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[[Characters/{{Futurama}} You can return to the main character page here.]]
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[[/folder]]
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* LargeHam: [[spoiler: He is voiced by FrankWelker.]]
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* LargeHam: [[spoiler: He is voiced by FrankWelker.Creator/FrankWelker.]]
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It turns out that his species employs ObfuscatingStupidity in order to defend the universe from the Brain Spawn, and nobody remembers his actions due to his wiping of their minds afterwards. Until he officially assigned himself to Earth as a part of the Planet Express crew.
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[[spoiler: It turns out that his species employs ObfuscatingStupidity in order to defend the universe from the Brain Spawn, and nobody remembers his actions due to his wiping of their minds afterwards. Until he officially assigned himself to Earth as a part of the Planet Express crew.
crew.]]
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* ShoutOut: Between the many Creator/WilliamShatner shout outs, one stands out as he dramatically recites the lyrics to "[[TheKinks Lola]]", imitating Shatner's infamous rendition of "[[EltonJohn Rocket Man]]". Not to mention ordering Kif to [[TheTwilightZone climb out on the wing and pretend he's a gremlin.]]
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* ShoutOut: Between the many Creator/WilliamShatner shout outs, one stands out as he dramatically recites the lyrics to "[[TheKinks "[[Music/TheKinks Lola]]", imitating Shatner's infamous rendition of "[[EltonJohn Rocket Man]]". Not to mention ordering Kif to [[TheTwilightZone climb out on the wing and pretend he's a gremlin.]]
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this is the trope for Expies of celebrities who are put through parody
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* {{Expy}}: He bears many similarities to Creator/WilliamShatner. WordOfGod says this was intentional, as he was pitched as "what if William Shatner was captain of the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Enterprise]] instead of James T. Kirk?"
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* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: He bears many similarities to Creator/WilliamShatner. WordOfGod says this was intentional, as he was pitched as "what if William Shatner was captain of the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Enterprise]] instead of James T. Kirk?"
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Brannigan is explicitly based on William Shatner. Any similarities to Gaston are coincidental, and coincidental similarities don't meet the qualifications for expy.
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* {{Expy}}: He bears many resemblance to [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Gaston]].
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* {{Expy}}: He bears many resemblance similarities to [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Gaston]].Creator/WilliamShatner. WordOfGod says this was intentional, as he was pitched as "what if William Shatner was captain of the [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Enterprise]] instead of James T. Kirk?"
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* DangerouslyShortSkirt: A rare male-example. The skirt of his uniform is far above his knees.
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Zapp is an utter coward, but even he thought President Mc Neal asking humanity to die for his safety was awful
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Zapp is an utter coward, but even he thought President Mc Neal asking humanity to die for his safety was awfulawful.
* {{Expy}}: He bears many resemblance to [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Gaston]].
* {{Expy}}: He bears many resemblance to [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Gaston]].
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deleted without reason
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Zapp is an utter coward, but even he thought President McNeal asking humanity to die for his safety was awful
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: Zapp is an utter coward, but even he thought President McNeal Mc Neal asking humanity to die for his safety was awful
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* {{Narcissist}}: He's shamelessly vain and full of himself.
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* {{Narcissist}}: He's shamelessly vain and full of himself.
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* TheSociopath: Egotistical, arrogant yet charming, incapable of learning from his mistakes, utterly without guilt for his actions, manipulative, an exceptional liar, and of course lacking a shred of respect for ''any'' life other than his own, Zapp shows all the classic signs of sociopathy. It's just that he's funny too.
* TooDumbToLive: In fact, it's even a wonder he is alive since half the things he does nearly get himself killed (the other half gets everyone else killed). Somehow he rationalizes bouncing between asteroids will induce a "gravity boost" and thus he tries to pilot a gigantic space cruise liner through an asteroid field.
* TooDumbToLive: In fact, it's even a wonder he is alive since half the things he does nearly get himself killed (the other half gets everyone else killed). Somehow he rationalizes bouncing between asteroids will induce a "gravity boost" and thus he tries to pilot a gigantic space cruise liner through an asteroid field.
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* TheSociopath: Egotistical, arrogant yet charming, incapable of learning from his mistakes, utterly without guilt for his actions, manipulative, an exceptional liar, and of course lacking a shred of respect for ''any'' life other than his own, Zapp shows all the classic signs of sociopathy. It's just that he's funny an idiot too.
* TooDumbToLive: In fact, it's even a wonder he is alive since half the things he does nearly get himself killed (the other half gets everyone else killed). Somehow herationalizes rationalises bouncing between asteroids will induce a "gravity "some kind of gravity boost" and thus he tries to pilot a gigantic space cruise liner through an asteroid field.
* TooDumbToLive: In fact, it's even a wonder he is alive since half the things he does nearly get himself killed (the other half gets everyone else killed). Somehow he
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* AmbiguouslyBi: He has flirted with and slept with Leela and Amy and enjoyed getting Snu-Snu from several Amazonian women, yet he apparently went on a date with Richard Nixon's Head in "The Thief Of Baghdad". He is also not ashamed to show nudity in front of other men such as Kif. Zapp does not even cover himself in front of other men whenever he is naked and some of the orders he gives out to Kif have some HoYay in them.
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* AmbiguouslyBi: He has flirted with and slept with Leela and Amy and enjoyed getting Snu-Snu from several Amazonian women, yet he apparently went on a date with Richard Nixon's Head in "The Thief Of Baghdad". He is also not ashamed to show nudity in front of other men such as Kif. Zapp does not even cover himself in front of other men whenever he is naked and some of the orders he gives out to Kif have some HoYay in them. He was however surprised when Leela pulled a SweetPollyOliver that he felt lust for a man but rolled with it.
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A Man Is Not A Virgin is no longer a trope.
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* AManIsNotAVirgin: It's likely he takes this view. By his own admission, he was allegedly a virgin ("allegedly" because 1. DependingOnTheWriter he may or may not have had some past paternity lawsuits and 2. It was Leela he told this to, so he may have been lying to gain sympathy points) before making it with Leela; after he does, he mentions the encounter often whenever he tries to emphasize his manliness.
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* BodyHorror: We never see it, but whatever is underneath his clothes is so horrific that it made StepfordSmiler Linda break out into hysterical screaming.
* DamnedByFaintPraise: Morbo, an evil, misanthropic alien, is the only person who likes Richard Nixon. That should tell you everything you need to know.
* DamnedByFaintPraise: Morbo, an evil, misanthropic alien, is the only person who likes Richard Nixon. That should tell you everything you need to know.
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he is a zombie
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* DisneyDeath: Remember when Scruffy died? Remember when he reappeared unharmed? He's the [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Kenny]] of ''Futurama.''
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* DisneyDeath: Remember when Scruffy died? Remember when DistractedByTheSexy: In "2-D Blacktop", he reappeared unharmed? He's broke his spine by walking into the [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Kenny]] of ''Futurama.''Planet Express ship while admiring Leela's breasts.
* LazyBum: He is lazy and can usually be found in the basement of the building, watching the boiler and reading.
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* OurZombiesAreDifferent: [[spoiler: "Law and Oracle" reveals Scruffy is one.]]
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* OurZombiesAreDifferent: [[spoiler: It is been implied that Scruffy died once, as Hermes mentions bringing him back "as a zombie" in "Law and Oracle" reveals Scruffy is one.Oracle".]]
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* StarCrossedLovers: [[CargoShip With his robotic wash bucket.]]
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* StarCrossedLovers: In the episode The Prisoner of Benda", it is revealed that [[CargoShip With his robotic wash bucket.]]washbucket harbors romantic feelings for him]] which it confesses to when its personality is transferred to Amy Wong's body. Scruffy tells Washbucket that nothing can come of its love because deep down he knows that it's just 'janitorial equipment', he then tells Washbucket to leave before he asks it to stay. When Washbucket leaves he cries, implying that he returns its feelings.
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* AmbiguouslyBi: He has flirted with and slept with Leela and Amy and enjoyed getting Snu-Snu from several Amazonian women, yet he apparently went on a date with Richard Nixon's Head in "The Thief Of Baghdad". He is also not ashamed to show nudity in front of other men such as Kif. Zapp does not even cover himself in front of other men whenever he is naked and some of the orders he gives out to Kif have some HoYay in them.
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* AbsurdlyDedicatedWorker: [[spoiler: To maintain his secret identity, Nibbler will rarely ever break from his dumb animal facade, even when it leaves his own well being at stake. "I Second That Emotion" is a key example, where his act earns the murderous chagrin of Bender and later leaves him a sitting duck for a sewer monster. He still never breaks from character.]]
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* AbsurdlyDedicatedWorker: [[spoiler: To maintain his secret identity, Nibbler will rarely ever break from his dumb animal facade, even when it leaves his own well being at stake. "I Second That Emotion" is a key example, where his act earns the murderous chagrin of Bender and later leaves him a sitting duck for a sewer monster. He still never breaks from character.character to preserve himself.]]
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* AbsurdlyDedicatedWorker: [[spoiler: To maintain his secret identity, Nibbler will rarely ever break from his dumb animal facade, even when it leaves his own well at stake. "I Second That Emotion" is a key example, where his act earns the murderous chagrin of Bender and later leaves him a sitting duck for a sewer monster. He still never breaks from character.]]
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* AbsurdlyDedicatedWorker: [[spoiler: To maintain his secret identity, Nibbler will rarely ever break from his dumb animal facade, even when it leaves his own well being at stake. "I Second That Emotion" is a key example, where his act earns the murderous chagrin of Bender and later leaves him a sitting duck for a sewer monster. He still never breaks from character.]]
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* AbsurdlyDedicatedWorker: [[spoiler: To maintain his secret identity, Nibbler will rarely ever break from his dumb animal facade, even when it leaves his own well at stake. "I Second That Emotion" is a key example, where his act earns the murderous chagrin of Bender and later leaves him a sitting duck for a sewer monster. He still never breaks from character.]]
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* OutOfFocus: He wasn't a major character to begin with but, once [[spoiler:the crew found out he could talk]], he started appearing even less in the series than he had beforehand.
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* VocalDisonnance: He has a pretty deep voice for such a small alien.
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* VocalDisonnance: VocalDissonance: He has a pretty deep voice for such a small alien.
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* UltimateJobSecurity: He keeps his job despite being a vain, womanizing idiot who's subordinates tend to die horribly, often [[WeHaveReserves by his own command]].
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* VocalDisonnance: He has a pretty deep voice for such a small alien.
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No spoiler tags outside of examples
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-->Debut: ''[[spoiler: "Space Pilot 3000", (shadow only)]]'', ''"Love Labours Lost in Space"''
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-->Debut: ''[[spoiler: '' "Space Pilot 3000", (shadow only)]]'', only)'', ''"Love Labours Lost in Space"''
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[[spoiler:It turns out that his species are ObfuscatingStupidity in order to defend the universe from the Brain Spawn, and nobody remembers his actions due to his wiping of their minds afterwards. Until he officially assigned himself to Earth as a part of the Planet Express crew.]]
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* BeleagueredAssistant: To Zapp. Might as well be the trope image, if that's not currently the case.
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* BeleagueredAssistant: To Zapp. Might as well be He currently provides the trope image, if that's not currently the case.image.
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* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: To Zapp, despite not wanting to be, although he can't bring himself to stop. In one of the comics, he becomes extremely depressed when Zapp gets a new toady (and goes into an UnstoppableRage when said toady is manipulating Zapp).
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* BlondGuysAreEvil: Not so much "evil" as "sexist, incompetent, and haughty."
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* DirtyCoward: Woken up from sleep, his first words are: "I surrender and volunteer for treason!"
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* DirtyCoward: Woken When the chips are down, he is shown to be this. This is best summed up in the episode ''In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela'', where he wakes up from sleep, his first words are: "I surrender and volunteer for treason!"
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* CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth: Although he is more explicitly a parody of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]] (his character was originally pitched as "What if Creator/WilliamShatner was captain of the Enterprise rather than Kirk?).
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* CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth: Although unlike most examples of the trope he is more explicitly a parody of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]] (his character was originally pitched as "What if Creator/WilliamShatner was captain of the Enterprise rather than Kirk?).
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[[Characters/{{Futurama}} You can return to the main character page here.]]
[[foldercontrol]]
[[foldercontrol]]
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[[folder: Nibbler]]
[[quoteright:267:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nibbler_3319.jpg]]
-->Voiced by: Creator/FrankWelker
-->Debut: ''[[spoiler: "Space Pilot 3000", (shadow only)]]'', ''"Love Labours Lost in Space"''
The RidiculouslyCuteCritter that the Planet Express crew encountered while [[TheArk saving two of every animal]] from a planet about to implode. He proved to have a [[BigEater voracious appetite]], but thankfully, he's SolidGoldPoop incarnate -- his species produces dark matter, which could be used as starship fuel.
[[spoiler:It turns out that his species are ObfuscatingStupidity in order to defend the universe from the Brain Spawn, and nobody remembers his actions due to his wiping of their minds afterwards. Until he officially assigned himself to Earth as a part of the Planet Express crew.]]
* BadassAdorable: There's practically a whole episode devoted to how adorable the crew find him (much to Bender's chagrin), and in as the series progresses, it is revealed that [[spoiler:the Nibblonian race was already 17 years old at the time of the big bang, and are charged with protecting the Earth from the evil Brainspawn]] and also that Nibbler himself had a fairly big part to play in [[spoiler:getting Fry cryogenically frozen for 1000 years in the first place]].
* BigEater: And how! Most things he's eaten are bigger than he is.
* ChekhovsGunman: Present since the series premiere, in fact... if you know ''exactly'' where to look.
* CoolPet: A pet that poops fuel for the Cool Ship? Awesome indeed. [[spoiler:He's also late revealed to be a member of super-intelligent species.]]
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: [[spoiler: Despite his overwhelming cuteness, he is a soldier...]]
* CuteLittleFangs: Well, not exactly little. He has large fangs, but he's still cute.
* DependingOnTheWriter: [[spoiler: While some episodes are shrewd enough to sneak in hints of his intellect, In others Nibbler's actions (which include deliberately endangering himself or the crew or maintaining his act even when unsupervised) make no sense under knowledge of his secret identity, implying the story treats his dumb animal act as being his real personality.]]
* DePower: [[spoiler:After ''Bender's Game'', Nibblonian poop is useless as fuel, being replaced with whale oil.]]
* ExtremeOmnivore: Able to eat any creature regardless of its size.
* TheFakeCutie: [[spoiler:As explained, they all thought Nibbler was a cute pet, when he was actually an agent of a powerful ancient alien race... all of them cute as well.]]
* [[FourTemperamentEnsemble Five Temperament Ensemble]]: Melancholic
* IdiotHoudini: Despite Nibbler's actions as a brainless animal frequently causing hindrance or dismay to the team, Leela is usually quick to fend off anyone willing to punish him for it (most often Bender). [[spoiler: Considering these are all supposedly just an act, perhaps Nibbler is taking the role ''[[BecomingTheMask too]]'' seriously.]]
-->'''Leela:''' It's not his fault he's a killing machine!
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Played with. [[spoiler: Nibbler and the Nibblonians regard Earth as important for two reasons: 1) it is the homeworld of the pizza bagel, and 2) due to certain events in 1947 and 1999, it will/does/did produce a savior that will rescue the entire universe from the Brain Spawn. Aside from that, the trope is played straight: Nibbler's log refers to as a "primitive dirtball inhabited by psychotic apes."]]
* IntellectualAnimal: [[spoiler: He's not the cute, brainless animal he appears to be, at all.]]
* LargeHam: [[spoiler: He is voiced by FrankWelker.]]
* MemoryWipingCrew: [[spoiler: Many of his and the Nibblonian's appearances in the series' first run have been wiped from Earth's memory. After the movies, he seems to have simply stopped wiping the Planet Express Crew's memories of him being anything but a stupid pet. His ability to converse normally with them is a major plot point in "That Darn Katz". It's implied that he gave up wiping their memories after discovering in ''Bender's Game'' that, since he'd forgotten to wipe their memories after the events of ''The Beast With A Billion Backs'', meaning that they'd known he could speak for some time but simply didn't ''care!'']]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:He acts like a dumb pet, but he is actually a highly intelligent super-being whose race is responsible for maintaining order in the universe.]]
* OlderThanTheyLook: [[spoiler:See ReallySevenHundredYearsOld below.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Played with. [[spoiler:When he first revealed his true nature to the crew, he decided to stick with "Nibbler," due to certain difficulties in translating his actual name:]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Nibbler:''' "That name is for ''your'' sake! In the time it would take to pronounce ''a single letter'' of my ''real name,'' a ''million cosmoses'' would ''flare into existence...'' and sink again into ''eternal night.'']]
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler: According to one of the Special Feature pages on the DVD, Nibbler is over 3000. His species [[TimeAbyss is older than the universe.]]]]
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: He's [[UglyCute pretty weird looking]], but he's small and squeaky enough to make the tough, no-nonsense captain Leela go to pieces and adopt him as a beloved pet. He later gets a little red cape and diaper.
* SitcomArchNemesis: Bender tends to loathe Nibbler for being a nuisance or his cuteness stealing his thunder, even once flushing him down the toilet. [[spoiler: Some of the things Nibbler does to Bender in his pet role suggest the hatred is mutual.]]
* SmarterThanYouLook: [[spoiler:He hides his hyper-intelligence with a mask of ultra-stupidity and a tendency towards doing cute things.]]
* SolidGoldPoop: His waste is dark matter, which powers starships. [[spoiler:At least before ''Bender's Game.'']]
* SuddenlyVoiced: [[spoiler: After TheReveal, starting in "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" ]]
* TeamPet: After being adopted by Leela.
* TranslatorMicrobes: [[spoiler:Whenever he needs to communicate with someone outside his species, he affects their brain patterns to automatically translate his cute babbling into bombastic English.]]
* WalkingSpoiler
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Twenty-Five-Star General Zapp Brannigan]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Zapp_Brannigan_9790.png]]
[[caption-width-right:320:"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission."]]
-->Voiced by: Creator/BillyWest
-->Debut: ''"Love Labours Lost in Space"''
The only military leader we ever see, Brannigan has many medals and a high post despite a strange fixation on killing everybody who he sends into battle, whether helpful or not, whether needed or not. People serving under him tend to die. He's selfish, arrogant, fat, lazy, immature and an idiot. And those are his ''good'' qualities...
In his first episode, he tricked Leela into sleeping with him, something he's never let her live down.
* AbhorrentAdmirer: To Leela. Zapp is quite handsome (if a bit overweight): Leela hates him purely for [[{{Jerkass}} his personality]]. On their first encounter Leela sleeps with him out of pity, complicating things for herself for the rest of the series.
* AManIsNotAVirgin: It's likely he takes this view. By his own admission, he was allegedly a virgin ("allegedly" because 1. DependingOnTheWriter he may or may not have had some past paternity lawsuits and 2. It was Leela he told this to, so he may have been lying to gain sympathy points) before making it with Leela; after he does, he mentions the encounter often whenever he tries to emphasize his manliness.
* BadBoss: Often sends his men on deadly missions, expecting total loyalty out of them over ridiculous causes, and emotionally abusing them - you just know what a prick he is when his Second-In-Command Kif Kroker would rather face almost certain death than work for him.
* BigBookOfWar: He stamped his name onto the TropeNamer. Given his track record, it's not something that should be read by those with any sense of self-preservation.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Not so much "evil" as "sexist, incompetent, and haughty."
* CaptainErsatz: His appearance, attitude, position, and mannerisms are very similar to those of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries James T. Kirk]]. In fact, he was originally pitched as "What if Creator/WilliamShatner was captain of the Enterprise?"
* CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth: Although he is more explicitly a parody of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]] (his character was originally pitched as "What if Creator/WilliamShatner was captain of the Enterprise rather than Kirk?).
* CasanovaWannabe: Despite his attitude, he once admitted that Leela is the only woman who's ever loved him - ''physically''. He did get some action with the Amazonians, but [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization that doesn't count]]. And judging by a few of Leela's off-handed comments, he wasn't even satisfactory in bed either; not in his opinion though, of course.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: He's usually an arrogant, incompetent, idiotic, cowardly, selfish jerk. However, there are a few moments when he genuinely does something awesome like when he got rid of History's Greatest Villains in "Kif Gets Knocked Up". (Of course, this act [[PyrrhicVictory almost destroyed his ship and killed everyone.]])
* DirtyCoward: Woken up from sleep, his first words are: "I surrender and volunteer for treason!"
* DumbBlonde: Male example.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Zapp is an utter coward, but even he thought President McNeal asking humanity to die for his safety was awful
* FakeUltimateHero: Boy howdy. He has won offscreen victories, and taken credit for other people's deeds so he keeps his job, and is even well-regarded by many. Most people think he's an amazing hero and TheAce, until they actually meet him.
* FatIdiot: It's not super obvious, but he has quite a gut. Best observed when he goes to a planet with super-high gravity and the force of his belly rips open his girdle.
* GeneralFailure: He's not evil, per se; but he's usually against the protagonists due to his own total incompetence. His deeds have included fighting the Killbots by sacrificing millions of soldiers until the Killbots reached their limit and shut down, attacking the Hubble Space Telescope, ordering his ships to make a run so as to clog the enemy ship weapons with their own wreckage, getting his ship sliced in half by flying through a giant windmill despite being told what would happen, destroying an entire repair station due to impatience, destroying the brand new headquarters of The Federation by using his ships' laser at full power to cut the inauguration ribbon, attacking a strategically unimportant planet for no reason and wasting the element of surprise by dumping his soldiers out through the ship's floor, getting enough women killed through fraternization that the army banned them from his command, trying to get the protagonists arrested multiple times, and being taken out in the first second of Bender's Big Score's final battle.
* GeneralRipper:
** Has started tons of unnecessary wars, including against a race of sentinent balls on Spheron 1 (which resulted in them being forced off their home planet), the Spiderians, the Neutral Planet, the Retiree People of the Assisted Living Nebula, and the dreaded Pacifists of the Ghandi Nebula.
** President Nixon advocates just about everything Brannigan does, which is why he's able to be such a free wheeler. The Democratic Order Of Planets doesn't seem to really care (the only way he was able to get on their bad side was to destroy their brand new headquarters, otherwise they seem to ignore his attitude towards combat).
* HandsomeLech: To some extent. He'd be played straight if he got rid of the gut.
* IdiotHoudini: Most of the time, despite endangering people through his constant idiocy and lack of regard for the life of anybody but himself, he rarely suffers any retribution for it.
* IgnoreTheFanservice: It's revealed that Zapp doesn't wear ''underwear'' and it's only by virtue of the length of his uniform top that he's not always exposed. But don't follow behind him while climbing a ladder. It seems he extended it to the soldiers under his command, and possibly the entire Earth military considering his high position in it.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He doesn't care about the danger any of his actions cause unless he ends up in danger from them.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's got lots of examples that could be cited but a crowning moment might be the time he tried to pass off a declaration of war to a non-English-speaking alien race as a peace treaty, giving him the justification to invade their homeworld when their guard was down. [[spoiler:Thankfully his translator, Leela's mother Munda, actually had a conscience and ratted him out.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk:
** He shows himself as one on this very first appearance: after he breaks down to Leela and admits he's just an idiot who had no idea what he's doing, he uses her sympathy to get her to have sex with him then gloats over it for the rest of the series.
** In one episode, he accidentally causes his ship to go down, and he says that "the captain must go down with his ship" after Kif comments on how noble that is of him, he immediately promotes Kif to captain and then flees the ship in a one man pod
** His infamous plot to get Leela to have sex with him in "In A Gadda Da Leela".
* LargeHam: Imagine William Shatner playing William Shatner playing William Shatner... as Kirk.
* LaserGuidedKarma: While he keeps his job depressingly well, most of the time Zapp ends up looking a fool.
* LawfulStupid: Played for laughs. Zapp Brannigan will always enforce "Brannigan's Law" wherever he goes (a parody of the PrimeDirective), even though he has no idea what that law even is. Other than that, he is generally a selfish DirtyCoward who would happily sell out his friends and sacrifice hundreds of people to save himself.
* LaughablyEvil: In a serious show, he'd be a monstrous villain. See GeneralFailure and GeneralRipper.
* LethallyStupid: Whenever he is called for help, he'll come to make things worse.
* {{Malaproper}}
--> '''Zapp''': Brave-o! En-core!
* ManipulativeBastard:
** In "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela".
** In "The Beast With a Billion Backs" acting bereaved over Kif's death to bed Amy was probably a new low for him.
* MilesGloriosus: The patron saint of this trope. He will never rush in to a fight, but obtained a reputation of being a good fighter through his willingness to sacrifice wave after wave of his own men, while avoiding any risk to himself. If he does end up fighting, it's because he believes he has an overwhelming advantage, or is too stupid to realize that he's in danger.
* ModernMajorGeneral: At times.
* {{Narcissist}}: He's shamelessly vain and full of himself.
* TheNeidermeyer: He's especially fond of saving himself by sacrificing those under his command.
* NeverMyFault: No matter what death and destruction his actions cause or whatever mistake he causes, he never admits it to making a making a mistake himself.
* TheObiWannabe: Especially when giving Kif love advice.
* OfCorsetsFunny: "C'mon girdle... Hooolddd..."
* PantsFree: Not only does he not wear pants, he doesn't wear underwear either.
* ParentalAbandonment: Zapp's hinted to do this on occasion. He brings up once or twice the fact that he's often got slapped with failed paternity lawsuits from lovers in the past or virtual-reality lovers brought to life.
* PetTheDog:
** He does have one genuine moment, which is providing assistance during Kif's pregnancy. But even then, he didn't really ''care'' about the situation so much as he was just going along with what everyone else was doing.
** He has a half-one in "Where the Buggalo Roam" when he compliments Kif on a brave act by calling it "Brannigan-worthy". It's half a moment since it's a surprisingly sincere compliment, but also shows that he can't even give those without ''also'' finding a way [[ItsAllAboutMe to sing his own praises at the same time.]]
* PyrrhicVictory: Pretty much his only battle strategy.
* PsychopathicManchild: He's very cowardly, dim-witted, immature, and perverted. Though that's more disturbing as he's also a high-ranking officer in the Earth's military, with the authority to get people killed in mass amounts. Which he fully utilizes to do just that.
* ShoutOut: Between the many Creator/WilliamShatner shout outs, one stands out as he dramatically recites the lyrics to "[[TheKinks Lola]]", imitating Shatner's infamous rendition of "[[EltonJohn Rocket Man]]". Not to mention ordering Kif to [[TheTwilightZone climb out on the wing and pretend he's a gremlin.]]
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Manly Man to Kif's Sensitive Guy.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Subverted. Someone with his personality would be a SmallNameBigEgo in most situations if not for his absurdly high rank.
* TheSociopath: Egotistical, arrogant yet charming, incapable of learning from his mistakes, utterly without guilt for his actions, manipulative, an exceptional liar, and of course lacking a shred of respect for ''any'' life other than his own, Zapp shows all the classic signs of sociopathy. It's just that he's funny too.
* TooDumbToLive: In fact, it's even a wonder he is alive since half the things he does nearly get himself killed (the other half gets everyone else killed). Somehow he rationalizes bouncing between asteroids will induce a "gravity boost" and thus he tries to pilot a gigantic space cruise liner through an asteroid field.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The only possible reason for how he retains a job.
* WeHaveReserves: His method for dealing with pretty much everything? Send wave after wave of men at the problem until it's solved or he runs out of men.
* WouldHurtAChild: Has absolutely no problem sending children to their deaths in a battle either.
* ZergRush: A favorite tactic of his.
--> '''Zapp''' ''(indicating enemy mothership on chart):'' ...my strategy is so simple an ''idiot'' could have devised it! On my command, all ships will line up and file ''directly'' into the alien death cannons, ''clogging'' them with ''wreckage!''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:(Lieutenant) Kif Kroker]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Kif_Kroker_8217.png]]
[[caption-width-right:320:'''Zapp:''' "Kif, round them up, and spare me the weary sigh for once."]]
-->Voiced by: Creator/MauriceLaMarche
-->Debut: ''"Love Labours Lost in Space"''
Brannigan's long-suffering personal assistant, Kif just can't seem to get away from the guy. Eventually evolved from merely a SatelliteCharacter for Brannigan to also having a relationship with Amy.
* {{Adorkable}}: He serves as Zapp's meeker, smarter alien assistant. He tends to be a nervous ExtremeDoormat and becomes painfully shy when he's around his love interest, Amy.
* AlliterativeName: '''K'''if '''K'''roker.
* BeleagueredAssistant: To Zapp. Might as well be the trope image, if that's not currently the case.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He turns out to be a pretty demanding boss when he has an underling of his own, and after learning that Zapp used his temporary death as an excuse to sleep with Amy he snaps and punches Zapp right in the stomach.
* BizarreAlienBiology: His digits can stick to walls and ceilings, he has no muscles or bones (his body is supported by bags of fluid instead), and we've also seen him inflate his head (to scare off predators on his home world) - and ''only'' his head, get your mind out of the gutter. His race is otherwise amphibian. Also, his race has a late metamorphosis stage in which they become clouds of HiveMind-operating fly-like creatures (his father is this form). In ''Proposition Infinity'', Kif says that he would be the closest related to the Sea Cucumber out of all of Earth's aquatic animals.
* ButtMonkey: Zapp frequently has him do humiliating things, and Kif often gets the blame when Zapp makes a mistake.
* CatchPhrase: A weary sigh seems to be his, always in response to whatever dumb thing Zapp has just said. It seems to be contagious: in "''Into the Wild Green Yonder''", Bender does it with him.
* DeadpanSnarker: Especially early on, before he hooked up with Amy.
* DrillSergeantNasty: Turns out to be this once he gets a subordinate. It's mostly the result of pent-up stress from serving under Zapp, though.
* ExtremeDoormat: Especially after he hooks up with Amy, he becomes less of a DeadpanSnarker and much more passive.
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: A male example in-universe. Females in at least two cultures of humanoids find him attractive.
* HypercompetentSidekick: ''Hyper''competent might be pushing it a bit, but he's got a good head on his shoulders and is usually standing near Zapp.
* HypocriticalHumor: In "War is the H-Word", Fry is demoted to Kif's assistant and Kif proves to be an even worse boss than Zapp, being openly hostile towards and constantly yelling at Fry. Then again, working for Zapp definitely has led to some ''severely'' repressed anger on Kif's part.
* IJustWantToBeBadass: A couple of times. He does pretty well, considering.
* InformedAttractiveness: Out of Zapp, Kif, and Fry, Kif is apparently supposed to be the best looking. At least, according to the Fem-Puter.
-->'''Fem-Puter''': Kif, as the most attractive male, will be [[OutWithABang snu-snued]] by the most beautiful women of Amazonia... ''then'' the large women... ''then'' the petite women... ''then'' the large women ''again''.
** Of course, Kif was being measured up against ''Zapp'' and ''Fry''. And unlike them, wasn't being a sexist jerk.
* InterspeciesRomance: With Amy.
* LittleGreenMan: He fits the bill for being small and green. However neither he, nor his species, has hostility towards humanity.
* MisterSeahorse: In the aptly-named "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch". Apparently, his species has a strange method of reproduction.
* NiceGuy: He's kind of [[DeadpanSnarker bitchy]] early on, but grows more into a shy, sensitive nice guy through his relationship with Amy.
* NoRespectGuy: He is put upon a lot because Zapp blames him for his own failings.
* OnlySaneMan: When you work with someone like Zapp, you're this by default.
* PunnyName: "Kroker" as in "croaker" as in "frog".
* RubberMan: A mild form of this. Being an amphibian-like alien with no bones, he can stretch himself to a considerable degree, though this causes apparent discomfort and isn't really treated as a superpower.
* RunningGag: Kif being accused of being spineless, causing him to explain he ''doesn't'' have a spine and his body is supported by a series of [[BizarreAlienBiology fluid-filled bladders]]. He often gets cut off though before he can finish.
* SarcasticDevotee: He sticks behind Zapp no matter what (probably because it's his place in the military), but makes it painfully obvious that he hates Brannigan for it. Oddly enough, Zapp is never fazed by Kiff's commentaries.
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Savvy Guy to Amy's Energetic Girl.
* TheScapegoat: Official Zapp policy seems to be blaming Kiff whenever he does something wrong.
-->''Kiff, stand by to take the blame... now!''
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive Guy to Zapp's Manly Man.
* ShrinkingViolet: Usually a Deadpan Snarker when dealing with Zapp, but seems to show this side when his Love Interest Amy is around. In the episode that brought them together as a couple, she kept getting phone calls of someone breathing and panting heavily on the other end; she assumed they were prank calls, when it was really Kif calling to tell her how he feels, but too scared to say anything, thus hyperventilating until he hung up.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scruffy "The Janitor" Scruffington]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Scruffy_2_9337.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:"Scruffy's work here is done."]]
-->Voiced by David Herman (2000)
-->Debut: ''"A Fishful of Dollars"''
Originally a recurring background character in the series, Scruffy was randomly tossed about the series who held multiple jobs much like TheSimpsons Wiseguy. However, during the episode "Anthology Of Interest," the writers ran out of characters to kill[[note]]In a non-canon "what-if" segment[[/note]] and decided to feature his character as another victim as a result. Ever since then, he became an AscendedExtra and his job was cemented into the full time janitor at Planet Express.
* AlmightyJanitor:
** He does own more than four times the rest of the employee's stock in Planet Express.
-->'''Scruffy:''' "Scruffy believes in this company!" ''(sniffles)''
** When asked what he did at Planet Express by Hermes, who was looking to reduce overhead, he replied, "Toilets 'n boilers, boilers 'n toilets. [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Plus that one boilin' toilet.]] Fire me if'n you dare."
* AscendedExtra: He shows up to comment on things when all other characters are used up. He's also occasionally featured as being even lazier than Fry, spending all his time in the basement reading porno magazines.
* CatchPhrase:
** "Yyyup"
** "[I'm] Scruffy. The janitor."
** "Second."
* DisneyDeath: Remember when Scruffy died? Remember when he reappeared unharmed? He's the [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Kenny]] of ''Futurama.''
* DumbassHasAPoint: Scruffy is the source of much simple-minded wisdom.
-->'''Scruffy''': (referring to a depressed Bender) I have never seen him so down. Or ever before.
* {{Expy}}: His voice seems to be based on [[Film/SlingBlade Karl Childers]]. Mmmhmm.
* [[FourTemperamentEnsemble Five Temperament Ensemble]]: Leukine.
* LovableSexManiac: He's rarely seen without some [[PunBasedTitle humorously named]] porno magazine (e.g. National Pornographic, Chef Play-Boyardee, and Astounding Tales [Of Doing It])
--> '''Scruffy:''' "Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived." ''(licks finger, turns page of magazine)''
* NiceHat: He wears a brown hat (when he was just a background character originally, the colour of his hat, hair and mustache often changed between appearances).
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: [[spoiler: "Law and Oracle" reveals Scruffy is one.]]
* RecurringExtra: He is often present and makes comments on situations that have nothing to do with him.
* RepetitiveName: According to the 2008 ''Futurama'' wall calander, his full name is "Scruffy Scruffington".
* RunningGag: No-one ever remembers that Scruffy works at Planet Express. Except Fry, who apparently befriended him at some point.
* StarCrossedLovers: [[CargoShip With his robotic wash bucket.]]
* ThirdPersonPerson: Scruffy almost always speaks in the third person.
* VerbalTic: mmmhmm.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Linda van Schoonhoven]]
-->Voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille
-->Debut: ''"A Big Piece of Garbage"'
A human anchorwoman for Channel √2 News who works alongside Morbo. She often smiles and laughs at the wrong times.
* TheDitz: She pretty much epitomizes this trope: she's bubbly and airheaded, much unlike her co-anchor Morbo.
* DumbBlonde: Not exactly, she is more a ditzy blonde.
* EatenAlive: Gets eaten by one of the Bart-monsters durring the Simpsons crossover. Though considering the groan she makes as it swallows her [[DeadLineNews the alive part probably didn't stick.]]
* KentBrockmanNews: With Morbo. As his co-anchor, she often gives him airheaded laughs.
* PerpetualSmiler: Linda keeps on a cheery face even when bad news is announced.
* StepfordSmiler: Apparently her [[TheAlcoholic drinking]] allows her to cope with her job and kids. But she breaks down in tears after [[ItMakesSenseInContext all alcohol on Earth is consumed by microscopic Bender clones]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Morbo]]
[[quoteright:244:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download16.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:244: "In lighter news, the city of New New York is doomed."]]
-->Voiced by Creator/MauriceLaMarche
-->Debut: ''"A Big Piece of Garbage"'
A green alien who is Linda's co-anchorman. He often speaks condescendingly about humans.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: He often claims that [[AlienInvasion his people plan to invade Earth some day]]. However we never see him act on this threat.
* EvilIsHammy:
--> ''"Windmills do not work that way!'' '''Good night!"'''
--> "Hello, little man... ''I will destroy you!"''
* EvilSoundsDeep: He subverts this by having a deep voice and an expressed desire for destruction of all of humankind, but only works as a news anchor.
* ExplosiveBreeder: Apparently is married to one.
-->'''Nixon:''' Hello, Morbo! How's the family?
-->'''Morbo:''' Belligerent and numerous!
* HatesEveryoneEqually: He hates humans, calling them "puny", "insignificant", and other insults (which his human co-host Linda oddly doesn't seem to mind), but he seems to hate and insult robots, other aliens, and pretty much everyone, even his wife. The only friends he seems to have are UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and Linda.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He seems to consider Linda a friend, and once implied that he may actually love his wife deep down.
* KentBrockmanNews: He and Linda are presented in a format similar to Kent Brockman himself, but with Morbo often talking about how he hates all other living things, especially humans.
* LittleGreenMan: He certainly isn't little (he's about the size of a well built human), he has green skin and hates humanity.
* ThirdPersonPerson: "All humans are vermin in the eyes of Morbo!"
[[/folder]]
[[quoteright:267:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nibbler_3319.jpg]]
-->Voiced by: Creator/FrankWelker
-->Debut: ''[[spoiler: "Space Pilot 3000", (shadow only)]]'', ''"Love Labours Lost in Space"''
The RidiculouslyCuteCritter that the Planet Express crew encountered while [[TheArk saving two of every animal]] from a planet about to implode. He proved to have a [[BigEater voracious appetite]], but thankfully, he's SolidGoldPoop incarnate -- his species produces dark matter, which could be used as starship fuel.
[[spoiler:It turns out that his species are ObfuscatingStupidity in order to defend the universe from the Brain Spawn, and nobody remembers his actions due to his wiping of their minds afterwards. Until he officially assigned himself to Earth as a part of the Planet Express crew.]]
* BadassAdorable: There's practically a whole episode devoted to how adorable the crew find him (much to Bender's chagrin), and in as the series progresses, it is revealed that [[spoiler:the Nibblonian race was already 17 years old at the time of the big bang, and are charged with protecting the Earth from the evil Brainspawn]] and also that Nibbler himself had a fairly big part to play in [[spoiler:getting Fry cryogenically frozen for 1000 years in the first place]].
* BigEater: And how! Most things he's eaten are bigger than he is.
* ChekhovsGunman: Present since the series premiere, in fact... if you know ''exactly'' where to look.
* CoolPet: A pet that poops fuel for the Cool Ship? Awesome indeed. [[spoiler:He's also late revealed to be a member of super-intelligent species.]]
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: [[spoiler: Despite his overwhelming cuteness, he is a soldier...]]
* CuteLittleFangs: Well, not exactly little. He has large fangs, but he's still cute.
* DependingOnTheWriter: [[spoiler: While some episodes are shrewd enough to sneak in hints of his intellect, In others Nibbler's actions (which include deliberately endangering himself or the crew or maintaining his act even when unsupervised) make no sense under knowledge of his secret identity, implying the story treats his dumb animal act as being his real personality.]]
* DePower: [[spoiler:After ''Bender's Game'', Nibblonian poop is useless as fuel, being replaced with whale oil.]]
* ExtremeOmnivore: Able to eat any creature regardless of its size.
* TheFakeCutie: [[spoiler:As explained, they all thought Nibbler was a cute pet, when he was actually an agent of a powerful ancient alien race... all of them cute as well.]]
* [[FourTemperamentEnsemble Five Temperament Ensemble]]: Melancholic
* IdiotHoudini: Despite Nibbler's actions as a brainless animal frequently causing hindrance or dismay to the team, Leela is usually quick to fend off anyone willing to punish him for it (most often Bender). [[spoiler: Considering these are all supposedly just an act, perhaps Nibbler is taking the role ''[[BecomingTheMask too]]'' seriously.]]
-->'''Leela:''' It's not his fault he's a killing machine!
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: Played with. [[spoiler: Nibbler and the Nibblonians regard Earth as important for two reasons: 1) it is the homeworld of the pizza bagel, and 2) due to certain events in 1947 and 1999, it will/does/did produce a savior that will rescue the entire universe from the Brain Spawn. Aside from that, the trope is played straight: Nibbler's log refers to as a "primitive dirtball inhabited by psychotic apes."]]
* IntellectualAnimal: [[spoiler: He's not the cute, brainless animal he appears to be, at all.]]
* LargeHam: [[spoiler: He is voiced by FrankWelker.]]
* MemoryWipingCrew: [[spoiler: Many of his and the Nibblonian's appearances in the series' first run have been wiped from Earth's memory. After the movies, he seems to have simply stopped wiping the Planet Express Crew's memories of him being anything but a stupid pet. His ability to converse normally with them is a major plot point in "That Darn Katz". It's implied that he gave up wiping their memories after discovering in ''Bender's Game'' that, since he'd forgotten to wipe their memories after the events of ''The Beast With A Billion Backs'', meaning that they'd known he could speak for some time but simply didn't ''care!'']]
* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler:He acts like a dumb pet, but he is actually a highly intelligent super-being whose race is responsible for maintaining order in the universe.]]
* OlderThanTheyLook: [[spoiler:See ReallySevenHundredYearsOld below.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Played with. [[spoiler:When he first revealed his true nature to the crew, he decided to stick with "Nibbler," due to certain difficulties in translating his actual name:]]
--> [[spoiler: '''Nibbler:''' "That name is for ''your'' sake! In the time it would take to pronounce ''a single letter'' of my ''real name,'' a ''million cosmoses'' would ''flare into existence...'' and sink again into ''eternal night.'']]
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler: According to one of the Special Feature pages on the DVD, Nibbler is over 3000. His species [[TimeAbyss is older than the universe.]]]]
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: He's [[UglyCute pretty weird looking]], but he's small and squeaky enough to make the tough, no-nonsense captain Leela go to pieces and adopt him as a beloved pet. He later gets a little red cape and diaper.
* SitcomArchNemesis: Bender tends to loathe Nibbler for being a nuisance or his cuteness stealing his thunder, even once flushing him down the toilet. [[spoiler: Some of the things Nibbler does to Bender in his pet role suggest the hatred is mutual.]]
* SmarterThanYouLook: [[spoiler:He hides his hyper-intelligence with a mask of ultra-stupidity and a tendency towards doing cute things.]]
* SolidGoldPoop: His waste is dark matter, which powers starships. [[spoiler:At least before ''Bender's Game.'']]
* SuddenlyVoiced: [[spoiler: After TheReveal, starting in "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" ]]
* TeamPet: After being adopted by Leela.
* TranslatorMicrobes: [[spoiler:Whenever he needs to communicate with someone outside his species, he affects their brain patterns to automatically translate his cute babbling into bombastic English.]]
* WalkingSpoiler
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Twenty-Five-Star General Zapp Brannigan]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Zapp_Brannigan_9790.png]]
[[caption-width-right:320:"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission."]]
-->Voiced by: Creator/BillyWest
-->Debut: ''"Love Labours Lost in Space"''
The only military leader we ever see, Brannigan has many medals and a high post despite a strange fixation on killing everybody who he sends into battle, whether helpful or not, whether needed or not. People serving under him tend to die. He's selfish, arrogant, fat, lazy, immature and an idiot. And those are his ''good'' qualities...
In his first episode, he tricked Leela into sleeping with him, something he's never let her live down.
* AbhorrentAdmirer: To Leela. Zapp is quite handsome (if a bit overweight): Leela hates him purely for [[{{Jerkass}} his personality]]. On their first encounter Leela sleeps with him out of pity, complicating things for herself for the rest of the series.
* AManIsNotAVirgin: It's likely he takes this view. By his own admission, he was allegedly a virgin ("allegedly" because 1. DependingOnTheWriter he may or may not have had some past paternity lawsuits and 2. It was Leela he told this to, so he may have been lying to gain sympathy points) before making it with Leela; after he does, he mentions the encounter often whenever he tries to emphasize his manliness.
* BadBoss: Often sends his men on deadly missions, expecting total loyalty out of them over ridiculous causes, and emotionally abusing them - you just know what a prick he is when his Second-In-Command Kif Kroker would rather face almost certain death than work for him.
* BigBookOfWar: He stamped his name onto the TropeNamer. Given his track record, it's not something that should be read by those with any sense of self-preservation.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Not so much "evil" as "sexist, incompetent, and haughty."
* CaptainErsatz: His appearance, attitude, position, and mannerisms are very similar to those of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries James T. Kirk]]. In fact, he was originally pitched as "What if Creator/WilliamShatner was captain of the Enterprise?"
* CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth: Although he is more explicitly a parody of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]] (his character was originally pitched as "What if Creator/WilliamShatner was captain of the Enterprise rather than Kirk?).
* CasanovaWannabe: Despite his attitude, he once admitted that Leela is the only woman who's ever loved him - ''physically''. He did get some action with the Amazonians, but [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization that doesn't count]]. And judging by a few of Leela's off-handed comments, he wasn't even satisfactory in bed either; not in his opinion though, of course.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: He's usually an arrogant, incompetent, idiotic, cowardly, selfish jerk. However, there are a few moments when he genuinely does something awesome like when he got rid of History's Greatest Villains in "Kif Gets Knocked Up". (Of course, this act [[PyrrhicVictory almost destroyed his ship and killed everyone.]])
* DirtyCoward: Woken up from sleep, his first words are: "I surrender and volunteer for treason!"
* DumbBlonde: Male example.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Zapp is an utter coward, but even he thought President McNeal asking humanity to die for his safety was awful
* FakeUltimateHero: Boy howdy. He has won offscreen victories, and taken credit for other people's deeds so he keeps his job, and is even well-regarded by many. Most people think he's an amazing hero and TheAce, until they actually meet him.
* FatIdiot: It's not super obvious, but he has quite a gut. Best observed when he goes to a planet with super-high gravity and the force of his belly rips open his girdle.
* GeneralFailure: He's not evil, per se; but he's usually against the protagonists due to his own total incompetence. His deeds have included fighting the Killbots by sacrificing millions of soldiers until the Killbots reached their limit and shut down, attacking the Hubble Space Telescope, ordering his ships to make a run so as to clog the enemy ship weapons with their own wreckage, getting his ship sliced in half by flying through a giant windmill despite being told what would happen, destroying an entire repair station due to impatience, destroying the brand new headquarters of The Federation by using his ships' laser at full power to cut the inauguration ribbon, attacking a strategically unimportant planet for no reason and wasting the element of surprise by dumping his soldiers out through the ship's floor, getting enough women killed through fraternization that the army banned them from his command, trying to get the protagonists arrested multiple times, and being taken out in the first second of Bender's Big Score's final battle.
* GeneralRipper:
** Has started tons of unnecessary wars, including against a race of sentinent balls on Spheron 1 (which resulted in them being forced off their home planet), the Spiderians, the Neutral Planet, the Retiree People of the Assisted Living Nebula, and the dreaded Pacifists of the Ghandi Nebula.
** President Nixon advocates just about everything Brannigan does, which is why he's able to be such a free wheeler. The Democratic Order Of Planets doesn't seem to really care (the only way he was able to get on their bad side was to destroy their brand new headquarters, otherwise they seem to ignore his attitude towards combat).
* HandsomeLech: To some extent. He'd be played straight if he got rid of the gut.
* IdiotHoudini: Most of the time, despite endangering people through his constant idiocy and lack of regard for the life of anybody but himself, he rarely suffers any retribution for it.
* IgnoreTheFanservice: It's revealed that Zapp doesn't wear ''underwear'' and it's only by virtue of the length of his uniform top that he's not always exposed. But don't follow behind him while climbing a ladder. It seems he extended it to the soldiers under his command, and possibly the entire Earth military considering his high position in it.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He doesn't care about the danger any of his actions cause unless he ends up in danger from them.
* {{Jerkass}}: He's got lots of examples that could be cited but a crowning moment might be the time he tried to pass off a declaration of war to a non-English-speaking alien race as a peace treaty, giving him the justification to invade their homeworld when their guard was down. [[spoiler:Thankfully his translator, Leela's mother Munda, actually had a conscience and ratted him out.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk:
** He shows himself as one on this very first appearance: after he breaks down to Leela and admits he's just an idiot who had no idea what he's doing, he uses her sympathy to get her to have sex with him then gloats over it for the rest of the series.
** In one episode, he accidentally causes his ship to go down, and he says that "the captain must go down with his ship" after Kif comments on how noble that is of him, he immediately promotes Kif to captain and then flees the ship in a one man pod
** His infamous plot to get Leela to have sex with him in "In A Gadda Da Leela".
* LargeHam: Imagine William Shatner playing William Shatner playing William Shatner... as Kirk.
* LaserGuidedKarma: While he keeps his job depressingly well, most of the time Zapp ends up looking a fool.
* LawfulStupid: Played for laughs. Zapp Brannigan will always enforce "Brannigan's Law" wherever he goes (a parody of the PrimeDirective), even though he has no idea what that law even is. Other than that, he is generally a selfish DirtyCoward who would happily sell out his friends and sacrifice hundreds of people to save himself.
* LaughablyEvil: In a serious show, he'd be a monstrous villain. See GeneralFailure and GeneralRipper.
* LethallyStupid: Whenever he is called for help, he'll come to make things worse.
* {{Malaproper}}
--> '''Zapp''': Brave-o! En-core!
* ManipulativeBastard:
** In "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela".
** In "The Beast With a Billion Backs" acting bereaved over Kif's death to bed Amy was probably a new low for him.
* MilesGloriosus: The patron saint of this trope. He will never rush in to a fight, but obtained a reputation of being a good fighter through his willingness to sacrifice wave after wave of his own men, while avoiding any risk to himself. If he does end up fighting, it's because he believes he has an overwhelming advantage, or is too stupid to realize that he's in danger.
* ModernMajorGeneral: At times.
* {{Narcissist}}: He's shamelessly vain and full of himself.
* TheNeidermeyer: He's especially fond of saving himself by sacrificing those under his command.
* NeverMyFault: No matter what death and destruction his actions cause or whatever mistake he causes, he never admits it to making a making a mistake himself.
* TheObiWannabe: Especially when giving Kif love advice.
* OfCorsetsFunny: "C'mon girdle... Hooolddd..."
* PantsFree: Not only does he not wear pants, he doesn't wear underwear either.
* ParentalAbandonment: Zapp's hinted to do this on occasion. He brings up once or twice the fact that he's often got slapped with failed paternity lawsuits from lovers in the past or virtual-reality lovers brought to life.
* PetTheDog:
** He does have one genuine moment, which is providing assistance during Kif's pregnancy. But even then, he didn't really ''care'' about the situation so much as he was just going along with what everyone else was doing.
** He has a half-one in "Where the Buggalo Roam" when he compliments Kif on a brave act by calling it "Brannigan-worthy". It's half a moment since it's a surprisingly sincere compliment, but also shows that he can't even give those without ''also'' finding a way [[ItsAllAboutMe to sing his own praises at the same time.]]
* PyrrhicVictory: Pretty much his only battle strategy.
* PsychopathicManchild: He's very cowardly, dim-witted, immature, and perverted. Though that's more disturbing as he's also a high-ranking officer in the Earth's military, with the authority to get people killed in mass amounts. Which he fully utilizes to do just that.
* ShoutOut: Between the many Creator/WilliamShatner shout outs, one stands out as he dramatically recites the lyrics to "[[TheKinks Lola]]", imitating Shatner's infamous rendition of "[[EltonJohn Rocket Man]]". Not to mention ordering Kif to [[TheTwilightZone climb out on the wing and pretend he's a gremlin.]]
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Manly Man to Kif's Sensitive Guy.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Subverted. Someone with his personality would be a SmallNameBigEgo in most situations if not for his absurdly high rank.
* TheSociopath: Egotistical, arrogant yet charming, incapable of learning from his mistakes, utterly without guilt for his actions, manipulative, an exceptional liar, and of course lacking a shred of respect for ''any'' life other than his own, Zapp shows all the classic signs of sociopathy. It's just that he's funny too.
* TooDumbToLive: In fact, it's even a wonder he is alive since half the things he does nearly get himself killed (the other half gets everyone else killed). Somehow he rationalizes bouncing between asteroids will induce a "gravity boost" and thus he tries to pilot a gigantic space cruise liner through an asteroid field.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: The only possible reason for how he retains a job.
* WeHaveReserves: His method for dealing with pretty much everything? Send wave after wave of men at the problem until it's solved or he runs out of men.
* WouldHurtAChild: Has absolutely no problem sending children to their deaths in a battle either.
* ZergRush: A favorite tactic of his.
--> '''Zapp''' ''(indicating enemy mothership on chart):'' ...my strategy is so simple an ''idiot'' could have devised it! On my command, all ships will line up and file ''directly'' into the alien death cannons, ''clogging'' them with ''wreckage!''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:(Lieutenant) Kif Kroker]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Kif_Kroker_8217.png]]
[[caption-width-right:320:'''Zapp:''' "Kif, round them up, and spare me the weary sigh for once."]]
-->Voiced by: Creator/MauriceLaMarche
-->Debut: ''"Love Labours Lost in Space"''
Brannigan's long-suffering personal assistant, Kif just can't seem to get away from the guy. Eventually evolved from merely a SatelliteCharacter for Brannigan to also having a relationship with Amy.
* {{Adorkable}}: He serves as Zapp's meeker, smarter alien assistant. He tends to be a nervous ExtremeDoormat and becomes painfully shy when he's around his love interest, Amy.
* AlliterativeName: '''K'''if '''K'''roker.
* BeleagueredAssistant: To Zapp. Might as well be the trope image, if that's not currently the case.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He turns out to be a pretty demanding boss when he has an underling of his own, and after learning that Zapp used his temporary death as an excuse to sleep with Amy he snaps and punches Zapp right in the stomach.
* BizarreAlienBiology: His digits can stick to walls and ceilings, he has no muscles or bones (his body is supported by bags of fluid instead), and we've also seen him inflate his head (to scare off predators on his home world) - and ''only'' his head, get your mind out of the gutter. His race is otherwise amphibian. Also, his race has a late metamorphosis stage in which they become clouds of HiveMind-operating fly-like creatures (his father is this form). In ''Proposition Infinity'', Kif says that he would be the closest related to the Sea Cucumber out of all of Earth's aquatic animals.
* ButtMonkey: Zapp frequently has him do humiliating things, and Kif often gets the blame when Zapp makes a mistake.
* CatchPhrase: A weary sigh seems to be his, always in response to whatever dumb thing Zapp has just said. It seems to be contagious: in "''Into the Wild Green Yonder''", Bender does it with him.
* DeadpanSnarker: Especially early on, before he hooked up with Amy.
* DrillSergeantNasty: Turns out to be this once he gets a subordinate. It's mostly the result of pent-up stress from serving under Zapp, though.
* ExtremeDoormat: Especially after he hooks up with Amy, he becomes less of a DeadpanSnarker and much more passive.
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: A male example in-universe. Females in at least two cultures of humanoids find him attractive.
* HypercompetentSidekick: ''Hyper''competent might be pushing it a bit, but he's got a good head on his shoulders and is usually standing near Zapp.
* HypocriticalHumor: In "War is the H-Word", Fry is demoted to Kif's assistant and Kif proves to be an even worse boss than Zapp, being openly hostile towards and constantly yelling at Fry. Then again, working for Zapp definitely has led to some ''severely'' repressed anger on Kif's part.
* IJustWantToBeBadass: A couple of times. He does pretty well, considering.
* InformedAttractiveness: Out of Zapp, Kif, and Fry, Kif is apparently supposed to be the best looking. At least, according to the Fem-Puter.
-->'''Fem-Puter''': Kif, as the most attractive male, will be [[OutWithABang snu-snued]] by the most beautiful women of Amazonia... ''then'' the large women... ''then'' the petite women... ''then'' the large women ''again''.
** Of course, Kif was being measured up against ''Zapp'' and ''Fry''. And unlike them, wasn't being a sexist jerk.
* InterspeciesRomance: With Amy.
* LittleGreenMan: He fits the bill for being small and green. However neither he, nor his species, has hostility towards humanity.
* MisterSeahorse: In the aptly-named "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch". Apparently, his species has a strange method of reproduction.
* NiceGuy: He's kind of [[DeadpanSnarker bitchy]] early on, but grows more into a shy, sensitive nice guy through his relationship with Amy.
* NoRespectGuy: He is put upon a lot because Zapp blames him for his own failings.
* OnlySaneMan: When you work with someone like Zapp, you're this by default.
* PunnyName: "Kroker" as in "croaker" as in "frog".
* RubberMan: A mild form of this. Being an amphibian-like alien with no bones, he can stretch himself to a considerable degree, though this causes apparent discomfort and isn't really treated as a superpower.
* RunningGag: Kif being accused of being spineless, causing him to explain he ''doesn't'' have a spine and his body is supported by a series of [[BizarreAlienBiology fluid-filled bladders]]. He often gets cut off though before he can finish.
* SarcasticDevotee: He sticks behind Zapp no matter what (probably because it's his place in the military), but makes it painfully obvious that he hates Brannigan for it. Oddly enough, Zapp is never fazed by Kiff's commentaries.
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Savvy Guy to Amy's Energetic Girl.
* TheScapegoat: Official Zapp policy seems to be blaming Kiff whenever he does something wrong.
-->''Kiff, stand by to take the blame... now!''
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive Guy to Zapp's Manly Man.
* ShrinkingViolet: Usually a Deadpan Snarker when dealing with Zapp, but seems to show this side when his Love Interest Amy is around. In the episode that brought them together as a couple, she kept getting phone calls of someone breathing and panting heavily on the other end; she assumed they were prank calls, when it was really Kif calling to tell her how he feels, but too scared to say anything, thus hyperventilating until he hung up.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Scruffy "The Janitor" Scruffington]]
[[quoteright:320:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Scruffy_2_9337.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:"Scruffy's work here is done."]]
-->Voiced by David Herman (2000)
-->Debut: ''"A Fishful of Dollars"''
Originally a recurring background character in the series, Scruffy was randomly tossed about the series who held multiple jobs much like TheSimpsons Wiseguy. However, during the episode "Anthology Of Interest," the writers ran out of characters to kill[[note]]In a non-canon "what-if" segment[[/note]] and decided to feature his character as another victim as a result. Ever since then, he became an AscendedExtra and his job was cemented into the full time janitor at Planet Express.
* AlmightyJanitor:
** He does own more than four times the rest of the employee's stock in Planet Express.
-->'''Scruffy:''' "Scruffy believes in this company!" ''(sniffles)''
** When asked what he did at Planet Express by Hermes, who was looking to reduce overhead, he replied, "Toilets 'n boilers, boilers 'n toilets. [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs Plus that one boilin' toilet.]] Fire me if'n you dare."
* AscendedExtra: He shows up to comment on things when all other characters are used up. He's also occasionally featured as being even lazier than Fry, spending all his time in the basement reading porno magazines.
* CatchPhrase:
** "Yyyup"
** "[I'm] Scruffy. The janitor."
** "Second."
* DisneyDeath: Remember when Scruffy died? Remember when he reappeared unharmed? He's the [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Kenny]] of ''Futurama.''
* DumbassHasAPoint: Scruffy is the source of much simple-minded wisdom.
-->'''Scruffy''': (referring to a depressed Bender) I have never seen him so down. Or ever before.
* {{Expy}}: His voice seems to be based on [[Film/SlingBlade Karl Childers]]. Mmmhmm.
* [[FourTemperamentEnsemble Five Temperament Ensemble]]: Leukine.
* LovableSexManiac: He's rarely seen without some [[PunBasedTitle humorously named]] porno magazine (e.g. National Pornographic, Chef Play-Boyardee, and Astounding Tales [Of Doing It])
--> '''Scruffy:''' "Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived." ''(licks finger, turns page of magazine)''
* NiceHat: He wears a brown hat (when he was just a background character originally, the colour of his hat, hair and mustache often changed between appearances).
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: [[spoiler: "Law and Oracle" reveals Scruffy is one.]]
* RecurringExtra: He is often present and makes comments on situations that have nothing to do with him.
* RepetitiveName: According to the 2008 ''Futurama'' wall calander, his full name is "Scruffy Scruffington".
* RunningGag: No-one ever remembers that Scruffy works at Planet Express. Except Fry, who apparently befriended him at some point.
* StarCrossedLovers: [[CargoShip With his robotic wash bucket.]]
* ThirdPersonPerson: Scruffy almost always speaks in the third person.
* VerbalTic: mmmhmm.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Linda van Schoonhoven]]
-->Voiced by Creator/TressMacNeille
-->Debut: ''"A Big Piece of Garbage"'
A human anchorwoman for Channel √2 News who works alongside Morbo. She often smiles and laughs at the wrong times.
* TheDitz: She pretty much epitomizes this trope: she's bubbly and airheaded, much unlike her co-anchor Morbo.
* DumbBlonde: Not exactly, she is more a ditzy blonde.
* EatenAlive: Gets eaten by one of the Bart-monsters durring the Simpsons crossover. Though considering the groan she makes as it swallows her [[DeadLineNews the alive part probably didn't stick.]]
* KentBrockmanNews: With Morbo. As his co-anchor, she often gives him airheaded laughs.
* PerpetualSmiler: Linda keeps on a cheery face even when bad news is announced.
* StepfordSmiler: Apparently her [[TheAlcoholic drinking]] allows her to cope with her job and kids. But she breaks down in tears after [[ItMakesSenseInContext all alcohol on Earth is consumed by microscopic Bender clones]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Morbo]]
[[quoteright:244:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/download16.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:244: "In lighter news, the city of New New York is doomed."]]
-->Voiced by Creator/MauriceLaMarche
-->Debut: ''"A Big Piece of Garbage"'
A green alien who is Linda's co-anchorman. He often speaks condescendingly about humans.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: He often claims that [[AlienInvasion his people plan to invade Earth some day]]. However we never see him act on this threat.
* EvilIsHammy:
--> ''"Windmills do not work that way!'' '''Good night!"'''
--> "Hello, little man... ''I will destroy you!"''
* EvilSoundsDeep: He subverts this by having a deep voice and an expressed desire for destruction of all of humankind, but only works as a news anchor.
* ExplosiveBreeder: Apparently is married to one.
-->'''Nixon:''' Hello, Morbo! How's the family?
-->'''Morbo:''' Belligerent and numerous!
* HatesEveryoneEqually: He hates humans, calling them "puny", "insignificant", and other insults (which his human co-host Linda oddly doesn't seem to mind), but he seems to hate and insult robots, other aliens, and pretty much everyone, even his wife. The only friends he seems to have are UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and Linda.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He seems to consider Linda a friend, and once implied that he may actually love his wife deep down.
* KentBrockmanNews: He and Linda are presented in a format similar to Kent Brockman himself, but with Morbo often talking about how he hates all other living things, especially humans.
* LittleGreenMan: He certainly isn't little (he's about the size of a well built human), he has green skin and hates humanity.
* ThirdPersonPerson: "All humans are vermin in the eyes of Morbo!"
[[/folder]]
