The Zoidberg Mystery Futurama's Writers Took Six Whole Seasons To Solve
When Matt Groening's and David X. Cohen's animated sci-fi sitcom "Futurama" was still in the earliest days of its development, voice actor Billy West was shown drawings of the characters he might be playing on the show. When he was shown a picture of Dr. Zoidberg, the impoverished lobster physician at Planet Express, West figured the arthropod's voice would sound muffled and jowly due to the tendrils of meat hanging off his face. West reached deep into his mental vault of celebrities he could imitate and came out with two obscurities: Dr. Zoidberg was a combination of George Jessel — a Vaudeville comedian and longtime Toastmaster of Ceremonies at multiple political gatherings in the '40s and '50s — and Canadian actor Lou Jacobi from "Irma la Douce" and "Arthur."
Zoidberg is a deliberately pathetic character, often full of self-pity and embarrassment. He's also a terrible doctor, often grafting several limbs onto the wrong parts of the human body. Sample dialogue: "Open that mouth and let's take a look at that brain." As "Futurama" progressed, Zoidberg also proved to be a rotten friend and a revolting monster; he could squirt ink when panicked and emit foul-smelling gases when he was bored.
But then a dramatic question about Zoidberg arises. If he's such a rotten doctor, a whining simp, and so utterly revolting otherwise, why do the other characters keep him employed? In a 2011 interview with Spoiler TV, Cohen finally had an answer to the question ... six seasons into the show. It seems that Dr. Zoidberg and Professor Farnsworth (also played by West) had entered into a bizarre pact involving a stubborn case of hyper-malaria contracted during a yeti hunt decades before.
The tip of the Zoidberg
In "The Tip of the Zoidberg" (August 18, 2011), it was revealed that Zoidberg and the Professor knew each other from decades before. The two met in 2927 (84 years prior to the events of the episode) on a Tritonian yeti hunt sponsored by the evil corporate overlady Mom (Tress MacNeille). During the hunt, the professor contracts a rare and incurable case of hyper-malaria. The actual symptoms of the disease are not clarified until later in the episode, other than to say that hyper-malaria can incubate in a host for decades and strike suddenly, leading to death. The professor asked Dr. Zoidberg if he, should symptoms begin to manifest, murder the Professor out of mercy. Dr. Zoidberg agreed. In 3011, the virus manifested. Comedic assassination misadventures ensue. Zoidberg, it seems, also sucks at stealth murder.
Prior to the release of the episode, Cohen was proud of this plot wrinkle, as it answered the question as to why Zoidberg was included in the show despite constant incompetence. He said:
"[W]e have I think two coming up this summer for the longtime fans to fill in some backstory on our characters. One of them is called 'The Tip of the Zoidberg,' and that one was to answer a question which I and many of the writers have had for a long time which is 'Why do they keep Dr. Zoidberg around when he's such a terrible doctor?' Even since the beginning of the show, we did not have an answer planned for that question, but we said, 'Well maybe he must have some dirt on the professor or something.'"
Not dirt, exactly, but a pact.
The yeti phenomenon
Of course, there's a bit more to this situation than meets the eye. The Professor didn't actually have hyper-malaria, but Yeti-ism, contracted from being scratched by a Yeti. Naturally, this illness has all the symptoms of hyper-malaria, but without the "death" part (although the victim does turn into a Yeti, which is its own special problem).
The episode was written by Ken Keeler, a veteran of "The Simpsons" and "The Critic" who would write 15 episodes of "Futurama" and have a hand in two of its movies. Keeler is a wonderfully peculiar man who likes to work his own name into "Futurama" episodes. One might note that, in "Into the Wild Green Yonder," a small sign is planted on the rings of Saturn. It reads "Mind the Keeler Gap." This is a double reference to the "Mind the Gap" signs seen on the London Underground, and a gap in Saturn's rings actually called the Keeler Gap. It was named after an astronomer named James Keeler, who is no relation to Ken.
"The Tip of the Zoidberg" not only explained why Dr. Zoidberg was kept nearby but also allowed for some vital character work. Zoidberg was not only part of a decades-old blood pact, but revealed to be legitimately compassionate; he explains to Mom late in the episode that he didn't open his own clinic because he values the Professor as a friend, and he typically eschews money and lives in poverty because friends are more important than wealth or comfort.
When Dr. Zoidberg needs to buy a severed yeti head for research purposes, he pays for it using the only thing in his pocket: a coupon for a tanning salon.