A really realistic reaction would have been Fred killing passerby, smashing things with a club, and possibly soiling himself.
So the Great Gazoo is, well, showing off to Fred and Barney about how he knows what life is going to be like in the future of the Flinstoneverse. Well, yes, we all know that the Flintsoneverse eventually evolves into, and crosses over with, the Jetsonverse, and that at some point the Flintstones and the Rubbles travel through time to visit the 1964 World’s Fair, so Fred and Barney should be no strangers to time travel. But when Gazoo offers them a peek into tomorrow, Barney chickens out and settles for asking Fred to get him a present:
Or perhaps Barney didn’t trust that rickety ol’ time travel machine. Or Barney recalls those other time travel adventures and figures enough’s enough…assuming this story takes place after those stories, and that anyone remembers anything about whatever time travel adventures they did have…man, I don’t know. Time travel is complicated.
Anyway, Fred and the Great Gazoo zip into the 20th century, and Fred sees things like airplanes and cars and boats and supermarkets and dancing and other things I’m pretty sure existed back in Fred’s time, only not quite as dinosaur and / or foot-powered. However, I find Fred’s reaction to this particular future invention to be somewhat realistic:
And then Fred wonders about this other modern innovation:
Well, despite the fact that Fred obviously didn’t care for all that smoke, when it came time to pick a little gift to bring back to the past and share with Barney, guess what Fred chose?
Hmmm…that’s not quite the attitude Fred and Barney had about smoking early on!
Of course, modern days smokes are probably a little more potent, and likely too overwhelming for caveman lungs. You may want to consult a scientist for further information about this topic…the topic, of course, being smoking cavemen, time-traveling aliens, and, um, man and dinosaurs coexisting, which really doesn’t come up in this story, but let’s face it, that needs some explaining.
With Fred gallivanting in the future with Gazoo, Barney had unrestricted access to Fred’s stash of Pebbles cereal (part of this nutritious breakfast). That’s why he “chickened out.”
I can’t really remember, but didn’t the Flintstones have lamps, and microphones, and other “electric” appliances?
Kazoo’s spaceship bears an uncanny resemblance to the one used by Lazarus in the Star Trek (original series) episode: ‘The Alternative Factor’.
Screw the Star Trek / X-Men team-up x-overs, I want to see Star Trek/Flintstones/Jetsons!
~P~
oops… TIME SHIP.
not space ship.
Unfortunately, I can’t go back in time and correct my typo.
Damn lack of technology promised us by 1960’s media!
~P~
Crap!
AND I typed Kazoo, instead of Gazoo!
Maybe I have been smoking… something.
That Flintstones Winston commercial always reminds me of that Far Side cartoon, “The Real Reason Dinosaurs Went Extinct.”
And what are we to make of the fact that Fred’s reaction to electricity is so similar to that of the Lady Dowager Downton?
Also, didn’t Fred and Barney engage in cigar smoking at the Lodge when they went to thier Loyal Order of Water Buffalo meetings? If so, then smoking cigars shouldn’t have been that foreign to them.
Do we know what continent Bedrock is on? If we did, then we could estimate what kind of tobacco they might have been exposed to.
Next stop for Fred and Barney: Laugh-Olympics!
Do we know what continent Bedrock is on?
Pangaea.
“Do we know what continent Bedrock is on? If we did, then we could estimate what kind of tobacco they might have been exposed to.”
Before 1492 tobacco only existed in the New World like tomatoes, corn and potatoes.
For more on the location of Bedrock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedrock_%28The_Flintstones%29
Two days from Rock Vegas.
Also, regarding the New World and tobacco, that’s sort of what I was getting at. I guess I should have written, “what kind of substances they smoked.”
Barney didn’t need a time machine to travel forward in time – he does it all the time! Just at his own constant pace.