This is a fictional software program used in the television show
Futurama, currently on the
Fox network. It appeared on the episode titled
I Dated a Robot that originally aired
May 13, 2001.
This program allows users to download the personalities and information of celebrities onto their own robot at home. The robot will look and act just like the celebrity, except it will be hopelessly in love with the person that downloaded it. In the episode Fry downloads
Lucy Liu and spends all his time
making out with her.
At nappster headquarters the living heads of thousands of celebrities are housed. Each one is hooked into the network. And each time they are downloaded it causes physical pain. The company is then portrayed as a money grubbing celebrity kidnapping organization.
This idea was obviously a satirical look at the
napster fiasco going on right now. But it is hard to tell what the author was trying to point out. The episode does not come out for or against
napster and/or
file sharing. It merely makes fun of both sides. The celebrities are portrayed as cry babies who want to control their image. And the downloaders are portrayed as sad geeks that fall in love with robots and forget everything else.