CHICAGO — Following the recent reboot of Futurama on Hulu, local man Aaron Klopfer tried to explain to his therapist the episode where Fry’s dog dies.
“Every time this show gets brought back from cancellation, I’m triggered all over again,” explained Klopfer to his therapist. “If I don’t see it for a while, I forget all about it. But the second it comes back, again, I’m reminded of the episode ‘Jurassic Bark’, where Fry’s dog waited for him after he got cryogenically frozen, all the way until he couldn’t anymore– sorry, is there a tissue I can have? I always get choked up thinking about it.”
Klopfer’s therapist, Dr. Steve Nadia, explained that this theme is common among many of his patients.
“We see this kind of thing a lot from millennials, who tend to be trapped and tethered to memories of cartoons they saw in their youth,” explained Nadia. “And can you blame them? The world is a harsh place: the job market hasn’t been great for them, and political division runs rampant. Their minds are naturally going to wander to traumatic experiences just to distract them from these tough realities. Older generations were similarly traumatized by Bambi’s mom getting shot by a hunter. It really is a tragic coping mechanism.”
Creator Matt Groening expressed hopes to traumatize a whole new generation with this latest reboot.
“Futurama is a show that just cannot die, unlike Fry’s dog, or Fry’s brother. High five!” said Groening, through cruel laughter. “At its core, Futurama is a show that’s supposed to make people laugh, and possibly even think about social issues in a different context. But every once in a while, we try to include a tear jerker just to fuck with people. It’s an opportunity I didn’t get to do enough on The Simpsons!”
At press time, therapists’ caseloads nationwide doubled after an episode aired where Fry’s long-lost cat died of loneliness or something.
