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Futurama Main Character Index
The Planet Express Crew (Philip J. Fry, Bender Bending Rodriguez) | Main Recurring Characters | Planet Express Crew Relatives | Antagonists | Other Characters

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    The Crew in General 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/crew_5.png
  • Almighty Janitor: For a package delivery service, they've been in the middle of some pretty important things. It's justified when you look at some of their individual members; the Professor is a major player in the scientific community, Amy comes from one of the richest families in the universe, and Fry is vital to the Nibblonian's fight against the Brain Spawn.
  • Badass Crew: This delivery crew have saved the Earth numerous times and all of them have their badass moments.
  • Found Family via Work: Despite only Fry and Professor Farnsworth (and Cubert) being biologically related, the Planet Express crew get along like an extended family, albeit a quite dysfunctional one. Most are ostracized among their peers and don't have actual family members or friends to rely upon, so when one crew member has a personal problem or has accomplished something important, their coworkers will be there to support them. This view of the company comes up in "Future Stock" when Fry's 1980s businessman friend restructures Planet Express to be more serious and efficient:
    Leela: That Guy's turning this place into some kind of business.
    Farnsworth: This isn't a business. I've always thought of it more as a source of cheap labor, like a family.
  • Nice Mean And In Between: Discounting the Professor, the main and secondary employees can be sorted into two groups:
    • The trio of Fry, Leela, and Bender. Fry is the nicest guy of the group, albeit a bit dumb. Bender is the loud-mouthed, foul-mouthed, abrasive jerk who likes to drink and smoke and steal a lot. Leela mediates between the two for she is calm and level-headed, although she is very easily offended and would often appear as a nag to others.
    • The other three Planet Express employees. Zoidberg is friendly, selfless, and generous. Hermes is a rude, amoral Obstructive Bureaucrat. Amy is generally nice but also tends to be rude and inconsiderate.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A delivery boy from the 20th century, an Amazonian Cyclops pilot, an alcoholic robot with attitude, an Absent-Minded Professor, a rastafarian accountant, a hard-drinking party girl from Mars and an incompetent crustacean doctor. Lampshaded by Fry in "The Cyber House Rules":
    Fry: The rest of us aren't normal, and that's what makes us great. Like Dr. Zoidberg. He's a weird monster who smells like he eats garbage, and does.
    Zoidberg: Damn right!
    Fry: And the professor's a senile, amoral crackpot. [Professor cackles gleefully] Hermes is a Rastafarian accountant.
    Hermes: Tally me banana!
    Fry: Amy's a klutz from Mars.
    Amy: [drops her glass] Oops!
    Professor: And Fry, you've got that brain thing!
    Fry: I already did!
  • True Companions: Though not without their squabbles, the crew have gone through thick-and-thin together and will always have each other's backs no matter what.
  • Two Girls to a Team: Leela and Amy are the only female members of Planet Express.

    Philip J. Fry 

    Captain Turanga Leela 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/futuramaleela.png
"Look, I don't know about your previous captains, but I intend to do as little dying as possible."
Voiced by: Katey Sagal Other Languages
Debut: "Space Pilot 3000"
"Society is never gonna make any progress until we all learn to pretend to like each other."

Leela is everything Fry isn't. Smart, strong, level-headed, a mutant, and a woman. So it's no surprise she ends up being the girl of his dreams. Leela was abandoned as a baby and grew up in an orphanarium. For the longest time she believed she was an alien from an unknown planet, but later found out she was a sewer mutant native to Earth. She is the conscience of the group, and is often prone to nagging them and expressing her outrage at their various immoral actions (though Rule of Funny dictates that she is in many ways as bad as Fry and Bender).


  • Ace Pilot: Despite frequent jokes about her lack of depth perception due to having only one eye, Leela is a very competent pilot.
  • Action Girl: Easily the most badass person on the crew. She is strong, tough, and highly skilled in martial arts.
  • Action Girlfriend: To Fry. She has fighting skills, and in most stand-up fights Fry is cowering behind Leela.
  • Adam and Eve Plot: Leela was suckered into one by Alcazar who tricked her into believing they were the last of her supposed alien species. Later happened again with Zapp Brannigan who managed to convince her that they were the last two humans alive, on a literal Garden of Eden like planet, later discovered to be Earth.
  • Aggressive Submissive: Implied. She has anger issues and a knee-jerk tendency towards violence, but from what we see of her sex life, she's fairly gentle and borderline coquettish. In "Near-Death Wish," she admits to Fry that his take-charge attitude during the mission is turning her on.
  • Allegedly Dateless: She's sometimes the butt of jokes about her lack of a love life, particularly in both Valentine's Day episodes, but gets several boyfriends over the course of the series, even with her self-proclaimed high standards. Granted, this is usually because she's being contrasted with Amy.
  • Amusingly Awful Aim: As a cyclops with awful depth perception, Leela's aim with projectiles is sometimes played for laughs. In "A Leela of Her Own," she becomes a famous blernsball player invokedbecause she's such a godawful pitcher, constantly hitting the batters in the head.
  • Animal Lover: She's a known animal lover, fawning over animals and alien critters, even disgustingly hideous ones that keep trying to attack her.
  • Animal Nemesis: In "Möbius Dick", a Whole-Plot Reference to Moby-Dick. It parodies the concept further, as the Space Whale she hunts feeds on obsession, so it naturally antagonizes ship captains. Leela eventually overwhelms the whale's will with a bigger obsession than revenge: finishing her delivery!
  • Anti-Role Model: In-Universe, her complete and utter failure as the first female blernsball player caused women to sign up in droves just to prove Leela isn't representative of their sex when it comes to sports.
  • Artists Are Attractive: Has a thing for musicians. Her ex boyfriend Sean could play the saxophone and she first truly falls for Fry when he learns to play the holophoner.
  • Badass Normal: In a universe filled with aliens, robots and destructive weapons, Leela's first usual instinct to deal with trouble is to proceed to kick it in the face, and maybe use a gun if she has to — though she tends to do worse with that. If a threat is deadlier than her, this is around the point it makes it apparent, but props for defusing a multitude of problems across the series this way. She becomes a bit less normal with her mutant growth, yet notably never actually uses any of them in an real way for combat.
  • Bad Boss: A mild case — as captain of the Planet Express ship, she often puts pride or personal grudges over the safety of her crew. It's blown up in "Mobius Dick" when she goes Captain Ahab levels of crazy and wants to risk everybody's lives to kill the space whale.
  • Berserk Button: Parodied in the pilot as a Bait-and-Switch — Smitty tells her, "Keep your big nose out of this, eyeball!" and she remarks "No-one makes fun of my nose!" Later episodes have established that her real insecurity is her eye, and the nose thing never comes up again.
  • Big-Breast Pride: Leela is quite proud of her "bazooms," and doesn't even mind when Scruffy breaks his spine due to her breasts distracting him.
  • Bizarre Human Biology: In the original series she was pretty much just a human with one big eye, as the least mutated mutant ever. The movies and the Comedy Central seasons added elbow talons (she trims them normally), a singing boil on her posterior, a mention that she lays an egg every few months. Her purple hair is also probably, probably a mutant trait, especially since she shares this trait with her mutant parents. "Leela and the Genestalk" implies that she's just been a late bloomer this whole time, since the plot involves her gradually turning into a bunch of tentacles.
  • Bully Hunter: Leela will kick the crap out of anyone who treats kids poorly since she was bullied by the other kids who made fun of her by calling her "One Eye" when she was raised in an orphanage.
  • Butter Face: Men will often admire the shape of her body, only to react in shock when they see her giant eye. Even Fry did this when he first met her.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: She's a bit more well-endowed than Amy, with a throwaway gag implying she's gotten work done to make her chest bigger, and the men in her company tend to take notice.
  • The Captain: Of the Planet Express delivery ship, making her a glorified truck driver, but a captain nonetheless.
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • "Awwwww." Said when she finds something cute, endearing or touching.
    • "Oh, Lord." Said when she's annoyed, fed up or exasperated by someone (usually Fry or Bender) but not angry enough to get violent.
    • "Hi-Yah." Yelled whenever she throws an attack (or, on occasion, something else, such as removing a plug from its socket).
  • The Chew Toy: More so in later seasons; Leela has been electrocuted, attacked by puddle monsters, crushed by a door, and suffered other amusing injuries.
  • Cleavage Window: She and Amy have some outfits with this. In "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", Leela wears a long formal dress with a keyhole in the chest to Fry's opera. Also her wedding dress has a hole for her cleavage.
  • Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: To Fry (being his boss) for the first few episodes. After that, he adapts and stops being a Fish out of Temporal Water, though she still takes on this role from time to time.
  • Cool Uncle: Leela quickly becomes the Krocker-Wong children's favorite aunt. The fact she's their genetic parent probably helped build the connection.
  • Cute Monster Girl: A beautiful one-eyed woman descended from a race inflicted with all kinds of Body Horror. Her parents and people are formerly human, subterranean mutants and the fact that she happened to be born looking almost human is why they were able to pass her off as a Human Alien and send her to the surface world for a better life than they could give her.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Leela is often a victim of this, even in the presence of animals that are generally not that cute, such as the muck leech on Mars in Into the Wild Green Yonder. A muck leech who turns out to be evil. It annoys the Nibblonians when she does this to them as well.
  • Cyclops: Due to being a mutant. Her single eye doesn't seem to be much better or worse than a normal one, though, and she usually wears a contact. A few episodes do show her depth perception to be messed up, though.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Many of her lines amount to remarking sarcastically on the idiots with whom she works.
  • Decoy Backstory: Early in the series, all Leela knew about her history was that she was an alien abandoned by her parents, with no knowledge of her home planet. In "A Bicyclops Built for Two", Leela meets another cyclops named Alcazar, who tells her the story of their people, the Cyclopians. He tells Leela that Cyclopia was bombed by eyeless mole people, killing everybody except Alcazar, who was working in a pool, and Leela, who was shipped off the planet as an infant before the planet was destroyed. At the end of the episode, Alcazar reveals he's a shapeshifter, not a cyclops, who made the entire story up to marry Leela (and it's implied he did the same to several other girlfriends of other species). Later in the series, Leela learns why she never found her home planet: she's not an alien, but a sewer mutant, and her parents sent her above ground with an alien note so she could live without being subjected to a degrading life in the sewer like every other mutant.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: She has a very cynical view of love in the original run of the series, believing she would never find someone right for her due to her very high standards. She becomes happier once she starts dating Fry, who may be stupid and childish, but who genuinely loves her more than any other man she's dated.
  • Depending on the Writer:
    • A lot of episodes (mostly the earlier ones) established her as a calm, sensible, unimpulsive woman who could defend herself in a pinch. Some episodes and the movies make her into a reckless, angry girl who would use violence as much as possible. Both make sense for her, really. She tries to conduct herself professionally for the sake of being the ship's captain but deep down, she harbors a lot of personal issues stemming from her origins and her life growing up. She has a lot of control but can be pushed easily as well.
    • Just how much she's disabled by being a cyclops depends on the episode. While there's numerous jokes about her lack of depth perception, and "A Leela of Her Own" makes it a plot point, other episodes show her with competent aim. Essentially, her depth perception isn't an issue unless it works for the joke.
  • Determinator: If given the chance to pull off a daunting task, she will take it and refuse to back down, especially if someone insists she isn't able to do it. "Mobius Dick" takes this to extremes: she becomes so obsessed with killing the Space Whale and finishing her delivery that she gets engulfed by the whale and manages to overpower it with the sheer force of her obsession.
  • Deuteragonist: Arguably shares this role with Bender. While Bender may have more episodes centered on him, Leela's role as Fry's love interest gives her the edge, especially if Nibbler wasn't lying about her being "The Other."
  • Doorstop Baby: She was left at the door of the Orphanarium in a basket with a bracelet and undecipherable Alienese note. She even kept the basket for sentimental value.
  • Driven to Suicide: One of the few serious examples in the show. Towards the end of "The Sting", she becomes so distraught over her inability to separate reality from her own dreams caused by the guilt she feels that she decides the only way out is to eat enough space honey to fall into a perpetual sleep. Luckily, Fry manages to talk her out of it and then it turns out most of the episode was just Adventures In Coma Land and she wakes up for real.
  • Dude Magnet: She has men falling for her pretty often, but this is shown to be subverted as often as it's played straight. It depends largely on the episode and the man.
  • First Girl Wins: She's the first woman Fry meets in the future, and remains his object of affection for the entire series.
  • Flanderization:
    • She started as very archetypal captain figure, the Straight Action Girl that was sorely needed to run a crew and company that were barely competent in their own individual rights, occasionally showing odd, questionable quirks. In each successive season (especially the Comedy Central ones), the latter aspect of her personality became increasingly prevalent to the point of consuming the rest of it, sometimes outright resembling Chickification. One could almost say that Fry didn't win her love by becoming smarter, but rather from her becoming dumber.
    • Leela's love for violence was played up later in the show and in the movies. Before that she just got irritated a lot and would sometimes react by punching people. In the movie, Bender's Game, the professor has to put a shock collar on her to stop her from hitting and it doesn't even work. In fact, she starts to like the electric shocks because of her newly-formed association with them and violence. At one point, we see her moaning suggestively and repeatedly. This is because she associated the pain with the pleasure of beating people up.
    • Her being a mutant is played up much more in later seasons. In the original Fox run, Leela's mutations were limited to a single giant eye, purple hair and an immunity to radiation, with her otherwise being the same as a normal human. The movies and later episodes give her increasingly bizarre mutations, such as elbow talons (which she apparently trims regularly), a singing butt boil, a tendency to lay eggs and her mutating further into a grotesque mass of tentacles at one point.
  • Foil:
    • From the pilot, Leela and Fry have been compared and contrasted as two individuals who feel lost and lonely in their current society (Fry being a 20th century guy stuck in the 31st century, and Leela being abandoned her entire life with no idea clue about her original species). Leela usually provides the more rational approach to a situation while Fry takes the impulsive route, and Leela is much more emotionally withdrawn while Fry goes with the flow and says whatever stupid thing happens to come to mind. As the series progresses, the two form a close bond over their core similarity and slowly rub off on each other (Fry taking things more seriously and Leela learning to loosen up) while still staying true to their Uptight Loves Wild dynamic.
    • As the two main female characters, Leela and Amy are typically paired off to emphasize the Tomboy and Girly Girl dynamic. In scenes together, Leela gets played up as more unfeminine and awkward in contrast to Amy's social butterfly status (which the latter quite often points out) and Amy gets played up as more cute and ditzy to contrast Leela's tough rationality.
  • Four-Star Badass: In Bender's Big Score, Leela steps up to take command of the Earth fleet after a surprise attack leads the Nimbus to be shot down just seconds into the battle. The trope is later subverted as she does fail just as badly in the end after realizing how hard it is to actually command a fleet, forcing Hermes and Farnsworth to take over and save the day.
  • Freakiness Shame: Leela is extremely sensitive about her huge single eye, due in large part to being made fun of while growing up in the Orphanarium. Fry had always been attracted to Leela, eyeball and all. In fact, when Leela gets a prosthetic second eye in "The Cyber House Rules", Fry is the only one who objects, saying that he liked her better the way she was.
  • Friend to All Children: Being a former orphan herself, she's very kind to current kids at the orphanage. Dwight, being a little jerk, is the exception.
  • Girls Like Musicians: Leela reveals she has a thing for musicians, having dated a saxophone player (until he cheated on her) and swooned over Fry when he played the holophoner for her when he was infected by a parasite that made him smarter, and again in the original finale when he trades his hands for the robot devil's.
  • Granola Girl: An environmentalist who loves the animals and nature.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe: Subverted. Despite her curvy humanoid figure, she is considered ugly by 31st Century standards, and aside from Fry and Zapp (who both already had fantasies about mating with alien women), most men consider her one big eye to be a massive turnoff. She deviates further from the trope with the reveal that she's a mutant, not an alien.
  • Hairstyle Inertia: She's kept her ponytail since middle/high school, although as a grade schooler she wore her hair as pigtails and a brief flashback in "Fry and Leela's Big Fling" shows her with her hair down.
  • Handicapped Badass: Due to being a Cyclops, she only has one eye and lacks any form of depth perception. In spite of this, she's a skilled fighter and an Ace Pilot.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: When it comes to certain animals, such as space bees or bloodsucking leeches aka "Dark Ones". She also tends to express interest in men who are later revealed to be complete jerks.
  • Human All Along: She spends most of the original series believing she is an alien, but discovers in "Leela's Homeworld" that she's actually a mutated human born in the sewers of Earth.
  • Hypocrite: In "Leela and the Genestalk," she adamantly opposes Mom's genetic engineering experiments... but does a complete 180 on them when Mom offers to use it to cure her squidification.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She can be snarky and a bit aggressive sometimes, but she is a good and caring person underneath it all.
  • Just Friends: With Fry for the original series. The Comedy Central revival gives them a Relationship Upgrade while the ending of "Overclockwise" gives them a happy ending.
  • Karma Houdini: Played for Laughs in "Yo Leela Leela", where she gets away with ripping off an adorable alien species for her children's show. She isn't happy about this at all, especially when the Humplings insist on bearing no ill will towards Leela for what she's done.
  • Keeping the Handicap: In "The Cyber House Rules", she decides to undergo surgery to become a normal two-eyed woman. At the end of the episode, she goes back to having one eye because she understands this is an important part of her.
  • Kick Chick: Whenever Leela attacks someone, its almost always with a kick.
  • The Lancer: A case of The Hero (Fry) being an impulsive but good-natured idiot with occasional flashes of genius, his Lancer counterpart is the rational, intelligent but hot-tempered Leela.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Masculine Girl to Fry's Feminine Boy. Leela is a strong-willed, tough-as-nails Action Girl, Fry is laid back, awkward, emotional, and usually a Non-Action Guy. Downplayed, as Fry is not that feminine (he's described in-universe as "boyish") but not manly either.
  • Meaningful Name: Turanga Leela is a reference to the "Turangalîla-Symphonie", a piece of music most famous for prominently featuring the ondes Martenot, forerunner of the classic sci-fi staple the theremin. Also, in the case of purple-haired Leela, "Lila" means "purple" in German.
  • Mood-Swinger: When she thought Fry stood her up and died in an explosion in "The Late Philip J. Fry":
    Leela: I'm so angry. I mean, I'm so sad. But I'm still pretty angry. But also sad. [to Hermes] Can I be both?
    Hermes: It's what he'd want.
    Leela: Then that's what I am! [angrily kicks the television and sadly cries]
  • Ms. Fanservice: She's very busty, her standard outfit consists of skin-tight tank top and pants, her other "ordinary" outfits (such as formal dresses and swimsuits) invariably have a midriff window showing her belly button, and she's the most likely to be seen wearing strange, Stripperiffic outfits. She also tends to get naked a lot and seems fond of nude swimming and hot tubbing.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution: When she asks the What-If Machine what she would be like if she were "a little more impulsive" in "Anthology of Interest", this is her solution to everything. The episode implies that murder is the first solution that occurs to Leela all the time, and is only kept in check by her being a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. This is reinforced by her second What-If scenario parodying The Wizard of Oz, in which she unhesitantly kills the Cute Witch of the North after an insensitive comment and gleefully embraces the role of a wicked witch near the end.
  • Naïve Animal Lover: Compelled to protect animals of all types, even if they turn out not to be as helpless as she thought they were. This is what leads her to take on Nibbler as a pet.
    • In "The Sting", she gets Fry killed (although it's just a dream) by bringing a killer space bee aboard the Planet Express because "it's so cuuuutteee!" In "Bender's Game", she refuses to save her friends from a giant worm called the Tunneling Horror because she has just vowed to never kill another living thing.
    • In "Into The Wild Green Yonder" she kept trying to protect a muck leech even though it repeatedly attacked her and turned out to be the Big Bad
  • Name Order Confusion: Her first name, Turanga, is her surname.
    Fry: "Turanga"?
    Amy: That's her name, Phillip.
    Bender: "Phillip?!"
  • Never My Fault: Often refuses to accept her mistakes or flaws such as in The Problem with Popplers and Bender's Game.
  • Not So Above It All: While Leela generally acts as one of the more level-headed and responsible members of the Planet Express crew, she can be just as reckless or childish as the others.
    • For instance, in one episode, rather than pay a nominal parking fee for a Hollywood premiere, she flies around for hours before landing on the La Brea Tar Pits... which is exactly the sort of thing she usually scolds Fry and Bender for.
    • In "A Head in the Polls", after she spends the whole episode encouraging Fry to take an interest in politics and the electoral process:
      Farnsworth: I can't believe it. He won by a single vote.
      Bender: Well it ain't my fault. I'm a non-voting felon, thank you.
      Fry: Well it's not my fault either 'cause I forgot to vote.
      Leela: Oh, crud! I knew there was something I meant to do today!
    • She stops Fry for whining about how the career chip hurt when inserted. Two seconds later, she does the same thing.
    • Tries to be the voice of reason with Free Waterfall Senior's hippies / gun-nuts, but admits she finds blowing up dams fun.
  • Official Couple: With Fry. They start dating from the Comedy Central revival onward after 5 seasons of Will They or Won't They?.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten: In the original Fox run, she only had sex with Zapp once, in "Love's Labors Lost in Space", and it was pity sex only brought on by him repeatedly guilt-tripping her. Despite this, everyone from Bender to Zapp himself loves bringing it up and mocking her for it.
  • One True Love: To Fry. No matter how many other women he is with, he still considers Leela to be the love of his life. Their relationship is very unstable, but they still seem to care for each other regardless of what happens. She does seem to love Fry, but is often put off by his lack of maturity. Eventually though, she and Fry have a more stable relationship.
  • Only Sane by Comparison: She's definitely a genius in comparison to Fry and the most functioning adult of the Planet Express crew with the least quirks or sociopathic tendencies. But that doesn't stop her from having serious anger issues, obsessive grudges, or from coming off as socially awkward around people who aren't her co-workers. She also has a very poorly adjusted life outside of work, due to her Friendless Background and not meeting her parents until adulthood.
  • Only Sane Woman: Easily the most level-headed member of the cast, especially compared to Fry and Bender. She has her moments, though, particularly when she is insulted. She holds very strong grudges.
  • Orphan's Ordeal: Being abandoned by her parents as a baby and growing up an unloved, disfigured orphan is the source of most of her cynicism and identity issues — it's the reason she took pity on Fry, whose family is long gone in the past, in the first place. Early episodes like "Xmas Story," "The Cyber House Rules," and "A Bicyclops Built for Two" explore how lonely she feels not knowing her family or even her species, and it's one of the few subjects that can crack through her tough exterior. "Leela's Homeworld" finally has her track down her parents and learn why she was abandoned; from then on, they have a very loving relationship.
  • Orphanage of Fear: The "Orphanarium" where she grew up seems to be an odd mixture of this and Orphanage of Love—it was (and still is) dirt-poor and she was picked on constantly, but the Warden seems like a nice guy... sort of.
    Leela: Mr. Voggle, remember me?
    Mr. Voggle: Leela. You're worthless and no one will ever love you!
    [both laugh and hug]
    Leela: You used to say that all the time!
    Mr. Voggle: Those were happier days.
  • Otherworldly Technicolour Hair: Leela's hair is purple, and she was initially thought to be an alien from an unknown planet, but eventually, she's revealed to be a mutant human. Her parents were mutants relegated to living in a sewer, who tricked the surface-dwellers into thinking she was an alien so she would be allowed to live on the surface and have better opportunities in life.
  • Radiation-Immune Mutants: As a Mutant, she can plunge into a lake of toxic waste, swim around in it, and it won't do a thing to her.
  • Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Averted. While she's definitively more masculine than the other women in the show, being tough and authoritative, she has just as many feminine traits (including, yes, wearing dresses) which are never depicted as being unusual or out of character for her.
  • Relationship Upgrade: At the end of Into The Wild Green Yonder, she finally reciprocates Fry's feelings for her, and from then on out the show is relatively consistent at depicting them as a couple.
  • Ridiculously High Relationship Standards: Early in the series, Leela tends to only pursue men with impressive jobs and a sense of authority and importance — at one point, she daydreams about being married to a senator, and her actual boyfriends include a doctor and the mayor's aide. This may be due to her own insecurity (she's frequently rejected and ostracized for being a cyclops), as she says in "The Cyber House Rules" that she wants to date someone she can be seen with without anybody judging him. While her reasons for turning down men make some sense (she turns down a man with an unsettlingly long lizard tongue, and she has pretty good reasons to turn down Zapp and Fry), her coworkers chastise her for her tendency to turn down any man with an off-putting "quirk" (even if some of them are genuinely justified).
    Amy: You're too picky.
    Fry: Yeah. If you rule out every guy with a lizard tongue or a low I.Q. or an explosive violent temper, of course you're gonna be lonely.
    Leela: There's nothing wrong with having high standards.
  • Rubber-Forehead Alien: An Invoked Trope in her case; her parents tried to pass her off as one so she might have a better life than a sewer-dwelling mutant.
  • Shoe Size Angst: Leela wears size 12 shoes, and is made fun of a couple times because of it.
  • Shorttank: She's the tomboyish female co-star.
  • Shout-Out: Her given name is an homage to a piece by 20th-century composer Olivier Messiaen, the "Turangalîla-Symphonie".
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She tends to turn her attention more towards the good natured men depicted on the show and finally settles down with Fry, arguably the nicest character in the series.
  • Slapstick: She seems to get her fair share of slapstick in later seasons. She's been hit on the head, electrocuted, sucked by a leech, attacked by an octopus, smashed into a wall by a door, and had her arm torn out of its socket.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps: Leela's standard outfits are tank tops and other sleeveless outfits.
  • Smelly Feet Gag: Some episodes show that Leela, who typically wears boots a lot of the time, has some stinky feet on her, which she tries to deny.
    Leela: Couldn't be me. I don't wear boots. See?
    Fry: Eww. What smells like boot feet?
  • Soapbox Sadie: A few episodes show her to be a strong advocate for animal rights, particularly "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" and especially Into the Wild Green Yonder, in which she joins a Straw Feminist eco-terrorist group to protest Leo Wong.
  • Sour Outside, Sad Inside: It's implied in several episodes that, despite her sardonic attitude and violent tendencies, she's repressing lots of trauma from being abandoned by her parents, bullied as a child, and betrayed by most of her romantic relationships.
  • The Spock: Levelheaded, predictable Action Girl.
  • Statuesque Stunner: She's much taller than the rest of the Planet Express crew, even meeting Fry (who probably stands at or around 5'11" or 180 cm) at eye-level.
  • Stepford Smiler: Describes her method of coping with her tragic life by apologizing for a brief grief-stricken outburst and explaining that "usually I keep my sadness pent up inside where it can fester quietly as a mental illness".
  • Straight Man: The serious, no-nonsense girl who provides the setup for most of Fry/Bender's jokes. She's also this to pretty much everyone in the main cast. She does have her moments though.
  • Sweet Polly Oliver: For a time, women were barred from serving in the military thanks to Zapp Brannigan's actions, so she pretended to be a man to join as "Lee Lemon".
  • Super Wrist-Gadget: "This thing I wear on my wrist".
  • Tank-Top Tomboy: The level-headed, action-oriented leader of the Express crew. A tank top is her default outfit.
  • Team Mom: As one of the only close-to-sane members of the team, she often finds herself reeling in the rest of the crew from dangerous situations. So much that she follows Fry and Bender into the army so they won't get hurt. Bender even sarcastically calls her "mom" in "Fry Am the Egg Man" when she chastises them for eating unhealthily. "2-D Blacktop" exaggerates this trait by having her get so concerned with safety that she trades in the ship for the ship equivalent of a minivan, then behaving like a stereotypical soccer mom to the rest of the crew.
  • Thinks of Something Smart, Says Something Stupid: In "Simpsorama" (the Crossover with The Simpsons), Leela is introduced to Marge:
    Marge: [thinking] Oh, don't mention her eye. Don't mention her eye.
    Leela: [thinking] Don't mention her hair. Don't mention her hair.
    Marge: I (Eye)... am so pleased to meet you.
    Leela: Nice to be hair.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tough, independent, and often messy tomboy to Amy's fashion-oriented, boy-crazy Girly Girl. Early designs for Leela had her be much more feminine but this was changed so Leela and Amy would contrast each other more.
  • Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's generally tough and masculine, but is plenty capable of showing sensitivity and vulnerability. She has a soft spot for cute animals and can be downright motherly at times.
  • Tomboyish Ponytail: Current page image. A no-nonsense gal who's by far the toughest member of the main cast, and has the ponytail to match. Into the Wild Green Yonder has her whip it around to show dominance.
  • Tsundere: She has a love for violence and hit mostly everyone at least once, besides her love interest Fry. She is usually sweet but Fry makes her irritated often, especially in the beginning. His stupidness, annoyingness, and immaturity brings it out of her turning her harsh. Leela at first didn't feel the same but as the series progressed, she fell in love with him, in part to Fry's persistence and also his consideration of her feelings.
    Leela: Fry, you idiot! You noble idiot!
  • The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Aside from the one eye, she is the most human looking member of her family. Her parents realized this and decided to put her up for adoption when she was born so she could live a normal life.
  • Unrequited Love Switcheroo: After years of rejecting Fry's advances, he often does the same to her when she is hitting on him in later episodes.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: You may be able to sell Schmuck Bait to Fry with ease, but not with her around.
  • Will They or Won't They?: With Fry. Fry claims to have been fallen in love with Leela at first sight, but that didn't stop him from dating or having sex with other women. Meanwhile, Leela very often snubbed his advances, sometimes rather harshly. After a decade, she finally admitted she loves him and they had an on-again, off-again relationship for a season before becoming an official couple in the seventh production season.
  • Woman Scorned: She often responds to romantic betrayal with violence. In the first movie, she's even excited at the prospect of Lars going on a suicide mission after he leaves her at the altar.
  • Women Are Wiser: Zig-zagged. She's usually the one taking Fry and Bender down from some crazy scheme or questioning the Professor's Insane Troll Logic, but is just as prone to stubborn (even stupid) mistakes as anyone else in the crew.
  • Working with the Ex: She and Fry were married, for all of the time it took her to file for divorce. Also later on she says that Fry and her's relationship is on again and off again. Eventually they settle into a more stable relationship.
  • Youthful Freckles: She's often depicted with them in her teenage years (although it could also be acne).

    Bender Bending Rodriguez (Bending Unit 22) 

    Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hubert_j_farnsworth.png
"Oh fuff! Why bother remembering anything? You're just going to forget it five seconds later."
Voiced by: Billy West Other Languages
Debut: "Space Pilot 3000"

Fry's great-to-the-umpteenth-power nephew. An inventor whose brilliance is hindered by his old age and insanity. Owns Planet Express, and manages to get ample screentime despite rarely accompanying the heroes on their missions.


  • Abandoned Catchphrase: "But I am already in my pajamas." was intended to be his main Character Catchphrase. He said it in "Space Pilot 3000" and "The Series Has Landed", the first two episodes of the series, before abandoning it permanently. However, in Season 8, he ends up saying that line again in "How the West Was 1010001".
  • Absent-Minded Professor: Extra credit goes to the episode "A Big Ball of Garbage", where he goes to an inventors' competition, realizes the invention he brought (the death clock) is the same one he showed last year, attempts to invent the same thing again after it's pointed out to him ("I need a new invention! Perhaps some kind of death clock..."), quickly creates a new invention (the smell-o-scope) to replace it, then only hours later... "Eureka!" "You built the smell-o-scope?" "No, I remembered that I'd already built it last year!"
  • Ambiguously Evil: He's an insane Mad Scientist who loves creating doomsday devices for no apparent reason, states in one episode that "there is no scientific consensus that life is important", openly admits that he always knew he would have his hand in The End of the World as We Know It, and even takes pleasure in endangering the lives of his crew, getting upset in one episode when he finds out that he won't have to kill Fry to save humanity. On the other hand, he only has this attitude while they're still alive, and seems to genuinely regret it once they're dead (not that he ever changes as a result), and he has lines that even he won't cross. He's also always on the front line to save the world whenever it's threatened by someone or something worse than he is. After the show was invokedUn-Canceled, his insanity was toned-down to make him more of a case of Good Is Not Nice.
  • Angrish: "If anyone needs me I'll be in the angry dome!" He's had a separate room in the Planet Express building constructed for the express purpose of venting in the form of furious gibberish.
  • Bad Boss:
    • He cheerfully sends the crew on very dangerous missions. And they're not his first crew.
    • He also refuses to bring the Planet Express ship up to government standards, regardless of how often the crew sue him.
  • Bad News in a Good Way: He introduces them by saying "Good News, Everyone!". Lampshaded in "The Beast with a Billion Backs":
    Farnsworth: Now, I've often said "Good News!" when sending you on a mission of extreme danger. So when I say this anomaly is "Dangerous", you can imagine how dangerous I really think it is!
    Hermes: Not dangerous at all?
    Farnsworth: Actually, quite dangerous indeed.
    Hermes: That is quite dangerous!
    Farnsworth: Indeed!
  • Badass Army: He was able to create a group of Atomic Supermen to take on the Harlem Globetrotters at a basketball game, who were close to winning until the timeline started glitching out due to the chronotons used to create said Supermen.
  • Berserk Button: Anyone using the Planet Express Ship just to get a lift.
    Amy: [on a planet the crew's making a delivery to] Kif's on patrol near there. You could drop me off on the way.
    Professor: We could but we won't! It's a spaceship, damn it, not a prom limousine! Oooh, if anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome!
    • Immediately flies into a rage whenever someone tries to provide a non-scientific explanation or solution to a problem.
    • WERRRNSTROOOOMMM!!!!
  • Beyond the Impossible: He has a habit of inventing impractical solutions for practical problems, or sometimes just plain impossible things that even the dumber characters point out should be impossible. Case in point: the Planet Express ship uses a very specific engine Farnsworth himself invented, which no one can figure out until Cubert (his cloned son) gets knocked out and has a "Eureka!" Moment of the same dream that made Farnsworth invent the engine in the first place. The best explanation the two of them offer is quite literally their imaginations allowing them to do it as scientists.
    Cubert: The engines don't move the ship at all! The ship stays where it is, and the engines move the universe around it!
    Bender: That's a complete load.
    Cubert: Nothing's a complete load! Not if you can imagine it. That's what being a scientist is all about!
  • Boomerang Bigot: Towards robosexuality. He becomes a very strong advocate against it, but he eventually reveals this is due to a fling he had with a robot several years ago that ended badly.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: "I really should do something... but I am already in my pajamas". It's more a lack of motivation than outright laziness, though.
  • Bungling Inventor: He has had his share of bungled inventions, including a machine that made glow-in-the-dark noses while also producing an enormous amount of unusable toxic waste. Also, he nearly destroyed the fabric of space-time by creating and then artificially aging a team of genetically engineered basketball players.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's undeniably crazy and unstable but also one of the best scientific minds in the world, and possibly the universe.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Sometimes he seems to be this. He nods along when Fry calls him an "amoral crackpot", and openly admits that he always expected to cause the apocalypse someday.
    • He fully expects to suffer eternal damnation when he dies. In "Attack of the Killer App", when he's been standing in line for an extremely long period of time and is suddenly startled by a bright light, he screams:
    Oh no! The light! I guess I'm off to Hell.
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • "Good news, everyone!" before announcing news to the crew, which is usually not good news at all.
    • "Wah?"
    • Oh my, yes / no.
    • "Quiet, you!"
    • "But I am already in my pajamas" was nearly one but was discarded pretty soon.
    • As was "Holy Zombie Jesus!" and "Sweet Zombie Jesus" (both of which got edited when the show was put in reruns on Cartoon Network, most domestic and international syndicated versions, and TBS, but can be heard on Comedy Central, FOX, and on DVD and Netflix).
    • "Oh yes." (usually said after thinking, saying or doing something salacious)
    • "WERN-STROM!"
  • Characterization Marches On: More defined by his absent-mindedness in the first season, with "senile, amoral crackpot" coming later; Billy West's performance in the first season is more soft-spoken and sometimes even grandfatherly compared to the harsher voice he brings to later seasons.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: On the topic of "coming later", he's no stranger to throwing the crew under the bus when Planet Express is in danger of being acquired, rivalled, or otherwise completely overridden, and just a little bit of leadership from him could have averted the situation. "Future Stock", "A Flight to Remember" and "The Route of All Evil" are the most prominent examples.
    Farnsworth: So long, suckers!
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Thanks to his senility and being a mad scientist. The following is from his speech at the stockholders' meeting at the beginning of "Future Stock":
    Farnsworth: Where am I?
    Hermes: Move forward. Walk into the light.
    Farnsworth: Oh God, I'm dead! Well, no matter. [pulls out cue cards] Thank you all for coming. I don't recognize any of you, nor can I recall why I am here. Now without further ado, a film highlighting Planet Express Inc.'s latest fiscal year.
  • Comedic Sociopath: His complete disregard for the safety and well-being of his crew is frequently played for humor.
  • Confusing Multiple Negatives: In "Roswell That Ends Well", he tells Fry that in the event that he was supposed to do anything that affects anything while in the past, "for the love of God, don't not do it!"
  • Cool Old Guy: He has his moments. Shooting Hitler, for example.
    • He even asserts his "coolness" to Leela in this exchange during "2-D Blacktop":
      Leela: Professor?!? What did you do to the Planet Express ship? And why are you wearing a leather lab coat?
      Farnworth: Because unlike you, I'm cool! I drive fast late at night when I should be sleeping. But you wouldn't understand.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Despite being one of the protagonists. After all, the Planet Express slogan is "Our crew is expendable, your package isn't!" In "Bender's Game" Leela says she's spends most of her time trying to think of how to get revenge on him. The rest of the crew is totally on board with this sentiment.
  • *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Being over 160, he often has joints crack and break. Jumping can break his ankle and cracking his fingers has broken them.
  • Decoy Backstory: In "Proposition Infinity", Professor Farnsworth is a strong advocate against Robosexuality because, in his youth, his human girlfriend Eunice left him for a robot. Then he remembers that her name was not Eunice, but Unit, and she was actually a robot. Farnsworth realizes he too was a robosexual, so he gives up the crusade.
  • Depending on the Writer: In general, his level of morality tends to range from episode to episode. In some episodes, he's completely amoral and a borderline aspirant supervillain, and in other episodes, he's one of the most moral members of the crew, and the first to declare that they should do the right thing. He tends towards the latter as the series goes on.
  • Dirty Old Man: Though he's more insane, forgetful, mean, and lazy than lecherous, as far as old man stereotypes go, every now and then there are instances where he shows pervy tendencies. His first concern on being de-aged to fifty-three is to bemoan that he'll need a fake I.D. to watch "ultraporn". And he fondly remembers a time aliens invaded Earth and forced the most intelligent people to mate continuously (he's pretty upset when it appears the Omicronians aren't going to do it). He also leches over Amy a few times, such as in "Rebirth" when he takes pleasure in spanking her bottom after her rebirth, even though she's already conscious. In addition, the 34th issue of the tie-in comic has him go along with Fry's lie that he is blind so he can get away with staring at a naked clone of Fry's ex-girlfriend Michelle.
  • Ditzy Genius: Probably the greatest scientist in the universe, but incredibly senile.
  • Eccentric Mentor: The very few times he has a good idea, he is a mentor figure to the Planet Express crew who comes off as batshit.
  • Enraged by Idiocy: Usually, it's Fry's, but idiocy in general can set him off.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Usually just called "the Professor".
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Generally a senile, immoral crackpot, but he does genuinely love his clone son Cubert, even treating him like a biological son.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: While it can be hard to tell due to the fact that he constantly contradicts himself, Farnsworth has proven that there are lines he won't cross.
    • He demands they not go after Space Bee honey, considering what happened to his last crew. And the crew before that one... Assuming he wasn't using Reverse Psychology. And given a recording is found of his last crew saying he'd told them they weren't as good as the crew before...
    • He killed Hitler while time traveling. Though considering he had previously been in favor of saving Hitler's brain and implanting it in a Great White Shark, it's unclear if his objection was to Hitler himself or if he had some ulterior motive.
    • The second episode has him momentarily look worried on handing Fry over to Zoidberg for a check-up.
    • He left Mom over her evil plans.
    • While he's a notoriously Bad Boss, he seems to be careful with how/when he actually punishes the crew. Both "The Cryonic Woman" and "Bender's Game" show him being reluctant to fire them for especially big screw-ups (though in the former example, he immediately makes Hermes do it instead), and he'll really only punish them unfairly when he's making a conscious effort to hold off on sabotaging his business later on (i.e. in "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", after Leela quits to join the environmental protestors, he immediately promotes Bender to captain on the basis that a good captain can't have any intuition or heart, snubbing Fry because he has too much heart and is thus even more dangerous).
    • Speaking of sabotage, the Robot Devil's unwillingness to compromise when forcing Fry to make a deal in "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" shocks even him:
      Farnsworth: [singing] I can't believe the Robot Devil is so unforgiving!
    • Leela's uncontrollable outbursts of rage in "Bender's Game" is something he actively tries to hinder, to the point of attaching a shock collar to her neck.
    • In "Love and Rocket", he's as disturbed as everyone else when he learns about the Rasputinian Deaths the Romanticorp-manufactured Lovey Bears are forced to go through. This doesn't stop him from stunning one trying to get away, though given he had previously told the crew to act like they're In Love with Love rather than "bitter husks of human beings" in order to secure a contract from the company, he probably saw it as a greater-good.
  • Eyes Out of Sight: The few times his Opaque Nerd Glasses aren't obscuring his eyes, he is invariably facing away from the audience. According to Mom, they're milky white in color.
  • False Teeth Tomfoolery: There are occasional gags that involve him using dentures, such as "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" having him use nuclear-powered dentures that go berserk after accidentally biting Fry and acquiring a taste for human flesh, or "The Six Million Dollar Mon" having him lose his false teeth in the sink and comedically thanking Hermes after he fishes the dentures out with his new robotic arm and puts them into Farnsworth's mouth sideways.
  • Fantastic Racism: He's speciesist against Cygnoids, for no clear reason; and has at least one Martian's skull as a mug, dismissing their complaints about the disrespect as "whining". In "Fry and the Slurm Factory", he refers to the Grunka Lunkas as "horrible orange creatures" and requests that Glurmo inform the Grunka Lunkas that he hates them.
  • Foil: As Fry's closest relative, he's almost the complete opposite of him in personality; the senile, amoral mad scientist to Fry's youthful kindhearted idiocy. Occasionally their differences as family members are brought up.
  • Freudian Excuse: Not to his insanity, but to his hate for his parents, which stems from the fact that they tried their hardest to deprive him of science as a child by moving to a farm. This is explained towards the end of the episode because he suffered from violent night terrors and his parents did everything they could to soothe his anguish, which included trying to under-stimulate him by moving away from the city and limiting how much research he could do.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: He is a brilliant inventor. Usually, at any rate. While the Planet Express Ship is astoundingly fast and durable, he's also commented that it's been known to fall apart just sitting around.
  • Good Is Not Nice: He's technically helped save Earth several times over, even if in weird or nonsensical ways that sometimes don't exactly seem heroic or very saved. He'll also be willing to send you to die for the most petty of reasons (if not from outright boredom), was Ambiguously Evil as a genuine Mad Scientist for much of the series until evening out later on, is ready to personally commit murder if someone genuinely pisses him off, and stopped accelerating through the cyclic loop of time to assassinate Hitler.
  • Grumpy Old Man: Completely willing on his part. "I don't have time for this! I have to go and buy a single piece of fruit with a coupon, and then return it, making everyone in line wait behind me while I complain!"
  • Hollywood Satanism: It's heavily implied that he's a Satanist in "Calculon 2.0", plus Satan is one of the deities he pleads for help in "The Farnsworth Parabox", and has invoked "Satan's glorious name".
  • Horrible Judge of Character: In one instance, he honestly seemed to believe Bender was "gentle".
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Several episodes have suggested the Professor will, given half a chance, eat people, starting as early as the third episode, wherein he buys the corpse of a Zuban pharaoh for the purpose of eating it. "War is the H-Word" has him get pretty giddy at the thought of eating someone's heart ("to gain their courage! Their rich, tasty courage...")
  • Identical Grandson: Or Great-Nephew. He looked an awful lot like a nerdier version of Fry in his youth, despite being an extremely distant nephew/grandson.
  • Ignored Epiphany: A Season 2 episode establishes he left Mom for realizing she was evil. "Bender's Game" has him mention they hooked up again twice thereafter, the second time ending when he again realized she was evil (the third time she dumped him).
  • Immediate Self-Contradiction: A Running Gag with Farnsworth has him state one thing, only to contradict it not one sentence later. It's mostly done as a side-effect of his senility than out of any actual hypocrisy.
    Farnsworth: Collecting honey. Ordinary Honey.
    Leela: That doesn't sound so dangerous.
    Farnsworth This is no ordinary honey!
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He appears to share some level of friendship with the other members of Planet Express. He also cares about his clone, Cubert, treating him as though he were his biological son.
  • Jerkass: He agrees when Fry describes him as a "senile, amoral crackpot". He gleefully sends the crew to very dangerous missions (many of his previous employees died because of this). "The Sting" shows he's sent multiple crews on the same mission and each time they died, and also implies the Professor goads said crews into going by comparing them unfavorably to his previous crew. He condescends to his son, and sabotages his efforts when Cubert tries to start a newspaper business ("Who's going to use a company with a kicked sign? Nobody, that's who!")
  • Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Appropriately for a scientist, he always wears a white labcoat, exceptions include only the beach and skiing. He wears the labcoat even to the baseball game.
    • He wears a black leather labcoat in "2-D Blacktop" because he's cool.
  • Legally Dead: It's at first assumed he did this for tax evasion, but he actually took a nap in a ditch at a park and was declared a lot of things because of that.
  • The Load: It's pretty heavily implied in-universe that he's one for Planet Express. In "Future Stock", the company's stock skyrockets after he's ousted, only to plummet down to less than worthless once he's reinstalled, and in "The Late Phillip J. Fry" Leela manages to turn the company into a thriving business with him gone.
  • Long-Lost Relative: As revealed in Near-Death Wish, Hubert has a younger brother named Floyd, who his parents raised so he would not end up like Hubert and end up in a mental institution for a good chunk of his life. He's never actually seen, but Bender recalls meeting a "homeless rodeo clown" named Floyd.
  • Losing Your Head: The video game has Mom decapitate his head and put it in a jar to use his brains to aid her plot against his will.
  • Lost Food Grievance: In "I, Roommate", he gets infuriated upon discovering that Fry ate an alien mummy he had lying around after mistaking it for jerky...because he wanted to eat it.
  • Made of Iron: For a man physically over one-hundred and sixty, he's amazingly durable... when the plot demands it. An exploding super-collider does no more than annoy him, for example, and the entire upper floor of Planet Express exploding doesn't do more than scratch him up a bit. However, on other occasions, his limbs can break at the slightest provocation. Or no provocation at all.
  • Mad Scientist: So mad he was sent to a mental institution for twenty-five years when he was young.
  • Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: The first time he called it off with Mom, an event that broke both their hearts and still upset them decades on, it was because she wanted to make a soft toy he'd made fifteen feet tall. He didn't say a word about weaponizing the things.
    Farnsworth: Things that are fifteen feet tall aren't cute!
  • Meaningful Name: Philo Farnsworth was responsible for inventing fully-electronic television systemsnote .
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Senile to the point of insanity, but mostly harmless. Has a penchant for creating doomsday devices, only keeps Amy around because she's his blood type, tries to harvest Leela's organs, is implied to be a cannibal, implanted Hitler's brain in the body of a shark, killed people for their stem cells, has been frequently cited for public nudity, and frequently, knowingly sends his crew on life-threatening adventures without warning, to the point of hiring replacements even before their demises are confirmed. In his youth, he created the modern robot, an ecological disaster.
    • He has several doomsday weapons simply lying about his lab, to the point of tossing the more dangerously unstable ones in the garbage:
      Farnsworth: I suppose I could part with one and still be feared.
  • Naked Nutter: Senile and often walks around naked, shirtless, wearing only his lab coat, or other variations.
  • Naked People Are Funny: When it's not being hideously disturbing, at least, the Professor has a fondness for going nude at the drop of a hat.
    Doctor: [as the Professor gets ready to enter searing hot tar] Sir, it's not necessary, or wise, to be naked.
    Farnsworth: Pfft. You sound just like my tennis instructor.
  • Named After Somebody Famous: After inventor Philo Farnsworth, a pioneer of television who created the first fully electronic television system. In a later episode, the Professor claims that he's a distant relative.
  • Oh, My Gods!: "Buddha! Zeus! God! One of you guys do something! Help! Satan! You owe me!"
  • Older Than They Look: A Season 2 episode has him reveal that rather than being 150 as he claimed, he's over 160 (which was illegal). Given the progression of time in the series, by the Comedy Central revival, he's over 170 at the least. Not helping is the end of "Teenaged Mutant Leela's Hurdles", after a dip in the Fountain of Aging pushes him past his original biological age.
  • Omnidisciplinary Scientist: He's skilled in robotics, chemistry, engineering and genetic engineering, at the very least.
    Hermes: Professor, can you wire my brain directly into the main Battle Net?
    Farnsworth: I can wire anything into anything! I'm the Professor!
  • Only in It for the Money: When asked what field he hopes to win a Nobel Prize in, he responds "I don't care. They all pay the same". He doesn't bother to develop cleaner fuels because he's too busy developing makeup for dogs - "that's where the money is".
  • Opaque Nerd Glasses: A pair of Nerd Glasses, and indeed his eyes are never seen in the series. Subverted in one episode where he needed his "reading glasses" — and put on a pair several times thicker than his already fairly enormous glasses (to the point that they looked like glass cylinders). At least somewhat of a Justified Trope: Professor Farnsworth is 160 years old. Anyone's vision would become pretty bad by that age.
  • Pajama-Clad Hero: "Hero" may be a bit generous given how evil he can be, but he's one of the main protagonists of the show and is almost always dressed in his pajamas and slippers.
  • Parental Substitute: Implied to be this to Leela. The first two times she almost got married, he was the one to give her away.note 
  • The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: By his own admission. He's a professor at Mars University, teaching a course on "The Mathematics of Quantum Neutrino Fields", which he just made up on the basis no student would take the course. When Fry does take the course, he's outraged.
    Farnsworth: I don't know how to teach! I'm a professor!
  • The Professor: He's an intelligent, albeit senile and sometimes evil, scientist who often kicks off the plot of many episodes, either by sending the crew on a mission or by revealing his latest invention. He's also one in the literal sense as he's a teacher at Mars University.
  • Racist Grandma: He's an old man who is sometimes shown to be a bigot, particularly towards alien races. Best demonstrated by this exchange from "Fry and the Slurm Factory".
    Farnsworth: Who are those horrible orange creatures over there?
    Glurmo: Why, those are the Grunka Lunkas. They work here in the Slurm factory.
    Farnsworth: Tell them I hate them!
  • Really 700 Years Old: On the surface, Farnsworth appears 80 or 90 years old but is actually in his 170's. Understandable, considering that this is the distant future.
  • Retired Badass: Although weak and scrawny now, it was shown in "Tip of The Zoidberg" when he was younger Hubert was pretty badass, as he almost singlehandedly killed a giant space yeti.
  • Robot Master: He created the robot that all modern robots are based on.
  • Scatterbrained Senior: He is very senile and sometimes forgets things that had happened only moments earlier.
    Leela: Remember, Professor, Bender is Santa. So we don't want to hurt him, right?
    Farnsworth: Yes, yes, yes, you sound like a broken mp3!
    Bender: Ho, ho- [Farnsworth fires at him] Ow!
    Leela: Professor! Don't you remember what I told you?
    Farnsworth: No!
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: He even has a "crotchety grandpa discount card" (which expired, despite being good for a lifetime), and once uttered the line "I don't have time for this! I have to go buy a single piece of fruit with a coupon and then return it, making everyone wait behind me while I complain!" In fact, when he receives an award in Crimes of the Hot, for solving a problem he'd helped cause, he is absolutely nonchalant and entitled about it.
    Farnsworth: Thank you. I deserve this.
  • Senior Sleep-Cycle: He once fell asleep while skiing and woke up at the lodge with a bronze medal around his neck.
  • Shameless Fanservice Guy: It is said that nudity is acceptable in the future, but the Professor seems to embrace his nakedness far more than other characters, to the audience's horror.
  • Sitcom Archnemesis: Ogden Wernstrom WEEEEEEERRRRRRNSTRRROOOM!!
  • The Spock: He has absolutely no problem sending his crew on missions to almost certain death. Unlike other examples though, this is simply due to his being insane and evil.
  • Straw Misogynist: He has an infrequent habit of making incredibly sexist remarks, usually directed at Leela. For example, dismissing her demand to fly the ship when looking for his escaped gargoyle Pazuzu, because he wasn't "trying to find the quickest route to the mall".Ironically, he once worked for Mom, a female Corrupt Corporate Executive.
  • They Called Me Mad!: By his own admission.
    Farnsworth: Even I laughed at me when I invented this cross-species analyzer! But I guess I showed myself!
    Farnsworth: They say madness runs in our family. Some even call me mad...and why? Because I dared to dream of my own race of atomic monsters. Atomic Supermen with octagonal-shaped bodies that suck blood out of [wanders away still ranting]
  • Token Evil Teammate: Given his near-total lack of regard for human life and number of Doomsday devices, one could make a case for Farnsworth being this.
    Leela: Has anybody seen Fry?
    Bender: [shaking his head] I didn't kill him. Professor?
    Professor: [absent-mindedly] No. I've been busy.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: From the Comedy Central revival onward, the Professor's insanity was toned down from being Ambiguously Evil to merely Good Is Not Nice.
  • Truly Single Parent: He cloned himself a son from a growth on his back. Instead of having a birthday, his clone ends up celebrating his growth-scraping day.
  • Vocal Evolution: Billy West's performance in the first season is much softer and quieter, before settling into a much harsher tone for the rest of the series.
  • What Beautiful Eyes!: According to Mom, although the audience never actually sees what they look like under his glasses. Apparently they're "milky white".

    John A. Zoidberg, M.D. 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/futurama_transparent_crab_2.png
"You lost the woman of your dreams, but you still have Zoidberg. YOU ALL STILL HAVE ZOIDBERG!"
Voiced by: Billy West Other Languages
Debut: "The Series Has Landed"
"Hooray! People are paying attention to me."

A lobster-like alien who serves as the doctor at Planet Express, and lives in Professor Farnsworth's walrus tank (and sometimes in a dumpster out back). He's not very good at his job, and has secret ambitions to be a comedian. Unfortunately, he's not very good at comedy either. In fact, he's not very good at anything except annoying the fellow crew members. Coasts by on freeloading off others, being pitied for his naivete and occasionally being the hero.


  • Aliens Love Human Food: Dr. Zoidberg and his species (the Decapodians) became infatuated with Earth food upon arriving on the planet, especially anchovies, which eventually leads to the extinction of said species after the Decapodians eat them out of existence. Zoidberg himself appears to have an addiction to the fish and upon trying a few he displays the telltale behavior of a drug addict going into withdrawal.
  • Ambiguously Bi: He didn't seem to mind when he thought President Truman was coming onto him in "Roswell That Ends Well". Later in "Beast With A Billion Backs" he seems rather...interested when describing men thrusting their sweaty naked bodies against slices of delicious cake. On the other hand, he seems a bit disturbed by Barbados Slim's attraction to him (although that episode is Non-Canon) and "Stench and Stenchibility" shows he has an attraction to females. invokedOf course, Zoidberg does have difficulty telling the difference between male and female humans.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: He fulfills many, many Jewish stereotypes but is never exactly confirmed as being Jewish himself.
  • Amusing Alien: A lobster-esque alien who is very goofy, pathetic and most of what he does is played for laughs.
  • Ascended Extra: Unlike Bender, who was fully expected to be the popular one, Zoidberg's popularity crept up on the show with lobster-like tenacity.
  • Attention Whore: The desperate Butt-Monkey version of this.
    Zoidberg: Hooray! People are paying attention to me!
  • Back-Alley Doctor: His medical credentials are questionable at best, and he regularly shows gross ignorance about human biology. His connections with the Professor are the only reason he has a position as the staff doctor, and the crew suffers for it regularly.
  • Berserk Button: Zoidberg does the cutting, and you better not forget it!
    • Also, don't cross him. Zoidberg is relentlessly loyal, but betray him and he'll cut you.
      Zoidberg: You're lucky to have Zoidberg as a friend. But cross me, and I'll turn on you like that!
  • Beware the Silly Ones: He rivals Fry in this department. When angered, Zoidberg shows how dangerous a starving lobster monster can be when his claws can cut through metal or bone with no effort.
  • Big Eater: Whenever he's not rummaging through garbage cans. He destroys an entire buffet table in "Roswell That Ends Well"
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: He has ink glands, an "empathy bladder", two tongues (one of which is a secondary mouth not unlike a xenomorph's), prehensile mouth flaps, a mating crest that also pops up when he's sufficiently angry, and several sets of redundant organs, including three hearts (originally four, but one was removed), two stomachs (one for freshwater and one for saltwater), and a tiny secondary brain in his rump that dictates his behavior during mating season. He grows barnacles like humans get acne, and his armpits can extrude wormlike tentacles for no obvious reason. He can put on and take off his shell at will, but also has to molt occasionally, and he went through close to a dozen stages of growth in the episode "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", including a stage where he somehow turned into a hunk of coral. Finally, he has a gland that releases a foul stench when he's bored or in heat, he coughs up blue pearls when he eats too much dirt, and he can grow hair that instantly turns white when under extreme duress.
  • Breakout Character: Although the least relevant of the Planet Express crew and receiving little if any development in the original run, Zoidberg ended up rivaling Bender, the intended target of this trope, as one of the more liked characters of the series. As a result, he's had several plot important roles in several episodes of the Comedy Central era.
  • Butt-Monkey: The most common recipient of the trope. In "Bender Gets Made", Leela crashes the Planet Express ship through the roof. Hermes turns to Zoidberg and promptly docks his pay.
  • Career Not Taken: On several occasions, Zoidberg has expressed a desire to be a vaudeville performer and comedian instead of a doctor. In fact, his doctorate is in art history. Flashbacks show he was pressured into being a doctor by his family, though they also guilt-tripped him for "giving up on his dream" when he did become a doctor. He does occasionally get involved in the arts, but it usually doesn't work out for him (though neither does being a doctor).
  • Character Catchphrase:
  • The Chew Toy: "Don't forget, you still have Zoidberg! YOU ALL STILL HAVE ZOIDBERG!"
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Zoidberg is neck and neck in the running with Fry when it comes to this trope. Which makes sense, what with him being the token alien and Fry having a unique form of brain damage.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Nearly nothing goes right for him, including somehow being on the wrong side of the laws of physics, which sets his tangled slinky on fire and burning down his underwater house.
  • Crippling Overspecialization:
    • When it comes to medicine and surgery, Zoidberg is actually brilliant... as long as he's operating on aliens or dealing with alien diseases. Unfortunately, since he's on Earth and surrounded by humans, all that knowledge is nearly useless and thus he often does more harm than good.
    • In "The Duh-Vinci Code", he gets to use his doctorate for once. However, that doctorate is in art history...
    • It's implied he suffered some brain damage when he was younger from a Tritonian Yeti nearly biting through his skull; prior to that, his comments were completely rational, and afterwards he forgets what he said and is less coherent.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
    • When he's sufficiently angered, he is capable of kicking serious ass. Isn't that right, Clamps?
    • The first season alone gives Zoidberg a few moments of awesome, managing to plug a hole in a door, keeping the gang safe from the angry Trisolians, or managing to hold a heavy bulkhead door open with one claw.
  • Cthulhumanoid: Though his mouth parts are smaller than those of most Cthulhumanoids in fiction.
  • Cumbersome Claws: Zoidberg has a tendency to be rather clumsy at times with his claws. A notable example in "The 30% Iron Chef" where he accidentally snaps the Professor's bottled ship in two and fails to fix it due to his claws exerting so much force.
    Professor: [after swatting Zoidberg away from the bottle] For the last time, Zoidberg! Look with your eyes, not your claws!
  • Desperately Craves Affection: No one really cares about him and is always desperate for friendship and attention.
  • Expy: While Fry and Bender take after Homer's laziness and love of beer, Zoidberg inherits Homer's traits of being incompetent, bald, overweight and a Big Eater.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Eats just about anything that will fit in his mouth, including a very moldy sandwich and golf balls (which he thinks are "gritty, tasteless eggs"). According to a DVD extra that answered questions from the viewers to the creators, there are only three things he won't eat, brown crayons, compact florescent bulbs and tofu.
  • First-Name Basis: Nowadays everyone calls him by his last name, but he was quite popular with the first Planet Express crew who called him by his first name. In a Friendship Moment at the end of "The Tip of the Zoidberg", the Professor calls him "Johnny". This also happens when Carol is talking to Johnny and vice-versa.
  • Fish People: As a Decapodian, he's an aquatic alien who resembles various sea animals of Earth (most obviously crustaceans and cephalopods).
  • Flanderization: His original schtick was that he was a genuinely competent alien doctor that simply knew nothing about human anatomy. The later episodes have him as a poor, disgusting, incompetent mooch who serves as the show's walking punchline. The writers do attempt to rectify this in The Tip of the Zoidberg, showing he's an expert in pretty much all forms of xenobiology ... except humans.
  • Formerly Fit: According to the flashbacks in "The Tip of the Zoidberg" he used to be quite slim.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: He works for Planet Express but all of his co-workers hate him, though he's mostly oblivious to it. Fry and Professor Farnsworth are usually the only ones to refer to Zoidberg as a friend. He says that the only reason his co-workers keep him around is because he can cut things.
  • Funny Foreigner: His species are a common immigrant group on Earth with obvious Ashkenazi resonances.
  • Genius Ditz: Despite being an incompetent doctor who knows absolutely nothing about human anatomy, we later find out that he IS a doctor — of Art History. What's more impressive is that there were a couple of occasions where Zoidberg actually performed operations successfully. Impressive, considering he doesn't actually have any medical training. He may not know anything about human anatomy, but he is a terrific alien doctor.
  • Gonk: You'd never know from the art style, but everyone treats Zoidberg as unbearably hideous, and not just because he's a humanoid lobster-creature. Apparently even by Decapodian standards he's not great to look at.
  • Hidden Depths: While it was mostly because the episode involved multiple accounts of Throw the Dog a Bone in regards to him, he's one of the extremely few beings on Earth that is on Robot Santa's Nice List (if not the only one).
  • Honor Before Reason: As shown in the episode "The Tip of the Zoidberg", Zoidberg was a promising exobiologist working for Mom and could have lived a life of comfort had he stayed on her payroll. Instead, in return for the Professor saving his life from a yeti, Zoidberg decided to stay with him and euthanize him in the event he contracts Hyper Malaria (or cure him if he turns into a Yeti), making him the poverty-stricken human physician he is today.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends:
    • He cares more about friends than money or fame, as seen in "The Tip of the Zoidberg", where he remains with the Professor, his friend, instead of staying working for Mom, which could have made him rich. His decision to remain with Farnsworth costs him a life of wealth. He doesn't seem to care (or at least, he doesn't realize his decision threw him into poverty), although he does cry from time to time over being poor.
    • One episode has him spell this out explicitly. After having a bag of mob money dropped in his dumpster, he takes off to Mars Vegas (where the rest of the Planet Express crew are vacationing), sits down at the roulette table and bets his entire pot... and wins... then bets everything again and wins again (coming out to over $10,000,000,000; he started with $8,000,000) in an astonishing swing of good luck. He buys drinks for everyone, they all cheer, he sets up another spin... and loses it all in one shot. Amy admonishes his behavior, to which he responds that he's okay with it and was satisfied to make everyone around him happy, if even for a brief moment. Then he calmly stands up and walks out of the casino with dignity.
    • "300 Big Boys" demonstrates this too. Zoidberg wants to spend his 300 dollar tax refund on rich guy stuff, but nothing rich people like seems to actually appeal to him. In the end, he uses it to buy a hot dog feast for a bunch of homeless people.
  • In Touch with His Feminine Side: He's the most sensitive member of the Planet Express crew as he is very emotional. He also enjoys knitting and painting and owned a make-up kit in one episode. Apparently his greatest fantasy is to be a grandmother.
  • Innocent Aliens: He thinks most doctors are poor.
  • Jerkass Ball: He comes off as pretty friendly and nice for the most part but he feeds off nasty things (in fact, in the video game, it is implied that he has eaten humans) and has taken deplorable actions: framing Fry for breaking the Professor's bottle, or severing Fry's right arm in a fight over a female of his species. Subverted, when he immediately felt guilty and tried to kill himself over the former, and apologized and made up for the latter.
  • Kick the Dog: When he severs Fry's right arm in a fight over a female of his species. To be fair, though, he wasn't in his right mind at the time. After several failed attempts, he did fix the arm.
  • Last-Name Basis: Doctor John A. Zoidberg, known simply as Zoidberg. In the early seasons his first name John is almost never mentioned, but in the Comedy Central episodes he's referred to as John Zoidberg much more frequently.
  • Lethally Stupid: It's implied that he's killed many of his patients due to incompetence.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Kicks Clamps' ass in Silence of the Clamps after he threatens his job at Planet Express and is about to clamp Bender or who they thought was Bender. And as previously mentioned, saving the Professor's life in "The Tip of the Zoidberg".
  • Mad Libs Catchphrase: Sometimes, particularly in his later appearances, when involved in something everyone else is (even life-threatening scenarios), he will exclaim "Hooray! I'm [X] with friends!"
  • The Millstone: To the Planet Express crew. He is the company's doctor, but a terrible Lethally Stupid doctor with no clue about how human anatomy works.
  • Money Dumb: A Running Gag is that Dr. Zoidberg's Perpetual Poverty at least partly stems from him being terrible with money. For example, impulsively buying several records he sees on an infomercial (and doing the same with a late edition newspaper from a street vendor later in the same episode). Despite the fact they're records by Fry, and he could have presumably got them for free by asking.
  • Morality Pet:
    • To Mom, of all people. Zoidberg is the only person she treats with genuine respect, heck they even address each other by first names and she has offered to give him his own fully staffed laboratory.
    • He's also this to Robot Santa who tries to kill everyone for being naughty, except Zoidberg, who has been very good and gets a pogo stick. Seems that Zoidberg's lot in life is to be treated as a Butt-Monkey by everyone except those who already treat everyone else as a Butt-Monkey.
  • Multiple-Choice Past: The reason for his lack of medical knowledge changes depending on the joke and the episode. Sometimes it's brain damage, sometimes he's an expert on alien anatomy and unfamiliar with human anatomy, sometimes he's Not That Kind of Doctor and his doctorate is Art History, sometimes he's had no medical training whatsoever and his only knowledge is whatever he remembers from posters in the doctor's office and medication ads.
  • Mundane Luxury: Given the way he lives, the simplest of things can easily be the most amazing of triumphs.
    Zoidberg: What's this? Two meals in one week?
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: Trope Namer, which somehow helps him in at least one case (Robot Santa seems to consider him morally upright, despite participating in several of the gang's antics that he doesn't overlook for anyone else).
  • Nice Guy: Despite his odd habits and lack of knowledge about human anatomy, Zoidberg is one of the more morally positive characters on the show. It's been shown he's willing to sacrifice his own happiness on multiple occasions to help others. He gives up a potentially luxurious life for Farnsworth, a loving relationship with a woman in order to give her a sense of smell (although in that case, it actually works out because she finds his repugnant odor to be attractive), and a literal fortune in order to show people a good time. Not only that but he'll risk life and limb for his friends, such as backstabbing a murderous robot Santa Claus and saving Professor Farnsworth from a yeti. Not only that but Zoidberg is perhaps the only person on Earth who meets said Robot Santa's impossibly high standards for good behavior (EVEN AFTER BETRAYING HIM, although it could be argued that Santa saw it as him being loyal.)
  • Not That Kind of Doctor: In The Duh-Vinci Code, it turns out that Zoidberg's doctorate is in art history... Though it was later established he's one of the best doctors around when it comes to alien anatomy.
  • Oblivious to Hatred: Sometimes he's oblivious about his The Friend Nobody Likes status, and thinks all his co-workers are his close friends. In "The Six Million Dollar Mon" he's genuinely shocked when Hermes tells him he's not his friend, even if Hermes openly hates Zoidberg more than anyone and is always verbal about it.
  • Older Than They Look: Though it would be hard to guess how old he looks (He is a crab like alien after all) he's known the professor since 2927, putting him somewhere past his late 80s.
  • Other Me Annoys Me: As seen in "The Farnsworth Parabox", even Zoidberg looks down on Zoidberg.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: "The Cryonic Woman" shows that part of Zoidberg's lack of popularity at Planet Express is because of the presence of the much cooler Fry, Bender and Leela. When they're fired, he immediately becomes more popular.
  • Perpetual Poverty: Always poor, hungry, and lonely. Something of a Characterization Marches On, as he was none of these things in the first season.
  • The Pig-Pen: What with living in dumpsters and everything. And as further proof even Zoidberg can't catch a break, Decapodians consider foul stenches attractive, and he can't even manage that.
  • Poverty for Comedy: Being a bad doctor and an even less wanted friend, he lives in a dumpster and subsists on garbage and whatever else he can find.
  • Quack Doctor: Zigzagged for Dr. Zoidberg. He claims to be an expert on humans but is clearly not. However, he is not conning; he truly thinks he knows about human anatomy, but he doesn't. As for whether or not he's a real doctor, that varies. In one episode, he claims he lost his medical degree in a volcano but might have been lying. In another, it's revealed that he's Not That Kind of Doctor but another episode suggests that he's good at doctoring various species, just not humans.
  • Really 700 Years Old: His multiple life-stages suggest he could be near/in the Professor's age group, if not somewhat older.
  • Red Live Lobster: Dr Zoidberg is a humanoid lobster alien. He and his species are red in colour.
  • Second Episode Introduction: Introduced in the second episode, along with the other supporting Planet Express members (Hermes and Amy).
  • Secret-Keeper: The real reason he stays around Planet Express is to keep watch on Professor Farnsworth, and euthanize him when he finally shows symptoms of Hyper Malaria.
  • Shout-Out: His name is a reference to a rejected Apple II game that David X. Cohen developed in high school called Zoid. (Supposedly, it was a lot like Qix).
  • Smart Ball: "The Six Million Dollar Mon" has him manage to reason out that if he holds on to all of Hermes' body parts that he throws away as he gets them replaced with robotic ones, he can put Hermes back together again. This ends up succeeding mostly without a hitch (though Hermes has noted on-screen that Zoidberg has yet to attach his nerve endings) in spite of how Zoidberg is supposed to be entirely unaware of human anatomy.
  • Space Jews: Played for laughs. Oy vey! This is also why his species are crustaceans — they're not kosher.
  • Straw Loser: He actually makes Fry look cool in comparison. While Fry is also considered a loser, at least he doesn't live in a dumpster or eat garbage, has plenty of women over the show's run (including Leela, Amy, his own grandmother, a radiator...), and despite being often the butt of the other's jokes, is actually liked by most people.
  • Territorial Comic Relief: In "War is the H-Word", Dr. Zoidberg is recruited as a medic for the soldiers on Spheron-1. He tries to be a glib, funny doctor, only to be constantly upstaged by iHawk, a more capable and charismatic doctor:
    Nurse: Are you ready to operate, doctor?
    iHawk: I'd love to, but first I have to perform surgery.
    Zoidberg: That's my joke! I'll Kill You!
  • Third-Person Person: Occasionally, Zoidberg has the tendency to refer to himself in the third person, usually when gloating about something idiotic.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone:
    • He's the only one Robot Santa genuinely cares about, to the point where he gets a pogo stick for not being on the naughty list.
    • In "Spanish Fry", Leela actually offers him a chance to tag along on the episode's adventure. Zoidberg casually declines.
    • In the second-to-last episode of Season 7, Zoidberg gets a love interest who isn't seen off by Status Quo Is God at the end of the episode.
    • Back in the day, the crew that worked for the Professor (under the leadership of Captain Tucker) loved Zoidberg .
  • Token Good Teammate: In "Xmas Story" he was specifically the only member of the Planet Express crew (and apparently on Earth) who is not on Santa's naughty/target list.
  • Token Non-Human: He's the only crew member to be fully alien, which creates conflict when he has to serve as a doctor to his human/humanoid co-workers while knowing nothing about human anatomy.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Zoidberg seems to have become more competent after the show moved to Comedy Central.
  • Tragic Dream: Wanted to become a comedian, but his own mother and even his uncle who is a famous comedy actor tells him he's terrible at it.
  • Undying Loyalty: Has become an important trait in the Comedy Central seasons. In "The Tip of the Zoidberg", we see that the Professor was the first friend he ever had, and he swore never to leave his side partly to help euthanize the Professor when his Hyper-Malaria flares up. In "The Six Million Dollar Mon", he holds onto Hermes' discarded body parts and restores him to normal when he starts losing his humanity, all because he thinks Hermes is a good friend (when in reality Hermes can't stand him).
    "Zoidberg never abandons a friend, apparently!"
  • Ultimate Job Security: His friendship with Farnsworth ensures continued employment despite how utterly incompetent he is.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Despite the others's treatment of him, he likes to see everyone as his best friend (thinking he and Hermes are close friends, calling Fry his "dearest friend"note , calling Bender his "best friend", etc.) How much this is reciprocated depends on the episode; Bender and Hermes just flat-out hate Zoidberg and the others are not too fond of him but they can tolerate him at times or even treat him like a friend (like the Professor in "The Tip of the Zoidberg"). In the episode "Silence of the Clamps" he states that the only reason the crew keeps him around is because he can cut things.

    Hermes Conrad 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/futuramahermes.png
"Sweet three-toed sloth of Ice Planet Hoth!"
Voiced by: Phil LaMarr Other Languages
Debut: "The Series Has Landed"
"When push comes to shove, you've got to do what you love, even if it's not a good idea."

A Jamaican bureaucrat who helps Farnsworth run Planet Express. Enjoys bureaucracy, unnecessary forms, and limbo.


  • Acrofatic: Despite his big build, he's incredibly agile and is able to do some incredible limboing, even in retirement.
  • Always Someone Better: Barbados Slim, his former professional limbo rival, and La Barbara's ex-husband.
    Hermes: [depressed] Everybody loves Slim! He is the only person to have won Olympic medals in both Limboing and Sex!
  • Anything but That!: As a dedicated bureaucrat, paid vacation is "the ultimate penalty" to him.
  • Ascended Extra: In the first season, Hermes was more of a Satellite Character. Later seasons rectified this.
  • Badass Bureaucrat:
    • In one episode he convinces a forced labor camp to let him go by organizing them so efficiently all the work can be done by one Australian man. Then he organizes a massive pile of tube cylinders. invokedTo a beat.
    • In Bender's Big Score, after plugging his brain into the fleet battle-computer, Hermes uses Awesomeness by Analysis to utterly annihilate the Scammers defenses in a matter of minutes.
  • Butt-Monkey: He's the character most likely to receive the short-end of the stick when Zoidberg isn't available.
  • Character Catchphrase:
    • "My Manwich!" Usually provoked by Bender's antics. And his son's inherited it.
    • "Sweet (animal) of (location)!" Lampshaded one on occasion, where Hermes was too traumatized to bother filling in the blanks.
      Hermes: Sweet something of... someplace.
    • He often makes similes involving green snakes and sugar cane.
      Hermes: I'm feeling lower than a green snake under a sugar cane truck.
  • The Comically Serious: A self-described "obsessive-compulsive, anal and snotty" bureaucrat who takes boring tasks very seriously, to the point where it makes him weirdly amusing and dorky.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: In "The Six Million Dollar Mon", Hermes becomes addicted to upgrading himself with robotic parts. This culminates in him becoming 'Mecha Hermes,' a hulking, emotionless, Do-Anything Robot that houses his brain.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He was always this, even in his debut episode.
    Leela: [reading the surprisingly comprehensive waiver attached to her new job application] Look, I don't know about your previous captains, but I intend to do as little dying as possible.
    Hermes: [laughs, then turns deadly serious] Sign de paper.
  • Dreadlock Rasta: A bizarre subversion. Despite being Jamaican, a Rastafarian and fond of marijuana, Hermes is an Obstructive Bureaucrat and often attempts to run Planet Express with dictatorial efficiency.
  • Everyone Has Standards: In "Silence of the Clamps" he shows a worried look when Bender decides to cut a pizza, something that Zoidberg takes offense to. For all his hate and cruelty towards Zoidberg, he knows better than to do the one thing guaranteed to piss him off.
  • Fantastic Racism: It's strongly implied that Hermes' biased hatred against Zoidberg may at least partially be due to the latter being a Decapoidian; Hermes has even called him a "filthy crab".
  • Formerly Fit: Hermes used to be fit enough for the Olympics, until a fan fatally attempted to emulate him. That and the munchies (though he's still great at limboing).
  • Full-Conversion Cyborg: In "The Six Million Dollar Mon", he replaces pieces of his body with cybernetics until he's reduced to an organic brain (and dreadlocks) in a hulking mecha-Hermes. Then he decides to replace his brain with a robot CPU as well...
  • The Generic Guy: He is a dedicated, anal-retentive worker who loves his job, but the lack of focus on his character can cause him to come off as this, with his most pronounced personality trait in earlier seasons being his hatred of Zoidberg. Later episodes give him more Character Development.
  • Happily Married: To the beautiful La Barbara. She always goes over to her ex-husband Barbados Slim however if Hermes is not available for whatever reason (like having his head chopped off).
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: Who knew limbo skills had so many uses? It's also frequently implied that his superhuman skills as a bureaucrat are one of the only reasons why Planet Express hasn't gone under.
  • Henpecked Husband: La Barbara also scolds Dwight, their son, often.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: He has very much gotten out of shape since his limboing days (apparently due to "the munchies"), although he's still a champion limbo master.
  • Informed Attribute: Despite the running jokes about him being The Stoner, he's never shown actually smoking or clearly high onscreen. Dwight does find a blunt of his once, and he is shown buying some CBD oil in "The Impossible Stream," so it can be assumed he only uses the stuff at home since he's a workaholic.
  • Irrational Hatred: Before Zoidberg was characterized as a disgusting bum, Hermes already disliked him, starting as early as the third episode, when he spat out some food he'd just been enjoying when Zoidberg said he'd made them (to be fair, it was crab and Zoidberg is a crab). It grew in "Hell is Other Robots", when he begins blaming Zoidberg for the rising electricity bills, and removes several items Zoidberg enjoys and uses from the office.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
    • He approved Bender (then an infant) on the production line even though he was defective and should have, according to regulation, been immediately destroyed. Years later, he assists Bender as he struggles with accepting his newly discovered mortality.
    • He also wasn't angry with Leela for messing up when she was filling in for him, and easily helped get everything back on track.
    • When Fry reads his mind in "Into the Wild Green Yonder", it is revealed that Hermes secretly thinks that Zoidberg is "pathetic but lovable".
  • Jerkass: Bordering on Ambiguously Evil.
    • He really hates Zoidberg (even more than everyone else), and often blames him regardless of whether or not he's actually done anything wrong.
    • Should the Professor decide he's not cold-hearted enough to fire the entire crew, Hermes will do it for him, instantly. And when presented with the opportunity to kill his coworkers, he actually had to think about it.
    • He hands Leela a gun and tells her to shoot the others. When she reaffirms that she's only going to use it for defense, he just shrugs it off.
    • Apparently, he needs a license to kill. For what remains unclear, but he will be using piano wire.
    • After Fry and Bender enlist in the Army, Hermes fires them immediately. Although, he does feel bad about it. To be clear, by American law, this is also highly illegal. If one goes off to serve their country, their companies need to guarantee that they will have a job when they return (though you can still be fired for other generic reasons like being a bad employee).
    • In another episode, when Bender is crippled by a can-opener, Hermes joyfully tells him it's Hermes' dream come true.
    • He is very interested to learn that the Grunka Lunkas are a lot cheaper than his own employees and that they're basically slaves.
  • Jerkass to One: Hermes can be a jerk a lot of the time, but it's framed as a "strictly business" affair for him; it's either a request, something that makes his life easier, or something that makes money. Zoidberg, though, seems to be the only person he actively goes out of his way to antagonize and will insult even without any kind of motive.
  • Lampshade Hanging: As part of him being the Only Sane Man, he's a frequent source of this. At one point, he outright laments "Didn't we used to be a delivery company?" during one of Fry and Bender's Zany Schemes.
    • He also provides this gem in the comics regarding the Professor's Character Catchphrase: "'Good news, everyone!' is a registered trademark of Planet Express. The management guarantees no actual good news".
  • Lost Food Grievance: A minor recurring gag has him lamenting the loss of his Manwich.
  • Mad Libs Catchphrase: "Sweet [noun] of [rhyming location]!"
  • Manchild:
    Hermes: I think I'm coming down with circusitis. [sneezes — he ends up looking like a clown]
    Leela: [confused] I thought circusitis only affected children.
    Hermes: [ashamed] Children of all ages.
  • Meaningful Name: He shares his first name with the Greek god of messengers, which is pretty appropriate for a bureaucrat assigned to a delivery company. His last name also sounding like "comrade" serves as a subtle indicator that despite acting like a Bad Boss most of the time, he really does actually care for his coworkers and does actually see them as friends.
  • Naked People Are Funny: Along with the Professor, Hermes will strip naked at the earliest opportunity for some good old fashion Fan Disservice.
  • Not So Above It All: Hermes may come across as a driven, cold heartless bureaucrat... and he is. But he'll also jump at the chance for a day off, same as anyone else.
  • Number Two: He works very closely with Farnsworth in the business and is largely seen by many as his most competent employee.
  • Obsessed Are the Listmakers: Averted... kind of. He once stated he's only anal 78.36% of the time.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: And he's incredibly proud of it.
    We didn't choose to be bureaucrats
    No, that's what almighty Jah made us
    We'd treat people like swine and make them stand in line
    Even if nobody paid us!
  • Only Sane Man: He often takes this role, most notably in Bender's Big Score where he's the only person to realize the crew is being scammed. He's also the most consistent critic of the incompetent Zoidberg.
  • Paperworkaholic: Hermes's primary character trait. Working for the Central Bureaucracy, he loves filling out paperwork. He even has a song about it:
    We didn't choose to be bureaucrats
    No, that's what Almighty Jah made us
    We'd treat people like swine and make them stand in line
    Even if nobody paid us!
    They say the world looks down on the bureaucrats
    They say we're anal, compulsive and weird
    But when push comes to shove you gotta do what you love
    Even if it's not a good idea
  • Puppeteer Parasite: One Running Gag is him getting infected by brain slugs. It even happens to him in the video game (also serving as a Hand Wave for why he isn't involved otherwise).
  • Retired Badass: Parodied. Hermes was once an Olympic limbo champion, who retired when a young fan of his tried to imitate him, and tragically broke his spine in the attempt. A traumatized Hermes was incapable of limboing from that day forth.
  • Second Episode Introduction: Introduced in the second episode, along with the other supporting Planet Express members (Zoidberg and Amy).
  • So Proud of You: His reaction to Dwight and Cubert's behavior in "The Route of All Evil".
    Hermes: Proud of you? You ruined us with sleazy business practices, and a complete disregard for decency! ... of course we're proud of you!
  • Stereotype Flip: He's a workaholic, anal-retentive Rastafarian.
  • The Stoner: Heavily implied in the Comedy Central episodes more than the FOX ones.
    La Barbara: Husband! Can't you go anywhere without lightin' something up?
  • Trademark Favorite Food: He is rather fond of sloppy joes, to the point "My Manwich!" is his Character Catchphrase.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Hermes isn't much to look at, but his wife La Barbara is quite stunning.
  • Unaffected by Spice: La Barbara Conrad's goat curry is spicy enough to burn through the floor all the way down to Robot Hell and make the Robot Devil scream in pain, but Hermes thinks it could use more seasoning.
  • Vocal Evolution: Becomes noticeably hoarser from Season 5 on. His voice was also much deeper in some of his earlier appearances.
  • The Wonka: He once gave himself a tongue-lashing and kicked himself out of his own office for asking to take Valentine's Day off.

    Amy Wong, Ph.D 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/futuramaamy.png
"Spleh!"
Voiced by: Lauren Tom Other Languages
Debut: "The Series Has Landed"
"This is why you never see a poor person with millions of dollars."

An "intern" working at Planet Express, though seemingly as permanent as everyone else there. Is extremely rich and spoiled. Her parents own half of Mars, which they use for buggalo ranching and a gambling paradise called "Mars Vegas".


  • All Girls Like Ponies: According to Amy, she had an awful lot of ponies as a child. When she was de-aged and went back to Mars, a pony can be seen standing to the side in her room. Also explains her devastated reaction when Bender baked her a pony for brunch.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys:
    • Until she hooks up with the sensitive Kif (though in the episode they first get together in, she expresses a distaste for bad boys, instead wanting a good guy).
    • In "Proposition Infinity" (quite possibly a case of Depending on the Writer as it was after Comedy Central picked up the series), it turns out that Amy still can't keep her eyes off of bad boys or flirting with them. This causes Kif to break up with her and Amy starts a "robosexual" affair with the biggest bad boy she knows, Bender. At the end Kif shows that he can be 'bad' in his own way to make up with her.
  • Ambiguously Bi: She is in a relationship with Kif and flirts with a lot of guys but she kissed Leela in "Bender's Game" when they were in an alternate reality.
  • Amicable Exes:
    • She previously dated Fry, but they remain close friends after breaking up.
    • With Bender; they dated in "Proposition Infinity" but broke up when Amy insisted on a monogamous marriage. In spite of this, they remain good friends to the point of dancing together during the Dance Party Ending in "The Mutants are Revolting".
  • Anime Chinese Girl: She's of Chinese descent, but she's from Mars. (Her parents own half of Mars. "The good half", so they claim.)
  • Asian Airhead: She acts so ditzy that it's easy to forget that she was introduced as a graduate student in applied physics (and eventually gets her PhD).
  • Asian Rudeness: Amy often accuses Leela of not being ladylike enough to be a true woman. Even so, they remain friends.
  • Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: She's the more girly of the two female Planet Express employees, and her midriff is rarely not exposed.
  • Big Eater: Technically a fat version, since she has a bottomless appetite, but ignores it for the most part in order to stay thin. During a "Freaky Friday" Flip episode where she ended up in Leela's body, she gleefully took the opportunity to eat to her heart's content, since it wouldn't be her own body getting fat. By the end of the episode, Leela's body is gigantic. However, seeing Fry and Leela have sex while in Zoidberg and Farnsworth's bodies kills her appetite for good.
  • Birds of a Feather: Part of the reason she and Fry hooked up was because they shared similar interests, both being ditzy and rebellious. And unlike Leela, Fry's childish behavior wasn't a turn-off for Amy.
  • Book Smart: It's more evident in later seasons. She's still a ditz, but an academically competent ditz with a PhD.
  • Brainless Beauty: She is a very cute girl but, despite her usual intelligence, she can be absent-minded. Especially in Season 2. A notable example being removing Dr. Zoidberg's restraints no less than eight times, despite injuries she endured each time.
    Amy: Fool me seven times, shame on you, fool me eight or more times, shame on me.
  • Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Amy's own parents don't really treat her with respect and constantly nags her for grandkids. Contrast that with her absolute love for her children with Kif, even if it is hard work raising them and the fact they aren't biologically hers.
  • Casual Kink: With Earth facing impending death (again), Amy suggested an end-of-the-world orgy. The rest of the crew quickly lost interest, though not before Amy got changed.
  • Character Development:
    • In early seasons Amy was mostly The Ditz, and the fact that she was also Farnsworth's intern and an intellectual was essentially an Informed Attribute, only mentioned in her introduction and in Mars University. In the Comedy Central seasons, Amy gets significantly more focus to highlight the fact that yes, she is a scientist and Farnsworth's assistant.
    • While she's reluctant to give up her party girl lifestyle to be a mother in "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch," she accepts by the end of the episode out of love for Kif. When the children emerge from the swamp twenty years later in "Children of a Lesser Bog", Amy becomes fully invested in being a parent and latches onto her babies immediately, indicating she's greatly matured over the years and is more willing to settle down.
  • Characterization Marches On: Her clumsiness used to be a prominent trait, but got downplayed in favor of focusing on her ditziness as the series went on.
  • The Chew Toy: One of the main reasons she was created; Amy is often used for physical comedy.
  • Cleavage Window: She and Leela have some outfits with this. In one episode that had random time skips during a basketball game, Amy, wearing such an outfit, immediately brings attention to it as a possible explanation.
  • Continuity Snarl: In "The Series Has Landed", Amy said she belonged to the sorority "Kappa Kappa Wong", but in "A Farewell to Arms", she was a member of Sigma Beta, having gone to the same as the choosing mechanism.
  • Cute Clumsy Girl: Frequently falls over. In one episode Fry refers to her as "a klutz from Mars".
  • The Cutie: She states that she had cuteness reduction surgery on her cheek and nose when she was a teenager because she used to be too cute.
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: Her parents don't like Kif.
    Mr. Wong: This your boyfriend? I have instant dislike of him!
    Mrs. Wong: He too scrawny to father grandchildren.
    Amy: He's not scrawny, he's just small-boned.
    Kif: Actually, I don't have bones. I'm supported by a system of fluid-filled bladders that—
    Mr. Wong: Yes, yes! You a big squishy wuss! Amy should be dating real man.
  • Distaff Counterpart: To Fry, as she's carefree, ditzy, clumsy, and prone to Comically Missing the Point (although she's more Book Smart than him). Their similarities are brought up in the episode where they date.
  • The Ditz: A black-haired Ditz (to the point of becoming Birds of a Feather with Fry in "Put Your Head on My Shoulders"), she fails at haggling, confusing it with bidding at auctions, and flirts with all men. Bordering on Genius Ditz, since she's also an engineering student (though in one DVD commentary, the writers admitted that they'd completely forgotten that). Only after the return of the show post-cancellation, she began to be portrayed more as a Ditzy Genius.
  • Ditzy Genius: In later seasons, the series actually starts using her in plots involving her as an academic or scientist on top of plots involving her as a ditz. Even more so, now that she's finished college and obtained a doctorate. An example of this trope is the episode "Viva Mars Vegas" when she comes up with an elaborate plan for the gang but also shows her clueless Upper-Class Twit side ("What's rent?").
  • Dude Magnet: She's every bit as attractive as Leela is, and doesn't have the Cyclops problem to go with it. It's all but directly stated before she settled down with Kif that she was very sexually active, and even then she still has sex with Fry, Bender, and Zapp during the course of the series.
  • Dumbass No More: She has most of her dumb moments in early seasons, and in season 2 she's a borderline Brainless Beauty (all her Too Dumb to Live moments listed below are in season 2, and the same season also has a Pair the Dumb Ones episode about her and Fry), while her role as Farnsworth's intern was merely an Informed Attribute. She becomes less clueless after she starts dating Kif, and after getting a Doctorate degree in season 6, she's a full-on Ditzy Genius.
  • Embarrassing Old Photo: Her 2997 Employee of the Year photo. Not only is she fat in that photo, it makes her hungry just looking at it.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Played with — when she's first seen during the Introdump at the very beginning of Bender's Big Score, she had grown her hair longer, but Bender almost immediately burps fire, burning her hair to its more familiar style.
  • Foil: She's often used to highlight Leela's romantic failures and tomboyish nature by comparison. She's more feminine and carefree and has lower standards for men, while Leela is an Action Girl who is quite picky, but also quite lonely, and sometimes resents Amy for how easily she finds dates.
  • Foreign-Language Tirade: She'll often curse in Cantonese whenever she's angry. Since her voice actress actually speaks it, it's authentic too.
  • Formerly Fat: She was very fat as a child; even her parents tease her mercilessly about it. In one episode, the main characters all revert to their childhood forms, and Amy, again overweight, becomes the butt of all her dads' childish jokes.
    Leo Wong: 'Stay in room'? You so fat, you gonna stay all around room.
  • Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Amy is a spoiled and girly party girl, but she "works" as an engineering intern, has short hair, and always wears a tracksuit.
    Fry: Hey, tell me something: You've got all this money, how come you always dress like you're doing your laundry?
    Amy: I guess 'cause my parents keep telling me to be more ladylike.
  • Good Bad Girl: Not only is she open to dating non-humans, but in some episodes, dates creatures that aren't even humanoid. She freely brags about her "general sluttiness" quite often.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: Amy often speaks Cantonese, especially when angry. They're mostly insults.
  • If It's You, It's Okay: Usually not robosexual, but has a fling with Bender in Proposition Infinity.
  • Informed Flaw: According to Fry and her father Leo, she has a chunky backside. Implied to be leftover from when she was overweight. We the audience can't really make this out, even when she's wearing her raunchier outfits.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Despite her friendly demeanor, she tends to make condescending comments towards her friends, even if she intends it to sound like a genuine compliment. Leela's usually the recipient, as most of Amy's compliments end up passive-aggressively insulting Leela's femininity, and it's not always clear if she's being passive-aggressive or just ditzy. In "Leela's Homeworld," she remarks to Leela, who just won Orphan of the Year, "Your parents must be so proud!" and then immediately apologizes when she realizes her error.
  • Interspecies Romance: With Kif; they're a human/alien couple.
  • The Klutz: Frequently falls over. In one episode Fry refers to her as "a klutz from Mars". She falls right after he says it.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Amy zigzags the trope. Despite having boatloads of cash from her parents to purchase any outfit she could want, Amy almost always wears the same pink tracksuit (except for formal events). When Fry points this out, she says it's because she's rebelling against her parents. However she seems to have a large variety of outfits for special occasions and parties. She even wore an outfit modeled after Jackie Onassis Kennedy in "Hell is Other Robots".
  • Ms. Fanservice: Aside from her regular pink tracksuit outfit, she wears very skimpy outfits for every formal event (even a funeral) and often appears in a bikini and, sometimes, naked to the point of being a Shameless Fanservice Girl in contrast to Leela.
  • Nice Girl: While sometimes inconsiderate and selfish, Amy is usually depicted as a friendly (if ditzy) girl.
  • Official Couple: With Kif. They have a more stable relationship than pretty much any other couple in the show. Contrast to the on-again off-again relationship of Fry and Leela.
  • Older Than They Look: By Season 7, Amy is 34, but looks exactly the same as she did in Season 1, when she was 21. This seems to be normal in the 31st century as we see people well into their hundreds looking like they're only 70.
  • Pair the Dumb Ones: One episode focuses on the ditzy Amy dating Fry, and how easily they bond because of their similarities. He dumps her at the end of the episode though.
  • Pink Is Erotic: Amy Wong is openly promiscuous and a source of fanservice for the show. She wears pink clothes, has a pink bed and has a pink bedside table.
  • Pink Means Feminine: Zig-zagged. She's the girly girl to Leela's tomboy, and her default outfit is pink — but it's a tracksuit, not something feminine.
  • The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: She's an intern at Planet Express, but is never seen to do actual work there. The second episode says that Professor Farnsworth keeps her around because she has the same blood type as him. She's still shown assisting Fry, Leela, and Bender on deliveries at times and will occasionally pilot the ship in Leela's absence. The episode "That Darn Katz!" lampshades this when the Professor says she was ready to get her doctorate twelve years ago but forgot to mention it.
  • Proud Beauty: She's very proud of her pretty appearance and describes herself as The Cutie.
  • Really Gets Around: During the early days of the show, Amy was sleeping around like crazy. Not only was she open to dating non-humans, but in some episodes, dates creatures that aren't even humanoid. This presumably comes to an end once she gets together with Kif, but Amy's shown to still do some harmless flirting with other guys to Kif's chagrin.
  • Robosexual: Temporarily hooks up with Bender in "Proposition Infinity," leading to backlash from her parents who want her to date a human man.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The perky and ditzy Energetic Girl to Kif's shy and serious Savvy Guy.
  • Second Episode Introduction: Introduced in the second episode, along with the other supporting Planet Express members (Zoidberg and Hermes).
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: Amy has no qualms showing off her body and whenever she's wearing something other than her pink tracksuit, expect it to show her cleavage and a lot of skin.
  • Ship Tease: With Bender, in addition to the aforementioned Robosexual episode, they've been shown to have very good chemistry. Some of the alternative universes we see over the course of the series even have them as a couple.
  • Smarter Than You Look: As the episode "That Darn Katz" reminds us, she is an engineering graduate student who designs a machine to harness the rotational energy of the Earth. Also, she officially gains her doctorate at the end of the episode, so she is the ultimate Ditzy Genius.
  • Spoiled Sweet: Her parents own a hemisphere of Mars, but despite this, she's actually pretty nice (if a little inconsiderate and selfish at times).
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: "Put Your Head On My Shoulders" shows how good she can relate to Fry's odd behavior with family matters. They both later decide to end their relationship due to Fry feeling Amy is "suffocating" him.
  • Stripperiffic: Pretty much anything she wears outside of her normal outfit shows a ton of skin.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl to Leela's Tomboy. Early designs for Amy had her be much more masculine. This was changed so the women would contrast each other.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Zoidberg (maddened by a mating frenzy) manages to trick her into freeing him several times in "Why Must I Be a Crustacean In Love?" (and he does it one more time before the scene ends), and a robotic food disposal almost chops off her hand in "Mother's Day" by offering her a diamond ring in the drain until the others stop her. In both scenes someone calls her a 'moron' (Bender in the former, Prof. Farnsworth in the latter).
  • Totally Radical: A 30th century version. She's the youngest adult main character and uses semi-current slang with science-fictiony add-ons. (For example, shmeesh=yeesh, splech=yech, guh=duh, etc.)
  • Upper-Class Twit: A ditzy, spoiled rich girl who often seems genuinely unaware of poor people problems (like not knowing what "rent" is).
  • Valley Girl: Although a milder case than most. Wealthy family, loves shopping and even uses a sci-fi-twisted version of the lingo ("guh" and "spluh" are favorites of hers).
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Leela. Amy frequently insults Leela at the drop of a hat, but still goes out for drinks with her (although she'll still abandon Leela to go off for "coffee" with guys), and invites Leela to her wedding. In a deleted scene for "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch", Amy says she sees Leela as an older sister. It's lampshaded in "The Butterjunk Effect" when she and Leela explain that passive-aggressive insults are just how girl friends communicate.
  • "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: Sort of. In "Into the Wild Green Yonder", she reveals that she has been trying to fill the void of her father wanting a son by acting more masculine (her choice of clothing, as opposed to something more feminine, for instance).
  • Working with the Ex: She and Fry date for a very brief while until he breaks up with her, feeling she's "smothering" him. The same is true with her and Bender, who dumps her (again, after a brief liaison) upon the revelation that she assumed they'd be in a monogamous relationship.
  • Wrench Wench: An engineering intern. Not that she actually does anything.

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