History Recap / FuturamaS6E24ColdWarriors

* ArtisticLicenceBiology: Professor Farnsworth declares that mankind lost immunity to the ravages of the common cold. Nobody is immune to the common cold, its mutation rate sees to that. He also is able to make a vaccine for it, also impossible for the same reasons (unfortunately).

* BrickJoke: When discussing the plans to deal with the cold, Nixon declares that “Order 62” can’t be implemented as they “don’t have enough piranhas. Later, when the Planet Express building is quarantined under “Order 63”, Leela comments that they “must have ran out of piranhas”.

** Josh Gedgie's virus sample not only beats Fry's display for the science fair, but managed to survive being shot into space, crashing onto a lifeless moon, and being frozen for ''over a millenium'' without being any worse for the wear. Had that seemingly innocent event not happened, the flu could've risked the entire world and New New York could've been completely eradicated. It's such an exact coincidence that, even if he wasn't in the episode, one ''has'' to wonder if Nibbler wasn't a SpannerInTheWorks somewhere in that time just to make sure nothing went wrong.

* NoodleImplements: One of the plans to rid Manhattan of the common cold is a plan called "Order 62," and, for some reason, at least one element of it involves a bunch of piranhas (but, according to Nixon, they don't have nearly enough piranhas to be able to execute Order 62).
* ProperlyParanoid: While sealing off the town and ''shooting it into the sun'' was a bit extreme, considering both Amy and Zoidberg, the ''alien members'' of the crew, are seen getting particularly sick from it (thus showing the virus could still infect people regardless of the planet they came from- and as Zoidberg shows, could suffer ''worse effects than the humans''), the worry about the effects of the virus (particularly a ''millennium-old'' variant) is wholly justifiable. Farnsworth himself outright admitted he was living in ''mortal terror'' of some eventuality like this.

-->'''Fry:''' It’s a good thing Gedgie won. My dumb experiment wouldn’t have lasted an hour in space, let alone 1000 years. Also, UsefulNotes/BuzzAldrin ran over my Guinea pig in the parking lot.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: When Fry gets sick, it not only quickly spreads to everyone else (particularly as humanity had lost ''all immunity to it'' in the millenium's span), but as it spreads it quickly becomes a matter of public concern- regardless of the effects of the virus, the biological risks, particularly of a millennium-old variant, would be nothing to take lightly.
* TakeThat: After Hermes gets sick, he remarks, "I've got a hankerin' for a useless remedy created by a schoolteacher," and takes some "[[BlandNameProduct Airbunk]]" tablets. This is a reference to the Airborne brand of dietary supplements, which are advertised as boosting the immune system despite little research backing up these claims.
* ToughLove: At the end of the episode, Fry's dad tells him that he's only so hard on Fry because he wants him to grow up strong and resilient.
* YoungFutureFamousPeople: Mr. Panucci’s delivery boy in the '80s is a black kid named [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Barack]].

''[[CouchGag We are following you, but not on]]'' ''Website/{{Twitter}}''

Fry brings back a disease to the 31st century that was thought to have died out long ago- the common cold. It doesn't take long for New New York to get the sniffles, but its salvation could be found in a science fair Fry was involved in during his high school days in the 20th century.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Josh Gedgie's virus sample not only beats Fry's display for the science fair, but managed to survive being shot into space, crashing onto a lifeless moon, and being frozen for ''over a millenium'' without being any worse for the wear. Had that seemingly innocent event not happened, the flu could've risked the entire world and New New York could've been completely eradicated. It's such an exact coincidence that, even if he wasn't in the episode, one ''has'' to wonder if Nibbler wasn't a SpannerInTheWorks somewhere in that time just to make sure nothing went wrong.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: It apparently never comes to mind for anyone to simply ask, say, one of the preserved heads of somebody who had ''lived'' through the times of the virus what the effects of the virus would be or how to treat it. All the more damning as even ''President Nixon'', rather than consider it, ''immediately'' goes right to the nuclear option despite living in such a time himself- and as such, would know exactly what the ''common cold virus'' would be.
** Likewise, though Farnsworth was worried about exactly such a situation resulting from ''Fry'' getting sick, it apparently never came to his mind to either vaccinate him against any of these viruses, nor ensure in any way Fry wouldn't get sick at such a cold time anyway. If Farnsworth was really so worried, by all respects he should've made sure Fry was quarantined from the first sneeze.

* YoungFutureFamousPeople: Mr. Panucci’s delivery boy in the 80s is a black kid named [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Barack]].

'''Fry:''' [[ItWillNeverCatchOn I’m not gonna wind up a loser like that guy]].

* CatchYourDeathOfCold: Fry gets a cold as a child when he falls into freezing water while ice fishing. It happens again in the year 3010, a time where the common cold has been eradicated, and Fry's dormant strain threatens to contaminate the whole world.

* KarmaHoudini: Bender never gets any retribution for spreading the common cold around in New New York. Fry gets to take his punishment instead by getting beat up by the est of the Planet Express crew.

* PlagueEpisode: With nobody left immune to it, the common cold acts spreads very quickly 31st century. The sickness itself is no more serious than it is today (though it does seem to now cross over to infect ''otherworldly'' victims), but the reactions to it...

-->'''Barack:''' Man, I have got to go back to law school.
-->'''Fry:''' [[ItWillNeverCatchOn I’m not gonna wind up a loser like that guy]].

** Likewise, though Farnsworth was worried about exactly such a situation resulting from ''Fry'' getting sick, it apparently never came to his mind to either vaccinate him against any of these viruses, nor ensure in any way Fry wouldn't get sick at that time anyway. If Farnsworth was really so worried, by all respects he should've made sure Fry was quarantined from the first sneeze.

** Likewise, though Farnsworth was worried about exactly such a situation resulting from ''Fry'' getting sick, it apparently never came to his mind to either vaccinate him against any of these viruses, nor ensure in any way Fry wouldn't get sick at that time anyway. If Farnsworth was really so worried, he should've ''made sure'' in every way Fry ''wouldn't'' get sick.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Josh Gedgie's virus sample not only beats Fry's display for the science fair, but managed to survive being shot into space, crashing onto a lifeless moon, and being frozen for ''over a millenium'' without being any worse for the wear. Had that seemingly innocent event not happened, the flu could've risked the entire world and New New York could've been completely eradicated. It's such an exact coincidence that, even if he wasn't in the episode, one ''has'' to wonder if Nibbler wasn't a SpannerInTheWorks somewhere in that time.
** If that wasn't enough, the crew lands in the ''exact spot'' the Nerd Search '88 rocket was. If they had spent any more time looking, NNY would've been burned up.