Futurama - Yo Leela Leela

Yo suck.

Welcome back to my ever-stalled series of Futurama reviews. Today’s episode is titled “Yo Leela Leela”. But never mind that. I want you to think about the title of the series itself for a moment. Futurama. Not much to it, it’s pretty darn straightforward. But just keep it in mind as we proceed.

As you probably noticed, this episode centers on Leela, and I’d say it’s about time for a Leela episode this season. I’m not saying that Leela episodes are the best episodes, though there have been some darn good ones, but it’s just been a Bender-heavy season so far. And I love Bender as much as anyone, but I’d rather the writers not make him the central focus of the show. He’s like Barney Fife (…ok, he’s nothing like Barney Fife, but bear with me).  Yes, Barney steals the scene every time he’s on camera, but without having Andy around to balance him, he wouldn’t be able to carry the show. Likewise, Futurama is about Fry and Leela, and Bender is there to add levity. Futurama wouldn’t be Futurama without him, but he can’t carry it himself. I’m just saying that I’m glad that we’re finally getting to see some of the other characters in action again.

So this story begins as Leela visits her old orphanarium to read a story to the kids. Upon finding that the orphanarium no longer has any books, however, she isn’t able to think of an engaging story to tell. Much like the writers of…

… No, never mind, that joke’s too easy.

Leela promises to come up with a better story for when she comes back next time, but really, we’ve heard that promise from Michael Bay, and how many of us are willing to trust those words anymore? Still, Leela does put more effort into than Bay ever seems to, by which I mean she actually tries a little bit. But when everyone around her keeps making too much noise for her to concentrate, she is forced to leave and find a quiet place to work. And somehow, when she comes back, she’s come up with a story about a bunch of cutesy creatures in a land called Rumbledy-Hump. I… I have no idea what to make of that name. Is it a joke? Is it supposed to sound vaguely dirty? Is it just gibberish? I really don’t know how I’m supposed to react, and I’m not even sure what it just failed at, although it most certainly did fail. It’s kind of like watching Jeff Dunham.

Wait, didn’t I just say these jokes were too easy?

I will say this about “Yo Leela Leela”: its tone is a complete 180 from “Silence of the Clamps”. That episode had murder and brutal violence. This episode has a talking cupcake and a handful of short musical numbers. And Katey Segal does have the singing voice to pull it off, I’ve got to say, even if these particular songs are annoying fluff – which they are, but that’s the point of the satire so it’s ok. I find myself wishing that the writers had decided to satirize something for older kids, something along the lines of the shows I have fond memories of, like DuckTales or Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, or Bill Nye the Science Guy. Those shows had substance, and while I realize that the joke here is exactly that – that so much children’s programming these days is pointless, marshmallowy garbage – I think it’s a fairly bland joke and it would be much funnier to poke fun at something the audience actually has an opinion about.

Maybe that’s just me, and I’m not exactly holding it against the episode; I’m just giving my thoughts. But regardless of what I think about it, the kids seem to really like it, and it just so happens that industry-hopping talent acquisition expert Abner Doubledeal is around to notice. Leela has met Abner before, as it happens, back when he made her a pitcher for the New New York Mets in season three’s “A Leela of Her Own”, and that continuity isn’t entirely swept aside in the following scene, so all is well. Doubledeal offers Leela a chance to turn her story into a children’s TV show. After seeing how she has inspired the orphans, she takes the deal, getting most of the PlanEx crew to play the characters and writing the scripts herself from her secret “quiet place”. To her surprise, the show is a smash hit, even winning her a “Young People’s Choice Award”.

At the after party, Bender gets busy with yet another robot floozy and ends up on the spaceship when Leela flies it to her quiet place. And there it is. Remember how I told you to think about the title “Futurama” and what it implied. Well, here’s why. We’re about two thirds of the way through this episode, and I’m just now mentioning something kinda science-fictiony. OK, yeah, there were science-fictiony jokes here and there, and there were still robots walking around, but in terms of the story, nothing futuristic at all was happening. We sat down to watch a show about space monsters and wacky machines and the occasional reference to math, and instead we’ve been fed a story about a woman starting a lame TV show. I haven’t felt this cheated since Endless Eigh… OK, you know what, let’s not go there.

Bender discovers that Leela’s quiet place is in actuality the real Rumbledy-Hump, and she hasn’t been writing original stories at all, but instead just copying down what the real cutesy creatures that live there were actually doing. Being, well, Bender, he immediately blackmails Leela into giving him half the profits from the show in exchange for keeping the secret. Leela, not caring about the money as much as inspiring the orphans, agrees to the deal. You know, it’s not often that you see such an easygoing reaction towards extortion, especially if OPEC isn’t involved.

Did I just make a political joke? Weird.

But never mind the previous scene, because it is immediately rendered meaningless when Sally shows Leela a story that she came up with, and Leela is overcome by an attack of conscience. She brings everyone to Rumbledy-Hump (I feel physically ill just typing that name…) and admits that she’s been lying to everyone. So that whole blackmail subplot was what, exactly?

 

Yes, British game show host Alistair Armstrong, once again you’ve hit the nail on the head.

The ending gets a little weird, and I’m not entirely sure I get it, but here we go. Abner Doubledeal just goes and signs a contract with the real residents of Rumbledy-Hump, which I guess negates his deal with Leela. He then goes on to adopt all of the orphans and put them to work as his film crew. Because I guess that’s not grossly illegal in the future. Whatever. Leela demands to be punished for her wrongdoing, but everyone else seems to be happy with how everything turned out, so they just leave her alone and let her feel guilty. And that’s it. Like I said, it’s a little screwy.

This was a terrible episode. Half-assed ending aside, very little of this episode felt at all like Futurama. Most of it didn’t even feel like science fiction, and that really held back its potential. “Rumbledy-hump” was just stupid, and it amounted to a long, monotonous parody of something that few of us even care enough about to want parodied. Having said that… I kinda liked this episode. Yeah, I know, but there was actually some decent writing and honest character depth in it. It doesn’t change the fact that the whole plot was completely misguided, but still, it’s easier to tolerate than “Silence of the Clamps”, or some of the episodes coming up.

Speaking of which, our next episode is titled “All the Presidents’ Heads” and if you thought this episode was stupid, boy oh boy are you in for a shock.

Until then, I’m Karl, and I’m fighting tedium one anthropomorphized dessert at a time.