AM I THE THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS FRY IS A WEAK MAIN CHARACTER?

[#80 :]

Don't be a knob.
 http://www.splitmonkeys.de/wiki/index.php/Double_Posting

[#81 :]

 

not every1 has a dictionary by their bedside u no..

I find it sad that schools these days have left it so people can't even spell 'you' without needing to look it up. 

 

Originally posted by El_Luxo:
I like Fry, he is the perfect character for a comdey cartoon, he is dumb, most of the people who watch the series can relate to him

Originally posted by gaschief:
^^are you suggesting that most people who watch futurama are dumb, then?

What I see here is: "he's just a kid from the stupid ages" right from the get go. We were all kids once. Many of us still are. We can all relate because we all have those moments in our lives where we feel stupid, but we learn through those experiences. Fry just takes his time with that. 

[#82 :]

 

Originally posted by 1futuramafan1:
  add a tidbit to the conversation.   

what prey-tell have you added?

[#83 :]

wow ca's a superdork..

[#84 :]

 

Originally posted by gaschief:
^^are you suggesting that most people who watch futurama are dumb, then?

What?  How dare you, sir; I challenge you to a duel!  *takes out glove, slaps across face*

Seriously, I think Fry is a great character, and is needed as a platform for all the other characters to go off from.  That's what I like about Futurama; even the characters that people think are "weak" are still much more interesting than any other characters on TV now. 

[#85 :]

 

Originally posted by gaschief:
Actually I don't think he is dumb, I think he is too damn lazy too use the brains he has...that is funny and incredibly annoying and is probably the reason that most of us relate too him for best or for worst!

That's a large part of it, especially early on, but later I think it starts to show that not only is his mind 'superior-but-inferior', a.k.a. he's dimmer than average biologically, he also really doesn't know how to think, or use common sense, probably from the lifelong apathy of himself and those around him to develop it. When he does overcome it, it's more than stopping being lazy, he's bettering himself even if inadvertently, and triumphing over his defects, which is what makes it so rewarding to watch.

[#86 :]

 

Originally posted by IamBender:
wow ca's a superdork..

Wow, IamBender's an annoying little spammer slut who doesn't know how to properly conduct herself on a forum.

Grow up you dumb bitch.

[#87 :]

 

Originally posted by coldangel_1:
 Wow, IamBender's an annoying little spammer slut who doesn't know how to properly conduct herself on a forum.

Grow up you dumb bitch.

You're just adding fuel to the fire, what's your point? It had ended, just leave it.

[#88 :]

   

Originally posted by IamBender:
 
he discovered the fry hole. how can u h8 him?

There was never any mention anywhere of hating Fry. If you look back through the thread, you will see the argument centre's around the relative merits of Fry's personality as a central character.

Coldangel 1 and Any1else Please Do Not have a domestic on my thread, take this to off topic or email!

[#89 :]

Okay. He's gone now. Let's get back on topic, please.

[#90 :]

Wow, this is only the second time I've known Kryten to use the banstick...

As for Fry is weak/dumb, he's not consistant in the intellect department. 

Fry was the first to state that anybody else on the bridge of the Nimbus could have made Kif pregnant.

He was the one to state there were different ways to fight Zoidberg's race.

He knew enough to go back to the orphanarium and investigate Leela's past when Leela went nuts and was terrorizing the mutants in the sewers.

So maybe it's sporatic, but he does show some signs of intelligence.

[#91 :]

Interestingly, all of those are from Season 4. Hmm.

[#92 :]

I agree Ralph, That's wht I reckon it's a motivation problem rather than that he IS stupid as such.
Given enough motivation he will use his brain, but its not something that comes readily to him in day to day experience.
Perhaps his increased motivation in season 4 comes from the fact that Leela is starting to show more interest in him as a person, and also the fact that characters in Futurama grow unlike in the Simpsons, where they appear to stay the same age forever!

[#93 :]

There are different kinds of intelligence.

Fry's mind seems to work a lot like Homer Simpson's - general ineptitude interspersed by brief glimmering moments of genius. Like when Homer was running the bootleg business through the bowling alley.

Fry's 'stupid' because he lacks the Delta wave, and his mind functions by a 'cobbled-together' arrangement of other brainwaves. This alternate mental structure, although generally detrimental, could lead to a fair degree of rather unique parallel thinking compared to people with normal minds.

Kind of like that apophrycal story of the billion-dollar American space pen versus the simple Russian pencil. It didn't take a lot of research or know-how, but it was a stroke of simple parallel brilliance nonetheless.

After having just done nearly six years of caring for people who have intellectual disabilities, I can say that it would be folly not to expect them to come out with the occassional stroke of genius. Oh, I could tell you some stories...

[#94 :]

  I'd like to hear some stories please.  We have a lot of mentally challenged kids who go to our school, but they are kind of forced to sit at one separate table.

  That reminds me of Flowers For Algernon.  It was about this mentally challenged man named Charlie who worked at a pastry bakery and is one day given the chance of an operation which can make him intelligent. He realizes after the operation though that he still can't fit in with society because he is a genius.  He feels like a loner.  When he is intelligent, he realizes he has strong feelings toward his tutor, but he also realizes that his quickly gained brightness makes it more difficult to build relationships with people. Have any of you ever read that book?

[#95 :]

No, but I've seen the Simpsons episode to the same effect a few times. I like to think of Fry having more depth than Homer, though. Not saying Coldangel's argument doesn't stand, it does, but I think there's more behind Fry than that.

[#96 :]

Homer's depth doesn't seem to get explored anymore, he's just there for "funny" jokes. 

But back to Fry. It certainly is the motivation. His natural curiosity and excitement in regards to things like the moon is what makes him interesting. Or at least, that's how I see it. It was one of the things I loved about being back in a classroom again, you see kids encounter all these new situations and objects and you can see their minds ticking over and then they'll say or do something that shows they've just created a new understanding about the word. Fry's kept a lot of this excitement, although now that I think about it, I can only think of instances from season 1 where it was prominent. Towards the end the unexplored situations are regarding Leela, rather than different aspects of being in the future. So yes, definitely growth happening there.

[#97 :]

 

Originally posted by 1futuramafan1:
   
 Have any of you ever read that book?

(ralph rasies hand)

I read that book in high school - 30 years ago.  At the end, Charly loses his intellect and goes back to being a simpleton.  the problem was, he realized what he was losing and knew the eventual reality.

Kind of a heart-breaking story.

[#98 :]

 

Originally posted by 1futuramafan1:
That reminds me of Flowers For Algernon.  It was about this mentally challenged man named Charlie who worked at a pastry bakery and is one day given the chance of an operation which can make him intelligent. He realizes after the operation though that he still can't fit in with society because he is a genius.  He feels like a loner.  When he is intelligent, he realizes he has strong feelings toward his tutor, but he also realizes that his quickly gained brightness makes it more difficult to build relationships with people. Have any of you ever read that book?

Yes, me too, in seventh grade. Excellent novel. Charlie was far happier before the operation, because he didn't understand when people were making fun of him then and he genuinely liked everybody and thought he had "friends". Afterwards, he was simply a tortured genius who saw through everyone's hypocrisies and looked down on the same people he used to envy.
Highlights the difficulty intelligent people can sometimes have in relating to others.

[#99 :]

  I literally bawled at the end of that book!  It was so sad about what happened between him and Alice!  It was kind of like Parasites Lost except way more extreme. But I was also glad that he realized he had true friends in the end.

  He was a bit of a jerk as a genius.  He pushed everyone away from him.  If only he could have had a medium intelligence.  Like that monkey in that one Futurama episode that had that hat that made him smart, and then it was crushed and so he was not as smart anymore.

[#100 :]

I've both read the book and seen the movie (Charly, starring Cliff "Uncle Ben" Robertson. Look it up if you can find it. It's worth the effort.)

[#101 :]

I just recently read the book again.  It's sad when he first realizes the condescension of others towards him; people he thought were his friends.

Back on topic.  A while ago, I read an interview with one of the Futurama writers (I can't remember his name, unfortunately). He said that Fry was purposely written a little bland, that he felt if Fry was edgy like Bender, or really unique like Farnsworth or Zoidberg, those characters wouldn't stand out so much; they'd be lost in a "noise".  Makes sense to me...

[#102 :]

  Yeah, that's very common.  A lot of times the main character is bland to make his/her friends or enemies stand out.  Either that, or the plot is interesting enough to make up for the character's blandness.

[#103 :]

Darn, this has become a thoughtful thread.

Flowers for Algernon deserved the Hugo award. Brilliant short story, brilliant book.   I always thought PL was a bit of a homage to that story.  And yes there are interesting parallels between how the very intelligent and the mentally challenged relate to the majority of humanity.

I always thought Fry was an archetype of the 'holy fool', a character who is deceptively simple, but whose simplicity allows them to see the world with a clarity that other more 'intelligent' characters lack.  Modern examples are Homer, Forrest Gump, and Huck Finn.  Older examples are Sancho Panchez in Don Quixote.  I'm trying to remember older examples and am drawing a blank.

I have never found one-dimensional dumb characters that funny or interesting, personally.  Seems cruel to me.  That's why my interest in Fry grew as the seasons progressed.

[#104 :]

 

Originally posted by JustNibblin':
Flowers for Algernon deserved the Hugo award. Brilliant short story, brilliant book.

It did win the Nebula Award for best novel of the year, though.

 

I always thought Fry was an archetype of the 'holy fool', a character who is deceptively simple, but whose simplicity allows them to see the world with a clarity that other more 'intelligent' characters lack.

But his simplicity and guilelessness are also what make him so endearing as a character. His appeal lies in that simplicity, but the "clarity" also accounts for why he sometimes has those smart moments, such as getting rid of the worms or his occasional use of large vocabulary words.

[#105 :]

How very Zen!

[#106 :]

 

But his simplicity and guilelessness are also what make him so endearing as a character. His appeal lies in that simplicity, but the "clarity" also accounts for why he sometimes has those smart moments, such as getting rid of the worms or his occasional use of large vocabulary words.

  Totally agree.  He is also endearing as a character because a lot of people can relate to him including me.  That's why it sometimes works to have a normal or even boring character narrate a book with interesting events.

[#107 :]

Another reason why I think Fry is weak is because he can't handle certain situations.  Like if he and the crew were to go on an Indiana Jones kind of adventure, he'd be so scared he'd crap in his Levis.  Also, Fry can't take on a super villain or anything like that.  So, that's why I think Bender is more of a hero type.  Bender is smart, clever, strong, and tough, and Fry is none of those things.  

Of course some people don't see it that way.  It's like some think and wish he were this 'Walker Texas Ranger' kind of a hero who saves everybody.   I see Fry as more of a bumbling sidekick.  I think the show would benefit better if Bender were the hero, and Fry was Bender's second banana.    So, that's why I'm hoping in this new episode 'Law and Oracle' Fry is just a Barney Fife type of cop, and Bender and Zoidberg join the force, too. 

Bender:  Look, Fry!  We're overrun by enemy combatants!

Fry:  What'll we do, boss!

Bender:  Kick their asses!

Fry:  I'm staying out of this!  

[#108 :]

Kurt, you're an idiot and you've completely missed the point of the character (and the show, apparently). Oh wait, here's a post from 2007 that sums up what I was going to say (possibly in a better way than I was going to):

Weak physically?
Weak intellectually?
Weak emotionally?
All of the above?

Futurama is a comedy, and as such it focuses more upon the failings (weaknesses) of the characters than a serious show would do. Weaknesses or flaws are a source of comedic material, whereas strength and virtue relate more to heroic escapism - if that's what you're looking for in your sci-fi then you'd do better to watch Stargate or Battlestar Galactica or something that isn't actually supposed to be a comedy.

Fry is supposed to be funny, in the same way as Homer Simpson is. I'd have thought this to be blatantly obvious.

[#109 :]

How does his inability to be a toughguy make him a weak character?  A weak character is a character without depth.  Given the immense amount of back history, his motivations and whatnot, I would almost argue that he is the strongest character on the show.  While Bender is funny, he is hardly as nuanced a character as Fry.

Fry is not supposed to be a hero, not all main characters are.  Not all shows or writings are about heroes.  And Futurama certainly isn't.  Futurama is about an everyman stuck in a strange place.

[#110 :]

Plus Bender is a robot. Fry naturally puts himself in more risky situations than a robot could (The Sting) and that's what makes him noble. Bender could never be the hero archetype because he doesn't struggle and lacks a moral compass. Fry does many stupid things, but every once in a while you get that glimmer of nobility that makes the character worth rooting for (Bender's Big Score?).

[#111 :]

Just close this senseless thread already.

[#112 :]

Please try to avoid thread necromancy. It never goes well. We don't need a bunch of zombie threads roaming the forum, feasting on the data of the living.