A new coronavirus “variant of concern” first identified in South Africa is the latest strain to be given a Greek letter as its name, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) calling B.1.1.529 “omicron” for short.
While delta is the dominant Covid variant and the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, the WHO have skipped to the 14th letter with omicron – that’s because the fifth, epsilon, was given to a variant first detected in California.
Although omicron obviously doesn’t sound threatening at all, people have since taken to Twitter to point out how it’s reminding them of a certain animated series.
Sci-fi comedy Futurama, created by Matt Groening of The Simpsons, features the antagonist Lrr – and we would like to stress that that is not a typo on our part (it’s pronounced ‘lurr’).
According to fan websites, he’s from the planet Omicron Persei 8, making him an Omicronian.
God, we miss that show and its weirdness.
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And it seems others do too, as Twitter users soon referenced the character in tweets about the new variant:
All I can think of is Omicron Persei 8 from Futurama https://t.co/LBPwocVV2c pic.twitter.com/Z73Jo8Qvp7
— Maggie Thatcher Stan (@maggie69parody) November 26, 2021
Now that they've named the new variant Omicron, I will be repeating this Futurama line in my head every day for the next two years. pic.twitter.com/I3ZSVaE9l2
— Joe Sondow (@JoeSondow) November 26, 2021
New variant is called #Omicron, the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
— Brad Barrett (@brad_barrett) November 26, 2021
Futurama had Omicronians.
Matt Groening is from the future. pic.twitter.com/zYaOb9WP3Q
UNLEASH THE FUTURAMA MEMES. LRRR is from planet Omicron pic.twitter.com/30vIR7DTRi
— JJ_Namadeits (@gopher33j) November 26, 2021
Yes, nu was gonna be confused with new, but every time I hear omicron I just think futurama 😆👾👾 pic.twitter.com/D26QpKLQFu
— Dr Ellie Murray, ScD (@EpiEllie) November 26, 2021
I caught the Omicron variant. Now I’ve got the Lrrrgy #Futurama pic.twitter.com/eJ31RxRTOx
— DrBrainstorm (@brainstorm_dr) November 26, 2021
just got word that Lrrr, the Ruler of Omicron Persei 8, is honored to have this new variant named after his home planet. pic.twitter.com/uhUsr4bE5A
— Futurama Clips 🛸 (@FuturamaNoContx) November 27, 2021
Me learning the new COVID variant is called Omicron pic.twitter.com/9AKhpMIeVE
— Grant Holmes (@THEGrantHolmes) November 26, 2021
Futurama’s first episode was broadcast in 1999, before the series ended in 2013.
