This document provides an overview and analysis of an episode of the adult animated science fiction comedy TV show Futurama. It discusses the genres of the show and why they are used. It then summarizes the key themes and plots of the episode "The Godfellas" which covers religion. It analyzes how the episode portrayed the serious and lighter sides of religion through the main and sub plots. It also discusses the use of intertextual references in the show and provides examples. Finally, it closes with a short segment analysis and list of references.

1. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT IT

3. GENRE:
ADULT ANIMATION
SCIENCE FICTION
COMEDY

4. WHY THE NEED FOR ADULT
ANIMATION:
RISQUE THEMES
GRAPHIC VIOLENCE
DISPLAYS OF SEXUALITY

5. WHY THE NEED FOR SCIENCE
FICTION:
OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD
INVENTIONS
TO DEFY A FIXED SETTING

6. WHY THE NEED FOR
COMEDY:
TO GO OVER THE TOP IN
TERMS OF PLOT

8. THE GODFELLAS EPISODE

9. KEY THEME COVERED IN THE
EPISODE:
RELIGION

10. HOW THE THEME WAS COVERED
MAIN PLOT
BENDER BECOMES A GOD FIGURE
(SERIOUS SIDE OF RELIGION)
SUB PLOT
FRY SEARCHING FOR BENDER
(LIGHTER SIDE OF RELIGION)

11. THE USE OF INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES IN TV
“THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIMULATIONS AND THEIR
ORIGINALS IS NOT SIMPLE OR STRAIGHTFORWARD, AS IT IS
OFTEN INTERTEXTUAL IN NATURE, INVOLVING PLAGIARISM,
QUOTATION, PARODY, AND INTERTEXTUAL HUMOUR.
UMBERTO ECO HAS TERMED THESE PRACTICES „AESTHETICS
OF SERIALITY‟” (NAFICY, 1989)

12. FURTHER EXAMPLES
„NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD‟ SHORT SCI-FI STORY BY
ARTHUR C. CLARKE (1953)

13. „MICROCOSMIC GOD‟ SCI-FI NOVELETTE BY THEODORE
STURGEON (1941)

14. THE TWILIGHT ZONE, - “THE LITTLE PEOPLE” EPISODE (1962)

15. THE VOICE OF "GOD" IS BASED ON VIC PERRIN'S "CONTROL
VOICE" FROM THE OUTER LIMITS

16. „PLAYING GOD‟IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE
NERD THEOLOGY - KEVIN KELLY
“WE HAVE BECOME MINI-GODS. AND THUS WE SEEK GOD BY
CREATING GODS”

17. TRANSNATIONALISM
VIA
AMERICAN CULTURAL IMPERIALSIM?

18. CLOSE READING OF EPISODE
(CLOSE READING
SEGMENT OF VIDEO WILL
BE PLAYED HERE)

19. REFERENCES
“In Praise of Cultural Imperialism?”, by David Rothkopf, Foreign Policy no. 107, Summer 1997, pp. 38–53
Television Intertextuality and the Discourse of the Nuclear Family.
Naficy, Hamid, Journal of Film and Video, v41 n4 p42-59 Win 1989
The nine billion names of God: the best short stories of Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur Charles Clarke, Publisher Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967
„Microcosmic God‟novelette by Theodore Sturgeon (1941), pucblished in Astounding Science Fiction April 1941
"Twilight Zone" The Little People, Original air date, March 30, 1962
The Outer Limits aired (1963 – 1965)
http://www.locusmag.com/2004/Reviews/04Cook_Futurama.html Lucius Cook, ""Hey Sexy Mama, Wanna Kill All Humans?":
Looking Backwards at Futurama, The Greatest SF Show You've Never Seen" published on Locus Online, 2004
The Neoteric Society
Nancie L. Gonzalez
Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Jan., 1970), pp. 1-13
Technology in Society 21 (1999) 387-392 'Nerd theology.' Kevin Kelly