The Best Professor Farnsworth Scene In Futurama According To Fans
Spawned from the mind of animation legend Matt Groening, "Futurama" premiered in March of 1999, transporting viewers to the wacky, colorful 31st century. Philip J. Fry (Billy West), who spent 1,000 years in cryostasis, serves as the audience surrogate of the show as we explore with him all that the far-flung future has to offer. As it turns out, much of the world remained the same, though, naturally, even more changed. For Fry specifically, two of the biggest changes he had to face were letting his past go and getting acquainted with his new group of futuristic companions.
After getting a job at Planet Express as a delivery boy, Fry makes a handful of friends, some of which belong to species he's never even heard of. Nevertheless, Leela (Katey Segal), Bender (John DiMaggio), Zoidberg (West), and more become like a family to him as he navigates a strange new era, but what about Fry's actual descendants? Well, as it turns out, he has a handful of living relatives running about — chief among them the ever-quotable Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (West): the founder of Planet Express who's always conducting experiments and coming up with new inventions.
Throughout "Futurama," the Professor spends a lot of time in the limelight, and he certainly doesn't waste it. Of his numerous memorable moments, many fans believe that this one deserves recognition as his absolute best.
Farnsworth's outrage at the horse races gave fans a laugh
The fourth episode of "Futurama" Season 3, titled "The Luck of the Fryish," sees much of the Planet Express crew head out to a horse rally. The problem is, everyone's having terrible luck when it comes to betting, sowing frustration among the group. Even the Professor gets fed up, specifically when an electron microscope is used to reexamine an apparent tie at the end of the race. "No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it," he exclaims, making a clever reference to the Uncertainty Principle and outdoing all of his previous funny quotes.
Redditor 90059bethezip referred to the Professor's science-based outburst as one of their favorite "Futurama" moments, and few came around to disagree. "I made a post recently about Futurama being more than just tear jerk moments and this scene is honestly what I had in mind when I was making it. I appreciate this post," commented MakeUpAnything, and JdoesDeW shared a personal anecdote about this scene that made it that much more memorable for them. Meanwhile, unbelizeable1 gave it the status of their favorite joke ever on "Futurama."
Simultaneously, many of the comments in the Reddit thread involved lengthy explanations of the Professor's reaction and how the Uncertainty Principle works. It just goes to show that "Futurama" really cracked the code when it came to combining science and comedy, doing so in a way that feels organic. One can only hope that this balance and the Professor's comedic timing endure when the show returns to Hulu down the road.