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"Pitiful ballplayers of Earth, I am Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate, commander of the Harlem Globetrotters. For generations, your puny planet has lived in peace with the Globetrotter Homeworld. But now, for no reason, we challenge you to defend your honor on the basketball court."
Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate[source]

Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate is the leader of the Harlem Globetrotters. He once declared a war of Basketball on Earth for no practical reason. Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth challenged him with a team of Atomic Supermen. However, since they turned out to be mere tots, he had his crew extract chronitons from the Tempus Nebula to accelerate their growth. During the game at Madison Cube Garden, it seems that Farnsworth will win. Then suddenly, random time skips caught by the chroniton harvest have destabilized the nebula, accelerating the game, allowing the Globetrotters to win. Despite this victory, the Globetrotters see that the time skips could lead to the destruction of the universe. Bubblegum offered his assistance to Farnsworth, as he was an expert in physics at Globetrotter University. They soon figured to move a cluster of stars to divert the chronitons to the empty side of the universe. However, it would take a "bad-ass" gravity pump to move stars, including all the money on Earth, days or weeks to build it and to carefully attach it to the Planet Express ship. Luckily, convenient time skips work in their favor, allowing them to complete their task. Unfortunately, their efforts had failed, as proven by a sudden skip to Philip J. Fry I and Turanga Leela's wedding. Farnsworth realized that diverting chronitons is mathematically impossible, as the time skips get worse, aging isolated spots at a time. They gathered the finest minds in the universe, which happened to be the Globetrotters. "Sweet" Clyde Dixon managed to figure that instead of destroying the nebula, which would take out half the universe, they rather cause an implosion, which would require a Doomsday device, which Farnsworth had a collection of. The Globetrotters decide to leave, but Bender Bending Rodríguez pleads to go with them. Bubblegum tells Bender that he can talk trash and handle the ball, but goes on to ask the robot if he is truly funky enough to be a Globetrotter: Bender meekly answers no.

Bubblegum later became a judge during Elzar and Bender's cooking match, along with Morbo and Martha Stewart's head. They ultimately chose the latter, as the food he cooked tasted "funky", due to the LSD in it.

The Globetrotters later travel to Earth to figure out how to use paradox free time travel. Ethan figured out that it was possible, however, creating other time duplicates always ends in said time duplicates being doomed. Ethan helps retake Earth from the Scammers, commanding a Globetrotter ship with a number of other Globetrotters.

Appearances[]

Ethan Bubblegum Tate


Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate (left) and Bender Bending Rodríguez (right)

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