Politics in Futurama
Series creator Matt Groening intended from the outset that Futurama would lampoon not only the conventions of science fiction, but elements of present-day life, serving as a form of political and social satire.
It is not clear how much power the countries actually have in the Earthican government, though it appears that remnants of many U.S. states, for example, have survived into the 31st century, including "New New York", "New New Jersey", "Nukevada", "Penn Republic" and "Sylvania".
Later in the episode, Richard Nixon enters the running, his living head preserved in a glass jar and mounted on Bender's previously pawned body.
[6][7] However, it is soon revealed that Nixon's head has evil intentions, planning to "sell children's organs to zoos for meat" and "go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place!"
Series creator Matt Groening has expressed pleasure at being able to continue poking fun at Nixon thirty or forty years after he was in office.
The Futurama universe has a cooperative interplanetary organization known as the Democratic Order of Planets or D.O.O.P..[1] First mentioned in the episode "Love's Labours Lost in Space", it is explored in more detail in "Brannigan Begin Again", in which it is compared to the present-day United Nations and the Federation from Star Trek.
[1] Episodes with environmental themes include "A Big Piece of Garbage", "The Problem with Popplers", "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", "Crimes of the Hot", "Fun on a Bun", "Attack of the Killer App" (partially), and "Fry Am the Egg Man."
At a scientific conference, led by Al Gore, Professor Farnsworth reveals that beer-powered robots, including Bender, are the source of current global warming, and President Nixon and Professor Wernstrom attempt to destroy all robots on Earth by tricking them to convene on the Galapagos Islands for a party, and then bathe the islands in electromagnetic waves from a satellite in space.
In promoting the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, the producers of Futurama were approached to make a short animated trailer, starring Al Gore and Bender.
This trailer was released online,[14] and is included as an extra on the DVD of Bender's Big Score, with a commentary track by Al Gore, David X. Cohen and series creator Matt Groening.
[16] In "Xmas Story" Leela explains that snow still exists in the future because, even though global warming occurred, "nuclear winter canceled it out."
This leads the conservationists, who originally set out to save the wildlife and clean up the oil spill, to resort to hunting the penguins to prevent them starving from overpopulation.
The Futurama movie Into the Wild Green Yonder showcases the fight between conservationism and the interests of big business; the construction of the universe's largest giant mini golf course (headed by Amy's father, Leo Wong) threatens to destroy 12% (an entire branch) of the Milky Way.
An environmental survey headed by Professor Farnsworth and the Futurama crew discovers an asteroid full of primitive life, orbiting a violet dwarf star.
However, Farnsworth has been bribed by Leo, and declares the destruction 'environmentally friendly', leading to plans for the dwarf star to be imploded, creating a black hole.
The episode "Bend Her" depicts Bender transitioning to compete as a woman in the Olympics, as a parody of the inclusion of transgender women in sports.
[20][21][22] Throughout the Futurama episodes there is a theme of, as series creator Matt Groening put it in 1999, a "corporate, commercial, confusing world where the military is just as stupid as it is currently" with a "corrupt megacorporation" named MomCorp which is run by a "scrawny elderly woman" who is very rich "from manufacturing Mom's Old-Fashioned Robot Oil.
[24] Additionally, people are tested to find out what they would be "best at in life," as shown in "Space Pilot 3000" and other episodes, a choice that Bender, Fry, and other characters reject, wanting to "go against their programming, whether or not they will be successful.
"[23] The show also criticized jingoism in "A Taste of Freedom", lampooned groups like Parents Television Council and Parents Against Media Violence with groups like "Fathers Against Rude Television" and criticized the star system in "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV" and "Calculon 2.0" while addressing the controversy around genetically modified food in "Leela and the Genestalk".
