Futurama: The Prisoner of Benda
by Dion on Aug.22, 2010, under TV
OK, I have to gush. The last episode of Futurama was extraordinary, even by the show’s own standards. The sixth season has just gotten better and better recently, and this is the best episode yet.
But what’s so great about it? Ken Keeler, who has a doctorate in mathematics (and is probably the most responsible for the show after Matt Groening and David X. Cohen), wrote and apparently proved a new theorem in group theory in order to solve the main problem posed by the episode’s plot. Yes, I’m serious.
Even better, the proof itself is very clearly (but briefly) shown in the episode itself.
The last time I studied group theory was almost ten years ago, so I need to brush-up on it in order to fully understand the proof, but even if the idea is more-or-less trivial, it’s still incredible to see in an animated comedy show.
This should, at the very least, exonerate Keeler in the minds of many Comic Book Guys, since he also wrote the much loathed episode “The Principal and the Pauper” for The Simpsons… 13 years ago.
