John A. Zoidberg

John A. Zoidberg
Character Information
Gender
Status	Alive
Age	Over 86
Species	Decapodian
Planet	Formerly: Decapod 10 Currently: Earth
Profession	Planet Express (Doctor)
Relatives	Father:Norm Mother: Sam Adoptive mother: Sadie Brothers: Norman, several unnamed Sistеrs: Several unnamed Uncle: Harold Zoid Cousin: Zoidfarb
Background Information
First appearance	"The Series Has Landed"
Voiced by	Billy West

"Whoop Whoop Whoop"

―John A. Zoidberg

John A. Zoidberg, better known as Zoidberg, is one of the main characters in Futurama. He was born on the planet Decapod 10 and moved to Earth to practice medicine after giving up comedy once. Despite being a self-proclaimed expert on Humans, he called Philip J. Fry "young lady" when they first met and has confused Fry and Bender. He speaks, as all Decapodians do, with a heavy Yiddish accent. He is the nephew of famed eccentric movie celebrity Harold Zoid. On a number of occasions, Zoidberg has made mention of Hermes being his best friend.

Zoidberg is actually the alien discovered in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. He seems to live in various places around the Planet Express building, notably the Dumpster, in which he has been seen numerous times looking for food and shelter. Zoidberg himself confessed to "living in a dumpster" in 3011, presumably the Planet Express building Dumpster. A conversation Zoidberg has with the Professor suggests that he is only staying with Planet Express because of a life debt to the Professor.  A series of flashbacks reveal that Zoidberg first met and befriended Farnsworth in 2927, during a mission to kill a Tritonian Yeti for Mom. During the mission, Zoidberg is attacked by a Tritonian Yeti, but is saved by Farnsworth, who is scratched by the Tritonian Yeti. Farnsworth now fears that he has contracted Hyper-Malaria, a painful, fatal, incurable disease which can either strike instantly or remain dormant for years. He asks Zoidberg to perform a mercy killing if he ever exhibits symptoms of the disease. Grateful for the Professor having saved his life and killing the Tritonian Yeti, Zoidberg agrees. As a result, Zoidberg is employed by the Professor for the purpose of carrying out the task. He is technically homeless and very poor, being a very unsuccessful "internal medicine doctor". Although claiming it was lost in a volcano, it is very likely that Zoidberg does not actually have a medical degree but rather has a doctorate in art history. Despite his professional incompetence, he has been drafted into the DOOP army as a MEAT surgeon.

He is extremely poor and has stated several times that he has no home. Even worse, he is even treated like a social pariah by mostly everyone around him. Hermes Conrad considers him as practically a slave and does not hesitate in treating him like one. He usually eats from the trash or a dumpster, mistaking the trash for food and is envious of even the smallest amounts of money due to his lack of knowledge in currency and economics. Another factor of his poverty was mainly the fact that Hermes kept cutting Zoidberg's paychecks for no reason. He is excitable about his friends and is very trusting with the crew. He appears to be rather fond of all of them, only really disliking Bender Bending Rodríguez. Most of the crew (except possibly Fry, Farnsworth, as well as Amy) finds Zoidberg (or at least his species) to be disgusting as he will eat almost anything and his extreme "incompetence" as a doctor has done nothing for his popularity. Although, sometimes the rest of the crew will be nice or care for him, except maybe Hermes.

A composite of numerous sea creatures, Zoidberg's features have been myriad. The most unique feature is his inability to feel physical pain. An example is in the episode "Roswell that Ends Well", Zoidberg is aware that he is getting dissected without anethesia but he doesn't feel any type of pain as he gets dissected. His known attributes include a removable exoskeleton, a retractable head fin that indicates arousal, aggression, or fear, an ink gland, a "stink gland", a gland that emits foul odors when he's bored, an empathy bladder, a freshwater stomach, a saltwater stomach, four hearts, a throat that apparently produces psychedelic blue pearls, as well as a "wazoo". This last item is apparently some sort of sex organ, the place where the "male jelly" comes out for the mating of his species. It has been revealed that passing on genetic material is a life terminating event for these lobster people, so while the good doctor once informed Leo Wong that he 'took the liberty of fertilizing his caviar' for him, it remains ambiguous what actually transpired. Along with a "wazoo", Zoidberg also has gonopores, as revealed in Neutopia when everyone's gender is taken away, when he looks in his pants and promptly yells "My gonopores," and then tells everyone to "look it up."

Zoidberg reverted through several of the early "larval" life cycle stages of his species after being exposed to a youth tar. He seems to have started off as a small immobile creature from which asexually fragmented "brothers" could separate (each with a distinct personality). A later stage was a parasitic lamprey, followed by a large clam inside which his head was visible. The next oldest form resembled a trilobite. Other stages included a sea urchin and a cuttlefish.

Zoidberg is indirectly and unintentionally responsible for a number of disasters and misfortunes which befall Earth's people, including their enslavement by the Decapodians due to their overreaction of Zoidberg eating a flag and sentencing him to death after giving him an unfair trial. Due to his alleged overacting in a TV series finale, the people of Earth are denied the Omicronian recipe for eternal life. He is also partially responsible for the near sale of Planet Express to MomCorp, due to foolishly trading all of his stocks to That Guy for a sandwich, which grew moldy because he kept it in his coat pocket. That near sale was, however, mainly Fry's fault.

Romance(s)

Edna

Even though Zoidberg is generally disliked by everybody he comes into contact with, he did manage to find a little romance with a Lobster at the Hipster Club when Amy Wong took Turanga Leela out to find a man, walking out with the lobster in his arms after the bar closed. He also had fallen in love with Edna, but the feelings weren't mutual: Edna fell in love with Philip J. Fry instead. He and the Jellyfish Monster (who also served as his field nurse during the war) were seen sharing a glass of wine on the Titanic.. He is ultimately revealed to be currently married to an unknown wife in "Benderama" when Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth shredded his wedding album to make two small sweaters. It is unknown who Zoidberg's wife is but possible candidates are Grrl, Candy, as well as the Jellyfish Monster.

In the episode "Stench and Stenchibility", Zoidberg falls in love with a flower merchant with no sense of smell called Marianne. After gaining a nose, Marianne enjoys Zoidberg's scent, as she had never learned a good smell from a bad smell. The two are presumed to have an ongoing relationship, as they are last seen together driving off in a garbage truck.

Personality

Out of all the Planet express crew members, Zoidberg is considered to be the most caring and innocent member of the crew. He is a sweet and lovable guy who just wants a friend to hang out with but for some reason most people dislike him, especially Hermes. Despite this, Zoidberg considers everyone to be his friend. He is portrayed as a dumb, incompetent doctor due to his frequent surgical mishaps and misdiagnoses but he shows he is far from stupid as he shows he has knowledge in alien anatomy (not human, though he is a self-proclaimed "human expert") and has a Ph.D. in Art History. He does not even have the guts to stand up to bullies and instead acts in a cowardly fashion towards them. He tries his hardest to prove that he is a trustworthy guy and he is constantly nice towards other people. The ostracism he receives from the Planet Express crew and society causes him to be a very lonely person. He is even very unaware that Hermes bullies him constantly and he does not dare to ask Hermes why he hates him so much. Despite this heavy unawareness, Zoidberg like any other employee, has a fear of getting fired. However in a recent episode it is shown that he is a long time friend and crew member of Professor Farnsworth's and the Professor won't fire him even though he has shown to be vastly incompetent at his job and is hated by most of his co-workers.

Trivia

• He appeared in a episode of duck dodgers.
• His catchprase is "HOORAY!"
• Zoidberg's birthday, May 5, is the day after Amy's. but the Planet Express Crew always forgets his birthday.
• Zoidberg is one of those who went inside Fry's body in "Parasites Lost".
• Zoidberg's medical specialty is declaring people medically dead, whether they are or not. He is also very skilled in suturing hands back together, especially with human hands.
• Zoidberg had a brief acting career, having played a minor role in The Magnificent Three.
• His uncle, Harold Zoid, is a legendary movie director and actor and an Oscar winner.
• Even though he is poor, he somehow obtained the money to buy the new eyePhone in "Attack of the Killer App".
• It is revealed in "Bendless Love" that he has a pet Slinky, which is actually his favorite toy.
• Zoidberg is often forced to clean up messes around the Planet Express building by the other employees, even when the mess was made by everyone, though this should be Scruffy's job.
• When Zoidberg received $300 from the mass tax refund, he thought he was rich. This shows that Zoidberg is bad at economics. Also in "Viva Mars Vegas", he was shown to have collected and saved several pennies in his jar which he thought would be enough for him to do gambling, even though this only amounted to perhaps only a few dollars. Amy has known Zoidberg to have primitive habits on managing money and this leads to Amy ripping on Zoidberg for being poor, though she apologizes to him for that later on. Part of the reason why Amy ripped on Zoidberg for being poor was because Amy herself was the daughter of a rich couple.
• He is an honorary member of the Harlem Globetrotters along with Professor Farnsworth, Amy and Hermes.
• In the episode "The Silence of the Clamps", it is revealed that the only reason he is a member of Planet Express is to snip and cut, as well as is extremely sensitive about this role. However it was also revealed in "The Tip of the Zoidberg" that he was a member of Planet Express for the sole purpose of performing euthanasia on Professor Farnsworth because Farnsworth was sick with yetiism, which was mistaken for hypermalaria.
• He once managed to beat the ever-loving daylight out of a Mob Enforcer with his bare claws.
• Zoidberg and Professor Farnsworth have been friends since 2927.

  

  John Zoidberg and Hubert Farnsworth working for MomCorp in the year 2927.

• As of the statement above, it is indicated that Zoidberg is older than 80. Presumably in his 100's as Zoidberg in the photo looks in his 20's
• Zoidberg is a competent physician, but not for humans. He is competent in the anatomy of aliens and even Mom recognizes his skillfulness with aliens.
• In addition to his fake medical degree, he says to have mail-ordered murderology and murderonomy degrees.
• He is the only known being to be deemed "good" by Robot Santa Claus as he was given a pogo stick as a gift. The reason for this could be an error in the Santa Claus or because of his kind and innocent personality..
• It was once revealed that he lives in one of Professor Farnsworth's inventions. However, he officially lives in his dumpster due to his poverty. The closest he ever got to having a real home was when he made one out of a seashell only to have it burned down by Bender despite the fact that it was underwater.
• Despite his poor skills as a comedian, he is shown to be very skilled at ventriloquism.
• Zoidberg is one of two characters who are known primarily by their surname: the other is Fry. Leela doesn't count as it's revealed in Less than Hero that Turanga is Leela's surname.
• Frequently makes a "whooping" sound, which is based on Curly from The Three Stooges.

Behind the Scenes

In the development process for the show, David X. Cohen looked to the original Star Trek series for inspiration. Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy often operated on alien species, so they decided to have an alien doctor that served the human crew and as the series unfolded it became clear that Zoidberg's medical ability was lacking with humans but highly skilled with aliens, which makes him a spoof of Dr. McCoy. Additionally, Zoidberg's character also took on other running jokes: he became poor, lonely, as well as a failed comedian in addition to being a horrible doctor.

The name "Zoidberg" comes from a game for the Apple II, that Cohen developed when he was in high school. Although Zoid was never picked up, it became the basis for Zoidberg's name.

The voice for Dr. Zoidberg was developed by Billy West, influenced by actors Lou Jacobi and George Jessel.

Gallery

Female Zoidberg