Futurama Might Be Anti-Science: Analysis of Rage Against the Vaccine - Hulu Futurama Return EP07 

"I don't want to live on this planet anymore" is another all timer in that ep, and they do a great double beat with it lol

Yeah, I did my best to bring that up, but it's a lot to unpack because of how closely linked misinformation is with it. There are also times where it is, and isn't, appropriate to lump the groups together. The internet is not a great place for nuance lol.

THIS

Like it or not, that episode did give us a GOAT Farnsworth line and a killer meme lol

The entire time my husband was asking for La Barbara and Hermes to address the cheating only for them to bush by it. SMH guess it's the family guy treatment for them

Low hanging fruit is giving them too much credit. They're just walking through the orchard picking up the rotten fruit on the ground. The Hermes of it all is odd. It feels like they're using him more this season, which is good, but not in the most interesting ways, which is obviously bad lol. Sometimes I wonder if Hermes Requisitions His Grove Back set the bar too high on Hermes episodes

That reminds me of the time that Hermes protected bender from being rejected

Totally get where you're coming from. Always Sunny now has a whole damn COVID season, but it might work a bit better because it's diluted over 8 episodes? But yeah, it's probably better off with the approach Friends took to 9/11.

Fully agree they love science more than just about any show that isn't Star Trek. Calling them anti-science is kinda a bit, and I'll admit I'm doing WAY too deep of a read here lmao. And while I think times changing definitely has an impact, the writing for the show was just better in the initial run.

Yo, legit thank you for noticing! That screen is in perspective and to the left so I had to do a good amount of photoshop and actually go in and draw some of the monitor edge to get it to work. Time well spent lol

@@bennett420 it’s a fun detail, you deserve more attention dude

I appreciate the vote of confidence! Thanks for watching!

What is it based on then? Evidence?

@@ghurcbghurcb YES! Including the law of information, the anthropic principle, and the second law of thermodynamics, as well as philosophical arguments. None of those things get you to a God or gods to worship, but do point to an agent ( a term for a person who acts) outside of time, space and matter, that is a first cause or as Aquinas called him, an "unmoved mover."

@@NerdRahtio Anthropic principle does not point to a creator. It basically states "you ask why the life is possible on Earth, well, if it wasn't, you wouldn't be here asking this question". There is no such thing as "The law of information". And the second law of thermodynamics only applies to CLOSED systems. Earth is not a closed system, there is energy coming to it from the outside. Can you guess what the source is?

@@ghurcbghurcb the universe is a closed system, with a beginning, and while some claim the appearance of design (even Dawkins admits that) inherent in the Anthropic principle is just “how it is” that doesn’t best explain the evidence.

@@NerdRahtio Yes, the universe is a closed system, and eventually there will be no usable energy left in it. Until then, life and evolution are possible. The fact that entropy has to increase in the universe overall doesn't mean it can't decrease locally.

When the show was announced I knew we were getting a low effort covid episode with the Omicronians because of that fucking name for the variant lol. Lower expectations and an undying love for the show got me through it with a confused glaze over my eyes. I'll be watching the Zapp one later and have similar expectations.

@@bennett420 Yep. It's not that bad, just really boring, where this one just wanted to get COVID jokes out of the way.

Same.

spent most of my time watching it thinking: why did they even make this episode, all of these jokes have been told and everything it's saying has been said

@@bennett420 fr the virus is named explovid, make it literally do that, explode people, you could justify by saying, “it’s a common omicronian virus,” and what not, also gloom was lame they should have used holograms instead

would have added a deadly element to the virus. Kinda fucked up to do a straight up Covid parallels where no one dies.

I agree that is the intention of the episode. I guess we just disagree that it accomplished it. Obviously I think my thought process was pretty sound, so I'd be interested to know what part of the analysis was hogwash. Thanks for watching

Some of those issues of observation are being solved by using less relative scales and more absolute scales. The problem of faith in factual observation can be mitigated through sufficient peer review and statistical analysis. I regognize that human truth is not an absolute truth, but which foundations of our knowlegde do you claim are unproven or unproveable?

@bubblesbomb8949 The Origin of energy. That which makes up the entirety of the universe across all of space-time, upon which everything we know and understand was built. -e Without reconciliation of this paradox, everything we think we know means nothing. imo.

Messy is probably the best word to describe it. Sloppy construction yields messy results

I understand that's what Clockwork Origin was doing on a basic level, I guess I just don't see the value in preaching to a choir. Especially if you're going to use it as a place to spout off a bunch of intelligent design talking points. It's just an interesting way to look at older episodes of my favorite show. Calling Futurama anti-science was the joke.

Most Christian denominations were against the idea outright, American Protestants especially. The Catholic Church was quite opposed to it for a while, until Pope Pius XII allowed the entertainment of theistic evolution in the 1920s, if I remember correctly.

You certainly can, but when you do so you aren't using science to come to that conclusion. And that's not a value judgement. Science is a specific method of making observations, trying to explain those observations with theories that can be used to make falsifiable hypotheses, and trying to prove those hypotheses false. God creating life through evolution is certainly a theory, but as far as I can tell the theory doesn't make any predictions on the world that can be tested. So it isn't science. That's okay! But it shouldn't be taught in a science class, because it would distract from the methodology that is being learned there. I'd be perfectly fine with a religious studies class that studies all the different religious customs of the world. But that's a whole different class, you know?

Centrist cowardice is based now?

I'm legitimately curious, so please help me understand your perspective - you would appreciate the episode more had Futurama not towed the line, and instead, chose to go completely antivaxx? @@bennett420

Short answer: Yes. At least it would be something. Longer answer: Not all content needs to say something meaningful, comedy in particular. But if you're going to make content about a controversial topic years after it's relevant, I feel like you should either have something to say, or at fresh set of jokes/perspectives. This episode offers neither. If Futurama managed to put together a coherent and compelling antivaxx episode I would have been floored. I'll admit, that's because I don't think you can put together a coherent and compelling antivaxx argument, but all the more reason taking that stance would have been interesting. If it was an incoherent mess, well it would be something to talk about, it would be a shift in their usual stances, it would be SOMETHING. If the messaging of an episode like that WAS coherent. Hot damn, well I'd have even more to think about. But instead this episode is nothing. It's stale jokes and tired takes, why make it?

Interested to know your thoughts after actually watching the video. I agree that they do love science, and that's what they were trying to do, I just think they didn't execute it very well.

I see(d) what you did there, but also really hope that's not where they go with it, especially because they've already added kids this revival. Having 2 of your 20 episodes focused on kids being born when the show might be over is an odd choice.

They literally just cemented the relationship

Yes. It was very odd.

@@camelopardalis84 Apparently, DOOP are absolute imperalists now.

Feels like they're in a "play with fire and you might get burned" territory with some of these topical episodes. You're inviting scrutiny when you discuss topics like this, to just take them lightly at that point is irresponsible. They did a much better job with Zapp Gets Canceled IMO

​@@bennett420 That's true. Trying to stay neutral or even just trying not anger people with some of these topics can just let people who are wrong, literally scientifically wrong, feel like they're being given a pass. With people still dying or becoming severely ill due to COVID, it actually becomes dangerous to make an episode where vaccines are shown to be unscientific. Intentional or not it's opening itself up to that

Thanks! Totally feel the comfort food. I used to put it on every night to fall asleep to. It's all so embedded in my brain now I can't help but think in Futurama lol.

Yeah, its like if you go to a shitty restaurant to buy your old favourite, and they spit on it as they serve you.

I appreciate the info, honestly. You'd think they wouldn't cram shit in your head that was debunked in 1915, but here I am 100 years later being dumb on the internet. Misunderstood that part, clearly, though I dunno about completely. Like I said, thanks for helping me learn something today

Gravity, in general, is a law: a collection of observations of cause and effect. If you drop a metal ball from the tower of Pisa, it will fall to the earth. Law. There are many explanations for why the law of Gravity is the way it is. These are theories. Newton's theory of celestial gravity, attempted to explain that things fall to the earth because they have mass and masses are attracted to each other. It went on to use that theory to generate the hypothesis that celestial orbits are subject to the same attraction as experienced by an object falling to the earth. People tried to disprove the theory of Newton's gravity with experiment, and for a long time failed to do so. The theory became accepted as more or less correct and useful and was used to continue to investigate the universe around us. Where Newton's theory of gravity failed, newer theories tried to fill in the gaps of knowledge. Why are masses attracted to each other? Can something without mass (light) be attracted to something with mass? Eventually, a different theory, one of Einstein's, came along and helped to answer these questions. Objects in space follow geodesics, which are the shortest path through space-time, a 4 dimensional mathematical construct. Energy localized in space distorts space-time, changing geodesics in such a way that causes objects with energy (i.e. everything that exists) to gravitate in various ways. This theory generated new hypotheses (e.g., black holes might exist, the sun warping star light around it, etc.). People tried to disprove the theory and failed spectacularly, and for now it's the best theory of gravity that we have. Newton's gravity and Einstein's, and the various modern theories of gravity are specific explanations of why the laws of gravity, the observations of cause and effect surrounding the attraction of energy to itself, happen. They can be used to generate hypothesis, which can be attempted to be disproved. If people fail to disprove the theory, hey you might have something there. But "gravity", i.e. the observations themselves, are not a theory. Bennett was perfectly cromulent here. Observation, Explanation, Prediction, Experiment: Science.

I'll always watch more Futurama, but agreed. They feel a bit soulless.

I still haven't finished it. The first few episodes felt almost phoned in. Especially when they made the same joke like ten times in one episode.

Thanks! It's a bit of a deep read, and maybe even a stretch with the commentary in Spanish Fry. The message of that episode is definitely the moral/ethical question about poaching. Fry's nose/lower horn and Bigfoot's foot are clear stand ins for Rhino Horns. I like how the episode still seems to stand up to extreme scrutiny, (which is apparently what I do on this channel lol). The other examples, Clockwork Origin and Rage Against the Vaccine work fine enough on the surface, but immediately fall apart if you look for deeper meaning.

Haven't watched Simpson's in years, but I love the idea of a well tackled misinformation ep, maybe I'll have to hunt it down. I don't think the vaccine one was quite the same as the deeper evolution issue, it was just really basic stuff with jokes that didn't really justify it.

@@bennett420 It was the first episode of last year's season, "Habeas Tortoise"

Then it shouldn't have gotten on its own soapbox when its focus is comedy.

What I find funny is that it's being proven now that it was all a money making scheme. Fraudcci is being investigated and the drug companies made BILLIONS off it. But we're the "morons" for not wanting it... "Do your own research!!!" Well we did and found it's bunk.

Certainly not on the surface, but that's kinda my point. The surface level argument in Rage Against the Vaccine and Clockwork Origin is explicitly pro-science. But under scrutiny the episodes are a little lazy and fall apart. On the surface of Spanish Fry is the anti-poaching messaging. But under deeper inspection, the messaging holds up. We're probably not thinking about it while watching it in the moment, but we're talking about it now lol. I just think the CC and Hulu episodes lack the attention to detail and effort of the original run of the series.

@@bennett420 You make a good point. I probably jumped the gun because I forgot about the part Ranger Park says he want to cut off Big Foot’s foot. As seen in your video lol I was probably just muddled up by all this talk about aphrodisiacs haha

This video is deep in the weeds, and while the poaching is the main narrative of the episode, I think I barely mention it in in the video lol

Don't even know what you think I'm crying about, thanks for the engagement I guess?