| “ | My Manwich! | ” |
–Hermes | ||
Hermes Conrad is a Jamaican bureaucrat grade 34 and the accountant at Planet Express. He is afraid to make mistakes as this may demote him to a lower grade.
Career
Limbo career
Hermes was once a professional limboer and took part in the Olympics in this evеnt. His main rival was Barbados Slim, another Caribbean limboer. Hermes stopped limboing when a young boy tried to be "just like Hermes" and broke his back (and presumably died) trying to limbo under a tiny gap.
In 3004, Hermes took part in the Olympics and cheated in Olympic Limbo by using the Flabo Dynamic Suit which shifted all of his body fat towards his knees. The suit ripped and Hermes lost out to Barbados Slim.
He entered the Olympics the next time and won.
Bureaucracy
Hermes started as a bureaucrat grade 34 when his grade was first revealed. He is the accountant for Planet Express and a long time friend of Professor Farnsworth. He is proud to be a bureaucrat and has even organized Spa 5, a forced labor camp, to be worked on by one Australian Man. He sorted out the Master In-Pile in less than 4 minutes, but he was demoted to grade 38 for being two seconds early. He was then promoted to grade 37 for pointing out that Morgan Proctor had only stamped a form 4 times, not 5. According to Hermes in Bender's Big Score he is now a bureaucrat grade 34 though in the new episode Lethal Inspection he is shown to be back at grade 36 for unknown reasons. It is also shown in this episode he was once a robot inspector for one of Mom's robot factories in Tijuana as inspector 5. He is also the inspector who approved Bender as he came off the assembly line even though Bender had a defect in which he had no backup unit installed. Bender's cuteness won over Hermes sense of duty and he approved him. He then resigned from the factory a short time after.
Family
Hermes has a wife, LaBarbara Conradis and a son, Dwight Conrad. His wife left him a couple of times, once for Barbados Slim when Hermes lost his body. He stopped his son from smoking one of his cigars, which was probably marijuana, and has also set up an organization, Fathers Against Rude Television to protect his son from Bender's bad habits on All My Circuits.
Personality
Hermes is a friendly and hard working man for Planet Express. That is the case for a top bureaucrat like him. However he is very nasty, mean and abusive to people like Doctor Zoidberg. He is in fact a bully and a total jerk to Zoidberg and does very selfish and cruel things to him like cutting Zoidberg's paychecks for no reason and attempting to fire Zoidberg all the time. He can occasionally be sensitive however, such as when he saved a young Bender. Hermes has a dream of winning the olympic Gold medal for limbo and his archrival is Barbados Slim. He also seems to dislike all his coworkers, with the possible exception of Fry and Leela.
Why he hates Dr. Zoidberg
Hermes is known for his cold and pure hatred to Zoidberg and started showing it in "Hell is other Robots" when he blamed Zoidberg for hogging up electricity when it was actually Bender who was doing it. There has been no actual reason revealed on why he hates Zoidberg though there have been some implications on why throughout the episodes and the four movies. Even Zoidberg is clueless that Hermes hates him and despite trying to be polite and caring for Hermes, Hermes is very rude and disrespectful to him. It does seem that Hermes believes that he is superior to Zoidberg in every way, making Hermes arrogant. The reason on why Hermes hates Zoidberg could be summed up with the fact that Hermes seems to hate the entire Planet Express crew. It is also heavily implied that Hermes hates Zoidberg simply because Zoidberg is a Decapodian as Hermes frequently calls Zoidberg "Ya Filthy Crab", which might be a racist slur, meaning that Hermes is racist towards Decapodians. Here are the implications on why Hermes hates Zoidberg from Hermes point of view:
- Zoidberg is incompetent and a pathetic doctor who usually messes up on his procedures with humans.
- He smells bad but that is simply because he is homeless and lives in a dumpster.
- He has the habit of eating endangered animal species cluelessly.
- He thinks he is rich just from getting three hundred dollars or less.
- He eats a lot of food and usually takes Hermes sandwhich for some reason even though Fry and Bender do that as well.
- He comes from a planet that is known for an un-democratic government.
- He once ate the Earthican Flag Old Freebie, which Earth viewed as desecration.
- He is a coward who runs away from everything scary and violent.
- He usually cannot find a pure and committed relationship with women.
- He has shown sexual confusion to human men.
- He eats toilet paper from the bathroom.
- He overreacts to certain things and frequently falls for anything that he is tricked on.
- Zoidberg supports Hermes' arch nemesis, Barbados Slim during the olympics when he should be cheering for Hermes.
Additional Information
- In the comic book issue Bender Breaks Out it was revealed that Hermes was born in 2959, which makes him in his early 50's.
- Hermes is shown to be obese in several episodes, when it is revealed that he has a baby like skeleton with the rest of him being pure fat excluding the organs.
- A holographic Hermes was once attacked by a real pigeon, resulting in the real Hermes appearing in bandages in the next scene (Fear of a Bot Planet).
- During a limbo party in Bender's Big Score he lost his body and LaBarbara Conrad and his son to Barbados Slim.
- He used to work for Mom's Robot Company along with Farnsworth and Zoidberg, and was Bender's quality control inspector. Despite having worked at Mom's Friendly Robot Company prior to Bender's birth in 2997, resigning after falsifying Bender's approval report, he is shown to have been Employee of the Year at Planet Express a number of years from as early as 2992 (Prisoner of Benda). He is also shown to be at his 'current' appearance in these Employee of the Year photos, despite appearing significantly younger in 2997 at Mom's Friendly Robot Company.
- Without Hermes decision in lethal inspection, Bender would never technically have existed in the first place.
- Hermes has shown apathy towards the crew's safety at least a couple of times during the episode The Farnsworth Parabox.
- When Hermes or someone else destroys a piece of equipment anytime and does not want to be paying for it, he usually frames Zoidberg for it. This is shown when Leela destroys the roof of Planet Express with the ship and Hermes says "That's comin out of your pay" to Zoidberg, which reduces him to tears.
- A running gag in several episodes Hermes was shown to be eating a sandwich. Sometime later it is taken or destroyed by Fry, Bender, or Zoidberg, causing Hermes to yell, "My manwich!" It is shown that his son does this also.
- In the episode Lethal Inspection, it revealed that when Hermes was younger he use to work as a robot inspector for Mom's Robot Company in Tijuana, Mexico. However, he resigned after he allowed Bender to pass his inspection on the assembly line although he was defective.
- It is unknown why Hermes has been a jerk to Zoidberg in the series, though it could be a running gag.
- When he once fired Bender and Fry in case they die in a pointless war, he stuck his fist in his teeth and acted rather worried, which could mean he is frightened if a vital employee is fired.
- Hermes also seems to dislike Nibbler in "The Deep South", as he claimed he would like to "Stuff him in a sack, throw the sack into the river, and hurl the river into space".
Gallery
Template:Wikipedia
| Main Characters | ||
| Amy Wong • Bender Bending Rodríguez • Hermes Conrad • Hubert J. Farnsworth • John A. Zoidberg • Philip J. Fry • Turanga Leela |