Social commentary makes subtle comments and judgements on present society. Futurama is a workplace comedy about a naive boy from the turn of the century. He goes to work for Planet Express, a package delivery service, one thousand years in the future. Futurama, a satirical science fiction show, first aired on March 28, 1999, aims to undermine social boundaries using social commentary. The main character, Fry, finds himself so totally alone in a technologically confusing world that he becomes best friends with a robot. It's fundamentally about loneliness and estrangement in a technological society. The social commentary found in Futurama, can cause changes in our society, and can oftentimes seem quite funny and satirical. Each episode
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In one episode, Fry stops acting like a human after a court of law sent him to a robot rehab facility, and he gets reprogrammed as a robot. Leela announces that she will remind him of his humanity the only way a woman can. The professor responds, “You’re going to do his laundry?!” This makes a social commentary about the roles that women play in a man's life. We see this trope a lot in Futurama: a male character makes a sexist comment but promptly gets whacked upside the head for it. Sure, the knee-jerk feminist defense feels good because the person saying something awful gets instant retribution. Professor Farnsworth exclaims this as if it is the only thing women are good for, which is in fact false. The role of gender in Futurama is taken on by every character. This means that every character has a place and can be the object of ridicule. Similarly, in the US sexism is a massive problem that does not have consequences. Companies consistently hire men for jobs that could just as easily be done by a woman based on a preconceived notion that men are better than women. Often women are shown as tools used only for sex, and otherwise are useless, not only on earth, but also in Futurama. IN “Amazon Women in the Mood”, the planet express crew embark on a trip to the planet of Amazonia, and meet the Amazonians. These women are very large and Neanderthal-like, but are written to have the conditioned …show more content…
This ties in with Leela’s conflict a thrown-together masculine figure of authority, who follows a theme that “women aren’t as good as men”. At least she gets her revenge in the end by outsmarting her old instructor, but her girl-power triumph is countered by Bender’s feminine-cloaked downfall. Once again Futurama hits the gender barrier, making Benders problem outweigh Leela’s. This shows that not only do we focus on men more than women, but that often we find that the problems women face less
In one episode, Fry stops acting like a human after a court of law sent him to a robot rehab facility, and he gets reprogrammed as a robot. Leela announces that she will remind him of his humanity the only way a woman can. The professor responds, “You’re going to do his laundry?!” This makes a social commentary about the roles that women play in a man's life. We see this trope a lot in Futurama: a male character makes a sexist comment but promptly gets whacked upside the head for it. Sure, the knee-jerk feminist defense feels good because the person saying something awful gets instant retribution. Professor Farnsworth exclaims this as if it is the only thing women are good for, which is in fact false. The role of gender in Futurama is taken on by every character. This means that every character has a place and can be the object of ridicule. Similarly, in the US sexism is a massive problem that does not have consequences. Companies consistently hire men for jobs that could just as easily be done by a woman based on a preconceived notion that men are better than women. Often women are shown as tools used only for sex, and otherwise are useless, not only on earth, but also in Futurama. IN “Amazon Women in the Mood”, the planet express crew embark on a trip to the planet of Amazonia, and meet the Amazonians. These women are very large and Neanderthal-like, but are written to have the conditioned …show more content…
This ties in with Leela’s conflict a thrown-together masculine figure of authority, who follows a theme that “women aren’t as good as men”. At least she gets her revenge in the end by outsmarting her old instructor, but her girl-power triumph is countered by Bender’s feminine-cloaked downfall. Once again Futurama hits the gender barrier, making Benders problem outweigh Leela’s. This shows that not only do we focus on men more than women, but that often we find that the problems women face less