Could Fry actually be smart?

[:]

I know Fry acts like a total idiot on the show, but could he be a genius?

I think of this now after reading an interesting fan fiction at starpulse.com. when you think about it, he could just be a genius who hides it so that he can live a normal life. it has always perplexed me as to how he seems to come up with ingenius solutions in the nick of time when he screws up the use of a damn microwave...

remember there are two kinds of genius, street, book, and undercover. i would say he is number three, because of the worms episode, where he is really smart. those nasty things may have tunned up his brain, but they are too damn small to have brains able to know stuff, not to mention they were born, what the day before?

if anything he simply has to be a genius and doesn't show it so that he can lead a normal life, who knows, if they knew how smart he was would they ever leave him alone when it came to a problem that wasn't life threatining?

just some thoughts.....

what do you think?


GHT

[#1 :]

I don't think Fry is a genius undercover, I think he really is as slow as the show make him out to be. But he could be more. He has the potential to grow.

As you mentioned yourself, the worms didn't alter Fry, they simply tuned him, released his hidden potential so to speak. And they showed that Fry could be smart, suave and have good manners. Fry acted smart when he realised it wasn't his own doing and he had to get rid of the worms. But he could get there on his own (through study, discipline and training). He just doesn't have the patience and the endurance to do it. Afterall he is lazy.

[#2 :]

Well, I don't think that Fry's a genius, but he has his moments. The scene in "Bender gets Made" where he rigs the ship to be flown from the gun turret, for example, or the 'Breathe fire' line from the Bot Planet episode. I would think that Fry's intelligence goes up a couple of notches when his life is in serious and immediate danger.

Of course that may be because it's a riot when Fry actually comes up with a good idea in really bad situations such as the above.

[#3 :]

While I don't think Fry is a genius, he's certainly smarter than he usually acts. It seems like he's just too lazy to think most of the time, but he does stop acting stupid for a moment or two when it really matters.

[#4 :]

I think the worms helped his "inner genious" come out

[#5 :]

Welcome to PEEL, Dark Shooter.

[#6 :]

No Fry is fry and can never change!

[#7 :]

Yeah. To be honest i reckon he's just an idiot. lol But a cool one.

[#8 :]

No. he is just the most important person in the Universe, that's all, welcome Dark Shooter! 

[#9 :]

Welcome to PEEL, Dark Shooter 

[#10 :]

He lacks the Delta Wave. That makes him dumb. As we saw by

him trying to eat the pineapple in TWOF

.

[#11 :]

Thank you all for the welcomes. Nice to feel appreciated   

[#12 :]

We usually tell newbies that their not welcome.

[#13 :]

Newbies are good comic relief, its funny when they ask some question that has been answered a trillion times before, then an ubermod scares em off 

[#14 :]

Well, getak and Dark Shooter do have their points, but overall, Fry is most definitely not a genius.

[#15 :]

Hey, you never know, if you were all smart and stuff and just got a crappy temp job in the year 1999 and then got your ass frozen, because even though you are smart, you just have to lean back in your chair. then you are suddinly in the future with the chance to totally remake yourself, wouldn't you opt for the simple idiot that nobody will ever pester with formulas or work and all that spart person stuff.

could happen, hell i would.

(no i am not a genius, but i am really freaken smart, all A's so far in school...)

[#16 :]

However you have to admit that Fry can be smart as well. Think of how Fry tricked the Brain. Or did he remember a particular STTNG episode?

And since everybody did it so far...
Welcome Dark Shooter.

[#17 :]

Well i have been thinking and i guess he would not be: for example in his relationship with Leela, if he really likes her he should be more intelligent and do nice things for her to like him and not all the idiot things fry does all the time.

[#18 :]

Fry has shown more signs of intelligence as the Season have gone on.  Maybe the "worms" did more to him, than we realise?

[#19 :]

Gocad: Could the Nibblonians have told Fry what to do somehow? They are older than time; maybe they figured out how to telepathically communicate sometimes. It explains how the Nibblonians can talk.

[#20 :]

To: Killerfox:

just because he is an idiot around girls does not mean he can't be smart.

To: Paul:

The worms could have, who knows, if the series had a chance to keep going we may have found out if they would make good on their threat to come back one day.

Sq Freak:

those little furry freaks have nothing to do with crap! they gave him a scooty puff junior for God sake! they are just cute.......

i will take these things into account for some new ideas.....

[#21 :]

Maybe "idiot savant" is more like it, like in "The Rainman" with Dustin Hoffman.  He's mostly limited but he can do certain things extraordinarily well -- and even then not always. 

[#22 :]

I'll post, verbatim, the reply I gave on the thread from which this thread was cloned:

Originally posted by Chanukah Zombie:

Yeah, I commented on the "symposia" thing a while back in something I called "pedantically hypercorrect diction" in Futurama. I don't think Fry is the only one who uses it in the show. The thing that amused me most of all is that "symposia" is today considered overly precise in America. The preferred form is the far less formidable sounding "symposiums." Of course, nerds like me just can't accept that and continue saying it JUST AS GOD INTENDED.

In my boring-as-hell etiological analysis I would say that there is one or more of the following factors afoot here:

1) Fry is a smart person who is convinced that he is dumb and therefore convinces everyone else of that.

2) Fry tries, albeit unsuccesfully for the most part, to use big words and fancy concepts in his speech to cover up his stupidity, with the moral that being pedantic is not necessarily the same thing as being intellgient.

3) Fry is a longtime fan of science fiction and the lesson here is that sci-fi literature can ennoble the mind of even a simpleton.

4) There are many types of mental prowess and the English language tends to lump them all together in vague terms like "intelligence," "wisdom" and "knowledge" -- terms that no one ever really differentiates. The point being that a person can have enormous peaks and valleys between these different abilities and most people around him or her can't tell them apart so they categorize that person inaccurately according to just one of those traits.

5) There is no number five.

5a) Ambrosia (the American marshmallow concoction) only tastes good for about the first thirty seconds, or first three ounces, whichever comes first. Thereafter it serves mostly as an emetic.

[#23 :]

To SQFreak:

Oh, I don't deny that Fry's an idiot. It's just that he, like some idiots, have their moments of insight.

I think Chanukah Zombie is on the same track as I am; that he can do certain things well, but is very limited in what they are. Fry can trick a gigantic brain Star Trek style, but tell him to invent the wheel and, well...

[#24 :]

face it fry is STUPID!

[#25 :]

Fry's like an idiot savaunt almost, there are times when he does something smart, using that part of himself that the worms brought out in him, but the connection seems shodddy and unstable at best, as if he were borderline autistic. But he is definantly not a genius acting like an idiot, he really is thick, if he was a genius pretending to be stupid why would he still surpass his feelings for Leela? He loves her but can't express his feelings becauses he's slow, a genius Fry wouldn't have that problem, as we can note from the worms episode.

[#26 :]

No no he is way too stupid to be smart.

[#27 :]

 

Originally posted by Zoid-Maestro:
No no he is way too stupid to be smart.

Or smart enough to be stupid...? 

[#28 :]

just because he can't express himself to a girl doesn't mean that he can't still be smart. i am really freaken smart, i have all A's in all advanced courses, but can i ever bring myself to talk to a girl? no, sad, very very sad, the curse of being considered a nerd. maybe that is why he wouldn't want to be known to be smart when he comes to the future and remakes his life. remember, everything everyone knows about his is just what he says. even what is real like his brother's sons grave from that clover episode can be worked in.

also, who said those damn worms taught him crap anyway? THEIR WORMS!!! their brains are a bundle of nerves in the anterior part of the body. granted they could talk and stuff in the show, but they all seemed like a bunch of laborers to me, just know how to improve the body.

not to mention, i am refering to before the worms came and he messed himself up real bad. after that, well, does perminant brain damage and retardedness ring a bell with anyone???? after that episode, i am suprises he wasn't shown to be WAY more stupid than he looked to be before.


if you immediately realize the candle light is fire, the meal was cooked long long ago.....

[#29 :]

 

Originally posted by getak2003:
also, who said those damn worms taught him crap anyway? THEIR WORMS!!! their brains are a bundle of nerves in the anterior part of the body. granted they could talk and stuff in the show, but they all seemed like a bunch of laborers to me, just know how to improve the body.

Then how did he suddenly know that the smell from a rose was a chain of hydrocarbons? And how did he suddenly know how to play the holophoner? How did he suddenly know what part of his brain would screw him over (the actual name for that part of the brain is escaping me)?

The worms taught him stuff. They demonstrated that they know Spanish:
"Do you know what makes special sauce so special? Yo."
Yo is Spanish for "I".
And he has better grammar than most of us:
"Do you know what makes special sauce so special. I."
Though this may sound awkward, think about the "I" as being the subject of an incomplete sentence, as it is. The sentence is correctly, "I do." or "I make the special sauce so special."

The worms are smart.

[#30 :]

spanish!!! he said yo like yo homes, what up dog? they know no spanish, and who is to say he didn't know that crap before and the worms were forcing it out of him? i see no difference between those damn worms and the brain slugs. i see no reason why they couldn't force fry to say and do things.

also, who is to say that fry didn't learn holophoner crap from that book? it probalbly came free with the damn thing. also, don't tell me he was with leela the whole day. if that was the case, then where did he get the holophoner? and get time to practice it?

when you think about it, anything is possible. like this tread being revived. i thought it died and was sinking to the bottom, because nobody cared.

[#31 :]

Where would he have learned about roses' smells being generated by a string of hydrocarbons? High school chemistry? I don't think so. I've taken two high school chemistry courses (had the AP Chemistry test today) and in none of them have we even discussed organic molecules! He dropped out of college, remember? So he didn't take any college chemistry.

Who says he had to practice the holophoner - or even buy it? He may have bought it long before to try to impress Leela, but learned he couldn't play it well. Then the worms taught him how to play it, so he wouldn't have to practice!

[#32 :]

he may have gone on the ride, but it all can still be a lie. sure he has the dropout diploma, from what, a weekend with machelle at the amusement park?

or the worms just forced him to make the sonnet, maybe they improved him more than he was before. he could be average too you know, but come on, NOBODY can be that stupid without perminant brain damage. all the things he does are intentionally stupid anyway, or just clumsy accidents. nobody denies that Amy is smart..ish but she is still one hell of a clutz.

also, if he was a genious or not maybe just read some stuff somewhere, i think he coule know, because i am 25 and knew that hydrocarbon thing for a long time.

who knows, now don't give the the crappy job argument now. it seems more like it was a temp, hell, i have a crappy temp working at the supermarket, that means nothing.

lies, all lies......

when you think about it, it COULD be true.

[#33 :]

You think Fry reads? Ha!

It could be true. But I contend that it isn't. And now for some reason you're talking about Amy...sorry, bad day. I was basically forced to quit my job and it's finals week at school. I'm being overly confrontational.

[#34 :]

I'm was saying that just because you screw up on accident, that you are not stupid, just look at amy as an EXAMPLE of this. that is all.

and we have yet to see him READ in the future, but what about the past? new town, new time, new life. who is to say i am wrong here?....and has actual proof to the contrafy that can't be denied? every memory he has shared can be a lie, if you think it can't be, then i highly doubt that.

luck of the fryrish is just one giant flashback of everything about fry's life before he was frozen, and the legacy of his family. he could have made that stuff up easily, not to mention, any physical proof like the grave of that guy can also be easily tied in and he could easily put a spin on it.

[#35 :]

I think fry is cool even hough he is stupid

[#36 :]

the stupidity makes him cool

[#37 :]

Fry may be a moron, but he does stand up and take action when he has to, IE "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" and "The Why of Fry."

[#38 :]

 

Originally posted by The Bender:
the stupidity makes him cool

'Ey, did you just say Fry is cool?

[#39 :]

well, trying to be cool does usually make people do stupid things no matter how smart they may be.