About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Philip J. Fry

Encyclopedia : P : PH : PHI : Philip J. Fry

Philip J. Fry (born 1974), better known simply as Fry, is the central character of the television series Futurama. Technically, if Fry was still living today (2006), he would be aged 32; in the year 3000, he would be 1026 with a biological age of 26 due to cryonics. He is voiced by Billy West. Fry is a 20th century pizza delivery boy who awakes to life in the 31st century after being cryogenically frozen since the first few seconds of 2000.

Billy West, mentioning jovially that he bases Fry on himself as a self-professed loser, also jokes that he fell in love with Katey Sagal, the voice actor of Turanga Leela, while working on the Futurama voices.

The name "Philip" was given to Fry by Matt Groening as homage to the then recently deceased Phil Hartman.

Contents

Timeline

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Childhood

Fry was born on August 9, 1974 (according to the Volume 1 Futurama DVD) in Brooklyn, New York. Named by his parents for Phillips-head screwdrivers, he was the second and youngest son of his parents and had an older sibling, Yancy Fry.

His brother, Yancy, was said to have wanted the name Philip in his adolescence, as well as wanting lots of other things which Fry had worked to achieve. However, after Philip's disappearance and Yancy's marriage, Yancy and his bride named their son Philip J. Fry because Yancy greatly missed his brother. The younger Philip later went on to be the first man to walk on Mars, and was buried with his uncle's seven-leaf clover.

During his childhood, Fry was particularly active. Taking part in dance and basketball, during which he found a seven-leaf clover which gave him the luck to beat his brother at basketball, which later he locked away in the family's bomb shelter in the cover of a Breakfast Club soundtrack, in the "Ronco Record Vault", with the combination "3".

As a child, he participated in a breakdancing troupe, in order to help them win some parachute pants, and performed a septuple headspin with the help of the clover, after his brother copied his dance moves, and his "Outer Space" dance style.

Teenage years

As a teenager, Fry was a typical loser. During his time as a teenager, he is rumored to have spent his entire school time playing video games. He particularly liked playing Space Invaders while listening to his Rush mix tapes and drinking Shasta - so much so that his eyes bled from overexposure (although this may be an exaggerated allusion to Nintendo's failed pseudo-3D games console, the Virtual Boy, which reportedly caused permanent damage to some users' eyes). He has also had at least three heart attacks, implied to be caused by drinking excessive amounts of Coca-Cola (over 100 cans per week, as mentioned in Fry and the Slurm Factory). He presumedly stopped at this point.

In an alternate reality shown by Prof. Farnsworth's "what-if machine" (after Fry asked what life would be like if it were more like a video game), Fry's experience became useful when he was called upon to help General Pac-Man defend Earth from actual space invaders, a group of classic video game characters (such as Donkey Kong) from the planet "Nintendu 64" who wanted quarters with which to do their laundry.

Aside from his obsession with video games, he is an accomplished college dropout, dropping out after less than 3 weeks from Coney Island College, which appeared to be a fairground ride. In one episode, he admits to not attending public school - his parents deemed it a waste of taxpayers' money.

Adult life

By 1999, Fry was dating a woman named Michelle and working as a delivery boy for Panucci's Pizza. On December 31, 1999, after being dumped by his cheating girlfriend, he was delivering a pizza to a cryogenics lab when he realized that it was a prank order for "I.C. Wiener". He was leaning back in a chair while drinking a can of beer at the lab when the clock struck midnight, and just at that moment Fry fell backwards into an open cryogenic capsule that closed upon him and froze him. He remained frozen for very close to, but not exactly 1000 years, during which New York city is destroyed and rebuilt two times, when he was defrosted on December 31, 2999. Needless to say, upon reawakening, he found himself in a world very different from the one he left at the turn of the 21st century.

Trying to adjust to the 31st century, Fry gains the friendship of a cyclops, Turanga Leela, and a bending robot named Bender. Together, they find Fry's closest living relative, the ancient Professor Hubert Farnsworth, who agrees to employ the three of them in his delivery business, Planet Express.

Fish-out-of-water Fry often tries to recapture his past. He came into a large sum of money through a millennium of interest accrued in a bank account and furnished an apartment in a style befitting his twentieth-century era. He discovered the preserved corpse of his dog Seymour in "Jurassic Bark", and was all set to bring him back to life with the Professor's help, until he realized the dog lived twelve years after his disappearance. Deciding Seymour had lived a full life without him, Fry abandoned the project. In a flashback we see Seymour, like Odysseus' dog Argos, waited all those years for his master to come home, never leaving that spot or giving up hope, until old age finally got him. Many fans consider this to be the series' most touching episode.

Although Fry seems to have aged, his personality still resembles that of a child of very low intelligence, and is often portrayed as being very slow to pick up on events that are happening, as well as common sense. However, he is very knowledgeable about certain subjects, such as video games, television, particularly Star Trek, and movies.

Character

Another great source of humor is Fry's lack of intelligence and unabashedly awesome lifestyle. He lives like a pig with his best friend, Bender, rarely thinks more than five minutes into the future, and frequently injures himself. He enjoys watching TV shows that follow the form "the world's blankiest blank" and singing "Walking on Sunshine" while showering.

In the episode "Roswell That Ends Well" Fry travels to 1947 and becomes his own grandfather (he phrases it saying he "did the nasty in the pasty"). i.e. He ended up killing who he believed was his grandfather and having a child with (who he concluded no longer could be) his grandmother. Because of this "past nastification" he has a genetic anomaly that causes him to lack the delta brainwave. This helps him save the universe twice from a malicious race of disembodied brains, dubbed the "Brainspawn" (see "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" and "The Why Of Fry").

Fry is the deciding factor in the galactic conflict between the Nibblonians and the evil Brainspawn. In fact, the Nibblonians were responsible for Fry being frozen: their sages foretold that he would be needed to defeat the Brainspawn in the 31st century, but he would naturally have died long before then, thus they had to freeze him. (See "The Why Of Fry")

Fry is childlike and unpretentious for the most part. Although he is largely self-absorbed, he almost always does the right thing when confronted with the consequences of his actions. He sacrifices for his friends and has a good heart.

Love life

Even though Fry is far from the paragon of male figure, form, or virtue in any century, he does manage to accrue some romantic experiences.

Michelle

Fry's girlfriend from the 20th century. Michelle dumped Fry on New Year's Eve 1999.

After Fry was frozen, Michelle realized he was the man she really loved, so she froze herself in depression (not knowing Fry had been frozen; like everyone else in Fry's life, she knew only that he was missing and presumed dead). Therefore, when she was revived in the year 3000, Michelle was joyously and unexpectedly reunited with Fry. When he was fired from Planet Express and, in a mixup involving career chips, ended up with Leela's old job at the cryogenics lab, he unfroze Michelle and they continued dating. Unfortunately, Michelle started to complain about the 31st century being too "weird", and the couple froze themselves, intending to re-emerge from cryogenic suspension in the year 4000; instead, their tube was dumped in Los Angeles, and when they were thawed, only a matter of a few days had passed. They entered a few more arguments and then broke up conclusively. (The Cryonic Woman).

Leela

Fry met Leela shortly after being defrosted when she was working as a career counselor at the cryogenics lab. Afraid of getting a career chip implanted in his hand by Leela, he ran from her, but eventually befriended her after she gave up her job as career counselor and joined Planet Express with Fry. Later on, Fry turned his attentions to Leela, and in subsequent seasons began his quest to impress her. Fry maintains an interest in Leela throughout the series, but he is frequently rejected by her. The idea of a romantic connection between Fry and Leela is explored more so in the later episodes of the series.

In the episode "Parasites Lost", Fry becomes infected with worms after eating a bad truck stop egg-salad sandwich which he purchased from a bathroom vending machine. However, the worms are very beneficial to Fry, doing everything from making him more physically fit to making him smarter. Leela finds this more intelligent and more sensitive Fry to be much more attractive. Fry is even able to impress Leela by learning to play the holophonor, a musical instrument with which the operator creates both music and visuals, which is very hard to play. The holophonor piece he plays for Leela depictes the two of them dancing in an array of stars with an enchanting violin solo. But Fry realizes that it is likely that Leela only loves him for what the worms have made him, and not who he truly is. So, in order to find out for sure he confronts the worms and threatens to hurt his own body (the worms' home) in order to get the worms to leave. He succeeds in getting rid of the worms, and goes back to his old self. Unfortunately for Fry, Leela no longer seems interested in him.

Towards the end of the series there are hints that Leela and Fry were beginning to fall for each other. The clearest example of this is in the episode "The Sting", when Fry is stung by a space bee. Leela thinks that Fry is dead. However, in reality, Fry was alive and Leela was in a coma. He had stayed by her bedside the entire time.

While traveling through time, Fry was present at the time of his past self's freezing. However, Nibbler gave Fry the choice this time, and for Leela's sake, Fry froze himself. Nibbler's and Fry's shadows are visible in a view from underneath the table Fry is sitting at when he falls backward into the cryogenic tube.

In return, Nibbler helped Fry get together with Leela by giving him a flower, which Fry then gave to Leela after she had a bad date (see "The Why Of Fry").

At one time Fry actually managed to marry Leela only to be followed by a speedy annulment (see "Time Keeps on Slippin'").

The episode "The Farnsworth Parabox" explores alternate universes, and in one such universe Fry and Leela are happily married. It is revealed that the only thing which prevented this from occurring in their own universe was the outcome of a coin flip when Leela flipped a coin to decide if she would make up an excuse or go out with Fry.

In the last episode for season 4, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", Fry tries to improve his Holophonor skills in order to 'get Leela to love him'. Unable to do so effectively with his original hands, he takes the advice of Bender to make a deal with the Robot Devil to exchange them for new and better robotic hands via transplants from a 'random' donor (selected from a Wheel Of Fortune type of board), only to find the 'random' donor to be the Robot Devil himself. With his new hands, Fry's skill in the Holophonor improves considerably, allowing him to go on to public recitals and having his musical works sold with great fanfare. Inevitably, Fry was commissioned by Hedonism Bot to write and perform a full opera. Fry agrees, but only if the opera is about Leela herself. Fry writes his opera, but on the day of the performance, Leela was accidentally deafened by Bender, due to the plottings of the Robot Devil, but she goes anyway. The first half of the opera is performed with great success, but Leela, unable to fully enjoy it due to her deafness, makes a hurried deal with the Robot Devil during the intermission to get robotic ears in exchange for 'her hand'. During the second half of the opera, angered by the portrayal of the original deal with Fry, the Robot Devil demands Fry to return his hands. Fry initially refuses, until the Robot Devil threatens to claim Leela's hand in marriage. Fry relents, getting his old hands back, and thus unable to perform the remainder of the opera. While the rest of the audience leaves in disgust, only Leela remains, and in a touching conclusion to the episode/series, she asks Fry to continue and to see 'how it ends'.

Lucy Liu

After having a crush on Lucy Liu for as long as he has known, Fry dates a copy of Lucy Liu which has been holographically projected onto a blank robot (despite the protests of the other characters), which he downloaded from "Nappster" on the Internet. Fry's love for the real Lucy Liu causes him to erase his Lucy Liu robot clone, just as the real Liu is falling in love with Bender (see "I Dated a Robot"). The real Lucy Liu has survived into the 30th century as a head in a jar. Lucy Liu's head makes a second appearance in the episode "Love and Rocket" and can be seen in Bender's chest cavity.

Amy Wong

Fry and Amy Wong have a short relationship in the episode "Put Your Head on my Shoulders". After spending time together Fry and Amy recognize their commonalities (they feel the same way about "junk, and stuff") that lead to a relationship. However Fry quickly feels as though Amy is not giving him enough space, and decides to break it off. Unfortunately before he can tell her Fry, Amy, and Dr. Zoidberg are in an accident in which Fry's body is damaged to the point that Fry's head must be temporarily transplanted to Amy's shoulder.

Others

Fry also fell in love with a Southern belle-type mermaid named Umbriel, but fled when he discovered the disadvantages of her piscine lower-half (see "The Deep South"). Perhaps his most distressing romantic escapade, however, was backstage at the Miss Universe pageant, when he made out with "the radiator woman from the radiator planet", only to be informed afterwards that it was actually just a radiator ("Lesser of Two Evils").

In a brief trip to the past, he had a one-night stand with his grandmother in 1947, thus making himself his own grandfather. Because of this, he has lost the delta brain wave, making him immune to the attacks of the Brain Spawn. (see "Roswell That Ends Well").

He once had a nearly fatal "snu-snu" experience (see "Amazon Women in the Mood").

In Love's Labours Lost in Space, Fry managed to score a date with an unnamed woman from the 21st century at the The Hip Joint, even paying Bender to 'vacate' their apartment for the night.

Additionally, Fry carried on a short-lived affair with Morgan Proctor, the bureaucrat that had replaced Hermes Conrad at Planet Express for a brief time (see "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back").

In "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?", Zoidberg visits his home planet (Decapod 10) to mate, Fry helps Zoidberg to get together with a female (Edna) Zoidberg knew previously in order to mate with her. After Edna finds out it was Fry who told Zoidberg to say the things he said to woo her, she becomes infatuated with Fry, going so far as to invite him to her apartment and attempting to seduce him. When Zoidberg finds out, he challenges Fry to 'Claw Plach', a ritual fight to the death. While fighting, the mating frenzy begins and Edna leaves with the king, along with everyone else. After finding out that Decapodians die after mating, Fry and Zoidberg became friends again and the Planet Express crew leave Decapod 10.

Many of the women (and the "radiator woman from the radiator planet") that he had sexual relations with appear at his funeral in "The Sting".

Relationships

Bender

Fry initially meets Bender in the first episode of the series, after Bender's failed suicide attempt, and from then on the two form a strong bond (As Bender put it, "Of all the friends I've had, you're the first.") Bender comments in the episode "The Sting" that when he threatened to "Kill All Humans!" (as he frequently did) he would silently add "Except one. That one was Fry". Also in this episode, his distress at the "death" of Fry is obvious, shown at Fry's funeral where he is seen wearing a veil, in the style of a widow (though events of the whole episode may not be canon as it is a strange dream Leela had while she was in a coma).

In "I, Roommate", after being forced out of living in the Planet Express office, Fry moves in with Bender, only to find that his apartment is as small as a closet. They then decide to rent another apartment together. However, because of the interference from Bender's antenna, the apartment's TV (with TVs from other apartments in the same block) couldn't get any reception, and for the sake of friendship, Bender cuts off his antenna so that the TV will get reception. However, they soon decide to leave that apartment and move back into Bender's previous apartment, only to discover that the apartment's 'closet' is actually the size of a typical living room, with plenty of space for Fry to comfortably live in.

Bender and Fry, while being rather odd, have a strong relationship, and have sacrificed things for each other over the years of their friendship, such as fame, money, and even their own lives. Their friendship is tested when Seymour, Fry's old dog is unearthed, and Fry spends time worrying about him instead of spending time with Bender (see below). Their friendship was also tested in "The Honking". Bender is transformed into a were-car, which supposedly attack those the person is closest too; however, for some reason werecar-Bender continually attacked Leela instead of Fry, leading to jealousy.

Seymour

In the 20th century, while Fry is a pizza delivery boy, he meets a dog whom he names Seymour Asses, who eventually becomes his best friend. Seymour is able to bark the tune of "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves. In the 31st century Seymour is found in a museum, preserved and encased in Dolemite (itself a play on dolomite), and Fry successfully stages a protest in order to get back his dog. Prossesor Farnsworth offers to clone Seymour for Fry, restoring all of his memories up until the point of death. After much deliberation, Fry decides not to clone Seymour after he finds out that Seymour lived a full 12 years after Fry was cryogenically frozen. Unbeknownst to Fry, Seymour spent the 12 years waiting for Fry outside Panucci's Pizza, where Fry used to work. (see "Jurassic Bark")

Achievements

Trivia

External links


>

Futurama
Characters
Philip J. Fry > Turanga Leela | Bender Bending Rodriguez | Professor Hubert Farnsworth | Dr. John Zoidberg
Hermes Conrad | Amy Wong | Zapp Brannigan | Kif Kroker | Nibbler | Calculon | Mom
Others: Recurring non-robot characters | Recurring robot characters | Secondary characters
Futurama Universe
Eternium > Omicron Persei VIII | List of planets in Futurama
Cygnoid > Decapodian | Poppler | Nibblonian | Neptunian
Technology and Science: Gadgets | Holophonor | Suicide booth | Dark Matter
Vice Presidential Action Rangers > United States of Earth | Robotology | D.O.O.P.
Media
Episodes | Comic Books | Video Game
Other
Timeline | Blernsball | All My Circuits | Locations | Products

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: