I’m not surprised Planet Express is a bad delivery service. Farnsworth uses a giant ship to deliver one package at a time. The Futurama game even makes a joke about this.
This is a very good point, I got so caught up on him not being present for some successes I didn't realize his actual track record isn't all that bad. He is the only career chip approved delivery boy after all
Haven't ever played the games (or read the comics) but thats good to know. There's probably a lot more intel in that media, but I'll admit I'm a bit of a show purist. Maybe it's time to branch out
Professor Farnsworth is a University professor at Mars University meaning he could just be subsidzing Planet Express with his income. Given that an Uni Professor on average makes a annual salary of $200K with factoring in bonuses and benefits. He could be just using his income, as well as scientific grants to fund the company. Planet Express might just be the professor's side project meaning it doesn't need to make a profit.
lol, you're definitely not wrong. I almost talked about science grants in the video as well, but it was a bit more fun to leave it out and recklessly speculate. Though Farnsworth doesn't seem to have a doctorate, at least he's never been referred to as one, so I have to imagine he'd be making on the lower end of the salary range. He also does refer to PX as a side business, so you're right there too. But then the video would have been like 30 seconds lmao
That is true. Amy is Farnsworth's intern for a reason and we know Farnsworth has been a professor for about 100 years given that his fued with Wernstrum started around that time over an A-.
Planet Express is a way for the professor to write off all the money he loses so he doesn't have to pay taxes on the money he gets from mom corp. He does seem to invent a lot of stuff worthy of patents. There's probably some law that requires an "operating" business to file and collect on patents, so the whole company is mostly a front
I cover this in the video and in another comment. MomCorp is definitely retained all the patents from Farnsworth's time there. The rest is a good theory, can't really disprove it. But the evidence we do have makes it unlikely, his more recent inventions always seem to be misunderstood, but it's definitely possible.
The professor has tenure from Mars University and a retirement package from Mom's Friendly Robots. That's the gravy train. The professor runs the delivery service as a hobby and so he can have young people give him company... it was probably originally staffed entirely by Mars University student interns.
I agree tenure is possible, though we don't necessarily have evidence he's got a doctorate, so the pay scale might not be great. I cover MomCorp in the video, I think they own the rights to everything, they're a ruthless super-corporation. And Planet Express's first staff included a married man with a child, Dr. Zoidberg, and a bunch of balding middle aged men. It might have included interns, but it definitely wasn't all interns. And he keeps young people around for organs, not company, also in the video.
@@bennett420I say that he may possibly have a doctorate given that he's called a "professor" and has been working as one for about 100 years given his rivalry with Wermstrum. He's also heavily respected by other professors in his field like Wernstrum, Bubblegum Tate, and Dr. Banjo. Amy Wong also got her doctorate by working under Farnsworth as her unpaid intern by the episode "That Darn Katz" which whether we (in this case, me) hate it or like it, it's still a canon episode to the show. Unlike Simpsonrama, but that's for another discussion. So to write off that he doesn't have a doctorate is a very lose rejection when there's more evidence for Farnsworth's educational prowess than it is of less evidence.
@@StarForce99 I definitely agree that he probably has a doctorate, didn't mean to rejecting anything, just pointing out we also don't have direct evidence of it. I didn't come to a final conclusion at the end of the video because I don't like to take things as certain unless they're certain
@@bennett420 It's not direct, but still is evidence stacked up against for the former over the latter. I believe the writers assumed the audience would think Farnsworth has a doctorate and not waste time explaining that he does as they probably find it redundant to even make a mere mention of it.
@TheLovableCanine I told you I agreed with you, but if you just want to try to get me to accept it as fact, it's not gonna happen. In almost 150 episodes of the show, Professor Farnsworth has never been called Dr. Farnsworth. You might know he's a doctor, I know it's unclear, we see if different, whatever
I'll say this, the consistency and inconsistency of shows, their timelines, implications, and so on are what give us both frustrations and entertainment (whether itself or video essays) are what makes shows like Futurama great and topical.
Greatest show to hit TV if you ask me. Why else would it keep coming back. Seriously though, I fully agree. The good episodes are so well thought out they merit study. Their bad episodes are in such contrast to their good ones, it too deserves study lol
I think the point of career chips later on was so that you had a default job you could get a job with no issues based on your skillset. but you could still try out for a job, like Fry going through police academy. So getting a job with your career chip later on in the series is was just a way to get your job simple, but you could go get another one if you showed you could do it. Its kinda weird how career chips have this weird continuity of a hard set job vs what you see in other one off episodes.
You know it’s funny. As a delivery company they suck but at retrieving they arnt the worst. They’ve successfully collected honey, they almost collected the animals on that planet that blew up until nibbler ate them all
Gotta change the name to Planet Extractors or something like that, because seriously, you're not wrong. They collected Chronotons too, and those things seem more dangerous than Space Bees
In the 100th episode, season 6 episode 12, _Mutants Are Revolting,_ Professor Farnsworth reveals that they've been hired to make their 100th deliveries, and Hermes even exclaims "that's almost 10 per year". They're probably making a fair amount, but still not nearly enough to make a profit. In _The Late Philip J. Fry,_ one Farnsworth, Fry, and Bender go missing, years later, Planet Express becomes an extremely successful company, with an entire fleet of ships. It's got to just be their obscenely low number of deliveries, combined with his job as an actual Professor at Mars University.
Yeah, but at the end of the day, the 100th delivery was just the in-universe way of saying 100 episodes. I don't think they even make a delivery that episode? But I'm not 100% sure, I only tracked down all of the Fox deliveries. They only make 20 in 5 season, so that's more like 4 per year than Hermes stated 10. If they have done 100 deliveries, the company had bee around for 50 years in Mobius Dick, so that's around 2 per year. Bottom line, you're right they don't make enough deliveries lmao, which was my conclusion too. A lot of people have been pointing out the Mars U tenure, which was definitely an oversight, but I feel like you couldn't pay rent riverside in Manhattan with that salary. Been loving the theories I've been seeing though, thanks for watching!
@@bennett420 Actually, they did: It was delivering a nitroglycerin soufflé from Elzar to Ms. Astor, an elderly woman with a heart condition. I'm going to interject again with an explanation to why Hermes said that they've had 100 deliveries, at 10 per year: Maybe there was a point around the beginning of the series where Planet Express was reincorporated, resetting the delivery count. Much like other missions, it's pretty dangerous, so I imagine it paid a fairly large sum.
Ok, usually I'm a bit skeptical on any other video talking about Futurama that's not from Johnny 2 Cellos, but this was pretty good. I love the weird research you did mixed in the comedy. Well done lol
Actually, that pie chart shows a roughly 1/3 to 2/3 difference between "Income" and "$8 bank error"..... That means it's less than $4... It's actually $2.67....
just finished the video and I know it was uploaded a while back; but I love the dry humor, matter-of-fact delivery and extensive detail used to enforce your point. excited to see more of these "explaining the inexplicable in fiction" videos from you in the future, keep at it brother!
Its possible Amy isn't just an unpayed intern, but instead the Wong's are actually paying the professor to take her in, that seems like something they could possibly do. But this wouldn't answer where the company is getting money before Amy.
I wondered this myself, if she's paying for the program. Ultimately it seems like the answer to where does the money come from is there simply isn't money
"Let's stop pretending we do anything around here." -The Professor in the Futurama revival. I honestly feel like the Professor just funds Planet Express through his inventions and university money. Why he considers this shitty delivery service a good investment is beyond me though. Maybe it's a passion project? Or maybe he just likes his current crew way too much
If I'm not mistaken, he actually says in the first episode that the delivery business is just a little thing he does on the side. Just 30 minutes of me taking a joke in Future Stock WAY too seriously, lmao
Huh, fry has only legitamately borked a single mission? And it was still a successful delivery? I know hes made terrible decisions when hes around bender. But it could be that leela pays more attention to frys antics rather than bender's given fry seems to be more directly confrontational/attention seeking for leelas approval. Which allows bender to sneak away and cause more issues.
Sometimes wasps invade beehives. The professor's previous crew might have been collecting honey when a Space Murder Hornet came in and started eating a bunch of Space Bees and the crew
That's a good point. I think Bender is often seen as the bad influence on Fry, which is true, but it's often underestimated how bad of an influence Fry is on Bender. Bender was just a bending unit that constructed [not phone] booths before he met Fry.
@@bennett420 I just find it strange that everything goes smoothly without Fry, but Bender is always the cause of the problems. Maybe it is bc of Fry's influence
Gonna throw a theory and say he can do many inventions with no problem at all because he might receive funding from an institute or university (maybe Mars university) but he only uses it for that purpose, no the company. (an invention helping the company is a different case) the Momcorp royalties could be very possible. Also, maybe you're allowed to take other jobs regarldess of career chip, but perhaps it'll come with more scrutiny or bias as you might be working on an area you're not "good" at. It could also be the case that career chips are more strict based on your education.
The inventions thing is definitely a possibility. I always assumed that his inventions were a little too kooky for him to sell, but it's definitely possible. MomCorp is such a caricature of a super corporation I always assumed they own all of Farnsworth's IP from when he was employed there. It's a very common practice for the company you work for to own the rights to everything you do while with that company. Definitely possible though. That's not a bad theory for the career chips either. It might be one of those things where it's kinda under the table. Like some places don't check career chips when you get a job there.
23:06 - That silhouette was added after the fact. In the original airing (and the original home releases) that silhouette isn't there. If you watch the episode now, it has been retroactively added.
I'd think Farnsworth, being Fry's greatx30 grand nephew, he's probably got a pretty hefty trust fund from being descended from the 'Original Martian' (Fry's nephew) aka the Luckiest Man in History (thanks, lucky clover). Whenever the episode is making a point about how the company is bankrupt or doing poorly, Professor doesn't really care because his personal wealth - which covers the premises and his living expenses - isn't attached to how well or poorly a limited liability company fares. So, like his various doomsday devices, he keeps the company going as a hobby. Like how Picard has a vineyard on Earth. Given how famous Phillip II was, he might have scored some sort of perpetual tax-exemption deal for himself, his family, or at least their NY property for services rendered like the asteroid mining crew got in the Armageddon movie. Mom's Friendly Robot pension, taking out insurance policies on his employees, patents, and other shady dealings/fetch quests are probably the only thing keeping PlanEx afloat... or maybe he just likes trying to meet new people, forming bonds with them, and then sending them off to die. "They're both just too senile to provide an accurate timeline" was a great bit, by the way. I love how true it rings.
Very interesting thought about Fry's first nephew and his multiple times over great nephew. Yantze's son more than likely accumulated some generational wealth. I tried to keep my theories limited to things I could show footage of as (albeit loose) evidence. But I've loved to see all of the other theories about what the books look like for PX. I don't think we're considering Hermes role in cooking these books to make this failing company work
The Professor is also feared and technically you could say holds the world at ransom due to the many Doomsday Devices he owns. One of them had the power to create a hype singularity that collapsed an entire section of space in upon itself in an instant and fixed the time.
He's definitely got some sort of hammerspace situation going on inside that body of his. Though tracking down and adding up all 40% composition statements would be fun
In the what if episode they state that the Professor is wealthy so he’s probably independently wealthy and pays most expenses for the company out of pocket
I think this whole career chip thing is a red herring. I think he just takes out massive life insurance policies in their name way easier and way simpler to do.
The professor is insanely rich, he created robots and also invented traveling with dark matter. It should be implied that he has a lot of residual income from his past accomplishment
I cover this in the video, both of those inventions were created while working for MomCorp, a company that is meant to embody the most ruthless super corporations ever to exist. It's common practice for companies to own all patents and intellectual property of its employees. If anything is implied, it's that the MomCorp left the Professor destitute each time he was fired. It's like 18:30 to 21:30, I know it's a long video lmao
A small amount of income might come from Amy. She's technically an intern and might be paying the professor for his "teaching" also the professor is a professor at Mars University and could have a teachers salary.
I'm just as frustrated as you are that I couldn't figure it out. But seriously, as another commenter pointed out, it's probably just his salary from being a Professor at Mars University
Hermes is stated to be an amazing accountant, and shown to be one in the episode where he sorts the entire IN box in a single song. He wouldn't be breaking the law, but he could definitely have been corrupted by Farnsworth in order to assist him in not needing to pay tax on anything and potentially getting supported by the earth government. It's entirely possible that while Hermes is technically not breaking any rules, he is advising Farnsworth on how to zero out his income from any/all potential sources and Planet Express just happens to be his convenient "Always failing, never failed" business. It's entirely possible that there is some kind of agreement that Mom made in post-coital bliss that was something like once his business is profitable she doesn't have to support it any more, and due to his hatred of Mom when he's in another room from her, he's been using that for decades to screw her over. And the only thing that's been keeping it going, is the fact that it takes significantly longer to make money from his business than the post-coital feelings they catch last for.
Figured I'd take a bath and watch. It took me till 2:37 to realize someone was talking. Its a but quiet, ill have to return when I have the speaker directly in my ear, with ear buds
One thing that should be said about post scarcity: post scarcity means nothing if its not distributed equally, and we obviously see poor and rich people in Futurama. Futurama itself is based on The End Of History, where capitalism extends... forever infinitely.
You're totally right. If there is some sort of post-scarcity situation going on it's not on the level of what we see in Star Trek. We not only see rich and poor in Futurama, but both Robots and Mutants are clearly straight up second class citizens on Earth. Mutants are even segregated for the better part of the series. I have to imagine if the technology allows for post-scarcity in the Futurama (it appears capable), corporate ghouls like Mom and that 80's guy are working hard to force scarcity.
I think the wongs are actually bankrolling planet express, so it looks more like a legit company in order to get amy college credits and resume candy. They set up an internship the professor because he teaches at mars university. I dont think amy is in on it.
Speculation theroy: he gets all of his money from Wornstrom. Prior to the modern day for them professor made major inventions that would influence the world. How would his largest rivial compete? By secretly funding his enemy's delivery company that sucks to gett the professor occupied. Afterall we see often that when the professor puts his mind to it he does work.
I don't think their property is worth very much, I understand the current prices, but perhaps in the year 3000 is different, their neighborhood seems pretty sketchy, and they are near docks, which probably are not even used anymore
Fry might have gotten a career chip offscreen in the cop episode. Also i don't think you're locked into your career chip for life, it clearly isn't too difficult to get them changed, employers seem to do it all the time and when Fry is unfrozen he just kinda gets one. I don't think it's as rigid as is implied in the pilot
Super late to this comment, but this video only covers the deliveries made during the original run on Fox, and doesn't take the Comedy Central and now Hulu episodes into consideration. 2D-Blacktop was a CC episode Though, it's worth pointing out that the crew can successfully deliver a package as long as none of them are involved and it happens automatically lol
Some would argue that having to work two-three jobs, and not afford health care would be dystopic. Still, it's better than 1k years ago If compared to the perfect scenario, every other society would be dystopic. 1m years from now, our now would probably be seen kind of like a hellscape.
Or... you're looking far too deeply into this, and it's a cartoon where no-one cares about the actual accounting, and the financial side of Planet Express is only there to be joked about.
I'm doing a series on the Hulu revival now, and we'll see where it goes from there, but I do plan on bringing a lot more to the channel. Glad you liked it, thanks!
Not forgetting about them, but not just rampantly speculating about them. We don't see Farnsworth do anything except create, collect and sentimentality keep doomsday devices. It's possible he's using them to ransom or threaten organizations and people for money, but there simply isn't evidence for it. I've always assumed he makes the devices sort of out of habit. Definitely possible they're involved in his finances though, we do see him trade them to Nudar in Bender's Big Score
I was leaning towards that, but wasn't sure if businesses could take life insurance policies out on their employees lmao. I'm sure they can get liability insurance though
@@bennett420 farnsworth can take life insurance out on fry, and as he probably has a legal age of over 1000 the rates would be amazing or terrible as they’d either take a look and go “he survived this long he isn't dying any time soon” or “he’s about to keel over” if it's the former it would be very profitable when he dies
in regards ti the US seeming taking over the world in futurama they did have a super villain president who stole various landmarks, maybe he took over the rest if the world
@@bennett420 oh looked him up he was just a governer of NY, but still if america elected a supervillain governer and let hims tel monuments for new yorks beach… yeah they wouldnt mind taking over the world
The company is properly funded because the professor is independently wealthy because he's hella old. The Dow Jones industrial average doubles roughly every 7 years. so it's done it at least 23 times in his lifetime. 20 of those times would have been when he was an adult, presumably making investments in the market.
This is definitely a possibility, but I tried to keep with things I could try to provide visual evidence for. And honestly, it doesn't seem like the company is properly funded at all, with or without external financing.
In the lore of the fnaf series, this would be the Corpse of William Afton having sex with his genderbend son Michael Afton. Nechrophillia induced incest.
He could have made any number of things in his youth to get this kind of money he’s very very smart and has had a hand in or our right made some of the most lucrative and important inventions of his time. I bet it was simply a few military contracts most of his inventions are tracking or weaponry stuff a military would pay big bucks for especially his doomsday bombs I mean a few even seem to be missing.
I agree both scenarios are possible, but we don't ever get any evidence that either of these things are true. Ultimately I don't think he really has any money, they're almost always destitute. I always assumed the doomsday device making was some sort of senile mad scientist compulsion lol
The career chip is a baseline career your capable of soing other jobs but it gets you a jumping off point i beleve like if you stick to your career chip you get a baseline universal income and you can earn more from more advance work and possibly loose universal income if you decide not to work
I think you might be over analyzing the plot of this series. It's largely parody and the continuity is only loosely followed in most episodes. The company makes so little money because it is funny. It continues to run because the premise of the series depends on it
I’m not surprised Planet Express is a bad delivery service. Farnsworth uses a giant ship to deliver one package at a time. The Futurama game even makes a joke about this.
Oh damn, I didn't even think to mention the overhead of using dark matter fuel to power an FTL ship to deliver a single item lmao very good point
and the game notes they never charged anyone eithet
Well, Nibbler shits fuel. And well, they seem more like a syicide squad.
It should be noted that Fry has the best track record as the only delivery effected by him was indeed resolved after he was willingly beaten.
This is a very good point, I got so caught up on him not being present for some successes I didn't realize his actual track record isn't all that bad.
He is the only career chip approved delivery boy after all
@@bennett420 So what you're telling me is that the system works.
the Futurama video game mentions that they forgot to take payments from anyone which would perfectly explain why they only earned $12
Haven't ever played the games (or read the comics) but thats good to know. There's probably a lot more intel in that media, but I'll admit I'm a bit of a show purist. Maybe it's time to branch out
Professor Farnsworth is a University professor at Mars University meaning he could just be subsidzing Planet Express with his income. Given that an Uni Professor on average makes a annual salary of $200K with factoring in bonuses and benefits. He could be just using his income, as well as scientific grants to fund the company. Planet Express might just be the professor's side project meaning it doesn't need to make a profit.
lol, you're definitely not wrong. I almost talked about science grants in the video as well, but it was a bit more fun to leave it out and recklessly speculate. Though Farnsworth doesn't seem to have a doctorate, at least he's never been referred to as one, so I have to imagine he'd be making on the lower end of the salary range. He also does refer to PX as a side business, so you're right there too.
But then the video would have been like 30 seconds lmao
@@bennett420the professor is fabulously rich he just wants to feel apart of something
Where did you get that number? Idk a single professor who makes half that
That is true. Amy is Farnsworth's intern for a reason and we know Farnsworth has been a professor for about 100 years given that his fued with Wernstrum started around that time over an A-.
Yeah but factor in inflation overtime.....
Planet Express is a way for the professor to write off all the money he loses so he doesn't have to pay taxes on the money he gets from mom corp. He does seem to invent a lot of stuff worthy of patents. There's probably some law that requires an "operating" business to file and collect on patents, so the whole company is mostly a front
I cover this in the video and in another comment. MomCorp is definitely retained all the patents from Farnsworth's time there.
The rest is a good theory, can't really disprove it. But the evidence we do have makes it unlikely, his more recent inventions always seem to be misunderstood, but it's definitely possible.
The professor has tenure from Mars University and a retirement package from Mom's Friendly Robots. That's the gravy train. The professor runs the delivery service as a hobby and so he can have young people give him company... it was probably originally staffed entirely by Mars University student interns.
I agree tenure is possible, though we don't necessarily have evidence he's got a doctorate, so the pay scale might not be great. I cover MomCorp in the video, I think they own the rights to everything, they're a ruthless super-corporation. And Planet Express's first staff included a married man with a child, Dr. Zoidberg, and a bunch of balding middle aged men. It might have included interns, but it definitely wasn't all interns. And he keeps young people around for organs, not company, also in the video.
@@bennett420I say that he may possibly have a doctorate given that he's called a "professor" and has been working as one for about 100 years given his rivalry with Wermstrum. He's also heavily respected by other professors in his field like Wernstrum, Bubblegum Tate, and Dr. Banjo. Amy Wong also got her doctorate by working under Farnsworth as her unpaid intern by the episode "That Darn Katz" which whether we (in this case, me) hate it or like it, it's still a canon episode to the show. Unlike Simpsonrama, but that's for another discussion.
So to write off that he doesn't have a doctorate is a very lose rejection when there's more evidence for Farnsworth's educational prowess than it is of less evidence.
@@StarForce99 I definitely agree that he probably has a doctorate, didn't mean to rejecting anything, just pointing out we also don't have direct evidence of it. I didn't come to a final conclusion at the end of the video because I don't like to take things as certain unless they're certain
@@bennett420 It's not direct, but still is evidence stacked up against for the former over the latter. I believe the writers assumed the audience would think Farnsworth has a doctorate and not waste time explaining that he does as they probably find it redundant to even make a mere mention of it.
@TheLovableCanine I told you I agreed with you, but if you just want to try to get me to accept it as fact, it's not gonna happen. In almost 150 episodes of the show, Professor Farnsworth has never been called Dr. Farnsworth. You might know he's a doctor, I know it's unclear, we see if different, whatever
love this video, and it happens to sound like a very heated moment from a courtroom dealing with a lawsuit against Farnsworth.
Thanks! My 8th grade history teacher told me I should be a lawyer, then I found out how much reading was involved and didn't do that
This is hilariously well researched and I'm for it.
Yes... well researched...
Not the unintended result of compulsively watching Futurama every night.
Researched
@@bennett420who can blame you
For the Bender category, you forgot about when him and the ship fell in love. It was a near disastrous event.
I'll say this, the consistency and inconsistency of shows, their timelines, implications, and so on are what give us both frustrations and entertainment (whether itself or video essays) are what makes shows like Futurama great and topical.
Greatest show to hit TV if you ask me. Why else would it keep coming back.
Seriously though, I fully agree. The good episodes are so well thought out they merit study. Their bad episodes are in such contrast to their good ones, it too deserves study lol
I think the point of career chips later on was so that you had a default job you could get a job with no issues based on your skillset. but you could still try out for a job, like Fry going through police academy.
So getting a job with your career chip later on in the series is was just a way to get your job simple, but you could go get another one if you showed you could do it.
Its kinda weird how career chips have this weird continuity of a hard set job vs what you see in other one off episodes.
You know it’s funny. As a delivery company they suck but at retrieving they arnt the worst. They’ve successfully collected honey, they almost collected the animals on that planet that blew up until nibbler ate them all
Gotta change the name to Planet Extractors or something like that, because seriously, you're not wrong.
They collected Chronotons too, and those things seem more dangerous than Space Bees
In the 100th episode, season 6 episode 12, _Mutants Are Revolting,_ Professor Farnsworth reveals that they've been hired to make their 100th deliveries, and Hermes even exclaims "that's almost 10 per year". They're probably making a fair amount, but still not nearly enough to make a profit.
In _The Late Philip J. Fry,_ one Farnsworth, Fry, and Bender go missing, years later, Planet Express becomes an extremely successful company, with an entire fleet of ships.
It's got to just be their obscenely low number of deliveries, combined with his job as an actual Professor at Mars University.
Yeah, but at the end of the day, the 100th delivery was just the in-universe way of saying 100 episodes. I don't think they even make a delivery that episode? But I'm not 100% sure, I only tracked down all of the Fox deliveries. They only make 20 in 5 season, so that's more like 4 per year than Hermes stated 10.
If they have done 100 deliveries, the company had bee around for 50 years in Mobius Dick, so that's around 2 per year.
Bottom line, you're right they don't make enough deliveries lmao, which was my conclusion too.
A lot of people have been pointing out the Mars U tenure, which was definitely an oversight, but I feel like you couldn't pay rent riverside in Manhattan with that salary.
Been loving the theories I've been seeing though, thanks for watching!
@@bennett420 Actually, they did: It was delivering a nitroglycerin soufflé from Elzar to Ms. Astor, an elderly woman with a heart condition. I'm going to interject again with an explanation to why Hermes said that they've had 100 deliveries, at 10 per year: Maybe there was a point around the beginning of the series where Planet Express was reincorporated, resetting the delivery count. Much like other missions, it's pretty dangerous, so I imagine it paid a fairly large sum.
I just assumed he got royalties from the patents for his many inventions
Ok, usually I'm a bit skeptical on any other video talking about Futurama that's not from Johnny 2 Cellos, but this was pretty good. I love the weird research you did mixed in the comedy. Well done lol
Thanks, I appreciate you checking it out, glad you liked it!
Some slick editing here, great work!
Thanks!
Actually, that pie chart shows a roughly 1/3 to 2/3 difference between "Income" and "$8 bank error"..... That means it's less than $4... It's actually $2.67....
just finished the video and I know it was uploaded a while back; but I love the dry humor, matter-of-fact delivery and extensive detail used to enforce your point. excited to see more of these "explaining the inexplicable in fiction" videos from you in the future, keep at it brother!
saw your fry video and didnt realize you had made other ones. Instant sub, love this kinda stuff, keep up the great work!
Watching all of your videos now. Thank you!
Bro, ur videos are quality!!
Thanks! Glad you liked it, this one was a ton of fun to make
unfortunately the recent episode showed that professor lost all his money on bit coin.
Its possible Amy isn't just an unpayed intern, but instead the Wong's are actually paying the professor to take her in, that seems like something they could possibly do. But this wouldn't answer where the company is getting money before Amy.
I wondered this myself, if she's paying for the program. Ultimately it seems like the answer to where does the money come from is there simply isn't money
"Let's stop pretending we do anything around here."
-The Professor in the Futurama revival.
I honestly feel like the Professor just funds Planet Express through his inventions and university money. Why he considers this shitty delivery service a good investment is beyond me though. Maybe it's a passion project? Or maybe he just likes his current crew way too much
If I'm not mistaken, he actually says in the first episode that the delivery business is just a little thing he does on the side.
Just 30 minutes of me taking a joke in Future Stock WAY too seriously, lmao
Huh, fry has only legitamately borked a single mission? And it was still a successful delivery?
I know hes made terrible decisions when hes around bender. But it could be that leela pays more attention to frys antics rather than bender's given fry seems to be more directly confrontational/attention seeking for leelas approval. Which allows bender to sneak away and cause more issues.
When I watched the show, I honestly forgot that they were a delivery company
Sometimes wasps invade beehives. The professor's previous crew might have been collecting honey when a Space Murder Hornet came in and started eating a bunch of Space Bees and the crew
Weird that all the problems are Bender's fault, but there are no problems when Bender is on board without Fry
That's a good point. I think Bender is often seen as the bad influence on Fry, which is true, but it's often underestimated how bad of an influence Fry is on Bender. Bender was just a bending unit that constructed [not phone] booths before he met Fry.
@@bennett420 I just find it strange that everything goes smoothly without Fry, but Bender is always the cause of the problems. Maybe it is bc of Fry's influence
Gonna throw a theory and say he can do many inventions with no problem at all because he might receive funding from an institute or university (maybe Mars university) but he only uses it for that purpose, no the company. (an invention helping the company is a different case) the Momcorp royalties could be very possible.
Also, maybe you're allowed to take other jobs regarldess of career chip, but perhaps it'll come with more scrutiny or bias as you might be working on an area you're not "good" at. It could also be the case that career chips are more strict based on your education.
The inventions thing is definitely a possibility. I always assumed that his inventions were a little too kooky for him to sell, but it's definitely possible. MomCorp is such a caricature of a super corporation I always assumed they own all of Farnsworth's IP from when he was employed there. It's a very common practice for the company you work for to own the rights to everything you do while with that company. Definitely possible though.
That's not a bad theory for the career chips either. It might be one of those things where it's kinda under the table. Like some places don't check career chips when you get a job there.
23:06 - That silhouette was added after the fact. In the original airing (and the original home releases) that silhouette isn't there. If you watch the episode now, it has been retroactively added.
This the first channel with my exact political views.
Finally some more futurama content for the world
Love the video. It's hard work. Ill check out the others after.
i like the subtlety in a lot of your jokes
good stuff
your videos are damn high quality love it
Very much appreciated, thanks! Glad you enjoyed it, planning on more to come!
I'd think Farnsworth, being Fry's greatx30 grand nephew, he's probably got a pretty hefty trust fund from being descended from the 'Original Martian' (Fry's nephew) aka the Luckiest Man in History (thanks, lucky clover). Whenever the episode is making a point about how the company is bankrupt or doing poorly, Professor doesn't really care because his personal wealth - which covers the premises and his living expenses - isn't attached to how well or poorly a limited liability company fares. So, like his various doomsday devices, he keeps the company going as a hobby. Like how Picard has a vineyard on Earth. Given how famous Phillip II was, he might have scored some sort of perpetual tax-exemption deal for himself, his family, or at least their NY property for services rendered like the asteroid mining crew got in the Armageddon movie.
Mom's Friendly Robot pension, taking out insurance policies on his employees, patents, and other shady dealings/fetch quests are probably the only thing keeping PlanEx afloat... or maybe he just likes trying to meet new people, forming bonds with them, and then sending them off to die.
"They're both just too senile to provide an accurate timeline" was a great bit, by the way. I love how true it rings.
Very interesting thought about Fry's first nephew and his multiple times over great nephew. Yantze's son more than likely accumulated some generational wealth.
I tried to keep my theories limited to things I could show footage of as (albeit loose) evidence. But I've loved to see all of the other theories about what the books look like for PX. I don't think we're considering Hermes role in cooking these books to make this failing company work
Amazing video love it
I had a lot of fun making it, glad you like it! Thanks!
The Professor is also feared and technically you could say holds the world at ransom due to the many Doomsday Devices he owns.
One of them had the power to create a hype singularity that collapsed an entire section of space in upon itself in an instant and fixed the time.
If we are think about how about we find out what’s with bender he’s 40% of a lot and seemingly have infinite storage space
He's definitely got some sort of hammerspace situation going on inside that body of his. Though tracking down and adding up all 40% composition statements would be fun
This is really well made and i love it
Thanks! I had a ton of fun making this one, hope to make more like it in the future too
In the what if episode they state that the Professor is wealthy so he’s probably independently wealthy and pays most expenses for the company out of pocket
Cool channel! Subbed
Thanks! Hoping to do even more of these Futurama Conspiracies now that season 11 is over
I think this whole career chip thing is a red herring. I think he just takes out massive life insurance policies in their name way easier and way simpler to do.
The professor is insanely rich, he created robots and also invented traveling with dark matter.
It should be implied that he has a lot of residual income from his past accomplishment
I cover this in the video, both of those inventions were created while working for MomCorp, a company that is meant to embody the most ruthless super corporations ever to exist. It's common practice for companies to own all patents and intellectual property of its employees. If anything is implied, it's that the MomCorp left the Professor destitute each time he was fired. It's like 18:30 to 21:30, I know it's a long video lmao
We don’t read that full contract, farnsworth could have dead peasants insurance
A small amount of income might come from Amy. She's technically an intern and might be paying the professor for his "teaching" also the professor is a professor at Mars University and could have a teachers salary.
you didn't actually give us a solid answer tho, HOW DOES THIS COMPANY GET THEIR GOD DAMN MONEY?!
I'm just as frustrated as you are that I couldn't figure it out.
But seriously, as another commenter pointed out, it's probably just his salary from being a Professor at Mars University
Hermes is stated to be an amazing accountant, and shown to be one in the episode where he sorts the entire IN box in a single song. He wouldn't be breaking the law, but he could definitely have been corrupted by Farnsworth in order to assist him in not needing to pay tax on anything and potentially getting supported by the earth government. It's entirely possible that while Hermes is technically not breaking any rules, he is advising Farnsworth on how to zero out his income from any/all potential sources and Planet Express just happens to be his convenient "Always failing, never failed" business. It's entirely possible that there is some kind of agreement that Mom made in post-coital bliss that was something like once his business is profitable she doesn't have to support it any more, and due to his hatred of Mom when he's in another room from her, he's been using that for decades to screw her over. And the only thing that's been keeping it going, is the fact that it takes significantly longer to make money from his business than the post-coital feelings they catch last for.
Could be a type of Universal Basic Income for people and companies alike.
Figured I'd take a bath and watch. It took me till 2:37 to realize someone was talking. Its a but quiet, ill have to return when I have the speaker directly in my ear, with ear buds
I appreciate the note, working on a better audio mix for future videos. Thanks!
One thing that should be said about post scarcity: post scarcity means nothing if its not distributed equally, and we obviously see poor and rich people in Futurama. Futurama itself is based on The End Of History, where capitalism extends... forever infinitely.
You're totally right. If there is some sort of post-scarcity situation going on it's not on the level of what we see in Star Trek. We not only see rich and poor in Futurama, but both Robots and Mutants are clearly straight up second class citizens on Earth. Mutants are even segregated for the better part of the series.
I have to imagine if the technology allows for post-scarcity in the Futurama (it appears capable), corporate ghouls like Mom and that 80's guy are working hard to force scarcity.
6:25 never noticed zap's eyes do that before
Awesome video.
Thanks! had fun making it!
"Phone" booth is fine, Canada booths is also acceptable lol
PX is def one LETHAL COMPANY
daaaamm
remember there was more than one timeline at play. and he has a secret twin, @20:27
I think the wongs are actually bankrolling planet express, so it looks more like a legit company in order to get amy college credits and resume candy. They set up an internship the professor because he teaches at mars university. I dont think amy is in on it.
Speculation theroy: he gets all of his money from Wornstrom. Prior to the modern day for them professor made major inventions that would influence the world. How would his largest rivial compete? By secretly funding his enemy's delivery company that sucks to gett the professor occupied. Afterall we see often that when the professor puts his mind to it he does work.
I don't think their property is worth very much, I understand the current prices, but perhaps in the year 3000 is different, their neighborhood seems pretty sketchy, and they are near docks, which probably are not even used anymore
1:35 That pie chart math bruh
10:40
I feel it might be a big ask yo assume that Prof Farnsworth is paying taxes
Fry might have gotten a career chip offscreen in the cop episode. Also i don't think you're locked into your career chip for life, it clearly isn't too difficult to get them changed, employers seem to do it all the time and when Fry is unfrozen he just kinda gets one. I don't think it's as rigid as is implied in the pilot
Yeah, the whole career chip situation in the series as a whole is too poorly defined to make any sort of solid conclusion about unfortunately
What about the replacement ship making the delivery on its own in 2D-Blacktop?
Super late to this comment, but this video only covers the deliveries made during the original run on Fox, and doesn't take the Comedy Central and now Hulu episodes into consideration. 2D-Blacktop was a CC episode
Though, it's worth pointing out that the crew can successfully deliver a package as long as none of them are involved and it happens automatically lol
Some would argue that having to work two-three jobs, and not afford health care would be dystopic.
Still, it's better than 1k years ago
If compared to the perfect scenario, every other society would be dystopic.
1m years from now, our now would probably be seen kind of like a hellscape.
Or... you're looking far too deeply into this, and it's a cartoon where no-one cares about the actual accounting, and the financial side of Planet Express is only there to be joked about.
Well yes, but that's far less entertaining than actually breaking it down
Yes, this video is 100% serious and I'm legitimately distraught about it, the joke didn't just soar right over your head
Make commentary please! MORE MORE!!! :D
I'm doing a series on the Hulu revival now, and we'll see where it goes from there, but I do plan on bringing a lot more to the channel. Glad you liked it, thanks!
you are forgetting about the doomsday devices.
Not forgetting about them, but not just rampantly speculating about them. We don't see Farnsworth do anything except create, collect and sentimentality keep doomsday devices. It's possible he's using them to ransom or threaten organizations and people for money, but there simply isn't evidence for it. I've always assumed he makes the devices sort of out of habit.
Definitely possible they're involved in his finances though, we do see him trade them to Nudar in Bender's Big Score
love your voice gosh, perfect mic and perfect delivery its like getting punched in the ear (in a fun way)
absolutely flattered, thank you!
It's sounds like a life insurance scam
I was leaning towards that, but wasn't sure if businesses could take life insurance policies out on their employees lmao. I'm sure they can get liability insurance though
@@bennett420 farnsworth can take life insurance out on fry, and as he probably has a legal age of over 1000 the rates would be amazing or terrible as they’d either take a look and go “he survived this long he isn't dying any time soon” or “he’s about to keel over” if it's the former it would be very profitable when he dies
life insurance maybe?
Ok I liked this one
in regards ti the US seeming taking over the world in futurama they did have a super villain president who stole various landmarks, maybe he took over the rest if the world
Oh yo, totally slipped my mind. You're definitely right, that's a very possible explanation of what happened.
@@bennett420 oh looked him up he was just a governer of NY, but still if america elected a supervillain governer and let hims tel monuments for new yorks beach… yeah they wouldnt mind taking over the world
Good video but you didn't have to make Futuramas political system political
Lmao
The company is properly funded because the professor is independently wealthy because he's hella old. The Dow Jones industrial average doubles roughly every 7 years. so it's done it at least 23 times in his lifetime. 20 of those times would have been when he was an adult, presumably making investments in the market.
This is definitely a possibility, but I tried to keep with things I could try to provide visual evidence for. And honestly, it doesn't seem like the company is properly funded at all, with or without external financing.
In the lore of the fnaf series, this would be the Corpse of William Afton having sex with his genderbend son Michael Afton.
Nechrophillia induced incest.
I'll take your word for it, I've never played FNaF
He could have made any number of things in his youth to get this kind of money he’s very very smart and has had a hand in or our right made some of the most lucrative and important inventions of his time.
I bet it was simply a few military contracts most of his inventions are tracking or weaponry stuff a military would pay big bucks for especially his doomsday bombs I mean a few even seem to be missing.
I agree both scenarios are possible, but we don't ever get any evidence that either of these things are true. Ultimately I don't think he really has any money, they're almost always destitute.
I always assumed the doomsday device making was some sort of senile mad scientist compulsion lol
Why no Fry?
Any right you can't forfeit isn't a right, it's an obligation.
wdym
eugenics are great
The Germans were all about it that one time, and they've never been wrong... except that one time... the same time
The career chip is a baseline career your capable of soing other jobs but it gets you a jumping off point i beleve like if you stick to your career chip you get a baseline universal income and you can earn more from more advance work and possibly loose universal income if you decide not to work
You mean John Willks Booth? Yeah dont use those types they seem cheap but dont let you talk long at all..
Just as a point, just because you say you shouldn't talk about politics doesn't make up for doing it.
I think you might be over analyzing the plot of this series. It's largely parody and the continuity is only loosely followed in most episodes.
The company makes so little money because it is funny. It continues to run because the premise of the series depends on it
Lets just send the billionaires to the space bee hive! Good news everyone!
Brilliant! Effective and more environmentally conscious than putting them in a big hole. Gotta feed those bees.