Last week, I defended “Destroy Tall Monsters” for recycling the plots of past Futurama episodes. I argued that, as long as the jokes were strong and original, it didn’t matter if the story was something the show’s done before. Well, this week we get to see what happens when you reuse a plot you’ve done before and don’t have strong jokes back it up. And, fellows, the results are dire.
Let’s be blunt: “The World Is Hot Enough” is a “Crimes of the Hot” remake. It doesn’t simply riff on the same global warming theme as “Crimes of the Hot” – its structure and plot beats are an almost 1-to-1 copy. From the opening scene on an unusually hot day, to the reveal that plunking giant ice cubes in the ocean is no longer an option, to one character adopting a cute animal threatened by climate change, to a large scientific conference discussing the problem, to the big pseudoscience spectacle to fix everything … I feel like I’m watching Bewitched, where they’d take a script they’d already used a few years ago and just film it again, except now in color and with a different Derwood.
In theory, this might be okay. After all, global warming has (sadly) not become any less relevant of a topic now than back in 2002. And, as I said, whether the plot’s original or a retread, as long as the jokes still work, still make you laugh, isn’t that what matters in a comedy?
Except the jokes here do not work. And being attached to a sloppy-seconds script? That makes them all the worse, because everytime a gag fell flat, everytime a punchline made me groan, everytime I wanted to yell “Stupid TV, be more funny!”, I kept thinking how much better this was all done the first time around.
“Crimes of the Hot” isn’t even one of my favorite Futurama episodes, but it obliterates any of the attempts at comedy seen here.
Fry adopting some polar bear cubs? It could have been funny, but nothing that’s done with it rises above “slightly amusing” (even the reveal that Fry was actually just stealing the cubs away from their mother, which could have been a big laugh, is paced too slowly to really hit). Compared to the earnest absurdity of Bender and “this mindless turtle”, it’s a big ball of nothin’.
Linda and Morbo commenting on a disaster in progress? All we have here is the most boilerplate version of their typical patter – I kept waiting for something that approached the hilarity of “WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!” or even just “Morbo is pleased but sticky”, but it never even came close.
Mom bending the law so that Mom Co. can keep on polluting? Only real joke here is how flagrant they’re being about bribing scientists – there’s nothing as deliciously absurd as classifying robots as light trucks, nor does it inspire any reactions remotely as brilliant as “I suppose the environment can take one more for the team”.
And the Bill Nye guest spot? Don’t get me wrong, I like the Science Guy, but there’s not much for them to do here beyond being able to say “Hey, Bill Nye cameos in this episode.” It’s so inconsequential, I’m not sure I’d even remember it now, except that it falls so embarrassingly short of what they did with First Emperor of the Moon, Al Gore (“I have ridden the mighty Moonworm.”)
If this had been an original story “The World Is Hot Enough” would still be a lackluster episode. But by deliberately drawing so many parallels to an earlier, many-times better episode, it just highlights its own shortcomings and makes the experience that much more tepid. A total whiff.
Stray Observations:
- This episode remakes “Crimes of the Hot”, and even explicitly references the ice cubes in the oceans thing from that episode … yet completely forgets/ignores the point of that episode was they’d run out of ice, and so had to move the Earth farther from the Sun instead. I dunno, maybe that’s something that changed now that the universe is ten feet lower than it used to be.
- I’m surprised they had Dr. Banjo be the shill for Mom when Wernstrom is right there. Yes, Banjo’s role in “A Clockwork Origin” was to promote junk science, but that was presented as being sincere conviction on Banjo’s part, rather than being on the take as shown here.
- Okay, there’s one joke that really worked for me: Fry pointing out how they have to save the planet because it’s the only one they have, and Amy chiming in “I’m from Mars”.