Fandom
The Futurama fans often describe themselves as the more intelligent portion of the masses, but Futurama fans spreads into all classes in general, as Futurama fans often like the show for a wide variety of reasons.
History
Even before Futurama hit the airwaves, Futurama had spawned fan sites purely based on press releases, but some argue it may have been living on the popularity of The Simpsons at the time, as no press releases excluded mentioning that Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons was behind it.
In the beginning, alt.tv.futurama was the most popular place online for Futurama fans, but its popularity soon declined, as other bulletin boards arose elsewhere. In addition, the most active month of alt.tv.futurama remains March 1999.
But the quantity of fans remain rather stable throughout the show's original run. After the show had been cancelled, some fans left the communities, but incidentally, this was also the period where Futurama saw a rise in fan members. This is often attributed to adult swim's airing of the show on cable, after obtaining the rights in 2002.
The momentum fuelled up Futurama fans who longed for more, they would intentionally purchase the DVDs in order to improve sales figures to convince 20th Century Fox Television to order a new season. However, that would have to wait as 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in 2006 purchased the productions of four films rather than a season.
Despite fans never reaching a consensus on the films, they agreed that this was their chance to convince 20th Century Fox Television to purchase a new season, and by June 2009 they did. During the films release, Futurama communities saw another growth in fans and even fans who had previously left returning.
What season 6 will bring the communities, remains to be seen.
Impact
Through the fans, Futurama have inspired a wide variety of internet memes. Probably the most popular involves the Hypnotoad. There is also one involving Fry.