List of recurring robot characters from Futurama
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article discusses recurring robot characters. For human recurring characters, see List of recurring human characters from Futurama. For all others, see List of recurring alien characters from Futurama.
Futurama's recurring robot characters:
Contents |
[edit] Boxy
Boxy is a crude, Dalek-like robot similar to the "Gonk" droid from Star Wars, that is capable of communicating only by beeping. He is frequently seen in the company of Calculon, and has played a role or two on the Soap Opera All My Circuits, as Calculon's half-brother. Boxy is frequently victimized by others, Calculon included, simply for his being an easy target. For example, Boxy is seen being thrown out of a hot air balloon by Calculon in the episode "Bend Her" and in "Crimes of the Hot" he is kicked onto his side by Bender and used as a podium of sorts. In the episode "That's Lobstertainment!" Boxy is hired by Calculon to kill Harold Zoid if Calculon does not receive the Oscar for his recent movie role.
[edit] Calculon
[edit] The Crushinator
The Crushinator is a large robot which can transform into a car-like vehicle. She is first introduced in "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed" when the Planet Express crew takes shelter at her father's farmstead on the moon. She lives with her human father and her two robot sisters, Lulu Bell 7 and Daisy Mae 128K. She also appears briefly in "Lesser of Two Evils" as the representative of Earth's Moon in the Miss Universe Pageant, one of several indications that she is very attractive by robotic standards. It is also revealed that she is in love with Bender after sleeping with him on the moon but no further romance between the two is ever pursued in the series, however in a deleted scene, she approaches her father while patting her stomach area and says "Pa, I got somethin' ta tell ya" therefore, implying that Bender had impregnated her (how the ostensibly impossible act of a robot being impregnated occurred is left a mystery, although this has been played on in the comics). She also asks to dance with Bender at the robot destruction party on the Galapagos Islands in "Crimes of the Hot" and appears in the episode "Mother's Day" where she can be seen crushing Tinny Tim.
[edit] Fat-Bot
Fat-Bot is an obese, overeating robot who wears a beanie. Portrayed as a robot nerd, the character is based on Kent "Flounder" Dorfman from the feature film Animal House. Fat-Bot is prone to the uncontrollable compulsion to eat nearby objects when he becomes anxious. He first appears in the episode "Mars University" as a member of Robot House, the worst fraternity on campus. At the end of the episode, as a postscript, it is revealed that Fat-Bot caught a computer virus in Tijuana and had to be rebooted. Fat-Bot is also seen in "Crimes of the Hot" and in "Obsoletely Fabulous", standing in line behind Bender to get his upgrade to be compatible with the new 1-X robot model.
[edit] Flexo
(voiced by John DiMaggio) Like Bender, Flexo is a Bending-Unit 22 robot. Flexo's serial number is 3370318; his and Bender's serial numbers gave both robots much amusement as both their serial codes are expressible as the sum of two cubes. Flexo has a habit of speaking contrary to how he actually feels, before correcting himself; this is seen most often when he slanders or insults an individual only to add, "Nah, I'm just messin' with ya; you're all right." In "Bendless Love", when Bender shoves Flexo, he says "Thanks, I appreciate that," laughing but then adding, "Nah, I'm joshing you. That was quite annoying."
Flexo looks and sounds exactly like Bender with the exception of having a small triangular metal goatee (a spoof of the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror") on his chin. He first appeared in "Lesser of Two Evils" when Fry accidentally runs him over with a 20th century gasoline-fueled car (a 1992 Latoura), and gives him "ass-whiplash". He becomes good friends with Bender, inspiring jealousy and suspicion from Fry, especially as Flexo often plays cruel jokes on him (though only as much as Bender does) such as shooting a jet of poisonous chlorine in Fry's face for no reason. Fry originally believes that Flexo is an evil twin of Bender and suspects that he will try to steal the crown from the Miss Universe pageant. However, it turns out that Bender is the one attempting to steal the crown and Flexo is actually trying to stop him, therefore making Bender the evil twin. The confusion surrounding whether Flexo is good or evil is also not helped by his rather sinister laughter. When the police arrive at the scene, they mistake Flexo for Bender and, at the behest of Bob Barker, arrest him instead, sending him to a South American-Turkish prison.
More proof that Bender is Flexo's evil twin is that in "Hell Is Other Robots," Bender sings that "there must be robots worse than I," only to have the Robot Devil say that he "checked around, there really aren't." Therefore, if Bender is the worst robot, Flexo is less evil than Bender.
In a scene deleted from the episode "Bender Gets Made", Bender is shown scratching out his serial code so the robot mafia will not find him, however the code scratched out is Flexo's, not Bender's. According to the DVD commentary, this scene was cut as it was thought to be too confusing and would infuriate fans; the implication seems to be that it was Bender, and not Flexo, who was arrested previously, meaning the Planet Express crew (if not police) had identified the wrong robot.
In "Bendless Love", Bender briefly dates Flexo's ex-wife Angleyne. Once Bender discovers that Angleyne used to be married to Flexo, Bender impersonates Flexo, and, for the second time, Flexo is punished for Bender's behavior when the robot mafia drops a large, unbendable metal beam onto Flexo, crushing him. This could have killed him had he been trapped under it for an entire year, but Bender rescues him. Flexo then gets back together with Angleyne, and the two have sex "right there on the factory floor," apparently with Bender still in the room. Flexo is the only recurring robot to not appear in the episode "Crimes of the Hot".
[edit] Gypsy Booth
(Voiced by Tress MacNeille) A parody of the wish granting booth from the movie Big. She first shows up in "The Honking" to explain the dynamics of Project Satan and direct the crew to an abandoned factory in Detroit. Her second appearance is in "Godfellas". When asked where Bender has gone, she directs the crew towards the listening monks in the Himalayas.
The Gypsy Booth possesses no real psychic powers, but rather pretends to have clairvoyance and channeling. ("What am I, psychic? I mean, yes...")
[edit] Hedonism-Bot
(voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - A gold-colored robot whose sole purpose in life is self-gratification, he is the embodiment of hedonism. A parody of gluttonous and flamboyant Roman emperors, he is built into his lounging chair. He features in the last episode, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", when he commissions Fry to write and perform an opera. He also suggests: "Let us cavort like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." He first appears in "Crimes of the Hot" where he declares: "I apologize for nothing!" and "Let the games begin!" In a deleted scene from "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" Amy says that Hedonism Bot was built by tax dollars. He also briefly appears in "Bend Her" at Calculon's wedding. His laugh is reminiscent of the main character (Mozart) in Amadeus. Though robots in Futurama as a rule are drawn with square pupils, Hedonism-Bot—along with the Countess de la Roca from the episode "A Flight to Remember" and the Gypsy Booth—appear to have round pupils.
In the DVD commentary of "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", Ken Keeler notes about Hedonism-Bot: "every appearance just raises further questions."
[edit] Humorbot 5.0
A robotic comedian voiced by Billy West, Humorbot hosts a show titled Late Night|Late Night with Humorbot 5.0 in the episode "Bend Her" where Coilette (Bender in disguise as a female robot) and Calculon are guests. He also appears in the Comedy Simulator's amateur night in "That's Lobstertainment!". He is in the background as a broken robot in "Bendin' in the Wind". An obvious parody of comedian Dave Letterman with metallic bezels surrounding his eyes to simulate glasses and gapped 'teeth', Humorbot speaks with a deliberate monotone, often apparently reverting to unrefined aspects in his humor programming ("Snappy comeback not found").
[edit] Malfunctioning Eddie
The proprietor of Malfunctioning Eddie's Rocket Car Emporium. He is known to violently explode when apparently shocking facts are revealed to him. In adverts, he says, "Hi I'm Malfunctioning Eddie, and I'm malfunctioning so badly, I'm practically giving these cars away." The character is based on Crazy Eddie. He appeared in the episode "Put Your Head on My Shoulders" as the manager of the car dealership when Amy is buying a new car. In the episode "Insane in the Mainframe" he is Fry's roommate in the robot insane asylum, during this time he is apparently almost completely cured of his exploding problem. He also makes an appearance in "Crimes of the Hot", wherein he explodes again.
[edit] Monique
Monique is Calculon's co-star on the show All My Circuits. In the show her character is in love with Calculon. In the episode "I, Roomate" it is revealed that she uses the metric system of measurement. In the episode "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV" Antonio Calculon Jr. reveals that she has kept something secret from Calculon for a thousand years, but breaks down before he can get any further.
[edit] Reverend Lionel Preacherbot
(voiced by Phil LaMarr) - A preacher at the Temple of Robotology who always manages to be on hand to conduct weddings and funerals, no matter how far, and who has aspirations of acting that same role in movies. His first major part, and his first appearance in an episode is in "Hell is Other Robots" where he tries to get Bender back on the right track. He also presides at Leela's wedding to Alkazar in "A Bicyclops Built for Two", Calculon's wedding to Bender (as Coilette) in "Bend Her", Briefly speaks at Bender's "funeral" in "A Pharaoh to Remember", and Leela's wedding to the Robot Devil in "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings". Lionel Preacherbot also presides over the funeral of Bender’s uncle Vladimir after he dies in the "The Honking". He fights violently with Bender in "Crimes of the Hot" when he insults a turtle that Bender had traveled all the way to Holland to save. His speech patterns, accent, and mannerisms are modeled on those of stereotypical African-American Evangelical preachers. In addition to preaching Reverend Preacherbot does have some knowledge of welding, which he uses to place robotology emblems on the bodies of his congregation members (and occasionally touch up seams).
[edit] Roberto
(voiced by David Herman) - A criminally insane robot who appears to be some kind of stab-bot, although he claims: "I'm not crazy, I'm just not user-friendly!" His insane acts include targeting the same establishment for robbery three times in a row (apparently the first time was just to "case the joint and rob it a little"), killing other robots to provide a disguise and "practicin' my stabbin'." He is believed to have had a rather traumatic childhood (in "Insane in the Mainframe", he suggests that his mother often welded him to the wall as a form of punishment as he says "No mommy! Please don't weld me to the wall!" when he believes he is in danger). His catchphrase is, "Ha-HAAAA!", yelled in an increasingly high pitch when he attempts to stab someone, or makes a stabbing gesture. This violent nature is enhanced by a body that Daxid X. Cohen and Matt Groening say is based on the shape of a tombstone.
He most notably appears in "Insane in the Mainframe" when Fry and Bender are implicated in one of his bank robberies. He's also in "Obsoletely Fabulous" and "Crimes of the Hot," although much less prominently.
[edit] The Robot Devil
(voiced by Dan Castellaneta, Maurice LaMarche) - lives in Robot Hell, which is hidden beneath the "Inferno ride" at the amusement park "Reckless Ted's Funland" in New Jersey. His function is to torment robots who have committed various sins. He kidnapped and intended to forever torment Bender after Bender briefly became involved with the religion "Robotology" but then slid back into his former decadent and criminal habits ("Hell Is Other Robots"). Fry and Leela tracked Bender to Robot Hell and in accordance with law ("The Fairness in Hell Act of 2275") , the Robot Devil was obliged to release Bender if Leela could best him in a fiddle contest (in parody of the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia). She could not outplay him, so she clubbed the Robot Devil with her fiddle, giving the trio a chance to escape.
The Robot Devil also played a major role in "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" in which Fry makes a Deal with the Devil to improve his holophonor skills. The Robot Devil exchanges hands with Fry and immediately regrets it, since Fry's human hands are vastly inferior to his own mechanical ones (he claims that the hands constantly "touched him in places"). He spends the remainder of the episode scheming and ultimately succeeding in reversing the trade.
Though the Robot Devil likes to act dramatically and even provides his own special effects, he is never seen doing anything supernatural. His tricks are generally quickly revealed as mundane, such as his departure after suddenly arriving at Planet Express, exclaiming "It looks like I wasted a bus trip!" Similarly, the Robot Devil makes a dramatic exit from a theatre, filling the stage with smoke, but is visible in the next shot sneaking away up a darkened aisle.
The Robot Devil has extensive musical skills, taught in part by Mrs. Mellinger, who much later instructed Fry in the holophonor. The robot actor Calculon credits the Robot Devil for bestowing his "unholy acting talent". The Robot Devil has brief cameos in "A Tale of Two Santas" and "Crimes of the Hot", voiced by Maurice LaMarche rather than Dan Castellaneta.
Leela at one point addresses him as "Beelzebot" (a play on the name of the deity Beelzebub) but this is more sarcastic than official, as she has just met him and earlier in the episode had no idea Robot Hell existed (or that it was in New Jersey).
[edit] The Robot Elders
The five Robot Elders first appear in "Fear of a Bot Planet". They rule Chapek 9, a human-hating robot planet. Over four centuries ago, they were hand-carved from meteorites by robot founders. They, and possibly a larger group of robots, separated themselves from the human race, where they were forced to work. They colonized Chapek 9 and created a strictly robot society where humans are actively hunted and killed (however, since the human hunts are never successful, no humans are actually ever killed). The Robot Elders feed lies to the robot citizens of Chapek 9 about super powers humans possess in order to create a level of fear and animosity, to distract from their other social problems like the crippling lug nut shortage and their ineffective government run by incompetent Robot Elders. Although the Robot Elders know that humans are harmless, they refuse to live in harmony with them. All but one of the Robot Elders remain unnamed; one is revealed to be named "Jimmy". They are prone to shout "Silence!", even at each other. Example: "Silence! I concur!" They can only be recognized by the color of their eyes and mouths, and the space between the two. They seem very forgetful in the long term scheme of things, as they can't even remember if the lies they told the other robots that stared in their horror movies were even real.
The blue-eyed robot elder appears to be in the jury of members of the D.O.O.P. (Democratic Order Of Planets) considering the case of Zapp Brannigan, in the episode "Brannigan Begin Again".
[edit] The Robot Mafia
(voiced by Maurice LaMarche and John DiMaggio) - A three-member crime syndicate operating out of "Fronty's Meat Market" (Not a front since 2997), who periodically dine at Elzar's, hijack shipments of Zuban cigars, arrange "accidents" for robots who act against them, as well as other unspecified Mafia-related illegal activities. It is speculated in the DVD commentary of "Bender Gets Made" that the Robot Mafia exists because robots are better at organized crime than humans, thus the human mafia was a victim of industrialization. This explains why, though many robots are criminals by choice, the mafia appears to have been built for that purpose. The robot mafia is apparently not very extensive; as in the episode "Bender Gets Made" the Donbot proclaims, "We're the robot mafia... the ENTIRE robot mafia".
- Donbot (Maurice LaMarche), the leader of the robot mafia, wears rings and a cape, he is the shortest of the three and is a stout robot.
- Joey Mousepad (John DiMaggio), a burly and almost awkwardly articulate goonbot wearing a computer-mouse necklace.
- Clamps (Maurice LaMarche), a skinny, twitchy, ultra-psychotic/sarcastic robot who is obsessed not only with the clamps at the ends of his arms, but also with using them.
These three robots claim to make up the entire Robot Mafia. However, in other episodes Bender and Tinny Tim are also shown working for the mafia.
Though their most prominent appearance is in the episode "Bender Gets Made" they also make appearances individually or as a whole in various other episodes. The Donbot can be seen as a member of F.A.R.T. (Fathers Against Rude Television) in "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV", Donbot and Clamps make cameo appearances in "Crimes of the Hot." Also Clamps and Joey make an appearance in "A Tale of Two Santas" where the Santa Bot is seeing who's been naughty, he shows the two kicking a human on the ground in order to collect money.
In "Bendless Love" it is revealed that the robot mafia supports the bending robot union which is on strike at that time. Though they want their support of the union to remain unknown to others outside the union they do take action to arrange the possible demise of scabs who flash their money around.
The three robots' names also appear in Robot Devil's Wheel of Robots, in "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings".
[edit] Robot Santa
(voiced by John Goodman; John DiMaggio) - Robot Santa is a robot that was created by mom's Friendly Robot Company to decide who's been naughty and who's been nice, distributing presents or punishments accordingly. Unfortunately, due to a programming error, his standards were set far too high, and he invariably judges everyone to be naughty - and even more unfortunately, he punishes 'naughtiness' with extreme violence, leading him to go on destructive rampages across Earth every Xmas. As an example of his judgment, he deems the mafia naughty for beating someone up for protection money, yet judges the victim equally as naughty for not paying their protection money. There is one known exception to his universally naughty sentence: Dr. Zoidberg, who was given a pogo stick as a gift. When he goes on a rampage on Earth, he's been known to use Xmas gimmicks and hurt or kill people in a holiday manner, such as launching a bike at a young girl (from his sometimes mentioned but unseen "bicycle gun"), and killing a grandfather by choking him to death with a chestnut. He even made the cheap pun "Your mistletoe is no match for my TOW missile!" He even considers milk and cookies given to him as bribery. He can't be destroyed by use of a paradox, unlike most robots, because he was built with 'paradox absorbing crumple zones', however paradoxes do cause his head to explode and another head to pop up from his chest.
Robot Santa resides in his fortress on Neptune and uses Neptunians as labor for toy manufacture. The Neptunians are dwarves as Robot Santa does not feed them and their lack of nourishment has stunted their growth. His fortress has attack dogs that bark Christmas carols, laser death beams, saws, and monitors used to check everyone in the universe for naughty deeds, especially New Orleans. Santa's fortress bears a similarity with Sauron's fortress Barad-dûr (prongs at the top) from The Lord of the Rings.
He was voiced by John Goodman in his first appearance ("Xmas Story"), and John DiMaggio in his second ("A Tale of Two Santas"), as John Goodman was not available.
There is also a Kwanzaa-bot (which every year distributes books entitled "What the Hell is Kwanzaa?") and Hanukkah zombie (which has been known to host parties to which Robot Santa is invited).
[edit] Tinny Tim
(Voiced by Tress MacNeille) A homeless child robot who idolises Bender. In keeping with his name (a reference to Tiny Tim, the crippled child of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol) not only is he endlessly polite in all situations ("Gentle jerkwads..."), one of his arms is in fact a wooden crutch, and much is made of his largely obsolete and broken-down nature, despite the fact that, like most robotic criminals and vagrants, he was clearly designed with the express purpose of being that way, for reasons unknown. He speaks with an English accent. In one episode he is seen assisting Bender with his work for the Robot Mafia. He operates an oilade stand, making oilade being what he was programmed for, along with writing reverse letters on the front of the stand in a 'cute' manner. He appeared in the following episodes:
- "Xmas Story"
- "Bender Gets Made"
- "Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV"
- "Mother's Day"
- "Less Than Hero"
- "Crimes of the Hot"
- "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings"
He was created by David X. Cohen, citing that the name was so "crummy" that they had to use it. In the DVD commentary, he celebrates when he sees Tinny Tim appear.
[edit] URL
(voiced by John DiMaggio) - One of two police officers who regularly arrest the principals of the show, often but not always including Bender. Massively built, armed to the teeth, and sometimes fitted with a fine printer, a siren, and a megaphone, his speech is peppered with blaxploitation catchphrases (e.g. "Awwww yeah," "you deadbeats are under arrest," and "it's a stone cold shame!"). He is partnered with the human Smitty, whom he may be attracted to in a romantic manner, in a parody of buddy-cop movie formula. URL makes appearances in multiple episodes and his duties do not appear to be limited to a single location as he enforces Bender's parole on Pluto in The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz.
URL, the original proposed name for Bender, is pronounced "Earl". It is derived from Uniform Resource Locator, a common internet term.
[edit] iZac
iZac is the bartender on the Titanic space-cruise in the episode "A Flight To Remember". He orders guards to beat Bender when he refuses to pay for a drink. The name and character is a parody of Isaac Washington, the bartender on The Love Boat.
[edit] See also
- Calculon
- List of recurring human characters from Futurama
- List of recurring alien characters from Futurama
| Futurama | |
|---|---|
| Media | |
| Episodes • Comic books • Video game • Bender's Big Score | |
| Characters | |
| Fry • Leela • Bender • Professor Farnsworth • Doctor Zoidberg • Hermes • Amy Zapp Brannigan • Kif Kroker • Nibbler • Cubert • Calculon • Mom Recurring human characters • Recurring robot characters • Recurring alien characters • Secondary characters |
|
| Universe | |
| Planets: Amphibios 9 • Eternium • Omicron Persei VIII Alien races: Cygnoid • Decapodian • Neptunian Politics and religion: Earth Government • Robotology • D.O.O.P. Technology: Gadgets • Suicide booth • Planet Express Ship • Nimbus Other: Timeline • Blernsball • All My Circuits • The Scary Door • Slurm • Products • Locations • Animals |
|
