Dr. Zoidberg is overrated.

[Jims]

There, I said it.

His shtick is always the same, he's completely one-dimensional, and every time he tries to carry an episode, it fails miserably. Who really gives a flying crap about Zoidberg's film director uncle?

To be completely fair, he is credited with some of the funniest jokes in Futurama history. But for every Zoidberg Jesus, there's five or ten "Zoidberg is so poor" or "Zoidberg eats everything" jokes. He's a little like Ralph Wiggum on The Simpsons, except on that show, Ralph Wiggum is the 35th most important character.

In short, Zoidberg is bad and he should feel bad!

[Cole]

best character on the show

[Magnum]

every liked thing is overrated

[DotheBartman]

Zoidberg is a far better character than Ralph Wiggum.

[JoelofArc]

one-dimensional things can be funny sometimes.

[bartyboy]

best character on the show

better than both the salami and the bologna combined

[jet]

I ...agree. In fact I was thinking about this the other day when I was watching The Farnsworth Parabox.

Zoidberg has had some great lines, and he can be just perfect when done right (I like him in the first season), but in a many of his appearances, particularly in his starring roles, he has a significant lack of funny lines compared to somebody like Bender or The Professor, and has a number of groan-inducing lines. He just becomes grating when he's over-used, and I think the writers have phoned it in too much with his lines at times.

I still like Zoidberg, and he's a good character, he just isn't written as well as he could be. And I prefer him in small doses.

[hughes]

I love Dr. Zoidberg, but I must say that even with the great writing for him, a tremendous amount of credit for how memorable and funny a character he is needs to go to Billy West. Lines like "Your music's bad, and you should feel bad!" wouldn't be half as funny with a lesser voice actor, and West chose the perfect voice for the character even before he had fully developed

[jet]

The Zoidberg voice seemed more subtle in season 1, but the same could be said for Bender and the Professor.

[Granto]

yeah i agree as well. in fact, overall, Futurama is probably overrated.

Zoidberg centred episodes are all among the worst of the series and about the only consistently funny thing he does is just a copy of the three stooges

the voice may just be the most hilarious cartoon voice of all time, however

[Miss Diko]

Yeah, after a while his goofiness got repetitive...but he *did* try to be a dad to Cubert and tried to take that somewhat seriously. Hopefully they'll try to use him in more interactions like this in future episodes

[Mt. Doom]

He's funny because everyone treats him like shit

[Dylan]

I've laughed at him once maybe twice.

[Dark Homer]

bullshit

[Dylan]

ok you got me, at least 4 times.

[Kiyosuki]

Ralph didn't really start out one-dimensional when I Love Lisa established the character back then though, while Zoidberg's always sort of been the same since day-1 but I still think he's a good character for his purpose. I've never really gotten the feeling they've made the character overstay his welcome or use him for more than the travelling non-sequitur of the group aside from the rare times where he's been a focus of some sort, and there he's been pretty decent I think. He's the group's handy gimmick alien and they don't really go much further than that. People love him for what he is.

If any character's kind of overrated if you ask me, it's Bender. It's not that I don't like the character, he's great; it's just that I never really felt like he was any more or less entertaining than Fry, the Professor, Zapp, or even Hermes at times (who I think after this last season's actually sort of underrated.), but I feel like he gets treated like the series' golden boy sometimes...plus he's generally the fan favorite. it's not really something that's bugged me either much though, even if he was on 2/4 of the dvd movies' very titles.

[DotheBartman]

Zoidberg's definitely rather one-dimensional. Or in any case, he has maybe a few different "notes" that make up his one-noteness, if that makes any sense.

But he's lovable and one of the funniest one-note characters ever. Funnier than any of the one-note characters on The Simpsons, I'd say. He's consistently hilarious and just his voice cracks me up. Hell, one of my few reservations with the latest season was that I thought they could have used him a bit more.

Sometimes being one-note is fine. As long as he doesn't become of the main, main characters along with Fry, Leela, and Bender I don't really see any problem with him. And how could you not laugh at, I dunno, "Zoidberg is the popular one!" or "Well, my lead pipe hurts a little"/"That's normal, next patient"?

[Mira]

Zoidberg definitely does not need his own episodes, but pretty much all of the one liners he delivers are hilarious.

[Jims]

Zoidberg's definitely rather one-dimensional. Or in any case, he has maybe a few different "notes" that make up his one-noteness, if that makes any sense.

That's a good characterization of him. He's a character with very specific kinds of jokes written for him. That's why episodes centered on him tend to fail. He's one of those characters that has a specific purpose, but is never supposed to drive a story. He only has maybe six major character traits.

Really poor Zoidberg
Really hungry Zoidberg
Incompetent doctor Zoidberg
Everybody hates Zoidberg
Gross bodily function Zoidberg
Random non sequitur Zoidberg

I've always felt like Zoidberg is at his best in his "random non sequitur" form. Ralph Wiggum has this kind of stuff too, hence the comparison, but Ralph's always tend to come from some sort of naivete or a malapropism. Zoidberg's tend to be a little more fun and offbeat. Basically, any sentence that begins with "Hooray!" is probably going to be a winner. But even some of his meaner jokes are great too. "Your music is a bad and you should feel bad!" might be my favorite line of dialogue in all of Futurama.

But, other than those shining moments, the jokes get a bit predictable. It wasn't so bad early in the first couple of seasons when he was being established. Later on, they kept going to that well, in particular with the poor jokes and hungry jokes. The incompetent doctor stuff usually fares better, as well as how much the crew hates him. The gross-out alien jokes have never done much for me.

He's probably one of the most hit-or-miss characters I've ever seen.

[brody]

six major character traits is more than enough for a cartoon squid-lobster doctor

[Jims]

Yeah, but that also means you have to keep going to that well for more jokes. How many worthwhile variations on "Zoidberg is poor" can there be?

[brody]

more than the number of "hermes sure is bureaucratic/jamaican!" or "amy is a klutz" jokes i'm sure

[Mira]

jamaican? i thought he was some kind of outer-space potato man.

[Jims]

more than the number of "hermes sure is bureaucratic/jamaican!" or "amy is a klutz" jokes i'm sure

Yeah, but who would ever honestly say Hermes is the best character on the show?

[Sniper Squirrel]

I love Dr. Zoidberg, but I must say that even with the great writing for him, a tremendous amount of credit for how memorable and funny a character he is needs to go to Billy West. Lines like "Your music's bad, and you should feel bad!" wouldn't be half as funny with a lesser voice actor, and West chose the perfect voice for the character even before he had fully developed

Definitely agree with that, also one of my favorite Farnsworth lines is "Tell them I hate them" and it's pretty much 100% because of Billy's delivery

[DotheBartman]