Simpsorama

"Simpsorama" is the sixth episode of the twenty-sixth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 558th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 9, 2014. "Simpsorama" is a crossover with Futurama, another animated series created by The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, that had previously aired on Fox and later Comedy Central before concluding in September 2013.

Plot

At Springfield Elementary School, Principal Skinner is showing Mrs. Krabappel's class a time capsule that they intend to open a thousand years later and tells the students to each put something inside of the capsule. Bart, having forgotten to bring something to put in it, puts a sandwich that he blows his nose on into it. At a ceremony, Mayor Quimby lowers the time capsule into the town square in front of the statue of Jebediah Springfield. When they dig up the hole, they notice some green ooze pouring out.

Later that night, the Simpsons hear a strange noise outside like something falling from the sky. Marge then hears something glugging and belching downstairs. Homer and Bart decide to go to the basement and investigate. Down in the basement, Bart sees a shadowy figure opening up a can of Duff Beer, who is revealed to be Bender, who reveals he is from the future. Homer and Bender become instant best friends. The next day, Lisa starts to doubt that Bender is actually from the future, since robotic technology in the present is relatively advanced, so Lisa takes Bender to Professor Frink's laboratory. Bender admits that he does not recall why he was sent to the present, so Frink unplugs and replugs Bender's mission protocol, causing Bender to reveal his mission is to terminate Homer; however, he cannot do it, having developed a close friendship with him. A hologram of Turanga Leela and Philip J. Fry and some rabbit-shaped creatures that are attacking New New York appears. Seeing that Bender has not yet killed Homer, Leela and Fry encourage Bender to kill Homer. Lisa asks why he must be killed, and Professor Hubert Farnsworth replies that the creatures have Homer's DNA and Bender was sent back to kill Homer before the creatures could evolve from him. The Professor, Leela and Fry go into the past to kill Homer themselves, but Bender protects Homer, preventing Leela from shooting him. Everyone goes home but Farnsworth, Frink and Lisa, who stay back at the lab to analyse a DNA sample.

Farnsworth, Frink and Lisa get to the house; the Professor reveals that the DNA was only half of Homer's, with the other half belonging to Marge; they must kill one of their children instead now. Bender's rear shows a hologram of the creatures attacking Linda and Morbo, who report that the creatures have started evolving. One of the rabbits eats Linda and transforms into a lizard-like creature that resembles Bart. Bart remembers that when he put his sandwich in the time capsule, it touched Milhouse's lucky rabbit's foot and the toxic ooze in the hole touched the items in the time capsule mutating them into rabbit-like creatures with Bart's DNA. The Simpsons and the Planet Express crew arrive in the town square to dig up the capsule, but the portal the crew travelled through is damaged, and all of the Simpsons and the crew but Maggie and Bender are sent to the year 3014.

The Simpsons all hang out at the Planet Express headquarters, having failed to figure out a way to stop the creatures. However, Lisa is surprised everyone has given up. The professor then proposes they shoot all the creatures into space. Lisa helps lure the creatures into Madison Cube Garden; the Planet Express Ship lifts the cube up and hurls it into space.

Back in the present, Bender takes Maggie to the race tracks, having known every result and winning a large sum of money. They successfully fix the portal and the Simpson family re-arrive back in the present. Bender then sets an alarm for 1,000 years and goes to sleep. Homer throws him in the basement but not before giving him a beer, which Bender appreciates.

The creatures are revealed to have landed on Omicron Persei 8, in which Kang and Kodos visit, who reveal that they are a same-sex couple.

Background information

The episode was first announced in July 2013, two days after "The Simpsons Guy" — the hour-long crossover between Family Guy and The Simpsons — was announced. It was originally planned to air as either the season 25 finale or the season 26 premiere.^[1] It was ultimately slated for November 9, 2014.^[2] In an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the episode, Groening said, "That was a really tough one to negotiate, because I had to talk to myself." Al Jean added, "They were going off the air, so I thought people would really love it if we had one more chance to see those characters"; adding, "We're always looking for things that are compatible with us, and I thought, 'Well, what’s more compatible?' We do a joke, actually, about how similar Bender and Homer look. Like, they just erased Homer's hair." Jean also stated, "There's a thing in Futurama code where if you solve it, it says, 'Congratulations! You're a nerd.'"^[3]

Reception

The episode received an audience of 6.70 million. It was the most-watched show on Fox that night, beating Family Guy.^[4] The episode received mixed reviews from critics. Max Nicholson of IGN called the storyline "a bit dull especially considering some of Futurama's more epic storylines."^[5] Zack Handlen and Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B-, stating, "There's no reason for this episode to exist, at least not in terms of storytelling. Seeing the Simpsons family interact with Bender, Fry, Leela, Professor Farnsworth, and the rest has a certain automatic thrill to it, like any half-assed Internet mash-up (that thing I like is in the same place as that other thing I like! THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING), but that thrill never deepens or enriches our understanding of these disparate groups."^[6] Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly stated, ".. .where 'The Simpsons Guy' fell down the meta-rabbit hole, 'Simpsorama' mostly settled for simple gags, with a hit ratio that was better than Futurama season 6 but not quite up to the standards of Futurama season 5."^[7]

The episode revealed that The Simpsons aliens Kang and Kodos are a lesbian couple. Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly: "People are asking: is this episode canon? And I go, 'What really happened—did Homer really fall off a cliff all those times and live?' But that being said: Yeah, sure, they're Kang and Kodos Johnson. They're a gay female couple in their species. They seemed to be married." In response to a sign in the episode showing Ralph Wiggum to have died in 2017, Jean said that it was in reference to the episode "Holidays of Future Passed" in which Ralph requires clones as his stupidity causes him to die in accidents. He declared that there would be no more deaths in the show, following the season premiere "Clown in the Dumps" in which Krusty the Clown's father died.^[8]

References

External links

• "Simpsorama" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Simpsorama" at the Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki.