Yesterday ’s Futurama take us on a psychedelic , President of the United States - licking journey through clip , space , and disturbingly British alternative future tense , complete with a rope - dole out Thomas Jefferson , vomiting Ulysses S. Grant , articulatio cubiti - fetishizing James Madison , and Wisconsinite - wielding Benjamin Franklin . Now that ’s what I call chronicle !
“ All the President ’s Heads ” notice Professor Farnsworth smarten up up his family tree , eager to show anyone willing to listen – and plenty who are n’t – all the amazing citizenry he ’s go down from . ( There ’s also Fry . ) When Fry maltreat his 2nd job as a night watcher at the head museum to fox a grownup political party with all the presidents – featuring such guest headway as Amelia Pond , Inara Serra , and Owen Harper , albeit in the form of some evenhandedly generic heading – the Professor discovers from George Washington that his 18th century root David Farnworth was actually a faithless forger .
take vantage of some antecedently strange property of head in jounce – namely , that ingesting the jounce fluid can send you back in time – the Professor drag on Fry , Bender , and Leela on a jaunt back to 1775 . There , the bunch hobnobs with various sentinels of liberty , and they even make out to bilk the nefarious David Farnsworth . Only one fragile problem : Fry inadvertently interferes with Paul Revere ’s legendary drive – as the Professor couch it , he “ really screws the granny this time ” – causing a swift British triumph and an altered , still colonial 31st century America .
Before we get into the psychoanalysis of this installment , I should say that I am a monolithic , massive chairwoman buff . I ’m the sort of presidential account nerd who writeslengthy treatises on possible alternate commanders - in - boss , and somewhere out in the ether there may even be a cartridge clip of me on Beauty and the Geek appoint all the presidents backwards . ( Unless that was just an detailed fever dream . I rather hope it was . ) As such , I ’m guessing my chemical reaction to this episode was a bit unlike from other viewer ’ , because as presently as I discover about this episode , I was bank on nothing but 22 second of arcane , ultra obscure presidential in - jokes .
https://gizmodo.com/hail-to-the-mirror-universe-chief-5-alternate-presiden-5276306
evidently , that may not have been a reasonable expectation . And do n’t get me awry , we still got some of that , specially a elusive nod to Calvin Coolidge ’s reputation for being Silent Cal – of course he ’s not run short to complain if you keep your beer in his jolt . But most of the laugh were more just about being absurd with the presidents , which is fun too – I mean , this installment depict James Madison , the Father of the Constitution and the primary author of the Bill of Rights , as a creepy elbow joint - loving pervert . What ’s not to love ?
I also found the paronomasia about Ulysses S. Grant “ vomiting in the bushes ” to be extremely satisfying , as much for linguistic reasons as for any lingering political bitterness . I ’m actually reasonably trusted that ’s the first time George W. Bush has ever appeared on a Matt Groening show , and that seems like quite an appropriate introduction . Throw in Gerald Ford ’s lovable stupidity , James K. Polk ’s random DJing , John Tyler inexplicably talking like Droopy Dog , and a never not funny gag about Chester Alan Arthur ’s center initial , and quick nods to Taft ’s gluttony , Harding ’s involvement , and LBJ ’s fondness for drunken partying … well , I ’m quenched . Although where was the gag about Grover Cleveland serve non - straight terms ! ?
Next , there ’s all the compound poppycock . former prison term travel episodes – admit the show ’s finest half - hour , “ Roswell that Ends Well ” – have generally attempt to be basically historically exact , or at the very least evoke some time period detail and make the sensory faculty that our heroes are visiting a fully - make prison term and piazza . The 1775 of this episode , on the other hired hand , is something else entirely , a gloriously inaccurate world where New York is just two building and a moo-cow . Of course , there ’s no reasonable way to incorporate Bender or Leela into this era anyway , so the episode choke for broke with all the matter our Founding Church Father mistake Bender for , include a soot pot , a steam railway locomotive , scrap alloy , and , most awesomely , a cannon . ( Also , Peru is full of Cyclops ! )
The whole journey through compound times reads like the writers take a half - assed history report they write in the 4th grade and then used that as their sole fleck of enquiry … and I intend that as a high compliment . I loved Paul Revere ’s extremely half - hearted attempt to mask his anti - British sentiments , Thomas Jefferson ’s caper about Ben Franklin that Fry did n’t get , and … well , really anything to do with Ben Franklin , honestly , from his flaky inventions to his satanic coming to our res publica ’s currency . Plus , the writer addressed the whole “ s ’s that look like f ’s ” thing , which had a dramatic , Bender ’s aff - related payoff , as you’re able to see below .
The misstep to the British thirty-first hundred offers a play look at the now compound New New York , complete with an improbably thatch Planet Express , a duple - Dekker hoverbus , a Harrods shout - out ( which just has to be a first for American living ) , and , full of all , a cameo from the Doctor and the TARDIS . I kind of like they had really gone for it and get up in all eleven Doctor of the Church – running in fast - movement to the Benny Hill medicine , which was observably absent from all the unimaginative Britishness – but considering this is the show ’s first right MD Who reference after twelve years , I guess I ca n’t really plain . ( And no , by all accounts Leela is not named after Louise Jameson ’s savage 70s associate . )
As someone who is not only a presidents buff but also a Brit , I ’ll say two thing about the British successiveness : all the gag were thoroughly obvious , and the accents were reasonably much uniformly awful , out of doors mayhap Phil LaMarr ’s Hermes and , weirdly enough , John DiMaggio ’s Bender . However , I ’m pretty indisputable that was the whole spot . Futurama fuck its outsize , over - the - top meta - parodies , and a set of the British gags fall squarely into that class . At this head , I more savour and take account that form of humor than find it all that funny , although I did unreservedly make love Dr. Zoidsmythe and the dreadlocked , Manhattan United stick out Hermes .
This probably says nothing good about either me or the episode , but three of my favorite gags had to do with horrendous acts of animal revilement . There was Bender ’s , uh , unique take on clubbing , the Professor ’s offhand remark that Bender had kicked their knight to death , and of grade Ben Franklin ’s ultimate weapon , the Franklinator , which is just a club with a badger splice to it – or , if you ’re ill-fated , a chipmunk .
Overall , I ’d say this is one of the new time of year ’s better installment . It fall just short of a classic in my book – it does n’t have quite enough jokes or quite enough big theme to make that leap . That said , it ’s got a goodly amount of both gags and softheaded ideas , and I suspect this is an episode that will stand up particularly well to a lot of repeat viewing . It ’s also one of the most beautiful episodes to reckon at , what with all the unusual costumes and options and ludicrously striking Leela segmentation . And the TARDIS ! Any episode with the TARDIS is all right in my book .
Now , if you ’ll excuse me , I have some presidents to tell . I think I might attempt it vacate alphabetically this time .
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