Futurama: "A Bicyclops Built for Two"

Futurama: "A Bicyclops Built for Two."Season 2, Episode 13 (19 March 2000).[1]

Relevant here: the opening segment — Act I, "We're online!" identified and summarized in The Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki:

After trying and failing several years ago, the Professor finally connects to the Internet through AOL [America Online].[2] Everyone except the Professor logs in to the virtual world. After fighting many ads flying around, they visit the "Filthy Chat Room" and the "Filthy Filthy Chat Room". Later, they eventually come together in a "video game", Death Factory III: The Legend of Death Factory II. Inside the game world, they fight each other by shooting lasers with their fingers. Farnsworth appears some times to tell the crew they have a popcorn and soda delivery to Cineplex 14, but they ignore him. When looking for Fry, Leela meets another cyclops, but Fry kills his character and wins the game, preventing Leela [from] learning about her species. On the delivery, Leela receives an email from Alcazar, the other cyclops, who invites her to their home planet. [...][3]

Futurama's satiric version of cyberspace is a place of freedom and adventure, as in cyberpunk literature and film: as noted, the Planet Express crew can fly in and engage in martial contests and seek romance in chat rooms and elsewhere. But flying in this part of cyberspace means fighting off literalized attack ads, martial Romance is reduced to video games, and sexual Romance to porn and nerd-infested hook-up spaces. (And — not really a spoiler — Lela's romantic cyclops turns out to be a multi-timing, shape-shifting cad.)

It's only one segment of an episode in a half-hour time slot (with numerous commercials), but useful as an illustration of Romance as a major target of Satire and even gritty cyberpunk having its currents of Romance.

RDE, Initial Compiler, 19Ap19