John Zoidberg And The F-Word

[on:]

In last week's episode, Zoidberg yelled to Clamps, "My name is John F-ing Zoidberg!"

C'mon, you guys.  The F-word?  Really?  The characters hate Zoidberg but I've always liked him.  Don't make me hate him too.

[Reply #1 on:]

I think the f word is extremely effective when its used properly.  This was one of them.  It would have been better if Clamps wasn't pointlessly bleeping so much, since it diluted the otherwise well placed precision of Zoidberg's f word.

[Reply #2 on:]

I like it when the characters react in a real, emotional way. You piss me off, and eventually you find out my name is Dave. Jeep F-ing Dave!!!

[Reply #3 on:]

The show has a history of having to be sensitive to 7:00PM censors on Fox.  Zoidberg was always a creepy crab monster but he always kept it clean.  I was just a little surprised is all.

[Reply #4 on:]

Yes he kept it clean whilst fertilizing your fish eggs with his alien lobster semen. 

[Reply #5 on:]

Hahahahahahahahaha!!!  "I took the liberty of fertilizing the caviar."

Leo Wong just slowed down his chewing as he pondered the statement.

[Reply #6 on:]

How do we know that "f-ing" is this mysterious "f-word"? Maybe the word they're using actually contains a bleeping noise in it. Mr. Tulip would approve.

"Ing! Ing ing ing ing ing! Gosh, I feel much better. I wonder what 'ing' means?"

[Reply #7 on:]

It could be some future word. Like, maybe "finch" is a taboo word in the 31st century.

[Reply #8 on:]

Nah, it's "firetrucking." Right, Nutmeg?

[Reply #9 on:]

I think like 89% of people enjoyed the 'JOHN FUCKING ZOIDBERG' scene, and I wasn't bothered by any of the language, so... No problem here.

[Reply #10 on:]

I must have been one of the 11% that didn't enjoy it. To me it seemed out of character. Maybe on South Park it's acceptable, but...

[Reply #11 on:]

I think like 89% of people enjoyed the 'JOHN FUCKING ZOIDBERG' scene, and I wasn't bothered by any of the language, so... No problem here.

More like John Bleeping Zoidberg 

[Reply #12 on:]

More like John Bleeping Zoidberg 

Wow! I didn't realise V-GINY came to PEEL... Neat.

[Reply #13 on:]

I didn't like the bleeping on Clamps at first, but I can deal with it as that set it up for Zoidberg to use later, which was one of the funniest parts of the rather lackluster episode.

Then he said it a second time and that was completely out of character overkill.


Zoidberg's always been a nice guy, but he's quite repressed as a result and has a tendency to snap. I think it was completely within his character and developed him quite nicely.

[Reply #14 on:]

More like John Bleeping Zoidberg  

Wow! I didn't realise V-GINY came to PEEL... Neat.

Nah more like V-GINY came to that episode of Futurama

[Reply #15 on:]

Zoidberg's always been a nice guy, but he's quite repressed as a result and has a tendency to snap. I think it was completely within his character and developed him quite nicely.

If someone told me there was a secret deleted scene which never saw the light of day for Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love in which Dr Zoidberg swears with anger, and I was given the option to go back in time and insert this back into the episode then my answer would without hesitation be no. This hypothetical deleted scene is so secret it didn’t even make it as a deleted scene onto the DVD’s...

I would much rather leave it buried and locked away because I don't think it would have improved the episode in any way despite it being the episode in which Dr Zoidberg conveys the most anger. The episode managed to convey his anger and repressed feelings in a much classier way without the need to resort to this method. As a result it was much funnier too in my opinion...

[Reply #16 on:]

I must have been one of the 11% that didn't enjoy it. To me it seemed out of character. Maybe on South Park it's acceptable, but...

It's a parody of all the bleeping cursewords that get bleeping thrown around so bleeping much in gangster films, in things like South park, and in TV shows like the bleeping Sopranos. It works for me on that level and thus is funny. Plus, it was so unexpected. Zoidberg's just not the sort of character I would've expected it from. The professor? Yes. Bender? hell yes. Zoidberg? No bleeping way. The fact that Franciz X. Clampatzo throws it around so much and it doesn't seem either her or there, then when Zoidberg says it it's got all the force of a real and literal f-bomb just pushes it from funny to hilarious for me. Bleeping Zoidberg bleeping said bleep! I mean, it's a little bit of a mindbleep.

So drawing all those together, that's where I found the humour.

[Reply #17 on:]

It was completely in character and in line with the episode.  I swear that nobody actually paid attention to this episode.  Whenever Zoidberg feels threatened in a deep mannered way, usually over what amounts to nothing he gets super defensive and explodes; like the beginning of the episode with Clamps.  Then afterwards he tries to apologize for his behavior.  Usually this apology is accepted by anyone and everyone including people who get their arms chopped off.  However, in this episode, the character he attempts to apologize to, doesn't accept the apology and threatens Zoidberg's life, so Zoidberg steams over it and when he gets the chance to retaliate in a justified manner he takes it and explodes again.  When he exploded the last time in the episode, he's flinging the F-word back at the person who directed the expletive at him in the first place.  Clamps overusage of the word is actually what compels Zoidberg to use it.  The episode is brilliant.

[Reply #18 on:]

Zoidberg's always been a nice guy, but he's quite repressed as a result and has a tendency to snap. I think it was completely within his character and developed him quite nicely.

If someone told me there was a secret deleted scene which never saw the light of day for Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love in which Dr Zoidberg swears with anger, and I was given the option to go back in time and insert this back into the episode then my answer would without hesitation be no. This hypothetical deleted scene is so secret it didn’t even make it as a deleted scene onto the DVD’s...

I would much rather leave it buried and locked away because I don't think it would have improved the episode in any way despite it being the episode in which Dr Zoidberg conveys the most anger. The episode managed to convey his anger and repressed feelings in a much classier way without the need to resort to this method. As a result it was much funnier too in my opinion...

I agree with you, but at the same time, if somebody told me they had a deleted scene where Zoidberg swore in that episode, it wouldn't be unbelievable. It'd seem within character.
Regardless of what you think of Zoidberg's potty mouth, it wasn't out of character.

[Reply #19 on:]

I missed the fact that this joke was a reference to gangster movies. I haven’t watched very many of them. That being the case I have a little more respect for the joke and I can see why people would find it funny in this context as it's not just the two dimensional cheap laugh I first thought it was. Personally the joke still isn't really to my taste, but I guess I like my Futurama to stay within certain parameters. Fair enough on the points raised in its favour though, it isn’t as bad as I first thought...

[Reply #20 on:]

I think the f word is extremely effective when its used properly.  This was one of them.  It would have been better if Clamps wasn't pointlessly bleeping so much, since it diluted the otherwise well placed precision of Zoidberg's f word.

Yes exactly, I completely agree! It would have worked much better with Clamps being bleeped once, maybe twice, earlier on. And then have Zoidberg cuss ONLY at the end of the episode, like he was hiding it this whole time.

You and I seem to agree on a lot of these venues, SpaceGoldfish

[Reply #21 on:]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Leela have a bleeped-out swearing part in "Into the Wild Green Yonder"? (When the dark one was sucking her neck).

[Reply #22 on:]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Leela have a bleeped-out swearing part in "Into the Wild Green Yonder"? (When the dark one was sucking her neck).

Yes, and in Bender's Game when she was wearing the shock collar, she has a rage and swears lots, but it's bleeped out by the electric shock sounds.

[Reply #23 on:]

I missed the fact that this joke was a reference to gangster movies. I haven’t watched very many of them. That being the case I have a little more respect for the joke and I can see why people would find it funny in this context as it's not just the two dimensional cheap laugh I first thought it was. Personally the joke still isn't really to my taste, but I guess I like my Futurama to stay within certain parameters. Fair enough on the points raised in its favour though, it isn’t as bad as I first thought...

I guess I see why you and other people are upset about it so much.  If it was just them dropping the f-expletive just to be funny because they could do it now, then I'd probably think it wasn't very Futuramaey and kind of dumb too.  The reason Clamps uses it is because of the movies... the reason Zoidberg uses it is as I described above though and a direct foil to Clamps' characterization.

[Reply #24 on:]

Plus when its used by a character like Zoidberg makes it all the more effective.  It wouldnt have been so if someone like Bender used it.

[Reply #25 on:]

I think the f word is extremely effective when its used properly.  This was one of them.  It would have been better if Clamps wasn't pointlessly bleeping so much, since it diluted the otherwise well placed precision of Zoidberg's f word.

Yes exactly, I completely agree! It would have worked much better with Clamps being bleeped once, maybe twice, earlier on. And then have Zoidberg cuss ONLY at the end of the episode, like he was hiding it this whole time.

You and I seem to agree on a lot of these venues, SpaceGoldfish

If Francis X. Clampatzo hadn't been bleeping so much, there would've been no internal justification for John "Fucking" Zoidberg's bleep, which would've made it out-of-place, and left a sense of dissonance in the viewer. This occurs when the show's internal logic seems to miss a few steps... which Clamps' bleeping filled in.

It's a fine line, and I think they walked it well. Any further in either direction and it wouldn't have been funny at all.
 

[Reply #26 on:]

I think the f word is extremely effective when its used properly.  This was one of them.  It would have been better if Clamps wasn't pointlessly bleeping so much, since it diluted the otherwise well placed precision of Zoidberg's f word.

Yes exactly, I completely agree! It would have worked much better with Clamps being bleeped once, maybe twice, earlier on. And then have Zoidberg cuss ONLY at the end of the episode, like he was hiding it this whole time.

You and I seem to agree on a lot of these venues, SpaceGoldfish

Indeed we do.  

I dunno nerduk, I thought Clamp's swearing sounded weird, because who else swears in Futurama?  Why hasn't he sworn in any of his other appearances?  Having it come from Zoidy sounded perfect, because it showed you that mild mannered, almost universally despised Zoidberg was taking things into his own claws, in a way that didn't feel cheap/gratituous/pointless.

[Reply #27 on:]

He hasn't had nearly as long an appearance in Futurama at all.  Combine that with the fact that he was getting ridiculously irritated through out the episode and couldn't vent by clamping things.  He didn't actually want to go along with the whole befriend Fry plan, and on top of that Zoidberg kept getting defensive with him despite the fact that he had no intention of taking Zoidberg's place or caring about it in the first place.

I agree with tnuk, the writers did a good job walking the repercussions through out the episode to reasonable outcomes.

[Reply #28 on:]

People annoyed about swearing = LOL.
Fucking hell.

[Reply #29 on:]

I fucking agree, cunt.

[Reply #30 on:]

VULVA!!

[Reply #31 on:]

Belgium.

[Reply #32 on:]

* tnuk awards Xanfor a Rory.

[Reply #33 on:]

The show has a history of having to be sensitive to 7:00PM censors on Fox.  Zoidberg was always a creepy crab monster but he always kept it clean.  I was just a little surprised is all.

More suprising considering Futurama goes to off-network broadcast synication in America this fall. I hope it is a success because if local stations decide to air Futurama in the 4-7PM block, all that nonsense is going to be sniped out, not just bleeped.

[Reply #34 on:]

* tnuk awards Xanfor a Rory.

Oh, Rory!

* Xanfor's Rory dies, then comes back to life several times.

[Reply #35 on:]

Lorelai Gilmore is my favorite.

[Reply #36 on:]

People annoyed about swearing = LOL.
Fucking hell.

This ^ Words are words, people who get offended by the words themselves seem really dumb to me..dumber than usual anyway :/

[Reply #37 on:]

Lorelai Gilmore is my favorite.

Xanfor, that was fantastic.  
Really?  Every time that woman opens her mouth, I want to punch her in the throat.  I can't work out who annoys me more, her or Susan from Desperate Housewives.   (My mom is obsessed with the Gilmore Girls, often falls asleep watching them, so rewinds the episode, falls asleep watching them again, rewinds over the bit she missed again and then I realize the goop dripping down my neck from out of my ears is my brain...)

Also.

STOP FUCKING SWEARING YOU BASTARDS

[Reply #38 on:]

Oh yes, and and bed sharing scenes.

Bedroom scenes are OK, but as long it doesn't involve bed sharing.

[Reply #39 on:]

Emily Gilmore is alright.