John DiMaggio Tells ‘Futurama’ Fans to ‘Bite My Shiny Metal Ass’ If They Don’t Like the New Topical Jokes
If the Futurama subreddit doesn’t “zip it” with their criticisms of Season 12’s pop-culture-heavy plot lines, John DiMaggio, the legendary voice actor who plays Bender Rodriguez, might just start his own fan forum with blackjack and hookers.
We’re only two episodes into the second of four planned seasons in Hulu’s Futurama revival, but a vocal contingency within the cult-beloved sci-fi comedy’s fandom is already wondering whether the well has run dry on original episode ideas. Last week, the series premiere “The One Amigo” gave fans a long-winded explanation of the cryptologic principles behind Non-Fungible Tokens, also known as NFTs, also known as that annoying tech bro trend that ruined Twitter for a few months back in 2021. Then, yesterday’s episode, “Quids Game,” was an equally timely-ish parody of the hit Netflix series Squid Game, also from 2021, also demonstrating how the show that’s supposed to be a thousand years ahead of us is currently playing catchup with the average Reddit shitposter.
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With eight episodes still to come in Season 12, DiMaggio and his co-star David Herman went on the offensive this past weekend, telling Newsweek that Futurama fans who can’t stand the pop-culture references of Season 12 should buckle up and open wide, because there are plenty more pre-Elon-Musk-Twitter plot lines where that came from.
“You know, people always like, ‘It’s not as good as the first couple of seasons,’” DiMaggio said of the online reaction to the early episodes of Season 12. “It’s the same people. Same writers, same everything. Just people think they know everything.” DiMaggio also suggested that those fans who complain about the constant pop-culture references in the new season should “just zip it” and enjoy the show.
“It’s always been so topical,” said Herman, who voices fan-favorite side characters such as Scruffy, Roberto and Slurms MacKenzie. Herman maintained that Futurama’s approach to pop-culture-inspired plot lines didn’t change in the near-decade between the show’s most recent finale and the Hulu revival, saying, “It’s always been social parody. It's always been about the moment that we're in, that's science fiction in general.”
DiMaggio and Herman specifically called out the Futurama subreddit’s negative reception to the Season 12 premiere, with the former saying of the heavily criticized move to turn a three-year-old trend into a lifeless episode premise, “It continues to do that this season, so if people don’t like it, take a walk,” then adding an obligatory “Bite my shiny metal ass!” for the naysayers. DiMaggio further attacked the over-critical fans by suggesting that “they can jump in the lake. They could fly a kite.”
“(Futurama) reflects the times, and you know, I mean we’re living in kind of some funky ass times right now,” DiMaggio opined of Futurama’s approach to social commentary, teasing that Season 12 will “get a little dark” when dealing with real-life issues and events. “There’s comedy in there too," DiMaggio clarified. “There’s funny in dark sometimes, you know?”
However, neither DiMaggio nor Herman attempted to address the more specific criticisms about Futurama’s pop-culture-inspired plot lines — namely, that the show is way too late to offer a unique take on a topic such as the NFT craze that had already come and gone by the time Season 11 hit Hulu. Given the nature of producing an animated series like Futurama, the writers’ room will inevitably be behind Twitter when it comes to tackling hot-button issues from a comedic perspective, but, right now, the show is running a full three years behind the internet that enraged DiMaggio with its disapproval.
Nonetheless, DiMaggio doesn’t have any patience for fans who seem to be under the impression that the series just started making pop-culture references last season. Bender’s goal may be to kill all humans, but his meatbag voice actor would rather kill all critics.
