Mars University

The worst episode of the first season by a mile in my opinion.

The plot is a parody of teen college movies, Animal House in particular. I believe that comedies should rarely be spoofed, especially when they're not being mocked so much as repeated with different characters as they are here. The main plot involves one of the most hideously awful characters in the show's entire run: Guenter. This whiney little character has no good lines of dialogue and his voice is simply annoying.

The episode is funny. But it's considerably less funny that the rest of the season. As far as I'm concerned, Mars University is somewhat of a blemish on season 1, although it's far from being as bad as bad episodes in later seasons. And even bad episodes of Futurama are excellent entertainment. I actually really love this episode, just not as much as I really love other episodes.

Mars University is, I'm afraid, among the worst episodes of Futurama. An unintresting plot that has been done so many times before (yes, it's a parody, but it could just as well be plagiarism), along with a boring character. Günter COULD have been fun, I just don't know what happened, it was badly written and his lines were just stupid. In a university episode there is so much space for geeky jokes, what Futurama does best, and we're not presented with any at all. The ending was stupid and predictable, in both parts. The b-plot was slightly better than the a-plot, giving Bender a real Bendery plot, but it was still too much plagiarism and cliché and too little parody.

What I'm glad for is that we are given an insight in Amy's studies and are reminded that she is in fact a student temporarily working with the Professor to support her studies, this is something we are too seldom reminded about. It is kind of messed up that she studies on Mars, that is otherwise described as a ruined wasteland owned partly by the original martians and partly by the Wong family, marking some of the most annoying continuity error in Futurama.

"Mars University" is Futurama's attempt at doing an Animal House-style parody of college life in the future. It actually does college humor pretty well, but unfortunately is saddled by the inclusion of the actual plot in which Fry and Guenther, a monkey raised by Prof. Farnsworth who wears a hat that makes him intelligent, share a dorm room.

After Leela and Farnsworth belittle the quality of higher education in Fry's day, Fry decides to matriculate at Mars University so that he can successfully drop out. The writers pull out numerous jokes and gags regarding academic life, the founding of Mars University in 2636 (1000 years after Harvard University was founded) and the drawing of Witten's Dog (a sendup of Schrodinger's cat named after Fields medalist Edward Witten) being the most clever ones. The episode founders when the snooty and generally unpleasant Guenther is introduced, although we do get a moment of pathos when Guenther ponders whether he's happier as an intelligent but isolated monkey or as a beast living in the wild. "Mars University" is one of the weaker episodes in the Futurama oeuvre, but it still has a number of moments which make it worthwhile.

Although it appears to be an episode most Futurama fans dislike, I'm going to say Mars University is a good episode. Although obviously a parody of Animal House, the episode was funny, and I didn't think Guenther was that annoying to be honest. He was supposed to make people feel jealous of him due to his hat and superior intelligence, which overcomes him at first, although he does appear to have a softer side to him after realising he's just meant to be a dumb animal, so he's not unlikable in my opinion.

The plot of Mars University follows Fry taking a course at Mars University so that he can drop out. He finds out that his roommate is a monkey named Guenther, who he dislikes due to his superior intelligence and selfish remarks. Bender moves back into his old dorm place with robot nerds in "Robot House". Bender tries to teach them to be cool and annoys everything, including a guy who says "ROBOT HOUSE!" everytime they do something wrong. In the end, the episode concludes when Guenther saves the crew from death by a waterfall, and choosing to stick with moderate intelligence after his hat is damaged. Overall, the episode was funny, had some good moments, Guenther didn't annoy me that much and the Bender subplot was decent. A solid 8/10 and good for laughs, though no Zoidberg in this one!

"Mate in 143 moves."

"Oh, pooh! You win again."

Few episodes are capable of boring me as much as "Mars University", but I still sat down to remind myself of its story thirty minutes ago. And there's no April Fools business here!

The PE crew travels to Sol 3 to deliver a package to Professor Farnsworth's office at Mars University, and has a brief discussion regarding the planet's history, as well as Fry's and Bender's, that results in Fry deciding to enroll at the University so that he can regain his status of certified college dropout.

I'm not gonna bother to develop further. I know Fry's an idiot, but shouldn't he remember MU from the Professor's Wernstrom flashback of "A Big Piece of Garbage"? Nothing about the Lecturer or the Dean captivates me, and Guenter isn't hilarious enough to make up for Zoidberg's absence. Nevertheless, it was a good way to enjoy a snack!