Theme Song & Opening Credits

The theme music for Stuart Fails to Save the Universe was composed by Danny Elfman, known for his work on films including Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Batman, as well as television themes including The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives.

Elfman’s theme song lays out the show’s premise of Stuart trying and failing to fix the universe. The theme music also varies from episode to episode.

Stuart tries to reset our lives but he fails to save the universe.
He's our only chance, and he tries, and he tries, but he fails to save the universe.
Stuart tries.
He tries.
But he fails.
Fails.
Fails!
Stuart fails.

WaterTower Music has released a full 90-second version of Danny Elfman’s main title theme, available on YouTube and other streaming services.

The series features an animated opening title sequence with different on-screen messages each week, beginning with a “Do Not Skip” sign pointing towards the location where the “Skip Intro” button would appear. The animated credits draw on scenarios from the show, sometimes previewing realities and events before they appear in the episodes themselves. Chuck Lorre has said the always-changing credits were designed as a response to the "Skip Intro" button, adding jokes and visuals to make the opening sequence worth watching rather than skipping.

Several recurring scenarios featured in the credits come from Episode 4, “Spoiler: Stuart Makes a Wallet”. The exit door and Stuart’s slide down the corridor depict his attempt to escape the psychiatric hospital, where the hallway turns into a steep incline that he struggles to climb before sliding back down. The doormat references the changing messages outside his suburban home. These images appear in the opening credits of earlier episodes before the corresponding scenes unfold in Episode 4.

Episode 1: “Spoiler: Gary Dies”

The first episode’s credits feature a message on a large screen in a crowded room, a giant woman stomping through Pasadena, helicopters passing billboards with messages, Stuart and the gang standing with the vari-state quantum interference device in front of a bombed-out building, and a group eating Chinese food on a couch in a scene reminiscent of The Big Bang Theory, albeit with a cockroach crawling across the table.

Other messages appear in a fortune cookie, on comic book store category cards and covers, on a doormat, and on an exit door. The sequence ends with Stuart sliding backwards through a hallway with open walls showing tropical plants, before an explosion reveals the Stuart Fails to Save the Universe logo. The episode title, which always contains the word "Spoiler", then flashes up.

• [re-education camp screen:] “And shit is about to get weirder.”
• [billboard:] “Don’t even think about clicking the skip titles button.”
• [billboard:] “Well, sure you can think it, but fair warning… You’ll be missing out.”
• [fortune cookie:] “For starters, that’s a Danny Elfman theme song. Pretty goddamn catchy, right?”
• [comic book rack:] “And how about these graphics?”
• [comic book cover:] “Not bad considering we had like zero money in the budget.”
• [doormat:] “Anyway, that’s our opening title sequence.”
• [exit door:] “We’re hoping it’ll get better with each episode. Or your expectations will be lower.”

Episode 2: “Spoiler: Zack’s in This One”

The second episode’s credits begin with a message written in the sand of a tropical island, previewing the tropical reality later visited in Episode 5. The doormat sequence includes a package with its own message. As Stuart slides backwards through the hallway, the open walls show burned-out cars from the post-apocalyptic world.

• [tropical island:] “Once again, thank you for not pressing ‘skip intro’”
• [billboard:] “We really appreciate it.”
• [billboard:] “Hope you enjoyed the first episode.”
• [fortune cookie:] “This one’s a completely different deal.”
• [comic book rack:] “You might hate it.”
• [comic book cover:] “You might love it.”
• [doormat:] “As my grandpa said…”
• [package on doormat:] “That’s what makes a horse race.”
• [exit door:] “But he said it in Yiddish.”

Episode 3: “Spoiler: Bert is Magic”

The third episode adds a sequence featuring Stuart and Denise in a car, previewing a scene from the following episode, with a message appearing on the display of its old-fashioned radio. During Stuart’s hallway slide, the open walls reveal cows grazing in pastoral fields, previewing the reality where humans evolved from cows in Episode 6.

• [car radio:] “At this point, we assume you’re not skipping the titles.”
• [billboard:] “If this is your first time not skipping, welcome.”
• [billboard:] “Anyhoo…”
• [fortune cookie:] “The visuals are pretty cool, right?”
• [comic book rack:] “Of course, these days a nine-year-old can do just as good on a phone.”
• [comic book cover:] “Which is why we upped the game with these clever messages.”
• [doormat:] “Maybe ‘clever’ is too strong a word.”
• [package on doormat:] “Let’s go with ‘original’. Yeah, original.”
• [exit door:] “Whatever. Too late. You watched.”

Episode 4: “Spoiler: Stuart Makes a Wallet”

The fourth episode adds a sequence featuring the vari-state quantum interference device in a lab, with messages appearing on dot-matrix displays while sparks fly from the machine. During Stuart’s hallway slide, several life-size wizard figures appear holding white orbs, resembling the figure that stood beside the comic book store entrance in the previous episode.

• [quantum device display:] “If you have to make a bathroom run, this is probably the time to do it.”
• [billboard:] “Go ahead, we’ll wait.”
• [billboard:] “Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum”
• [fortune cookie:] “Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum”
• [comic book rack:] “Oh, wow, back already?”
• [comic book cover:] “Did you wash your hands?”
• [doormat:] “Be honest.”
• [exit door:] “I thought so. Go wash your hands. Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum”

Episode 5: “Spoiler: Bert Gets Married”

Episode five features a bar sequence with a message on a pool table and others on the front and back labels of a whisky bottle, which explodes to reveal another message on its cork. The bar scene transitions through a wood-paneled hallway lined with photos and red seats into the Big Bang Theory-inspired Chinese food scene. As the walls disappear during Stuart’s hallway slide, a snowy mountaintop is revealed.

• [pool table:] “I’m reading online that people are really liking these title sequences.”
• [whisky bottle, front:] “Y’know what title sequence I liked?”
• [whisky bottle, back:] “And no, not Game of Thrones.”
• [cork:] “Mad Men.”
• [fortune cookie:] “Jon Hamm’s silhouette endlessly falling.”
• [comic book rack:] “Really captured the whole nihilistic zeitgeist of the time.”
• [comic book cover:] “But you’re not here to talk about another show’s title sequence.”
• [doormat:] “You’re here to watch this one.”
• [package on doormat:] “Which, I regret to say, is over.”
• [exit door:] “Or is it?”

Episode 6: “Spoiler: Corn is Delicious”

The opening credits begin in the psychiatric hospital room where Stuart covered the walls with drawings. Two messages appear on the drawings, followed by another message on an overturned pill bottle. The room then transitions into a war zone featuring Stuart, Denise, Bert and Kripke. Later, as the walls disappear during Stuart’s slide down the hallway, machinery resembling the interior of the vari-state quantum interference device is revealed.

• [drawing:] “We’ve been made aware”
• [drawing:] “People are looking for hidden messages”
• [pill bottle:] “In our opening titles”
• [fortune cookie:] “You’re wasting your time”
• [comic book rack:] “Nothing to see here”
• [comic book cover:] “Just fancy graphics…”
• [doormat:] “48 69 64 64 65 6E 20 4D 65 73 73 61 67 65”
• [exit door:] “And a cool song”

The sequence displayed on the doormat, 48 69 64 64 65 6E 20 4D 65 73 73 61 67 65, is hexadecimal code for “Hidden Message”.

Episode 7: “Spoiler: Dexys Midnight Runners Get a Royalty Payment”

The seventh episode’s opening credits revisit scenarios from several previous realities. The first message is mown into a pasture filled with cows, followed by another shaved into a cow’s coat and a third appearing on a milk pail beneath it. The sequence then cuts to an obelisk in the sky from the AI-controlled world before showing the familiar scene of the group holding the device in a war zone, a setting they visit for the first time in this episode.

The remaining messages appear inside a fortune cookie, on the comic book rack and on a comic book cover, on the doormat and on the exit door. As Stuart slides down the corridor and its walls recede, burning huts appear in a reference to the tropical paradise. The cow, AI-controlled and tropical realities are all revisited later in the episode.

• [cow pasture:] “For your viewing pleasure”
• [cow:] “Our sommelier has paired this episode”
• [milk pail:] “With a 2019 Chateauneuf-du-Pape”
• [fortune cookie:] “The light acidity compliments the witty satire”^*
• [comic book rack:] “If you’re watching this show on a budget”
• [comic book cover:] “He recommends grain alcohol poured into a watermelon…”
• [doormat:] “Either way, everything’s funnier if you drink”
• [exit door:] “Responsibly”

* The on-screen message reads “compliments”. “Complements” would normally be the word used to describe a pairing.

Episode 8: “Spoiler: We’re as Confused as You Are”

The opening credits for the eighth episode revisit the psychiatric institution from Episode 4. The first message appears on a desk nameplate in a doctor’s office, followed by two messages on a psychiatric evaluation form, where a hand uses a pen to underline “Who’s a good dog?” and tick the box beside “Yes he is”.

The remaining messages appear on a billboard, inside a fortune cookie, on the comic book rack and on a comic book cover, on the doormat and on the exit door. As Stuart slides down the corridor and its walls recede, a lush, bamboo-lined waterway appears on either side, with a canoe beside the slide. Lattice walls and lamps are visible around the tropical scenery, giving it the appearance of an indoor lagoon.

• [nameplate:] “These titles are about my dog”
• [psychiatric evaluation form:] “Who’s a good dog?”
• [psychiatric evaluation form:] “Yes he is”
• [billboard:] “He’s the best dog”
• [fortune cookie:] “Wait, what do you have in your mouth?”
• [comic book rack:] “Spit it out!”
• [comic book cover:] “Spit it!”
• [doormat:] “How did you get that out of the hamper?”
• [exit door:] “Bad dog!”

Episode 9: “Spoiler: We Couldn’t Get Green Lantern”

The ninth episode’s opening credits revisit the suburban reality from Episode 4, with the first three messages appearing on food being cooked on a backyard barbecue. The sequence transitions from the peaceful backyard to a suburban street strewn with debris, with small fires burning and smoke rising in the distance, then shows the group holding the quantum device in a war zone.

The remaining messages appear inside a fortune cookie, on the comic book rack and a comic book cover, on the doormat and on the exit door. As Stuart slides down the corridor, the walls remain in place this time, with the hospital room doors giving way to barred jail cells, recalling the group’s imprisonment in the war-torn reality of the previous episode.

• [sausage:] “The phrase ‘Jump the shark’”
• [corn on the cob:] “Comes from an episode of Happy Days”
• [bluefin tuna:] “Where Fonzie jumps over a shark”
• [fortune cookie:] “After this episode, we believe”
• [comic book rack:] “That expression will be replaced by”
• [comic book cover:] “Trapped in a comic book”
• [doormat:] “And we’ll be famous…ish”
• [exit door:] “Famish”

Episode 10: “Spoiler: Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience”

The first season finale’s opening credits begin outside the comic book store, with a message on the entrance door. As the door opens, the sequence moves inside to reveal a second message on a hallway poster beyond the checkout counter. The poster transforms into a black hole, through which the sequence transitions to the group holding the quantum device in a war zone, followed by a message inside a fortune cookie.

The sequence returns to the comic book store for messages on a rack and a comic book cover, before moving to a doormat, a package and the exit door. As Stuart slides down the corridor, the walls reveal oversized versions of the quantum device alongside industrial warning signs.

• [comic book store entrance:] “We hope you liked our first season”
• [hallway poster:] “Your affirmation fills a deep hole within us”
• [fortune cookie:] “Really deep”
• [comic book rack:] “You don’t wanna know”
• [comic book cover:] “Comedy isn’t written by emotionally healthy people”
• [doormat:] “But if you were amused, our suffering was worth it”
• [package on doormat:] “Y’know what? This is oversharing”
• [exit door:] “Enjoy the finale!”

AI Speculation

The opening credits have attracted attention from viewers who suspect that the animated scenes may have been AI-generated. People have pointed to garbled background text and inconsistently rendered objects, including nonsensical comic book category labels and door handles pointing in multiple directions.

The producers have not confirmed whether generative AI was used to create the title sequences. The credits themselves make self-referential jokes about the graphics, how easy visual effects have become, and online discussion around the title sequences.

The closing credits have prompted similar discussion. They feature animated scenes of technology meant to evoke the inside of the vari-state quantum interference device, including switches, labels and countdown-style displays. Some viewers have pointed to garbled text on the labels and unusual numbers in the countdown sequence.

Articles

• How Stuart Fails to Save the Universe uses a clever trick to beat the “Skip Intro” button - PEOPLE
• How Stuart Fails to Save the Universe sought to defy the “Skip Intro” button - A.V. Club

This page has been updated up to episode 110 Spoiler: Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience