Religion in Futurama - References To Existing Religions

References To Existing Religions

Aside from inventing religions, the writers of Futurama also make references to established faiths.

In the episode "When Aliens Attack", Earth is invaded by Omicronians demanding to see the season finale of Single Female Lawyer, a television show which was accidentally knocked off the air 1,000 years earlier by Fry. Professor Farnsworth explains that the show no longer exists because most video tapes from that era were destroyed during the Second Coming of Jesus in the year 2443. Ken Keeler, the writer of the episode, considered this joke one of the most blasphemous lines in the show, because it suggested that the Second Coming had been and gone and life on Earth had carried on much as before.

Jesus is referenced several times throughout the show, the most notable being on "A Tale of Two Santas", where all of the crew dress up as Santa and Zoidberg dresses up as "his friend Jesus" to attempt to stay Bender's execution. When the real Robot Santa appears and attacks the crew and the people attempting to execute Bender, the executioner exclaims "Get him, Jesus!" before diving behind an object, and in reference to Benjamin Franklin's famous remark, Zoidberg replies, "I help those who help themselves."

On several occasions, Professor Farnsworth uses the phrase "Sweet Zombie Jesus!" as an expression of shock or dismay, raising the possibility that in 2443, Jesus rose from the dead as a zombie. These exclamations are usually cut for syndication in the United States. In the DVD of Futurama episode "The Deep South," a cut scene shows Farnsworth muttering in his sleep about the Zombie Jesus returning at tea-time, when Farnsworth has no food to supply it.

Another undead figure, Chanukah Zombie, first mentioned in the episode "A Tale of Two Santas", makes an appearance in Bender's Big Score. He teams up with Robot Santa and Kwanzaa Bot to fight alien scam artists who have seized possession of planet Earth. His weapons are themed around Jewish symbols and artifacts, including explosive dreidels and a TIE Fighter (a reference to Star Wars; Star Wars actor Mark Hamill supplies Chanukah Zombie's voice) adorned with Stars of David and a menorah.

Catholicism is shown to still exist in some form in the 31st century, as the show makes several references to the "Space Pope": in the opening titles of "Hell is Other Robots" (stating that the show has been "Condemned by the Space Pope"); in "A Bicyclops Built for Two", with Bender's rhetorical question "Is the Space Pope reptilian?"; and in "I Dated a Robot", in an endorsement at the end of an educational film ("Brought to you by the Space Pope"). In the last of these, a graphic displays a picture of the Space Pope as a reptilian alien in Papal vestments, encircled by the words Crocodylus pontifex. Additionally, in the episode "Put Your Head on My Shoulders", Fry and Amy Wong have a lighthearted conversation about their parents' expectations of them; Fry remarks, "What am I, the Pope?" to which Amy replies, "Yeah, and if you were the Pope they'd be all, 'Straighten your Pope hat,' and 'Put on your good vestments!'" In the sixth season episode, The Duh-Vinci Code, the cast travels to Rome (announced as Future-Roma), where the Space Pope directs the ship's landing at the Vatican. A few episodes later, in "The Silence of the Clamps," the Space Pope is shown conducting the wedding of the Donbot's older daughter.

Conversely, Satanism is also shown to still exist in some form in the 31st century. In the episode "A Taste of Freedom," Zoidberg's lawyer, Old Man Waterfall, requests a Satanic funeral rite before dying, and Professor Farnsworth, in "The Farnsworth Parabox", when he is presumably creating the box containing the parallel universe, appeals to Satan for help, mentioning that Satan owes him.

It is implied that some form of Neopaganism may still exist in the future, based on references to a lesbian coven across the street from Planet Express in "Future Stock".

In "The Lesser of Two Evils," one of the Miss Universe pageant contestants is an energy being identified, with little fanfare, as "Miss Heaven," suggesting that by the 31st century, Heaven is an accessible part of the universe rather than a divine afterlife attainable only after death. However, another possibility is that Miss Heaven is simply from a conventional planet that has been named "Heaven."