That hippie-bashing is also fascinating as part of the show’s Gen X mentality. *I’ve changed my mind, maybe vegetarians are just as annoying as they were in 2001. In this case, the apathy helps because it leads to a casual admittance that things we like might be evil – like, how weird is it to say that eating dolphin is clearly weird and evil and eating pig isn’t? Having no specific agenda beyond jokes and making fun of hippies means it can bring up accurate points rather than picking and choosing what best serves it. In this case, though, there is an honest exploration of where the line between right and wrong is when eating meat, to the point where this almost feels like an animated essay with various points coming up – making a carnivore live off tofu is straightforwardly stupid (which comes up more often than you’d think, with people trying to get their cats and dogs to live off plant life*) and eating sentient life forms is straightforwardly evil, but there’s a point in the middle where things get harder to pin down. Conversely, I’ve been drowning in people making hacky anti-vegetarian jokes that are basically ripping off this episode for decades now and it’s clear they’re just repeating shit they heard and thought sounded funny rather than trying to be insightful or hilarious themselves. In part it’s because vegetarians as a whole have a level of self-awareness that they did not in 2001 most vegetarians I meet are fairly low-key about their values, bringing them up if you ask and keeping them mostly to themselves if you don’t. Much like “A Head In The Polls”, there’s an extent to which its particular view has aged badly and in part because of the popularity of the episode I’m not vegetarian, but I personally believe meat-eaters complaining about vegetarians has become more annoying than vegetarians themselves. It ties into the show’s exploration of vegetarianism and the ethics of eating meat, and how its apathetic ‘whaddya gonna do?’ morality actually serves to make it more interesting. At the same time, her desire to do the right thing is genuine and drives the plot just as much when compared to The Simpsons, Leela is often compared to Lisa, but I can also see her as Homer with the sense of responsibility to others prioritised over the impulses without overriding them completely, and it makes her just as sympathetic to me. The plot of this episode is set in motion because of her gluttony, and her enthusiastic embrace of hating the hippie as much as anything is, in part, hilarious because as the resident level-headed one she should be above that sort of thing (imagine Marge or Lisa in the same position – Free Waterfall Jr would have had to work a lot harder to have them turn on him). She’s obviously very good at diagnosing the faults of others and she’s functional above and beyond what most other people on the show are, but she also has impulses and needs that can seize control of her. It’s also got some great character work – this is my all-time favourite Leela episode, really leaning into how she’s about 75% effective at being the comic foil. First of all, it fits the baseline of being funny as hell, which is something that can and should be taken for granted, of course. Luckily for me, I can confidently say (*gun cocking* “Of my own free will…”) that this is one of the greatest Futurama episodes and definitely in my top five favourite episodes of all time, because it’s got absolutely everything going for it. ![]() ![]() Last week, there was discussion of a possible violent uprising if I didn’t give this episode ESSENTIAL status. ![]() Written by: Patrick M Verrone, Darin Henry (story)ĭN’s Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL
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