As the co-creator of Futurama, David X. Cohen has helped to write and create thousands of jokes in his career. But it turns out there’s one that he really hope doesn’t come true. The quip in question comes from Bender, arguably the show’s most popular character, who reveals that in the world of Futurama the beloved Academy Award-winning actress Julia Roberts was buried alive.
David X. Cohen has now admitted that this joke continues to be one that he regrets, because he’s now worried that if Julia Roberts does actually die in that scenario then it will not just make the show perversely clairvoyant but also completely ruin the episode, too.
“Now when I see [those references] I get really nervous. Like, there’s one joke about Bender. I don’t remember the exact line, but it’s something like, ‘I hope I don’t get buried alive like Julia Roberts.’ Jeez, what if that happened? It’s very unlikely to happen, but if it did, it would really wreck up that episode very badly. There are some of them where we probably should have just done something else.”
David X. Cohen made the above remarks to Uproxx, with whom the showrunner and writer were discussing the return of the show in the form of the upcoming mobile game, Futurama: Worlds Of Tomorrow.
It’s understandable that this joke has stuck in the mind of David X. Cohen for so long as it is a particularly disturbing and harrowing joke, which immediately conjures up images of Julia Roberts in a dire and bleak situation.
During the same interview David X. Cohen also went into detail about why Futurama avoided making too many pop culture jokes, especially in comparison to other 20th Century Fox shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons . David X. Cohen explained that the show and its writers avoided making “a lot of pop culture references” simply because of the fact that they were “set in the future.”
However, from time to time, Futurama just couldn’t resist the opportunity and indeed made a joke regarding some of pop culture’s biggest and most popular figures. Looking back on the series, though, David X Cohen admitted that he’s glad the show avoided making too many of them because when he watches old episodes and a pop culture reference does arise they immediately date it.
Futurama fans don’t just have a brand new mobile phone game to fawn over, but David X. Cohen has also suggested that some rather exciting announcements regarding the show are on the horizon, too.
[Featured Image by Universal Pictures]
