"The writing staff held three Ph.D.s, seven master's degrees, and cumulatively had more than 50 years at Harvard University. Series writer Patric M. Verrone stated, "we were easily the most overeducated cartoon writers in history"." [1]<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama#Writing" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama#Writing</a>
While introducing the mathematic proof in the show is cool, this exact puzzle also came up in an episode of Stargate SG-1 season 2, which predates this Futurama episode by about 10 years.<p><a href="https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Holiday" rel="nofollow">https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Holiday</a><p>See the last few paragraphs of the plot summary.<p>I wonder where and when this puzzle was first pondered? Is it a sci-fi adaption of a classical math problem?
Reminds me of the math [1] behind the Middle Out sequence (NSWF) in Silicon Valley.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.cantorsparadise.com/the-math-behind-that-dick-joke-in-hbos-silicon-valley-3becdebe9118" rel="nofollow">https://www.cantorsparadise.com/the-math-behind-that-dick-jo...</a>
A lot of authors on early Simpsons and all of Futurama were heavily involved in math and other hard sciences. This is well known amongst fans.<p>What I started wondering looking at this article, is, what made Matt Groening associate himself with math PhDs from Ivy League universities when putting together a comedy team?
I was about to make ba long winded post about the show but I am too tired, so I'll just say this:<p>If you like Futurama and don't hate memes, you should definitely give <a href="https://morbotron.com/" rel="nofollow">https://morbotron.com/</a> a try. It's got everything.
This theorem and a whole bunch of other cool math easter eggs are described in The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh, which I highly recommend. Despite the name, it includes some stories from Futurama, which makes sense given how similar the writing teams were.<p>It's incredible how many sophisticated jokes the writers managed to work in! I really love how both shows were able to be funny without dumbing down the content.
The Futurama DVD commentary is amongst the funniest/most interesting commentaries I've ever listened to.<p>It's that perfect mix of funny and fascinating.<p>On a side note, I feel like commentary is something we've lost with the move to streaming services. Would love to see it added as a feature to Netflix/Amazon Prime/etc