Cohen, a math club champion from high school, talked about his obsessions with Wired Magazine back in 2007, eager to share how geeky he would let the show be. As a math aficionado, Cohen resented the way mathematicians were depicted on TV, tired of their Olympian, wizard-like qualities: 

“As a general rule, I hate watching TV or movies with mathematicians in it. It never rings true. They’re portrayed as magic beings. There’s an implication that a normal person can’t do math because they don’t have this magic power, which is very discouraging. You don’t have to have Math-Ray Vision.”

Cohen does have a point. Generally speaking, an average person might be fine admitting that they have no head for numbers, when they would never admit to being unable to read, drive, or kiss. To assure that “Futurama” be particularly geek-friendly, Cohen hired a team of writers with advanced degrees who were just as eager to make mathematics jokes along with him. Cohen has a master’s degree in theoretical computer science from Berkeley. Writer/producer Ken Keeler has a PhD in applied math. Writer Stewart Burns has a master’s in math. Also in the writer’s room is a PhD is chemistry, a philosophy master, and a computer science master. Eggheads rule the roost. 

Indeed, the nerdy appeal of the show was such that a special feature on a DVD was a math lecture: 

“The lecture is by professor Sarah Greenwald of Appalachian State University. She discusses various mathematical references over the history of the series, and her talk is intercut with clips from the episodes she refers to.”

It’s worth noting that Sarah Greenwald has interviewed Cohen several times.