5 ms·
The Futurama Theorem
- sadjad 5y ago"The writing staff held three Ph.D.s, seven master's degrees, and cumulatively had more than 50 years at Harvard University. Series writer Patric M. Verrone stated, "we were easily the most overeducated cartoon writers in history"." [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama#Writing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama#Writing
- rfreiberger 5y agoThe best joke was the Robot Hell. "10 SIN" "20 GOTO HELL"
- amelius 5y agoApparently they didn't have any programmers on staff.
- Taywee 5y agoThey probably knew enough to know that it wouldn't be a valid program, but it's the best compromise, being recognizable and still funny for the lay person. Any modification to it would make it distinctly less funny.
- amelius 5y agoWhy does the theorem need to be precise, whereas the program doesn't?
- WalterBright 5y agoI loved the "blink once for yes, blink twice for no." "He gave two yesses!" "Look, he's emphatically blinking more yesses!" Edit: The internet delivers again! https://morbotron.com/caption/S04E12/70553 https://morbotron.com/caption/S04E12/70553
- Noumenon72 5y agoIs that what you meant to link to? It seems to be just a single frame from the episode.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Jtsummers 5y agoThere's text below if you're on mobile. > - Do you understand the charges? - One beep for "yes," two beeps for "no."
- jrockway 5y agoHere is a video for y'all. (It ends too soon but such is the weird balance we've found between fair use and copyright infringement.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rHW0Gl2lbM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rHW0Gl2lbM
- edoceo 5y agoWhen I wrote VB, ASP and VBA scrips my error handling statement was always: On Error Goto Hell And then the last part of the routine has a block labeled "Hell:". One could use any label, but this seemed best to me -- when not using On Error Resume Next
- dlbucci 5y agoHonestly, my favorite joke has been Billy West reading Trump quotes in Zapp Brannigan's voice on his YouTube channel.
- wodenokoto 5y agoA lot of authors on early Simpsons and all of Futurama were heavily involved in math and other hard sciences. This is well known amongst fans. What I started wondering looking at this article, is, what made Matt Groening associate himself with math PhDs from Ivy League universities when putting together a comedy team?
- dayofthedaleks 5y agoPerhaps it was a result of “Life in Hell” being carried in so many college town alt-weeklies.
- e40 5y agoI totally think this is it. I had all sorts of Life in Hell merch in college in the 80s. My SO still wears the Bongo (rabbit with one ear) tee I got her 35 years ago.
- ncmncm 5y ago"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."
- beebeepka 5y agoI was about to make ba long winded post about the show but I am too tired, so I'll just say this: If you like Futurama and don't hate memes, you should definitely give https://morbotron.com/ https://morbotron.com/ a try. It's got everything.
- irq 5y agoThat site is amazing, thank you for sharing
- nwiswell 5y agoI'm glad this exists, but: how? Doesn't this have a host of copyright implications?
- beebeepka 5y agoThey even launched a very similar one dedicated to Rick and Morty https://masterofallscience.com/ https://masterofallscience.com/ Thank god no one has shut them down. Amazing sites
- valbaca 5y agocaptions, memes, AND gifs??? This site is unbelievable. Thank you!
- beebeepka 5y agoBeen using it for years. Literally has everything
- kripy 5y agoReminds me of the math [1] behind the Middle Out sequence (NSWF) in Silicon Valley. [1] https://www.cantorsparadise.com/the-math-behind-that-dick-joke-in-hbos-silicon-valley-3becdebe9118 https://www.cantorsparadise.com/the-math-behind-that-dick-jo...
- angrais 5y agoThis is the most ridiculous blog post I have ever read. The diagrams .. oh the diagrams. Thanks very much for sharing it!
- JasonFruit 5y agoWhat about New South Wales?
- dariusj18 5y agoOne of the most accurate depictions of working as a developer I have ever seen in media.
- robinduckett 5y agoI wholeheartedly disagree and find the whole show extremely over the top and cringe. Perhaps it's an accurate depiction of working in Silicon Valley.
- dariusj18 5y agoNo, that scene itself. So many times me and other devs have gone to the whiteboard to draw up and create an algorithm for some ridiculous thing exactly like this.
- nly 5y agoWhile introducing the mathematic proof in the show is cool, this exact puzzle also came up in an episode of Stargate SG-1 season 2, which predates this Futurama episode by about 10 years. https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Holiday https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Holiday See the last few paragraphs of the plot summary. I wonder where and when this puzzle was first pondered? Is it a sci-fi adaption of a classical math problem?
- yeuxardents 5y agoI would like to feast...on me. Damn Ma'chello!
- uplifter 5y ago>this exact puzzle also came up in an episode of Stargate SG-1 season 2 Impossible, there's no such thing as 2
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- rurp 5y agoThis theorem and a whole bunch of other cool math easter eggs are described in The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh, which I highly recommend. Despite the name, it includes some stories from Futurama, which makes sense given how similar the writing teams were. It's incredible how many sophisticated jokes the writers managed to work in! I really love how both shows were able to be funny without dumbing down the content.
- peter303 5y agoSaturday Night Live has had at least six Harvard writers, weaned from the Harvard Lampoon.
- aligray 5y ago“Officer 1BDI” (one beady eye) always gets me in the first episode, absolutely brilliant series.
- jmkni 5y agoThe Futurama DVD commentary is amongst the funniest/most interesting commentaries I've ever listened to. It's that perfect mix of funny and fascinating. On a side note, I feel like commentary is something we've lost with the move to streaming services. Would love to see it added as a feature to Netflix/Amazon Prime/etc