History Fridge / Futurama

* In "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", Bender's interface resets to Human mode after Leela shoots him. Since hers is the first face he sees on waking up, this makes sense, because [[spoiler:she's a mutant!]]

* In "A Clockwork Origin", Farnsworth takes the gang to Odulvai Gorge to search for the "missing, missing link between man and ape." While digging up fossils, Hermes accidentally uncovers a flash-fossilized skeleton of what he states is "another one of Fry's dogs." But wait, if Seymour was established as Fry's only pet, and he had no other known dogs, how is this possible? Well, if you remember "Bender's Big Score", the supposedly "paradox-free" method of time travel that the Scammers uncovered created [[spoiler:exact duplicates of the person who used the time sphere, and the time duplicate was always doomed to a horrible fate]]. You could argue that the Seymour that [[spoiler:Lars]] kept company was a time duplicate as well, and that when [[spoiler:Bender flash-fossilized him, that was his fate.]] Thus, the fossilized remains of the dog Hermes dug up could have been a time duplicate.

* In "I Second That Emotion", when the doctor took out Nibbler's fang, Fry noticed that there are rings on it, and the doctor suggested that it probably indicated Nibbler's age. Fry then said that it would take a genius to count all those rings, right before the doctor told him that, according to the rings, Nibbler is five. The joke is probably that Fry was too stupid to count five rings, but later in the series, we found out that Nibbler is [[spoiler:older than the universe]], and [[spoiler:Fry has a "special" brain.]] It could be that Fry actually saw billions of rings, while the doctor only saw five, because [[spoiler:Fry is the only one who is supposed to know that Nibblonians are an ancient race, and therefore only he sees billions of rings.]]

** Episodes after "The Late Philip J. Fry" maintained consistency with its timeline by showing that certain events which might have altered or threatened the mundane existences of the remaining crew were dependent on the absent parties. [[spoiler:For instance, "Decision 3012"'s BadFuture, in which [[RobotWar robots have driven humanity into hiding by 3027]], is caused by Bender, who leads the uprising and becomes ruler of Earth. In "The Inhuman Torch," Bender saves the Earth from being turned into a miniature sun by a "psychotic flame creature"...but Bender also is accidentally responsible for the creature's presence on Earth in the first place, meaning that the planet wouldn't have needed saving if he weren't there.]]

* The "RetCon" (most fans will know the one as soon as I mention the episode in conjunction with ''Bender's Big Score'') had to have been planned at least as far back as "Jurassic Bark", since [[spoiler:Seymour almost definitely had to have been flash-fossilized while still alive]] and what are the chances that [[spoiler:a dog would die of old age and immediately get flash-fossilized]] as early as 2012?
** It does sort of ruin the TearJerker-ness of Jurassic Bark's ending however. [[spoiler:But it does make the ending overall better. Fry was right in that Seymour lived a long and full life, but he was wrong in that Seymour had Fry, a chrono-duplicate, but still the same Fry, right by him until his death and probably never forgot his master.]]
*** I just want to point out, [[spoiler:Seymour's fossil in "Jurassic Bark" is standing up and the last shot we have of him is laying down]].
*** Considering that it involved paradox-free time travel, the RetCon was [[spoiler:[[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong Lars!Fry changing it for the better.]] [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Lars!Fry spent the twelve years filling the hole in his family due to Present!Fry being frozen.]] [[BittersweetEnding Even though they likely believed he was killed when Panucci was blasted, they'd at least have closure and the twelve years with Fry.]]]]

* In the preview of the first 90 seconds of the new season airing on Creator/ComedyCentral was a joke where Fry asks Professor Farnsworth why he's suddenly covered in severe burns. The sight gag reveal was funny, but the extreme extent of the injuries left you wondering why Fry isn't in agonizing pain. When the premiere episode "Rebirth" aired, you learn at the end that [[spoiler: the Fry with the burns, whom the viewers watched the entire episode was actually a robot Leela made out of grief because she thought the real Fry was dead. It then turns out the real Fry was still undergoing the rebirth process in the Professor's vat of stem cells. It explains why the Fry in the beginning didn't feel any pain from the burns. He was a robot!

** Speaking of Zoidberg, the second XMas episode when he came in after everybody claimed they were Santa Claus while dressed as Jesus became much funnier when I realized that [[spoiler: Jesus himself was originally Jewish so for the lone Jewish (or something) character to say that is more hilarious.]]

* I never had a problem with the "Luck of the Fryrish" episode's ending, but it just suddenly became more meaningful to me. It is revealed at the end that [[spoiler: the tombstone of one 'Philip J. Fry,' whom Fry thought was his spiteful brother Yancy after taking his name, contained a heartfelt engravement on it saying that this Fry had been "named for his uncle." It was Yancy's son.]] Anyway, this becomes more meaningful when you think of how the name "Philip J. Fry" for the Fry we know was itself a real-life tribute to the late Phil Hartman.

* Bender has a thing for Asian human women. Both humans he's ever had a romantic relationship with ([[spoiler:Lucy Liu and Amy]]) are Asian.

* When you find out at the end of "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" that Zoidberg's species [[spoiler: dies right after mating]], you realize why (a) they have no concept of romance ([[spoiler: who cares about pair bonding when it only lasts for one mating?]]); and (b) why Zoidberg's genes are favored over his status as a doctor (and it has nothing to do with him being poor; [[spoiler: if both parents die right after mating, the only thing their kids get from them are genes]]).

* In ''A Farewell to Arms'', the world ending prophecy foretold that [[spoiler: Mars will be destroyed due to sun flares]], and Earth will not be affected. However, [[spoiler: when Mars was dying, it almost collided with Earth.]] Why? Well, because Earth's orbit was changed during ''Crimes of the Hot'', and the prophecy did not account for that change.

* Between the fountain of youth in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" and the earth's orbit being changed in "Crimes of the Hot," this could explain why the characters don't age very fast despite the fact years pass. Notice that [[spoiler: Fry ages normally when he goes back in time in "Bender's Big Score"]] but he looks the same in the final season as he does in the pilot.

* In "Bender's Big Score", Fry's plan to stop the wedding failed, because Lars had a spare pen with him. Oddly convenient, don't you think? Remember that [[spoiler: Lars ''is'' Fry]], so he knew it was just the kind of thing he would do.

** The short lifespan is also explainable with the fact [[spoiler:Lars is Fry, who dies about seven years after the episode]]. Plus Fry [[HumanPopsicle is technically]] way over the normal human lifespan, so it might confuse the device.

* In "The Late Philip J. Fry," Fry, Farnsworth and Bender never actually found out about the upcoming disaster at Hedonismbot's bachelor party, which the latter two had planned to attend while Fry was on his date with Leela. So why didn't they get killed? [[spoiler:Because Bender had to bury their dead time-paradox selves. Farnsworth was only going as Bender's plus one and wouldn't have attended without him.]]

* The jokes about Leela's lack of depth perception seem like stock RuleOfFunny for a one-eyed character. [[spoiler:After TheReveal regarding her origins, though, they start to make a lot more sense. Leela's condition appears to be a handicap because it ''is''—it's not a trait distinctive to a species but a genetic abnormality. Essentially she's no different from a "normal" human who lost vision in one eye.]]
* "Rebirth"'s B-story, in which Bender is forced to constantly party to burn off the steadily building energy from a DoomsdayDevice that's powering him, softens its implications of idiocy a bit. [[spoiler:The entire cast save Farnsworth were unaware that Fry had been [[RoboticReveal replaced with an identical robot covered in a sheathe of fake skin]]. With Leela in a coma and likewise replaced by a robot, the most obvious candidate for figuring out the truth was Bender, who unwittingly lived with the robot as his roommate for at least a couple of days...but given that he was unable to even stand still at the time for fear of being blown up, you can't really blame him for not sniffing out the fake.]]

* In "The Series Has Landed," when Leela expresses concern that they'll freeze, Bender cracks, "Whaddya mean 'we,' mammal?" At this point Leela's biological species is unknown [[spoiler:[[HumanAllAlong and presumed extraterrestrial]]]], but for someone as crude as Bender [[BoobsOfSteel her biological class is a no-brainer]].

* Bender's reproductive instrument is his antenna, which is on his head. [[spoiler:Basically, [[StealthPun he's a dickhead.]]]]
** It also explains why he keeps comparing it to a certain male anatomy, given that it has the same primary function.

** Most of the characters thought that RobosexualsAreCreeps to a degree in "I Dated A Robot" drop it by "Proposition Infinity". The latter episode takes place several years after the former and the crew is used to having a robot as a friend, [[CharacterDevelopment so they later dropped their old bigotry]], and Bender has completely changed his views as it's been ''[[TheSlowPath millennia]]'' since that episode. The exception is Professor Farnsworth, [[spoiler:who was only motivated [[BoomerangBigot to get back at his ex robot girlfriend for leaving him]]]] [[DeliberateValuesDissonance and grew up long before anyone of his crew but Fry was born]][[note]]maybe Zoidberg, but he's from an alien culture[[/note]].

* Lars is beloved by the heads at the Head Museum because he [[spoiler:understands the 20th century, whereas most other people have [[FutureImperfect misconceptions about it]] such as mammoth hunts on flying scooters; and because Lars practiced feeding water-dwelling creatures.]]

* "The Tip of Zoidberg" near the end where [[spoiler: They're using the Rube Goldberg machine to kill the Professor]] Bender chops the salad with the [[spoiler:Cyanide axes...]] Which the professor later eats...

* In The Late Philip J. Fry, [[spoiler: Future!Amy is with Future!Cubert. Where is Kif?]]
** [[spoiler:He has probably aged to the point where he has become a colony of flying hookworms.]]
* At the end of "The Beast With A Billion Backs", we learn that Yivo [[spoiler: has ''Gonorrhea'']]. And for a good chunk of the movie, Yivo was [[spoiler: having (unprotected) sex with the ''entire universe'']].
** Yivo [[spoiler: contracting Gonorrhea and the ability to have sex with the entire universe means that shklee is in some way biologically compatible with humans and possibly the rest of the universe. Since shklee lives in an alternate universe where shklee is the only living organism, shklee must have picked up the disease from someone in this universe. Meaning shklee probably contracted a lot of other illnesses as well, and since gonorrhea is still around, some other well known STD's may have made to the future as well. Also, since Yivo is the only natural organism in shklis universe, shklee may not have ever developed an immune system. So all the diseases shklee contracted are likely to kill shklim and shklee has no way to fight them off. Also, why has gonorrhea not been cured. Laziness (working on dog make-up), greed (but think how much we make in treatment), inability (some things can't be done), or necessity (people have to die somehow)?]]
** One more thing: Yivo was explicitly [[spoiler: mating with the entire Universe. Everybody in the {{WesternAnimation/Futurama}} Universe might be pregnant with an EldritchAbomination.]]
*** Or [[spoiler:Yivo is impregnated by everyone in the universe.]]
** The fact that Yivo can [[spoiler:mate]] opens up a rather disturbing possibility: the only reason why a being like Yivo would develop the power to [[spoiler:mate]] is if there are others like it. The idea that there could've been multiple versions of [[EldritchAbomination Yivo]] is creepy enough, but it leads to a far more disturbing question: given how Yivo so godlike in power it can invade an entire universe, just ''what'' or '''who''' killed shkler species so greatly it led the sole survivor no evidence that shkler race existed?

** Fry isn't picky when it comes to Leela(s), which is evidenced in "Rebirth". His [[spoiler:robot duplicate]] said he loves Leela, "any Leela". So we can assume this is picked up from the real Fry's mentality. He probably is well aware that the woman he actually fell in love with is lost to the ether two universes back but he's here now and doesn't really care since he can make the Leela of this universe happy as much as he had intended for the one that he had a relationship with in the original universe. The bit about him shamelessly assuming his paradox double's identity is still solid, though. That is a bit creepy and underhanded.

* "The Why of Fry" with [[spoiler: Fry being trapped by the crappy escape pod with the flying brains, in another universe]]. If the "Time Travel causes another universe" theory holds up in the show, it means that there's a universe where Fry [[spoiler: never returned]]. Does that mean [[spoiler: Nibbler stopped his masquerade and told the crew what transpired? Would he keep it up and leave a fake suicide note?]].

* In Bender's Game, it's revealed that [[spoiler: Igner is actually the son of Mom and the Professor.]] With that in mind, i realized something... something quite unsettling... Think about Igner's character. Slow, dim-witted, meek, childish, clearly some severe mental deficiency of some kind, but it's never specified. Why? [[spoiler: Because Igner is the result of generations of Fry's missing Delta Wave being passed on, and considering the Professor's a genius, it's clear to see that it skips every generation, with possibly even more severe deterioration with every second generation.]] Which is exactly why Igner is the way he is! [[spoiler: He's the Fry of the Future!!]]

* The (fourth) series finale, ''Meanwhile''. [[spoiler: At the end of the episode, the Professor fixes the time button in order to bring himself, Fry, and Leela back to the instant second before he had the general idea for it. Surely a happy ending, right? Fry and Leela still get to live their lives together, but this time with their friends and family. Except Professor Farnsworth says that ''none'' of them will remember the previous episode's events. Including him, since he clearly and specifically says "we." Which means that when he gets back to the past, he'll still think the time button is a great idea, so he'll still build it ''all over again'' with the ''same'' result. From Fry and Leela's perspective, this just means getting to live the same full life together. But for everyone else, the universe suddenly ends one day FOREVER.]]
** A previous episode saves it. "The Late Philip J. Fry" establishes that when the universe ends, a completely identical one comes into being. Since Farnsworth, Fry and Bender overshot the second universe by 6990 years, their counterparts in that universe will do just the same with the current one and [[spoiler:due to the time button will have an incredibly high chance of ending up in one of the many repeats, and [[BigDamnHeroes finding a solution that doesn't repeat history again and again.]] ]] Plus [[spoiler:there's going to be a Simpsons crossover in the future, so it's going to be resolved anyways.]]

* When I first watched "Game of Tones" I was confused why Fry's mom still missed him when he came back in "Benders Big Score" but then I remembered it was a "paradox correcting timecode" and if Bender can cut Hermes head off in the past and him be perfectly fine in the present then presumably once he returned to the present then [[spoiler: Lars Fillmore's]] entire history would [[RetGone have]] [[UnPerson been]] [[HappyEndingOverride erased]]. The reason I put this in fridge Horror and not fridge Brilliance is in this case what would of happened to Leelu.

* Leela doesn't have much of an arc in "Beast With a Billion Backs," but her emotionally distant behavior holds a lot more emotional weight remembering that ''Bender's Big Score'' canonically only happened a month prior. Less than a month ago, Leela watched the love of her life first leave her at the altar without explanation, then perform a HeroicSacrifice for her, only to learn that he's [[spoiler:a doomed alternate version of Fry]], surely affecting how she sees the latter going forward. Now not only is Fry committing to Colleen, but Amy, whose romantic success has always been a subject of envy for Leela, gets married to Kif without a hitch. Then, much like Leela in the previous movie, Amy loses the love of her life and Leela is naturally sympathetic... only for Amy to shack up with the pervert who Leela despises. It makes her reluctance to trust Yivo make so much more sense -- her last attempt to commit to anybody literally blew up in her face, and everything in the world seems likely to remind her of that fact. It also makes a lot more sense why she'd call out Fry for "forgetting" her for Colleen, as who ''knows'' how much they'd addressed the whole Lars thing since the previous movie?

** Also, let's take into account that [[spoiler: Fry went on an overseas mission]] that probably took years. Therefore, whether it's "Bender's Big Score" or "Luck of the Fryish" the scene where [[spoiler: Yancy names his son after Fry and claims he misses him everyday]] could tie into either canon. He could be [[spoiler: missing him because he got frozen or because he's on an overseas trip and might not come back. They never explicitly say whether they believe Fry to be dead or simply gone at the time.]]
*** Paradox-''correcting'' time code, bitch!

* In "Luck of the Fryrish" why isn't [[spoiler: Fry's nephew Philip J. Fry's]] head in a jar at the museum if he's a celebrity?

* Also in "Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?", we're introduced to Claw Flock, a fight to the death between two males for the hand of a contested female. It seems stupid to us humans, but it makes total sense given that Decapodians die after mating. A male that goes courting and seems to have found a receptive female ia basically getting ready to die, and therefore ends up passing the point of no return some time before the mating frenzy. If they lose the courtship, they're at a point where they didn't expect to live, which could ruin them as surely as DeathBySex.

* Zoidberg introducing himself as "Norm and Sam and Sadie's boy" in "That’s Lobstertainment!" makes sense considering that Decapodians [[DeathBySex die when they mate]]. He’s referring to his two deceased biological parents as well as whoever actually raised him.

** They could just adopt, or Zoidberg could get neutered to stop the DeathBySex aspect

*** OccamsRazor: the Robot Santa is far more motivated by the idea of punishing people for even the tiniest of transgressions than rewarding them for any reason. As Zoidberg is Planet Express' (and maybbe even New New York's) resident ButtMonkey, he's the one person that Robot Santa can trust to meet his high standards of punishment.

* In "The Thief of Baghdad", Calculon plans to actually die in order to make his performance as accurate as possible-however one wonders why he didn't just get a new body, which all robots are capable of. Then you remember that Calculon was built in 2019, long before proper A.I was mass produced, meaning he would never have been built with a back-up chip.

* Also in "A Pharaoh to Remember", Pharaoh Amenhotep's funeral includes entertainment by an EltonJohn stand-in, who sings a selection of Soundalike Elton John songs before being entombed himself. Notably, he does ''not'' sing the one hit most appropriate: "Candle In The Wind", which the real-life Elton John did once re-record for a royal funeral (Princess Diana).

* Also in "A Pharaoh to Remember", Pharaoh Amenhotep's funeral includes entertainment by an EltonJohn stand-in, who sings a selection of Soundalike Elton John songs before being entombed himself. Notably, he does ''not'' sing the one hit msot appropriate: "Candle In The Wind", which the real-life Elton John did once re-record for a royal funeral (Princess Diana).

* I only just this instant realized that Zoidberg's accent, and, indeed, name, are supposed to be Yiddish. [[WhatAnIdiot I know, I know... I know]].

* "Rebirth"'s B-story, in which Bender is forced to constantly party to burn off the steadily building energy from a DoomsdayDevice that's powering him, softens its IdiotPlot implications a bit. [[spoiler:The entire cast save Farnsworth were unaware that Fry had been [[RoboticReveal replaced with an identical robot covered in a sheathe of fake skin]]. With Leela in a coma and likewise replaced by a robot, the most obvious candidate for figuring out the truth was Bender, who unwittingly lived with the robot as his roommate for at least a couple of days...but given that he was unable to even stand still at the time for fear of being blown up, you can't really blame him for not sniffing out the fake.]]

** They were already that close, they just had a normal sibling rivalry as kids

* "Zapp Dingbat" has a joke where Leela sees her mom kiss Zapp and immediately assumes Zapp "took advantage" of her, including showing her a doll to indicate "where [Zapp] touched [her]." Leela's always seen Zapp as pathetic, but this implies she sees him as an actual sexual predator, which isn't inconsistent with his previous behavior (especially "In-a-Gadda-de-Leela," where he nearly tricks Leela into having sex under false pretenses and the two are then forced into sex by the V-GINY). Additionally, while Leela usually brushes Zapp off as a pest and fends him off easily, she seems more uncomfortable and avoidant in this episode -- something that makes more sense following the events of the aforementioned episode where Zapp shows he's capable of actual sexual manipulation and not just bad pickup lines and whining. So Leela spent most of the episode listening to her mother, one of the few people Leela really loves and trusts, defend someone Leela knows is a predator. It's all played for laughs, but this context makes her discomfort ''much'' more understandable, possibly even interpretable as sexual ''trauma'' instead of mere humiliation.

* "Zapp Dingbat" has a joke where Leela sees her mom kiss Zapp and immediately assumes Zapp "took advantage" of her, including showing her a doll to indicate "where [Zapp] touched [her]." Leela's always seen Zapp as pathetic, but this implies she sees him as an actual sexual predator, which isn't inconsistent with his previous behavior (especially "In-a-Gadda-de-Leela," where he nearly tricks Leela into having sex under false pretenses). So Leela spent most of the episode listening to her mother, one of the few people Leela really loves and trusts, defend someone Leela knows is a predator. It's all played for laughs, but this context makes her discomfort ''much'' more understandable.

* In "The Tip of the Zoidberg", Mom is one of the few people who is kind to Zoidberg, with the latter even calling [[FirstNameBasis being allowed to call her by her first name]]. This seems odd, but there are several explanations: ** Zoidberg is actually skilled in ''alien'' medicine. Mom is definitely a rotten person, but a good businesswoman like her knows that you shouldn't alienate someone of that talent.
** Mom could be legitimately touched by the fact that Zoidberg gave up her riches to help the Professor. That kind of loyalty is something any employer would dream of.

* During one episode, time skips ahead at random intervals. It eventually gets so bad that isolated areas leap ahead by decades at a time. Illustrating this, we cut to a gag involving two kids complaining about having to pay for senior citizens' social benefits, only to suddenly skip ahead to old age and yell "I deserve free money!". While it is just a quick gag, consider: only that one spot moved forward. Their families are (more than likely) still their normal ages. [[AdultFear The kids' parents will now have to deal with the horror of their sons suddenly being far older than they are.]]

* Why does Zapp Brannigan's outfit include a DangerouslyShortSkirt, besides ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''? Because at some point, women were allowed under his command. Presumably, he wanted women under his command to wear miniskirts, but was unable to get a female-only uniform in place. So he decided to make it the standard uniform - and when women were banned from serving under him, the miniskirt became TheArtifact.

** Pretty much Fridge Squick for real life oceans, too - every oceanic process pretty much makes up the contents of the ocean besides H2O. All the fish pee, poop, blood, rotting flesh, ect, doesn't really go anywhere distinctly different from the same fluids they drink or breathe through... Fry's urine wouldn't be that gross to them, presumably, if they've thought about it for even a second.

* In "The Tip of the Zoidberg", we see that Mom is one of the few people who actually is kind to Zoidberg. This seems odd, until you remember that Zoidberg has willingly sacrificed wealth out of loyalty to the Professor. While Mom is definitely mean, it is possible she genuinely respects that kind of loyalty.