Hubert J. Farnsworth

From Futurama Wiki

Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (voiced by Billy West) is the extremely elderly proprietor of the Planet Express delivery service. Born April 9, 2841, the Professor is pushing the limits of even 31st century old age at about 160.

The professor is the only living relative of Philip J. Fry, (except for the professor's own clone, Cubert), being his great-great-great-etc. nephew. Though never stated, he is therefore logically the descendant of Philip's only sibling, his brother Yancy Fry Jr. However, since it is revealed that Philip J. Fry is his own, and therefore Yancy's, grandfather due to his time-traveling exploits in the series, Farnsworth is logically in fact Philip Fry's direct descendant via his brother/grandson Yancy.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Personality 3 Inventions 4 Trivia 5 Appearances

[edit] Biography

The Professor roughly amounts to a mad scientist (which he has admitted to being on several occasions). He is a senile, deranged, and unpredictable old man who is both a maniac and a genius. He has a gift and a passion for the creation of doomsday weapons and atomic supermen, and is a danger to himself, his employees, and the universe in general. He has put at least one parallel universe in peril with his inventions.

The Professor formally worked for Momcorp and teaches at Mars University, but he currently spends a majority of his time inventing ridiculous devices and coming up with equally suicidal missions for his crew. While at Momcorp, he fell in love with the CEO, Mom, only to leave her and Momcorp when she decided to weaponize his "QT McWhiskers" toy, an anthropomorphic cat toy that shot rainbows from its eyes.

The Professor is characterized by his catch-phrase "Good news, everyone!" frequently followed by very bad news — often one of his semi-suicidal missions. Another is his exclamation of surprise, "Sweet Zombie Jesus!", which is noted to be clumsily censored (or simply muted out) on some networks. In the first two episodes, he had the catch phrase "but I am already in my pajamas", which was replaced by the former phrase. Also, though not a catchphrase in general, he often says "Wha?" when unaware of the situation, or when someone questions a statement he has just made, showing his senility. He also often completely contradicts himself, like the time when he told his crew they were to gather "Ordinary honey. Just ordinary honey." When one of his crew asked about the mission, he suddenly turns serious and says "This is no ordinary honey!"

One frequent source of humor in the show is the Professor's amazingly advanced age, which manifests itself in senility and general physical decrepitude. While generally friendly, he is sometimes prone to sudden fits of bitter contempt for random things. The Professor is also known for his inclination toward exhibitionism and does not hesitate to appear naked in public, stating that, like pine trees and poodles, the "primitive notions of modesty" of the twentieth century are long gone. Despite this claim, Hermes mentions in the first "Anthology of Interest" episode that he's been cited several times for public nudity. He also mentions that, being 160 years old, he is old enough to rent and purchase "ultra-porn." Beyond that, the professor's occasional brief verbal digressions about his own life imply a somewhat colorful sexual past, which he often concludes with a nostalgic "Ah, yes...".

The Professor is the oldest human being living on earth (excluding those who have been cryogenically frozen or are kept alive as heads in jars), a title he acquired after the events of the episode "A Clone of My Own", in which it was revealed that upon turning 160, all humans are collected by the "Sunset Squad Robots" and sent to live out the rest of their days in isolation aboard the gigantic "Near Death Star" (a pun on the Death Star of the Star Wars universe). After his crew rescues him, Farnsworth returns to Planet Express to resume the life he originally had before being removed by the Sunset Robot Squad. In "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" his age is stated to be 161, and after swimming in the fountain of aging, reports that he is "Even older! Huzzah!".

Although being in his 160's, the Professor became quite shocked in the episode "The Sting", when Fry (who was technically 1025 years old after being frozen for a millennium) accidentally died, remarking "This makes me the oldest living member of my family!" and burst into tears at this realization (although this was in Leela's dream).

The Professor rarely worries about the safety of the crew, viewing them as a means to an end, as evidenced in the first episode. After remarking that he was looking for a new crew for his intergalactic space ship, he was asked "what happened to your old crew?" His response was "Oh, those poor sons-of-b-but that's not important! What is important is that I need a new crew!" When Fry, Bender and Leela state that they have no career chips, he produces them from a bag labeled "Contents of Space Bee's Stomach". He quite frequently sends them on dangerous missions even when he has the foreknowledge that they will probably not make it back alive. His missions are typically those other delivery companies won't take, such as delivering subpoenas to mob-controlled worlds or casual deliveries to virus-infested planets. Even the commercial that he had produced for his company makes several remarks to this effect, including "When other companies aren't crazy or foolhardy enough" and "our crew is expendable, your package isn't", the former showing the crewman running through a minefield and the latter showing him being dragged away by a giant bird. During another episode, when the crew and his ship are sent off to war, he immediately tries to hire another crew. When his old crew returns, he is clearly surprised they survived, remarking, "Oh God you're alive! I mean, thank God you're alive," then remarks to the applicants, "Come back in three days. A week at the most" indicating just how low he thinks their chances of survival are. When the crew was sent to retrieve space honey they found the remains of the previous Planet Express Ship buried in the hive's honey. Even his family relationship to Fry doesn't do much (if anything) to reduce his ardor for particularly difficult and deadly delivery missions.

[edit] Personality

Though a genius and prodigious inventor, Farnsworth is also plagued by intermittent senility. In contrast to his endearingly inept persona, he has several negative character traits. These include arrogance, spitefulness, and a general disregard towards his employees.

[edit] Inventions

Some of Farnsworth's notable inventions include:

• The Spheroboom
• The Cool-O-Meter
• The Electric Frankfurter
• The Death Clock
• The Bad-Ass Gravity Pump
• The Maternifuge
• The Smell-O-Scope
• The What-If Machine
• The Who-Ask Machine
• The Alternate Universe Box
• The Superhuman Mutant Basketball Team
• The Clone-O-Mat
• The Electronium Hat
• The F-Ray
• The Fing-Longer
• The Relative Box
• The Reanimator
• Gizmometer
• Dark Matter Engine
• Dark Matter Afterburner
• Albino Shouting Gorillas
• Anti-Pressure Pill
• Farnsworth's Killbots
• Q. T. McWhiskers
• Universal Translator
• The First Robot Capable of Qualifying for a Boat Loan
• Device That Makes Anyone Sound Like Farnsworth
• The first Sport-Utility Robot
• Glow-in-the-dark nose making machine
• Maternifuge
• Alternate universe box
• Planet Express
• Time Travel code

[edit] Trivia

The character's name was inspired by real-life inventor Philo Farnsworth, who invented the cathode ray tube television.

[edit] Appearances

"Space Pilot 3000" "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed" "I, Roommate" "Love's Labour Lost in Space" "Fear Of A Bot Planet" "A Fishful of Dollars" "My Three Suns" "A Big Piece Of Garbage" "Hell Is Other Robots" "A Flight To Remember" "Mars University" "When Aliens Attack" "Fry & The Slurm Factory" "I Second That Emotion" "Brannigan Begin Again" "A Head In The Polls" "Xmas Story" "Put Your Head On My Shoulders" "Why Must I Be a Crustacean In Love?" "The Lesser Of Two Evils" "Raging Bender" "A Bicyclops Built For Two" "A Clone Of My Own" "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back" "The Deep South" "Bender Gets Made" "Mother's Day" "My Problem With Popplers" "Anthology Of Interest I" "War Is The H-Word" "The Honking" "The Cryonic Woman" "Amazon Women In The Mood" "Parasites Lost" "A Tale of Two Santas" "Luck of the Fryish" "Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" "Bendless Love" "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" "That's Lobstertainment!" "The Cyber House Rules" "Where the Buggalo Roam" "Insane in the Mainframe" "Route of All Evil" "Bendin' in the Wind" "Time Keeps on Slippin'" "I Dated a Robot" "A Leela of Her Own" "A Pharaoh To Remember" "Anthology Of Interest II" "Godfellas" "Future Stock" "The 30% Iron Chef" "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch" "Leela's Homeworld" "Love And Rocket" "Less Than Hero" "A Tase Of Freedom" "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On Television" "Jurassic Bark" "Crimes Of The Hot" "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" "The Why Of Fry" "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" "The Sting" "Bend Her" "Obsoletely Fabulous" "The Farnsworth Parabox" "Three Hundred Big Boys" "Spanish Fry" "The Devil's Hand's Are Idle Playthings" Bender's Big Score The Beast with a Billion Backs Bender's Game The Wild Green Yonder