Futurama's Nerdiest Jokes

Appearance:  "Space Pilot 300"

Few cartoons master the background gag the way Futurama does, from creators being animated into the show to obscure sci-fi puns decorating local haunts; but did you know they've made their own language?  More than one?

Appearing mostly in the background, the first language was nothing but a simple substitution cipher, seen above.  But the second, and I quote:

"Each symbol has a numerical value. To decode a message, the first symbol's value is translated directly into a character (0='A', 1='B', and so on). For the remaining letters, you subtract the previous symbol's numerical value. If the result is less than zero, you add 26. Then that number is converted into a character as before."

Sheesh.  Nerds.

Appearance:  "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"

Sure, Star Trek has always held a special place in the hearts of Futurama's writers, propping up in every little corner of its universe (despite the supposed ban on all things Trek).  And yet, nerdery and Star Trek fandom reached new height with the reunion of its original cast (save DeForest Kelley and James Doohan) for an episode both parodying and celebrating the majesty of Star Trek.

Cough, NERDS, cough...

Appearance:  "The Luck of the Fryrish"

When the Professor's horse loses upon examination of the finish line with an electron microscope, the god Farnsworth decries his loss with "no fair!  You changed the outcome by measuring it!"  These words almost perfectly describe the Heisenberg Uncertainly Principle, though that idea refers more to an event's course being altered by the presence of a spectator. 

So THAT's where Breaking Bad got it....

Appearance:  "The Farnsworth Parabox"

As if the idea of boxes containing entire universes and the mind-boggling headaches that come from visiting one location through another, or determining the probabilities that shape our universe, both Universe 1 and Universe A manage to solve their difficulties by pulling their own boxes through the wormhole, in a complete space-time eversion!

...What?

Appearance:  "I, Roommate"

I won't bother tring to explain BASIC to you (mostly because I would have no idea how), but suffice to say the computer programming language appears in Futurama quite a bit!  Seen above is a sign adorning Fry and Bender's apartment, which translates to "Home Sweet Home."  Much simpler of course is the cardinal rule of the Church of Robotology:

10  SIN

20 GOTO HELL

Appearance: "Bender's Game"

It's no secret that the whole of third DVD movie "Bender's Game" heavily draws its imagery from the nerdiest of nerdy, both Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings.  Even the film itself was dedicated to late D&D creator Gary Gygax, who had earlier guested on the show as himself.

Frankly, we're amazed Comedy Central didn't storm the ofice and start giving everyone noogies.

Appearance:  "Law and Oracle"

Invoking the father of modern quantum mechanics, Futurama went all kinds of physical on our asses by introducing famed (and long dead) physicist Erwin Schrodinger, who apparently takes sick thrill in violating the laws of physics. 

Not only did he violate the law of Lorentz Invariance by traveling 15mph over the speed of light, but he kept his cat in a superposition of both states of life and death by trapping it in a box with some poison!  Is any of this getting through to you?

Appearance:  "Anthology of Interest"

Okay.  Dream sequence or not, you don't get much nerdier than a show that manages to pool together the talents of Al Gore, Nichelle Nichols, Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax and the famed "Deep Blue" computer system for an episode involving time travel, a +1 mace, and the end of the universe.

Appearance:  "Lrreconcilable Ndndifferences"

It takes a bunch of sweaty nerds to know a bunch of sweaty nerds, and if you've ever been to San Diego Comic-Con, you'll know that Futurama captures it (and its own panel) perfectly, from the architecture to the fans whipping out their camera phones the moment the lights go dim.

Say...wouldn't you like to experience it for yourself when UGO reports live from San Diego Comic-Con 2011?  I bet you would!

Appearance:  "I, Roommate"

Bender as a robot naturally understands binary, so it makes sense for the code system to pop up all over the robot-filled world of Futurama.  Less educated fans on the other hand have to work a bit harder to understand the gags, like why dreaming of zeroes and ones soothes Bender, but throw in a two and it DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Similarly, Bender lives in apartment 00100100, which translates to 36, which is in ASCII the $ symbol.  And if that nerdiness doesn't scare you, how about the above 0101100101, meaning 357?  No?  Try looking at it in a mirror, reading 1010011010, or 666!