3. Genuinely Funny Setting
The 1990s are a pool of events, people and places, which fry could slot into perfectly. Lets return to my point about the Simpsons being funny up to around season 8. Up to season 8 all of the Simpsons jokes, references and events took place in a 1990s setting. Put into perspective, season 8 of the Simpsons ended in 1997. Now lets transpose the brilliant setting of 1997 on to Fry. Put him in the context of the 90s up to 1999 and theres a huge range of in-jokes and references that we, the people who lived in the 90s and love it so much, will get. Clinton is President, the economy is fine, Free Willy 3 is out in the cinema. The internet is young, Alternative Rock is pouring out of the radio and people still use landlines to make calls. Take a look at Fry mistaking the suicide booth for a phonebox, and get an idea of the characters mindset and nineties-isation. Can I patent that word? Even the setting of New York City in the 90s is a perfect breeding ground of hilarity. You only have to look at the success and popularity of sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld to see how Philip J Fry can slot in.