Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017 November 29

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November 29

In universe, why is Nixon's head alive in Futurama? And George Washington?

They'd been buried for years when the show premiered, their sentience reboot file was destroyed long before the invention of reanimation so they couldn't possibly be kept alive with a jar without magic. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 03:00, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

If it's never explained by an episode or the writers/producer(s)/director(s) then I guess it's similar to the question above and can be hatted. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 03:06, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

It has never been directly explained in the show (I don't know if the comics line or any other version has addressed it). In All the Presidents' Heads it's revealed that powdered crystalline opal is what allows the heads to survive, through a temporal bubble they generate. The gang then uses a related method to travel back in time (possibly explaining how the older heads were collected). Other than the revelation that Ron Popeil discovered the technique of keeping heads alive, that's about it for in-universe discussion of how the heads work. Matt Deres (talk) 04:05, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

And since it's a work of fiction, the authors can do whatever they want to. I recall a moment in a Simpsons episode where the family is in the living room and Homer says, "Anything can happen in a cartoon!" At that moment, he is also seen walking by the window outside. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:16, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

Because explaining jokes to people is tiresome and pointless; jokes do not improve in either humor or understandability once explained. Jokes are funny because the listener has the cultural context to understand the joke without it having to be explained. If the joke needs to be explained, the listener lacks the cultural context to have understood it (or found it funny) in the first place. In this case, Nixon had a personality and mannerisms that made him easy to caricature. Richard Nixon#Personality and public image explains in some detail about why Nixon is an easy target for satire. E.B. White said something to the effect of "dissecting a joke is like dissecting a frog, you might learn a little something but you kill both". Comedy is not random, there are ways to craft jokes, and the Nixon joke is well crafted for the audience to which Futurama is geared (that is, American Generation X nerds who have some cultural memory of Nixon and spoofs of him). Nixon humor at the time of the show was still around (see, for example, Dick (film), which came out the same year as Futurama debuted). If you don't have the cultural knowledge to understand the context of Nixon humor, its use in Futurama seems random and unconnected to anything which is exactly how every joke seems to every person who doesn't know the background. There are some universally funny things (fart jokes have been around for thousands of years and aren't going anywhere), but anything that requires you to know the cultural background to find funny, you simply won't. If you want some background specifically on Nixon in Fututrama, Wikipedia does have an article titled Politics in Futurama which does discuss is role in the series. If you want to know what the Nixon people might have actually thought of the parody, BTW, the Nixon Foundation wrote This article which quotes an earlier article that directly explains why his disembodied head is the President of Earth. That article is Here from Wired.com, where David X. Cohen states "Nixon was a real-life cartoon character." and expands on his role in the series. Or, like exactly what I noted above about Nixon's characteristic being the sort that are open to easy caricature. --Jayron32 15:11, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

The notion of Ron Popeil having invented the process is another joke that could well be lost on many viewers. (He must have made some serendipitous discovery while developing the Pocket Fisherman.) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:18, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

Futurama is a fictional series. The writers can do whatever they wish, no matter how illogical it would be in real life. GoodDay (talk) 19:36, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

I don't know where the OP is from, but I'm reminded of something Bob Newhart said on a talk show: "Germans are so literal: 'Vhy is he called Curly vhen he has no hair?'" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:45, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

The OP said "In universe", so it seems they were aware of that. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 10:11, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

The OP would have to address that point. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:14, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

It's kinda a 'see what everyone will respond' question, rather then seeking a concrete answer. For example, in the Voltron franchise, one can ask Why isn't Princess Allura called Queen Allura, since she is the late King Alfor's only child? She's the planet's ruler, yet not called Queen regnant. Likely answer? the cartoon's writers know little about monarchy & figured that one isn't a King or Queen regnant, unless they're middle aged. GoodDay (talk) 22:38, 1 December 2017 (UTC)