2024-07-23 19:22:49
The most educated cartoonists in history
The animated series Futurama is full of various scientific jokes and mathematical hints. The show’s writing staff combined had three doctorates, seven master’s degrees and more than 50 years of study at Harvard University.
In the episode “Benda’s Prisoner”, several characters are mind-swapped, but cannot return to their bodies because they cannot swap with the one they swapped with before. This led to a mathematical dilemma, but screenwriter dr. Ken Keeler developed and proved a mathematical theorem that explains how characters could be given back their minds. This is the first and only known theorem created just for fun.
Famous people
The show featured a host of famous faces in cameo roles, joining the likes of John DiMaggio, Billy West and Katey Sagal – including Snoop Dogg, Lucy Liu, Sir Patrick Stewart, John Goodman, Coolio, Pamela Anderson and Al Gore.
The famous English physicist Stephen Hawking also appeared in the animated film “Futurama” – and voiced his own character. He needed special equipment to speak in a “robot” voice.
The series uses fictional details of the lives of famous people. Throughout the series, Richard Nixon — or rather, his head — shakes his lips and loudly screams, “Aroo!” Former US President Nixon never actually did that — at least no one knows about it. Voice actor Billy West said he coined the phrase and sound because Nixon reminded him of a werewolf.
Hypnotoad extraterrestrial sound trick
Hypnotoad’s signature sound is distinctive and truly otherworldly – but it was actually created using something quite ordinary. The sound, which is technically called “Angry Machine,” originally came about when someone mistakenly pressed a button that triggered an audio message in the editing software used on the show. It’s unclear who pushed the button, but sound editor Paul Calder liked what he heard. It was originally meant to be a temporary replacement sound, but everyone on the staff liked it so much that they decided to keep it, and Hypnotoad became an internet meme celebrity.
An alien language created specifically for Futurama
3000 The world of New York is filled with images and texts from an alien language. Fans easily deciphered the aliens’ first language – they were able to identify what symbol replaced each letter and decipher the code. Therefore, screenwriters and animators created a second language. Instead of simply replacing a letter with a symbol, each letter is assigned a numerical value. The number 0 is equal to A, etc. The numerical value of the previous character is subtracted from the other letters. If the result is less than zero, 26 is added, then this number is converted to a character.
Fans also misunderstood the second language, so Matt Groening ordered the creation of a third. Unfortunately, she was so complex that it would have been too difficult to include her in the series. There are several tools available online, like Futurama Alienese Decoder, to decode many of Futurama’s languages.
Lots of links to computer science and math
Because Futurama has a lot of educated writers and comedians working on it, the show has a lot of jokes that usually require a second or third viewing, and for most viewers it takes a bit of learning.
For example, Bender’s apartment number is 00100100 – which is the ASCII binary character for the dollar sign. Bender’s apartment number represents him well, as any bot would immediately see it as “$”, and if they knew Bender, they would know it was his apartment.
Likewise Leela’s sequence number which is “1-BDI” or translated as “One Nameless Eye”. Her apartment number is “1I”, which becomes a reference to her monocular vision.
Mr. Groening collaborated with David S. Cohen, who wrote the most popular episodes of The Simpsons. Mr. Cohen graduated from Harvard with a degree in physics and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of California. His mathematical background allowed him to create many jokes, including a number-based alien language and countless background noises that only the smartest viewers could decipher.
How was Futurama born?
in 1999 After the huge success of The Simpsons, Matt Groening released the sci-fi comedy he had been thinking about for years. The name Futurama originates from 1939. New York World’s Fair Pavilion. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes, the Futurama Pavilion represented how he envisioned the world in the sixties.
Futurama’s theme song, composed by Christopher Tyng, is very similar to the song “Psyché Rock” by French electronic artist Pierre Henry. The tunes are so similar that the music playing in Futurama could be a remix of Henry’s track.
2024-07-23 19:22:49