Okay, there's a nifty interview with Groening over on the Mother Jones site (www.mojo.com), and in it he mentions that 'they' came up with two alien languages to pepper throughout the series. One he said would be fairly easy to figure out, the other he didn't really say anything about. I'm assuming that the first one is that weird pictographic graffiti that showed up at least twice in the premier. Anyone have any leads yet?:)
Oh, by the way, just based on the first episode, I'd be highly shocked if Futurama doesn't end up being my favorite series of 1999.
Over in the Simpsons newsgroup some people there think the characters in the Slurm poster in the bar says "drink" in the easy cipher. Also, there's some graffiti somewhere saying "Venusians go home".
Assuming that the SLURM sign in the bar says "DRINK" in the alien script (early on in the show, there's a similar sign that says "DRINK SLURM" in Latin characters rather than mixed Alien/Latin), then that gives the pattern:
Now, the last two words in the alleyway graffiti strongly suggest "GO HOME" to me, but perhaps I only think that because of the "ROMANI ITE DOMVM" bit in Monty Python's "Life of Brian". At any rate, there are matching letters in the appropriate places, which gives:
SLURM sign Alleyway graffiti
DRINK -EN-4I-N4 GO HOME
And if the "4" represents the letter "S" -- one of the four letters which most frequently follow "N" at the end of a word -- then that gives:
SLURM sign Alleyway graffiti
DRINK -EN-SI-NS GO HOME
Admittedly, "VENUSIANS" is more of a wild guess than anything else, but it seems to fit.
In the main title sequence, there is a red sign on the side of a building that you need to analyze. If your vcr can't freeze frame, here's a frame grab of it: http://futurama.simplenet.com/alien_language/alien1.jpg The sign has 2 rows of writing, the first row consists of 2 symbols, and the second row consists of 6 smaller symbols.
Dave Sweatt [email] The Simpsons Archive http://www.snpp.com The Futurama Chronicles http://futurama.simplenet.com
Unfortunately, I haven't got enough letters to make sense of that one yet. Maybe Tuesday there'll be enough other letters somewhere to help.
On the bright side, I now know what the yellow sign in the intro says, because a larger version of it (red letters on a pinkish background) was shown this week, about nine minutes into the show. This one says "TASTY HUMAN BURGERS". Yum!
In the case of the aliens in the 2999 New Year's Eve countdown, it is as simple as listening to the timing of the count and the display of the symbols. The first symbol represents the number 7, as seen in this framegrab: http://futurama.simplenet.com/alien_language/alien4.jpg
The second symbol represents the number 6, as seen in this framegrab: http://futurama.simplenet.com/alien_language/alien5.jpg
the other 3 alien language appearances were: 1. a red sign in the title sequence http://futurama.simplenet.com/alien_language/alien1.jpg 2. the Slurm poster in O'Zorgnax's Pub http://futurama.simplenet.com/alien_language/alien2.jpg 3. graffiti on the alley wall http://futurama.simplenet.com/alien_language/alien3.jpg [these 3 are obviously the same language]
My question is, are the first 2 number symbols the same language as the last 3 appearances? They appear to be 2 different languages. I did read a media article that mentioned 2 separate languages hidden in the show, anyone remember which article that is?
Dave Sweatt Futurama Chronicles http://futurama.simplenet.com
There's a fourth one, also in the opening title sequence, later than the red sign. It's a yellow sign with three lines of text. Unfortunately, it's too small to make out the letters.
I tend to doubt it, as they're extremely different in character. The numeric symbols look like some of the calligraphic alphabets drawn with a brush (Chinese, for example), whereas the other alphabet is made up of dots and lines of fairly unvarying width.
Although I agree that they look different, I don't think that the calligraphic/printed difference is an actual indicator. For instance, chinese and japanese characters can be, and often are, displayed with a more strict equal-width style.
That's a good point. I could in fact visualize the 6 and 7 drawn in a style more like that of "TASTY HUMAN BURGERS".
Having seen "I, Roommate", with the glyphs on the side of the mummy jerky box (the original, not the teriyaki-style), I'm inclined to believe they and the 6 and 7 are part of the second, harder alien language.
Damn, but that last sentence makes no sense out of context...