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 goes into the industry of 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 them $1 a dozen. Soon over a million are sold. Hippies, led by Free Waterfall Jr., protest the eating of Popplers outside Planet Express. Leela discovers a week-old Poppler, it opens its eyes and calls her "mamma".

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 and Leela appear on Datenight with Linda to discus wether it's okay to eat Popplers, the young Poppler joins in. The Omicronians arrive and tell the world that the Popplers are their young and announce that they'll eat the people of Earth. Zapp and Kif begin negotiations with them. They make a deal stating that they'll only eat the Earthling that first ate one of their young, Leela.

Act III: "Try our new, extreme walrus juice!"
The eating of Leela is done on TV with a large audience. Zapp creates 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 it. Ndnd eats it anyway. Leela is sent out to Lrrr, but the young Omicronian, now calling itself Jrrr, convinces him to stop. Lrrr eats Free, to the delight of the crowd, and becomes high. The Omicronians leave and Leela is safe. The staff has a feast of young animals to celebrate, including a veal, a pig and a dolphin, though they don't want to eat it because dolphins are intelligent this is different since he blew all his money on instant lottery tickets, so the crew has no problem eating it.

Trivia

 * The start of the tradition of killing the Waterfalls.
 * Brought to you by Molten Boron.
 * 198 billion Popplers eaten.
 * The profit that Planet Express and staff would have received from the sales comes to $16.5 billion, where the money went is unknown.
 * Fry and Leela's rarely-used given name and surname, respectively, are used.
 * This episode was named #11 on IGN's list of Top 25 Futurama Episodes.
 * This episode was named #10 on TV.com's list of Top 10 Futurama Episodes.
 * The hippie's necklace looks very similar to the Esperanto jubilee symbol.

Goofs

 * In the negotiations, Kif states that 189 billion Popplers were eaten though previously we saw the well known billboard advertising "over 3.8 x 10^10 Popplers served", which comes out to be 38 trillions.
 * When Leela first discovers that Popplers are intelligent creatures she throws Jrrr down and licks her fingers. There are 5 "finger-licking" sounds, even though she only has 4 fingers.
 * When the first batch of Popplers are sold and the sign starts working, it should count by twelve, as Popplers are sold in batches of twelve.

Inside References

 * Fry: Leela! That's the second billboard you've crashed into this week!
 * Refers to the introduction sequence's billboard crash.

Outside References

 * "Roddenberries" (see Quotes) and the term "Type M Planet" refer to the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, and his creation.

Characters

 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Debut: Fishy Joe
 * Debut: Free Waterfall Jr.
 * Fry
 * H. G. Blob
 * Hattie
 * Hermes
 * Debut: Jrrr
 * Kif Kroker
 * Leela
 * Linda
 * Lrrr
 * Debut: M.E.A.T.'s Lion
 * Ndnd
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * 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