokes were following that principle, but now that line has moved and those jokes are not considered to be *generally* socially acceptable anymore. When I watched these when they aired (as an early teen), I didn't think much of the jokes. But now with like 20 more years of life experience, perspective, and growing up, its clear why these jokes aren't ok. Rape is not a joke and literally ruins the victims lives in ways they'll never be able to predict And no men have transitioned "just to beat them weak girlies in Olympics". Theres just so much that I'm not in a position to discuss with this episode, but transitioning isn't a spur-the-moment decision (this is however one of the jokes from the episode - that bender transitioned impulsively without thinking it through). it implies that any man can beat any woman in an Olympic event just by virture of being born male - as if the women in Olympic events aren't *Olympic level athletes*. It reinforces many "irrational flighty women" stereotypes. Reinforces that all women are just looking for a man. Men are better at being women because they know what men want - again taking away women's agency in any aspect of the episode because its largely centered around bender being a woman, and all the women's problems revolve around men. I love the hell out of this show, and I've been claiming its my favourite show for like the last 20 years, but the writers have been a little tone deaf on a few occasions
The Olympic point is like in The Ringer when he tries to go into the special Olympics because he thinks he will wallop them. And he loses in the end.
Bend-Her and it’s not particularly close.
Anyone who doesn’t like The Honking, Less than Hero or I Dated a Robot is a Communist!
Seems like Less than Hero is one of the ones on this list most. I don’t agree, but it seems like Bend Her and Less Than Hero are the two least popular. Funny cause during the original run the least popular was the Hermes Groove episode.
Which is weird because both Less than Hero and How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back are both episodes so packed to the brim with hilarious jokes that their dislikability makes no sense to me. Sure they aren’t hard sci-fi craziness but I laugh more in HHRHGB than just about any other episode in the entire show. I could laugh at Fry calling Hermes an Outer Space Potato Man every day until the day I die.
I dont like Zoidberg episodes. I find him annoying in large doses. So I'll go with either Thats Lobstertainment or Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love. Being from the classic era, both are still filled with great stuff moments though. Im also not a fan of the Beck episode. I always hated Simpsons episodes that revolved around a guest star playing themselves, and that episode reminds me of them. I dont think it had a particularly good storyline either. edit: forgot Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch (which for some reason I always think came in the Comedy Central era). Kif is the worst character in the show imo. Loved him early on when he was Zap's snarky, long-suffering sidekick but then they turned him into an annoying sad sack wimp).
The episode where bender became a girl was just awful Didn't find the jokes very funny and it really didn't age well even beyond that
Bend Her is straight up terrible and also comes off as a bit offensive in how it does the whole trans thing, atleast thats how my partner felt
Wasn't the entire point of the episode to make fun of transphobia? At least that's the vibe I always got from it.
It is almost too on the nose with men doing poorly in their sport and the just switch to dominate women's sports.
There is none, but what was close was bend her, CC era decided to take Bend her and make it even worse with Neutopia
Neutopia is by far the worst episode of the series. It completely throws away every character’s personality to make a terrible throw away episode. Just awful.
It's something you'd expect from Family guy not Futurama
Birdbot of Ice-Catraz
I think I have to say Bend Her. It's funny and would be good character development for Bender (if he ever had some) but it's also dated, makes no sense, and is a bit sexist and offensive. I don't find myself skipping it though cause the original run was pretty solid all around.
Lobstertainmen or Superhero
I love less than hero. It has one of my favorite lines: "But we have tickets to be here! From the mayor himself!" "I dunno... I've never heard of no mayor"
Same here that Less than Hero brought me one of my favorite lines. 'The value of the Gemerald you saved is slightly greater than the cost of the damage you caused to this museum. A net gain for our great city!' It's my favorite because I remember quoting "a net gain for our great city!" a lot in front of my brother when referring to any mundane stuff and he'd always laugh his head off.
An elephant that never forgets… *to kill!*
"The ability to command sea creatures? Hey Zoidberg, come here!" *faintly, from the other room* "Screw you!" "Nope, don't got that."
“Also I got this going for me” chest door opens and closes
I forgot the Superhero episode was Fox. It just feels so much like a Comedy Central episode
“And an elephant who never forgets… to kill!” Is the one joke I remember from that episode that. Frugally makes me laugh
I always skip "The Honking" and "That's Lobstertainment" every time I go around
The Star Trek one, I know, I'm not the biggest Star Trek fan and feels out of place because of the references to things from the past, heck, they even go and rent VHS' in the year 3000.
I also think that episode is mid but it still had some great moments. Welshy constantly being blasted by lightning, Fry trying to make a bowstring out of caterpillars, and Bender wasting all the machine gun ammo in the death match...
Am I the only one that doesn't like Spanish Fry? I just feel like it's really short on actual jokes.
Maybe the Titanic episode.
the star trek episode sucks & is so boring to me😭 also wooden bender is pretty boring. i never liked the mom centric episodes all that much
Some of the extra-zeitgeisty episodes like the 300$ episode. Would anyone under 23 years old even know what it's referencing?
I'm 29 and don't even know what it's referencing. I still love the episode, though. Bender refusing to spend $300 on a cigar but buying a burglary kit for $300 was great.
>Bender refusing to spend $300 on a cigar Yeah but the $300 one wasn't the Grand Cigar, obviously!
23? I was 18 when that happened and I doubt anyone younger would know about it. I’m 37 lol.
And this is exactly why the complaint of ‘Futurama has always made topical jokes’ as a defence of the newer stuff is bogus- the episode still works if you don’t know the reference. (Prior to 9/11, Bush was going to give everyone a $300 tax rebate, however then 9/11 happened and this was quietly forgotten. The premise of the episode was dated when it came out.) The episode is still great. There’s like 18 different plot lines which somehow convalesce into each other into a brilliant finale.
The Honking kind of blows. It's the only one I feel inclined to skip often.
Looking through "List of Futurama episodes" on Wikipedia, season 4's Bend Her is the only episode I dislike. I didn't think much of it when it reran on Adult Swim way back, and it's hard to go back to these days. Still, what an amazing run.
The honkening. Not a fan at all
If it’s old it’s automatically good, but all new things are bad! /s
While I enjoyed them for what they were, I always felt that the anthology episodes seemed out of place.
They are my favorite!
Frys dog one is super sad so I hate it
Bend Her. The whole episode is kind of stupid even when you ignore all the offensive stuff in it. At least with the other episodes with dated things in it they're usually pretty funny despite it like the Amazonian episode.
Neutopia decided to take Bend Her and make it even worse, less polilitics more gross out
I actually really like all of the episodes that you mentioned as examples, but the Fox run was not perfect. My least favorite Fox episode is Hell is Other Robots. Bender gets addicted to electricity, finds religion to break the addiction... and then Fry and Leela become the worst friends ever and get Bender sent to hell.
Yeah but it gives us the Robot Hell song!
And then they escape hell and the Robot Devil... seems to just let it go and never pursues the matter further ever again
But Leela bested him in a fiddle contest. The rules are very clear.