History Characters / FuturamaMainRecurringCharacters

** --->'''Bender, under the influence of a "patriotic program" that Brannigan requested to implant on every robot''': I volunteer for a suicide mission.
** --->'''Zapp Brannigan''': [...] When I'm in charge, every mission is a suicide mission.

* ArmchairMilitary: Zapp's approach to a fight is rarely, if ''ever'', to actually be on the battlefield, rather watching from a distance, criticizing his troops for dying ''en masse''. In the original run, he only shows up on a battlefield twice. The first time is on a horse on a hovering pad, rather than actually fighting, and the second is just to show off to the cameras. In "The Beast With A Billion Backs", he observes the hopeless battle against Yivo's genticles from the comfort and safety of the Times Square Applebee's. When he returns for the first time in the Hulu run, he actually tries to fight against giant tardigrades, but he has so few actual experience that he can't even activate his gun, and Kif must must come to his rescue and fight the tardigrades by himself.

* ArmchairMilitary: Zapp's approach to a fight is rarely, if ''ever'', to actually be on the battlefield, rather watching from a distance, criticizing his troops for dying ''en masse''. In the original run, he only shows up on a battlefield twice. The first time is on a horse on a hovering pad, rather than actually fighting, and the second is just to show off to the cameras. In "The Beast With A Billion Backs", he observes the hopeless battle against Yivo's genticles from the comfort and safety of the Times Square Applebee's.

* CatchPhrase: An exasperated 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.

->''[[CatchPhrase "I'm Scruffy. The janitor."]]''

* CatchPhrase:

'''Scruffy:''' [[{{Catchphrase}} I'm Scruffy, the janitor.]]\\

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He seems to consider Linda a friend, and once implied that he may actually love his wife deep down. He also breaks down when eating Bender's hideous food in "30% Iron Chef" because it showed that even hideous things can be sweet on the inside.

** 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."

* BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats: [[spoiler:He was once the leader of the League of Robots, until Bender took his place.]]

--->'''Calculon:''' [addressing the newlyweds] Hey, this one's for the new couple. It's your day! It's all about you. [sings] Who's that singing at your wedding? It's ''Calculon, Calculon, Calculon''!

* CatchPhrase: An exhasperated 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.

** He was horrified that the network executives would put Bender on ''All My Circuits'' acting in such a horrible manner, [[JerkassHasAPoint pointing out how children watch the show and that Bender would be a terrible role model.]]

* {{Irony}}: Calculon gives the best, most heartfelt, most moving speech of his life the one time in it that he wasn't acting.

* SeriesContinuityError: In "I Second That Emotion", a doctor determines him to be 5 years old, based on the rings around his teeth (which, in the episode, are speculated to indicate his age, similar to trees). He's later revealed to be over 3000 years old. Though, this could be interpreted as the doctor simply being wrong about what the rings indicate, as he was basically making an assumption.

* 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.

* StarCrossedLovers: In "The Prisoner of Benda", it is revealed that [[CargoShip his robotic 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 begs it to stay. When Washbucket leaves, he cries, implying that he returns its feelings.

* UltimateJobSecurity: He keeps his job despite being a vain, womanizing idiot who's subordinates tend to die horribly, often [[WeHaveReserves by his own command]]. The most egregious example would have to be when it was explained that Zapp was such a rampant sexual-harasser that the DOOP opted to ban ''all women from serving in the military'' rather than punish him.

* NeverMyFault: No matter what death and destruction his actions cause or whatever mistake he causes, he never admits to making a mistake himself. The following scene from "Brannigan, Begin Again" sums his attitude towards accountability perfectly.

* NeverMyFault: No matter what death and destruction his actions cause or whatever mistake he causes, he never admits to making a mistake himself.

** As a general, he is a DirtyCoward who acts in two-defaults when the military calls for his leadership: either surrender immediately without a fight and leave Earth at the hands of whatever tyrannical invader or [[EldritchAbomination eldritch horror]] comes by or takes the LeeroyJenkins approach and sends all of his men into battle with absolutely no hope of surviving it. Half the time he starts wars against peaceful alien races with no real reason other than his own [[InsaneTrollLogic lack of impulse control]] and [[KarmaHoudini is lucky to be punished for any of it]].

[Zapp bursts into a fit of derisive laughter]
--->'''Zapp:'''Oh, that's rich! [recovers himself] Go on.

* 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. As for the "Idiot" part, that's self-explanatory. Though he is fluent in Morse code.

* DumbBlonde: Male example. He has blond hair ([[DodgyToupee which may or may not actually be a toupee]]) and is dumb as a rock.

* {{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.]]
* JerkassToOne: While Zapp Brannigan is callous and [[GeneralFailure a terrible leader]] on the best of days - sending all of his male soldiers to die needlessly and single-handedly having female officers banned from the Earth's military via sexual harassment--he is particularly abusive to his right-hand Kif. He insults him, has him do menial labor, takes advantage of what little hospitality Kif offers to give him, and has Kif dishonorably discharged along with him in "Brannigan, Begin Again" for a crime Kif had nothing to do with and sleeps with his grieving Fonfon Ru Amy. That last one bares mentioning since [[spoiler:Zapp had Kif dislodge a missile they intended to fire, spamming the launch button while Kif was still stuck to it, leading to his death and eventually sleeping with Amy after the funeral]], implying that Zapp genuinely views Kif as a nuisance rather than just a quintessential put-upon lackey.

-->'''Morbo:''' Numerous and belligerent.

* ArmchairMilitary: Zapp's approach to a fight is rarely, if ''ever'', to actually be on the battlefield, rather watching from a distance, criticizing his troops for dying ''en masse''. In the original run, he only shows up on a battlefield twice. The first time is on a horse on a hovering pad, rather than actually fighting, and the second is just to show off to the cameras. In "The Beast With A Billion Backs", he observes the hopeless battle against Yivo's genticles from the comfort and safety of the Times Square Appleby's.

* EldritchAbomination: Older than our reality? Check (17 years). Incomprehensible name? Check (his real name takes several aeons to say). Mindbendingly hideous? Not check. Luckily, [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu his people are benevolent]].

* CuteClumsyCreature: In his first appearance, Nibbler is just an UglyCute critter among other animals on his planet that the crew tries to rescue. When he's left alone in the hold with the other creatures, he immediately eats them.