Is Zapp The Greatest Lesser Character In Cartoon History?

[on:]

Icome to this board a lot but never post, I decided I would today, maybe the merriment of xmas did it to me :-)

I know this type of thing has probably been asked before, but whether specifically to Zapp I dont know!

I was thinking about it yesterday when I was watchin Branning Begin Again - As a somewhat lesser character on the scale of Futurama (I'd say anyone other than Fry Leela Bender and Professor could be counted) Zapp is just golden! This of course, is nothing shocking, we all know he is!

But would you go as far as me and say he is the greatest lesser cartoon character in history? (i'd say he's close to greatest cartoon character period, but thats me!)

'His' whole way of carrying him self and his comments are golden! I've never had such a big laugh from another character as I have had from some of the things Zapp says in the show!

[Reply #1 on:]

Welcome to PEEL TommyMagic.

Check out the following link for some info on this board.
 http://www.thefryhole.co.uk/peelfaq.php


-As for your question, I can't really say. From what I've seen, he is a good secondary character. But I can't say that, because I'd have to see clips of all secondary characters in cartoon history.

[Reply #2 on:]

Even on Futurama Zap has serious competition, like Zoidberg.  However, I would agree that Zap is high on the list.  Practically everything he says cracks me up.

[Reply #3 on:]

"if i said u had a great body... would u take off ur pants and dance around a little?"

[Reply #4 on:]

Let me sum it up in two words.  HELL YES!

[Reply #5 on:]

Yes.

[Reply #6 on:]

Definitely yes. Anyway, I consider Zoidberg a primary character along like Farnsworth.

[Reply #7 on:]

First, welcome to Peel.

And, I agree with you completely.  Everything that comes out of Zapp's mouth makes me laugh, and in a show which is based on comedy, what's better in a character?

[Reply #8 on:]

I would say zapp is the most annoying char ever, but what an incredible source of cotes he is, I tend to use his words in RL :P

And yes Dr Zoidberg is a major competitor, remember in The Honking, when Zoidberg starts laughing because a ghost is laughing !! LOL

[Reply #9 on:]

Yeah, Zapp is a pretty great character. However some of his best work come when he is paired with kif as his bitter and sarcastic sidekick.

[Reply #10 on:]

Ah, how I love Zapp. He makes me crack up every time I hear him. His quotes are great, but they just don't do him justice. So much of his character comes through his voice. Like how he puts an extra syllable onto the end of every block of speech.

Zapp: Kif, have the boy lay out my formal shorts.
Kif: ...the boy, sir?
Z: You. You lay out my formal shorts.

(after confiscating the scissors from Leela)
Z: It was almost the perfect plan, but you forgot one thing. Rock crushes scissors. ...but paper covers rock. And scissors cut paper! Kif, we have a conundrum. Search them for paper. And find me a rock
K: Why?
(the way Kif says "Why?" always cracks me up, there)

Z: Private Lee Lemon may well be the finest recruit I've seen in all my years of service. That young man fills me with hope. And some other emotions that are wierd and deeply confusing.

Classic. And Kif does seem to make his appearances all the funnier.

[Reply #11 on:]

In one of the commentaries they mentioned an idea for a TV show within the Futurama universe which would be about Zapp.  Now, I love All My Circuits, and The Scary Door, as much as the next crazy fan, but THAT is a show I would LOVE to see.

And I agree it's all in the voice.  If he said 'goodmorning' it could crack me up.

[Reply #12 on:]

I agree.. zapp is the BEST minor character in a cartoon i've seen...he is as dashing as he is stupid..
i HATED him at first..i found him so irritating..but i grew to love him..specially when he sang the song to Leela.... haa...

[Reply #13 on:]

Do you think Phil Hartman would have made Zapp an even more lovable secondary character? I do.

"Stop exploding you cowards!"

[Reply #14 on:]

He's definitely up there...he's a total sleaze, but he's sleazy in a funny way.

I think that his best scene was in Brannigan, Begin Again, in the courtroom:

Zapp: We've met before, haven't we?
Leela: Yes.
Zapp: And on that occasion, did you not have sex with someone? May I remind you, you are still under oath.
Leela: *groans* Yes.
Zapp: Please point out the person in the courtroom you had sex with.
*Leela points to Zapp*
Fry: Wooooo!
Zapp: And his name is?
Leela: Zapp Brannigan.
Zapp: The very same Zapp Brannigan who did NOT blow up DOOP headquarters! I rest my case.

[Reply #15 on:]

My favourite scene offhand is this one:

"Rock crushes scissors.  But paper covers rock!  And scissors cut paper! Kiff, we have a conundrum.  Search them for paper, and... bring me a rock..."

But I also love that movement he does, the 'suave' yawn as he moves the bed towards Leela in Love's Labours Lost in Space.

[Reply #16 on:]

Surprise!
*dumps everyone onto the ground*

[Reply #17 on:]

 

Originally posted by SaltySeaSnax:
Do you think Phil Hartman would have made Zapp an even more lovable secondary character? I do.

I think if Hartman did the voice, it would really feel like a totally different person, and I don't know if I would like that.

But considering I've never heard Hartman actually do the voice, I can't pass judgement.

[Reply #18 on:]

Actually, I'm guessing Hartman would do a Troy Mc Clure-style voice for Zapp-- he was sort of based off of Troy, wasn't he?  That would make him seem more like a self-glorifying celebrity than an obnoxious, sex-crazed, self-glorifying, and incredibly stupid captain-reject.  Don't get me wrong, I love Phil, but he doesn't possess that same humor quality that Billy West has.  Billy has the potential to voice truly stupid characers, while Phil's are more vain but also highbrow (excepting his military-style voices.)  Billy can't pull off a Phil, and Phil can't pull off a Billy.  West has shaped Zapp's character to be the way it is, and if Hartman had done the voice, the Zapper would probably be a lot different.

[Reply #19 on:]

...

Well yeah if you wanna say something interesting, intelligent and on-topic. 

For all us no-brainers out there:
"That young recruit fills me with pride.  And a lot of other emotions which are weird and deeply confusing..."

[Reply #20 on:]

I liek Zapp, he's funyn and makes me laugh (duh) but my favourite minor character is Zoidberg! 

[Reply #21 on:]

Well you could debate if he counts as minor, I mean he is part of the crew.  I know at the first post it says anyone other than Bender, Leela, Fry and Professor, but Zoidberg is in most episodes. 

I also think zoidberg's really funny at first, but his jokes seem to lost something by the upteenth viewing.  He's definitely good, tho.

[Reply #22 on:]

Zapps funny, but lets not forget Flexo.

[Reply #23 on:]

I'm the man without a name... Zapp Brannigan!

[Reply #24 on:]

Last year, when one of my best friends and I took Cell Biology together, he and I always greeted each other with "I am the man with no name... Zapp Brannigan!"  We'd talk in Brannigan-isms basically the entire time.  Ah, good times, Cell Bio was.

"The quickest way to a girl's bed is through her parents.  Have sex with them and you're in."

[Reply #25 on:]

to me zapp is the funniest character in the whole show.  it couldn't revolve around him without getting boring, but a little helping of his quotes here and there makes the show twice as good as it would be otherwise...

the "sex with the parents" quote made me drop my Dos Equis when i was watching adult swim with a friend some odd months ago.  i was upset about the beer but kept laughing... absolute greatness.

someone can correct me but i love the scene where kiff and zapp are double dating leela and amy, and zapp tells kiff to use his little book of pick up lines... "the secret is to say as many as you can as fast as you can no matter what"

"if i said your had a great body would you dance around in your underpants?"
*zapp gives thumbs up*
"i find the most sensual part of the woman is the boobies"

[Reply #26 on:]

"Say as many of them as fast as you can. Don't stop for any reason."
 

[Reply #27 on:]

 

Originally posted by tire:

someone can correct me but i love the scene where kiff and zapp are double dating leela and amy, and zapp tells kiff to use his little book of pick up lines... "the secret is to say as many as you can as fast as you can no matter what"

"if i said your had a great body would you dance around in your underpants?"
*zapp gives thumbs up*
"i find the most sensual part of the woman is the boobies"

and so i shall. i believe it goes exactly like this.

kif: amy, if i said you had a beautiful body, would you take your pants off and dance around a little.
amy: kif!
leela: Lt. Kroker!
*Zapp gives thumbs up and winks*
kif:I-I find the most erotic part of the body is the boobies.

[Reply #28 on:]

I think we are all forgetting one of the best quotes...

"Kif, I've made it with a woman, inform the men."

[Reply #29 on:]

Zapp is my favorite minor. I especially love him in A Flight to Remember, with that whole manure joke and what-not...

[Reply #30 on:]

 http://www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/MP3Sounds/Zapp_and_Kif_SoundBoard.shtml

Try clicking them all at once.
You'll see what I mean when you go there.

[Reply #31 on:]

I would consider Zoidberg, as well as all of the core PE characters to be major players in the show, so Zoidberg is not a minor character.

As far as my ranking the minor characters on the show, I would put them in this order;

1. Zapp
2. Morbo (I WILL DESTROY YOU!)
3. Sal
4. Kif
5. Lrr
6. Mom
7. Elzar (BAM!)
8. Scruffy
9. Flexo
10. Frys parents (Tie)

[Reply #32 on:]

Zapp's big role in Beast with a Billion Backs merits a resurrection of this thread, no?

Having already scored with Leela and then scoring with Amy and then on top of it, having Leela deliver him breakfast in bed elevates the big Z to a primary character.  OK, it would in Zapp's mind anyway.

One of my favorite Zapp moments was his bored, impatient handling of the missle launch.  Repeatedly pushing the fire button like a six-year-old punching the elevator button to make it work faster.

[Reply #33 on:]

I suppose my favorite Zapp moments occurred in A Flight to Remember (in particular the part where he's talking to Kif about rerouting the ship... <3), and pretty much the whole of Brannigan Begin Again and War is the H-Word...he definitely helps to make those episodes--I think I was crying with laughter the first couple of times I saw those..
Hilarity squared.

[Reply #34 on:]

I think it is pretty safe to say that Zapp Brannigan is the geatest secondry character ever.

'If we can hit that bullseye the wall of dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.'

[Reply #35 on:]

 

Originally posted by Shippy Mandy:
Zapp: We've met before, haven't we?
Leela: Yes.
Zapp: And on that occasion, did you not have sex with someone? May I remind you, you are still under oath.
Leela: *groans* Yes.
Zapp: Please point out the person in the courtroom you had sex with.
*Leela points to Zapp*
Fry: Wooooo!
Zapp: And his name is?
Leela: Zapp Brannigan.
Zapp: The very same Zapp Brannigan who did NOT blow up DOOP headquarters! I rest my case.

You can't argue with that logic. Zap is one of the best recurring special characters in any show.

[Reply #36 on:]

I agree, but I think the stuff in BWABB is some of the best Zapp moments yet.

[Reply #37 on:]

While I think Brannigan, Begin Again is still my favorite Zapp experience, he had some good ones in BWABB:
"What an erotic display of girl-on-girl consolation. Hurry, Lela, we don’t have much time to begin the re-population of earth. Go brush your teeth. I’ll be waiting for you– nakkid– under this kessa-dilla." 

[Reply #38 on:]

In BWABB Zapp was reduced more or less to a caricature of himself. I refer specifically to him mentioning his velour, as well as the line where he told Kif not to sigh so much. That's the way I saw it.

It just doesn't compare to the episodes I extolled above.

(Not to mention that having him sleep with Amy was a pretty cheap gag).

[Reply #39 on:]

Might have been a cheap gag but it was the sort of thing he'd do.