The following contains spoilers for Futurama season 12 episode 6, “Attack of the Clothes,” now streaming on HuluFuturama has almost blown up the Earth several times over the course of the series, often only barely sparing the planet a horrific fate. Set in the 31st century, Futurama has always been a source of surprisingly dark comedy. This has extended to entire alien races being wiped out as part of a throwaway gag, or the ruling class of various societies (like the formerly dangerous Omincronions) casually killing minor characters. One of the show’s most consistent threats is to the entire world, with Earth targeted by cosmic entities and reality-breaking events several times.
Notably, the show has also teased the planet’s destruction as the result of humanity’s own mistakes, allowing the futuristic sci-fi comedy to play with some timely messages about the dangers of global warming. Futurama season 12 is the latest to do this, with “Attack of the Clothes” revealing the latest way that humanity may have gotten themselves wiped out. Here’s each time Futurama has blown up the Earth and how they’ve restored the world — or left it destroyed.
10
The Garbage Asteroid That Almost Wiped Out Earth
Season 1’s “A Big Pile Of Garbage”
The occasionally apocalyptic scope of Futurama was established all the way back in season 1, which also established how quickly the universe could find a workaround. In season 1’s “A Big Piece Of Garbage,” it’s revealed that an excess amount of garbage and refuse that was rocketed of Earth centuries ago has orbited around the cosmos. Having grown to a massive size, the titular big piece of garbage is now big enough to cause an extinction-level event if it hits the Earth.
Functionally a parody of the Michael Bay disaster film Armeggedon, “A Big Piece of Garbage” tweaks that plot by subverting the plans to detonate an explosive that can split the ball in two. When that plan fails spectacularly, Fry figures out an alternative. By creating enough refuse in the present 31st century, the citizens of Earth are able to rocket up another giant garbage ball. This redirects the initial one, saving the world from certain doom. Notably, the episode’s ending hints that the ball will eventually gravitate back to Earth, making this catastrophic collision potentially inevitable.
9
Fry Not Being Frozen Dooms Earth (And All Of Reality)
Season 2’s “Anthology of Interest I”
The non-canon season 2 episode “Anthology of Interest I” introduced the What-If Machine. A creation of Professor Farnsworth, the device allows the episode to be a three-part episode that explores wild scenarios like Bender being a giant or Leela becoming a murderer. The last one, “The Un-Freeze of a Lifetime,” actually teased an important piece of then-unrevealed lore. In the third storyline, Fry avoided being frozen and remained in the 21st century.
This caused irreparable damage to the universe, as Fry was seemingly destined to go to the future. Future seasons revealed this was in part because of Fry’s time-hopping adventures, which resulted in him becoming his own Grandfather. In a world where he wasn’t frozen, the resulting paradox broke the seams of the timeline. Due to the non-canon nature of the episode, the end of reality isn’t reversed. Instead, the story ends with Fry refusing to fix the timeline, and all of reality (Earth included) collapsing into a blank empty void.
8
Global Warming Almost Killed The Planet
Season 5’s “Crimes Of The Hot”
Global warming is a genuinely dangerous concern of the modern world, and it continues to be a major threat in the world of Futurama. Season 5’s “Crimes of the Hot” revealed that the Earth had spent centuries stalling global warming instead of outright solving it. When the typical solution of introducing ice to the oceans fails, the world initially seems doomed to extreme weather that could wipe out humanity. A workaround is discovered when robots are discovered to be the source of the excess greenhouse gases, leading to the near eradication of all robots.
Considering the sheer importance of robots in the 31st century, this could have further threatened the survival of the Earth. However, the robots were able to use their exhaust ports to move the Earth into a different solar orbit. This allowed the world to cool down enough to survive global warming, all while extending the length of a regular year by a week. This wouldn’t be the only time robots almost wiped out the planet, however.
7
Bender’s Time Travel Almost Wiped Out Existence
Season 6’s “Bender’s Big Score”
Season 6’s “Bender’s Big Score” was one of the biggest stories in the entire series, eventually pitting all of Earth and several of their cosmic allies against a group of Scammers who’d take over the planet. After unlocking time travel, the Scammers used a brainwashed Bender to travel through time and steal countless priceless artifacts. At first, this seemed to actually fill in the blanks of the show’s canon.
Bender’s rampage in the past was actually one of the cataclysmic events that were seen in season 1’s “Space Pilot 3000” happening in the background while Fry was frozen. The real threat came when Bender and all his time-displaced duplicates decided to mess with the time stream, causing a paradox that ripped a tear in reality. Initially presented as a world-threatening event, the story was resolved in the subsequent four-part story, “The Beast With A Billion Backs” in a way that more or less resolved the threat itself.
6
The Adam & Eve Episode Seemingly Destroyed Earth
Season 7’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela”
One of the first Futurama episodes following Futurama‘s second revival, season 7’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela” focused on a mysterious entity traveling through the galaxy and destroying planets. Eventually discovered to be a fusion of two modern-day satellites that now “censors indecent” worlds by destroying them, the entity. When Leela and Zapp Brannigan are sent to resolve the issue, they initially seem to fail and are forced to watch as the Earth is destroyed.
In reality, though, the planet survived, with Zapp only lying about the world’s destruction in an attempt to trick Leela into believing they were the last two humans alive. Ultimately, the entity — known as V-GINY— allows the planet to survive if it can watch Leela and Zapp consummate their relationship. Despite Zapp and Fry’s reluctance, Leela went through with it and saved the world.
5
Fry, Bender, And Farnsworth Travel Forward To Earth’s Ending
Season 7’s “The Late Philip J Fry”
The best example of Futurama destroying the Earth and not actively reversing the event came during season 7’s “The Late Philip J. Fry.” While testing Professor Farnsworth’s new time-travel machine (that could only move forward in time), Farnsworth accidentally sends himself, Fry, and Bender hurtling through time. They eventually end up on a lifeless version of Earth at the end of existence. After making peace with having lost all their loved ones, the three use the time machine to witness the eventual destruction of Earth when the sun supernovas.
However, this reveals that the universe of Futurama is cyclical, with the big crunch at the end of all things setting off another big bang, resulting in a nearly identical universe to the one before. Although they mess up their landing and have to repeat the destruction of all existence, the trio are eventually able to reclaim their proper place in the timeline (by accidentally killing their counterparts in this new world) and continue their lives. This is notably the only time in Futurama that Earth’s actual destruction wasn’t ret-conned or rendered non-canon.
4
The Martian Predicated End Of Days
Season 9’s “A Farewell to Arms”
Season 9’s “A Farewell to Arms” largely centered on an unearthed prophecy that a massive solar flare would destroy the Earth. With an electromagnetic storm disrupting all of Earth’s technology, it is initially presented as an inescapable scenario for the Earth. Only some people are able to escape the world, leaving others like Fry and Bender to perish along with the planet.
However, the ending of the episode revealed the prophecy from the Martians was actually about the end of Mars, not Earth. They’d left the prophecy on Earth as a warning to humanity to avoid the neighboring planet, inadvertently almost getting a large swath of humanity killed. The Earth was ultimately able to recover, and even Mars was eventually restored to its previous state (as seen in episodes like season 12’s “The Beauty and the Bug.”
3
The Nibblonian Ship That Almost Doomed The World
Season 10’s “Game Of Tones”
The world of Futurama has been saved repeatedly by Nibbler and the rest of the Nibblonians, a race of ancient beings dedicated to preserving life in the galaxy. Episodes like season 3’s “The Day The Earth Stood Stupid” saw them help save Earth from the Giant Brains. Nibbler even ensured Fry was frozen in the first place, keeping the world from collapsing into the kind of paradox that doomed it in “Anthology of Interest I.” However, season 10’s “Game of Tones” almost resulted in the Nibblonians accidentally wiping out the Earth themselves.
When a spaceship traveling the cosmos emits a powerful sound, it can cause worlds to collapse upon themselves. The same fate almost befalls the Earth, with Fry’s memories of his last night in the past helping discover the noise was actually a Nibblonian key fob trying to locate a lost ship. Although the world is damaged in the process, the Planet Express Crew helps find the vehicle, thus saving the world from the accidental doom that befell other worlds before them.
2
The Weirdest Ending In Futurama Blew Up The Earth
Season 11’s “The Prince And The Product”
Season 11’s “The Prince and the Product” is a bizarre episode of Futurama, with a non-canon framing device interrupted frequently by parodies of various toys. The loose approach to Futurama‘s established lore and rules in the episode works when it focuses on the random gags of the cutaways, but the central plot about Leela seemingly falling for an alien prince is odd and eventually explained away with a magical “science spell” that compelled her to love him.
The episode ends with the Planet Express Ship transforming into a duplicate of Bender. It then quickly collides with the Earth, knocking it out of rotation and decimating the west coast of the United States. It’s a truly weird episode of the latest revival of Futurama, including the unexpected destruction of the world. It’s also an episode that’s been officially classified as non-canon by the creatives behind the series, explaining how the Earth could be blown up with no clear consequences.
1
Farnsworth Smothers The Planet With Clothes
Season 12’s “Attack Of The Clothes”
Season 12’s “Attack of the Clothes” is the latest episode of Futurama to seemingly doom the Earth. The episode is largely focused on Professor Farnsworth establishing a surprising career as a fashion designer. Part of the appeal of his work is that the clothes only last a day, requiring new creations morning. When the clothes are used and “out of style,” they’re deposited in a wormhole that seemingly dumps them on a desolate world.
After the Planet Express Crew travels through the wormhole and warns Professor Farnsworth about what he’s doing, the Professor discovers the wormhole has actually been sending the clothes slightly into the future, and that the planet that’s been smothered by his creations is actually Earth. The episode ends with this apocalypse seemingly beginning to happen. While the resolution will likely be revealed in the next episode of Futurama, this latest brush with destruction is a reminder of how dangerous the sci-fi setting of the 31st century can really be.