“ | I may not be clever, but I have a good heart. That's what my mom used to say. | „ |
~ Fry |
“ | Shut up and take my money! | „ |
~ Fry's famous catchphrase. |
“ | Attention New New Yorkers, Stop acting so stupid!! | „ |
~ Fry to the chaotic citizens while holding the megaphone backwards |
“ | Goodbye, Seymour. | „ |
~ Fry mourns over Seymour who sanked into the lava. |
Philip J. Fry I (born on August 14, 1974), commonly known simply by his surname, Fry, is the main protagonist of the Futurama franchise.
He is a native to the 20th century who was cryogenically frozen seconds into the year 2000, having fallen in just as 1999 ended. He was revived in 2999, and subsequently became a delivery boy for the Planet Express Company.
He is voiced by Billy West, who also Professor Farnsworth and Dr. Zoidberg in the same show, Stimpy in The Ren & Stimpy Show, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in Space Jam and Doug Funnie in Doug.
Appearance[]
Fry has fair skin and red hair with two spikes at the front. His usual attire consists of a red jacket over a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers with gray soles and white laces. He's also got a small gut, noticeable through his clothes.
Personality and abilities[]
Philip J. Fry is a dim-witted man from the 20th century who gets frozen for 1,000 years, thawing out on New Year's Eve 2999. His character is largely an attempt by the show's creators to make the connection between the 20th century and the 31st century much easier for the viewers. Often, Fry is faced with differences in the future, which he then relates to things in his time. As a result, he frequently has to defend the actions of the 20th century.
Although he is often depicted as stupid, Fry does occasionally come up with brilliant schemes to save the day, an ability which possibly comes from his intense love of Star Trek. Fry, rivaled only by the energy being of Melllvar, has the largest encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek in the future. Another example of Fry's occasional brilliance was during the Brain Spawn attack on Earth. With the rest of the crew stupefied, Fry was able to save Earth by exploiting the Brainspawn's weaknesses. Strangely enough, Fry's stupidity appears to be his greatest strength as he the only known person in the universe who lacks a Delta brainwave and therefore is immune to the Brainspawn's stupefaction fields. Ken, a Nibblonian, has noted he possesses a "superior yet inferior" mind. He lacks the Delta brainwave because he is actually his own grandfather.
Despite his idiocy, it seemed as if it part of it was from simple immaturity and lack of emotional growth, as when an alternate version of himself lived additional decades back in his original era, it came into being as Lars Philmore, who he was suave, patient, adaptable, sensitive, and well-read; thus despite his lack of Delta wave and apparent low intellect, it isn't impossible for him to become more emotionally intelligent and wise through experience.
Also because he lacks the Delta brainwave, he is immune to telepathy.
Fry is also usually quick to make very rash decisions, such as traveling back to the year 2000 or stowing away on Zapp Brannigan's ship to leave the universe after being upset about Colleen.
Despite being lazy, Fry's heart is in the right place, and when the situation calls for it, he will rise up to formulate a plan to save his friends, though because of his lack of intelligence he rarely comes up with any good plans. Fry cares about his friends, and in spite of Bender's awful treatment of him at times, he is still willing to risk his life to save him, which Bender reciprocates. However, it shows that Fry enjoys Bender being "mean" to him, because when Bender has to leave the planet express crew for his own safety, Clamps takes his place and behaves in the same way Bender would towards Fry and Fry just laughs and continues.
While he became infatuated with Leela upon first sight, there are times in which he believes he had no chance, thus sometimes engages in relationships - if merely physical - to stave off his loneliness, such as when he almost left the surface world for Umbriel, hooked up with Mildred due to the mistaken belief that she WASN'T his grandmother when he actually was, or the brief time he dated Amy. However, none of his tangential romances have the same level of passion and devotion he holds for Leela, as he tries to work beyond his limited intellect to appeal to her - such as with the holophoner - and more than once risks his life for hers, even if he was certain it would result in death, such as the space bee sting, giving his oxygen to Leela when she was deactivating the ship's operating system, and when believing that he was the mythic Dark One attempted to destroy himself as he thought his existence would be a threat to her. Fry is unconditional in his love, since while being attracted to Leela's alluring physique, when for a while she mutated into a head with a body of tentacles, he still loved her. His love can, however, border into unhealthy dependency, leading to decisions displaying the most extreme form of his impulsivesness, as when he believed Leela wouldn't be with him, he attempted to commit suicide - although it was perhaps aggravated by emotional instability from their relationship being on and off for a few years.
Besides and including Leela, he appears to be strongly attracted to powerful women, as most of his love interests, good or bad, are women with commanding presences - as with him helplessly obeying Michelle's demands or Morgan Proctor's lust. Sometimes the women also have great physical prowess.
Fry loves video games, and as such, he is usually shown to be very good at them, although not all games. He never actually managed to finish the final enemy on Space Invaders; he always had to get his brother Yancy to do it for him. Though he may not be good at all games, his skills have made him a crackshot, and he usually mans the ship's weapons when they are under attack. He has also got a lot better at fighting, by "Fun on a Bun" Also, Fry absolutely loves sewers, he once surfed (was surprisingly good) in various sewers around Earth cities with Turanga Morris & Bender, but got temporarily sick as a result.
Perhaps due to his limited intelligence, but he rarely carries a grudge, which allowed villains and even friends to take advantage or even abuse him over and over, and he never seeks genuine retribution. He did become enraged when he learned that Nibbler manipulated events to force him into the future of a thousand years, he shortly recovered from it upon Nibbler helping him realise that he prefers and loves his life in the future.
In Simpsons/Futurama: Crossover Crisis, Fry taught Lisa Simpson how to play the holophonor.
When he suffered temporary brain damage that gave him amnesia, he was able to lead a Neanderthal army to defeat DOOP forces, and engaged in one-on-one combat with Leela (whom was also amnesiac from a different reason), and despite her superior strength and skill, he was able to hold his own.
Quotes[]
“ | What?! That's horrifying! Zoidberg, you're an in-Human monster. | „ |
~ Fry in "Fry Am the Egg Man" |
“ | Hey! Leggo my egg-o, crab-o! | „ |
~ Fry after taking his egg back from Dr. Zoidberg before slapping him in "Fry Am the Egg Man" |
“ | It took an hour to write. I thought it'd take an hour to read! | „ |
~ Fry being confronted by the brevity of his Single Female Lawyer script made to prevent the Omicronians from destroying Earth |
“ | Destiny has cheated me, by forcing me to decide upon: the woman that I idolise, or the hands of an automaton. Without these hands, I cannot complete the opera that was captivating her. But if I keep them and she marries him, he probably won't want me dating her. | „ |
~ Improv lyrics during Fry's confrontation with the Robot Devil during the holophoner opera he wrote for Leela |
“ | Fry: My hands! My horrible human hands! And what have you done to my nails?! Robot Devil: I cleaned them. |
„ |
~ Fry's distraught at losing his musical talent by the return of his old hands, while also displaying his low hygiene standards |
“ | Leela, no matter what happens, no matter what kind of monster you turn into, it won't change the way I feel about you. | „ |
~ Fry's clumsily but sincerely expressing his unconditional love for Leela when her secondary mutations begin |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- His surname "Fry" is a reference to Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy, who's also a time traveler.
- Before Billy West was cast to voice Phillip J. Fry, Charlie Schlatter was considered to voice Fry, although Schlatter would later voice Kick Buttowski.
- Fry's "shut up and take my money" catchphrase became an internet meme and had been copied by real world ad campaigns.
External Links[]
- Phillip J. Fry on the Futurama Wiki.
- Philip J. Fry on the Shonen Heroes Wiki
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