Car Of A Futurama Fan

Although the series uses a wide range of styles of humor, including self-deprecation, black comedy, off-color humor, slapstick, and surreal humour, its primary source of comedy is its satirical depiction of everyday life in the future and its parodical comparisons to the present. Matt Groening notes that, from the show's conception, his goal was to make what was, on the surface, a goofy comedy that would have underlying "legitimate literary science fiction concepts." The series contrasted "low culture" and "high culture" comedy; for example, Bender's catchphrase is the insult "Bite my shiny metal ass" while his most terrifying nightmare is a vision of the number 2, a joke referencing the binary numeral system (Fry assures him, "there's no such thing as two.").
The series developed a cult following partially due to the large number of in-jokes it contains, most of which are aimed at "nerds." In commentary on the DVD releases, David X. Cohen points out and sometimes explains his "nerdiest joke(s)." These included mathematical jokes — such as "Loew's \aleph_0-plex" (aleph-null-plex) movie theater, — as well as various forms of science humor — for example, Professor Farnsworth, at a racetrack, complains that judges of a quantum finish "changed the outcome by measuring it," a reference to the observer effect in quantum mechanics. The series makes passing references to quantum chromodynamics (the appearance of Strong Force-brand glue), computer science (two separate books in a closet labeled P and NP respectively, referring to the possibility that P and NP-complete problem classes are distinct), electronics, and genetics (a mention of Bender's "robo- or R-NA"). The show often features subtle references to classic science fiction. These are most often to Star Trek — many soundbites are used in homage — but also include the reference to the origin of the word robot made in the name of the robot-dominated planet Chapek 9, and the black rectangular monolith labeled "Out of Order" in orbit around Jupiter (a reference to Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series). Bender and Fry sometimes watch a television show called The Scary Door, a humorous pastiche of The Twilight Zone.