I think it's really important to acknowledge that stew at this point in his broadsheet newspaper positively reviewed career has not let himself go yet.
Was Stu's friend from 1993 the same Philip Fry who was zapped forward through time and wound up as the star of Futurama? They seem like the sort of fellows who would get along well.
Simon Quinlank is the saviour of this. Lee and Herring, at this stage, are fairly weak. They were better with a narrative behind them in the episodic format that they went on to utilise in TMwRnJ. I think it's not too surprising that they didn't get a third series out of TMwRnJ - but it's even less surprising that Fist of Fun wasn't renewed.