Futurama: People: Dr. Zoidberg

The company doctor for Planet Express is not your typical physician. Oh sure, he has medical charts on the wall, drawers of instruments and wears scrubs and a lab coat. But Dr. John Zoidberg also happens to have a red crustaceous shell, tentacle-like mouth flaps, sports claws sharper than any scalpel and has no medical knowledge whatsoever.

As a result of the aforementioned personal anomalies, Zoidberg doesn’t have many friends. In fact, he doesn’t have any friends. Or it could have something to do with the fact he stinks, is dirt poor, eats garbage and tends to keep cutting off Fry’s appendages. Regardless, he wants badly to belong, anywhere.

Zoidberg hails from the planet Decapod 10, where life is actually a beach. Except after the mating frenzy, when the shore is covered by rotting Decapodian carcasses being picked over by seagulls. We never learn how or why Dr. Zoidberg came to Earth; frankly, it doesn’t matter. He’s just another thread in the tapestry of Futurama. A stinky, annoying thread, but the tapestry would be nothing without him.

If the doorman actually let him in, you’d find Zoidberg eating every peanut bowl on the bar clean. Then, he’d move to the floor and suck up the crumbs like a hoover. No smooth moves for the doctor, unless there’s an aquarium in the joint. After his inevitable ouster, you’d find him feasting on the contents of the trash cans in the back alley.

This Futurama character review is © 2004 Ryan Bechtel.
Not for reproduction without the authors express permission

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