The Problem with Popplers

"The Problem with Popplers" is the twenty-eighth episode of Futurama, the fifteenth of the second production season and the eighteenth of the second broadcast season. It aired 7 May, 2000 on FOX. After discovering very tasty snack called Popplers on a distant planet, the Planet Express company begins selling them to the citizens of New New York. Shortly after, are becoming a big hit and the crew begins supplying these snacks to Fishy Joe's, however the Popplers carry a terrible truth.

Act I: "We taught a lion to eat tofu."
Returning from the Planet of the Moochers, the crew has no food. After some foraging they discover a delicious, bite size, motionless animal, and pack the ship full of them. the rest of the staff approve and Fry comes up with the name Popplers. Bender decides to sell them. Fishy Joe decides to sell them at his restaurant, paying the crew $1 a dozen. Soon over a million are sold. Hippies, led by Free Waterfall Jr., protest the eating of Popplers outside Planet Express. While getting things to throw at the protesters, Leela discovers a week-old Poppler. Before Leela can throw it out, the Poppler opens its eyes and calls her "mama".

Act II: "Parrots talk and we eat them, right?"
Leela tries to stop people from eating Popplers, and has the rest of the crew join the protesting at Fishy Joe's. Joe, Free Waterfall Jr. and Leela appear on Datenight with Linda to debate eating Popplers, with the young Poppler joining in. The Omicronians invade Earth again and tell the world that the Popplers are Omicronian young and announce that, in revenge, they'll eat the people of Earth. Zapp and Kif begin negotiations with the invaders to reach a peaceful settlement. A deal is struck stating that only one Earthling will be eaten, the one that first ate one of Omicronian young, Leela.

Act III: "Try our new, extreme walrus juice!"
The eating of Leela is broadcast on TV with a large audience. Zapp devises a plan to fool the Omicronians, Kif disguises an orangutan as Leela. Lrrr almost falls for it, but Free Waterfall Jr. interrupts and tells him the truth to save the orangutan. Ndnd eats it anyway. Leela is sent out to Lrrr, but the young Omicronian, now calling itself Jrrr, convinces him to stop. Lrrr, instead, eats Free Waterfall Jr., to the delight of the crowd, and becomes high. The Omicronians leave and Leela is safe. The staff has a feast of animals to celebrate, including a veal, a pig and a dolphin. The crew are disgusted by this and refuse to eat the dolphin because dolphins are intelligent. Bender assures them that this is different since this dolphin blew all his money on instant lottery tickets.

Reception
On 25 February, 2009, the episode was named #10 on TV.com's list of top 10 Futurama episodes. On 12 June 2009, three days after the announcement of the second run, the episode was named #11 on IGN's list of top 25 Futurama episodes.

Trivia

 * Both the title and the plot of the episode refer to the Star Trek episode """.
 * This episode is the start of the tradition of killing the Waterfalls.
 * Over 198 billion Popplers were eaten before the end of the episode. The profit that Planet Express and staff would have received from the sales comes to $16.5 billion (before tax), but where the money went is unknown.
 * This episode marks the first usage of Fry and Leela's given names.

Allusions

 * Roddenberries and the term "Type M planet" refer to the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, and the way planets are designated within the franchise.
 * Fry's says to Leela that "that's the second billboard you've crashed into this week!". This is a fourth-wall break which refers to the opening sequence's billboard crash.
 * The necklace worn by Free Waterfall, Jr. looks very similar to the Esperanto jubilee symbol.

Continuity

 * Fry says "Parrots talk and we eat them, right?". In "Xmas Story", Fry's parrot was killed and ended up being served by Bender as Xmas dinner.
 * "Fishy" Joseph Gilman states that the reason we don't eat people is because they taste lousy. But, in "Fry and the Slurm Factory", Leela reveals the existence of a soda called "Soylent Cola", whose taste apparently "varies from person to person".
 * Zapp's pronunciation of "" as "gwack-ah-mol" is a continuation of his problem pronouncing foreign loanwords, first revealed in "Love's Labours Lost in Space" ("" as "sham-pag-in").

Goofs

 * When Leela first discovers that Popplers are intelligent creatures, she throws Jrrr away and licks her fingers. There are five "finger-licking" sounds, even though she only has four fingers. The fourth finger-licking sound is the one with no movement to it. The fourth being the transition between licking her last finger and going to lick her thumb.
 * When the first batch of Popplers is sold and the sign starts working, it should count by twelve, as Popplers are sold in batches of twelve and it reads "over # Popplers served" and not "over # batches of Popplers served".

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Fishy Joe
 * Debut: Free Waterfall Jr.
 * Fry
 * Debut: Guy who delivers the rat droppings (mention)
 * H. G. Blob
 * Hattie
 * Hermes
 * Debut: Hot dog vendor
 * Debut: Jrrr
 * Kif Kroker
 * Leela
 * Linda
 * Lrrr
 * Debut: M.E.A.T.'s Lion
 * Ndnd
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Stephanie
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg

Episode Credits

 * Writer
 * Patric M. Verrone
 * Director
 * Chris Sauve
 * Gregg Vanzo
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Phil Hendrie
 * Lauren Tom
 * Phil LaMarr
 * DVD Commentary
 * Matt Groening
 * David X. Cohen
 * Rich Moore
 * Patric M. Verrone
 * Billy West
 * Christopher Tyng