“Stupid” writer Jeff Westbrook explained on the commentary that he meandered for too long, saying that “Originally the episode went on for another ten minutes.” “Futurama” co-creator David X. Cohen noted that the discarded epilogue had to do with the Nibblonians charging all over Earth, using a flashing device to erase everyone’s memories. It was an, uh, homage to Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1997 sci-fi hit “Men in Black.” It was a cute reference that audiences would recognize. “Like in ‘Men in Black,'” he said, “We didn’t steal it, though!”

“Not after we cut it, we didn’t,” Cohen retorted.

Instead of having a memory-erase device, Westbrook simply altered the script so that all the Earthlings affected by the Brainspawn’s intelligence-sapping field merely lost their memories on their own. Seeing as the Brainspawn were erasing brain functions anyway, it’s perfectly understandable that they would leave people without memories as well. It makes about as much sense as any other sci-fi explanation. Fry remains the only one with memories of the Brainspawn, and because he’s kind of a dim bulb given to exaggeration, no one believes him. 

The Brainspawn returned in “The Why of Fry” (April 6, 2003) wherein Fry was enlisted by the Nibblonians to invade the Branspawn’s Death-Star-like Infosphere and blow it up. The plot of “Why,” conceived of by Cohen, is massively complicated and involves a time travel conspiracy wherein Nibbler traveled to the year 1999 to ensure Fry was cryogenically frozen in the first place. That, Westbrook may be comforted to hear, is a much better epilogue for his episode than a mere “Men in Black” riff.