List of recurring non-robot characters from Futurama
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- This article discusses non-robot recurring characters. For robotic recurring characters, see List of recurring robot characters from Futurama.
Futurama's recurring characters:
[edit] Celebrity heads
In the episode "A Big Piece of Garbage", Ron Popeil, his severed head floating in a large jar, mentions several of his inventions including the (fictional) technology to keep human heads alive in jars, implicitly arresting the aging process. A recurring feature of Futurama was use of this fanciful idea to allow guest appearances by 20th- and 21st-century celebrities, established as early as the first episode when Fry and Bender hide in "The Head Museum" and meet the head of Leonard Nimoy. Other celebrity heads can be seen in the background, including that of series co-creator Matt Groening.
A wall display titled "U.S. PRESIDENTS" hangs over 22 jars, containing presidential heads ranging from George Washington to Bill Clinton. This shows but does not explain how persons who died before the head-in-a-jar technology was developed can still benefit from it. Several anomalies, some deliberate, have occurred. The robot actor Calculon at one point claimed that in his long life he had been "all of history's greatest acting robots", including David Duchovny, though Duchovny's head had appeared in the pilot episode. A subtle joke was used in one episode when the head of former president Grover Cleveland appeared twice, flanking the head of former president Benjamin Harrison, in reference to Cleveland's uniquely non-consecutive presidential terms.
Fry accidentally knocks over the jar containing the head of Richard Nixon (voiced by Billy West), angering the former president. The presidents (along with the heads of losing candidates Ross Perot, Lyndon Larouche, Walter Mondale and Bob Dole, among others) would later reappear in the episode "A Head in the Polls". The opinion on life in a jar seems to be somewhat split as Nimoy initially refers to it as being "a life of quiet dignity," then his opinion appears to change in a later episode, when he claims "I'm living in a gefilte fish jar." While, in another episode, George Foreman's head claims to "envy the dead". Celebrity heads who have played major or recurring roles are listed below:
[edit] Al Gore
(Voiced by Al Gore) - First emperor of the Moon, with a jar somewhat more elaborate than average, colored silver-white, seemingly backed with the top of a cape and two small rockets for mobility. By the year 3000, Gore's head appears on the five-hundred dollar bill. He claims to have invented the environment (A possible reference to Al being misquoted as having said he “invented the internet”) and is the author of Earth in the Balance and the much more popular Harry Potter and the Balance of Earth, in which he explains that the environment must be protected from global warming and dark wizards.
Gore appears fully intact in "Anthology of Interest I", in which the characters watched a "What If" machine's simulation of events had Fry had not fallen into the cryogenics tube on New Year's Eve, 1999. This would have led to a tear in the space-time continuum which Gore, then leader of the Vice Presidential Action Rangers, was tasked by the U.S. Constitution to prevent.
The real-life Gore has said that Futurama is his favorite show. His daughter, Kristin, was a writer for the show in its later seasons. Gore has also voiced the cartoon version of himself in the "An Inconvenient Truth" promotional video, along with John DiMaggio (the voice of Bender) and Billy West (the narrator).
Famous quotes include: "I have ridden the mighty moon worm" (a possible reference to the sandworms of Frank Herbert's Dune) and "Peace out, y'all!"
[edit] Lucy Liu
(Voiced by Lucy Liu) - First appeared as a captive of "Kidnappster.com", an Internet company (in a reference to the controversial Napster) that kidnapped celebrities and offered their personalities for download into "blank" robots ("I Dated a Robot"). After she was rescued, she convinced Fry that not only was the copying process an invasion of her privacy and rights, but that relationships between humans and robots were unnatural. After he reluctantly deactivated his Liu-bot, Liu's head fell in love with Bender. She briefly appeared in a later episode ("Love and Rocket") stored in Bender's chest compartment.
[edit] Leonard Nimoy
(Voiced by Leonard Nimoy) - In addition to the pilot episode, Nimoy's head appears in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", along with the heads of other cast members of the original Star Trek: William Shatner, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols (who would also appear, intact, in "Anthology of Interest I") and Walter Koenig, all voiced by the real-life actors. An animated version of DeForest Kelley (by then deceased) appears but does not speak. The episode also contains a brief cameo by the head of Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Jonathan Frakes. Leonard Nimoy stated at one point that life as a head in a jar was a quiet, dignified life. However, after being given a new body by an alien and later having to give it up, Nimoy is obviously upset and states "I am living in a gefilte fish jar".
[edit] Richard Nixon
(Voiced by Billy West) - Of all of the celebrity heads, Richard Nixon's is the most seen throughout the series. Nixon's Head is introduced in the pilot episode when Fry and Bender run into the head museum to evade the police. They wander into the Hall of Presidents, and Fry knocks Nixon's head off the shelf by accident. In "A Head in the Polls", Nixon's head achieved mobility by having his jar mounted on Bender's body. He then ran for President of Earth, winning by a single vote (robots were widely impressed by Nixon's head's robotic "charisma"). Nixon's head returned Bender's body the night before the election, blackmailed by an audio recording Bender had made of Nixon's head ranting about the stupidity of voters and his intent, if elected, to "go into people's houses at night and wreck up the place" and to sell children's organs to zoos for meat. He managed to quickly secure a much larger robotic body, smashing his way into the White House after his election.
Nixon's head's administration is marked by a violent and aggressive foreign policy, frequently entering into wars which have little or no purpose, and which occasionally backfire, leading to Earth being invaded by alien forces. Nixon's head is a common character throughout the series, providing humor through his 1960's outlook on life and his aggressive, unpredictable persona. Nixon's head is sometimes accompanied by the headless body of Spiro T. Agnew, Nixon's first historical Vice President. Agnew's body, however, was given to Ogden Wernstrom as a form of payment in "Crimes of the Hot". In the final episode, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", Nixon's head was pulled into Robot Hell by the Robot Devil.
In several commentaries, Billy West has commented that he is not impersonating Richard Nixon for the role; he's impersonating Anthony Hopkins in the movie Nixon.
[edit] George Washington
(Voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - George Washington's head appears briefly in the pilot episode and has a speaking part in "A Head in the Polls", admitting that just as Bender had hocked his body, Washington had hocked his (legendary) wooden teeth for "booze money". His speech is not only anachronistic but also incorrect, as he says "thou" where "thine" would be more appropriate. Washington's head later reappears in "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid", as Fry attempts to re-educate the other Planet Express employees, not realizing their sudden stupidity is being caused by the malevolent Brainspawn. Himself stupefied, Washington incorrectly guesses the first president of the United States was Thomas Jefferson.
[edit] Brain Slugs
The Brain Slugs are small, gelatinous, fist-sized aliens that attach themselves to human heads and act as mind control devices, reducing their hosts to a zombie-like state. Aside from the obvious fact that the person has a Brain Slug attached to them, the Brain Slugs further betray their hosts' possessed state by speaking through their hosts in the third person ("Hermes enjoyed it" being just one example) and in a monotone voice. They may be a homage to Robert A. Heinlein's slug-like parasites featured in The Puppet Masters. Their first appearance shows them as sponsors of the political Brain Slug Party, favoring "unreasonably huge subsidies to the brain slug planet". Their plan for the working man is to attach brain slugs to him. ("A Head in the Polls")
They were later featured in the episode "Raging Bender" when Hermes came back from vacation with a brain slug attached to his head. He ordered the rest of the Planet Express crew to "go to the Brain Slug planet and walk around not wearing helmets." Seeing through this ruse, the crew instead went to the movies. At one point, the brain slug was knocked off, freeing Hermes until Bender helpfully replaced it. Hermes characterized his brain slug experience as a "nightmare." His brain slug, however, thanked Bender for picking him up off the cold floor. Another brain slug attached itself briefly to Fry's head but soon died of starvation. According to the episode's DVD commentary, this was due to Fry's lack of intelligence rather than his lack of the delta brainwave (as mentioned in "The Why of Fry").
Using a garlic shampoo is suggested as a protective measure, although its usefulness is unclear.
The appearance of the brain slugs may have been inspired by the monsters in the 1979 boardgame The Awful Green Things From Outer Space.
According to creator, Matt Groening, the brain slugs were originally going to make people smarter.
[edit] Brainspawn
An evil race of flying telepathic brains that came into existence one millisecond after the Big Bang. Their main enemies are the Nibblonians. Their eons-long goal is to destroy all other intelligent life, since the thoughts of other beings "screech at them like the forced laughs of a billion art-house movie patrons." Their method of operation is to swarm a planet, using their "stupefaction fields" to render all inhabitants too stupid to resist. Then they absorb the planet's collected knowledge and destroy it.
Fry is uniquely immune to the effect (due to becoming his own grandfather in the episode "Roswell That Ends Well", thus meaning he does not have the Delta Brainwave which the Brainspawn attack), and managed to drive them from Earth ("The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"). No one affected by the Brainspawn's stupefaction field remembered these events, and Fry was unable to convince anyone what had happened.
Later, under the direction of the Nibblonians, Fry planted a "quantum interface bomb" on the Brainspawn's space station/knowledge repository, the "Infosphere", sending it and the Brainspawn to an alternate dimension from which, the Nibblonians believe, there is no escape ("The Why of Fry"). Nibbler, using a previously unknown ability to erase human memories, made Fry forget this second adventure. It is unclear if Fry's memory of his first encounter with the Brainspawn was left intact.
[edit] Father Changstein-El-Gamal
El-Gamal
(Voiced by David Herman) - A priest in the First Amalgamated Church. Father Changstein-El-Gamal counsels Fry in "Godfellas" and later presides over Fry's funeral in "The Sting".
[edit] Dwight Conrad
(Voiced by Bumper Robinson) - 12 year-old son of Hermes Conrad and LaBarbara Conrad. He has a friendship with Cubert Farnsworth. Dwight takes after his father in many ways, such as finding accounting and bureaucracy more entertaining than more conventional sources of fun. Dwight sports dreadlocks and a T-shirt with the Jamaican flag on it. In the episode "The Route of All Evil", a bully throws Dwight's lunch pack into a black hole he had made for his science project. The way in which Dwight screams "My Manwich!" is very similar to the way Hermes screamed the same words when Bender used his sandwich as fishing bait.
[edit] LaBarbara Conrad
(Voiced by Dawnn Lewis) - Hermes Conrad's wife. She is considerably taller than Hermes and is usually seen wearing revealing clothes. LaBarbara was previously married to Barbados Slim, a tall, muscular athlete (whom she refers to as "that mahogany god") who won the limbo gold medal in the 3004 Olympics. She accompanied her husband on a trip on the Starship Titanic and another to Spa 5, which turned out to be a slave labor camp. She and her husband often refer to each other only as "husband" and "wife." In "The Route of All Evil," Hermes and LaBarbara's home is shown as very sumptuous.
[edit] Cookieville orphans
The orphans from the Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium (where Leela spent her childhood) were first featured in the episode "The Cyber House Rules". Bender briefly adopts twelve of them, seeing a chance for profit in government stipends, but he was arrested, as were the orphans.
Some of the orphans also appear as background characters in other episodes, including "The Why Of Fry" (while on a Cookieville field trip to a skating rink); "Leela's Homeworld" (cheering for Leela after she was crowned "Orphan of the Year"); "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV" (as "cool kids" attending Cubert and Dwight's birthday party); and in "Three Hundred Big Boys" (in the audience while watching Mushu the Whale perform stunts). The three orphans that appear most often are named Albert, Nina, and Sally.
[edit] Albert
(Voiced by Kath Soucie) - Like Sally and Nina, Albert was mainly featured in the episode "The Cyber House Rules", where Leela rejected him, saying he was "kind of fatty". According to Bender he weighs approximately 35 pounds. He has been seen smoking cigars and is known to drink espresso. Unlike the other orphans, he was not seen in "The Why of Fry".
[edit] Nina
(Voiced by Kath Soucie) - Nina is one of the more talkative orphans, taking it upon herself to introduce all the orphans by name when prompted. She is one of Sally's best friends. In the episode "Leela's Homeworld", Nina puts on an eye patch pretending to be Leela. This prompts Albert to cover both his eyes to be a "double-Leela", after which he runs face-first into a wall.
[edit] Sally
(Voiced by Nicole St. John) - Sally is a mutant with a third ear on her forehead, who nevertheless is regarded by creators and characters as the cutest of all the orphans[citation needed]. Like Leela's eye, she is teased about her third ear. Leela wanted to adopt her after feeling sympathy for her. Sally also admits to having a tail. She is very proud of being able to do 100 jump ropes. Unlike Nina and Albert, she was not seen in the audience in "Three Hundred Big Boys".
[edit] Elzar
(Voiced by John DiMaggio) - A famous four-armed Neptunian chef, with his own New New York restaurant ("Elzar's Fine Cuisine", a regular set-piece in the series), and television show. Elzar is a parody of the celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, while his physique is a nod to the four-armed television chef Gormaanda of The Star Wars Holiday Special. Bender adores Elzar's cooking, though once he challenged him to an Iron Cook battle (and "won" - but Bender refused the title of "Iron Cook," instead accepting "Zinc Saucier", which he made up, and which came with double prize money). Elzar is crass and unpleasant, and has a very high opinion of himself. He never passes up an opportunity to milk money from his customers. Elzar's favorite cooking implement is his spice weasel, a rodent-like creature which propels a cloud of spices from its snout upon having its body squeezed, which he uses to "knock it up a notch", with his customary "Bam". The phrase "knock it up a notch," is a parody of Emeril's catchphrase "kick it up a notch", Emeril is also famous for yelling "Bam" when adding spice to his dishes.
[edit] Yancy Fry, Sr.
(Voiced by John DiMaggio) - Yancy is the father and son of Philip J. Fry, father of Yancy Fry, Jr., and grandfather of Philip J. Fry II. He claims his name was passed down over generations since minute-man Yancy Fry, who "blasted Commies in the American Revolution". In the flashback scenes in "The Luck of the Fryrish" and "Jurassic Bark", he is shown to be obsessed with the Cold War and the Y2K bug, blaming everything on them. When Fry goes missing, Yancy cuts the search for him short since he felt it was a waste of taxpayer's money, which is also the same reason that they kept Fry out of school.
[edit] Yancy Fry, Jr.
(Voiced by Tom Kenny) - Born in 1971, Yancy is the elder brother (and through a time travel paradox also the grandson) of Philip J. Fry, and father of Philip J. Fry II. In the flashback scenes in "The Luck of the Fryrish", a great deal of sibling rivalry is shown between Yancy and Philip, including fierce competition in breakdancing and basketball, though there was clearly a great deal of love as well. Yancy mostly competed with Philip by copying everything that Philip did, only placing his own (barely perceptible) spin on it. Some time after New Year's Eve 1999 (when Philip becomes locked in a cryogenic tube, unknown to his family), an adult Yancy is preparing for his wedding and finds and keeps an amateurish sketch of a rocket ship drawn by Philip. He also finds Philip's rare seven-leafed clover, discovered by Philip during a childhood basketball game and which gave him luck. Later, Yancy names his newborn son after Philip and reveals that he misses his brother every day. He passes the clover on to his son, leading to Philip II's highly lucky and successful life. The name Yancy was given to the oldest son born in each generation of the Fry family (much to his dismay), back to the American Revolutionary War, until his own son.
In a fictional scenario in "Anthology of Interest II", Phillip reveals that Yancy used to help him win Space Invaders because Phillip needed him to get the last ship.
[edit] "Fishy Joe" Gillman
Gillman, or "Fishy Joe", is the owner of the "Fishy Joe's" chain of seafood restaurants (one-time vendor of "Popplers") and "Family Bros. Pizza". He was indifferent to Popplers being sentient, even as his restaurant chain served them by the billions. He later purchased a Cygnoid pizza stand for $100,000, impressed by their unusual recipes ("A Leela of Her Own").
[edit] Horrible Gelatinous Blob
(Voiced by Maurice LaMarche) Horrible Gelatinous Blob (HGB) is a three-eyed, green, translucent, ill-tempered alien. He contemptuously refers to humanoids as "solids", and ridicules their one-way digestive system. He first appeared in a Planet Express television ad in "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed" in which he devoured an employee who used a rival delivery company. He then rewarded an employee who used Planet Express by devouring him as well. He also makes a brief appearance in "The Problem with Popplers" as a customer at Fishy Joe's. Later, he is one of the unsatisfied customers on Cubert's and Dwight's paper route. He once beat Hermes and Professor Farnsworth close to death, though he later apologized. Mr. Blob is later revealed to be a stock trader at the InterGalactic Stock Exchange, in orbit around Earth and he was one of the fathers in FART on the episode "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV".
He has a son named Brett Blob (suggesting that perhaps the father's given name is Horrible Gelatinous). Brett regularly bullies Cubert and Dwight; once Brett used a miniature black hole to reduce their lunches to a singularity as seen in "The Route of All Evil". It is also revealed in this episode, and demonstrated on Brett, that beings of the HGB's species are weak against salt like the average slug.
Two members of his species are briefly shown embracing within sight of the Eiffel Tower in the episode "Love and Rocket", which has a Valentine's Day theme.
Persons and objects devoured by the Horrible Gelatinous Blob (or others of his species) can be seen suspended within his protoplasm. The process of recovery is implied but unclear.
Judging by his appearance and behavior, HGB most likely originated from the likewise malevolent and man eating "Space Mutants" from Matt Groening's The Simpsons.
[edit] Hyperchicken
(Voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - A 6-foot-plus blue-green rooster attorney with a pince-nez perched on his beak. He features a strong Southern (American) accent, reminiscent of Andy Griffith, Matlock, or especially Foghorn Leghorn. He claims to originate from a "backwoods asteroid". His first appearance was in "Brannigan Begin Again".
He is a terrible lawyer, and routinely loses cases for the main characters. He keeps his children in a suitcase and has been seen crowing on top of a courthouse (in "A Tale of Two Santas"). He was once hired while imprisoned and awaiting a trial for incompetence ("The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz"). In one case ("Insane in the Mainframe"), simply hiring him as a legal representative was enough grounds for Judge Whitey to accept a plea of insanity from Fry and Bender. In another ("A Tale of Two Santas"), he randomly pecked at a small girl, one of the witnesses, having mistaken her for corn. Hyperchicken also becomes very agitated if the word "badger" is mentioned.
The character is most likely a play on the literary character of Atticus Finch, or even a "replacement" of Lionel Hutz or Gil from The Simpsons.
[edit] Hypnotoad
The Hypnotoad is a large toad with oscillating multicolored eyes that emits a loud and ominous humming sound. The Hypnotoad has the power to hypnotize almost any living thing it wants at will, ranging from sheep to humans. It can even hypnotize mass numbers of creatures with little effort. It seems that the Hypnotoad is unique, or that it is perhaps the only example of its species living on Earth. In "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV", it is revealed that the Hypnotoad stars in its own television show, Everybody Loves Hypnotoad, which consists entirely of a steady shot of the Hypnotoad staring at the camera while emitting its trademark buzzing. Fry claims that the show has been going downhill since season three, a joke referring to Futurama itself, which was in its fourth season at the time. The show's title is a reference to the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
[edit] Linda
(Voiced by Tress MacNeille) - Morbo's human co-anchor, she seems to be blissfully unaware or apathetic of his hatred for humanity, often giggling absentmindedly in classically unaware news anchor fashion, as Morbo says things like "Morbo congratulates our gargantuan cyborg president. May death come quickly to his enemies!" (on Richard Nixon's election). Linda appears to be vapid and unintelligent, providing comic relief to Morbo's violent comments. She also flashed her chest to Zapp Brannigan in exchange for some beads on Freedom Day. Linda was most likely inspired by Mary Hart of the celebrity news program Entertainment Tonight.
[edit] Lrrr
(Voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - Ruler of the planet Omicron Persei VIII, located 1,000 light years from Earth. On numerous occasions Lrrr (pronounced "Lur") has threatened to destroy the Earth as a whole, as well as members of the Planet Express crew personally. Lrrr is something of a parody of all clichéd "green-skinned space invaders." His wife is named Ndnd (pronounced "in-DIN-duh" and voiced by Tress MacNeille), and the two appear to enjoy a relationship which goes through periodic love-hate cycles. Lrrr and his inner circle are devout fans of 20th- and 21st-century Earth television which, due to the distance of their planet from Earth, they can watch "live", though Lrrr has a violent hatred of animated shows. He purchased Fry's nose on the black market as an aphrodisiac named "Human Horn" in the episode "Spanish Fry". Whenever he is seen onscreen, Lrrr tries to appear threatening and powerful, but his intimidating appearance is always foiled by him performing some banal and humorous activity, such as adjusting a slanted painting or scratching his rear on live television. His catchphrase is "I am Lrrr, ruler of the planet Omicron Persei VIII!" A young Omicronian named Jrrr may be his and Ndnd's son.
Lrrr, like others of his species, is very tall and strong relative to Earthlings and large enough to consume an adult human in one bite. His skin is considerably tougher than human flesh and was left unmarked by a fired tranquilizer dart.
Lrrr also appeared in a fantasy sequence in "Anthology of Interest II" as the ruler of planet Nintendu 64, piloting a spaceship resembling those in the computer game "Space Invaders".
[edit] Hattie McDoogal
(Voiced by Tress MacNeille) is the resident crotchety-old-lady of the Futurama universe. She lives alone with her cats in New New York. Her wardrobe always consists of her pink nightgown and slippers. She also has a lazy eye. Frequently she likes to use nonsense words and phrases such as "whatcha-ma-call-it", "kerjiggers", and "thingy" to refer to different objects and people.
Hattie was for a brief time the landlady of Philip J. Fry and Bender ("I, Roommate") and once hired Kif Kroker, then unemployed, as a male prostitute ("Brannigan Begin Again"). She owns one share of stock of the Planet Express Delivery company ("Future Stock").
She is comparable to Eleanor Abernathy ("The Crazy Cat Lady") from The Simpsons. Hattie's surname is revealed in Futurama Comics #5.
[edit] Michelle
(Voiced by Kath Soucie, Sarah Silverman) is Fry's girlfriend from the 20th century. She appears in the first episode "Space Pilot 3000", casually dumping Fry on New Year's Eve, 1999, shortly before he makes a pizza delivery to a cryogenics company and falls into a freezer tube, where he would remain for 1000 years. She had a rough few years with the guy she left Fry for, all the while not knowing what had happened to Fry, and coincidentally chose to have herself frozen for 1000 years as well ("The Cryonic Woman"). Though her relationship with Fry resumed, Michelle had trouble adjusting to the 31st century, particularly the monster-like aliens and creatures. Ultimately, she left Fry for another long-term cryogenic customer; Pauly Shore.
Michelle's hair was originally black, but later appearances show it as brown. Michelle's mother's name was Beth, who criticized Fry behind his back. Michelle is seen grieving for Fry, along with some of Fry's other lovers, at his funeral in "The Sting".
[edit] Morbo
(Voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - The so-called "News Monster," Morbo is anchor for √2 News, Entertainment and Alien Invasion Tonight, Good Morning Earth, and other shows on the √2 Television Network. Morbo's character design is based on the aliens from the 1957 science fiction movie Invasion of the Saucer Men.
Morbo is actually an advance scout for an alien invasion, but does not bother to be subtle about it and frequently comments on his species' violent invasion plans, and expresses his contempt for humans. His co-host, Linda whom he refers to as "Human Female", seems blissfully unaware of this, and usually responds with an empty-headed laugh to Morbo's contempt. Morbo has a great love for Lipps Inc's song "Funkytown", and apparently has something hideous where his chest is. The physical structure of his skull is different than humans as in "Crimes of the Hot" his head inflates and deflates like a balloon when he pants from the heat.He has had uncharacteristic moments, such as in "The 30% Iron Chef"; he described Bender's food as proving that hideous things can be beautiful, and breaks down into tears, although this was while under the influence of LSD.
He has a wife, Fawn, of the same species, referenced in "The 30% Iron Chef" and seen briefly in "Three Hundred Big Boys" and "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings". Morbo speaks to her with his characteristic hostility but she pays no attention. When asked "How's the family?" by Nixon's head, he grumpily replies "Belligerent and numerous".
Morbo is good friends with President Richard Nixon's head. In the episode "A Head in the Polls", Morbo is the mediator of the debate and refers to the candidates as "Puny human number 1, puny human number 2, and Morbo's good friend, Richard Nixon." He has made only two appearances in the series where he doesn't threaten to destroy Earth. As a TV host who hates humans, he often makes comments such as "Puny earthlings! My race will destroy you!".
[edit] Randy Munchnik
(Voiced by John DiMaggio) A very effeminate man who owns a jewelry store. Randy is also a homosexual, and when the polar ice caps melted ("Crimes of the Hot"), he built an ark and filled it with same-sex animal couples. He claims there are "Parts of the Bible I like, and parts I don't like." He lives in a rent controlled apartment. Randy has never been named in the series, though his name is given in DVD commentaries. Randy is actor John DiMaggio's favorite Futurama character. In the DVD commentary for "Three Hundred Big Boys", it is revealed that Randy had a subplot in the episode that had to be cut for time. In the cut scene he and his boyfriend (seen in the picture) argue over how to spend their tax refunds. They resolve the argument by tossing both $300 bills into the fireplace, deciding love is more important than money. Randy's surname was revealed in Futurama Comics #5.
[edit] Nibblonians
The Nibblonians are a powerful race from the Planet Eternium, which is located in the center of the universe. According to them, their race is ancient and powerful. According to almost everyone else who encounters them, they are excessively cute. When the universe was formed with the Big Bang, their breed was already 17 years old. Their arch enemy are the Brainspawn. They believe Fry is the only hope of the universe and stopping the Brainspawn due to his lack of the delta brainwave. They have appeared in the episodes The Day the Earth Stood Stupid and The Why of Fry, although Nibbler's shadow is seen in the pilot and is formally introduced in Love's Labours Lost in Space and appearing regularly in episodes after that. It is also said they will appear in the upcoming direct-to-DVD film "Bender's Big Score". The three main Nibblonians are Nibbler, Ken, and Fiona.
[edit] Ken
(Voiced by Billy West) Ken is one of the two main male Nibblonians. His main difference in appearance with Nibbler is that he has a slightly larger head. He believes that Earth is the homeworld of "the pizza bagel", enjoys being petted, and sometimes worries that the Nibblonians are in fact cute.
[edit] Fiona
(Voiced by Tress MacNeille) Fiona is the main female Nibblonian. She is never seen without her orange bow on her eyestalk. Both Ken and Fiona believe Dave Matthews Band doesn't rock.
[edit] Mr. Panucci
(Voiced by John DiMaggio) – the owner of Panucci's Pizza, the New York restaurant where Fry worked in the 20th century. He had little regard for hygiene in his pizzeria; despite this, Stephen Hawking was a frequent customer according to "Anthology of Interest I". Pizza Boxes from Panucci's featured the slogan, "Do not tip delivery boy".
After Fry was frozen Mr. Panucci continued at the pizzeria and tended to Fry’s dog, Seymour.
In A Fishful of Dollars, Mom's son Walt played Mr. Panucci, as part of a ploy to access Fry's PIN for his credit card, so they could bankrupt him of his 4.3 billion dollar account, and force him to sell the last remaining can of anchovies to Mom. The plan somehow worked, despite Walt looking nothing like Mr. Panucci, but Fry ended up eating the anchovies.
Mr. Panucci is one of the few recurring characters who doesn't appear in the 31st century.
Mr. Panucci believes there are only three real monsters: "Dracula, Blacula and Son of Kong."
Mr. Panucci would often discipline Fry by paddling him.
His catch-phrase is "Come on!"
[edit] Mayor C. Randall Poopenmayer
(Voiced by David Herman) - the Mayor of New New York has appeared in many episodes, normally when his city is in grave danger, such as in the episode "A Big Piece of Garbage". His Mayoral duties include execution of condemned prisoners, a duty we see him try to perform in "A Tale of Two Santas". That episode also showed that he could be fooled into believing that Dr. Zoidberg was Jesus, despite the fact that he arrives with three fake Santas portrayed by various other members of the Planet Express crew.
[edit] Morgan Proctor
(Voiced by Nora Dunn) Morgan Proctor first appeared in the episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" as a rank 19 bureaucrat sent to inspect Hermes for possible promotion. The inspection did not go well and Hermes threatened to commit suicide, prompting Proctor to send him on vacation and assume his bureaucrat duties at Planet Express.
While there she began an affair with Fry, claiming to be attracted to him because, as a slob, he stands in stark contrast to the "neat freaks" Proctor normally worked with. Their relationship was discovered by Bender and in order to silence him, Proctor removed his personality disk and sent it to "the master in pile" (a mountain of unsorted documents) of the Central Bureaucracy, where it would presumably be untouched for years. Instead a newly-returned and rejuvenated Hermes performed an emergency sort on the pile and restored Bender's personality. He also discovered an incorrectly-stamped form filed by Proctor years earlier involving her prom date. Bureaucrat 1.0 (a senior member of the bureaucracy) demanded the forms he'd need to fill out to have her "taken away" by security, fate unknown.
She is briefly shown along with other of Fry's ex-girlfriends at his funeral in the episode "The Sting".
[edit] Sal
(Voiced by John DiMaggio) - A recurring generic surly, overweight, blue-collar worker with a thick Bronx accent. His first appearance is as a janitor on the moon in "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed", servicing the machines in the amusement park. He has appeared many times since, always employed in a tedious job which he does not do well ("Whats do I looks like, a guy who's not lazy?"). In this regard, he is similar to the nameless balding smart alec who appears in a variety of jobs on The Simpsons. Some fans have speculated that there are numerous Sals, all cloned from the original, which would account for his showing up working many jobs. Either that, or he simply gets fired/resigns and finds new employment on a regular basis. Even among the series' writers, there is confusion on the matter. He has a habit of pluralizing words that needn't be pluralized; ("He's busteds, gets hims outta heres") and vice versa (Whoas! Cripe!), which becomes more pronounced as the series progresses. He shows close similarities to Sgt. Luther Rizzo from M*A*S*H, in his lines, demeanour and appearance, and also bears an uncanny resemblance to Onslow from the British sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, in his attitude, attire, and personality.
Sal's numerous jobs have included:
- Janitor in Luna Park ("Episode Two: The Series Has Landed")
- Bus driver ("Put Your Head on My Shoulders")
- Cleaner ("The Honking")
- Tattooed art exhibit on loan from the Louvre ("The Cryonic Woman")
- Truck driver/construction worker ("Parasites Lost")
- Factory foreman ("Bendless Love")
- Working On The New York Hole Project ("Bendin' in the Wind")
- Newspaper-truck driver ("The Route of All Evil")
- Owner/operator of Sal's Wrecking Co ("I Dated a Robot")
- Robot Mechanic ("Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV")
- Demolition worker ("A Pharaoh to Remember")
- Sewage treatment worker ("Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles")
- Owner/operator of an asteroid junkyard (Futurama (video game))
- Pulling the cart holding the heads of the Supreme Court Justices ("A Taste of Freedom")
[edit] Scruffy
(Voiced by David Herman) - The Planet Express janitor, appearing in 12 episodes in the original 4 seasons. He first appears in the episode, "A Fishful of Dollars" where he is seen messaging Bender. A recurring joke is that because he interacts so little with the rest of the employees, nobody ever remembers seeing him before. When fellow employees ask who he is he answers with: 'Scruffy, the janitor', his explanation of why they haven't seen him before is that he hasn't seen them before. Scruffy frequently refers to himself in the third person and speaks in a voice reminiscent of Karl Childers, the protagonist of the movie Sling Blade. In "Future Stock", it is revealed that he has vast holdings of Planet Express stock because "...Scruffy believes in this company...[sniff]". Also when in an unfavorable situation Scruffy will often mutter "Oh marmalade..." In later episodes it is revealed that Scruffy is actually quite intelligent and can concoct brilliant plans almost immediately. Scruffy is an ex-con, stating: "Prison ain't so bad. You can make sangria in the terlet. 'Course it's shank or be shanked."
Scruffy is lazy and can usually be found in the basement of the building, watching the boiler (but never actually fixing it) and reading Zero-G Juggs or National Pornographic (parodies of real-life magazines Juggs and National Geographic). His inertia is such that when the boiler begins to dangerously rumble, seconds from exploding, his only reaction is to calmly declare "Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived," and turn the page in his magazine. In the Futurama video game, he is asleep in the (flooded) basement of Planet Express with an adult magazine. In some of the Futurama Comics he tells Zapp Brannigan that he has "naked pictures of Leela".[edit] Sewer mutants
Years of pollution poured into the sewers under New New York have created a society of mutants. They have established schools and churches in an effort at normalcy and are forbidden to travel to the surface without special permission. In the pilot episode Leela says that mutants are just a myth, though everyone seems to know about them and there are laws to keep them off the streets. They first appear in "I Second That Emotion", though the underground ruins of Old New York (as well as several creatures who may have been nonhumanoid mutants) are seen as early as "Space Pilot 3000".
[edit] Dwayne
(Voiced by David Herman) - Dwayne is a mutant with two noses and a catastrophically large forehead. He is fond of challenging people's understandings of practically everything, for example claiming that the humans may be living in the sewer of a great civilization above them (which is disproven quickly). Dwayne is a teacher at Martin Luther Thing Jr. High School ("Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles"), and has been known to play the guitar with minimal provocation. He also appears to be the resident folklore expert.
[edit] Raoul
(Voiced by Maurice LaMarche)- Raoul is the democratically elected leader of the sewer mutants, his official title being "Supreme Mutant". His most notable mutation is a third arm, which has grown in place of his right ear. Accordingly, he is somewhat hard of hearing. However, in "Leela's Homeworld", he is shown to have two ears. Is romantically involved with (and possibly married to) Vyolet.
[edit] Turanga Morris
(Voiced by David Herman) - Father of Leela. A mutant who lives in the sewer, he has one eye, a vertically oriented mouth, and sheds his skin. Very irresponsible; encourages the consumption of alcohol by practically everyone, including children. ("No beer until you finish your tequila!") Both he and his wife appear in the first episode to feature the sewer mutants, "I Second That Emotion", though they are not wearing the hoods they later use to conceal their identities from Leela, nor do they speak to or confront their daughter.
[edit] Turanga Munda
(Voiced by Tress MacNeille) - Mother of Leela. She has one eye, a lion tail, and octopus tentacles in place of arms, as well as purple hair. Has a Ph.D in Exolinguistics, which enabled her to write the indecipherable note left with Leela at the Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium to convince them that she was an alien, which would allow her to live a more comfortable life on the surface.
[edit] Vyolet
(Voiced by Tress MacNeille) - A chain-smoking mutant with gills and a generally reptillian appearance, Vyolet has the most appearances of any mutant besides Leela, because she reacts whenever something is thrown in a gutter. She believes Barbie dolls portray an unrealistic standard of beauty. In the episode "Leela's Homeworld", Bender ruined her wedding dress, indicating that following that episode she was married, most likely to Raoul. She is constantly snorting through her dialog because of her pig nose.
[edit] Seymour Asses
Seymour's fossilized remains were found by Fry in the 31st century at a museum exhibit of Panucci's Pizza. Professor Farnsworth had the technology to extract DNA from the remains and create a clone of Seymour, complete with memories, but Fry declined, reasoning that since the readings indicated Seymour had lived to the age of 15, 12 years after Fry was frozen, Seymour must have formed new memories and eventually forgotten Fry. In reality, Seymour had waited outside Panucci's Pizza for Fry's return every day until he died.
Seymour's remains appear briefly at Fry's funeral in "The Sting".
It is also said he will appear in the upcoming film "Bender's Big Score".
[edit] Smitty
(Voiced by Billy West) - Policeman in New New York. Together with URL, they are the partners of police patrol car 718. Sometimes seen with a lightsaber that he uses as a nightstick. He appears primarily in the episode "Space Pilot 3000", and later in the episode "I, Roommate", but is in almost every episode in which police are involved. In "A Tale of Two Santas", it is revealed that he had been fired from his job, but anticipated reinstatement following his capture of Bender, whom he and URL mistook for Robot Santa.
[edit] Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate
(Voiced by Phil LaMarr) - Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate is Captain of the Globetrotters and Senior Lecturer in Physics at Globetrotter University. After challenging and defeating Earth in a game of basketball, Tate helps Professor Farnsworth to restabilize time in "Time Keeps on Slippin'", unfortunately his "showboating" math turned out to be incorrect. He also served as one of the guest judges in the Iron Cook competition in "The 30% Iron Chef". He also appears briefly in "Less Than Hero". It is revealed in "A Taste of Freedom" that Tate's home planet the "Globetrotter Homeworld" has an embassy on Earth between the Neutral Planet embassy and the Klingon Embassy.
[edit] Terry
(Voiced by David Herman) - In the future, Terry works at the cryonics lab (Applied Cryogenics) where Fry was frozen in the year 2000. He is the first to greet Fry after he is unfrozen with his usual greeting "Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!". He later appears in the episodes "The Cryonic Woman", teaching Fry about working in the lab, and again in "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", invited (along with other Applied Cryogenics employees) by Leela to a poker game at Planet Express. He also attends Fry's funeral in "The Sting" yelling "Farewell, from the world of Tomorrow!" at Fry's coffin. He is excessively theatrical in speech and behaviour, which he explains as "a little thing called showmanship".
[edit] Mr. Vogel
Mr. Vogel is the director and only employee of Cookieville Minimum Security Orphanarium. In "Leela's Homeworld" he is shown to have found Leela on the doorstep of the orphanarium after being left there by her parents. He also found the note from her parents written in Alien Language One and saved it in her file. As part of his duties at the orphanarium he keeps records on all of the Cookieville orphans and for this reason he has held the rank of Level 135 Beauraucrat throughout the time covered in the show. Mr. Vogel often tries to find homes for the orphans in his care particularly in "The Cyber House Rules" when he tries to get Fry to adopt some of the orphans. This resulted in Bender adopting all of the children however they were later returned to the orphanarium. One of his talents is that he can remember everything that happens "like it happened yesterday" as he has a photographic memory. He makes short appearances in "The Why of Fry" and "Three Hundred Big Boys".
[edit] Waterfall Family
Members of the Waterfall family represent stereotypes of left-wing politics. All their appearances have been voiced by Phil Hendrie and the male members of the clan have a pattern of dying in comically violent ways.
[edit] Free Waterfall III
Not shown in the T.V. series, but appeared in Futurama Comics #5 as a contestant on the game show "Who's Dying to be a Gazilionaire?" (a parody of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?). Free Waterfall III was going to use the money to save the holographic rainforest, but was killed during the million-dollar question by a giant laser.
Dying words: screaming
[edit] Frida Waterfall
Appeared in "A Taste of Freedom" but only named in the script. She ran up to Old Man Waterfall after he was killed, referred to him as "great-grandfather", and blamed his death on the "man-o-centric male-ocracy." She may be the daughter to Free Waterfall Jr. and/or sister to Free Waterfall III, but this is unknown.
[edit] Free Waterfall Jr.
A stereotypical hippie, vegetarian, environmentalist "treehugger", and spokesman for Mankind for Ethical Animal Treatment (M.E.A.T.). He strongly objected to the eating of popplers and was himself eaten by Lrrr of Omicron Persei VIII, promptly sending Lrrr on an experience not dissimilar to a drug trip ("The Problem with Popplers"). He had extremely low tolerance for beliefs that are not congruous with his own: "You're all crazy, shut up, let me talk."
Dying words: "This is not happening."
[edit] Free Waterfall Sr.
A nature activist, father of Free Waterfall Jr. and founder of Penguins Unlimited (spoofing real-life environmentalist group Ducks Unlimited). He led the organization in an effort to save a penguin colony on Pluto after a dark matter spill threatened their habitat in a manner analogous to an oil spill. He is strong in his environmental beliefs, even discouraging applause as it kills spores. He frequently said that something is nature's something else. For example: "If you get cold, rub your skin with some permafrost; that's nature's long johns." He was eventually pecked to death (and presumably eaten) by angered penguins ("The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz").
Dying words: "Make sure they use every part of my body!"
[edit] Old Man Waterfall
A bisexual polygamist, civil-rights lawyer and much-suffered space war veteran ("Name a body part and a planet, and I've taken a bullet in it, on it!"). He vowed to avenge his son, Free Waterfall Sr., when he was killed by penguins. He is also the grandfather of Free Waterfall Jr.
He unsuccessfully defended Dr. Zoidberg's constitutional right to eat a flag (though managed to secure constitutional protection for polygamy) and died after being crushed by the giant metal claw of the Decapodian Mobile Oppression Palace ("A Taste of Freedom"). A running joke throughout the episode was that he would often say something controversial to receive applause or scorn from the crowd.
Dying words: "I request a Satanic funeral." (The crowd has mixed cheers and boos.)
[edit] Professor Ogden Wernstrom
(Voiced by David Herman) - Rival of Professor Farnsworth (who usually greets Ogden with a contemptful "Wernstrom!") who resents the "A-" grade Farnsworth gave him for sloppy penmanship when Wernstrom was completing his senior year in 2900. Wernstrom is in his 120s, at least twenty years younger than Farnsworth. Wernstrom swore revenge, "even if it takes [him] a hundred years!" In 3000, Wernstrom finally achieved his goal when Wernstrom beat Farnsworth in the Annual Inventors' Symposium, publicly giving Farnsworth's Smell-o-scope an "A - -".
Despite this condemnation, the Smell-o-scope proved essential in saving the Earth from a giant mass of waste in orbit from the 21st Century. Wernstrom was given the task of stopping the great mass of trash when Farnsworth's plan, to blow it up with a timed bomb, failed when he incorrectly wired the timer. For his cooperation, Wernstrom demanded and received tenure, a big research grant, a lab, and five graduate students (at least three of them Chinese by his request). He then abandoned the city of New New York to its doom (since he had tenure, he couldn't be fired). Wernstrom's Inventors' Symposium award was stripped from him after Farnsworth and the Planet Express crew came up with a second plan, which managed to save New New York, thus prompting another promise of revenge, "even if it takes another hundred years!"
Wernstrom also appears at the Professor's 150th birthday party ("A Clone of My Own") and in the audience of the Nobel Prize ceremony ("Anthology of Interest II"). He later devises a plan to combat global warming with a giant space mirror in "Crimes of the Hot", but after this goes awry he teams up with President Nixon's Head to use the mirror to deactivate every robot on Earth - the robots having been revealed as the source of greenhouse gasses. His final appearance was in "Obsoletely Fabulous" presenting his killbot at Roboticon 3003; He managed to get into a fistfight with Professor Farnsworth over whose killbot was better. The killbots were disgusted by this display of violence and went for a paddleboat ride together.
[edit] Judge Ron Whitey
(Voiced by Billy West) – Judge at "Famous Original Ray's Superior Court", who presided over most of the court cases where the main characters appear. In "A Tale of Two Santas" he sentenced Bender to death, he divorced Fry and Leela in "Time Keeps on Slippin'" and in "Insane in the Mainframe" he sent Fry and Bender to the Institute for Criminally Insane Robots. Judge Whitey is very rich, seems to lack morals, and, in "Three Hundred Big Boys", he tells a joke about having cut off his butler's foot (a reference to the television special Roots). His manner of speech is likely a parody of Mr. Howell from Gilligan's Island.
Whitey is preoccupied with money and wealth, but did not know what a bank was until his caddy's chauffeur informed him that "a bank is a place where people put money that isn't properly invested." Judge Whitey previously ruled that "the crime of being poor" was a mental illness. He also states in that episode that "the only poor people I want to hear about are the people who tend to my pores at the spa". He also believes you are never too rich to enjoy a free turkey dog.
[edit] Leo and Inez Wong
(Leo Wong, voiced by Billy West and Inez Wong, voiced by Lauren Tom) – the very wealthy but meddlesome parents of Amy Wong. They own the entire western hemisphere of Mars (the better hemisphere), where they have a buggalo ranch. Throughout the series Leo and Inez are often seen pestering Amy about their lack of grandchildren and meddling in her love life, trying to find a man to father their grandchild. At an undefined point, their ancestor Sir Reginald Wong bought half of Mars from the native Martians for only one bead (a reference to the purchase of Manhattan Island from the Native Americans for 24 dollars worth of beads). It was later revealed that the bead in question was a gargantuan diamond. In "A Flight to Remember", they introduced Amy to Kif Kroker, but when the two began dating they decided he was not man enough for Amy.
[edit] Unnamed Fat Boy
A monstrously obese boy who made his first appearance in "A Flight to Remember" when Amy's parents offered him to her. He is seen again in the same episode holding a limbo stick for the limbo competition. He appears in "Bendin' in the Wind" at a vendor and was nearly hit by Bender who is falling from a hover bridge after falling out of Fry's VW camper van. As he falls, Bender yells "Someone fat get in my waaaaaay!", but he misses the fat boy and instead lands on the slim woman next to him. He also appears in The Problem With Popplers as a customer at Fishy Joe's. Still a virgin because of his weight.
[edit] See also
- List of recurring robot characters from Futurama
- Zapp Brannigan
- Cubert Farnsworth
- Kif Kroker
- Mom
- Nibbler
| Futurama | |
|---|---|
| Characters | |
| Philip J. Fry | Turanga Leela | Bender | Professor Hubert Farnsworth | Dr. John Zoidberg | Hermes Conrad | Amy Wong Zapp Brannigan | Kif Kroker | Nibbler | Cubert Farnsworth | Calculon | Mom Others: Recurring non-robot characters | Recurring robot characters | Secondary characters |
|
| Media | |
| Episodes | Comic Books | Video Game | |
| Futurama Universe | |
| Planets: Eternium | Omicron Persei VIII | |
| Aliens: Cygnoid | Decapodian | Nibblonian | Neptunian | |
| Politics and Religion: Earth Government | Robotology | D.O.O.P. | |
| Technology: Gadgets | Suicide booth | Planet Express Ship | Nimbus | |
| Other | |
| Timeline | Blernsball | All My Circuits | The Scary Door | Slurm | Products | Locations | Animals | |
