Futurama Season 11: Is Fry's Email Address In Episode 1 A Plot Hole?
Contains Spoilers for "Futurama" Season 11, Episode 1 — "The Impossible Stream"
"Futurama" tends to have a solid grip on its history, but this tiny detail in the first episode of their Season 11 revival just might be a pretty sizable plot hole. When Philip J. Fry (Billy West) first signs up for a Fulu account so he can complete his quest to watch every single tv show ever made, the email he uses to register his account is panucci.asst@panuccis.com. That, of course, is a reference to Fry's pre-cryogenic job as a pizza delivery boy for Panucci's Pizza. The only problem with Fry typing that old address in as his primary account is that Panucci's Pizza ceased to exist in 2012, decades before his arrival in the far-flung future.
The restaurant's destruction is covered in two different ways during the show's earlier run. In the notoriously sad "Jurassic Bark," we watch as Mr. Panucci (John DiMaggio) and Seymour age while waiting for Fry to return. When Mr. Panucci dies, the restaurant is abandoned and falls into disuse, and Seymour passes away waiting outside its empty, boarded up and broken shell. Building on this, the film "Bender's Big Score!" alters the past and future even more by seeing the establishment firmly destroyed following an explosion.
Is Panucci's Website Still active - or does Fry know it's inactive
History is altered in "Bender's Big Score!" when Bender (John DiMaggio) blows up the pizzeria after traveling back in time to kill Fry. Bender's actions inadvertently cause Seymour to be instantly fossilized as well. This creates a time paradox, which is ultimately and eventually resolved within the film. But no matter which version of the show's history you take to heart as being true, it's highly unlikely that somewhere out there in New New York someone would take the time to run a website domain for a long-forgotten pizza chain.
But is it possible that Fry already knows this? What if he simply signed up for a free trial and — like many other individuals have in the past — cancelled his account before his first billing cycle began? Of course, it's completely possible to create internet accounts – even ones using a fake or disused domain. But since Fry ends up binging Fulu programs for months on end and even ordering products from the ads he witnesses while doing so, it's quite likely his Panucci's Pizza address is a genuine email and connected to his billing information.
Whether it's a mistake or a seed for a future plotline, it's certainly a fun aside. And for anyone looking to claim Fry's email nick as their own in the real world — as of press time, the only extent panuccis-related web domain in existence is linked to an Australian export company.