History Futurama / TropesAToD

** When the Planet Express crew see the Music/BeastieBoys (or their heads) in concert, Leela marvels, "They're bustin' mad rhymes with an 80 percent success rate."

** During "Anthology of Interest"'s first segment, in which Bender asked what life would be like if he were over 500 feet tall, things quickly devolved into a {{Kaiju}} [[ItMakesSenseInContext battle between a 500-foot-tall Zoidberg and Bender]]. Zoidberg converts a section of a subway train into nunchucks, while Bender takes a section of a people-mover tube and uses the people in it and around him as blow-darts.

* AppliedPhlebotinum: Naturally almost every episode, especially thanks to Professor Farnsworth having an invention for every occasion. However, it is ''subverted'' almost as often. For example, in the 2nd-season episode ''Fry and the Slurm Factory'', the Slurm drink manufacturer runs a contest where the grand prize is won by finding one golden bottle cap hidden in a Slurm can. Fry wonders if there could be a way to find the bottlecap without having to buy millions of cans. As expected, he shortly comes into possession of the professor's "F-Ray," which can see through anything, and uses it on every can of Slurm in the city of New New York. But while this wins him lots of "minor" prizes (including a jetski!), he still doesn't find the golden bottle cap. He's so frustrated that he declares he will never look at another can of Slurm again. Of course, he immediately goes to the fridge to get another one to drink. That one's the winning can.

*** Many of the chimpanzees have their fur colored brown (real chimps all have black fur).

** The sexy young doctor named Dr. Cahill, (although Fry just called her Dr. Good 'n' Sexy) who, after the first movie, became a recurring character in the next seasons.

** Dialogue in "Why Must I be a Crustacean in Love?" may imply that humans have been genetically engineered to have larger penises, or it's possibly an oblique reference to Fry being circumcised, which according to Creator/ArthurCClarke, is illegal in the year [[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries 3001]]...unless Leela and Amy are just messing with him for being in the non-coëd steam-room with them.

%%* BandagedFace: Parodied.

* BerserkButton: The three Benders make fun of the ugly alien giant for being ugly which he accepts, but Fry's big mistake is when he talks about the giant's mother.

* BiggerOnTheInside: Bender's torso compartment somehow fit the entirety of Fry's body in "The Honking", and Fry actually wears Bender as space armor in "Murder on the Planet Express". On other instances, he can be seen cramming it full of various stuff-- usually things he's stolen.

** In "T: The Terrestrial", Fry becomes the E.T. equivalent to a young Omicronian prince called Jrrr... the same little delicious Omicronian larval form who was almost eaten by, then protected by, then saved Leela, all the way back in "The Problem with Popplers" (who introduced himself while in Leela's mouth with the words "I am Jrrr of the Planet Omicron Persei 8".
** In "Fry and Leela's Big Gling" there is again mention of Leela's ex-boyfriend, Sean. He was first mentioned in "Why must I be a crustacean in love?" This time, he appears in person.

* CasualInterstellarTravel: Distance is no barrier to plot, and our perpetually-broke protagonists regularly make jaunts that are at least outside the solar system; however, there are definitely episodes that comment on how pricey spaceship fuel is.

** In the "A Clockwork Origin" the nanobots, after becoming larger, devour the ship, Farnsworth's new house...and most of the crew's clothes. And Amy and Leela look as NubileSavage (possibly a nod to Leela's namesake from Series/DoctorWho.

** ''[[Recap/FuturamaS7E23GameOfTones Game of Tones]]'' revolves around Fry having to go into his memories of December 31st, 1999, to remember a tone he heard which would be needed for saving the world. At the end of the episode, as a gift from Nibbler for doing so, he's given an opportunity to see his mother again (which he had wanted to spend time with during the entire episode) in her dreams. The end of the episode ends with a heartwarming moment of them having a final moment together.

* ConcealingCanvas: In ''Bender's Big Score''

** "All the President's Heads" also contains a nod to "Bender's Big Score". The Ditzy Doctor (a.k.a. Dr. Cahill) greets Fry at his job as a head feeder by calling him [[spoiler: Lars]]. Fry tells her his real name, to which she replies, "whatever".

** Several in the latest season:
*** The [[spoiler:time sphere, as well as the time code and Bender tattoo]], which were last seen in the first DTV movie ''Bender's Big Score'', reappeared as a minor plot point in "Decision 3012".
*** The all-robot planet, as well as the Society of Robot Elders, from the fifth episode of the entire series "Fear of a Bot Planet", made a comeback in "Free Will Hunting", with an added layer to their society.
*** While snooping on her mother and Zapp during "Zapp Dingbat", one of Leela's disguises is Lee Lemon, the male persona she assumed during "War is the H-Word".

** In ''Xmas Story'' the Professor says they use palm trees as Xmas trees because Pine trees are now extinct, yet earlier in the same episode we see a bunch of pine trees.

** Zapp Brannigan is clear parody of Captain Kirk from ''Franchise/StarTrek'', poking fun at his more inept and egotistical moments. As a result Zapp has Kirk's [[BoldlyComing lustiness]] and ego cranked up to "parody," but lacks any of his competence or AFatherToHisMen traits, instead being a GeneralFailure relying on WeHaveReserves. Leela ''once'' had PitySex with him, [[AbhorrentAdmirer and he never let her forget it.]]

--> "Painstakingly Drawn Before A Live Audience"

--> "When You See The Robot, Drink!"

-->"Brought to You By Regretto Permanent Clown Make-Up"
-->"Ask Your Doctor if ''Futurama'' is Right For You"
-->"Press eyeballs to screen for cheap laser surgery"

*** In the beginning of "Decision 3012," the crew actually avoids crashing into the screen...but it starts advertising "Free Beer" right below them, provoking Bender to grab the wheel and crash into the screen like always before jumping ship. This is a rare moment where the opening sequence directly connects to the plot.
* CouldntFindALighter: The first time crew encounter the sewer mutants, Fry quickly lights a makeshift torch and starts swinging it around threateningly. One of the sewer mutants casually lights a cigarette from the torch.
* CountingToThree: Ndnd does this to a baby when it jumps into Leela's mouth in "The Problem With Popplers" in a different language.

* CrazyMemory: {{Subverted|Trope}} and parodied, twice. In the episodes "Fry and the Slurm Factory" and "A Clockwork Origin," Professor Farnsworth is declared crazy and everything he has just said has been lunacy. In retaliation, he begins ranting and shouts "and he's my uncle" pointing to the much younger character, Fry. This is actually true, as Fry comes from the distant past and is Farnsworth's great great great great great uncle. However, nobody believes him, writing him off as nuts.

* CripplingTheCompetition: Bender drugs a bunch of race horses (and a jockey who caught him) so the only one he hasn't drugged will win and net him a big payoff.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Steve Castle's death from boneitis, in the episode Future Stock, certainly counts.
** In the season one episode Roommates, Fansworth is discussing a death on the phone. We don't hear the other side of the conversation, but his question of whether the victim died painlessly is followed with 'to shreds, you say?'. It's also implied the victim's wife suffered the same fate.

* CutApart: "Beast With A Billion Backs" shows Brannigan's ship, the Nimbus, fighting fruitlessly against the tentacled creature while Brannigan narrates. [[spoiler:We then find out he's piloting the ship by remote in an Applebees on earth.]]

* CuteClumsyGirl: Amy, for comedy reasons. The creators wanted to have a female slapstick character that's always getting herself hurt, since they're almost always male (in western animation, at any rate).

* DamnedByAFoolsPraise: In "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid", the entire population of the world except Fry becomes chronically stupid as a result of an invasion by the brainspawn. As soon as Fry figures this out, Bender declares "Let's all join the Reform Party!". For syndication, it was changed to Tea Party.
* DangerWithADeadline: Discussed and Exploited when [[GeneralFailure Zap Branigan]] lists some of his "accomplishments," namely, his method of winning the war with the Killbots. Since the Killbots have a killing quota of 999,999, before automatically shutting down, [[WeHaveReserves Branigan just ordered wave after wave]] of earth soldiers to go after the Killbots.

* DarwinistDesire: Zoidberg's people pick mates according to strength and fitness, with Zoidberg's main love interest for that episode flat out telling him that she isn't interested in him because he's an "inferior male specimen".

** "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E4TheLuckOfTheFryrish Luck of the Fryish]]": Fry goes looking for a lucky seven-leaf clover he had as a kid. Flashbacks show that Fry had an older brother named Yancy who was jealous of his luck, so when Fry discovers a statue for a Phillip J. Fry with his clover, he (and the audience) assume that Yancy took the clover, assumed his identity, and lived the life Fry should have had. He goes to his grave with the intent of recovering his clover, but then he discovers that Phillip was actually Yancy's son. One last flashback shows that [[DeadGuyJunior Yancy named him after Fry]], "whom I miss every day", and gave him the clover so that he may continue his legacy.

** Also, Bender's full name is Bender Bending Rodriguez. When he says "bending is my middle name" he means it.

** This was actually brought up on the DVD Commentary. "If there's a Robot Devil, where's the Robot God?" "There is no Robot God." Yet at a 'bot mitzvah' it's revealed there was a Robot Jesus, but Robot Jews only believe that Robot Jesus was built and was a well-programmed robot, but he's not considered the Messiah.

* DiedInIgnorance: The devastating fate of Fry's dog Seymour occurs because of this. Fry accidentally falls and activates a cryogenic chamber, where he is trapped for 1000 years until the beginning of the series. This {{Prequel}} episode explores his life from before then, notably his close bond with his CanineCompanion Seymour. Seymour, and no one else for that matter, ever found out what happened to Fry. What really gets the tears going is the montage showing how Seymour waited for Fry to return, for ''years'', as the world carries on, the pizza place is shut down, and Seymour grows frailer and frailer until finally he dies from old age. [[UndyingLoyalty He never moved from his spot as he waited forever for his friend to return.]] However, because of the setup of a StableTimeLoop that was already in effect the very moment Fry got frozen, Seymour's fate is ultimately averted and he never dies the way that the audience sees him at the end of "Jurassic Bark".
* DiegeticVisualEffects: In "A Leela of Her Own," several Blernsball players are naked in a locker room, censorsed by black bars. Bender accidentally unplugs the "black bar generator" in the corner, making the bars vanish and the guys have to cover up with towels (except for one apparently hung player who proudly looks around and declares, "I win!" Also counts as LeaningOnTheFourthWall as his back was to the camera and therfore didn't automatically have to cover himself.)

* DisabilitySuperpower: Fry's lack of the delta brainwave grants him immunity to the evil Brainspawn's powers. It also makes him immune to mind readers as seen in ''Into the Wild Green Yonder''.
** Also the brain slugs that attach to his head die of starvation.

** [[spoiler:Kif]] has one in ''The Beast With A Billion Backs''.
** Leela has one in "Rebirth".

** In "Bender's Game", during the parody of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'', one orc-thing climbing a ladder while assaulting the castle catch sight of Amy taking off her top through a window. Cue abundant drooling, which happens to be acidic and burns through the ladder's steps, sending him falling.

* DoYouWantToCopulate: In "Why Must I Be a Crustacean In Love?", Zoidberg wants to ask for sex up front, despite Fry's advice.

** In "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings," Bender walks in on Fry practicing his holophoner... an oddly shaped, multi-colored pipe which (when played badly) exudes smoke-like whisps of holographic image. When Bender enters Fry's room, Fry frantically waves the "smoke" away and attempts to hide the holophoner.

** ''T. rexes'' are inexplicably alive and well in the year 3000 and are used to give children rides in petting zoos. Presumably they were cloned.

--->Tonight at Eleven: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMSHvgaUWc8 DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!]]
** ''Bender's Big Score'' gave us countless {{Doomsday Device}}s, a [[spoiler:Platinum Doom-Proof Vest]], and the Doom Meter, Which measures exactly how doomed something is measuring the amount of millidooms it's emitting. (A TimeParadox) duplicate emits doom at 10 times the background level.)

** "NIXON ALWAYS WINS! HAROOOOO!"

* DressedInLayers: Parodied when Leela became a superhero. She wore her costume under her street clothes, and then another set of street clothes under her costume. It was a cold day. Furthermore, neither of her outfits could hide under the other (her superhero outfit has a collar and shoulders that would be visible under her tanktop, and her tanktop covers her navel while her super hero outfit doesn't, and her normal outfit has a pair of pants, while her Super Hero outfit is just a Leotard.)

** In "Obsoletely Fabulous", when Bender admits he's scared of Robot 1X, Leela laughs about it. Fry, the Professor and Amy all shoot her a DeathGlare for it.

* DutchAngle: Crops up in the series from time to time. For classic examples, look at the episodes "I, Roommate" and "All The Presidents' Heads".

* BloodSport: The Butterfly Derby, an all-female sport popular on the moon involving two teams of two fighting while wearing butterfly wingsuits. It is implied that crippling injuries are common, and the championship match takes place over a LavaPit.

** Bender invokes this again when he [[spoiler: gets a "robo-sex change" in order to compete in the women's division of the Olympics, which he wins handily. He/she even goes so far as to invent a new country, Robania, which according to the national anthem (which he made up) is a [[BlatantLies "land I didn't make up."]].]]

** Two in "[[Recap/FuturamaS7E22LeelaAndTheGenestalk Leela and the Genestalk]]": As Fry and Bender climb up Mom's tower, they see run into Adam West (with his head grafted onto a bat's body) and Burt Ward (whose robot body is colored red). They also mention gruesome torture, a riff on how they end up in booby traps. The second allusion comes when Fry, Leela and Bender are making an escape and pass by [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Finn and Jake]] who're chained and hanging from a wall.

** In "A Bicyclops Built for Two", Alcazar pretends to be the only other cyclops alien left to get Leela to agree to be his queen so they can rebuild their race.

* AffablyEvil: Robot Devil is actually most of the time rather polite as a character, despite being a robot {{Satan}}, and the depths to which Bender sinks at times [[EvenEvilHasStandards leave even him appalled]].

* AllGravityIsTheSame: Despite all the planets visited, and the writers usually being very knowledgeable about such things, the only time differences in gravity comes up is in "Brannigan Begin Again" when the crew go to a planet with greater gravity than Earth. Leela warns the crew to use a special hovercart for the delivery, and as soon as they step outside the ship, they are affected by the heavier gravity (Kif instantly slumps to the ground like a stone).

* AlternateIdentityAmnesia: Whenever Bender turns into a werecar he has no memory of what he does.

-->'''Farnsworth:''' If anyone needs me I'll be in the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin angry dome!]]

** Fry apparently survives a temperature of ''109 degrees''. Normally, people die if their body temperature reaches ''108'.
** Zoidberg is seen shivering as he claims he's cold-blooded. Cold-blooded animals don't shiver when cold.

** Despite the title, and that they are frequently referred to as such, the worms from "Parasites Lost" are not actually parasites. Parasites are organisms that cause harm to their host. The worms were shown to only have beneficial effects such as making Fry smarter, stronger, and generally just cleaning up his body. Fry only gets rid of them to see if Leela liking him was just because the worms basically turned him into Captain America, or if there was actual affection for Fry himself.

** The final episode of season 6 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation_%28Futurama%29 features three acts, each animated in a different style]], including [[Creator/MaxAndDaveFleischer Fleischer]], [[{{Retraux}} early low resolution video games]], and {{Anime|sque}}.

* AsHimself: In "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" (otherwise known as the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' episode), every member of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original cast]] reprised their role, playing both themselves, AND were forced to play TOS' old characters "as themselves" during the episode. [[CharacterOutlivesActor Well,]] [[FakeShemp ALMOST]] [[RedShirt every]] [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute member...]] (Doohan was still alive at the time the episode was written, but in deteriorating health. The working title of the episode was "We Got Everyone But Scotty", which wound up not being accurate anyway, as [=DeForest=] Kelley died in 1999; Bones ''did'' appear in the episode but had no lines).

** Scruffy. He shows up to comment on things when all other characters are used up. He's also occasionally featured as being even lazier than Fry, spending all his time in the basement reading porno magazines.

** The sexy young doctor named Dr. Cahill, (although Fry just called her Dr. Good and Sexy) who, after the first movie, become a recurrent character in the next seasons.
** Hedonismbot was initially created for a single throwaway joke, but became popular enough that he shows up repeatedly afterwards.
** A non-character example. [=EyePhones=] were introduced in "Attack of the Killer App" only to be mostly forgotten for Seasons 6 and 7, but become recurrent in Season 8 likely to reflect on the widespread use of smartphones nowadays.
* AscendedMeme: Creator/ComedyCentral's promos for the 2012 season uses the [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/futurama-fry-not-sure-if-x "Squinting Fry"]], "Why Not Zoidberg?", and "Your X is Bad And You Should Feel Bad" memes. For bonus points, the ads are voiced by Billy West.

** The first episode of the 2012 season has a quick shout out to the [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-up-and-take-my-money Shut Up And Take My Money]] meme. "Shut up and take my quarters!"
* AsianAirhead: Amy Wong, partially subverted as she has an advanced science degree at a younger age than most scientists in the Futurama universe.

* AvengersAssemble: In the beginning of "The Bots and the Bees", Farnsworth uses a Planet Express BatSignal to summon everybody into work at once. Amy's having sex, Zoidberg's eating out of a dumpster, Hermes leaves his home to go to work, and Fry, Leela and Bender escape from a giant spider in space. Why did Farnsworth needed them so quickly? To tell them about the office's new soda machine!

** Robot Santa, who considers ''everybody'' naughty and punishes them with maiming or worse.

* BackwardsFiringGun: Used in "Assie Come Home". When making a delivery Leela has Bender bend the barrels of all the guns, leading to all the gang members killing themselves.

** Subverted in "Yo Leela Leela". The crew gets to act on Leela's kids show. While it sounds like BadBadActing on the surface, it actually fits with the more deliberate and easy to follow style of a real kids show. On top of that, the aliens Leela based her show on actually do speak and act like kids' show characters.

** Farnsworth is a mild example (compared to others on the show), openly admitting to underpaying his employees and unnecessarily risking their lives.

** The only employees of [=MomCorp=] we ever actually see Mom interact with are her sons (and Farsnworth in flashbacks), but she's abusive to all of them.

** [[spoiler:At the end of the part of "Bender's Game" that is a parody of the Lord of Rings. Momon, an expy of Sauron, finally recovers the Dice of Power]]

* BadMoodRetreat: Prof. Farnsworth reacts to bad news by telling everyone that he'll be in his "Angry Dome". He is then seen in a glass dome, ranting and shaking his fists.

* BadSanta: In the future, Santa Claus is real, and he's an AxCrazy robot who tries to murder everyone every year because nobody can meet his impossible standards for niceness. [[spoiler:[[PetTheDog However Zoidberg does]].]]

* BaitAndSwitchTimeSkip: In one episode, Fry and his ex-girlfriend Michelle cryogenically freeze themselves with the intention of waking up in the year 4000 and discover a barren wasteland when they emerge. However, the cryogenic pod was merely set to 2 days and was shipped to L.A. while they were frozen.

* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: Out of the two women in the Planet Express crew, the girlier Amy Wong usually wears a [[PinkIsFeminine pink]], midriff-baring tracksuit, but all her other outfits ([[ExposedToTheElements even her winter clothes]]) bare her midriff. The more tomboyish ActionGirl Leela usually wears a [[TankTopTomboy white tank top]] that covers her midriff, but outside of that she also often ends up in midriff-baring outfits. None of the male crew members wear midriff-baring clothes. Hermes Conrad's wife [=LaBarbara=] also tends to wear crop tops.

* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Happens to Bender in "Ghost in the Machines" when he's murdered and his software is stuck in an infinite loop on the wireless network, effectively making him a ghost.

* BasementDweller: Melllvar. Used as a TakeThat to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fans; the obsessive and annoying ones, anyway.

* BecomingTheMask: Bender gets a robotic gender switch in order to win Olympic gold medals (in female bending events). And then [[LargeHam Calculon]] [[AttractiveBentGender falls for him.]]
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Leonardo da Vinci came to Earth from another planet because he was considered an idiot on his.

* BeingGodIsHard: Bender becomes a god to a bunch of micro sized aliens that land on him while he's floating through space. His granting of their seemingly simple request for beer creates many disasters for them. The aliens then engage in a religious war against the micro alien colony on the other side of Bender that can't see him (and therefore don't believe he exists). And then everyone dies. Towards the end of the episode, Bender meets an entity that may or may not be the real God, and shares notes. Conclusion reached: being God is hard.

* TheBenchwarmer: Leela's short run as a blernsball player was a cross between this and DancingBear. She was terrible at it, due to her [[{{Cyclops}} cyclopean]] lack of depth perception, but her status as the first female blernsball player (combined with her tendency to accidentally hit opposing players with her pitches) meant she would often be brought off the bench just to entertain the crowd.

* BigEater: Nibbler (and the rest of the Nibblonians). Let the Feast Of A Thousand Hams begin! Also Zoidberg, whenever he's not rummaging through garbage cans. He destroys an entire buffet table in "RoswellThatEndsWell." There were hints of Amy of being one throughout the series, but it wasn't until "The Prisoner of Benda" when she switched bodies that she was actually able to indulge her ''food lust''.

** Fry cuts loose with one after invading aliens destroy his sand castle.
** LargeHam acting unit Calculon has one in one of his movies. The whole clip is just the Big No, and yet he says it needs no context. It's then hilariously [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]]:

** In "A Flight to Remember", there's one from Bender after losing Countess de la Roca in the black hole while evacuating from the Titanic(also sucked in the black hole):

** One from Hermes in his flashback from the 2980 Olympics when one of his fans attempts to limbo the stick, which is very low, causing him to break his back.
** Leela gets one in "Yo Leela Leela," after [[spoiler: lying about the Rumbledy-Hump planet leads to sweatshop-like jobs for the Humplings and the orphans.]]
** The Planet Express ship does this when Bender breaks up with her in "Love And Rockets".

* BigOMG: Bender gives one to Leela after finding out she slept with Zapp Brannigan in ''Love's Labours Lost In Space.''

-->Professor Farnsworth: Bunk! Bunk, I say! Bring me a bag full of Bigfoot's droppings, or shut up!\\

* BiggerOnTheInside: Bender's torso compartment somehow fit the entirety of Fry's body in "The Honking". On other instances he can be seen cramming it full of various stuff--often stuff he'd stolen.

** The "alien writing" seen in the background of many scenes are actually [[CypherLanguage ciphers]]. Fans made a game of decoding them, and the messages are often [[ShoutOut shouts-out]]. There's actually two versions; one is a simple substitution cypher -- the other is almost maddeningly complicated.
** In the global warming episode, the crew goes to Kyoto and passes a "[[BlandNameProduct Curious Pussycat]]" billboard that states "I love you more than your mother."

** '''Kiff''' is a South African slang word meaning, roughly, "Great!, Good! Fantastic!" - In keeping with the optimistic nature of the character? It's also a Moroccan word for low-grade cannabis that is usually smoked with tobacco.
** In the first [[YouMeanXmas Christmas]] episode, the characters point out that they actually pronounce it X-mas. After Fry buys Leela a parrot, you can see a sign in the background that says 'Cerrado Para Xavidad.' 'Cerrado Para Navidad' means 'Closed for Christmas.'

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Mom, who presents a down-to-earth family values image to the world, but in reality is a thoroughly wicked old woman who lives for vengeance, power, and cruelty.

** When Fry and Bender are looking for a new apartment, and get a tour of a famous Escher painting. (Bender falls down an endless staircase.)

** An elevator that moves the building up and down. Complete with people screaming like it's a carnival ride.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Zoidberg and Kif. Plus most of the other Bizarre Aliens in the show.

*** Fry, whose heart is in the right place but whose lack of intelligence often screws things up for everybody,
*** Leela, who while normally on the right side of the conflict is often unnecessarily short-tempered in achieving her goals,

*** Zoidberg, who exists mostly to be a punching bag,

** In the episode "Xmas Story", Fry buys Leela a parrot as a present, only for the parrot to be killed by the BadSanta and cooked by [[LethalChef Bender]] and eaten by [[ExtremeOmnivore Nibbler]].
** "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" has Bender at one point express sadness that his guinea pig has died.

** Zapp makes a remark in "Into the Wild Green Yonder" while confromting the Feministas.

* TheBlank: "The Farnsworth Parabox" - When the group is going through various alternate universes, the alternate Amy stumbles upon a universe where everyone is faceless.

** In the Italian dub, the "Were-Car" was translated as "Auto che Era" rather than "Auto Mannara". In shorts, they've mistaken the "were" as in werewolf for the past form of "is".
* BlindPeopleWearSunglasses: Kirk, one of Leela's former bullies at the orphanarium, is a blind kid with round sunglasses. When Leela runs into him at the orphans' reunion, he looks almost the same, with the same sunglasses. He's also become deaf on top of being blind.
* BloodSport: The Butterfly Derby, An all-female sport popular on the moon involving two teams of two fighting while wearing butterfly wingsuits. It is implied that crippling injuries are common and the championship match takes place over a LavaPit.
** There's also the aptly-named Death Ball in "Beast with a Billion Backs," which encourages crushing players with a giant rolling ball.

** In "Decision 3012", Bender is partially blown up early in the episode. Once he puts himself back together, he walks in and announces "Good news, everyone." The Professor does a confused double-take.

** Also inverted: as Vice President of Earth, Spiro Agnew is a headless body.

* BrainlessBeauty: Amy at least some of the time. Somewhat played with in that Amy is an intern going for a masters degree in astro-physics, she's just ditzy. Unfortunately, the bookworm element rarely makes an appearance.

* {{Brainwashed}}: In Insane in the Mainframe, Fry is taken to HAL Institute for Criminally Insane Robots, where after lengthy mental and physical abuse he emerges thinking he is a robot.

** "Decision 3012" has Richard Nixon's head desperately wanting to find if presidential candidate Chris Travers has some dirty secret he can use to discredit him, asking if he's a draft dodger, a sex offender or a sex dodger.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: In "A Taste Of Freedom", after the Decapodians have taken control of Earth, Fry, Leela, Zap, Kip, and Bender steal a heat-seeking missile from a museum to fight back. It doesn't work right until Zoidberg helps.

** In one of the earliest episodes, Fry's hands get eaten by a T. rex. He's then taken to a "Handcrafters" store to get new hands. He says "I'll break them in tonight."

** Also in the hundredth episode, Barbados Slim is shown dancing with Hermes' wife, [=LaBarbara=] Conrad. In "Bender's Big Score", she leaves Hermes for Barbados because [[spoiler: Hermes loses his body]]

** An extremely subtle one in ''Overclockwise'' when the Professor and Cubert are on trial: [[spoiler: Bender convinces the court to drop charges against Cubert (as he is a minor). Once the court does so, Bender then successfully argues that the Professor cannot be charged due to double jeopardy, as Cubert is a clone of the Professor. Basically they are the same person, so the double jeopardy rules apply.]]

** In "A Flight to Remember" in the first season, Bender comments that he can always remember the Countess by her diamond bracelet, but is dismayed to find that it's fake. Two seasons later, in a flashback set soon after the episode, Bender nonchalantly tosses the bracelet in a garbage can.

* BulletHoleSpelling: An interesting variation occurs in a FlashForward from "The Late Philip J. Fry". After realizing that Fry abandoned her because he was dragged into a forward-only time-travel experiment, Leela goes to the abandoned Cavern on the Green restaurant and shoots holes into the ceiling with her laser pistol; the water leaking out of the holes drop onto the ground, gradually forming stalactites that form a message for Fry that he reads a billion years later on a dying Earth.

* BurnerPhones: Exaggerated in an episode where a "nectar" dealer gives Leela and Amy the number to her disposable cell phone in case they change their minds about her product. Then a minute later they call it, before she even leaves the room, and the dealer tosses the phone into a wastebasket immediately after.
* BurningTheFlag: Done for practical purposes when Zoidberg burns an Earthican flag to give a heat-seeking missile a heat source to lock onto. The plot at the beginning of the episode concerned him getting in trouble for eating a flag (ironically he's more patriotic than any of the humans present; he did it to demonstrate the freedom it represents). By burning a flag to literally preserve freedom he was able to get his point across and is vindicated.

** Tinny Tim as well. He seems to be well aware of it - "You raised my hopes then dashed them quite expertly, sir"

** In "Amazon Women in the Mood", Kiff refers to the accident in "A Flight To Remember" to explain when Amy gave him her number. It also shows Bender tossing away the fake heirloom from the fembot he met who died on the ship.

*** In the episode "Forty Percent Leadbelly", an engineer is sorting through Bender's saved files which include folders for his "Main Personality" and "Alternate Penguin Personality"

** In "Bend Her", Bender gets a sex change and pretends to be a fembot named Coilette in order to compete in the Olympics, and ends up almost marrying Calculon before faking her own death and changing back to a manbot. In "Calculon 2.0", we briefly get a look inside Calculon's suitcase; there's a photo of Coilette in the corner.
** In "The Terrestrial", Fry becomes the E.T. equivalent to a young Omicronian prince called Jrrr. Very likely the same little delicious Omicronian larval form who was almost eaten by, then protected by, then saved Leela, all the way back in "The Problem with Popplers" (who introduced himself while in Leela's mouth with the words "I am Jrrr of the Planet Omicron Persei 8".
** In "Fry and Leela's big fling" there is again mention of Leela's ex-boyfriend, Sean. He was first mentioned in "Why must I be a crustacean in love?" This time, he appears in person.

* {{Calvinball}}: Blernsball, the game that baseball has evolved into by the year 3000. It's as impossible for Fry to follow as it would be for someone from the year 1000 to understand modern baseball. Of course, the writers are actually just making stuff up. At various times, it included outfielders riding giant spiders, a multiball function, and a trick shot GoldenSnitch in the form of an outfield target that said "Hit Ball Here to Win Game."

--->'''Professor:''' If you kill an enemy, be sure to eat their heart. To gain their courage. Their rich, tasty courage.

** In a variation, when Cubert overclocked Bender's CPU, causing him to expand his processing power however possible, Bender destroyed then scavenged several Mom-corp recall robots for their processing chips.
* CannotTellAJoke: Humorbot

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: A very brief example of this occurs when Fry visits the abandoned ruins of Old New York and realizes he can jaywalk without fear of getting a ticket. The moment he crosses the middle of the street, he is run-over by a lizard the size of a bus which appears out of nowhere.

* CasualInterstellarTravel: Distance is no barrier to plot, and our perpetually broke protagonists regularly make jaunts that are at least outside the solar system.

** Happens several times in the episode "Godfellas" when Bender tries to help the people living on him. His attempts to give them wealth gets several crushed by a quarter. When he tries to provide sunlight for them to grow their crops he accidentally causes a fire, and when he tries to blow it out it puts out the fire, but also accidentally blows several of the farmers into space. And when Bender cries, he accidentally causes a flood.

* CatUpATree: In "Less Than Hero", a alien looks sad his cat is in a tree. Clobberella/Leela brings it down. Then, cruel comedy happens as it turns out the alien wanted to eat the cat.

** His short lived catchphrase to explain why he lacked motivation to do things: "Although I am already in my pajamas."

*** Also carries over to other Omicronians such as, "I am Drrr, doctor of the planet Omicron Persei 8!"

* CharityBall: "The Mutants Are Revolting" features a charity ball for a mutant scholarship program.
* CharlieAndTheChocolateParody: In the episode "Fry And The Slurm Factory".
* ChekhovsArmoury: Although Fry's lack of a delta wave is the most prominent ChekhovsGun, there are ''heaps'', with some things returning in the same episode they were introduced to become something significant (e.g. the card for Leela's birthday in 6x05), to returning episodes or even seasons later to become something important (this comes to a head in the movie ''Bender's Big Score'' when everything (and everyone) introduced that may seem insignificant early on becomes absolutely essential to the plot later on).

*** In ''Insane in the Mainframe'', Fry (thinking he's a robot) takes a can of oil from Leela and puts it in his inside coat pocket after using it. Later in the episode when [[AxCrazy Roberto]] stabs him, his knife ruptures the oil can but doesn't faze Fry, making Roberto think Fry really '''is''' a battle robot, causing him to FreakOut and run away, saving the crew.
** In ''Bender's Game'', while acting out his ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''-inspired delusions Bender scoops up a ton of dark matter (Nibbler's poop). Later, that same dark matter, responding to the two crystals, combined with Bender's delusions transports everyone to Cornwood.

*** On a less significant scale, several characters show importance later on (in the form of a ChekhovsArmy): Scruffy (the janitor (owns half the company)), Robot Santa (important in the movies), President Nixon (introduced as a throwaway and then proceeds to fuck up the earth royally more than once (no surprise)), the Harlem Globetrotters (... they're all brilliant applied physicists), Amy (turns out she's a brilliant grad student), the Robot Devil (sorta).

*** Munda's exolinguistics skills (her [=PhD=] is brought up in season four's "Leela's Homeworld") come in handy in a season seven episode.

* ChimneyEntry: The robotic Santa Claus often enters houses through a chimney to try and kill the people living there. It leads to chimneys having sealing security systems.

* TheChosenOne / TheChosenZero: Fry. Thanks to being his own grandfather (that's {{time travel}} for you) Fry is the only sentient being in the universe who lacks a delta brain wave, thus making him immune to various forms of telepathic attack, and earning him the title of "The Mighty One" among the Nibblonians.. In the 30th century, he turns out to be the key to mankind's survival on a number of occasions, to the point that [[spoiler: we eventually learn that Nibbler froze him on purpose in the year 2000 so he'd be alive to save the world in the 31st century.]]

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Robot 1-X, who is introduced as a new Planet Express staff member in "Obsoletely Fabulous" and is gone without a trace in the next episode. He does appear in "Beast with a billion backs" and a few other appearances in the Comedy Central run.
** Zoidberg's girlfriend Marianne hasn't appeared since her debut in "Stench and Stenchibility".

* ClarkesThirdLaw: Inverted(?) Hermes states the law with "magic" and "science" swapped at the end of the episode "Rage against the Vaccine," after he and his wife develop a vaccine for Explovid 23 using voodoo magic.

* ClingyAquaticLife: [[spoiler:Leela]] falls into a mutagenic lake. At first it appears that [[spoiler:she]] has an octopus for a head, but it turns out to be a real octopus atop [[spoiler:her]] head. An octopus that used to be a little girl named Virginia.

* CloningBodyParts: Sometimes comes up in the series, such as when Fry went to "Handcrafters" after a ''T. rex'' feeding accident, or later in the series, when Fry and Leela each had an arm ripped off and the Professor grew them new ones.

** In the "A Clockwork Origin" the nanobots, after become larger, devour the ship, Farnsworth's new house...and most of the crew's clothes. And Amy and Leela look as NubileSavage.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Fry and Zoidberg. Also Professor Farnsworth, thanks to his senility.

** ''[[Recap/FuturamaS4E2LeelasHomeworld Leela's Homeworld]]'' introduces Leela's parents, who [[spoiler:turn out to be mutants who gave her up and passed her off as an alien so she could have a normal life. When Leela discovers them, she assumes that they killed her real parents; her parents [[SureLetsGoWithThat don't contradict her]], and are willing to have their own daughter kill them rather than burden her with the terrible truth. Fortunately, Fry comes just in time to straighten things out, and Leela is just happy that she finally met her parents, no matter what they are.]]
** ''[[Recap/FuturamaS4E7JurassicBark Jurassic Bark]]'' might be the best known example. Fry discovers the fossilized remains of his beloved dog Seymour, and wants him revived. Just as he's about to, Prof. Farnsworth analyzes the fossil and determines that Seymour lived a long life. Fry assumes that meant he went on with his life and forgot about him. [[spoiler:The ending reveals that the opposite was true: Seymour never forgot Fry and spent his entire life just sitting outside his home, waiting for him to return.]]
** ''[[Recap/FuturamaS7E23GameOfTones Game of Tones]]'' revolves around Fry having to go into his memories of December 31st 1999 to remember a tone he heard which would be needed for saving the world. At the end of the episode, as a gift from Nibbler for doing so, he's given an opportunity to see his mother again (which he had wanted to spend time with all episode) in her dreams. The end of the episode ends with a heartwarming moment of them having a final moment together.

** Subverted. Years actually go by and the characters comment on it, yet none of them age ''visibly''. The show took place from 3000-3013, and Fry and Leela (for example) therefore have aged from 25 to 38, a pretty massive difference. But, their designs haven't changed at all, they don't ever mention their numerical ages, and they haven't matured too much past "20-something" behavior (or ManChild behavior, in Fry's case).
** Cubert's design and voice never changes, even though about a decade passes in-universe. By the time Overclockwise happens, he should be in his twenties.
** Gets really screwy when you think about it like this; An alternate version of Fry ([[spoiler:Lars]]), age 32 in 3007, aged visibly into his late 30's and 40's when he went back to the 2000's (wrinkles and matured behavior and all). Yet, now that the Fry is ''actually'' that old, he doesn't look a day over 25.

* ConspicuousGloves: Kiff: In one episode, he ends up accidentally touching Leela when his gloves come off and gets impregnated by her (his species reproduces by touch). Although the wearing of gloves is simply down to part of the uniform he and Capt. Brannigan wear.

* ContaminationSituation: Fry has a dormant 20th C. strain of the common cold, which had been eradicated centuries earlier. It leads to the entire island of Manhattan being quarantined and then launched to the sun for good measure.
* ContentWarnings: The movies which comprise season five air on TV in episode form. Apparently, the production team wasn't counting on their airing on TV at all, because their content is somewhat more mature, garnering a TV-14 rating, rather than Futurama's customary TV-PG. Each such episode airs with a small passage of preemptive warning, and a verbal warning of "viewer discretion advised" from one of various characters.
* ContextSensitiveButton: The antennae on Bender's head seems to do everything from cooking popcorn to interrupting TV signals ''and'' it's a metaphor for a penis on top of all that.

*** Also involving Orbiting Meadows: During Fry's funeral in ''The Sting'', an Amazonian woman is sad at Fry's death stating "him make good snu-snu." Cut to a shot of a row of Fry's ex-girlfriends: Michelle from the 20th century, bureaucrat Morgan Proctor, the girl from the club that talked about when "the cyborgs ruled" and even the "radiator woman" from the "radiator planet". They all give a so-so gesture at the Amazonian's statement, indicating his average performance.

** Early in the series Professor Farnsworth mentions that they renamed Uranus "Urectum" [[ComicallyMissingThePoint to finally put an end to that stupid joke]]. In "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" when they zoom in on the Death Sphere, the caption on the planet where Uranus is reads Urectum.
** UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's election as the President of Earth seems like the kind of that would be undone by a SnapBack, but he's still there.
** The Harlem Globetrotters were introduced as an alien race that wanted to ruin Earth's reputation [[ItMakesSenseInContext by utterly humiliating them in a basketball game]] and ultimately helping the Planet Express crew solve the episode's major conflict in "Time Keeps On Slippin'". Now, whenever there's a crisis that's too big, even for Farnsworth to solve, the Globetrotters (primarily Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate) step in to save the day. Tate is also seen as a dean at Mars University in "That Darn Katz!"

** "The Late Philip J. Fry" is full of these, since Fry, Bender, and the Professor, travel through all of recorded history. The best example could be that [[ChekhovsGun time is indeed cyclical]]. Also, it recounts the first millennium that passed when Fry got frozen, including the fall of the original New York City, its reemergence as a medieval kingdom (and ''its'' destruction), before the emergence of New New York.

** Hermes finds another one of Fry's fossilized dogs in "A Clockwork Origin." He throws it into some soup to avoid a repeat of the last one.
** A couple more in "Ghost in the Machines," both by the Robot Devil, and within a minute of each other. The first is when he mentioned the hand-swap deal he made with Fry in the first SeriesFauxnale "The Devils Hands are Idle Playthings." The second reference is when he starts singing the Robot Hell song from "Hell is Other Robots," but Bender interrupts it within the first few seconds.
** And now a '''major''' one in "Law & Oracle." Let's see what we have here: The episode starts with Fry playing an arcade game, and fails miserably. Someone says "You stink, loser" in response to his failed attempt to play an arcade game. Someone comes in with a pizza and shouts "Hey, Fry, pizza going out. Come on!" Fry takes his (hover)bike out to the Applied Cryogenics building, where he realizes he's been duped once again. These are all taken, almost from context[[note]]The main difference from this and the pilot is that instead of getting dumped and repeatedly saying "I hate my life," Fry simply gets run over by a hoverbus[[/note]] from [[PilotEpisode Space Pilot 3000]]. He even [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] his tendency to not look at the customer name before making the delivery!
** The episode "All the President's Heads" features a major nod back to the third season episode "Roswell That Ends Well". In the more recent episode, the crew discovers a new method of time travel and goes back to Revolutionary days. Fry [[spoiler: removes one of the lanterns from the "one if by land, two if by sea" church, prompting Paul Revere to exclaim "the British are coming! By land!"]]. Upon seeing Fry's error, the Professor exclaims "Fry, you've really [[spoiler: screwed the granny this time!]]".
** "All the President's Heads" also contains a nod to "Bender's Big Score". The Busty Head Doctor greets Fry at his job as a head feeder by calling him [[spoiler: Lars]]. Fry tells her his real name, to which she replies, "whatever".

** During Bender's Big Score, we see Bender fleeing after stealing an award. The chase scene involves the city being destroyed...cue the scene from the pilot of ships destroying the city outside the cryogenics lab's window.

** The episode "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" shows Bender aging backwards into a smaller and smaller robot, then finally into a CD of blueprints. However he previously showed a picture of himself "just 4 months old" that he was going to send to Mom, which showed him at his current size, contradicting the whole 'robot aging' thing. It is possible to justify this, however. If one is willing to remember the scene where he was built in the factory, he was not 'born/finished' until fully produced. Meaning that the smaller robots and cd and blueprints would effectively be the robot equivalent of being a fetus. By this argument, He could be fully grown at 4 months, as he was effectively born fully grown. [[MST3KMantra This is all probably overthinking the gag a bit, though.]]
** There was an episode of the original run about Bender coming to terms with his mortality, having ''two'' funerals for himself. There is an episode of the Comedy Central run about Bender claiming to be immortal and shocked when he discovers he isn't.

*** A possible explanation for this is that, like many real-life species, the female kills the male after mating
** At the end of "The Why of Fry", Nibbler blanks Fry's memories of the events of the entire episode, including his discovery that the Nibblonians were responsible for his cryogenic freezing so he could save the universe from the Brainspawn. By the time of "Game of Tones" (a SequelEpisode to "Why") Nibbler casually mentions that Fry is aware of these events.

-->'''Leela:''' This is by a wide margin the least likely thing that has ever happened!

* ConvectionSchmonvection: In The Butterfly Derby, Leela, Amy, and the OpposingSportsTeam fly within inches of the molten LavaPit in their wingsuits with no apparent ill effects.

** Invoked for the DOOP regular infantry weapons. They seem to fire normal looking lasers, but require charging via a jack-in-the box style handle, to the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel."

** At the end of the movie ''Into the Wild Green Yonder'', the Encyclopod decides to preserve the DNA of ''Homo sapiens'' after [[spoiler: the death of Hutch Waterfall]]. When Fry asks why he's doing this when Encyclopods are supposed to preserve the DNA of EndangeredSpecies, the Encyclopod flies off without any further explanation, including any of the time-scale of the danger. When the show was UnCanceled, none of the episodes bothered to expand upon this plot point. And then the show had another finale, which effectively means this plot turned into a case of FridgeHorror, implying humans are a danger to themselves...unless it has something to do with our galaxy's having been auctioned-off to 'a being of unspeakable horror' a few seasons back.

* AbsurdlyLongWait: In the episode "A Biclops Built For Two":

** Bender sells his firstborn son to the Robot Devil in ''[[Recap/FuturamaM2TheBeastWithABillionBacks The Beast With A Billion Backs]]'' in exchange for an army to [[MakesSenseInContext wage war on Heaven]], even going so far as to callously punt the kid into a vat of boiling blood himself. This is so evil it shocks even the Robot Devil.

** In "The Bees and the Bots" Bender subverts this trope by actually being a good father to his son, Ben, even though he initially planned to abandon him. The trope is played straight with Ben's mother Bev, who abandons him to Bender's care, then takes him away after they've bonded, lies to Ben about Bender dying, and threatens to chain Ben to the wall.

** After Zoidberg breaks the Professor's bottled ship, gets covered in glue trying to fix it, and ends up with half the Professor's lab equipment stuck to his body, including a cuckoo clock and a "Zoidberg: Do Not Touch!" sign, he dons a trenchcoat to hide it.

** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS4E11WhereNoFanHasGoneBefore Where No Fan Has Gone Before]]", Melllvar is handing out copies of his fan screenplay but he notes that he didn't print enough copies so 'George and Walter will have to share'. This is something that actually happened to both actors while working on the original Star Trek.

** An in-story example: in "I Dated a Robot," the subjects of the short film are named "Billy," short for "William," one of the most common names in the English-speaking world, and "Maevis," which was probably pretty common back then (TheFifties) but isn't anymore.

** The season 6 finale, "Reincarnation", [[ArtShift reimaging]] Futurama in 3 different animation styles (30's Max Fleischer style, pixelated 80's video-games and 70's {{Anime}}), while parodying their respective tropes.

* AlcoholIsGasoline: All of the robots are fueled by alcohol which many of them, especially Bender, take advantage of to drink incredible proportions (cleaner alternatives like mineral oil exist, but most prefer beer). Without alcohol in their system, they would begin to act like a drunk person. It's a plot point in one episode, that them inefficiently burning alcohol is the reason the future still has problems with global warming.

* [[AllHailTheGreatGodMickey All Hail The Great God Oprah]]: [[Creator/OprahWinfrey "Oprahism"]] is a mainstream religion.

** "The Beast With a Billion Backs" reveals the existence of yet another universe, this one accessible from a tear in the fabric of space-time. It is home to only one sentient being: Yivo, the infinitely huge, love-lorn ball of naughty tentacles.
--->''"These aren't tentacles. They're [[spoiler: genticles!]]"''

** A non-character example. [=EyePhones=] were introduced in "Attack of the Killer App" only to be mostly forgotten for Seasons 6 and 7, but become quite prominent in Season 8.

* AlternateUniverse:
** One episode implies there are an infinite number.
** An episode features only one other parallel universe: a Cowboy universe.
** Professor Farnsworth creates dozens of boxes which act as gateways to parallel universes. Each one of those universes has doorways to all the other universes. [[MindScrew That sound was your brain overloading.]] And it doesn't help that in the end, two of the universes end up with the boxes to their ''own universe.''
** "The Beast With a Billion Backs" reveals the existence of yet another universe, this one accessible from a tear in the fabric of space-time. It is home to only one sentient being: Yivo, the infinitely huge, love-lorn ball of naughty tentacles.
--->''"These aren't tentacles. They're [[spoiler: genticles!]]"''
** An episode has Farnsworth, Fry, and Bender get into a time machine that only goes forward. They discover that [[spoiler: when the universe ends it is replaced by another, identical universe (except Farnsworth killing UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler). They end up returning to their correct time period in a THIRD identical universe, inadvertently killing that universe's version of themselves as well as Eleanor Roosevelt instead of Hitler.]]

* DiagonalBilling: Starting with Season 8, Creator/BillyWest, Creator/KateySagal, and Creator/KateySagal take turns receiving top billing in the end credits.

* AnythingThatMoves:
** Amy shows shades of this at times. Depending on the episode, her readiness to leap into bed with aliens, {{jerkass}}es, and complete strangers shifts between "party girl" and "college bicycle". At least until she gets together with Kif. (As of ' Proposition Infinity', you can now add [[{{Robosexual}} robots]] to that list.)
** "Happy Freedom Day, ladies! Come on, show me something. Anything. Seriously, I'd take an armpit." Needless to say Zapp Brannigan isn't picky.
** Yivo, an [[AnotherDimension extra-dimensional]] being that had sex with every single person in the universe ''at the same time''. Except for Leela. But it isn't because Yivo doesn't try, it's that she's the only one who resisted.
** Bender and Farnsworth sometimes fit this trope.
** Hedonism Bot, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin of course]].

* BadNewsInAGoodWay: "[[CatchPhrase Good news, everyone!]]" "Uh-oh, I don't like the sound of that."

** In [[EditedForSyndication syndicated]] versions of ''Futurama'' that are shown in the U.S. DeepSouth and lower mid-west, Professor Farnsworth's {{Catchphrase}} is "Sweet (mouth keeps moving but there is no audio)".

* CatchPhrase: Plenty.

* CatapultNightmare: Happens a number of times in the episode "The Sting". Leela catapults Nibbler in the process of waking up at least twice.
* CatUpATree: In "Less Than Hero", a alien looks sad his cat is in a tree. Clobberella/Leela brings it down. Then, cruel comedy happens as it turns out the alien wanted to eat the cat.
* CerebusSyndrome: Over time, Futurama went from a ScienceFiction Parody to a more character driven, socio-political satire with a [[DarkerandEdgier darker tone]] [[BlackComedy and humor.]]
* ChangelingFantasy: Leela, who only has one eye, believes she's an orphaned or abandoned alien, and dreams of meeting her species; later in the series, she discovers that her parents are mutants. Since mutants are [[FantasticRacism second-class citizens relegated to the sewers]], her parents figured their relatively normal-looking daughter would live a better life if everyone believed she was an alien.

** Bender's CatchPhrase "Me, Bender."

* BoobsOfSteel: Leela is probably the toughest person in the series. She's also among the bustiest.

* BustContrastDuo: This can be seen as a kind of inversion, due to flat-chested Amy Wong being a ditzy extrovert and [[BoobsOfSteel Turanga Leela]] being a brooding introvert.

* AbsurdlyLongWait: in the episode "A Biclops Built For Two":
--> '''Prof. Farnsworth''': Good news, everyone! Several years ago, I tried to log on to AOL, and it just went through.

---> '''Roberto:''' No, Mommy! Don't weld me to the wall!

---> '''Robot Devil:''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards Wow! That was pretty brutal even by ''my'' standards.]]\\

---> '''Jake''': (Weakly) What time is it?\\
'''Bender''': Time for you to shut up![[note]]The joke being they're both voiced by John [=DiMaggio=][[/note]]

--->'''Jrrr''': Do you speak English?\\
'''[[IdiotHero Fry]]''': ''Eng... ...lish?''

--->'''Leela''':(points to carving on memorial) "It's" shouldn't have an apostrophe. This means "and it is crew." What the hell's wrong with you?!\\
'''Alien''': It's a minor error, lady. I mean, we're space aliens. It's a miracle we can even speak English.

* [[AllHailTheGreatGodMickey All Hail The Great God Oprah]]: [[Creator/OprahWinfrey “Oprahism”]] is a mainstream religion.
* AllJustADream: The episodes "Anthology of Interest I", [[spoiler: "The Sting"]], and [[spoiler: "Obsoletely Fabulous"]].

-->'''Bender''': ''[in response to Fry downloading and dating a robot version of Lucy Liu]'' Humans dating robots. Sick! You people wonder why I'm still single? It's 'cause all the fine robot sisters are dating humans.

** The ending scene of ''Into The Wild Green Yonder'' [[spoiler:where the main characters are on the run from the law and to escape, they flee into a gigantic wormhole which is to take them light-years away without anyway of knowing if they can return. Originally intended to be the final scene of the series, it is made dramatic by having Leela and Fry kiss for the first time as the ship flies into the wormhole and it morphs into the familiar pattern of lights shown in the opening sequence of each episode]]. In the first episode of the renewed season, a SnapBack is pulled and the characters find themselves back at Earth as they come out of the wormhole.
---> '''Bender''': Yeah, we're back.

--->'''Fry''': Bender, you can't bend a wooden door!
--->'''Bender''': You know that, and I know that, but this door looks a little dense.

--->'''Talk show host-bot''': ...And now a scene from ''All My Circuits''. Calculon, care to set this one up?\\
'''Calculon''': No, I think the one speaks for itself.\\
* clip of Calculon belting a BigNo while a pirate, [[PirateParrot parrot and all]], flips burgers on a barbecue in the background.* \\
'''Calculon''': Interesting side note: the script called for me to say "Yes", but I gave it a little twist.
** The newer seasons favor this trope. First Fry does this when [[spoiler: the censoring satellite V-Giny refuses to censor Leela and Zapp's copulation]]. Then Bender has this reaction when [[spoiler:he learns that he didn't have a back-up unit and will die one day]]. And the Professor does one when he realizes he'd survived long enough to witness a human and a robot [[spoiler: specifically Amy and Bender]] get engaged.
--->'''Farnsworth''': I'm just glad I didn't live to see this day.\\

---> '''Bender:''' Tell me.... how much do you think it's worth? (gives pendant to Hermes, who whips out a loupe [[BrickJoke that he seems to just carry around]])
---> '''Hermes:''' It's fake, mon.
---> '''Bender:''' Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

--> '''Bender''': So what's the problem? It's not like you slept with him.
--> (Leela with a guilty look as [[JawDrop Fry's mouth drops]])
--> '''Bender''': Ooooooh mmmmy god.

--> Professor Farnsworth: Bunk! Bunk, I say! Bring me a bag full of Bigfoot's droppings, or shut up!
--> Ranger Park: I have the droppings of someone who saw Bigfoot.
--> Professor Farnsworth: Shut up!

-->'''Bender''': I prefer the term "extortion"! [[XtremeKoolLetterz The "X" makes]] [[XMakesAnythingCool it sound cool.]]

-->'''Hermes''': We didn't see anything...Ever!

* BlindIdiotTranslation: The German dub suffers from this - starting even before Fry gets frozen. "Doomsday prophets cautiously upbeat" - "Weltuntergangspropheten vorsichtig verprügelt" (which translates back to English as 'Doomsday prophets cautiously beaten up').
** The Brazilian dub also has a lot of this. Just as example, they translated the above phrase to Portuguese as "Ano novo, cuidado ao ter muita esperança" (or "New Year, be careful in having too much hope").

* BorrowedCatchPhrase: In the episode "Ghost In The Machines":
--> '''Hermes:''' ''(indicating a graph)'' As you can see, since Bender's death, requests to bite one's shiny metal ass are down 98%. ''(Scruffy uses Bender's remains to vacuum)'' Do you mind doing that later?\\

** In "Decision 3012", Bender is partially blown up early in the episode. Once he puts himself back together he walks in and announces "Good news, everyone." The Professor does a confused double-take.
** In "Jurassic Bark", Fry delivers the "Good news everyone!" instead of the professor.

---> '''Female Fry''': Now when I say stupid things guys all laugh and buy me stuff!

---> '''Old Man''': I'd like to file for a death certifica-- ERK!\\

'''Teller''': Sorry, that's Section C. Next!

** In the Season 6 episode, ''The Prisoner of Benda'', Professor Farnsworth [[spoiler: (who is actually Leela)]] covers his right eye to see properly, which was done in an earlier episode.

--->'''Paul Revere''': Ah, I see that the new scrap metal I ordered is here.\\
'''Bender''': I'm 40% scrap metal, baby. ''(pounds on chest)''

** The Scooby Doo parody segment in "Saturday Morning Fun Pit" contains a callback all the way to "Space Pilot 3000" by bringing back the drawer full of wires.
---> ''Farnsworth [Space Pilot 3000]:'' ...And over there is my intergalactic spaceship, and here's where I keep assorted lengths of wire. [opens drawer]\\

-->'''Jake''': What time is it?\\
'''Bender''': Time for you to shut up!

--->'''Professor''': If you kill an enemy, be sure to eat their heart. To gain their courage. Their rich, tasty courage.

-->'''Leela''': Eyesight is for chumps.

--->'''Leela:''' The tracks lead here.
--->'''Fry:''' Thanks, eagle eye.

--->'''Farnsworth''': Be careful with that unbreakable diamond filament!\\
'''Bender''': If it's unbreakable, why do I have to be careful?
** and another
---> '''Zoidberg''': I'll save us by cutting the unbreakable diamond filament! Oh, I can't cut it.
** and yet another:
---> '''Fry''': How many atmospheres can the ship withstand?\\
'''Professor''': Well it's a '''space''' ship, so I'd say between zero and one.

* CastingGag: In "Saturday Morning Fun Pit" Fry is an ''{{Expy}}'' of Shaggy in the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' parody which is a reference to the fact that ''Creator/BillyWest'' voiced Shaggy in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooOnZombieIsland''.

--->'''Farnsworth''': Doomsday device you say? Ah, now the ball's in Farnsworth's court!

** The episode ''Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles'' shows Bender aging backwards into a smaller and smaller robot, then finally into a CD of blueprints. However he previously showed a picture of himself "just 4 months old" that he was going to send to Mom, which showed him at his current size, contradicting the whole 'robot aging' thing. It is possible to justify this, however. If one is willing to remember the scene where he was built in the factory, he was not 'born/finished' until fully produced. Meaning that the smaller robots and cd and blueprints would effectively be the robot equivalent of being a fetus. By this argument, He could be fully grown at 4 months, as he was effectively born fully grown. [[MST3KMantra This is all probably overthinking the gag a bit, though.]]
** There was an episode of the original run about Bender coming to terms with his mortality, having ''two'' funerals for himself. There is an episode of the new run about Bender claiming to be immortal and shocked when he discovers he isn't.
---> '''Bender''': I never said I wasn't a drama queen!

* ContrivedCoincidence: In "Godfellas", Bender's return to Earth is only prompted after a ''very'' lucky spin of the radio telescope's trackball and then Fry crossing his DespairEventHorizon in earshot of the microphone. Leela [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] this:
-->'''Leela''': This is by a wide margin the least likely thing that has ever happened!

* CourtroomEpisode: Several examples including part of the most recent movie.
-->'''Bender''': Court's kind of fun when it's not '''my''' ass on the line.

-->'''Farnsworth''':'' Executive delivery boy!''
-->'''Fry''':'' Executive?!''
-->'''Conrad (whispering)''': ''It's a meaningless title, but it helps insecure people feel better about themselves.''
--> ([[SelfDeprecation Credits for the Executive Producers]])
-->'''Fry''': ''I feel better about myself!''

* {{Crossover}}: One with ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' [[http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/07/20/the-simpsons-futurama-crossover-epsidoe/ has been confirmed for 2014]], either at the end of that show's 25th season or the beginning of its 26th.
** In ''The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings'', both playings of Für Elise have VideoGame/DonkeyKong throwing barrels at Beethoven and Elise from offscreen.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Arguably, [[spoiler: Nibbler, of all people. Despite his overwhelming cuteness, he is a soldier...]]

-->'''Mascot:''' Hello, sir! I'm Craterface! I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to confiscate that alcohol!
-->'''Bender:''' Better mascots have tried. [drinks beer and shoves bottle into mascot's eye]
-->'''Mascot:''' At least I still have my self-respect! Hahahah...[breaks into sobbing]

--->'''Zapp''': We have only one option. '''Protocol 62'''.\\
'''Nixon''': Not possible, we don't have nearly enough piranhas!\\
(later)\\
'''Zoidberg''': They're [[spoiler: flying Manhattan into the sun]]! They mustn't have had enough piranhas!

-->'''Fry''': But who could bend such a huge steel pipe like that?
-->''(scene then cuts to Bender, in a Hugh Hefner-style jacket, wearing sunglasses shaped like the number 100, throwing a wild party with every single minor character in the series)''

--> '''Bender:''' I was God once.
--> '''God-galaxy:''' Yes, I saw that. You were doing well until everyone died.

** "A Head In The Polls"

* {{Deconstruction}}: ''Futurama'' is generally one for most science-fiction imaginings of the future, whether utopian or dystopian. Its main parody is the {{Zeerust}} futurism embodied in WesternAnimation/TheJetsons and Franchise/StarTrek to a lesser extent, the idea of a tech-driven world that automatically solves all social and political problems. The main idea is that new technology will bring new and even more problems with it, that the rise of technology and new standards won't inherently create a more equal, fair or just society. This is embodied in the very first episode where Fry says, "Here's to another lousy millennium" before being frozen, a TakeThat to the old optimistic view of science-fiction that envisioned a paradise by the 2000s, when by the late 90s (the time the show was conceived), this was no longer the case.

-->'''Fry:''' Do you think a space-age dame like her would ever marry a two-bit, low-life delivery boy like me an' also I 'ave bad posture and severe financial problems?
-->'''Bender:''' Have you tried gettin' 'er pregnant?
-->'''Fry:''' Gosh, yes. I've tried an' tried, but, so far, I only got Amy pregnant.

-->'''Tinny Tim:''' "I'm sorry, sir. I'm only programmed to make oilade and write signs with cute backward letters like these."

--->'''Fry''': Look! On the TV! It's that guy you are!

--> That seems probable.

* DisabilitySuperpower: Fry's lack of the delta brainwave grants him immunity to the evil Brainspawn's powers. It also makes him immune to mind readers as seen in "Into the Wild Green Yonder."

* DisappearedDad: Bender is one, as we find out in TheMovie, when he returns to his son... so he can give him to the Robot Devil as payment for a robot army.
--> '''Robot Devil:''' [[EvenEvilHasStandards Wow, that was pretty brutal even by my standards!]]

--> '''Bender:''' Hermes' dreadlocks? And his ''arm''?! Leela. I'm shocked! ''Food'' goes in the disposal, ''hair and flesh'' go in the trash!
-->'''Leela:''' I'm sorry, I couldn't stop--w-wait. Don't you care that I murdered Hermes?
-->'''Bender:''' Not even a little!

** In "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings," Bender walks in on Fry practicing his holophoner ... an oddly shaped, multi-colored pipe which (when played badly) exudes smoke-like whisps of holographic image. When Bender enters Fry's room, Fry frantically waves the "smoke" away and attempts to hide the holophoner.

--> '''Zoidberg:''' You do that and I'll ''[[[SoundEffectBleep bleep]]]'' gut you like a fish!\\

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The identity of the Dark One at "Into the Wild Green Yonder": [[ChekhovsGunman Did he appear before the reveal?]] Check. Was he BeneathSuspicion? Check. [[TheReveal It is a surprise both to the characters and the audience?]] Check. [[InherentInTheSystem Does it make sense with the general theme of the series?]] Check.

---> '''Professor Farnsworth:''' Dear Lord, they're back!\\

---> Tonight at Eleven: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMSHvgaUWc8 DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!]]

--> '''Farnsworth:''' I suppose I could part with ''one'' and still be feared.

---> '''Bender''': That's pretty good! How do you do that?

[[folder: 0-A]]

--->'''Bender''': I believe that qualifies as 'ill', at least from a technical standpoint.

** "I am already in my pajamas," was Professor Farnsworth's catchphrase for the first two episodes of the series. It was never said again.

* AcceptableTargets: New Jersey is a frequent butt of [[TakeThat potshots]] in this show.

* DirtyOldMan: Professor Farnsworth has his moments, though he's more insane, forgetful, mean, and lazy than lecherous, as far as old man stereotypes go.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Zapp Brannigan is clear parody of Captain Kirk from ''Franchise/StarTrek'', poking fun at his more inept and egotistical moments. As a result Zapp has Kirk's [[BoldlyComing lustiness]] and ego cranked up to "parody," but lacks any of his competence or AFatherToHisMen traits, instead being a GeneralFailure relying on WeHaveReserves. Leela ''once'' had PitySex with him, [[AbhorrentAdmirer and he never let her forget it.]]

* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: This trope is [[LampshadeHanging perfectly lampshaded]] by the fake commercial bump towards the end of "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV", which featured Bender becoming a soap opera star and celebrity by being... Bender.
-->'''Bender''' (on voiceover): You're watching Futurama, the show that does '''not''' advocate the cool crime of robbery!