Futurama Fry / Not Sure If

While the phrasal template featuring Futurama's Fry has become so popular that even folx who don't watch the show are familiar, the exact origin of the meme is unclear. The first season of Futurama aired in 1999, well before the meme's supposed origin of 2011. However, the scene from which Fry's squinting, skeptical appearance originates actually aired in season 2. To understand the origin and spread of Not Sure If, we actually have to go back to 1996, pre-Futurama, to the phrase, "I see what you did there" as made popular by Phoebe Buffay on Friends. The ISWYDT phrase became popular in online message boards, gaining momentum and spreading especially between 2003 and 2007. It's about this time that this particular image of Fry first appeared in meme form as a derivative of the ISWYDT spread. From there, the earliest known derivative of Not Sure If seems to be the Not Sure If Trolling... meme.

## Recognizable Features

Perhaps the feature that makes this meme most recognizable is its phrasal template that always begins with Not Sure If on top and a "fill in the blank" type phrase on the bottom. The image of Fry remains consistent and is instantly recognizable by his shock of orange hair, even if the viewer has no context for who the character is or his origin.

## Cultural Context

The most notable instance of this meme doing work outside the internet to be recognized as a cultural moment occurred in 2012 when Comedy Central used the variations of the meme in commercials to promote the premiere of Futurama's 7th season. The network also included the meme in the first episode of the season 7 when "Fry appeared at the end of the opening sequence of the new episode in the style of the phrasal template along with the caption "Not sure if new episode, or just rerun of episode I watched drunk."

## Audience

The massive spread of this meme from 2011 to present means that it has been appropriated to discuss or make fun of an incalculable number of emotions and events. For that reason, this meme may be one where the audience actually is anyone. In an effort to narrow that field, however, some research into Fry's personality and character on the show may prove useful. Fry is known to be a "decent, honest and fun-loving guy with a huge heart, but he's also immature, lazy, and not very bright." It's possible that the "not very bright"portion of his personality contributes to the wide appeal of this meme as it is often associated with confusion. This can be seen in the derivation where the template shows Fry wondering "Not sure if they don't understand satire...or if I don't understand sarcasm."

## Circulation

It seems like the spread for this particular meme happened mostly on meme boards like Memebase and Quicklime until it blew up on Google. Both Know Your Meme and Medium suggest that the sheer volume of Futurama Fry meme content is too large to properly quantify, but can be narrowed by using key terms. The below graph attempts to track the trend and show the explosion in popularity.

## Ethical Issues

* The "Not Sure If X or Y" template of this meme lends itself to the creation of false equivalencies and/or trolling because it allows for the comparison of one idea to another.
* This can add to a culture of misinformation or online bullying.
* The potential for such damage is truly lies with the intention of the person using this meme since Fry and the Futurama episode from which this image came is not inherently problematic.

## Impact

* As previously stated, this meme has spread so expansively, iterations with extremely specific captions relating to a certain office issue, roommate, boyfriend, etc., can be found online. Most of these examples are benign in their captioning. Aside from the appearance on Comedy Central, the largest impact from this meme lies with its ubiquity and broad spectrum audience appeal to both fans of the show Futurama and a general population looking for a template to express confusion, millennial despair, skepticism, or myriad other emotions.

## Corpus Examples

This is the earliest known iteration of the meme.An example of the way this meme could be used unethically.
## References

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/futurama-fry-not-sure-if

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-see-what-you-did-there

https://www.imdb.com/find?q=futurama&ref\_=nv\_sr\_sm

https://medium.com/@aaronnfung/an-internal-debate-story-futuramas-guy-fry-1368cb61e847

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/FuturamaPhilipJFry

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ [2]
3. ↑ [3]
4. ↑ [4]
5. ↑ [5]