Dr. Zoidberg

Doctor John Zoidberg (born August 5), also known as Dr. Zoidberg or simply Zoidberg, is a fictional lobster-like alien from the planet Decapod 10 in the television series Futurama. He works as the company doctor for Planet Express, even though he knows very little about the physiology of humans. Zoidberg is voiced by Billy West. Zoidberg’s age is never revealed in the series, and conflicting views are shown of his childhood. In one episode, Zoidberg is seen in child form, but in “Teenage Mutant Leela’s Hurdles”, when the crew reverts to their younger forms, Zoidberg goes through rapid larval stages, including stages where he resembles a sea sponge, sea urchin, anglerfish, horseshoe crab, cuttlefish, lamprey, and clam before growing into his present form.

Zoidberg is the nephew of Harold Zoid, the famous silent-hologram star, whose name is a play on both Harold Lloyd and the former practice of Jewish actors changing their names. Even though Zoidberg is an alien species and is neither Jewish nor human, he and his species have characteristics that are stereotypically Jewish (including a Yiddish accent). He has three parents, named Norm, Sam, and Sadie (although another episode indicates Decapodians only have two parents, who die during mating; perhaps the other parent could be a foster parent), and a cousin named Zoidfarb. He also seems to have several siblings who budded from him in his sea sponge phase, including a brother called Norman.

Doctor Zoidberg’s race, the Decapodians, are aliens from the mud planet Decapod 10. This name is a reference to the scientific nomanclature of lobsters and crayfish as decapods, that is, creatures with ten legs. The actual physiology of Decapodians combines that of several different sea creatures. Dr. Zoidberg’s anatomy is similar to that of crustacea, for he has chelae (pincers) and a hard exoskeleton. However he also has many attributes of cephalopod mollusks, such as the tentacle-like protrusions covering his mouth (reminiscent of those of cuttlefish) and his ink gland, through which he occasionally expels ink when threatened (as do all Coleoidea). He also coughs up pearls after ingesting “too much dirt.” He has also been shown to propel water from several unseen holes on his head. Throughout the series, Zoidberg usually refers to himself, and is referred to by others, as a lobster. In an early episode, Zoidberg falls in love with an actual lobster in a nightclub aquarium. Later, he finds himself trapped in a lobster cage, but is rescued by Bender. Zoidberg is an old friend of Professor Farnsworth and is the doctor at Planet Express. His office door bears the sign “Dr. Zoidberg: A Medical Corporation.” Although he claims expertise in human medicine, his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is actually very poor: he often mistakes Fry for a woman or a robot (which he pronounnces ‘Rowbit’), and the chart of human anatomy on his office wall is upside-down. He is often confused by the “strange” features of humans, such as their skeletal system or lack of multiple mouths. He believes that humans have dorsal fins, that the heart is part of the digestive system (this may be because he has four hearts, even though his species does not need them all) and even that the human gonads are in the neck. When he operates on the staff, he makes spectacular mistakes, such as attaching Fry’s severed arm onto the shoulder of his other arm. In “Parasites Lost,” it is shown that Zoidberg has gleaned more information on anatomy through television commercials than through academic study. He is only directly questioned about his medical expertise in the episode “A Clone Of My Own”: he claims unconvincingly that he lost his medical degree in a volcano.

In addition to his medical qualifications, Zoidberg claims to have mail-order degrees in “Murderology” and “Murderonomy.” He loves stand-up comedy and often tries to become a comedian. However, he is appallingly bad, and his stand-up performances usually end in him being pelted with rubbish or dragged offstage. (Example: “Earth, what a planet! Here, you enjoy a tasty clam. On my planet, clams enjoy eating a tasty you!” Many of his jokes are modelled on and parodies of Yakov Smirnoff’s jokes.)

Although he is a doctor, Zoidberg lives in crushing poverty. He is always hungry and has no home, instead living at the Planet Express building in the “maternifuge.” He often eats out of rubbish bins and he cannot afford shoes. He is constantly hungry, sometimes says that he has not eaten for several days, and eats nearly anything even vaguely organic, including a live guinea pig, a boot, and a bag of toenail clippings which he believes are potato chips. He gets excited at the offer of free food, and in one episode enters a pet show to try and win a year’s supply of dog food. It’s not clear whether this excitement is caused by his alien metabolism or his poverty (or both). He adds salt to the water cooler in the Planet Express building. Perhaps his poverty springs from his belief that he is a shrewd investor. He regularly spends money on pointless purchases (such as eight copies of the same record) and makes bad business decisions, such as exchanging his (considerable) corporate stock for a sandwich (however, he later claims he would have settled for a hard roll with ketchup on it). It is later revealed that he owned 51% of Planet Express’ stock at one point, having been given thousands of worthless stock certificates by Hermes Conrad, the bureaucrat of Planet Express, to use as toilet paper. Doctor Zoidberg harbors the irrational belief that all medical professionals are as poor as he is. He also hates other medical professionals, and the very presence of another doctor will provoke him into picking a fight.

Zoidberg seems to get along with his co-workers most of the time, though he is often treated like an annoying pet, frequently found in Professor Farnsworth’s laboratory and subsequently shooed away with a broom. Hermes Conrad hates him and is ready to show it, scapegoating him, ordering him to do menial jobs around the office, and cutting his salary for various reasons. Zoidberg’s unpopularity in the office may be due to his being overshadowed by Fry, Leela, and Bender: he became the most well-liked office worker when those three were fired from Planet Express (in the episode “The Cryonic Woman”). Curiously, the Robot Santa created by MomCorp judged Zoidberg to be ‘nice’, and gave him a Pogo Stick, despite the fact that the Robot Santa has a tendency to label everyone as ‘naughty’ and consequently attempt to kill them.

Zoidberg longs for attention and friendship and rejoices when these desires are fulfilled even slightly, but he is always disappointed when people pay no attention to him. Apart from his colleagues at work, he has very few friends, and can’t make new ones due to his appalling odor and tetchy personality. The staff of Planet Express makes jokes at his expense and criticizes him even when he is in the room, but he never realizes that he is being ridiculed, and even interprets insults as compliments. He is also unable to stand up for himself: instead of arguing, he bursts into tears. He makes whooping noises when “evading enemies,” like Curly Howard from The Three Stooges who were themselves Jewish.

There are other ethnic references in Dr. Zoidberg’s character. He speaks English with a pseudo-Yiddish accent and is once seen wearing a T-shirt with Hebrew lettering on it (שלוּרם, which would be pronounced “Shlurm”; this is a reference to the T-shirts that were available in the 1970s that read “Drink Coca-Cola” in Hebrew). These allusions combine to suggest the culture of Ashkenazi Jewish people. Additionally, surnames ending in “berg” are stereotypically Jewish (although in an issue of Futurama Comics, he states that his last name means “smarty pants” in “Squiddish”). Zoidberg is a crustacean, and crustaceans are not kosher according to the doctrine of Judaism, which adds an extra layer of humor to Dr. Zoidberg’s character. On one occasion he was refused entry to a “Bot Mitzvah” reception (“No shellfish!”). Further, the other Decapodians seen on the show, such as Zoidberg’s Uncle Harold (voiced by Hank Azaria) and the staff at the Decapodian embassy in Washington D.C. speak with very heavy Yiddish-accents. The staff at the Decapodian embassy also use Yiddish words like “shlep,” and the secretary is an example of a caring Jewish mother. The Decapodian race is originally from the mud planet Decapod 10 (a member planet of the Democratic Order of Planets), but many Decapodians also live on Earth. Decapod 10 seems to have been one of the first alien races to make contact with humans, and Decapodians arrived on Earth soon afterward (proceeding to accidentally wipe out the anchovy population by overfishing). The Decapodians themselves have many comical traits, including the traditional “apology dance” used to ask forgiveness, and the recent tradition of “Clawplach”, in which Decapodians fight to the death over matters of honour and whether or not abbreviations are acceptable in Scrabble (Zoidberg maintains that they are not).

The Decapodians appear to have a mating season (which is similar to pon farr in Vulcans), and as soon as the parents have passed on their genes, they die. Also, fin rot is a serious disease that can afflict Decapodians. The Decapodians appear to have several races, or one race with various different colour tones. In a parallel universe explored by the Planet Express crew, Dr. Zoidberg is blue (this may be a spin on real lobsters, which are blue until cooked red; another explanation, offered in the DVD commentary, is that one in a hundred are blue, although considering the difference between characters in the alternate universe is a coin toss, this probably is not likely). Decapod 10 maintains an embassy in Washington D.C. under Ambassador Moivin, which looks like a giant sandcastle. In A Taste Of Freedom the Decapodian military invades and conquers Earth, but after their occupation warships are dismissed, Zoidberg himself destroys the Mobile Oppression Palace (a motorized sand castle on top of a crab-like robot) and liberates Earth. The Decapodians also walk in a fashion which causes them to walk with their “toes” pointed out.

(Information all from Wikipedia.com)