A Big Piece of Garbage

For my money, the best episode up until this point in the series (which is only 8 episodes in, but still).

The plot is merely a simple take on the likes of Armageddon, but it makes for a large-scope, action packed storyline full of peril. It's great.

The plot's simplicity also lends itself to being a springboard for jokes. The episode was one of the funniest yet and all in all made for a very enjoyable, if somewhat 'disposable' entry into the series' canon.

From the beginning of the series, series creators David X. Cohen and Matt Groening pledged to run one environmentally-themed episode of Futurama per season. "A Big Piece of Garbage" is Season 1's entry, and as with all of the other eco-conscious episodes, it gets it point across in a completely irreverent and non-patronizing manner.

After an embarrassing incident at a symposium dinner, Prof. Farnsworth unveils an old invention that had been lying unused, the Smell-O-Scope. The joy of scientific discovery quickly turns to horror when our heroes discover that a huge ball of garbage is headed on a collision course with Earth, and horror turns to indignation when it is revealed that the garbage ball was created by people from Fry's time and thoughtlessly launched into outer space. After a failed attempt to blow up the garbage ball, Fry comes up with an alternative solution -- a solution which the writers very intentionally and ironically used to undercut any sensible and moralistic conclusion that the viewer might have expected.

The jokes in this episode aren't as incisive as in many other episodes, which is perhaps to be expected since many derive from the scientific academy. Where "A Big Piece of Garbage" shines is in the sheer lunacy of the two major plot twists in the episode. The addition of newsmonster Morbo is a bonus. "A Big Piece of Garbage" isn't the funniest episode in the collection, but given its subject matter it's easy to imagine that it could have been a whole lot worse.

The best joke in ABPoG is the line "With Gusto!", and it's something I try to use in real life occasionally.

If you don't recall it, go back and watch it again. I'll wait.

Anyhow, this is a pretty funny episode but it's got a couple of weak moments. Specifically, the heavy environmentalist overtones (the environment is full of things I hate, like spiders. It can't be wiped out soon enough!), and the idea that the garbageball itself would cause any damage to NNY. I mean, it should burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere. Those things niggled at me.

Other than that, I enjoyed the parodies of Armageddon and Deep Impact, loved the majority of the jokes, and thought that the visuals were pretty good. It's just a shame that we didn't get to see more of Morbo in this episode.