Futurama: How the West Was 1010001

August 7, 2023 4:23 AM - Season 11, Episode 3

Bender and the crew head west to join the bitcoin mining rush.
posted by Marticus (8 comments total)

Another OK episode of the renewal.
Sadly the title doesn't seem to be relevant to the story (1010001 = 81 = $51 = 'Q').
I did enjoy the starship being towed by oxen. Oregon Trail vibes.

+1μB
posted by Marticus at 4:28 AM on August 7, 2023

Pretty solid effort overall? It felt like an average Futurama episode, not in a bad way or anything. Got a big hearty guffaw out of “usually we don’t bring those.”

Shout-outs too to Mild Bill’s False Alarm Chili and the element Native Americium
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:10 AM on August 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Thallium has atomic number 81.
posted by Riki tiki at 9:34 AM on August 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

I do think this was an upgrade from last week, although it feels like a little too news-of-the-day like Attack of the Killer App. Then again, A Head in the Polls was also of its time (haha, aren't presidential candidates from both parties identical and boring?!) and that episode is still fine other than the curled-up monkey paws it left in its wake.

Some of the old west/crypto jokes were inspired, like Doge City and the Lazy B Hodling Company.
posted by Riki tiki at 9:51 AM on August 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

I wish there was a behind the scenes video of writing Bender's song. And John Dimaggio recording it.
posted by Gorgik at 8:08 PM on August 7, 2023

yeah the cryptocurrency angle had me feeling very worried beforehand, until the show made it clear in no uncertain terms that they understand fully that cryptocurrency is a scam for suckers, at which point I was able to relax somewhat
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:57 PM on August 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best of the season so far. Bender's ass puns didn't do anything for me but "We'll Burro out!" had me laughing.

The secret room full of robot heads had a nice horror element and it was great to see Roberto and the Robot Mafia.

Making fun of Crypto believers never goes out of style for me, and to think they probably had this 90% in the can before the FTX collapse...

And the 3-dimensional Old West shootout at the end was perfect Futurama. Taking a cliche from TV and adding a future spin to it. And I didn't see it coming.
posted by mmoncur at 1:04 AM on August 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah, "we usually don't bring those" was the biggest laugh for me, but over all this was my favorite of the season so far.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:25 PM on August 31, 2023