yet another capsule submission

This episode end with the credits. Ooops Here's the warning. s p o i l e r

w a r n i n g

If you haven't seen when aliens attack, don't read it.

Well the basic premise is, Fry's sloth and knowledge of the 20th century save the world. Hmm, I haven't seen that since the garbage ball episode . . . Other than that, I thought the episode was good. Anyway, here are some bits and references that I noticed. I've tried to remove the ones that I have seen posted here already.

Beer spilling on control board from "Sat. Night Live" parody of "The China Syndrome", "The Pepsi Syndrome".

The aliens had a mouse (or whatever) hole in their living room.

The evil governor of NY from the 2600's looks one of the villains in "The Tick".

Leela is once again bothered when Fry show's dis-interest.

The Statue of Liberty is not being used for the tube transport system as it was in the first episode.

The super advanced aliens are using a late 50's style microphone.

During Zap's pep talk, someone is wearing a "Moon U" T-shirt.

The "Hubble Telescope" looked just like the alien mothership, only smaller.

Leela with the extra eye on the side of her head looks like that famous Picasso painting I don't know the name of.

Zoidberg is once again blamed for something he didn't do.

During the hugging sequence after the aliens leave we see: The street is right in front of "Sparky's Den", note the clock. The guy who climbs on the clock looks like Ignor. The robot who said "That equals true" at Benders Baptism. One of the robots that was "jacking on" when Bender arrived at the party. Hooker-bot 5000 The clown that hugs the Nun looks like Krusty with a hair cut.

I don't quite get what this is about, unless the writers really want to drive the fans mad with obscure references, like the Number 9 Man.

If Clown = Krusty, then Krusty = Jewish. If Nun = Catholic, then Jewish + Catholic = Clown + Nun.

But that still doesn't make sense.

On Sun, 7 Nov 1999 22:50:25 -0700, "grosse" wrote:

I knew the Number 9 Man had to be a reference. However, I don't know where he's from. I must be missing something.

An interesting thought. I just figured that Nuns are stereotyped as having no sense of humor and clowns are never funny. Oh, wait a minute, that makes no sense either . . .

--Larry

I don't think it was supposed to be Krusty, or a Krusty-costume for that matter, just a generic clown, albeit Groening-style in appearance. It took me a few seconds to get the joke, so I can't say it gelled quick enough to produce a laugh, but I think I know what they were getting at. It's easier to figure out when you realize the previous shots of people hugging were meant to show complete opposites getting along (an old joke done best in the original Naked Gun and also done in Simpsons Halloween Special #2 when Lisa wishes for world peace). The question to ask is what about a clown is opposite from a nun? Well, nuns wear black and white, in fact they're one of the few people who wear a strictly colorless uniform. Meanwhile, the essence of the clown outfit is that they wear a veritable rainbow of colors. So the joke was someone who wears strictly black and white was getting along with someone who wears every other color there is. Why doesn't the joke work so well? Probably because fashion is not the immediate characteristic that comes to mind when thinking of clowns, or especially nuns, who have been the butt of jokes for numerous other reasons over the years for reasons besides their "penguin" gear.

-Eric S. ([email] or [email] or [email])

	"I've been wasting my life.  I'm going to do what I always dreamed of.
	 I'm going to write that sitcom about the sassy robot!"
	  -Matt Groening creates Futurama?

The joke gelled with me instantly. It's the rivalry between conservativism and liberalism, morality vs. fun, old-fashioned vs. modern ... now that I think about it, this may be one of the best jokes in the episode. Look at it this way:

- If we were all the same color, would we all get along? Probably not. - If we were all the same color and religion, would we get along? Maybe. - If we were all the same color and religion, and everyone had the same outlook on how to live life, would we get along? I say most likely.

That's how I saw the joke.