Question about Jurassic Bark

[on:]

There is one joke in the whole series that drives me crazy. Can anyone explain why Zoidberg says "You didn't do anything,  don't beat yourself up"? Thanks!

[Reply #1 on:]

"Don't beat yourself up" is a phrase intending for the listener to stop feeling bad about themselves over something, the humourous aspect here comes from Zoidberg saying it in a situation where Bender should feel bad about himself.

[Reply #2 on:]

Thanks for responding. I definitely understand that. I was just looking way to hard for a reference to something. It was just Zoidberg being Zoidberg.

[Reply #3 on:]

I think it's just a joke about Zoidberg never being able to say anything appropriate for the situation.

[Reply #4 on:]

What UrL said, too.

Such as in "2-D Blacktop" when Minx introduces herself to him with:

"If we're gonna be co-workers, I got to be straight with you. I've been emotionally scarred by years of unspoken verbal abuse."

And Zoidberg responds with:

"I'm Zoidberg. Nice to meet you!"

[Reply #5 on:]

Zoidberg typically responds to people's emotional distress with a poor attempt at ingratiating himself. I think that the larger joke (ie; one spanning the entire series) is that he's a scavenger or parasite (and the vast majority of his larval forms bear this out, too) who takes advantage of people's emotional vulnerabilities to try and score himself a friend (since friends are people he can mooch off of, being a poor lobstrosity who lives in a dumpster and is always on the look out for his next meal).

That's if you want to analyse it a little too hard. You could just view it as a throwaway joke, as Zoidberg just being Zoidberg, or even a moment of callousness that didn't quite mesh with the attitude of the professor on that occasion and so was given to the resident monster.