We seem to have a love/hate relationship with “crossover” episodes of our favorite TV shows. The cynical side says it’s a blatant cash-grab (or at least simplistic fan-service) to jam two TV shows into one slot… but the other, nerdier, hopefully more open-minded side can acknowledge the cynicism and take each “crossover combo” on its own merits.
Fans of The Simpsons know what I’m talking about; earlier this year the seemingly immortal series joined forces with Family Guy, and the results were, at least in this writer’s estimation, not pretty. The Simpsons‘ dopey yet sly tone didn’t mix too well with Family Guy‘s reliance on shock value gags and random non-sequiters, and while I certainly enjoy both shows, this “crossover” failed to deliver more than a few random chuckles.
Only a few weeks later, The Simpsons unveiled a crossover with Futurama, which makes a little more sense (since both shows were created by many of the same people), but had me excited for one simple reason: I will always love The Simpsons, but I deep-down adore Futurama. From its early days at Fox to those four weird semi-modular movie versions and the surprisingly excellent seasons that followed on Comedy Central, you won’t find a much bigger fan of the Planet Express crew than yours truly. (Oh, I also love Zapp Brannigan. He’s the worst.)
I originally took a screenshot to share on twitter. But then I took one more. And  then a third. And then I decided to go with ten and post a gallery here instead of twitter. Yes, this is how writing sometimes works. Enjoy!
Tough to remain cynical when the writers clearly know how silly a “crossover” episode actually is.
This one’s a no-brainer, seeing as Bender and Homer both need beer to live, but I still love it. Note how angry Barney looks.
I love this one. Bender is a known criminal, but Maggie’s masterfully mischievous nature is obviously a bit more subtle.
Which of these three is the smartest? I have no idea. But Lisa is easily the coolest.
Here’s Fry trying to explain Professor Farnsworth’s nonsense to Bart. (I laughed at this one line for 25 seconds.)
Note that Homer easily falls prey to the Hypnotoad but Lisa does not. Â (P.S. All hail, Hypnotoad.)
Our leading ladies share a very amusing moment of mutual discomfort.
Not only is Lisa playing Fry’s holophonor, but she’s conjuring images of kitten Snowball II while Hermes locks Bart-gremlins inside of Madison Cube Garden.
This one is almost too perfect.
Ouch. This one stung a bit.
Which moment of the episode was your favorite? Let us know in the comments below and if you missed Simpsorama you can watch it here:
Homer was hypnotized by the Beer sign but it was still funny and Fry’s dog hit me right in the feels.
Mookie123
Homer was entranced by beer.
I have to say while this episode was fun The Comic Book Crossovers between the two is much better
I just love the idea of Bender just killing time in the Simpsons basement while Homer gives him a beer from time to time.
That’s what I’m saying. Would be awesome is they use him in randomly in a future Simpsons ep.
“Snowball I” was a typing error on my part. Will fix, thanks. The hypnotized Homer was an intentional misdirect on my part. Didn’t want to spoil the joke. Missed the difference between holophonor and holosax. Deeply sorry.
Thanks for reading.
your job as an article writer is to get the facts straight before you publish, it is incredibly unprofessional to publish something with so many glaring errors. you even acknowledge them yet you fail to correct said errors
NERD RAGE!!!!!
This was probably the best episode of The Simpsons I’ve seen in years. The Seymour part made me really sad though!
That is Snowball II. Snowball I is white, and more accurately named.
This episode was good. But it only made me sad. futurama was probably the most consistently good comedy during its entire run, and I’ll continue to miss it a lot.
Ditto! They did drama and comedy better than the Simpsons do. I’d rather watch their reruns on Comedy Central over Simpsons on FXX anyday.
That last picture was totally unesccary and pandering.
Homer did not fall prey to the Hypnotoad, that was Bart. Homer felt the same effect seeing a beer sign as he had not had a drink in a thousand years.
Exactly. They clearly pointed that out. Also, they are wrong about the holophonor. It’s not Fry’s. His is a completely different instrument. Lisa is playing a holo sax.