Futurama/Tropes O to S

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Freudian Trio: The three dominant characters who appear in every episode, Fry, Bender, and Leela. They usually represent the ego, the id, and the super ego respectively.

O

  • Obfuscating Stupidity: It's hinted that Amy might be doing this. She is an engineering student (though in one DVD Commentary, the writers admitted that they'd completely forgotten that), so maybe she's a Genius Ditz? Also Nibber, to great extents apparently.
    • Confirmed in "That Darn Katz". Amy came up with an idea to use the Earth's rotation to generate energy for her thesis so she could finally get her doctorate.
    • The Genius Ditz part, not the Obfuscating Stupidity part. She had spent the night before drinking and having sex with Kif and went into the exam in her underwear.
    • Also Nibbler, who hides his hyper-intelligence with a mask of ultra-stupidity and a tendency towards doing cute things.
  • Obstacle Ski Course: Prof. Farnsworth is seen skiing while fast asleep. By the time he arrives at the ski lodge and wakes up, he has apparently entered a skiing competition, and won.
  • Oddly Small Organization: "We're the Robot Mafia. The entire Robot Mafia."
  • Official Couple: Deconstructed (as per Futurama) in Fry and Leela. Especially in season 6 (see The Late Philip J Fry)
  • Oh Crap: From Bender's Game: "Me thinks we be boned".
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Zoidberg, as he was introduced in "The Series Has Landed", was shown to be nothing more than an aloof, semi-incompetent staff physician who was desperately poor. In "That's Lobstertainment!", it was revealed that he moonlighted as a (very poor) stand-up comedian. Come season 7's "The Duh-Vinci Code", he was shown to have an extensive background in art. According to him, that is because his actual P.H.D. is in art history. This reaches its peak in season 8's "The Tip Of The Zoidberg", when, just prior to working at Planet Express, he was a surprisingly competent military surgeon under employment in Mom's Friendly Robot Company, and the reason for his Cloudcuckoolander behavior is that he contracted hypermalaria during a top-secret mission.
  • Once For Yes, Twice For No: Brannigan entirely fails to correctly interpret a paralyzed Leela when she does this.
  • Once Killed a Man with A Noodle Implement: Roberto to Bender: "You ever killed a man with a sock? It ain't so hard..."
  • One-Hour Work Week: The crew is rarely actually seen performing deliveries. When it is shown, it's usually just after they've made it. Lampshaded in the sixth season episode 'The Duh-Vinci Code'.

Hermes: Didn't we used to be a delivery company?

Amy: Well I guess it's time to indulge in some end of the world debauchery. Who's up for an orgy?

Leela: They're {{[[[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]] the Omachronians}}] back!
Bender: We're Doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo- {{[[[Beat]] stops to inhale}}] -oooooooooooooooooooooooooomed!

P

  • Pac-Man Fever: In "Rebirth", Fry is seen complaining about how the ship's Gameboy isn't working while holding a NES controller. Complete with sounds from the original Donkey Kong!
    • Also, "Anthology Of Interest Part II" has Mario as the ambassador of Italy, Donkey Kong and Lrrr launching an attack on Planet Earth in spaceships designed like Space Invaders, and the Secretary of Defense is Pac-Man.
  • Paper Thin Disguise
    • Played straight in "Fear of a Bot Planet". Fry and Leela manage to pose as robots just by wearing metal junk over their chest.
    • Double subverted in "A Tale of Two Santas". Multiple human characters impersonate robot Santa while lobster-man Zoidberg, out of nowhere, pretends to be Jesus. The Santa impersonators are immediately called out as not even being robots and scolded for lying in front of Jesus.
  • Parallel Porn Titles: When the death satellite is on course for Earth, Bender mentions two TV shows that might make Earth a target, The Pimpsons and Assarama.
  • Parental Abandonment: Fry's parents went to get his dog pal at the cryogenics plant and didn't even realize he was frozen there. To be fair, they were hungover... and bad parents.
    • Fry's dad grew up without a father. Since Fry's dad's father turned out to be Fry himself, that's probably just as well.
    • Possibly averted in a later episode. Bender's Big Score shows a back-from-the-future Fry happily reuniting with his family. Until that moment, all the information showing the horrible neglect Fry grew up with came from an early, immature Fry and his even less mature girlfriend. Why would it be a waste of taxpayer money to have the police search for Fry? Because Fry's family had probably just seen him, and didn't feel like giving his horrible ex the time of day. Regardless, some evidence exists that Fry's feelings about his family are skewed, right down to his hatred for his older brother, who "always stole everything from him". Yancy Jr. and Fry just experienced normal sibling rivalry. Upon having a son, Yancy Jr. names the boy "Philip" for Fry; his wife treats the choice as a foregone conclusion, knowing how much Yancy Jr. loves his little brother.
  • Parody Sue: Barbados Slim. He's the only person to have Olympic Gold Medals in both Limboing and Sex!
  • Parrot Expowhat: Spoofed.

Fry: Can I use your bathroom?
Bender: My what-room?
Fry: Bathroom!
Bender: The bath-what?
Fry: Bathroom!
Bender: The what-what? (goes back to sleep)
Fry: Never mind.

  • Pass the Popcorn
  • The Password Is Always Swordfish: When a bomb that cannot be deactivated is installed into Bender, the Professor programs in a password that Bender would never use in everyday conversation. Bender, of course, immediately tries (and succeeds) to guess "antiquing."
    • After having guessed "please," "thank you," "your welcome," "I'm sorry" and "non-alcoholic."
  • Peace and Love Incorporated: Mom Corp plays this to the hilt, so much so that both "Mom" and "love" are registered trademarks in its name. The latest season has taken to portraying Mom Corp as the 31st Century's version of Apple. Considering they are very much a Truth in Television example of this trope, it's not too much of a stretch. No one would be surprised if they eventually revealed Mom to be a direct descendant of Steve Jobs (see the Wild Mass Guessing entry)
  • Perfectly Cromulent Word: "Intragnisent" Yup, he mispronounced intransigent, which leads to the Mob boss's quip: "From the context it is clear what you meant".
  • Perverse Sexual Lust: Damn you Leela and your tank top/spandex pants!
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Bender pets a few things.
    • The writers towards Zoidberg in the first post-cancelation season. He finally gets treated like a human, by Cubert, no less.
    • Dr. Zoidberg receives a few of these courtesy of Robot Santa in Xmas Story. He chastises Fry and Leela for never thinking about Zoidberg's feelings, and he is also the only one in the entire world that is shown to be on Santa's nice list.
    • Kick the Dog: "Robopuppy mistreatment alert! Robopuppy mistreatment aleeert!"
  • Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: Fry finds out what really killed the dinosaurs.
  • Phlebotinum Muncher: Inverted; Nibblonians excrete starship fuel.
  • Photoprotoneutron Torpedo: Positron shooters are apparently standard issue for DOOP soldiers. They play "Pop Goes The Weasel" as they're wound up.
  • Phrase Catcher: Wernstrom!
  • Physical God: Sorta, in several ocassions.
    • Fry as the encarnation of the Known Universe could be this for the Parasites.
    • Bender is this to the Shrimpkins in Godfellas.
      • And then he knows the Galactic Entity, a real physical god
    • Yivo must be this, along being some sort of Eldritch Abomination.
    • And, of course, the mighty Encyclopods.
  • Physical Hell: Robot hell of course! In New Jersey.

Leela: Who would've thought hell would really exist... and that it would be in New Jersey!
Fry: Actually...

  • The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The whalers on the moon lampshade this. Bender does very little bending. Farnsworth doesn't really teach...also, at times Planet Express:

Hermes: Didn't we used to be a Delivery Company?

  • Pity Sex: Ensues when Leela feels sorry for Zapp.
  • Planet of Copyhats: Dr. Zoidberg's Yiddish accent turns out to be his entire species' accent.
  • Planet of Hats: Virtually a Running Gag—except for Earth, every planet has one (1) characteristic, as well as being named after it. Farnsworth's "good news, everyone!" Catch Phrase was originally used to refer to the planet he was sending them to next.

Farnsworth: Tomorrow you'll be making a delivery to Ebola 9 -- the Virus Planet!

    • This also showed up as Noodle Incidents before the start of episodes, with the crew coming back dishevelled after making a delivery to Cannibalon (At least the food was good, according to Bender), and the crew coming back from the Planet of the Moochers, with Fry not wearing any pants.

Fry:They take you out for a drink, but when the check comes, their wallet's always in their other pants - which they borrowed from me!

    • The Neutral planet, robots, ancient Egyptians, and an entire cowboy universe.
    • Other parallel perpendicular universes are found, each with its own distinctive quirk—a world of hippies, Romans, bobbleheads, robots, people who never had eyes who nevertheless know what "seeing" is, etc.
    • The planet of spheres, the planet of mathematical geniuses, the nude beach planet and the Harlem Globetrotter planet...
    • The yarn people of Nylar 4?
    • There's Doohan 6, planet of borderline-incomprehensible Scottish sheep-herders...who are all named Angus.
    • The Mobster planet, where Fry received the Kiss of Death by a guy named Vinnie, but Fry thought he was gay.
  • Pluralses: Sal does this to emphasize his lower-classness.
  • Pocket Protector: Played with in "Benderama", also an example of Exactly What I Aimed At.
  • Poe's Law: Some will be surprised to learn that "I Dated a Robot" has an anti-piracy moral, not a parody of anti-piracy morals. This confusion can be attributed to the fantastic devices (copies of Lucy Liu) used to give the message, heavy handedness and the fact that show isn't one to play morals straight.
  • Portal Books: "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"
  • Portmanteau: When Leela takes Fry and Bender to a farmer's market, Fry samples some genuine Amazonian maple syrup. When he compliments the girls on the syrup, they start coming onto him. Fry shows both his fear and anticipation.

Fry: "I'm Scareroused..."

  • Post-Peak Oil: Fossil fuels ran out in the 2050s, forcing cars to run on whale oil.
  • Potty Dance: Bender does it briefly in Bender's Big Score after drinking a bunch of beers, and then hangs a lampshade on the lunacy of a robot having to go to the bathroom.
  • Prank Call: a prank call directed Fry to deliver a pizza to Seymour Asses, a false address. When he discovered this, he decided to eat the pizza himself, and shared it with a stray dog who then became his devoted pet and vainly waited for his "return" from cryosuspension until its death in 2012.
  • The Pratfall: Amy in her klutzy mode would often perform these.
  • Precision F-Strike: Zoidberg at the end of the episode "The Silence Of The Clamps."

Bender: "I'll just cut that--"
Zoidberg: "You do and I'll *beep*ing gut you like a fish!"

    • Also another earlier in the episode, when he says "My name's Zoidberg. JOHN *beep*ING ZOIDBERG!!
    • In "Where No Fan Has Gone Before":

Zapp: This court will now hear some very sensual testimony from this court's ex-lover, Turanga Leela.
Leela: (sitting in a device that resembles Captain Pike's wheelchair) Go *beep* yourself.

  • Present Day Past: Fry was frozen on January 1, 2000, but in later episodes makes early 21st-century pop culture references that are current to the episode's air date, but that he would never have personally experienced. Of course, many of the other characters also make such references....
  • Pretend Prejudice: Bender's robot supremacism against humans.
  • Pretty in Mink:
    • When Bender is a fembot, and dating Calculon, the TV star, he gets a fur coat as one of many extravagant gifts.
    • In the fourth movie, Fanny is the wife of the leader of the Robot Mafia, and he held up Burlington Coat Factory to get her a white fur jacket. Bender had been having an affair with her and says, "Man, this is great! I always wanted to nail a dame in a fur coat, and now's my chance."
  • Pro Wrestling Episode: "Raging Bender".
  • Psycho for Hire: Clamps, the Robot Mafia's clamp-happy enforcer.
  • The Public Domain Channel: A different old cartoon in every title sequence.
  • Punch Parry: Bender and Flexo.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Professor! Lava! Hot!"

R

Farnsworth: Miss McNeal, I'm afraid I must decline your offer of marriage. For, you see, I'm dying. Cough, then fall over dead.

    • Also Hermes when Zoidberg celebrates his 10th year at Planet Express:

Hermes: I will now read the mandatory speech. "Dear employee: Has it really been five, 10 or 15 years? If not, please disregard this and get back to work. Distribute token of appreciation and applaud."

  • Really 700 Years Old: The professor is in his 170's, Zoidberg had already passed all his larval stages 80 years ago, which means he's centuries of age, and Nibbler is over a milennium of age.
  • Reclining Reigner: Hedonism Bot takes this trope to its logical conclusion.
  • Recurring Extra: Number 9 Man
  • Recursive Creators: Bender becomes one in Benderama, eventually leading to Grey Goo.
  • Recursive Reality: At the end of "The Farnsworth Parabox", the Professors from both universes grab the other universe's box and end up with boxes containing their own universe.
  • Red Shirt: Parodied in the Star Trek episode. Welshie, a stand-in for James Doohan, is killed by the energy being. Said energy being proceeds to zap the corpse out of frustration several times, eventually vaporizing it.
  • Reference Overdosed
  • Refusing Paradise: In one episode Bender dies and spends most of the episode as a Virtual Ghost. At the end he's offered the opportunity to go to Robot Heaven, but says "screw this!" and comes back to "life".
  • Relationship Upgrade: In the closing moments of Into The Wild Green Yonder when Leela officially returned Fry's feelings and kissed him. Appears to have stuck with the premiere of the new season, although time will tell if it stays like that.
  • Replacement Goldfish:
    • This trope is taken Beyond the Impossible in "Rebirth" when Leela constructs a robot version of Fry after the original Fry's presumed death, who goes on to construct a robot version of Leela after her presumed death. It all works out, somehow.
    • Leela sees Cubert as this in "The Late Philip J. Fry".
  • Reset Button: Double Subverted on more than one occasion. In one episode, aliens cause untold devastation, and Fry comments that "At the end of a sitcom episode, everything is back to normal"... only to have the last shot be of all the devastation... which is promptly back to normal the next. Another one: Fry is fired from his job (for ruining Dr. Farnsworth's... everything), but Farnsworth was willing to forgive him because he couldn't even remember why he fired him. Then Bender reminds him exactly why, and Farnsworth tells him to get lost. He's back to working the next episode.
  • Retcon: No one can really decide if the first movie did this or not. More generally the depiction of Fry's life in the 20th century has changed from a thoroughly miserable one to one that wasn't all that bad - he had a beloved pet dog, a brother who genuinely loved him (even if they fought a lot) and even his boss was pretty friendly despite his initial portrayal as abusive. He was 25 years old, lived with his parents, had a girlfriend that used him excessively when she wasn't dumping him, and had no prospects, but it wasn't the dank craphole the first episode portrayed.
    • It's really explained by this being a Time Travel clone of Fry who returned, and having learnt a few things from the future (like how Yancy really did care about him), turned his life around after getting back to the past in the first flick.
      • The best retcon of the movie - And the Fandom Rejoiced for which - was that Fry's dog DIDN'T actually live alone for thirteen years waiting for him; he lived happily with Time-Travel-Clone Fry for all those years, until he was flash-fossilized in the explosion in TTC-Fry's apparent assassination. Still sucks that the little guy died, but they found a way to rescind the earlier Tear Jerker moment into an odd Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when the audience realized the change.
    • However, another thing was retconned. In the first episode featuring the sewer mutants, the way the characters talk before entering the sewer, it seems that mutants have not yet been confirmed to live down there, and the crew were making a discovery by finding them. It was established in later episodes that they've been a known society for quite some time, and that there have been discriminatory laws set against them by New New York.
    • In "X-Mas Story", Leela says that nuclear winter cancelled out global warming, although in "Crimes of the Hot," global warming is a problem again, and has apparently been for centuries. Don't you just love it when writers don't pay attention to the shows they create?
    • Similarly, Los Angeles is depicted as a decrepit city in one episode and a normal city in a future episode.
  • Retirony: In one of the Tales of Interest, General Colin Pac-Man was only one day from retirement when he was tragically gunned down by a space invader.
    • Played with with Smitty and URL in a later episode when Fry replaces Smitty as URL's partner.

URL: (morosely) He was just a few days away from retirement.
Fry: What happened?
URL: He took an early retirement.

Zapp: I did make it with a hot alien babe, and in the end, is that not what man has dreamt of since first he looked up at the stars? (beat) Kif, I'm asking you a question!

    • Played straight in "Obsoletely Fabulous":

Bender: If that stuff wasn't real, how can I be sure anything is real? Is it not possible, nay, probable, that my entire existence is nothing but a figment of my or someone else's imagination?
Technician: No, get out.

    • And in "The Beast With a Billion Backs":

Farnsworth: I know the anomaly is scary, but as scientists, is it not our sworn duty to seek out knowledge, even if it means risking our very lives?
Stephen Hawking: No.

    • And in "Attack of the Killer App":

Fry: Since when is the Internet about robbing people of their privacy?
Bender: August 6, 1991.

  • Ridiculously-Human Robots: The robots, globviously.
  • Riding Into the Sunset Ending: Except the sun in this case is a collapsed star.
  • Rip Van Winkle: Fry; later his ex-girlfriend.
  • Robosexual: The legalization of which being the plot of "Proposition Infinity". Fry and Bender were robosexuals already. (Not together: With a robot Lucy Liu and the original Lucy Liu.)
  • Robot Kid: Tinny Tim.
  • Robotic Psychopath: Roberto, Bender plays this for laughs.
  • Robotic Reveal: Poor Robot Fry...
  • Robotic Torture Device: The Probulator.
  • Rubber Forehead Aliens: Despite frequently averting this trope with great ingenuity, most of the cast are either human or humanoid - Zoidberg and Kif's species both have different stages of physical make-up, but for most of the time they're humanoid.
  • Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: the episode "The Tip of the Zoidberg" has the protagonists use one on the professor. Being a Rube Goldberg Device, it was not quick, allowing time for the execution to be interrupted.
  • Rule of Cool / Rule of Funny: Since the writers are keen to show their work (considering that most of them studied math and science in college), any unrealistic instances are most likely these tropes.
  • Running Gag: Bender yelling "ABANDON SHIP!" in "Parasites Lost"
    • In the original run of the show, every time Zap Brannigan appears Bender goes out of his way to remind Leela that she had sex with him.
    • Hermes yelling "my manwich!" after his lunch gets destroyed. In one episode it happened to his son in the same manner.
    • Zapp's ship has a tendency to be neatly cross-sectioned in battle.
    • Another gag from the original was odd fact being brought up, most of them in response to Fry's nostalgia by bringing up how something went extinct.

S

  • Sapient Ship: episode "Love and Rocket": the Planet Express Ship gets a new AI, which quickly falls in love with Bender.
  • Say My Name: WERNSTROM!!!!
    • PAZUZU, YOU WINGED FIEND!
  • Schizo-Tech: Leonardo da Vinci built a working clockwork spaceship.
  • Science Fiction
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Usually done intentionally for Rule of Funny.
  • Screaming At Squick: Leela has pity sex with Zapp, and it takes a minute to sink in, and then she screams.
  • Screwed by the Network: Resulting in an extended Take That in Bender's Big Score against the "Box Network".
    • Lampshaded is made in a recent episode. Matt Groening unveils Futurella at comic con. Opening music starts, title appears, CANCELLED. Groening then comments on how Fox has streamlined the process.
  • Seasonal Rot: In-universe, the episode "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV" had All My Circuits replaced with Everybody Loves Hypnotoad after the child robot actor has a literal break-down on-set. According to Fry, Everybody Loves Hypnotoad has been going downhill since season three.
  • Second Episode Introduction: The Planet Express crew (Amy Wong, Dr. Zoidberg, and Hermes Conrad) on "Episode 2: The Series Has Landed."
  • Second Face Smoke: In "Three Hundred Big Boys", Bender steals a fabulously expensive cigar expressly for the purpose of blowing its smoke into the faces of the "fantsy-pantses" at an upscale art gallery.

Bender Zubans? They're the most expensive cigars in the universe! I could stink up a whole maternity ward with one of those!"

  • Second Law, My Ass: Bender, obviously.
  • Secret Ingredient: In "The 30% Iron Chef", after Bender wins a cooking competition using drops from a crystal flask filled with "the essence of pure flavor", Professor Farnsworth runs a chemical analysis and announces the mystery liquid is "Water! Ordinary water!" Immediately after Fry concludes that all Bender needed to cook well was confidence, the professor adds, "Yes, ordinary water, laced with nothing more than a few spoonfuls of LSD."
  • Sense Loss Sadness
  • Sequel Episode: "The Cryogenic Woman" is this to the Pilot episode.
    • As is "The Why of Fry" to "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid".
  • Sexy Discretion Shot:
    • "The Late Phillip J. Fry": Bender makes out and has robotic sex with another female robot off-screen, which disturbs Fry.
    • "The Prisoner of Benda": Happens between Fry, who's in Zoidberg's body, and Leela, who's in Professor Farnworth's body, when both argue and do disgusting acts at each other when they're on a date, only to start making out on the table. Later, we see them in bed naked in the same bodies, after making love.
    • "Put Your Head On My Shoulder": Played with. After Amy's car runs out of gas on Mercury, she and Fry talk a bit, then look at each other seductively. Hours later (judging by the sunset), a tow driver wipes some condensation off the glass of Amy's car, revealing them... playing cards inside. Then, while the car is being towed:

Amy: So while they're towing us, want to do it?
Fry: Yeah! *they start making out, then duck out of view*

    • "Amazon Women in the Mood": The "Snu-Snu" scenes with Fry, Zapp and Kif.
    • "A Flight To Remember": One scene with Bender and the Countess parodies the sex scene from James Cameron's Titanic.
    • "A Biclops Built For Two": Happens between Leela and Alcazar after he tells her the history about their heritage.
    • "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back": Happens between Fry and Morgan Proctor in Bender's closet. Morgan sees Fry as she unbuttons her blouse before proceding to have sex with him. Cut to Bender walking with a candle he made for Fry, and then walking in on both Fry and Morgan naked under the sheets.
    • "Mother's Day": Happens between Professor Farnsworth and Mom when attempting to seduce her to get the robot controls from her bra only for Farnsworth to throw away the bra blinded by his lust for Mom. Later, the rest of the Planet Express crew barged in the house and after Fry opens the bedroom door, we see both Farnsworth and Mom in bed naked.
    • Used humorously (perhaps was even meant as a Lampshade of sorts) at the end of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela". The V-GINY says it will spare Earth but only if Zapp and Leela have sex. Leela forces Zapp into it and the deed is done offscreen. Unfortunately Fry has to watch and begs for the V-GINY to censor it (It doesn't).
  • Shorttank: Leela, in a rare non-Anime example.
  • Shout-Out: In "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", it is revealed that Leela is turned on by musicians, no matter how gross and immature they were.
    • Loads of shout-outs to all science fiction, ever, but especially Star Trek.[1] Just from the new series, "V-Giny" in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" is a parody of V-Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Not to mention Janeway's Guide). And in "Proposition Infinity", the interracial couple are from the planet in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", which was destroyed by racial hatred. In the episode: "Where No Fan Has Gone Before," the Planet Express fitted with nacelles bear a striking resemblance of the stardrive section of the Enterprise seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies.
    • The manhole cover from The PJs is seen. According to the DVD commentary, the writers put that reference in there as they loved The PJs and hated the fact it got Screwed by the Network.
    • In the episode "Law & Oracle", Fry can be seen using a computer that highly resembles the ARI from Heavy Rain. He even uses the exact same hand movements Agent Jayden uses to interface with the evidence.
      • Also, the general plot of the episode is an obvious shout-out to Minority Report
  • Show Within a Show: All My Circuits, The Scary Door, and let's not forget Everybody Loves Hypnotoad.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: By the time Zapp's done with his exposition on how he'll deal with Leela, the Planet Express Ship's already boarded his ship.
  • Silence, You Fool: The robot elders.
  • Similar Squad: The Parallel Universe of anti-coin tosses.
  • Simple Country Lawyer: The hyperchicken as well as Old Man Waterfall.
  • Single-Purpose Planet: Spa 5, a supposed relaxation planet and fitness camp.
    • You'd be better off visiting Planet XXX, the nude beach planet.
  • The Singularity: Mentioned and seen in "Overclockwise". Bender starts upgrading himself, and before anyone knows it, he's hop-scotched his way up to the level of Physical God. Of course, Mom sets him back to factory specs. But, he manages to write down Fry and Leela's future before-hand.
  • Skippy Rules: Brannigan's Law.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps: Leela's shirt.
  • Slept Through the Apocalypse: Several, apparently, while Fry is in suspended animation.
  • Slipped the Ropes: Bender does this briefly (and with no actual consequences) in "Amazon Women in the Mood".
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Futurama on a whole is down the middle. Several known species of animal are extinct, New York City has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, crack is readily available in vending machines, the universe is threatened on a regular basis, Richard Nixon is president again, the nation's military is commanded by an incompetent, womanizing Adult Child who is more than willing to sacrifice his own men for unnecessary reasons, and is more than willing to start a war with a species just because he hates them; hell exists, and it is in New Jersey; racism exists in one form or another, human meat is implied to be legal to eat, and the world's leading manufacturer of robots, starship fuel, and electronics is an evil, abusive, amoral person. But there are episodes that show that some of the worst offenders (namely Bender) have a human side to them, that no love goes unrequited, even the most pathetic slob can make a difference, and that humanity can band together and make changes in their world, i.e. allowing mutants, who had been treated like vermin and subjected to shoddy conditions over the course of the series to finally be able to walk on the surface as equals, legalize robosexual marriage, and come to an equally satisfying consensus on controversial topics like the theory of evolution.
  • The Slow Path
  • Smart Ball
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Zapp Brannigan
  • Smash Cut: Pretty much the entire gag of "Time Keeps On Skipping", where due to a space-time continuum messup, large chunks of time are randomly skipped.
  • Smoking Hot Sex: Referenced in "Amazon Women in the Mood", known informally as Snu-Snu.
  • Snap Back: Fry is fired at the end of season 2, but returns at the start of season 3 with no explanation given.
  • Soap Within a Show: "All My Circuits"
  • Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: Prof. Wernstrom's plan to stop global warming is a giant mirror that reflects excess light away from the Earth. Then a small piece of space debris knocks it askew, and a beam of concentrated light slices through the city.
  • Soldiers at the Rear: Fry and Bender join the military purely for the benefits. Unfortunately for them, shortly afterwards, war were declared and they are shipped to the front lines.
  • Solid Gold Poop: Nibbler's crap is the crew's starship fuel. Also there's Zoidberg's snot-pearl things.
  • Space Amish: Fry even joins them for a while!
  • Space Clothes
  • Space Is an Ocean+ 2-D Space: Subverted. In one episode, protestors make a "peace ring" around an oil tanker-spaceship, planning to trap it. The spaceship moves 20 feet vertically, and then zooms off.

Leela: "When you were designing this peace ring, did you realize spaceships could move in three dimensions?"
Head Protestor: "No, I did not."

  • Space Pirates: You know, pirates - but In Space!
  • Space Suits Are Scuba Gear: Its space suits use the classic air tank-and-hose design.
  • Space Whale: Leela goes after one in "Möbius Dick".
  • Space Whale Aesop: A rare literal example, also from "Mobius Dick".
  • El Spanish-O: Bender's attempts to speak Spanish tend to turn out this way.
  • Sphere Eyes: A majority of characters, as with Matt Groening's other series, The Simpsons.
  • Spiritual Successor: Averted with extreme prejudice. Since the show is from the same creator as The Simpsons, many cynical critics expected Futurama to be "The Simpsons IN SPACE!," but the show has instead developed its own very distinct form of humor and storytelling, which in some ways is different from anything else on TV. There is certainly some overlap in style, but Greoning was very deliberate in making sure Futurama had its own distinct identity and did not simply ride the coattails of his other show.
    • Matt is very big on making sure each of his creations has its own vibe. Futurama's use of story arcs and absurdity is as different from The Simpsons as that show's style is from the nihilistic cynicism of Life in Hell.
  • Spoof Aesop: The Beast with a Billion Backs: Bender explains that love cannot be shared and it's not truly love if you're not jealous.
  • Sports Preemption: Occurred so often on Fox from about season 3 onward that it was actually a pleasant surprise when you got to see a new episode.
  • Squee: Done (rather disturbingly) by the Professor in "The Duh-Vinci Code".
  • Stable Time Loop:
    • Fry travelling back in time to become his own grandfather, the origin of the time code in Bender's Big Score.
    • In a stranger example, a recent episode indicates that time itself loops around naturally, with the end of the universe leading back to the Big Bang.
  • Status Quo Is God: The first post-revival episode had a somewhat...odd way of tying up the end of Into The Wild Green Yonder and bringing everyone's lives back to normal (except for Fry and Leela obviously), but they did...somehow.
      • To elaborate: The Professor and Leela survived. Fry was reduced to a pile of dust saving Leela. Everyone else was dead from the neck down. Leela built a robot and loaded Fry's memories on it but then he electrocuted her and he lost his short term memory thinking he was the real Fry. Leela and the others are "reborn" but she is in a coma, causing Fry to make a robot version of her. Eventually she wakes up resulting in 2 Leelas before Robo-Fry realizes who he is before the real Fry is reborn. The two robots shed their human skins and leave the rest to move on with their lives. And then the less said about Bender's part of the story, the better.
    • Hilariously lampshaded in When Aliens Attack:

Fry: It was just a matter of knowing the secret of all television. At the end of the episode, everything's always right back to normal (*as New New York crumbles and burns*).

    • Two examples in "Law and Oracle":
      • After Scruffy dies in the previous episode, his revival is lampshaded when Hermes states that "There'll be no promotions unless somebody dies. And even then, only if we can't bring them back as a zombie like Scruffy"
      • It seems Fry did a great job as a policeman without getting Bender in trouble, but of course he has to return to being a delivery boy. "I got my [detective's] shield for stopping Bender... But then I got fired for tipping off Bender." (Even though Bender wasn't the primary criminal and Fry's secret plan worked completely.
  • Stealth Pun: Susan Boil.
    • This moment from "The Luck of the Fryish":

Fry: I may not know much about horses, but I know a lot about doing anything for one dollar.
(Fry struggles to reach for the dollar, leaning over the telephone pole)
(Fry climbs back down the pole, climbing back up with a metal rake)
Fry: If you think bad luck can defeat me, than you don't know my name is Phillip J.-- (As the rake makes contact with the wire, Fry is electrocuted, and survives, with a trail of smoke billowing off of him)

    • This moment from the third episode:

Calculon: I've been processing this for quite sometime, Monique, will you marry me?
Monique: Oh, Calculon! Yes! (Calculon fits the ring on her finger) It fits! Then you must know I'm...
Calculon: Metric? I've always known, but for you I'm willing to convert.

    • In "Benderama" a whole bunch of tiny Benders put so much alcohol in the water system that everyone on Earth experiences a huge...bender.
  • Stock Audio Clip:
    • The show uses the exact same scream every time Amy falls over.
    • The opening of "Brannigan, Begin Again" uses a recording of the judge calmly saying "I'm going to allow this" several times, in increasingly odd circumstances.
  • Stolen Good, Returned Better: Bender swaps Leela's engagement ring with a fake, but after examining the stolen ring, he realizes that the replacement he made is actually more valuable. He shrugs it off, considering it his gift to Leela.
  • Invisible to Gaydar: Implied with Fry's grandfather Enos. In "Roswell That Ends Well," Enos asks Fry "You ever think you date girls only 'cause you're supposed ta?" and expresses interest in a photo of a big burly male model on a calendar.Turns out, he's not Fry's grandfather.
  • Straw Feminist/Animal Wrongs Group: The Feministas in Into the Wild Green Yonder who murder (most of) a human being, while struggling to save a vicious parasite worm. Especially Frida Waterfall, who injects gender into almost everything she says: "I will fem-cunicate your man-formation." This is an over-the-top parody of feminism and ecological activism.
  • Strictly Formula: Parodied in When Aliens Attack.
  • Stylistic Suck: The comic book Fry wrote.
    • Heck, pretty much any book Fry writes.
  • Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom: Mom's friendly [x] company.
  • Superhero Episode: Fry and Leela get superpowers from a miracle cream in "Less Than Hero", and form a team with Bender. Parody ensues.
  • Superheroes Wear Capes: The team in "Less Than Hero".
  • Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Bender seems to have much more gadgetry than would be useful or even practical for a robot whose only purpose is to bend girders. It could be justified as he works for Professor Farnsworth, who would be more than likely to experiment on the robot.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: The Professor is quite fond of this.
  • Sweet Polly Oliver: Leela as "Lee Lemon" in "War is the H-Word".
  • Sweet on Polly Oliver: Zap, when Leela posed as a man in "War is the H-Word".

Zap Brannigan: "That young man fills me with hope! Plus some other emotions which are weird and deeply confusing."

  1. ↑ Even though it was revealed that any mention of the franchise is considered illegal in the future
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