20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Futurama

By Alex Leadbeater /

6. It Was Inspired By A Song From The Incredible String Band

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With all the varying futures presented in The Simpsons, you'd be forgiven for thinking Futurama was a long envisioned idea by Matt Groening. In fact, the idea for the show came from a very unexpected source; a futuristic animated comedy came to him when listening to Robot Blues by Scottish folk group The Incredible String Band.

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While initially there may not seem much to link the song to the show, there's a classical slant to a futuristic tale in both. Given Groening (and Cohen's) love of sci-fi, it was probably more of a catalyst than the total inspiration, although that shouldn't dampen its importance.