100 Fun Facts About Futurama

Who created Futurama?

Matt Groening dreamed up Futurama in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons and brought in Simpsons writer David X. Cohen to develop it; the show premiered on Fox in March 1999.

In Futurama, how long does Fry stay frozen in the cryogenic tube before he wakes?

1,000 years pass while Fry is frozen, and Bender's Big Score later reveals that Bender piloted the ships seen destroying the city outside his window.

What was Fry's job in 1999 before he was frozen?

Pizza delivery boy was Fry's job in 1999; a prank order sent him to Applied Cryogenics on New Year's Eve, where he toppled into a freezing tube.

Where does Futurama take its name from?

A pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair gave the show its name, and the episode 'The Inhuman Torch' later owns up to it with the opening caption 'As seen at the 1939 World's Fair'.

What is Bender originally programmed to do?

Bend girders is Bender's factory purpose; on learning his girders were used to build suicide booths he tries to kill himself in one, which is where Fry first meets him.

What does Bender need to drink to power his fuel cells?

Alcohol powers Bender's fuel cells, so when he sobers up he behaves like a drunk and grows a rusty five-o'clock shadow.

What is Bender's catchphrase insult?

'Bite my shiny metal ass' is Bender's go-to insult, and in one episode he wakes from a dream of ones and zeros where he thinks he saw a two.

Why did Futurama's writers give Bender the unit number 1729?

It is the Hardy–Ramanujan taxicab number: Hardy called his cab's number 1729 dull, and Ramanujan replied it is the smallest sum of two cubes in two ways.

Who built Bender?

Mom's Friendly Robot Company, the robotics arm of MomCorp, built Bender and nearly every robot on Earth, which lets Mom trigger a robot uprising by remote control in 'Mother's Day'.

Who voices Bender in Futurama?

John DiMaggio voices Bender, though he originally auditioned for the role of Professor Farnsworth.

What fuel powers Futurama's Planet Express ship?

Dark matter powers the ship, and its engines don't actually move the ship: they move the universe around it.

Which Futurama main cast member voices only one character?

Katey Sagal voices only Leela, and the episode 'A Bicyclops Built for Two' parodies the sitcom where she played Peg Bundy, Married... with Children.

Leela turns out to be what, rather than the alien she assumed?

A sewer mutant is what Leela really is, revealed in 'Leela's Homeworld' (2002): her parents Morris and Munda live in the sewers under New New York and left her at the Orphanarium so she could pass as an alien.

Which US vice president leads Futurama's Vice Presidential Action Rangers, guardians of the space-time continuum?

Al Gore leads the Rangers, who decide Fry was supposed to die and try to kill him, but another rift in space-time opens during the attempt.

In Futurama, what feature sets Bender's lookalike Flexo apart from him?

A goatee is Flexo's only difference from Bender, and though Fry suspects Flexo is the evil one, Bender turns out to be the thief.

Which word completes the Professor's catchphrase, 'Good news, ...'?

'Good news, everyone!' is Professor Farnsworth's catchphrase, used to unveil an invention or announce a delivery that is usually a suicide mission.

What is Zoidberg's home planet?

Decapod 10 is Zoidberg's home planet, and mating season sends him back there, where Fry coaches him to woo his old classmate Edna.

Where is Hermes Conrad from?

Jamaica is Hermes Conrad's homeland, and when he loses his body in Bender's Big Score, his wife LaBarbara leaves him for his old limbo rival, Barbados Slim.

Why did Hermes give up competitive limbo?

A young fan imitating him broke his back at the 2980 Olympics, and guilt kept Hermes away from limbo for years.

Amy Wong is heiress to what?

The western hemisphere of Mars belongs to Amy's parents, the Wongs, and Kif tries to win them over by tracking down their rustled buggalo herd.

Zapp Brannigan was created for which actor, who died before Futurama aired?

Phil Hartman insisted on auditioning and won the part, but he was killed in May 1998 before the show aired, so Billy West took over the role.

What is the name of Zapp Brannigan's starship?

Nimbus is Zapp's DOOP flagship, first seen in 'Love's Labours Lost in Space' when he jails Fry, Leela and Bender for violating Brannigan's Law; its hull number is BP-1729.

Which franchise did Futurama's Earth ban after its fans made it a religion?

Star Trek's fans were killed off and its last tapes were sent to the forbidden planet Omega 3, where Fry sets out to recover them.

Which former US president's head serves as President of Earth?

Richard Nixon's head runs for President of Earth in 'A Head in the Polls' in Bender's pawned body, dodging a rule that nobody can be elected more than twice.

Lrrr, who always introduces himself by his title, is ruler of which planet?

Omicron Persei 8 is Lrrr's planet, and he invades Earth because Fry's spilled drink in 1999 cut off the finale of Single Female Lawyer.

Fry is immune to the Brainspawn because his brain lacks what?

The Delta brainwave is missing from Fry's brain because he is his own grandfather, which lets him stand unaffected in the Brainspawn's stupefying field and infiltrate their Infosphere in 'The Why of Fry'.

How does Futurama's Fry become his own grandfather in the past?

He sleeps with his grandmother after his meddling gets his grandfather Enos killed in a bomb test, so Fry ends up fathering his own father.

Which episode won Futurama's first Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, in 2002?

Roswell That Ends Well won the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program; a microwave-and-supernova accident throws the crew back to 1947, where they become the Roswell incident.

What was the name of Fry's dog, whose fossil he finds in 'Jurassic Bark'?

Seymour Asses was Fry's 20th-century dog, and Bender, jealous of the attention Fry gives the fossil, throws it into a pit of lava.

In Futurama, blernsball is the 30th-century version of which sport?

Baseball was jazzed up into blernsball, and Leela becomes its first female pro because a team owner thinks a one-eyed woman beaning players will draw crowds.

Writer Ken Keeler proved an original math theorem to resolve which body-swapping episode?

The Prisoner of Benda (2010) needed Keeler's theorem: he holds a PhD in applied mathematics, and the proof shows any sequence of body swaps can be undone with just two extra people.

Which 2010 Futurama episode, featuring a time machine that only goes forward, won the 2011 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program?

The Late Philip J. Fry won the 2011 Emmy; its forward-only time machine carries the trio past the end of the universe, which then restarts with a new Big Bang.

How did Fox end Futurama's original run in 2003?

It simply stopped buying episodes: Fox never formally cancelled Futurama, but after years of erratic scheduling it let the show go out of production, and the last Fox episode aired in August 2003.

Which cable block ran Futurama reruns from 2003 to 2007, helping revive it?

Adult Swim on Cartoon Network aired the reruns, and their strong ratings helped bring Futurama back with new episodes on Comedy Central.

In the Futurama film Bender's Game, why can't Bender join a Dungeons & Dragons game?

Robots have no imagination, so when Bender forces himself to imagine a knight, he loses himself in the fantasy and is committed to an institute for insane robots.

Which streaming service revived Futurama in 2023?

Hulu ordered 20 new episodes in February 2022, but Bender's voice actor first held out, saying the whole cast deserved more pay, before signing on.

Futurama's theme has been noted for its similarity to which 1967 piece?

Pierre Henry's Psyché Rock, a 1967 piece written with Michel Colombier, so heavily inspired Christopher Tyng's Futurama theme that the theme is considered a variation of it.

Futurama's writers had spent more than 50 years combined at which university?

Harvard, where developer David X. Cohen and writers Ken Keeler and Jeff Westbrook all studied; Keeler later proved a new theorem for an episode.

What is Alienese?

A cipher for the Latin alphabet used on background signs, Alienese hides extra jokes for fans who decode it, and a second alphabet uses a harder running-sum code.

Futurama's March 1999 premiere aired right after which Fox show?

The Simpsons led into the premiere, which outdrew both its lead-in and The X-Files, yet after one more Sunday Fox moved Futurama to Tuesdays.

Maurice LaMarche won a 2011 Futurama Emmy for Lrrr and which head?

Orson Welles's head helps Lrrr stage a fake invasion of Earth, a nod to Welles's 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

What is Fry's older brother's name?

Yancy seemed to copy everything Fry did, but Fry later learns Yancy named his own son Philip in his honour.

What did Fry get in exchange for trading hands with the Robot Devil?

The skill to play the holophonor lets Fry compose an opera for Leela, but the Robot Devil schemes to take his hands back.

Which Futurama character is Professor Farnsworth's clone, raised as his son?

Cubert Farnsworth is the 12-year-old clone the Professor names as his successor in 'A Clone of My Own', and he is raised as his son.

What is Calculon famous for?

Starring in the robot soap All My Circuits made Calculon a celebrity; he supposedly got his acting talent by selling his soul to the Robot Devil and boasts of never needing a second take.

Which alien news anchor is openly an advance scout for an invasion of Earth?

Morbo, the green alien who co-anchors the √2 News with Linda van Schoonhoven, openly promises that his people will conquer Earth, and he is voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

Whose shadow can be seen as Fry falls into the cryogenic tube in Futurama's first episode?

Nibbler's shadow is seen as Fry topples into the tube, and 'The Why of Fry' reveals Nibbler tipped his chair so Fry could later save the universe from the Brainspawn.

According to its creator, what inspired Futurama's suicide booths?

A 1937 Donald Duck cartoon, Modern Inventions, in which push-button robot gadgets keep attacking Donald, is what Futurama's creator cited as the booths' inspiration.

Which malt liquor, named after a programming language, is Bender's favourite?

Olde Fortran malt liquor splices Olde English 800 with Fortran, the 1957 IBM language that is among the oldest high-level programming languages.

Why does Futurama's Robot Santa find most humans naughty?

His standards are too high because of a programming error, so after sundown on Xmas Eve he kills anyone he judges naughty, which is almost all humans.

Fry's red jacket, white T-shirt and jeans in Futurama copy which 1950s film star's most famous screen outfit?

James Dean wore the red windbreaker as a troubled teenager in Rebel Without a Cause, which reached cinemas less than a month after he died in a car crash.

Futurama's Bender is named after John Bender, Judd Nelson's delinquent in which 1980s teen film?

The Breakfast Club's John Bender spends a Saturday detention defying the vice principal, a fitting namesake for a robot who constantly steals.

Which actor voices Fry, Professor Farnsworth and Zoidberg in Futurama, often conversing with himself?

Billy West modelled Fry on his own voice at age 25, and he also plays Zapp Brannigan, so whole scenes are one man talking to himself.

How is the elderly Professor Farnsworth, owner of Planet Express, related to his young employee Fry?

Fry's distant nephew, about thirty generations removed: the Professor descends from Fry's brother, whose family line carried on while Fry lay frozen.

Which cable network revived Futurama with 26 new episodes, having first aired its four DVD films?

Comedy Central first showed the four films as 16 half-hour episodes, then ordered the new run in June 2009, six years after the original run ended.

Which real basketball team appears in Futurama as brilliant physicists with their own planet?

The Harlem Globetrotters arrive from their homeworld to challenge Earth at basketball for no apparent reason, led by the physics lecturer Bubblegum Tate.

In Futurama's Fry and the Slurm Factory, the popular soft drink Slurm turns out to be what?

A giant worm's secretion: the factory on the tour is a fake, and the Slurm Queen who really makes the drink tries to turn Leela into a queen too.

Zoidberg, Futurama's Planet Express staff doctor, is an alien most similar to which sea creature?

Lobster is the closest match: like one, Zoidberg can molt his whole shell, a trick he has used to fake his own death.

Futurama's Professor Farnsworth claims descent from Philo Farnsworth, the inventor credited with what?

Television: Philo Farnsworth transmitted the first image from his electronic camera tube, a simple straight line, in San Francisco in 1927.

Where does the Planet Express crew make its first delivery, in Futurama's The Series Has Landed?

The Moon is home to an amusement park called Luna Park, where the real details of the Apollo landings have long been forgotten.

What object, held near Bender's head in Futurama, makes him burst uncontrollably into folk songs?

A magnet scrambles his inhibition unit and exposes a secret ambition he otherwise hides: to become a folk singer.

Which long-suffering alien lieutenant in Futurama serves under Zapp Brannigan and dates Amy Wong?

Kif Kroker comes from the planet Amphibios 9, and in Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch it is he, not Amy, who turns out to be pregnant.

What job does Scruffy hold at Futurama's Planet Express, where his colleagues keep forgetting who he is?

Janitor he may be, but in Future Stock he turns out to own four times as much Planet Express stock as the other employees.

Which rap trio guest-starred in Futurama as their own heads, playing a concert in Hell Is Other Robots?

Beastie Boys also made their own version of the Futurama theme for the episode; two writers travelled to New York to record them, waited three days and went home empty-handed.

In Futurama, the Robot Devil will release Bender's soul to anyone who beats him at playing which instrument?

Fiddle duels for a soul, with a solid gold fiddle as the prize, are lifted from the Charlie Daniels Band song The Devil Went Down to Georgia.

Futurama's Bender, full name Bender Bending Rodríguez, was built in which Mexican border city?

Tijuana is his birthplace, and his name nods to the bending work done in Mexican maquiladora factories near the border.

Elzar, Futurama's four-armed chef from Neptune, is a send-up of which real celebrity chef?

Emeril Lagasse inspired Elzar's cooking show and restaurant too, and the Robot Mafia like to dine at Elzar's Fine Cuisine.

Which Futurama head writer changed his middle initial because a union barred two members sharing a name?

David X. Cohen was born David Samuel Cohen and picked the new letter because it sounded like science fiction; it stands for nothing.

Leela's full name in Futurama, Turanga Leela, plays on the title of a symphony by which French composer?

Olivier Messiaen gave his Turangalîla-Symphonie a Sanskrit title; in the show Turanga is the family name, shared by her parents Morris and Munda.

In Futurama's A Fishful of Dollars, newly rich Fry buys the last known tin of which extinct fish?

Anchovies had been fished to extinction centuries earlier, and a robot-oil tycoon schemes to get the tin because their oil could undercut her product.

In Futurama's A Flight to Remember, what destroys the space cruise ship Titanic on its maiden voyage?

A black hole swallows the liner after its honorary captain, Zapp Brannigan, steers too close; the episode is a direct parody of the 1997 film.

In Futurama's first season, what object launched from Old New York in 2052 returns to threaten the city?

A giant ball of garbage is the threat, in a spoof of the 1998 film Armageddon; the city saves itself by firing a second garbage ball at the first.

In Futurama's Parasites Lost, which truck-stop snack fills Fry with parasites that make him smarter?

Egg salad sandwich, and a decaying one from a restroom vending machine: its parasites heal his injuries in seconds and sharpen his mind.

In Futurama's Spanish Fry, which part of Fry's body is stolen by aliens who prize it as an aphrodisiac?

His nose is sold on under the name Human Horn, and once the crew win it back Leela reattaches it by laser.

In Futurama's The Farnsworth Parabox, what does the Professor's mysterious box turn out to contain?

A parallel universe sits inside, and its own Professor has built a box holding ours; the two worlds differ because coin flips land the opposite way.

Futurama's Earth holds off global warming by regularly dropping what into the ocean?

An enormous block of ice mined from Halley's Comet did the job every year, until the Planet Express crew arrived to find the comet had run out.

Which birds have replaced rats as common household pests in Futurama's New New York?

Owls swarm wherever food is left out, as Fry learns when his mess draws them into the Planet Express offices.

In Futurama's I Dated a Robot, Fry downloads which actress's personality into a blank robot to date?

Lucy Liu voices herself, and the plot turns on a company that kidnaps celebrities' heads to make illegal robot copies of them.

Which film star voiced the Planet Express ship when it fell for Bender in Futurama's Love and Rocket?

Sigourney Weaver plays the ship's upgraded personality, which shuts off the oxygen and gravity in a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Which physicist voiced himself in Futurama several times, once as his own head in a flying jar?

Stephen Hawking first turns up letting Fry credit him with inventing gravity, and in a later film he stuns two professors with lasers from his eyes.

In Futurama, the Hypnotoad makes its debut by winning which contest after hypnotising the judges?

A pet show is where it debuts, and it later fronts its own hit series; a full 22-minute episode of that is on the Bender's Big Score DVD.

On which festive night does Fry tumble into a cryonic tube in Futurama's first episode?

New Year's Eve it is: at the stroke of midnight a party horn sends him toppling off his chair and into the open cryonic tube.

Which lucky charm does Futurama's Fry hunt for in the ruins of his childhood home in Old New York?

A seven-leaf clover let young Fry beat his brother at everything from basketball to breakdancing, until he hid it away in his record vault.

Which basic invention has been so thoroughly forgotten in Futurama's future that only Fry recognises it?

The wheel has given way to hover cars and a network of clear pneumatic tubes that shoot commuters across the city.

In Futurama's Godfellas, what springs up on Bender's body as he drifts alone through deep space?

A tiny civilisation of Shrimpkins worships him as a god, and the episode won the first Writers Guild of America award for animation.

Which film and sitcom actor voiced Robot Santa in his first Futurama appearance, Xmas Story?

John Goodman could not return for the sequel because of scheduling problems, so a regular cast member took over the role from then on.

Which Star Wars actor voices the Chanukah Zombie in Futurama: Bender's Big Score, flying a TIE fighter?

Mark Hamill's zombie pilots a TIE fighter decorated with Stars of David, a nod to his years playing Luke Skywalker.

The melody of Futurama's opening theme, composed by Christopher Tyng, is played on which instrument?

Tubular bells carry the tune, which was remixed at a slightly slower pace with a fresh drum recording when the series moved to high definition.

Which Glendale animation studio, with a sister studio in South Korea, animates Futurama?

Rough Draft Studios used computer graphics for fast or complex shots such as spaceships, explosions and large crowds, alongside traditional drawing.

How does the Planet Express ship's flight end in Futurama's opening title sequence?

It crashes into a screen that is showing a short clip from a classic cartoon, and the clip changes from one episode to the next.

What weapon does Roberto, Futurama's criminally insane robot, usually carry and use on his victims?

A knife is his trademark: he is prone to stabbing, and is later arrested for trying to rob Hermes and LaBarbara Conrad of their skin.

In Futurama's 2013 finale Meanwhile, what does Professor Farnsworth's newly invented button do?

Rewinds time ten seconds: Fry uses it while planning his proposal to Leela, then lands on it and destroys it, halting time for everyone but the two of them.

Which villains seize Planet Express with an obedience virus in the film Futurama: Bender's Big Score?

Nudist alien scammers, led by Nudar, trick the crew out of their personal information and use a time-travel code tattooed on Fry to loot history.

Which original Mad TV cast member voices Hermes Conrad, the Planet Express bureaucrat in Futurama?

Phil LaMarr spent five seasons on the sketch show and is also the voice of Samurai Jack and of the Green Lantern John Stewart.

Which grade from Professor Farnsworth turned his student Ogden Wernstrom into a lifelong rival in Futurama?

A-minus was the mark, docked for sloppy penmanship, and Wernstrom worked for over a hundred years to get his revenge.

Which rapper voiced Kwanzaabot, Robot Santa's holiday colleague in Futurama, from his first appearance?

Coolio's Kwanzaabot complains that he has been handing out explanatory books about his holiday for 647 years, with little effect.

Futurama's Reincarnation retells the show in three styles: 1930s black-and-white, anime and which other?

An 8-bit video game look fills the middle segment, and a running joke hides each segment's key discovery behind the limits of its style.

Which Arrested Development actor voices Yivo, the tentacled alien in Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs?

David Cross plays a planet-sized being from beyond a tear in space, whose tentacles make nearly all the people they touch fall in love with it.

In Futurama's War Is the H-Word, Fry and Bender enlist in the Earth Army to get a discount on what?

Chewing gum, ham-flavoured, came with a 5% military discount, and the pair planned to quit the army as soon as they had bought it.

What was Leela's job at Applied Cryogenics when she first met the newly thawed Fry in Futurama?

Fate assignment officer was a job she hated: it meant implanting chips that fixed each defrostee's career, and she quit rather than chip Fry.