Well, what do you know, turns out Bender from Futurama is one passionate film photographer!
If you’re looking for something to tickle your funnybone, we come bearing some photography humor! This time, it’s a quick dose of pop culture stuff courtesy of Matt Groening’s (yep, the same guy that gave us The Simspons) animated sci-fi sitcom Futurama. If you’re a film photographer this one is especially for you!
Well, it turns out Bender was part of the #istillshootfilm club well before some of us joined!
The clip above was taken from the episode “The Thief of Baghead,” the fourth episode from the seventh season of the animated series. Interestingly, it aired in 2012, a time in the recent decade where the film photography resurgence was picking up (or peaking up, depending on where in the world you are). If we read into its take on the future, as the name of the series goes, we can say it’s a peek into what was going to continue for the rest of the decade, and from the looks of it, even well into the next decade!
In case you’ve not seen any Futurama episodes but are curious, part of the synopsis goes:
“The crew go to the aquarium where Bender becomes obsessed with snapping pictures of celebrity actor Calculon. The crew is frustrated by the finickiness of Bender’s photography, especially that he uses a film camera instead of digital. After reviewing the photos, Zoidberg suggests that Bender become a paparazzi photographer for a celebrity gossip magazine. Though his career is lucrative, he becomes determined to take a photo of the most lauded and mysterious actor, Langdon Cobb.”
We think Groening wasn’t intentionally making fun of film photographers here. Some bits even apply to photography in general (the lens part was hilarious, for sure). The episode simply plays on the stereotypical scenarios they encounter when taking photos at the height of the film photography resurgence. I know many of you fellow film photographers out there can relate!
Want more photography humor? Why not check out 15 jokes that only photographers will understand and even these film photography dad jokes that are making us giggle!
Screenshot image from the video