Rate and Review: "The Tip of the Zoidberg"

[jordan]

well the episode where Bender is gleefully trying to kill Fry a few weeks back really bothered me too (aren't they friends?). and now this. I just don't really get what's going on over there in the writer's room, but it seems like they just want to kill the characters over and over or something. Or at least kill their characterizations.

[Adam R]

i'd rather bender really did kill fry than he ended up being fake killed again

[Dark Homer]

futurama's always been cold and cyncial

bender wants to kill all humans, the professor keeps sending his employees on suicide missions, nobody likes zoidberg, nobody even noticed the janitor for like 3 years, etc.

[DotheBartman]

Yeah I was gonna make a longer post about that but that sort of sums it up. Even in "A Clone of My Own," there's a bunch of jokes about some of the other characters wanting the Professor dead so they can collect inheritance. Or in "Parabox" Hermes lingering on whether to press the button and send the whole crew into the sun. Or "Godfellas," which largely hinges on Fry and Bender's friendship, which shows that Bender once stole Fry's blood and even held up off the edge of the Statue of Liberty. Or...well, you get the point. There's actually a whole bunch of these jokes that involve life/death situations. Here, they were actually trying to do a good deed and the "hoorays" were only because the machine was working, not because they wanted the Professor dead.

I will say though that last year's run was definitely a little better. This year's been fine basically, but there's been a lot of weird pacing issues and the episodes don't really have as much substance. Even the crazy episodes like "That Darn Katz!" last year generally had some sort of central theme or character conflict bringing it down to earth, but that's been more lacking this year. I don't think it's a huge, huge difference but I was definitely more impressed with the first half of the season.

Also, I'll say that I was sort of bothered by it the first time Hermes was decapitated and was somehow still alive in "Bender's Big Score," but I guess I sort of just got over it.

[jordan]

But there's a difference between one off dark 4th-wall-breaking jokes, like the Hermes pressing the button, or weird Bender jokes, and episodes, MULTIPLE episodes where the actual plot is about the characters gleefully trying to kill another character and not caring about it

I guess it's kind of like if they don't even care if each other lives or dies, why should I? That's how it's been feeling lately.

And the Zoidberg thing...even that was like...beyond funny and just...sad? And mean? When they went on a rant about how much they hate him. It wasn't like "haha no one likes Zoidberg", it was just fucking depressing.

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

It wasn't supposed to be funny

[jordan]

I know, but my point is it fit with the weird mean spiritedness (that is not a word) of the entire season...just more hatred

eh whatever maybe next week will be better

[Real Melvin]

the force of terrible fate the crew's characters are used as in order to stomp out the kill montage struck me as being a cold and weirdly done effect sort of like you're talking about, Jordan. just because Zoidberg is given an episodeworthy amount of empathy and drama and whatever with Farnsworth doesn't mean the other crew members should be drawn solely as comic relief or occasional plot-bearers at the mercy of making the episode have just the atmosphere/format that they're going for. and this format focus is something I think they've been messing up (or having trouble) ever since the movies, though there are a few (great) exceptions.

here's a youtube of that part I was talking about, though I don't know if it will be deleted soon:

[Postmaster]

I forgot to mention, what's with the part of the montage where Bender is making professor silhouettes and why don't Bender & Fry think anything of the gunshots being fired if they don't know about the agreement at that point?

[Dark Homer]

it's new york city

[Friz]

it's new york city

new new york city, clod

[Postmaster]

I wonder if in futurama's universe, the english town york been destroyed and rebuilt, thus becoming new york.

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

that'd be rad

[Tomacco]

I didn't like it. Pretty uninteresting, too wacky, not very funny, and the characters had no personality aside from Zoid and Farnsworth.

[Diversity Pumpkin]

But there's a difference between one off dark 4th-wall-breaking jokes, like the Hermes pressing the button, or weird Bender jokes

How are they fourth wall breaking? And lol - those "weird bender jokes" are his character! He's a robot who wants to kill all humans. Lol? Are you seriously disregarding that? They've based entire episodes on that too, you know. Like wtf omg.

The characters in this show have always been cynical and cold-hearted to me. During its original run, when I was still a fan of The Simpsons, I'd see Futurama as the meaner version of OFF. They had no morals or values, which made the episodes where they actually showed emotion all the more special.

I'm not going to type up a whole thing about how you're wrong or whatever, but you say that the fact that they're basing an ENTIRE episode (well, third act) about the crew wanting to kill Farnsworth is odd. What about the countless suicide missions Farnsworth sent this crew on? It's okay for him to do it, but when the tables are turned you get mad? Do you... hate young people?

[DotheBartman]

Well to be completely fair he's not really intending to kill them.

But yeah. One of the examples I thought of but didn't mention was when he almost hired a similar replacement crew and then discovered the current one was really alive. "Oh god, you're alive. I mean, thank God you're alive! *To replacements* Sorry, check back in a few days, a week at the most." He's not trying to kill them on purpose, but he just doesn't seem to care too much whether he does.

I don't think of them as completely cold but the show does track in a lot of this meanness. On occasion, even in older episodes, it went too far; "A Pharaoh to Remember" is about the worst episode I can think in terms of the treatment of the characters (though "Three Hundred Big Boys" is worse for other reasons). But in general there's a lot of cynicism and coldness that's sometimes undercut by signs that they do actually care about each other.

I mean, even when Bender was a ghost, it was essentially a redemption story; he has reasonable enough reasons (that is...considering his character) for his actions, but he also realizes the error of his ways and tries to fix them. Cynicism undercut by genuine emotion.

[jordan]

yeah, i still see a difference between:

this is a joke (the professor sending them on dangerous missions)

and

this is the plot (the plot of an episode is a character happily killing another character)

you have good points that the show has had some mean humor before. now it seems like the majority of the show, rather than a joke here or there. that's my point. now, i guess.

likewise, the professor is a bit more excused in disregard for their lives, since he is old and senile and kind of batty. but Fry being happy about killing him? Everyone else? just didn't work for me.

[Jims]

I kind of chalked it up to how little regard for human life people in the future seem to have. With Fry, it's kind of a different case, but he might've just viewed it as a mercy killing. Or maybe he's just really swayed by public opinion.

By the way, I realize that this thread is past the reviewing portion, but I finally finished putting together a formal review of my own. You can read it at this cool website.

[Agent Polar]

My internet can't stay connected while I write one freaking thing!

Oh well, it was all pretty much how much was off with the episode, how the murderlator's cynide might have been the only thing that would have killed Farnsworth, and how this episode how this has made me dissappointed with the rest of the current series when I was pretty content with before.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

This one always gets mixed reactions... but I loved it.