Philip J. Fry

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Futurama character
Philip J. Fry
Species	Human
Planet of origin	Earth, specifically Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Job	Interplanetary Delivery Boy for Planet Express
First appearance	Space Pilot 3000
Voiced by	Billy West

Philip J. Fry, usually referred to as "Fry," is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West.

Character overview

Born in 1974, Fry is an average, thoroughly unremarkable, 25-year-old^[1] pizza delivery boy who, during the first few seconds of the year 2000, accidentally falls into a cryogenic freezing tank while delivering pizza on a prank call. He subsequently remains frozen for 1,000 years, finally thawing out on the last day of the year 2999, where he meets the one-eyed career officer Turanga Leela, and a cigar smoking, booze fueled, kleptomaniac robot Bender. Together, they are employed by Fry's great (x30) nephew, the senile and demented old scientist Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth, as the spaceship crew of his delivery company. In his old life Fry had an older brother Yancy and a girlfriend Michelle who dumped him in the first episode "Space Pilot 3000", just before he was frozen.

Early life

Fry was born in New York City on August 9, 1974, and was named for the Phillips head screwdriver. He had an elder brother named Yancy, with whom he had a lifelong conflict, due to Fry's perception that Yancy took everything of his. In high school, he claims to have suffered three heart attacks from drinking 100 cans of cola each week. After dropping out of Coney Island Community College, he took a three year break and watched television continuously, knowing someday it would help him to save the world (and because he would lose his worker's compensation if he went outside). He then got a job as a delivery boy at Panucci's Pizza.

Personality and abilities

Characterized as simple, sweet, naive and immature, Fry regards Bender as his closest friend, despite the latter's often violent criminal tendencies. He also has strong feelings for Leela, (to whom he was married and then divorced due to time skips) although he lacks the intelligence required for articulating his emotions; thus, his love remains (sometimes coldly) unrequited, though not entirely without hope. She does occasionally return his interest throughout the series, and in the movie 'Into the Wild Green Yonder', she admits to loving him back. At the end of that film, they are seen sharing a kiss as they enter a wormhole.

In the episode "The Why of Fry", Leela's seemingly oblivious pet Nibbler reveals himself as the reason for Fry's cryogenic freezing; because of Fry's uniquely inferior mental characteristics (he lacks the Delta brainwave, the cause of his stupidity and the result of being his own grandfather) he can withstand the intellect-draining onslaught of the evil Brainspawn and is immune to the Dark Ones' mind reading in Into The Wild Green Yonder. Nibbler's people, the Nibblonians, deem him "The Mighty One". Through prediction (on the eve of 1999, as the Nibblonians lack the ability to travel through time), they guessed that Fry would be the one to save the world from the evil Brainspawn; since his natural lifespan would not extend to the right millennium, however, Nibbler is sent to make the aforementioned hoax delivery call and push an unsuspecting Fry into the cryogenic tube, to re-emerge December 31, 2999. His lack of the Delta brainwave later proved to prevent his mind from being read telepathically (which in itself can be considered a joke saying he doesn't think at all).

Fry might be characterized as a synesthete, sometimes expressing an ability to smell or taste colors of radiation. In "Roswell That Ends Well", when immersed in microwave radiation depicted as being blue, he remarks, "What smells like blue?", and in "The Why of Fry", when his memory is wiped by Nibbler, he says to himself, "Did everything just taste purple for a second?". One talent that Fry does excel at is playing video games, hence his asking what the world would be like if it were like a video game in "Anthology of Interest II". Due mainly to this talent, Fry is also a very good shot and an excellent marksman, often serving as the gunner on the Planet Express ship with uncharacteristic skill. In "Godfellas", he is shown using an arcade game screen as a targeting device.

While showering, he often sings "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves, only singing "I'm walking on sunshine" and humming the rest. The song was shown to be a source of joy between himself and his dog while living in the twentieth century.

Fry currently owns 51% of the Planet Express Company's shares of common stock, giving him the majority vote.

Character development

The name "Philip" was given to Fry by Matt Groening as a homage to the then recently murdered Phil Hartman, for whom the role of Zapp Brannigan was created.^[2] The "J" is akin to the "J" in Bullwinkle J. Moose, Rocket J. Squirrel, Bart J. Simpson and Homer J. Simpson, in tribute to Jay Ward, creator of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.^[3]

According to Groening, Fry's character developed over time while still keeping his qualities as a loser and the characteristics which writers hoped would make him appeal to the target young male audience.^[4] Fry's character is essentially a bungling, stubborn slob with a heart of gold that cannot get ahead in the world, yet he does have a slight glimmer of hope.^[4] Fry's clothing of a red Windbreaker jacket, white t-shirt and blue jeans is based on James Dean's outfit from Rebel without a Cause.^[5]

Fry is voiced by Billy West, who also voices Doctor Zoidberg, Professor Hubert Farnsworth and various other characters in the show. After West's original audition he did not get the role of Fry; however, after a casting change he was offered the job.^[2] The voice West uses for Fry has been described as that of a "generic Saturday-morning good guy".^[6] West admits that he intentionally made Fry sound similar to his own real voice claiming that keeping the "cartoony" aspects out of it would make it harder for someone else to imitate the same voice.^[2] West also voices Lars Fillmore in Bender's Big Score, who is a time travel duplicate of Fry with an injured larynx, and therefore, a slightly altered voice. The producers initially considered having a different voice actor do Lars' voice in order to keep viewers from guessing his true identity, but ultimately decided it would not make sense if anyone besides West did the voice.^[7]

See also

• Billy West, voice of Ren and Stimpy, Futurama, on the rough start that shaped his life

References

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