Philip J. Fry (voice: Billy West) is depressed because he’s away from his family at Christmas and because the holiday (now pronounced “ex mass”) has changed so much in a thousand years. Now, Santa Claus is a highly armed robot that punishes the naughty, and he considers almost everyone naughty. When Fry learns how sad Leela (voice: Katey Sagal) is at Xmastime because she’s an orphan, he feels guilty and goes out to buy her a present, ignoring that he needs to be in before sunset when Santa Claus starts his killing.
In 1999, with The Simpsons past its prime, creator Matt Groening turned his more creative impulses toward a new series, Futurama. This frantic cartoon followed a slacker who was accidentally frozen for a thousand years, wakes, and becomes a delivery boy for a senile scientist.
Xmas Story is an excellent example of this off kilter show. Fry, as always, makes one stupid move after another. While trying to find a gift for Leela, he ends up at a pet store, and can’t decide between a high-end bird, and five hundred stink lizards. (“Girls like swarms of lizards right?”). Fry’s best friend, the amoral robot Bender, steals from robot bums, orphans, and old ladies. And the hundred-plus-year-old scientist shows that he’s not influenced by now-defunct notions of modesty.
The jokes come fast and non-stop. Most of them are pretty funny, but if you don’t like one, wait a second and there will be something new. The humor leaps all over the board, from topical to character-driven, and from slapstick to wit.
While Xmas Story, with it’s executioner Santa (“Your mistletoe is no match to my Tow missile!”) can stand on its own better than the average episode, explaining who the characters are and what has happened to the world, it works better if you know the series.