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This article is about Philip J. Fry. You may be looking for his nephew.


Hey... what smells like blue?

–Philip J. Fry in Roswell that Ends Well

Wow! A superpowers drug you can just rub onto your skin? You'd think it would be something you'd have to freebase.

–Philip J. Fry in Less Than Hero

This is just like that drug trip I saw in that movie when I was on that drug trip.

–Philip J. Fry in The Farnsworth Parabox

Yaaaah!

–Philip J. Fry's catchphrase

Why am I sticky and naked? Did I miss something fun?

–Philip J. Fry in The Sting

Philip J. Fry (born August 14, 1974), commonly known simply by his surname Fry, is the main protagonist of the animated sitcom Futurama. Fry was a native to the 20th century who was cryogenically frozen seconds into the year 2000, having fallen in just as 1999 ended. He was revived in 2999 and subsequently became a Delivery boy for the Planet Express Company. He is the male protagonist of Futurama.

Appearance

Fry has fair skin and orange hair with two spikes at the front. His usual attire consists of a red jacket over a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and black sneakers with gray soles and white laces. He's also got a small gut, noticeable through his clothes.

Personality

Fry is generally very lazy at work, spending most of his time in the office sitting on the couch: watching TV and drinking Slurm. This laziness has caused him to miss at least one delivery mission. He is often immature, which causes him to get into tight spots, usually forcing Leela to rescue him. Despite this, he is a good, sensitive, and sentimental man who loves his friends and will usually go to any lengths to save them.

Abilities

Fry is "special". He is immune to all psychic forms of attack, such as from Brain Slugs as well as the Brainspawn. Usually, this is passed off as a 'Fry is stupid' joke, but it is actually because he lacks the Delta Brainwave. This is because he is his own grandfather, meaning his very existence is a space-time anomaly.

If this was a genetic defect, Yancy Fry, Sr., Yancy Fry, Jr., Philip J. Fry II, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Cubert J. Farnsworth, and Igner (and many unnamed others) should have inherited this immunity, but it was caused because Fry is his own grandfather and with the exception of Yancy Sr. are not directly their own ancestors: they are Fry's double-ancestors. This means that while they are all anomalies, their existence is not additionally cyclical like Fry's.

Since "The Late Philip J. Fry", Fry is now even more of an anomaly than before: initially, his existence in the universe was cyclical, but now he is also living in a universe he was not even born into. It is unknown how this may manifest in the future, but this means that as a time-traveling out-of-universe observer, he should theoretically no longer be subject to alterations in the current universe's Time Stream because of further time travel.

Since they traveled with him in The Late Philip J. Fry, Bender and Professor Farnsworth are also out-of-universe observers.

As seen in,"The Robot Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" Fry is shown to be exceptionally gifted musically, able to compose breathtaking pieces of music on the Holophoner that were considered great enough to be shown in high clas opera houses and would leave audiences in tears. While his hands lack the dexterity needed to play the Holophoner correctly, Fry was still able to come up with said pieces of music on his own and only needed proper hands to perform them. The Robot Devil himself even stated that Fry's main problem was that he had "Stupid Fingers" rather than him lacking any sense of musical talent.

Biography

Life in the 20th century

"Here's to another lousy millennium."
Philip J. Fry in Space Pilot 3000

Philip J. Fry was born on August 14, 1974[1] in Brooklyn, New York to Yancy Fry, Sr. and his mother, née Gleisner. These surnames imply English, Irish, and German ancestry. He was named Philip after the Philip's head screwdriver.

When he was young, he dreamed of being an astronaut, but due to motion sickness and the fact nobody liked spending a week with him, his dream was never fulfilled. He would often play Basketball with his older brother Yancy Fry, Jr. as well as participate in break-dancing competitions.[2] When he was in high school, he drank nearly a hundred cans of cola per week, resulting in three heart attacks.[3] He also loved playing video games as he played them every day except the day that his eyes bled.[4] He attended and subsequently dropped out of Coney Island Community College, which in the standards of 31st Century education, made him the equivalent of a high school drop out.[5]

Before being frozen, Fry worked as a delivery boy at Panucci's Pizza in Manhattan. During this time, he delivered pizza to Fox Network and subsequently spilled beer on the control console, knocking Fox off the air.[6] He also discovered his pet dog, Seymour Asses when someone prank called the pizzeria as Seymour Asses. Seymour and Fry would become very close and would often sing/bark “Walking on Sunshine” together.[7]

On December 31st, 1999, Fry was sent out to deliver a pizza to an I.C. Weiner, an alias that Nibbler made up, at Applied Cryogenics located in Times Square. En route, he discovered his girlfriend Michelle Jenkins was cheating on him. When Fry discovered that the pizza delivery was a result of a prank phone call, his mood worsened. When New Year's arrived at midnight, he toasted to “another lousy millennium,” only for him to lose his balance on his chair and fall backward into an open Cryogenic tube and was frozen for 1000 years.[8]

Originally, Nibbler caused Fry to lose his balance by blowing on his chair. However, while trying to defeat the Brainspawn, Fry was trapped in the Infosphere with the Brainspawn due to his Scooty-Puff, Jr. falling apart and he traveled back in time to December 31, 1999, to confront Nibbler. Nibbler made Fry realize that if there was one thing in the future worth saving, it was Leela, thus Fry blew on the chair himself, causing his past self to fall into the cryogenic tube.[9] While the police offered to search for Fry, his parents decided it would be a waste of taxpayer money.[7]

In Bender's Big Score, Fry traveled back in time to the year 1999 twice and created two copies of himself. The first copy had accidentally fallen into the same cryogenic tube he was frozen in and the second copy remained in the year 2000. It was revealed that this Fry 'had stayed in the 21st century, he got a job at an aquarium. After he was attacked by Bender, he found out that his characteristics (mainly his hair and voice) were different, so the duplicate Fry called himself Lars Fillmore and returned to the future to be with Leela. He, unfortunately, was killed when the Bender duplicate exploded on December 31, 3007. The current and only remaining copy of Fry at this point was unfrozen from his chamber in the 31st century after being frozen for the second time, chronologically aging his preserved body yet another 1000 years.

Life in the 31st century

"My God... it's the future! My parents, my coworkers, my girlfriend. I'll never see any of them again! Yahoo!"
Philip J. Fry in Space Pilot 3000
Futurama

Philip J. Fry frozen at Applied Cryogenics.

Fry awoke on December 31, 2999. After a few minutes, he realized that he was in the future and was subsequently greeted by Terry, who exclaimed: “Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!”. Fry then met Leela, who informed him that he would be assigned the career of a delivery boy and that he has one living relative, his great, great, great .... great-nephew, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth.

Before Leela was able to implant the delivery boy career chip into Fry's hand, however, he ran away and met a Robot named Bender. Fry then mistook a suicide booth for a phone booth, which he and Bender narrowly escaped death (to Bender's somewhat disappointment). Eventually, Fry found Professor Farnsworth and became a delivery boy for the Planet Express Delivery Company.

Fry had wanted a robot as a best friend since he was six years old, so when he defrosted in the 31st century, he was excited to meet Bender. When they first met, he thought Bender was some "Cheesy New Year's Costume". Bender was his first friend in the 31st century - [8] they became close friends and eventually, after the crew kicked Fry out of the Planet Express building, they lived together in Robot Arms Apts.[10]

His career at Planet Express has been nothing short of eventful: During his employment, Fry has rediscovered the original Moon landing site,[11] discovered he was rich and then subsequently got scammed out of it by Mom and her sons,[12] become Emperor of the Planet Tri-Sol after drinking their current emperor (but later got chased off the throne),[13] saved Earth from a Giant Garbage Ball by re-introducing the concept of making trash to 31st-century society,[14] enrolled and dropped out of Mars University,[5] discovered the secret ingredient of Slurm with his coworkers,[3] prevented Leela from marrying Alcazar (an alien posing as the only other remaining member of the Cyclops race),[15] aided in the discovery of the Lost City of Atlanta,[16] become infested by Worms that made him intelligent, physically fit, as well as able to play the holophonor,[17] saved Earth and then the universe from the Brainspawn due to him lacking the delta brainwave,[9] saved the Planet Express crew from Roberto whilst believing he was a robot,[18] gotten married to and subsequently divorced from Leela,[19] become his own grandfather (the reason he lacks a delta brainwave),[20] helped in discovering Leela's parents, Turanga Munda and Turanga Morris, as well as the fact that Leela is a mutant (and not an alien as previously believed),[21] become a superhero,[22] discovered his old dog fossilized at a natural history museum exhibit of a twentieth-century pizzeria,[7] and written and performed an opera by playing a holophonor while he possessed the Robot Devil's hands.[23]

Becoming His Own Grandfather

"For example, if you killed your grandfather, you'd cease to exist!"
Hubert J. Farnsworth
"But existing is basically all I do!"
Philip J. Fry

The Planet Express crew had gone to observe a supernova up close. While the crew prepared for the event, Fry went to make popcorn. He ignores the warning label on the aluminum popcorn pan saying not to cook in a microwave, which he does. The microwave emitted radiation that collided with the wave from the supernova, causing the Planet Express crew to travel back in time to 1947.

After Bender breaks apart, Zoidberg was captured by the U.S. military while picking pieces of his torso. Fry and Bender's head attempt to infiltrate Roswell, with the former disguised as a soldier. He runs into his grandfather, Enos Fry, engaged to Mildred. Acting on Hubert's warning, Fry did his best to make sure that his grandfather was not killed- otherwise, he, in turn, would cease to exist. However, he became paranoid in his attempts to protect Enos, driving and locking him in a house in the middle of nowhere - a house that was, unbeknownst to Fry - within range of a nuclear testing ground. Needless to say, Enos was killed in the resulting explosion, but for some reason, Fry was still existing.

He then returned to comfort his soon-to-be grandmother, who began to make sexual advances on him, which made him uncomfortable. He then reasoned with himself that because he still exists, Mildred couldn't be his grandmother and had sex with her. The next day, Professor Farnsworth, Leela, and Bender knocked on the window, informing Fry that because of his actions, he himself became his own grandfather: Fry realized what he had done and freaked out. Because of the paradox, the Planet Express crew decided that they should get back to their own time, regardless of what it would do to change history. They stormed Roswell, rescuing Zoidberg during an autopsy, Bender's reconstructed body and stealing a microwave satellite dish to return to the future.

It was later explained by the Nibblonians that as a result of Fry becoming his own grandfather, a genetic abnormality caused him to lack the delta brainwave, rendering him immune to the Brainspawn and telepathy in general.

Rebirth

Between Into The Wild Green Yonder and Rebirth, Fry died and Leela replaced him with a look-alike robot. Then, it short-circuited, putting her into a coma. Fry came back to life after his hair and some skin that was left in the machine rebirthed him. Fry also killed his alternate-universe self after traveling so far forward in a time machine that he arrived in a new universe that was 10 feet lower than the previous universe, crushing the alternate-universe Bender, Fry and the Professor.

Age

Fry was biologically 25 at the start of the series but is chronologically 1,025 or 1,026 in the year 3000. In Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles, he is now around 29 before an accident occurs and he is regressed to the age of 14 but after he is re-aged to adult it is presumed he is his original age, though it is speculated he is less than 30 since the Professor didn't use the age detector on them.

By the time of Bender's Big Score, Fry is biologically 33 years old and chronologically 1033 but after traveling back in time and freezing himself again for another 1007.95 years he is about 2040. By the time of Into the Wild Green Yonder, Fry is 35 years old and chronologically around 2042 years old, seeing as "Into the Wild Green Yonder" takes place in 3009. As of the seventh season, he is 200 quindecillion years old after "The Late Philip J. Fry" fast-forwarding through time and seeing the creation of the universe twice.

Because of these trips through time, Fry is the second oldest member of the crew.

Relationships

Michelle Jenkins

Michelle

Michelle

"Michelle, I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament it."
Philip J. Fry in The Cryonic Woman

Fry has had several relationships throughout the years. Before being frozen for 1000 years, he was dating Michelle Jenkins. However, he discovered that she was cheating on him on New Year's Eve while delivering a pizza to Applied Cryogenics ordered by Nibbler under the name “I.C. Weiner”.[8]

While working at Applied Cryogenics (due to Leela mixing up their old career chips), he discovers Michelle frozen in one of the cryogenic tubes. Once she is unfrozen, they briefly rekindle their relationship, but after Fry realizes how bossy she really is, he decides to leave her.

Later in the episode, Fry somehow still believes they are still dating, but Michelle later leaves him for Pauly Shore.[24]


Umbriel

Umbriel

Umbriel

"Why couldn't she be the other type of mermaid, with the fish part on top and the lady part on the bottom?"
Philip J. Fry in The Deep South

When the Planet Express ship was dragged to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, Fry embarked on a short relationship with a mermaid named Umbriel.

Fry had planned to stay underneath the waves with his new-found love, but cut the relationship off after discovering that he was unable to have sex with her because of their incompatible anatomies.[16]

Morgan Proctor

Morgan Pic

Morgan

"I'm surrounded by neat freaks every day. There's nothing kinkier to me than a filthy slop-jock like you!"
Morgan to Fry in How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back

While Hermes was on forced paid leave, Fry had a secret affair with his temporary replacement, Morgan Proctor, due to her fetish for messy men. She informed Fry that no one could know about them and she'd deny any mention of it.

Fry and Morgan's affair ended when Bender caught them in the act but its implied they had sex again in his office after Fry angrily caused a mess and Morgan pounced him and they kissed.[25]

Several Amazonian Women

Amazonians

Amazonians

"I never thought I would die this way, but I kinda always hoped."
Fry about his execution by sex with Amazonians Amazon Women in the Mood

Fry went to save Leela and the others from the Amazonians but was captured. As he was a man on their planet, he was a prisoner and because of his unintentional bad comments, he was sent to be executed by the Amazonians by sex. Fry was both terrified and delighted by this near-death experience as he had always hoped to die like this. He was released from the "torture" and left with a broken pelvis, while being happy.

Fry encountered them again in Fry Am the Egg Man where Thog flirted with him rather aggressively, Fry was "scareroused" (scared and aroused) by her.

Liubot

LiuBot

Liubot

"My personality is mathematically derived from my movies, proportionally weighted by box office receipts."
Liubot to Fry in I Dated A Robot

In order to fulfill his fantasy of dating a celebrity, Fry downloads a copy of Lucy Liu onto a blank robot, creating a Lucy Liu robot and enters in a robosexual relationship with her, despite his coworkers' objections. Leela, Bender, and Zoidberg found out that the website Fry had used to download the Lucy Liubot, Nappster, was actually kidnapping heads and using their images to create robots like Lucy Liu.

Fry was eventually convinced by the real Lucy Liu's head to blank his Lucy Liubot by telling him that downloading her image was stealing. After Fry blanked the robot, he attempted to get to know the real Lucy Liu, but was not able to when Bender told him that he and Lucy Liu were so-called "in love".[26]

Mildred Fry

Mildredfry

Mildred Fry

" "How about these cookies, sugar?""
Mildred coming onto her grandson Roswell that Ends Well

Fry was sent back in time to 1947 where he met his grandfather and his grandmother Mildred. After Fry accidentally killed his own grandfather, or who he thought was his grandfather, by locking him in a cabin located on an atomic bomb test site that was subsequently blown to pieces during one such test. He consoled his grief-stricken would be grandmother who soon came onto him leading to the two of them having sexual relations on the couch and soon the bedroom.

Due to these happenings, Fry realized that now he is the father of his own father and has become his own grandfather which left him screaming uncontrollably after processing this knowledge. However, as the crew returned to the future, Mildred was left alone to raise Fry's father, Yancy Sr.

As strange as it may sound when Nibbler mentioned the affair; Fry seems to be very proud of doing "the nasty in the pasty".

However, other times he has a different reaction as when the professor mentions the benefits the Forwards Time Machine has to offer such as stopping oneself from sleeping with his own grandmother and Fry stating that he wouldn't do that again.

Amy Wong

Amy

Amy Wong

"I'm doing my job — there's Amy. I spend a few hours selecting a candy from the machine — there's Amy. I wake up the morning after sleeping with Amy — there's Amy!"
Fry in Put Your Head on My Shoulders

Fry and Amy had a fake relationship in order to prevent Amy's parents from setting her up with a random guy.[27] After their car runs out of gas on Mercury, Fry and Amy pursue a real relationship, but Fry decided to end it when he was under the ill-conceived assumption that Amy wouldn't leave him alone. Amy was Fry's love interest.

After telling her this on their way for a picnic with Zoidberg tagging along, the car crashed, making Fry being the only one hurt and having Zoidberg attach his head to Amy's shoulder, even after their break-up. Later in the episode, Fry was able to get his own body back.[28]

Fry and Amy are still good friends though Amy secretly implied Fry didn't satisfy her. However, this changed when she comes under the effects of the pheromones of butterflies on Kif's planet and they had sex.

Turanga Leela

Meanwhile (35)

Turanga Leela

Main article: Fry's and Leela's relationship

Fry's true love has always remained Leela, despite the fact that she repeatedly rejects him by making up excuses. He is able to express his love and affection for her in many ways, helping her to grow to love him, leading to two marriages. The first resulted in a divorce, which Fry did not know why it had happened due to time jumps. ("Time Keeps on Slippin'") (They also technically almost married in "Bender's big score" because Lars was a time paradox duplicate of Fry.) The second was annulled when the Time Button was repaired and the Professor returned the three of them to a point before he invented it. ("Meanwhile")

Family Tree

Mr. Gleisner──┬──Mrs. Gleisner       ┌────────────┬──Mildred
              │                      │            │
           Mrs. Fry───────────┬────────────Yancy Fry, Sr.
                                  │  │
                         ┌────────┴───────────────────────────────┐                      (?)┬David Farnsworth
                         │           │                            │                         │
              Philip J. Fry - Turanga LeelaYancy Fry, Jr.      
                         │                                        │               │
                         └───────────┘                Philip J. Fry II──┬──Njörd(?) │
                                                                            │               │
                                                                            │               │
                                                                            │               │
                                                                            └───────┬───────┘
                                                                     Ned Farnsworth────┬────Velma Farnsworth                                                                                │
                                                                                       ┌───┴───┐          
               (?)Wernstrom────┬────Mom─────────┬─────────Hubert J. Farnsworth   Floyd Farnsworth                        │                    │                        │
                                   │                    │                        │               
                               ┌───┴───┐          Igner           Cubert J. Farnsworth
                               │       │         
                          Walt   Larry?

Trivia

  • Philip J. Fry is actually named after Phil Hartman, who died before Futurama was picked up by FOX; he was the original voice for Zapp Brannigan.
  • Philip J. Fry was originally going to be voiced by Charlie Schlatter.
  • Due to having become his own grandfather, Fry possesses no delta brain wave, making him immune to psychic attack and making his mind unreadable.
  • Despite being the least mature of the Planet Express Crew, he is the second oldest member chronologically after Bender.
  • Fry was born during this baseball game between the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, on August 14, 1974. The script states his birthday is actually August 9, 1974 (oddly, this is the date Richard M. Nixon resigned as President of the United States). Ironically enough, 1974 was the year Homer and Marge from Matt's other series the Simpsons met. Also, one of the episodes took place in 1947, which is 1974, only with the 4 and 7 swapped.
  • Probably sterilized by the F-Ray, speculation leads that when he was infested by worms he was unsterilized. Later on, he time traveled and impregnated his grandmother, confirming his ability to have children.
  • Fry may have a form of synesthesia, a neurological disorder wherein the sufferer mixes up sensory input. This can be seen in The Why of Fry ("Did everything just taste purple for a second?") as well as Roswell that Ends Well ("Hey, what smells like blue?"). The form is more likely to be the rare lexical form, where different phenomenon may cause 'color, smell, sound, or taste sensations' like the quotes above.
  • Fry states he cannot swim on at least two occasions: Fry & the Slurm Factory and The Sting.
  • Fry's middle initial is the same as several of Matt Groening's other creations, Abraham J. Simpson, Homer J. Simpson, Bartholomew J. Simpson. It is currently unknown what Fry's middle name is, although in Bender's Big Score, a New York City telephone directory from the time Fry lived there lists a Philip Joshua Fry alongside a few other P. Frys. Bender tracks Fry down using one of the listings shown, but it is not shown which one he used.
  • He has no problem interacting with robots or aliens.
  • His time paradox duplicate Lars Fillmore may have worked at a casino in Bender's Big Score.
  • He was almost snu snued to death by the Amazonians and suffered a broken pelvis.
  • He is one of only two characters to have had sex with both Amy and Leela (the other being Zapp Brannigan).
  • He is one of only three characters to have appeared in every single episode of the series (the other two being Bender and Leela).
  • Usually the first to refer to someone as dead, though he has no medical experience.
  • He is notable for being the only person besides Professor Farnsworth to treat Zoidberg decently.
  • It seems Fry has heart problems: In Fry & the Slurm Factory, he told Leela how he used to drink 100 cans of cola a week until his third heart attack; in Ghost in the Machines, Fry received a heart attack from being scared by Bender; and in "Fry Am the Egg Man", he came close to a heart attack after eating fast food. But he took a Pez and his heart attack stopped.
  • It would seem Fry's favorite song would be "Walking on Sunshine", which he normally sings out of tune.
  • Fry, along with John A. Zoidberg, is commonly referred by their surname.
  • His story about him getting unfrozen years later is similar to Captain America's.
  • Fry appears to be missing his right kidney. This is seen in Insane in the Mainframe when Fry is given an x-ray upon admission to the asylum. Despite that, he is known to have it stolen by Bender for the Professor, before it was eaten by Leela, who mistook it for Hermes' lunch.

Gallery


References

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