TV Review: FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “The Tip of the Zoidberg”

By BILL McBRIDE / Contributing Writer

Posted: September 2nd, 2011 / 09:00 AM

Stars (voices): Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche
Network: Comedy Central, Thursdays @ 10 PM
Airdate: August 18, 2011

Original, funny, and interesting,

it seems like the writers heard our cry that we were fed up with the bland FUTURAMA versions of old classics. This week, in “The Tip of the Zoidberg” they actually made up a storyline from scratch. It’s also a great back story that explains a good deal, and does so with some hilarious lines.

The show starts off with Dr. Zoidberg (voiced by Billy West) treating the crew of the Planet Express for different ailments – and mangling them all. Fry’s (also West) syndrome takes the cake as it turns him into several classic cartoon characters such as Garfield, Kermit the Frog, and a Smurf. After the crew goes to an “actual doctor” to get fixed they call upon Farnsworth (West again) to finally fire Zoidberg for his incompetence.

In flashback mode, the episode goes through intermittent plotlines of a covert mission that Zoidberg and Farnsworth embark on for the military. While on the their mission to extract venom from the allusive “Space Yeti,” Farnsworth kills the Yeti, thereby saving Zoidberg’s life. As all of their cohorts have “hyper-malaria,” Farnsworth is led to believe that he has it too and asks from Zoidberg only that at some point in the future, before the effects kick in, that Zoidberg will kill him.

Coincidentally, as the crew is calling for Zoidberg’s termination, Farnsworth begins feeling the effects of the hyper-malaria. As Zoidberg must kill him by surprise, there is a series of hilarious attempts to do so. When the crew finds out about the secret mercy-killing pact, they construct a “Murdolator” to kill Farnsworth themselves as they have already locked up Zoidberg for attempting to kill him. The Murdolator is a well done contraption that utilizes the imaginative potential of animation…reminiscent of the Mouse Trap board game or that contraption that got the pirate ship sailing in GOONIES – on steroids. It’s a drawn-out scene, but hilarious, as the Murdolator actually makes a salad as a bi-product.

In the end it turns out that Farnsworth doesn’t have hyper-malaria but actually is turning into a Space Yeti from the scratch he received while saving Zoidberg years ago. Zoidberg then, for the first time ever, correctly diagnoses the problem and saves Farnsworth’s life.

A few weeks ago, we called for a little more character interaction and we got it. Even better, we have a little bit of history on two of the main characters, how they met, and the full development of their underlying friendship. This isn’t a tear-jerker about two old military buddies but it kind of touches that nerve – in a very funny way.

Most importantly, they got it right. There are consistently funny lines throughout an original storyline. “Yeti-ism” is an imaginative disease and “alien physiology” seems like a class we would have all liked to take. The only thing we’d like to see is more and funnier and it seems like they have the blueprint down almost to perfection this time.

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Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with David X. Cohen on the future of FUTURAMA – Part 2

Click on Link: Exclusive Interview with David X. Cohen on Season 6B of FUTURAMA – Part 1

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Fry Am The Egg Man”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Mobius Dick”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “All The Presidents’ Heads”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Yo Leela Leela”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Silence of the Clamps”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Law & Oracle”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B – “Ghost in the Machines”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B premiere – “Benderama”

Click on link: AX’s review of FUTURAMA – Season 6B premiere – “Neutopia”