an aside on the intersection of art and reality…
So… apparently… Eddie Antar, owner of the business that spawned the famous Crazy Eddie commercials has passed.
Those commercials were the impetus for the robot car dealer Malfunctioning Eddie in Futurama…
Despite its demise, the Crazy Eddie chain became an enduring symbol for bargain-basement retail. “Futurama,” the animated series about a New York City pizza deliveryman living a thousand years in the future, for example, features a car-dealing robot named “Malfunctioning Eddie” known for “insane” prices.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/12/business/eddie-antar-retailer-and-felon-who-created-crazy-eddie-dies-at-68.html
So there’s that…