A Somewhat Review of Simpsorama

I've always been a huge fan of both The Simpsons and Futurama, so upon hearing that they'd finally crossover on the television screen I got so excited I postponed my suicide.

Despite my blind bias towards America's original dysfunctional family, I'm a realist, I understand that the show's golden age has passed on like Maud Flanders, but every once in a while they muster up something worthy, most recently it was probably the Lego episode [season 25 episode 20; “Brick Like Me”]. But even with all the ingredients for a classic sometimes The Simpsons just doesn't deliver, but I so wanted this episode to work. Obviously I miss Futurama, I've never understood the neglect this show receives from television execs, whether it's at Fox or Comedy Central, so having Fry and the gang back on TV would be a treat in itself. 

Homer and Bender after filming "Simpsorama"

 

From the opening tag-line; “A show out of ideas teams up with a show out of Episodes”, you get the impression there's going to be plenty of self-deprecating humour over the next twenty odd minutes or so.

The storyline of the episode is as follows; Springfield Elementary students add some items to a time capsule; CCTV photo of Nelson's dad, Milhouse's lucky rabbit foot and Bart's self-tainted sandwich, it then gets dropped in a hole, accidentally mixes with some nuclear goo from the power plant and one thousand years later it's opened only to reveal some nasty rabbits that terrorise New New York, so Bender is sent back in time to stop this from happening. Nothing ground-breaking but as the tag-line clearly stated, this is 'a show out of ideas'.

One aspect of the show I liked is it really is a celebration of Matt Groening's work. We even get the treat of seeing Binky and Bongo [from Groening's Life is Hell] as they are featured on a televised news report in New New York scribing “Crossovers are Hell” on a wall. They're the kind of nerdy gems I take massive pride in spotting like the Groening little fan boy I am.

I loved the self-deprecating humour too, from Bart and Lisa drawing out the similarities of Homer and Bender and they way they are drawn, to Bart's “I'm doing the same jokes a thousand years in the future... Ay Caramba!”

All in all the episode is a celebration of two tremendous shows; Bender wearing a Pin Pals bowling shirt, Bender's chest-door revealing a 'Suicide Booth'-style of weapons, [Fry's dog] Seymour waiting for him outside Panucci's Pizza, Bart's 'offspring' graffiti-ing “Skinner is a Wiener”, Canyonero advert, the Planet Express 'girly' calender [featuring Professor Fransworth as a woman], Lisa's saxophone inspired holophonor and of course Butterfinger bars get a mention too. All these little winks and nods to previous and much funnier times add a somewhat charm to the show and let you know this wasn't just a slap-dash affair.

The end credits are a bombardment on the eyes as we see billboard adverts, buildings and much more featuring brands and characters from The Simpsons in a Futurama world; An Alien Lard Lad Donuts, Buzz Cola; With Cocaine Again Advert, A flying Blinky the Fish,
Re-Elect Major Quimby [with his head in a jar] Advert, Duff Holo-Beer; All the rage but none of the calories Advert, The Androids Penthouse Advert, Milhouse of ill repute, Kang and Kodos 8 Testicle Massage, Stonecutter's World HQ, Frinkatories, Prof. Frink's Carbon Dating Service, Moe's Unfriendly Bar; No Humans or No Robots and there's probably some more that I missed.

Obviously, there's a that thin line between love and hate, so there are aspects of the episode that didn't sit right with me.

Certain character interactions could have been better; Leela/Marge, Frink/Farnsworth. Plus there wasn't nearly enough Fry for my liking, strange as he's basically the main character of Futurama. But I understand the pairing of Homer and Bender makes much more sense.

But by far the lowest point was Zoidberg; the Planet Express in house medical 'expert' only got one line! One fucking line! “Hello Roburt, looks like everyone gets a turn to say something... this concludes my turn.” … and that was it. Amy, Scruffy, Emperor Lrrr and the Hypnotoad [all hail him!] got more screen time than the beloved doctor. Surely they could have spared ten seconds somewhere for at least a scene in which his scuttles off while giving out his signature cry. This was probably the biggest travesty of all, Zoidberg is probably one of the top three characters on Futurama so more of him is always a good thing.

Also it didn't seem like there was enough time, or maybe I'm saying that because I didn't want it to end. It's a shame the Family Guy crossover was awarded as being double episode worthy while the Futurama one felt crammed into it's twenty-one minutes. Due to this it seemed a little rushed at times or maybe I just didn't want it to end.

So all in all, a good episode, it doesn't quite reach classic status in my eyes and making it longer with more Zoidberg probably could have achieved that, but much better than most of the recent episodes. But don't take my word for it, I'm bias as fuck, I'd have still said it was good if was twenty-one minutes of Amy, Scruffy, Milhouse and Martin playing tiddlywinks with zero dialogue.