Doctor John A. Zoidberg is a fictional character in the television series Futurama. He is a lobster-like alien from the planet Decapod 10, who emigrated to 30th century Earth, where he works as the staff doctor for Planet Express, despite his woeful understanding of human physiology and allusions to his questionable credentials.

Zoidberg is voiced by Billy West, who performs the character with a Yiddish-inflected accent inspired by actors George Jessel and Lou Jacobi.^[1]

Character creation[link]

Zoidberg is named after an Apple II game that David X. Cohen created in high school called Zoid, similar to the game Qix. The game was rejected by Brøderbund.^[2][3][4] One of Cohen's inspirations for the character of Dr. Zoidberg was the fact that Star Trek character Bones, the ship's doctor (Leonard McCoy) frequently administered medical treatment to aliens such as Mr. Spock, so Cohen wished human characters in Futurama to be in the uneasy situation of being treated by an alien doctor.^[3]

During the first season, jokes surrounding Zoidberg usually focused on his incompetence as a doctor, his poor understanding of human anatomy, and the fact that all of his co-workers hate him. His incompetence is aggravated by the fact that he believes himself to be an expert on human anatomy, and will blithely attempt to treat human patients as he would his own species. One of his running traits is his pronunciation of the word "robot," lengthening the "ro-" so it sounds like "roh-bit," an inflection typical among Ashkenazi Jews. As the series progressed, writers gradually introduced the themes that Zoidberg is also poor, homeless, friendless, smelly, undignified, and repulsive.^[5] Regardless of these traits, Zoidberg generally attempts to make himself look refined, successful, and important in front of others, though this illusion is quickly dashed when pointed out.

Billy West came up with Dr. Zoidberg's voice, which is inspired by actors Lou Jacobi and George Jessel.^[1][6] Zoidberg is frequently identified by the writers in episode commentaries as having some stereotypical Jewish characteristics, though in the episode "Future Stock" he is barred from a "Bot Mitzvah" (a robot Bar Mitzvah), because shellfish are not Kosher.

Fictional character biography[link]

Zoidberg is the company doctor at Planet Express. Although he claims expertise in human medicine, particularly internal medicine, his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is atrocious. For example, he cannot tell the difference between robots and humans (or human males and females), believes food is digested in the heart, and that humans have multiple mouths and a dorsal fin. His only knowledge of humans seems to come from television advertisements, although his skills as a physician generally vary: in "Put Your Head on My Shoulders" he manages to successfully transplant Fry's head onto Amy's body after Fry's body incurs massive trauma in a vehicular accident that requires extensive repair, but in "Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder" he incorrectly declares Fry dead only for him to wake up a few seconds later. In Bender's Big Score, he performs several limb reattachments to moderate success. In "Parasites Lost", due to his incompetence as a physician, he comes to the conclusion that Fry, who is frequently injured, is a hypochondriac, an accusation he makes when Fry sits before Zoidberg with a pipe through his chest. He claims to be an M.D.,^[7] but states in "A Clone of My Own" that he lost his medical degree in a volcano. However, he later states in "The Duh-Vinci Code" that his doctorate is in art history (as opposed to medicine).^[8] Other intimations to his dubious medical training include the episode "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles," in which he comments, "I'm no doctor, but this machine guy could really use a lozenge."^[9]

Despite his career as a physician, Zoidberg is repeatedly identified as living in poverty, lonely and desperate for friendship and attention. The crew are often disgusted by his foul habits, such as squirting ink or eating from trash cans, though he is mostly oblivious to their true feelings about him, having referred to Hermes Conrad and Bender as friends. Hermes seems to have a more intense dislike of Zoidberg, seeing him as even more expendable than the rest of the crew. However, when Fry reads Hermes' mind in "Into the Wild Green Yonder", it is revealed that Hermes sees him as "pathetic but lovable". Zoidberg became a hero to all of Earth when he saved Earth from enslavement to his own kind in "A Taste of Freedom". Fry and the Professor are usually the only ones to refer to Zoidberg as a friend, as in Bender's Big Score, in which Zoidberg says, "He was the only one of you who never struck me!" while attending Fry's memorial. Zoidberg has ambitions to be a stand-up comedian, but he is entirely unsuccessful at this endeavor. In one episode, his uncle, the silent hologram star Harold Zoid (a parody of Harold Lloyd), advises him to give up on comedy and finance a film whose script Zoid is writing.

When frightened or fleeing from danger, Zoidberg makes a high-pitched whooping sound, similar to Curly in The Three Stooges or squirts ink at his attacker. It is revealed in "The Cryonic Woman" that Zoidberg's fantasy is to become a grandmother. "A Taste of Freedom" and "Bender's Game" indicate that Zoidberg harbored a childhood dream of working in show business as a comedian or song-and-dance man, but that his parents pushed him to become a doctor.

The reason that the Professor continues to employ Zoidberg as the staff physician despite his apparent incompetence is revealed in "The Tip of the Zoidberg". Under the impression that he had been infected with a delayed-onset case of the fatal disease hyper-malaria whilst serving in a covert quasi-military mission for Mom, the Professor asked Zoidberg, whom he had previously saved from a yeti, on the promise that when the disease manifested itself, Zoidberg would euthanize him. It is also explained that Zoidberg is, in fact, a competent physician - just not for humans. Mom (Carol to Zoidberg) referred to Zoidberg as "the best in the business" when it comes to alien anatomy. Mom also asks Zoidberg why he stayed with Farnsworth all through the years; saying Zoidberg could have been a millionaire with his own research lab. Zoidberg replies to Mom that it was because Farnsworth is his friend, indicating that Zoidberg values people more than money.

Zoidberg is depicted as being ignorant of human customs, and socially inept, to the point of inspiring great aggravation in others. In "Where the Buggalo Roam" during his stay at the ranch of Amy Wong's parents, he bathes in their champagne, breaks their television, fertilizes the caviar before Amy's father eats it, draws mustaches on several portraits around the house, and refers to the ranch as "Rancho Zoidberg," enraging the Wongs.

Zoidberg's race, the Decapodians — from the sandy, beach-like planet Decapod 10 — are crustaceans, generally lobster-like in appearance — though they have been called squids, crabs or crawdads — with lobster-like claws, mouth tentacles, a hard exoskeleton, a fleshy, boneless interior, a fin that appears atop their heads during mating season or extreme anger, an ink pouch, two stomachs (one saltwater and one freshwater), three hearts, (originally four), gonopores, a gland that stinks when Decapodians are bored and a complex system of internal organs, "most of which are either redundant or unnecessary." He is not fazed when one of his hearts is removed by an alien autopsy team of human doctors, saying "Take it, take it, I have four of them!" in "Roswell That Ends Well", and loses various other useless organs in that episode during the autopsy. Zoidberg has been depicted as able to consume things not considered food by humans, such as fish bones, wood, and chess pieces. In the episode "Bendin' in the Wind", Zoidberg produces tie-dye blue pearls after consuming large amounts of dirt. Zoidberg also habitually eats clothing and once, an Earth flag. Given that he refers to clothes as food and considers them a kind of delicacy, it may be that Decapodians themselves consume clothes. In Mobius Dick, it is revealed that Zoidberg spontaneously grows hair in moments of extreme fright. Like Zoidberg, most of other Decapodians are depicted as having Yiddish accents and mannerisms. At one point in all Decapodians' lives, they enter a mating phase, or "The Frenzy" as they call it, which causes them to behave in a neurotic and manic way. During this chaotic time, their behavior is dictated by the tiny brain located in their rumps. They also develop incredible super-human strength, their head fin comes out for mating displays, their stink glands increase production and the males become saturated with male jelly as the females become engorged with eggs. In the episode "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?", it is indicated that once Decapodians mate, they die.

The episode "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" indicates that young Decapodians progress through various crustacean, invertebrate, and fish-like forms before reaching their adult form. However, in the episode "A Taste of Freedom", a young Zoidberg is seen with his typical humanoid form.

Dr. Zoidberg is also a skilled theremin player.

References[link]

External links[link]

	Futurama portal
	Fictional characters portal

• "Dr. John A. Zoidberg" at the Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki.