Mini-Presentation

http://www.cc.com/video-clips/rmlrfx/futurama-internet-film

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/plastic-rubbish-tide-caribbean-island-roatan-honduras-coast-pollution-a8017381.html

Background: In the year 3000, Professor Farnsworth invents the "Smelliscope," which allows people to smell distant objects in space. Fry uses it and discovers a giant ball of garbage which is now hurtling towards New New York.

To get rid of the ball of garbage, the citizens of New New York create enough garbage to make another ball and use it to knock the other one into the sun. This does nothing but allow the possibility of this happening all over again and merely puts the problem aside for another 1000 years.

The genre of this text is animated television, which has taken over TV (with shows such as South Park, The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, American Dad, etc.) The intended audience, aside from regular Futurama viewers, could be those who would rather get rid of a problem rather than prevent it from happening in the first place.

This text is typical of the genre as it creates a satirical outlook on a current issue. While the measures taken in the show are exaggerated, it makes a statement on how, as a society, we tend to focus on getting rid of a problem rather than trying to help prevent it. The actual content of the text is also typical of the genre (specifically Futurama) because the characters often go to extravagant means in order to solve a problem. There was one episode on global warming in which every few years they would put an ice cube into the ocean to cool the Earth. This text and it's content is atypical as it's set in the future and shows us that temporary fixes are just that--temporary. We need to start coming up with more definite solutions that will benefit us in the long run.

Some complications with this clip include the "filthy country joke" which forces viewers to subconsciously see impoverished countries in a negative light. It also shows New York as a waste ridden city (which isn't too far from the truth), which may keep some people from visiting.

This clip was taken from season 1, which was created in 2000. While this was almost 2 decades ago, the "great garbage crisis" is still an issue.