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EspañolDOCTOR ZOIDBERG
(Redirected from Dr. Zoidberg)
'Doctor John D. Zoidberg' is a fictional lobster-like alien from the planet Decapod 10 in the television series ''Futurama''. He works as the company doctor for Planet Express, even though he knows very little about the physiology of humans. Zoidberg is voiced by Billy West and speaks with a Yiddish-inflected accent.
The series shows conflicting views of Zoidberg's childhood. In "A Taste of Freedom", he is seen in child form; but in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", when the crew reverts to their younger forms, he goes through rapid larval stages, including stages where he resembles a slug, trilobite, clam, lamprey, anglerfish, sea urchin, starfish, sea anemone, and sea sponge, before growing into his present form. His age is never revealed in the series, but the comic suggests that he is 25 to 30 years old. While still a youngster on Decopod 10, Zoidberg was supposedly bullied by a Hermit Crab who he calls "Vinny." Upon returning to his home planet in his adult form for the mating frenzy, he finds the hermit crab and says "Who's the tough guy now Vinny!?" He then proceeds to eat his childhood enemy.
Zoidberg is the nephew of Harold Zoid, the famous silent-hologram comedian, whose name is a play on both Harold Lloyd and the former practice of Jewish actors changing their names. Even though Zoidberg is neither Jewish let alone human, he and his species have characteristics that are stereotypically Ashkenazic Jewish, including an Eastern European Yiddish-derived accent. He has three parents, named Norm, Sam, and Sadie. It is likely that two of them are his biological parents (the episode "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" indicates Decapodians only have two parents, who die during mating) and one is the woman who raised him (seen in "A Taste of Freedom"), though it is also possible that Decapod reproduction requires a third mate who does not die afterwards. He has a cousin named Zoidfarb. He also seems to have several siblings who budded from him in his sea sponge phase, including a brother called Norman ("Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles").
Zoidberg is an old friend of Professor Farnsworth, and is the doctor at Planet Express. Although he claims expertise in human medicine, his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is actually pitiful: he often mistakes Philip J. Fry for a woman or a robot (which he pronounces 'Rowbit', and is frequently the way he refers to Bender), and the chart of human anatomy on his office wall is upside-down. He is often confused by the “strange” features of humans, such as their skeletal system, lack of multiple mouths, or the fact that blood is thicker than water (literally or metaphorically). He believes that humans have dorsal fins, that the heart is part of the digestive system. This may be because he has four hearts ( Roswell That Ends Well; in A Taste of Freedom he states he only has three hearts, but this may be as one of the hearts was removed in the Roswell episode ), that humans are susceptible to fin rot, and even that the human gonads are in the neck. When he operates on the staff, he makes spectacular mistakes, such as attaching Fry’s severed arm onto the shoulder of his other arm. In “Parasites Lost,” it is shown that Zoidberg has gleaned more information on anatomy through television commercials than through academic study. He is only directly questioned about his medical expertise in the episode “A Clone Of My Own”, in which he claims unconvincingly that he lost his medical degree in a volcano. However, he was able to save Fry's life by sewing his head onto Amy's body.
When Dr.Zoidberg was young he wanted to be a comedian but later decided to be a doctor.
Despite showing a rather poor knowledge of humans and robots, there are suggestions that he might actually be a good doctor to his own race; he knows the gravity of the disease fin rot (presumably this is similar to a disease that present day fish can suffer from) and fin fungus, and believes that Leela's problems in dating are "purely medical. Soon she will drop her eggs and they will hatch and all will be well". However, this theory has not been proven in the series as of yet.
Zoidberg loves stand-up comedy, and often tries to become a comedian. However, he is appallingly bad, and his stand-up performances usually end in him being pelted with rubbish or dragged offstage. Many of his jokes are modeled on and parodies of Yakov Smirnoff’s jokes. (Example: “Earth, what a planet! Here, you enjoy eating a tasty clam. On my planet, clams enjoy eating a tasty ''you''!”)
In addition to his medical qualifications, Zoidberg claims to have mail-order degrees in “Murderology” and “Murderonomy" (although this was in a "What If?" machine simulation and may not be canon).
Although he is a doctor, Zoidberg lives in crushing poverty. He has no home of his own (instead living at the Planet Express building in the “maternifuge”) and cannot afford shoes.
He is constantly hungry. He can only afford one "meal" a week, roughly the equivalent of a guinea pig. He often eats out of trash cans and has been shown eating a boot, a picnic basket, and a bag of toenail clippings which he believes are potato chips under the claim that "a feast is a feast". He gets excited at the offer of free food and in one episode enters a pet show (pretending to be a "hard-shelled whooping terrier") to try and win a year’s supply of dog food. He starts twitching whenever someone mentions food. It's not clear whether this excitement is caused by his alien metabolism, his poverty, or both. He adds salt to the water cooler in the Planet Express building.
His poverty may spring from his belief that he is a shrewd investor. He regularly spends money on pointless purchases (such as eight copies of the same record) and makes bad business decisions, such as exchanging his (considerable) corporate stock for a sandwich (however, he later claims he would have settled for a hard roll with ketchup inside). It is later revealed that he owned 51% of Planet Express' stock at one point, having been given thousands of supposedly worthless stock certificates by Hermes Conrad, the bureaucrat of Planet Express, to use as toilet paper. Doctor Zoidberg complains of being denied credit in several episodes, including one Season 2 What-If Machine simulation, in which he grows into a giant Zoidberg the size of a skyscraper and goes on a rampage against the buildings of institutions that have wronged him in the past, including "Mr." Chase Manhattan Bank, ("Deny my credit application, will you?").
Doctor Zoidberg harbors the incorrect belief that all medical professionals are as poor as he is. He also hates other medical professionals, and the very presence of another doctor will provoke him into picking a fight.
Zoidberg seems to get along with his co-workers most of the time, though he is often treated like an annoying pet. He is frequently found in Professor Farnsworth’s laboratory and subsequently shooed away with a broom. Hermes hates him in particular, and is ready to show it: scapegoating him, ordering him to do menial jobs around the office, cutting his salary for various reasons, and eliminating his creature comforts such as the salt-water dispenser (Zoidberg's reaction: "This is a witch hunt!") Zoidberg’s unpopularity in the office may be due to his being overshadowed by Fry, Leela, and Bender: when they are fired from Planet Express in the episode “The Cryonic Woman”, he becomes the most well-liked office worker. Zoidberg is the only character to be judged "good" by MomCorp's Robot Santa who gives him a pogo stick, despite the fact that the Robot Santa labels everyone "naughty" (and then tries to kill them). Farnsworth considers him strange due to the fact he wears sandals.
Zoidberg longs for attention and friendship and rejoices when these desires are fulfilled even slightly (He remarked in one episode, when asked to open a can of soup, "Hooray, I'm useful! I'm having a wonderful time!"). He is always disappointed when people pay no attention to him. Apart from his colleagues at work, he has very few friends and can't make new ones due to his appalling odor and personality (the only friends he is shown to have are two "Hungry Hobos", a lobster he saw in a restaurant tank and later took out on a date, and his "pet" Slinky, which Bender straightend). The staff of Planet Express makes jokes at his expense and criticize him even when he is in the room. Zoidberg, however, never realizes that he is being ridiculed and even interprets insults as compliments. He considers Fry to be his best friend in the world. He also considers Bender a really good friend even though Bender treats him incredibly badly.
There are other ethnic references in Dr. Zoidberg's character. These allusions combine to suggest the culture of Ashkenazi Jewish people. Zoidberg is a crustacean, and crustaceans are not kosher according to Judaism, which adds an extra layer of humor to Dr. Zoidberg’s character. On one occasion he is refused entry to a "Bot Mitzvah" reception (“No shellfish!”). On the other hand, humans, including Jews, are not kosher (to eat), so in a sense this is not so remarkable. The other Decapodians seen on the show, such as Zoidberg’s Uncle Harold (voiced by Hank Azaria) and the staff at the Decapodian embassy in Washington D.C. speak with very heavy Yiddish accents. The staff at the Decapodian embassy also use Yiddish words like "schlep," and the secretary is an example of a caring Jewish mother. His great uncle was a great Hollywood actor who changed his name to Harold Zoid, an obvious reference to Jews who changed their names to make them sound less Jewish. In the episode "The Deep South" Fry tells Zoidberg they couldn't be seen together as Fry is "trying to join the country club" (although this could just be due to Zoidberg's extreme poverty and other severe deficiencies). Also, in "Fry and the Slurm Factory", Zoidberg is shown inquiring about a Hebrew "Slurm" ("שׂלוּרם") t-shirt, which parodies the ubiquitous Hebrew Coca-Cola shirts that are sold as souvenirs in Israel. Other ethnic references are in his surname, which sounds like it could be of German extraction, being that ''berg'' is German for Mountain, and is a common suffix for German surnames.
Main articles: Decapodian
Doctor Zoidberg’s race, the Decapodians, are aliens from the mud planet Decapod 10. This name is a reference to the scientific nomenclature of lobsters and crayfish as decapods, that is, creatures with ten legs. The actual physiology of Decapodians combines that of several different sea creatures. Dr. Zoidberg’s anatomy is similar to that of crustaceans, for he has chelae (pinchers) and a hard exoskeleton, hard enough to prevent it being punctured by a samurai sword in a seppuku attempt. However he also has many attributes of cephalopod mollusks, such as the tentacle-like protrusions covering his mouth (reminiscent of those of cuttlefish) and his ink gland, through which he occasionally expels ink when threatened (as do all Coleoidea). He also coughs up blue pearls after ingesting “too much dirt.” He has also been shown to propel water from several unseen holes on his head. Throughout the series, Zoidberg usually refers to himself, and is referred to by others, as a lobster. In an early episode, Zoidberg falls in love with an actual lobster in a nightclub aquarium. In the episode ''When Aliens Attack'', he finds himself trapped in a lobster cage, but is rescued by Bender. However, he does refer to himself as a squid (Three Hundred Big Boys) commenting, "Oh what a foolish squid I've been."
The Decapodian race is originally from the mud planet Decapod 10 (a member planet of the Democratic Order of Planets), but many Decapodians also live on Earth. The Decapodians seem to have been one of the first alien races to make contact with humans, and Decapodians arrived on Earth soon afterward (proceeding to accidentally wipe out the anchovy population by overfishing). The Decapodians themselves have many comical traits, including the traditional "apology dance" used to ask forgiveness, and the recent (but good) tradition of "Clawplach", in which Decapodians fight to the death over matters of honor and whether or not abbreviations are acceptable in Scrabble (Zoidberg maintains that they are not). The Decapodians' national anthem is the music composed by Alexander Courage played during fight scenes in the original series of Star Trek.
The Decapodians appear to have a mating season (which is similar to pon farr in Vulcans), and as soon as the parents have passed on their genes, they die. However, in Where The Buggalo Roam, Dr. Zoidberg announces that he has taken the liberty of fertilizing the caviar that was being served at the barbecue; despite passing on his DNA into the caviar, he does not die. Decapodians also have courtship display and arena battle practices which are closely analogous to the lek of some Earth species. The male reproductive organ appears to be called the "wazoo"; Fry, making a pitch for Zoidberg to a Decapodian woman, states that Zoidberg has "male jelly coming out the wazoo", she replies "well that ''is'' where it comes out". There is one allusion to asexual reproduction: at Fry's housewarming party, Hermes eats some small pinchers and comments that they are "mighty tasty", to which Zoidberg replies "Thank you, I made them myself"
Biologically, fin rot is a serious disease that can afflict Decapodians. In a parallel universe explored by the Planet Express crew ("The Farnsworth Parabox"), Dr. Zoidberg is blue; according to the DVD commentary this is because one in every million lobsters is blue. Decapod 10 maintains an embassy, resembling a giant sandcastle, in Washington D.C. under Ambassador Moivin. In "A Taste Of Freedom" the Decapodian military invades and conquers Earth, but after their occupation warships are dismissed, Zoidberg himself destroys the Mobile Oppression Palace (a motorized sand castle on top of a crab-like robot) and liberates Earth. The Decapodians also walk in a fashion which causes them to walk with their "toes" pointed out.
The names Zoidberg and Zoid come from a game that David X. Cohen made in high school, which was rejected by the company to which he sent the game. There is also a train of thought that says that he is named after "the eyes of Dr TJ Eckleburg" from F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''The Great Gatsby''. His comedic style seen in the series is a reference to Ukrainian comic Yakov Smirnoff, and his voice was inspired by actor George Jessel. In audio commentary for season 1 it was stated by David X Cohen that the inspiration for Dr Zoidberg was a reverse Dr McCoy; McCoy was a human who often had to operate on aliens with unfamiliar physiologies, while Zoidberg is an alien who operates on humans with a poor understanding of their physiology.
★ Dr. Zoidberg's page in the Futurama Encyclopedia
★ Crustacean Notes - a Dr. Zoidberg website
'Doctor John D. Zoidberg' is a fictional lobster-like alien from the planet Decapod 10 in the television series ''Futurama''. He works as the company doctor for Planet Express, even though he knows very little about the physiology of humans. Zoidberg is voiced by Billy West and speaks with a Yiddish-inflected accent.
| Contents |
| Early life |
| Family |
| Current life |
| As a doctor |
| Other aspirations |
| Poverty |
| At work |
| Loneliness |
| Jewish references |
| The Decapodians |
| Character development |
| External links |
Early life
The series shows conflicting views of Zoidberg's childhood. In "A Taste of Freedom", he is seen in child form; but in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", when the crew reverts to their younger forms, he goes through rapid larval stages, including stages where he resembles a slug, trilobite, clam, lamprey, anglerfish, sea urchin, starfish, sea anemone, and sea sponge, before growing into his present form. His age is never revealed in the series, but the comic suggests that he is 25 to 30 years old. While still a youngster on Decopod 10, Zoidberg was supposedly bullied by a Hermit Crab who he calls "Vinny." Upon returning to his home planet in his adult form for the mating frenzy, he finds the hermit crab and says "Who's the tough guy now Vinny!?" He then proceeds to eat his childhood enemy.
Family
Zoidberg is the nephew of Harold Zoid, the famous silent-hologram comedian, whose name is a play on both Harold Lloyd and the former practice of Jewish actors changing their names. Even though Zoidberg is neither Jewish let alone human, he and his species have characteristics that are stereotypically Ashkenazic Jewish, including an Eastern European Yiddish-derived accent. He has three parents, named Norm, Sam, and Sadie. It is likely that two of them are his biological parents (the episode "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" indicates Decapodians only have two parents, who die during mating) and one is the woman who raised him (seen in "A Taste of Freedom"), though it is also possible that Decapod reproduction requires a third mate who does not die afterwards. He has a cousin named Zoidfarb. He also seems to have several siblings who budded from him in his sea sponge phase, including a brother called Norman ("Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles").
Current life
As a doctor
Zoidberg is an old friend of Professor Farnsworth, and is the doctor at Planet Express. Although he claims expertise in human medicine, his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is actually pitiful: he often mistakes Philip J. Fry for a woman or a robot (which he pronounces 'Rowbit', and is frequently the way he refers to Bender), and the chart of human anatomy on his office wall is upside-down. He is often confused by the “strange” features of humans, such as their skeletal system, lack of multiple mouths, or the fact that blood is thicker than water (literally or metaphorically). He believes that humans have dorsal fins, that the heart is part of the digestive system. This may be because he has four hearts ( Roswell That Ends Well; in A Taste of Freedom he states he only has three hearts, but this may be as one of the hearts was removed in the Roswell episode ), that humans are susceptible to fin rot, and even that the human gonads are in the neck. When he operates on the staff, he makes spectacular mistakes, such as attaching Fry’s severed arm onto the shoulder of his other arm. In “Parasites Lost,” it is shown that Zoidberg has gleaned more information on anatomy through television commercials than through academic study. He is only directly questioned about his medical expertise in the episode “A Clone Of My Own”, in which he claims unconvincingly that he lost his medical degree in a volcano. However, he was able to save Fry's life by sewing his head onto Amy's body.
When Dr.Zoidberg was young he wanted to be a comedian but later decided to be a doctor.
Despite showing a rather poor knowledge of humans and robots, there are suggestions that he might actually be a good doctor to his own race; he knows the gravity of the disease fin rot (presumably this is similar to a disease that present day fish can suffer from) and fin fungus, and believes that Leela's problems in dating are "purely medical. Soon she will drop her eggs and they will hatch and all will be well". However, this theory has not been proven in the series as of yet.
Other aspirations
Zoidberg loves stand-up comedy, and often tries to become a comedian. However, he is appallingly bad, and his stand-up performances usually end in him being pelted with rubbish or dragged offstage. Many of his jokes are modeled on and parodies of Yakov Smirnoff’s jokes. (Example: “Earth, what a planet! Here, you enjoy eating a tasty clam. On my planet, clams enjoy eating a tasty ''you''!”)
In addition to his medical qualifications, Zoidberg claims to have mail-order degrees in “Murderology” and “Murderonomy" (although this was in a "What If?" machine simulation and may not be canon).
Poverty
Although he is a doctor, Zoidberg lives in crushing poverty. He has no home of his own (instead living at the Planet Express building in the “maternifuge”) and cannot afford shoes.
He is constantly hungry. He can only afford one "meal" a week, roughly the equivalent of a guinea pig. He often eats out of trash cans and has been shown eating a boot, a picnic basket, and a bag of toenail clippings which he believes are potato chips under the claim that "a feast is a feast". He gets excited at the offer of free food and in one episode enters a pet show (pretending to be a "hard-shelled whooping terrier") to try and win a year’s supply of dog food. He starts twitching whenever someone mentions food. It's not clear whether this excitement is caused by his alien metabolism, his poverty, or both. He adds salt to the water cooler in the Planet Express building.
His poverty may spring from his belief that he is a shrewd investor. He regularly spends money on pointless purchases (such as eight copies of the same record) and makes bad business decisions, such as exchanging his (considerable) corporate stock for a sandwich (however, he later claims he would have settled for a hard roll with ketchup inside). It is later revealed that he owned 51% of Planet Express' stock at one point, having been given thousands of supposedly worthless stock certificates by Hermes Conrad, the bureaucrat of Planet Express, to use as toilet paper. Doctor Zoidberg complains of being denied credit in several episodes, including one Season 2 What-If Machine simulation, in which he grows into a giant Zoidberg the size of a skyscraper and goes on a rampage against the buildings of institutions that have wronged him in the past, including "Mr." Chase Manhattan Bank, ("Deny my credit application, will you?").
Doctor Zoidberg harbors the incorrect belief that all medical professionals are as poor as he is. He also hates other medical professionals, and the very presence of another doctor will provoke him into picking a fight.
At work
Zoidberg seems to get along with his co-workers most of the time, though he is often treated like an annoying pet. He is frequently found in Professor Farnsworth’s laboratory and subsequently shooed away with a broom. Hermes hates him in particular, and is ready to show it: scapegoating him, ordering him to do menial jobs around the office, cutting his salary for various reasons, and eliminating his creature comforts such as the salt-water dispenser (Zoidberg's reaction: "This is a witch hunt!") Zoidberg’s unpopularity in the office may be due to his being overshadowed by Fry, Leela, and Bender: when they are fired from Planet Express in the episode “The Cryonic Woman”, he becomes the most well-liked office worker. Zoidberg is the only character to be judged "good" by MomCorp's Robot Santa who gives him a pogo stick, despite the fact that the Robot Santa labels everyone "naughty" (and then tries to kill them). Farnsworth considers him strange due to the fact he wears sandals.
Loneliness
Zoidberg longs for attention and friendship and rejoices when these desires are fulfilled even slightly (He remarked in one episode, when asked to open a can of soup, "Hooray, I'm useful! I'm having a wonderful time!"). He is always disappointed when people pay no attention to him. Apart from his colleagues at work, he has very few friends and can't make new ones due to his appalling odor and personality (the only friends he is shown to have are two "Hungry Hobos", a lobster he saw in a restaurant tank and later took out on a date, and his "pet" Slinky, which Bender straightend). The staff of Planet Express makes jokes at his expense and criticize him even when he is in the room. Zoidberg, however, never realizes that he is being ridiculed and even interprets insults as compliments. He considers Fry to be his best friend in the world. He also considers Bender a really good friend even though Bender treats him incredibly badly.
Jewish references
There are other ethnic references in Dr. Zoidberg's character. These allusions combine to suggest the culture of Ashkenazi Jewish people. Zoidberg is a crustacean, and crustaceans are not kosher according to Judaism, which adds an extra layer of humor to Dr. Zoidberg’s character. On one occasion he is refused entry to a "Bot Mitzvah" reception (“No shellfish!”). On the other hand, humans, including Jews, are not kosher (to eat), so in a sense this is not so remarkable. The other Decapodians seen on the show, such as Zoidberg’s Uncle Harold (voiced by Hank Azaria) and the staff at the Decapodian embassy in Washington D.C. speak with very heavy Yiddish accents. The staff at the Decapodian embassy also use Yiddish words like "schlep," and the secretary is an example of a caring Jewish mother. His great uncle was a great Hollywood actor who changed his name to Harold Zoid, an obvious reference to Jews who changed their names to make them sound less Jewish. In the episode "The Deep South" Fry tells Zoidberg they couldn't be seen together as Fry is "trying to join the country club" (although this could just be due to Zoidberg's extreme poverty and other severe deficiencies). Also, in "Fry and the Slurm Factory", Zoidberg is shown inquiring about a Hebrew "Slurm" ("שׂלוּרם") t-shirt, which parodies the ubiquitous Hebrew Coca-Cola shirts that are sold as souvenirs in Israel. Other ethnic references are in his surname, which sounds like it could be of German extraction, being that ''berg'' is German for Mountain, and is a common suffix for German surnames.
The Decapodians
Main articles: Decapodian
Doctor Zoidberg’s race, the Decapodians, are aliens from the mud planet Decapod 10. This name is a reference to the scientific nomenclature of lobsters and crayfish as decapods, that is, creatures with ten legs. The actual physiology of Decapodians combines that of several different sea creatures. Dr. Zoidberg’s anatomy is similar to that of crustaceans, for he has chelae (pinchers) and a hard exoskeleton, hard enough to prevent it being punctured by a samurai sword in a seppuku attempt. However he also has many attributes of cephalopod mollusks, such as the tentacle-like protrusions covering his mouth (reminiscent of those of cuttlefish) and his ink gland, through which he occasionally expels ink when threatened (as do all Coleoidea). He also coughs up blue pearls after ingesting “too much dirt.” He has also been shown to propel water from several unseen holes on his head. Throughout the series, Zoidberg usually refers to himself, and is referred to by others, as a lobster. In an early episode, Zoidberg falls in love with an actual lobster in a nightclub aquarium. In the episode ''When Aliens Attack'', he finds himself trapped in a lobster cage, but is rescued by Bender. However, he does refer to himself as a squid (Three Hundred Big Boys) commenting, "Oh what a foolish squid I've been."
The Decapodian race is originally from the mud planet Decapod 10 (a member planet of the Democratic Order of Planets), but many Decapodians also live on Earth. The Decapodians seem to have been one of the first alien races to make contact with humans, and Decapodians arrived on Earth soon afterward (proceeding to accidentally wipe out the anchovy population by overfishing). The Decapodians themselves have many comical traits, including the traditional "apology dance" used to ask forgiveness, and the recent (but good) tradition of "Clawplach", in which Decapodians fight to the death over matters of honor and whether or not abbreviations are acceptable in Scrabble (Zoidberg maintains that they are not). The Decapodians' national anthem is the music composed by Alexander Courage played during fight scenes in the original series of Star Trek.
The Decapodians appear to have a mating season (which is similar to pon farr in Vulcans), and as soon as the parents have passed on their genes, they die. However, in Where The Buggalo Roam, Dr. Zoidberg announces that he has taken the liberty of fertilizing the caviar that was being served at the barbecue; despite passing on his DNA into the caviar, he does not die. Decapodians also have courtship display and arena battle practices which are closely analogous to the lek of some Earth species. The male reproductive organ appears to be called the "wazoo"; Fry, making a pitch for Zoidberg to a Decapodian woman, states that Zoidberg has "male jelly coming out the wazoo", she replies "well that ''is'' where it comes out". There is one allusion to asexual reproduction: at Fry's housewarming party, Hermes eats some small pinchers and comments that they are "mighty tasty", to which Zoidberg replies "Thank you, I made them myself"
Biologically, fin rot is a serious disease that can afflict Decapodians. In a parallel universe explored by the Planet Express crew ("The Farnsworth Parabox"), Dr. Zoidberg is blue; according to the DVD commentary this is because one in every million lobsters is blue. Decapod 10 maintains an embassy, resembling a giant sandcastle, in Washington D.C. under Ambassador Moivin. In "A Taste Of Freedom" the Decapodian military invades and conquers Earth, but after their occupation warships are dismissed, Zoidberg himself destroys the Mobile Oppression Palace (a motorized sand castle on top of a crab-like robot) and liberates Earth. The Decapodians also walk in a fashion which causes them to walk with their "toes" pointed out.
Character development
The names Zoidberg and Zoid come from a game that David X. Cohen made in high school, which was rejected by the company to which he sent the game. There is also a train of thought that says that he is named after "the eyes of Dr TJ Eckleburg" from F. Scott Fitzgerald's ''The Great Gatsby''. His comedic style seen in the series is a reference to Ukrainian comic Yakov Smirnoff, and his voice was inspired by actor George Jessel. In audio commentary for season 1 it was stated by David X Cohen that the inspiration for Dr Zoidberg was a reverse Dr McCoy; McCoy was a human who often had to operate on aliens with unfamiliar physiologies, while Zoidberg is an alien who operates on humans with a poor understanding of their physiology.
External links
★ Dr. Zoidberg's page in the Futurama Encyclopedia
★ Crustacean Notes - a Dr. Zoidberg website
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