Top 11 Favorite Futurama episodes

Futurama is coming to a close this summer. I should probably admit that when it first aired in 1999, I didn’t instantly love it. I watched the first four episodes, and it was okay, but I went on vacation, missed a couple of episodes, and wasn’t that upset about it. Then, I started watching the show again when it was airing on Adult Swim. It was flippin’ funny! I have since gotten seasons 1-6 on DVD (but have only watched all the episodes of seasons 1-4). While I will go through the rest, the list that follows is my favorite episodes of the first 4 seasons.

If you haven’t seen these episodes… spoiler alert? I go into detail about the endings in a few summaries.

And on one final note, it was hard to put a number order to some of them, because there are just so many good ones! I do have a favorite of the series, which of course is at number one, but all the titles on the list are ones I love. So, without further adieu:

Top 11 Favorite Futurama episodes

11. Leela’s Homeworld: We find out what Leela really is and where she came from. The montage at the end showing how her parents cared for her is touching.

10. The Problem With Popplers:  After discovering a new “edible” life form, Leela’s in hot water when it turns out the snack is really alien babies, and she ate them first.

Best line: “Dude, my hands are huge! They can touch anything but themselves!”

9. Love & Rocket: Bender falls in love with the Planet Express Ship, then gets bored with her after a week. This does not make her happy, and she goes all HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey on the crew. Fry’s ongoing feelings for Leela lead to a couple of sweet moments, including trying to find the perfect conversation heart for her, and switching out his oxygen tank for hers when Leela’s gets low.

8. Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch: (Exactly What It Says On The Tin) Kif and Amy continue their relationship, then Kif gets pregnant (Leela being the biological “mother”).  I love that one of the babies has one eye, just like Leela.

7. Anthology Of Interest II: Bender wonders what it would be like to be human (which is both disturbing and hilarious), Fry wonders what life would be like if it were more like a video game, and Leela dreams up her own Wizard Of Oz scenario, with a twist (“There’s no place like I wanna be a witch!”)

Best line (one of the best of the series, I believe): “You watched it, you can’t unwatch it!”

6. Three Hundred Big Boys: A $300 tax rebate is given to the people, and each of the crew has their own way of spending the dough. My favorite is Fry’s goal of drinking 100 cups of coffee. The glowing and slo-mo after the final cup are the funniest things.

5. Roswell That Ends Well: The Planet Express crew travel back in time (thanks to a combination of a supernova and Fry putting metal in the microwave), and Fry meets the man who he believes is his grandfather. He tries to protect the guy so he can, ya know, be born, but it doesn’t turn out so well.

So many good lines: “Ohh, a lesson in not changing history from Mr. ‘I'm My Own Grandfather’!”, “Doy! Some idiot must have put metal in the microwave--.”/”Yo!”, and the horrified scream from Fry once he realizes what he’s done ;)

4. Parasites Lost: Another great ‘Fry tries to woo Leela’ episode. After eating an egg salad sandwich from a gas station bathroom (which Leela refers to as a “toilet sandwich” –love), Fry gets worms. Intelligent, city-building worms. They start to make Fry a better person, including giving him the ability to play the Holophoner (which only a few people can play). As much as Leela likes the new Fry, she needs to know whether it’s him or the worms talking.

Best lines: “Listen, this is gonna be one hell of a bowel movement. Afterwards, he'll be lucky to have any bones left.” and “Wait a minute, man!” (This one is all in the delivery)

3. The Sting: While on a mission to collect space bee honey, Leela and Fry get stung, with Fry receiving a lethal dose of venom. Leela starts to lose her grip on reality, believing Fry to still be alive because she sees him in her dreams. All the while, she keeps hearing Fry telling her to “wake up”. I find this episode to be emotional and very well-done. When you watch it a second time, you pick up on things you didn’t before. The ending is very sweet.

Best line: “It got through, Fry. It got through.”/”You could really use a shower.”/”So could you.”

2. Jurassic Bark: While visiting a museum featuring items from New York a thousand years ago, Fry comes upon his old dog, Seymour. He plans on cloning the dog, much to Bender’s chagrin. Flashbacks show how they met, hung out, and how Seymour was the only one who knew what happened when Fry was frozen. Finally, upon learning that Seymour was actually 15 when he died, Fry reasons that the dog most likely forgot about him and moved on with his life. The ending montage is heartbreaking.

Best line: “’Walking On Sunshine’ sucks noodles!”

           1. The Luck Of The Fryrish: Although there are many great episodes of Futurama, I guess I would call this one my favorite. In flashbacks, we see the relationship between Fry and his older brother, Yancy. Fry once found a 7-leaf clover that brought him extremely good luck, and Yancy was jealous. In the future, while on a trip to find it, the gang happen upon a statue of Yancy with the clover, claiming him to be “Philip J. Fry, the first man on Mars”. Fry believes his brother stole his clover, name, and dream. In a touching flashback, it turns out that Yancy gave the clover to his son, and named the baby “Philip J. Fry II”. The icing on the cake is the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” at the end.

Well, there you have it. Are any of these episodes on your list of favorites? J

Yeah, I know it's been ages since I posted. I have a couple of entries I'm working on, and here's today's:

Random Facts About Me:

1. I still have my baby blanket.

2. I love the smell of mildew/mold. (I know, I'm odd.) Also, the smell of rain and unfinished basements.

3. I hate the smell of Methane. I had medicine for an ear infection that I had to take when I was 5 which smelled like that, and it's one of the worst smells in the world to me.

4. I can't stand lotion. It just feels weird to me. I'd rather have chapped hands.

5. The ending of "Titanic" did not make me cry the first time I saw it. I went with a group of four friends from school, and they bawled. I did not.

6. I'm a Grammar Whore. I *will* correct people when they don't use the right words. I love English, so sue me :)

7. I have the uncanny ability to find 11¢. I'll just be walking around somewhere and find a dime, then a little while later, a penny. Or vice versa. I don't know why it's 11¢, but hey, free change!

8. The longest I've ever gone without sleeping is 43 hours straight, during The Great Midwest Trivia Contest. The longest I've gone without eating is 32 hours (I had the flu or food poisoning or something...)

9. I often wonder what it would be like if I had a twin.

10. My mom stopped letting me get bubble gum ice cream when I was a kid, because I would swallow the gum :)

Trivia

Man, it's a good thing I didn't promise to post a blog entry everyday! It's been awhile, but I've been busy, and haven't had a whole lot to say. However, Trivia was this past weekend, and that is always an experience :) For those who have never played, I shall describe as much of the wackiness as I can to give you a sense of how awesome Trivia is:

The Great Midwest Trivia Contest begins at 10:00:37 pm on Friday, and lasts until 12:00 am on Monday. There are on-campus teams who play from rooms in Lawrence, and off-campus teams who play from around the world! The students from Lawrence University who host the contest are called Trivia Masters, with the leader is dubbed the "Grand Master". It all starts with the first question, which is the question that is asked last the year before. (The "Super Garruda"; more on that later.) This question is worth 100 points, and everyone gets it. From then on, almost all of the regular questions are worth 5 points.

I say almost all, because there are "Action Questions" - worth 10 points - which are for on-campus teams only. (Off-campus teams are given an additional 5-point question because of this.) Action Questions can be anything: create a comic. Dance your team name. One year, there was a parade. This time, the on-campus teams had to reenact parts of Pokémon Snap.

The rules are simple: The Trivia Masters ask a question. You are given 3 minutes to find the answer. When you call in, you are given 3 guesses. If none of those guesses are correct, you may call in again with the time that is left. If you are right, you give the Phone Answerer your team name and number (which they assign you when you register before the contest.) 5 points are added to your score.

One of the best parts of the game is Jamming. Once you have gotten the right answer, you call again, give the answer, give a higher (fake) team number, and proceed to give a Jam Team Name. These are read on the air, along with the actual team names. The funnier, the better ;)

There are Theme Hours during the contest: Zombie Hour (where all the questions and music are zombie-related, natch), Alumni Hour (Lawrence-related questions), Disney Hour, Death & Destruction Hour (which is actually nice at about 4 am when most of us are falling asleep, because the Trivia Masters are loud and hyper), Viola Hour, Batman Hour, Church Hour, etc. Not every Hour has a Theme, but they are all fun just the same.

The team I'm on, "We Need More Cowbell, Martha" has never had a ton of people, but we seem to make due. We go in shifts: some of us answer questions, some of us sleep, and some go to answer phones at Lawrence. This is another great part of the game.

Being a Phone Answerer is just as fun as playing. There's a "basement" radio station where the contest used to be broadcast from. There are two big tables together in the center, and about 15 (?) phones around it. Trivia Masters and team member alike sit there and take the calls from those who are playing. There are slips of paper with a line for the question number, and more for team names and numbers. The tables always contain plenty of food for those who answer phones - a motivator that the Trivia Masters use to lure more of us down there when there aren't enough people to man the phones. (This happens quite often. If our team had a nickel for each time in the contest when a TM asked for more Phone Answerers, we could put ourselves up in a nice hotel for the weekend. [If any TMs are reading this, I kid. We love you guys!]) Plus, it's just fun to hang out with the Trivia Masters. They're really cool people, and I give them a lot of credit for doing this every year. Little sleep, people complaining to them throughout the weekend, etc.

Usually, our team starts going our separate ways in the afternoon on Sunday. Some of us go home to sleep, and some of us go back to Lawrence to answer phones.

When the contest is drawing to a close on Sunday night, the TMs have "Bad Question Hour". Basically, they ask weird questions, and whoever calls in what they deem the best answers gets them read aloud. I'm not sure if points are given for these answers...

There is a period of time where the contest ceases to be about answering questions, and all that's played is music. This is when the Trivia Masters come up with the really hard questions, called "Garrudas", and the last, hardest question of the contest, the Super Garruda. I have read that these questions are not prepared ahead of time for security reasons. There are a few Garrudas, worth various amounts (I actually got the answer to a Garruda a few years ago, worth 30 points!). Finally, the Super Garruda is asked. This question is worth 100 points, and there are some years when it goes unanswered.

*I will say that this year there was an incident which one player referred to as "Garrudagate" (clever name, btw), however, I will not get into that here.*

After the Super Garruda is answered (or not answered), the Trivia Masters announce what time the Closing Ceremonies will take place. For the past two years, my cousin Whitney and I have been present. It takes place right outside of Lawrence. Many - if not all - of the on-campus teams show up, and some of the local off-campus teams as well. It's like one big party. Then, the Trivia Masters arrive. The Grand Master gives a speech, announces the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners for on/off-campus teams, and hands out prizes. The prizes are nothing extravagant: things such as bacon, a box of hangers, and one year, when the Action Question was to retrieve human hair, the prize was...the hair. Lastly, there is the "crowning" of the new Grand Master, who will be the leader of next year's contest. All in all, it's fun to be a part of this, even though it's often very early on Monday morning.

And that’s Trivia in a nutshell. You really have to participate to get the full experience, and I look forward to it every year. It’s a time to get together with friends and family, and just be weird! It also makes you feel like you’re part of something.

One last thing for my fellow Trivia players: SKULL SQUADRON!

Favorite Short Stories

Favorite Short Stories

Here is a list of my favorite short stories, in no particular order, save for “Drawing The Moon” being my all-time favorite. I highly recommend these!

(I tried my best to include where they are from, and if they were published somewhere else first.)

1.       “Drawing The Moon” by Janni Lee Simner, from Bruce Coville’s Book Of Nightmares

I have loved this story since the first time I read it. It’s about a boy named Andrew who knows that his parents are not dead – they were stolen, by the Moon. It’s chilling and very well-written. Janni Lee Simner is one of my favorite authors, and was nice enough to sign my book containing the story!

2.       “Murder Mysteries” by Neil Gaiman, from Smoke And Mirrors (originally published in Midnight Graffiti)

As an atheist, it says something that this is one of my favorites.  An angel tells a man the story of the first murder in heaven. It’s beautiful and sad. The story was made into a graphic novel (which I own, but, have yet to read…).

3.       “Early Sunday Morning” by Isaac Asimov, from Tales Of The Black Widowers (originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine as “The Biological Clock”)

As famous as Mr. Asimov was for his science-fiction works, it’s his mysteries that I really enjoy. The Black Widowers are a group of men who meet monthly at a local restaurant, and as of late, have had guests with quandaries. In “Early Sunday Morning”, having no guest that night, the members try to stir up a mystery to solve. One member, Mario Gonzalo, tells them of his murdered twin sister. It’s amazing and compelling.

4.       “Alien Promises” by Janni Lee Simner, from Bruce Coville’s Book Of Aliens II

As someone who considers herself a geek/nerd/reader/etc., I know the importance of wanting to belong, and the feeling when you don’t. Courtney doesn’t have any friends, and yearns to be with those from beyond the stars. When she makes a promise to the class bully, she has no idea how much she’ll belong one day. It’s touching and uplifting. I do know what it’s like to belong to something: Fake Moon Chat, the anime community, Trivia. It’s a great feeling J

5.       “Snow, Glass, Apples” by Neil Gaiman, from Smoke And Mirrors (originally published in Love In Vein II)

As Mr. Gaiman says himself in the Introduction, “I like to think of this story as a virus. Once you’ve read it, you may never be able to read the original story in the same way again.” This is very true. It is the story of Snow White, but not as you know it. The Queen herself tells the tale, wherein Snow White is the evil one. It’s gripping and unsettling. Kudos to Neil Gaiman for making a fairy tale creepy ;)

6.       “Windwood Rose” by Janni Lee Simner, from Bruce Coville’s Book Of Magic

While Miranda Windwood Rose has a beautiful name, she knows it carries magic. And sometimes, magic is a heavy burden. It’s haunting and well-told. (It should be apparent by now that Ms. Simner is awesome.)

7.       “October In The Chair” by Neil Gaiman, from Fragile Things: Short Fictions And Wonders

A story within a story that begs the question, “And then what happened?” The months of the year are personified, and it’s October’s turn to host their monthly meeting. It’s funny and interesting.

8.       “Amanda’s Room” by Janni Lee Simner, from Bruce Coville’s Book of Nightmares II

Brenda and her sister, Amanda, were always fighting. Now, Amanda is gone, but she isn’t too happy about Brenda being in her room…among other things. It’s unique and heart-breaking.

9.       “One Chance” by Charles de Lint, from Bruce Coville’s Book Of Spine Tinglers (originally published in Werewolves)

It has been ages since I’ve read this story (the book is misplaced), but I still know how good it is. Susanna and Billy are friends who don’t have it easy. Susanna gets picked on by kids at school, and Billy is abused by his father. So, when they get the chance to escape from it all, will they? It’s emotional and spellbinding.

10.   “In Our Hands” by Bruce Coville, from Bruce Coville’s Alien Visitors

Written in journal form, this story tells of aliens who come to Earth offering our species solutions to ending war, hunger, and poverty. However, the price is not to be taken lightly, and it’s up to the people to decide. It’s poignant and thought-provoking.

I have many more stories and collections to read, and perhaps soon I will have more favorites.