Futurama: Discrepancies vs Conspiracies vs Hypocrisies

Welcome back, Fanaticals, to our final Futurama post of the week! Today is going to be a bit more interesting as instead of discussing specific theories or thoughts, we are going to go for some more overall thoughts.

Futurama does its own unique insights to conspiracy theories, but also has its own hypocrisies that sometimes bring in a random comic relief, and other times have you confused as to why it is necessary. Bender is one of the biggest examples of conspiracy vs hypocrisy vs discrepancy in the show; we already discussed his free will issue, but there is also his dating issue, and the fact that he seems very human for being a metal man.

While many of our theories and thoughts from this week have come primarily from discrepancies in the show, there are plenty more of them when you watch the show multiple times. So let’s see what Futurama discrepancies, conspiracies, and hypocrisies are obvious.

Discrepancies

Honestly, you could probably call this more of a conspiracy than a discrepancy, but let's talk about the major timeline issue they always seem to circle back to at some point or other.

While "Bender's Big Score" was insane with its time code, it is confusing at best. Especially once you factor in the confusing moments of "is it Fry or Lars?" Time travel has always been a confusing concept due to possibly crossing yourself of the time, changing the course of history itself, or even accidentally becoming your own grandfather! In Bender's Big Score, the time code IS "self-correcting", something you see when Hermes gets a body that is not of "that time". Lars eventually dies, and suddenly he is NEVER mentioned again?

This goes with the flow that there is one solid timeline that can be constantly fractured. However, in the episode when Fry, the Professor, and Bender are in the time machine going constantly forward in time they make it seem like time is on a constant loop; almost like replaying your favourite song over and over. They were able to get back to their time, but it was "five feet lower" in height. Yet it seems like whenever they do something with time travel, whatever they do that "has consequences" you never actually see the repercussions of what they do.

In fact, during that time machine loop, the Professor accidentally kills Eleanor Roosevelt, but the world seems the same! Unlike when they lick the heads and go back to colonial times, only to come back to everything being completely messed up! Time travel is always touchy when it comes down to it, because since it's not a real thing but at least there are shows out there that when it comes to time travel, they are very consistent about it. Futurama seems to let their and discrepancies be the butt of most jokes.

Not to mention Thursday’s topic of the Star Trek ban; was that a discrepancy or just a forgotten moment?

Conspiracies

The original Futurama (basically everything excluding the newest season), is all about having laughs about stereotypical "this is the crazy thing that will happen in the future" stories. Then you have the newest season that comes in and honestly did the same thing that all other adult animation shows do, which is take the "current" issues and toss them into the future alongside the new age conspiracy theories.

Futurama was not the only show that did a futuristic COVID episode, as South Park also did one that showed the town only twenty years in the future instead of 1000. However, the best conspiracy theory that they mention is when Nixon's head stole Bender's body and was staying in the "Watergate Hotel" where Leela mentions that you get a "repeat discount" as a joke geared towards the Watergate Tapes Conspiracy.

While any conspiracy theories are more hidden jokes, there is definitely a lot of hypocrisy, despite comic relief nature of them.

Hypocrisies

Hypocrisy can be found left and right throughout the series; Bender probably holds the record for biggest hypocrite, though.

A perfect example is his robo-relationship issues. All throughout the series, robo-sexuality comes up and seems to be a huge issue amongst the people; in a way, it shows how humans have evolved from having issues with homosexual relationships and accept everything EXCEPT a robot and a human.

Bender has the biggest issue when Fry starts dating the Lucy Lui-bot, yet by the end of the episode her head is in his chest cavity, and they claim to be in love. Not long after that, Amy and Bender wind up in a relationship of their own and fighting for their rights to be together without judgement. Right up until Amy mentions being monogamous, and then Bender dips out.

What hypocrisies or conspiracies do YOU see in the show? What was a moment where you went “Whaaaat?” Join me next week as we revisit one of our fandoms, looking into some darker topics. Until then, keep on theorizing, Fanaticals!