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* AllegedlyDateless: Before his many {{Relationship Upgrade}}s with Leela in later seasons, he often complained about why no woman would date him. He's clearly not as hopeless as he claims, having successfully picked up and slept with plenty of women over the show's run (though they all admit he's... "meh" in bed). Still, none of them are repulsed by him.
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* HollywoodDateless: In a sense, before taking many [[RelationshipUpgrade Relationship Upgrades]] with Leela in later seasons. Before all that, he often complained about why no woman would date him. But, he's clearly not as hopeless as he claims, having successfully picked up and slept with plenty of women over the show's run (still, they all admit he's... "meh" in bed). Still, none of them are repulsed by him.
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* ADateWithRosiePalms: Implied by Bender (who lives with him) with many off-hand insults/jokes that Fry masturbates frequently. A whole episode, "Spanish Fry", featured one long RunningGag of Bender making jokes about this at Fry's expense.
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Incest Is Relative is an index, not a trope
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* IncestIsRelative: Incest ''[[UpToEleven twice]]''. First with his grandmother in the past, conceiving ''[[StableTimeLoop his own father]]'' in the process, making him his own grandson. Then later (in the sixth season episode "The Prisoner of Benda") when his mind was in Zoidberg's body he had sex with Leela while she was in ''in Farnsworth's body''. Though Farnsworth is a very distant descendant of Fry's brother, the two have acknowledged each other as family since the beginning of the series. It was the first time Fry had sex with somebody ''he knew at the time was related to him'', though Zoidberg nor the professor experienced this because their minds were in other characters' bodies too.
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!Philip J. Fry
[[quoteright:232:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/philip_fry.png]]
[[caption-width-right:232:''"People said I was dumb, but I proved them!"'']]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/BillyWest
->'''Debut''': ''"Space Pilot 3000"''
->''"Existing is basically all I do!"''
The main character. Fry is a decent, honest and fun-loving guy with a huge heart, but he's also immature, lazy, and not very bright. Once a pizza boy from the 20th century, he accidentally cryogenically freezes himself during a delivery run on New Years' Eve, 1999 and wakes up on New Years' Eve 2999. HilarityEnsues when he gets a job at Planet Express as a delivery boy, working for his closest living relative, distant nephew Professor Farnsworth.
----
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[[folder:A-]]
* AcePilot: Surprisingly proves himself to be one whenever he takes control of a ship. All of his time playing video games paid off.
* AllLovingHero: He's a pretty compassionate guy and has a tendency of bonding with his enemies.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Fry not fitting in so well in his own time is implied to be related to him getting along so well in the future.
* AlmightyJanitor: Fry is little more than a twentieth century loser stuck in a dead-end delivery boy job even in the thirty-first century, but he's managed to save Earth ''and'' the entire universe several times thanks to his missing Delta Brainwave, and has experienced countless amazing events over the course of the series, including the end and rebirth of all existence.
* AmazonChaser: Fry seems to have a thing for tough women. He is seen flirting with an Amazonian woman in "Brannigan, Begin Again" and is excited at the thought of being snu-snued to death by the Amazonian women. He also falls in love with Leela, who is known for her fighting abilities.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Obviously attracted to women, but when Bender (voicing Leela's feelings about Amy) accused Fry of dressing like a slut to get the attention of guys, Fry didn't deny this, but responded, "They're just responding to my personality!" Fry also entered a romantic relationship with Yivo, a celestial being of indeterminate gender... though the entire universe eventually did as well.
* AmicableExes: He previously dated Amy but they remain close friends after breaking up.
* AmusingInjuries: Horrifically painful things happen to him on a regular basis (Bender slashing his throat, Bender strangling him for drinking his beer, Bender trying to run him over...)
* AngstWhatAngst: Lampshaded in-universe, his reaction upon learning he's woken up a thousand years in the future. Justified in that no one from Fry's time liked or even respected him and he had a miserable life as a delivery boy (though later episodes do show that his family did care about him, and Fry had a dog named Seymour who was loyal to him):
-->'''Fry:''' My God, it's the future! My parents! My co-workers! My girlfriend! I'll never see any of them again!\\
''[{{beat}}]''\\
'''Fry:''' YAHOO!
* AscendedFanboy: He was a big fan of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and its film sequels, and (as he points out several times) he got to be a real space hero just like the main characters of the show.
* AttractiveBentGender: In "Neutopia" ("[[BrainlessBeauty Now when I say stupid things guys all laugh and buy me stuff]]."). While he's always a pretty good-looking guy, he's an absolute bombshell as a woman.
* AudienceSurrogate: During some of his FishOutOfTemporalWater moments, he doesn't know much about the future world, just like the audience.
* BadassAdorable: His (admittedly ''gross'') naivete keeps him from being too much of a hardened badass (and lets him be likeable as just a regular guy) but he has a lot of really heroic and outstanding moments through the show.
* BasementDweller: It's only been touched upon in one episode, but Fry actually lives in Bender's (absurdly spacious) closet. Before that, he lived in the Planet Express office.
* BestFriend: To Bender, to the point where Bender will intervene if he thinks something will get in the way of their friendship.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He was all mellow while he was fighting with Zoidberg to the death. But when Zoidberg cut his arm off, he screamed "[[UnstoppableRage You BASTARD!!! I'll kill you! YOU BASTARD!!!]]" Also he starts choking Nibbler because he doesn't like being used.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He may be a silly, goofy, naive ditz, but make him mad and you're ''dead meat''.
* BlitheSpirit: He has a PositiveFriendInfluence on the Planet Express crew and basically brightens up everyone's lives.
* BookDumb: He's a lazy, childish slacker who doesn't have much more knowledge regarding anything else outside of a small sector of nerdy interests. In one episode, he attends Mars University, ''just so he can drop out''. Despite all of this, he does manage to be quite clever at times, as well as pull off some remarkable feats and moments of clarity when given the right motivation.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: He ''loves'' living in the 31st century, due to always dreaming of going to space and being interested in what the future would look like, and never feeling like he had much going for him back in his own time. He still doesn't have much, but he enjoys his surroundings a lot more.
* BrooklynRage: Though he grew up in Midwood, Brooklyn, it takes a lot to get him angry. But when he does get mad...
* BuffySpeak:
** Occasionally has trouble making a coherent speech.
---> '''Fry:''' But, but, Bender need brain... for smart making.
** And in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"...
--->'''Leela:''' It's not working! He's gaining strength from our weapons!\\
'''Fry:''' Like a balloon and... something bad happens!
* BunnyEarsLawyer: PlayedForLaughs. In "Near Death Wish", Fry wins Delivery Boy of the Year! His competition were all children who also happened to have been killed while delivering packages, meaning he was the only candidate left.
* ButtMonkey: He is the LoserProtagonist and regularly suffers a lot of physical comedy and AmusingInjuries.
* {{Catchphrase}}:
** "He's dead.", delivered in a blunt, deadpan fashion and a wave between the deceased being's eyes to affirm that they're actually dead.
** From Season 5 onwards, whenever he gets trapped in some manner that's guaranteed to be his own fault in some way, he'll shout "help, police!", which never happens anywhere near a police officer who could hear him (in a high-rise apartment he lives in, on another planet with no other sentient beings other than the Planet Express crew on it, etc).
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In regards to his sensitivity. Early on in the show, there was actually a plot point in one episode that Fry was too masculine and dense to cry; this is a ''complete'' 180 of his personality later in the show, where he practically cries every other episode ([[HopelessSuitor usually over Leela]]). He also celebrated arriving in the future in the pilot, which is inconsistent with later episodes that depict him as missing his family, though he justifies this as having convinced himself that he hated the past just because he knew he could never go back there.
* TheChewToy: He is often crushed by various objects, has had a metal pipe going through his body, even damaging internal organs and is regularly beaten up.
* ChickMagnet: He has attracted several very good looking women, including Leela and Amy. His dorky nature and NiceGuy attitude probably have something to do with it.
* TheChosenOne: [[spoiler: His lack of the Delta Brainwave has made him the most important person in the universe, regularly saving it from certain doom.]]
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Always.
-->'''Fry:''' Wait, I'm having one of those things... like a headache, with pictures.\\
'''Leela:''' An idea?\\
'''Fry:''' ''[nodding]'' Mmm hmm...
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: He's actually quite competent whenever the chips are down.
** In "Bender Gets Made", he manages to simultaneously fight off the Robot Mafia and pilot the Planet Express ship via a pulley system. Had Leela not been hugging the IdiotBall for dear life, they might've gotten away.
** In "Godfellas", he does pretty well in the battle against the SpacePirates, taking out both of their ships by manning the weapons while Leela drives.
** In "Law and Oracle", he joined the police force and actually made Detective... but got fired because he warned Bender that he was suspected of a future crime.
** "Fun on a Bun" [[TookALevelInBadass takes this trope to a new level]] where, after a freak accident, Fry loses his memories, is found by a secret society of Neanderthals (and is mistaken for one of them), leads them in a war against the far more technologically advanced human civilization... and brings them an [[CurbStompBattle easy victory]] [[RockBeatsLaser over them]]!
** He challenges [[ActionGirl Leela]] to hand-to-hand combat and holds his own quite well. This feat clearly [[{{Awesome/Futurama}} takes the cake on Badass]]!
** Fry is amazing at anything related to or involving video games. He's an excellent gunman on the Planet Express Ship and he completely owned the entire crew at a video game.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: Implied by Bender (who lives with him) with many off-hand insults/jokes that Fry masturbates frequently. A whole episode, "Spanish Fry", featured one long RunningGag of Bender making jokes about this at Fry's expense.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Fry is often accused of {{Flanderization}}, but his intelligence actually fluctuates depending on the episode, with the second episode already making him act like an idiot. Whether women find him attractive or not also tends to vary with whatever is most convenient for the plot.
* {{Determinator}}: When Fry really sets his mind on something, he'll never give up no matter how bad his odds are. Summarized when Bender gets lost in space in "Godfellas" and Fry tries everything he can think of to find him, even as the rest of the Planet Express crew gives up.
-->'''Leela:''' Look, I miss Bender almost half as much as you do, but you can't bring him back this way. It's hopeless.\\
'''Fry:''' You can't give up hope just because it's hopeless. You gotta hope even more. And cover your ears and go, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah."
* DirtyCoward: In "The Series Has Landed" Fry gets a moon rover caught in a lunar dust pool. He declares "It's every man for himself!" and bails out, only to sink up to his neck in the very same dust. He immediately calls for Leela to save him. He gets called this in "War is the H-Word" when he, wielding the only charged phaser, blasts himself a hole to hide in. Though at the end of that episode, he does ride a bouncing ball to the peace meeting to save the life of his best friend.
* DisabilityImmunity: Due to his past-nastyification which caused Fry to become [[MyOwnGrandpa his own grandfather]], he's unique as the only sapient being in the universe without the Delta Brainwave, thus making him [[ImmuneToMindControl immune to the Brain Spawn's mental attacks]], at the cost of making him rather dumb. The Nibblonians refer to this as his "superior, but inferior mind". This later proves even more efficient when he [[spoiler:faces the Brain Spawn for a second time and saves a primordial, unborn creature from "the Dark One".]]
* DisneyDeath:
** He has way too many to count. Arguably, the first is when he was frozen in the year 2000, and his family assumed him to be dead. Averted in "Fun on a Bun", when he [[spoiler:is presumed dead after falling into a meat chopper]]. Granted, [[spoiler:he didn't die, but the implications before this revelation are quite macabre]].
** [[spoiler: Double Subverted in the series finale. He -- yes, Fry himself and not a clone or something of the sort -- ''finally'' dies for real via falling to his death from hundreds of stories. But, thankfully, TimeTravel saves the day before it's too late.]]
* TheDitz: Partly because he's a FishOutOfTemporalWater and partly because of that whole Delta Brainwave thing. In either case, he always seems to be a little slow on the draw.
** Here's an example from "All the Presidents' Heads":
--->'''Fry:''' Guess I better head over to my night job.\\
'''Leela:''' You have a night job?\\
'''Fry:''' Yup. It's exhausting, but I need the extra money to buy coffee so I can stay awake for my night job.\\
'''Leela:''' But--\\
'''Fry:''' Gotta go!
* DoggedNiceGuy: He chased comically after Leela. As time went on Leela returned more and more of his affection.
* DrunkWithPower: During "Bender's Game", he becomes too obsessed with Momon's dice after using its power by accident. Though it's less about being powerful than actually being stupidly fascinated with it ala Gollum.
* DumbIsGood: For the most part. Sometimes his lack of intelligence causes him to be rather insensitive, but he's generally one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He's also one of the dumbest.
* EndearinglyDorky: Mostly due to his childish nature and his kooky mannerisms, and he's a Trekkie. He's not seen as particularly attractive in-universe, but he manages to date some fairly hot women at times.
%%* EvenTheGuysWantHim: In "Hell Is Other Robots", Fry says how a mobster claimed he was giving him the kiss of death, but Fry thought he was actually gay. Apparently, he french kissed him a little.
* TheEveryman: While he's frequently made to be ridiculously stupid, Fry is generally an average and relatable guy.
* ExtremeOmnivore: Fry has eaten a variety of non edible things such as a heaping bowl of salt, a jigsaw puzzle, silverware and a softball.
* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Fry once embarked on a polyamorous relationship with a woman named Colleen and four other guys. As hard as he tried to accept it, however, he couldn't stand the thought of sharing Colleen's attention with other men.
* FirstFriend: To Bender.
-->'''Bender:''' You know, Fry, of all the friends I've had you're the first.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: At first, but he quickly adapts. In fact, 'The Cryonic Woman' makes light of the fact that he adjusted ''very'' quickly and well to the future, and that he fits in better there than in his native time.
%%* FiveTemperamentEnsemble: Phlegmatic.
%%* {{Flanderization}}: He started out as just an ordinary, kinda dumb 20th-century everyman. After accidentally [[HumanPopsicle getting cryogenically frozen for a thousand years]], he was just your average modern college dropout trying to adjust to an unrecognizable sci-fi future where everyone he ever loved was long-dead. However, he had mostly adjusted to his new life fairly early into the long-running series, so the focus of his character shifted to his below-average intelligence instead, which started getting more pronounced until he was too stupid to be real, even by modern standards.
* FluffyTamer: A bone vampire with acidic spit and urine, razor sharp talons, enormous strength and an insatiable lust for bones, that loved him to bits and acted like a puppy around him.
* FoolForLove: Fry does genuinely love Leela, but his childishness puts her off, regardless of how hard Fry tries. Not helping matters is that Fry's attempts to impress her are equally childish, or poorly thought out.
* FreakyIsCool: When one of Fry's friends gets singled out for being different, Fry will inevitably stand up for them and defend them for being unique because that is what makes them special to him. This probably has a lot to do with him being from the 20th century. Everything in the 31st century is new and cool to him, even things most people of the future consider abnormal or unappealing. His attitude is perhaps best exemplified in the very first conversation he has with Bender:
-->'''Bender:''' You really want a robot for a friend?\\
'''Fry:''' Yeah. Ever since I was six.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Has been shown to inspire an amazing loyalty and connection with all of his pets, ranging from his old dog, Seymour, who waited for him to get back for 12 years, to his hamster that was still loyal to him after he put it through astronaut training, to a narwhal that he taught to eat and live again, to...
* FutureBadass: [[spoiler:Lars Filmore was a time sphere-created duplicate of Fry who spent several years in the past and became older, wiser and more competent as a result]]
* GeniusDitz: Sometimes he does things ridiculously well to the point of brilliance (e.g. writing a symphony (once he got the hands to play it), driving the ship and shooting at a chasing car of robot mafia at the same time, and re-arranging an entire galaxy with a gravitational array to write Leela a love message).
* GuyInBack: Fulfills this role on the rare occasions when the Planet Express ship is involved in combat. Leela pilots the ship, while Fry serves in the gunner position.
* TheHeart: He's pretty much singlehandedly responsible for keeping the Planet Express crew together. In an episode where he quits to become a police officer, the rest of the crew learn the hard way that his absence makes the company dull and the crew more prone to snapping at each other.
* HeCleansUpNicely: Fry's outfit choices are usually limited to his usual red jacket and jeans but when he does dress up, he actually looks pretty snazzy.
* TheHero: Being an impulsive {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and IdiotHero has not stopped him. He tends to have the most focus, often saves the day (even if accidentally) and most importantly of all, is the one who drew the RagtagBunchOfMisfits together.
* HeroicSacrifice: A lot, every one to protect Leela [[spoiler:but the only time that killed him was in ''Rebirth''. And technically the time it killed him in Bender's Big Score.]]
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Bender, the two are best friends and very close, but it's clearly not romantic.
* HiddenDepths: Despite being TheDitz, and having a superior/inferior brain, and often doing very stupid/suicidal things, when given the opportunity, he's pretty darn capable. This is perhaps best demonstrated in "Bender's Big Score", when [[spoiler:he spends years working his way up to assistant director of an aquarium back in the year 2000ish before returning to the year 3000ish as the suave, competent, charming Lars]].
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood:
** Whenever we get a flashback to Fry's parents, they are usually shown being ludicrously neglectful towards their son (although they didn't exceptionally favor his brother either). In "The Cryonic Woman", we even learn that when Fry went missing due to being frozen, his parents didn't even want the police investigating the case due to them believing it would be a waste of taxpayers' money. However, in "Bender's Big Score", Fry went back in time and reunited with his parents, in whose perspective he didn't stay absent long enough to justify calling the authorities.
** This trope is gradually subverted later in the series. Each member of Fry's family has an episode dedicated to exploring his relationships with them. These episodes all portray his family in a much more loving manner than their initial appearances in flashbacks and Fry's own reaction to them being gone in the pilot, though they all still have their flaws. [[spoiler:In the episode that focuses on his mother near the end of the series, Fry even admits that he may have tried to exaggerate his family's faults to himself in order not think about how the family he loved very much has been gone for over a thousand years.]]
* HollywoodDateless: In a sense, before taking many [[RelationshipUpgrade Relationship Upgrades]] with Leela in later seasons. Before all that, he often complained about why no woman would date him. But, he's clearly not as hopeless as he claims, having successfully picked up and slept with plenty of women over the show's run (still, they all admit he's... "meh" in bed). Still, none of them are repulsed by him.
%%* HonorBeforeReason
* HumanPopsicle: Spent 1000 years as one (i.e. in suspended animation), [[spoiler:even longer after time travel screws with things in TheMovie]].
* IdenticalGrandson: A literal example. He actually ''is'' his own grandfather. He also bears a strong resemblance to Professor Farnsworth, despite being a thousand years of generations apart.
* IdiotHero: "No I'm... doesn't!". He shows some awareness of this, and tends to move forward in spite of it. As he himself says in "The Duh-Vinci Code", "There's always going to someone smarter than you, so the only way you can be happy is to make the most of what you've got!"
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Before finding out he was to be the savior of the universe. (Funny -- he has a dead end job, sorta, but he still managed to rack up a list of one-of-a-kind adventures.) Oddly, he continues to have this mindset even after saving the world about a half a dozen times.
* IKnowMortalKombat: Somewhat useful even ''outside'' the WhatIf episode where they're being invaded by Nintendians. (That one time he blew up a Space Pirate ship with an arcade console-style targeting mechanism, for example, in 'Godfellas'.) Ironically, if the first episode is any indication, he actually kinda sucks at videogames, an idea reinforced by the fact that he apparently never got the last ship in ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' when he was a kid.
* ImmuneToMindControl: Due to his lack of a Delta Brainwave, Fry is immune to any and all forms of mind control. This includes the Hypnotoad, the Brainspawn and the Dark One.
* IncestIsRelative: Incest ''[[UpToEleven twice]]''. First with his grandmother in the past, conceiving ''[[StableTimeLoop his own father]]'' in the process, making him his own grandson. Then later (in the sixth season episode "The Prisoner of Benda") when his mind was in Zoidberg's body he had sex with Leela while she was in ''in Farnsworth's body''. Though Farnsworth is a very distant descendant of Fry's brother, the two have acknowledged each other as family since the beginning of the series. It was the first time Fry had sex with somebody ''he knew at the time was related to him'', though Zoidberg nor the professor experienced this because their minds were in other characters' bodies too.
* InformedFlaw: From all the comments about Fry's physique over the years, and all the injuries he's taken at Planet Express, he should really be a physical wreck, and badly out of shape. You'd never tell from looking at him: the worst thing you could say about him is that he has a flabby gut.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: He has on a couple occasions unintentionally hurt one of his companions' feelings.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Many, but especially [[spoiler:in the first movie]]. When you stack it up, that example becomes Fry wanting Leela to be happy [[spoiler:on top of Lars wanting Leela to be happy.]] It's super-confusing when you work it out.
* IronButtMonkey: He's very resistant to the huge amounts of AmusingInjuries he receives. He get slammed into a wall at full speed by those transport tubes, surviving a fall from a helicopter without deploying his parachute, eating a big heaping bowl of salt, three cola induced heart attacks in high school. And those are the ones that don't involve super-advanced medicine or symbiotic worms.
* JumpedAtTheCall: He was overjoyed at the concept of working for Planet Express, despite having spent the last several hours trying to avoid being a delivery boy. He also told Nibbler he'd willingly help if the Nibblonians ever needed him again.
* JustFriends: With Leela for the first several seasons, before their RelationshipUpgrade.
* KavorkaMan: Fry is usually portrayed as an unattractive loser, but is still pretty successful with women [[DependingOnTheWriter when it's convenient for the plot]].
* KindheartedSimpleton: As mentioned by Fry himself: "I may not be clever, but I have a good heart. That's what my mom used to say."
%%* TheKirk: He will ''freak out'' when presented with a life-threatening situation, though.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Whenever explaining to his friends about his own time, Fry either explains to them wrongly or is just as clueless as them.
* LastNameBasis: From everyone, including his own great-great-[...]-great-grand-nephew. {{Lampshaded}} in one episode, when the TV mentions "Turanga Leela":
-->'''Fry:''' ''"Turanga"?''\\
'''Amy:''' That's her name, Philip!\\
'''Bender:''' ''"Phillip"?!''
* LazyBum: Fry often slacks off, takes naps, and refuses to get off the couch. He even says, in one comic, "I take my laziness seriously".
* {{Leitmotif}}: For some reason, Katrina and the Waves' "Walkin' on Sunshine". Even played at his funeral. On bagpipes. And it's his ringtone. And yet he can never get beyond the first verse (because it blows out Billy West's vocal chords).
* LikeADuckTakesToWater: Literally unfrozen in 3000, he adapted readily to his new environment and picked up a few skills; and his (rather spotty) knowledge of how things worked in the past has helped out the crew a few times. He does get to do everything he ever wanted to do in the future such as go to space.
-->'''Professor:''' Tell us of this 'the wheel'!
* LimitedWardrobe: Almost always wears his combination of red jacket, T-Shirt, and jeans, which is a tribute to James Dean. It's a bit out of style in the 31st century. More impressive is the fact that his outfit has been destroyed or otherwise unrecoverable at the ends of some episodes, so he might be getting replacements somewhere. He evidently only owns one outfit at a time.
* LivingDistantAncestor: Professor Farnsworth's great-great-[...]-great-grand-uncle, and thanks to the "past Nastyfication" a slightly more distant direct ancestor as well.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: He's often this to Bender, who has been known to [[AIGettingHigh go off his alcoholic fuel source]] when Fry brushes him off.
* LoserProtagonist: The opening alone has him get ridiculed by children, yelled at by his boss and dumped by his girlfriend. While he's still not much in the year 3000, he's at least content with his life and has found several friends... and Zoidberg!
* LoveAtFirstSight: Fry says that he fell in love with Leela the first time he met her. He doesn't admit it until the third season (because he wasn't able to articulate his thoughts) and it becomes a regular theme in the show from then on.
* ManChild: Although he mans up pretty quick in a crisis. Leela admits that she likes Fry's boyish charm but hates his childishness.
-->'''Fry:''' At last, war has made me into a man. ''Wheeee!''
* ManOfKryptonite: Fry's lack of a delta brainwave means he's ImmuneToMindControl, which means he's the only character who can actually fight back against the [[IdiotBall stupefying abilities]] of the Brainspawn.
* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Feminine Boy to Leela's Masculine Girl, although it's usually downplayed. Leela is a strong-willed, tough-as-nails ActionGirl, and Fry is laid back, awkward, emotional, and usually a NonActionGuy, but their interests are still fairly conventionally gendered. A few of the pulp poster parodies [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/dd659a15f32992032ac1d341774a4f79/1d0cb88cd431d571-53/s500x750/b4fea07ae97f42b8f6cf287e2ce759c011859c6b.jpg put Leela in the more powerful "masculine" pose]] and [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/4a9a8d56bf35e8585416a746a2a02505/1d0cb88cd431d571-9c/s1280x1920/880b74cf381e4c026cb3b1e9d8b2ddb5951645a3.jpg Fry in the more submissive "feminine" pose.]]
* MeaningfulName: After Phil Hartman (the original intended voice of Zapp) was murdered, production gave Fry his first name in his honor.
* MoralityPet: Is the only human that Bender doesn't want to kill, and one of the only creatures Bender will treat with any sort of kindness. Applies literally too -- in "Jurassic Bark," Bender says he loves Fry similar to how a human loves a dog.
-->'''Bender:''' All those times I said, "Kill all humans", I'd always whisper, "except one". Fry was that one. And I never told him so!
* MustHaveCaffeine: ''Generally'' doesn't try to chug down 100 cups a day, except for that one time, but he does like his coffee. He is also constantly drinking Slurm Soda (enough to turn green when a soda machine was installed) and in high school, used to drink a hundred cans of Cola a week, which lead to ''three'' coca-cola related heart-attacks.
* MustMakeAmends: Fry finds his old dog from the 20th century fossilized in a construction site. Feeling bad for abandoning it (despite not meaning to) he arranges for the professor to actually revive it. With Science!
* MyOwnGrampa: Fry unwittingly becomes his own grandfather by the direct expedient of doing, as he later puts it, "the nasty in the past-y". Surprisingly, this actually became a major plot point in some later episodes. And in a previous episode, it turned out.
* NaiveNewcomer: He starts out as clueless about the future due to being a FishOutOfWater from the past. He quickly adapts to the 31st century.
* NiceGuy: While it varies somewhat DependingOnTheWriter, Fry is generally a very considerate and kindhearted person. He can just be very lazy, immature and dimwitted. He befriends Bender quickly because he sees no problems with befriending a robot and supports Bender going beyond his programming, and goes out of his way to make Leela less lonely even before their strong ShipTease begins.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Fry is usually responsible for almost every episode's crisis as a result of his stupidity, poor attention span or both.
** He ruined {{Heaven}} for ''EVERYONE'', all just so he could tell Bender that he's happy where he is. There was nothing actually ''wrong'' with wanting to contact his best friend, but he clearly didn't expect Yivo to be such a CrazyJealousGuy and evict everyone for "cheating on him" with another universe or for Bender to use the letters he sent through the rift to create hypermatter weapons with which to attack Yivo and attempt to destroy heaven.
** His attempt at a HeroicSacrifice ends up kickstarting the plot of "The Sting" because [[spoiler:by using his body as a shield, the bee stinger winds up having to go through two bodies and Leela gets pierced by the tip, injecting her with all the venom. Had he not got in the way, she would just have been impaled like he was, which could be fixed with surgery]]. Of course, he had no way of knowing that would happen so it was still noble.
** In the episode "Future Stock", his speech cost the crew from becoming millionaires by causing Planet Express stock prices to fall hard.
** In most time traveling episodes, Fry is sure to cause problems such as [[spoiler:sleeping with his own grandmother]] and causing Paul Revere to fail to alert the colonies.
* NonActionGuy: While he certainly has his moments (only person who can defeat the Brainspawn?), in most stand-up fights he's cowering behind Leela.
* OddFriendship: Fry seems to be able to befriend just about anyone. His first and most prominent example is his friendship with Bender, especially as robot-human friendships seem to be uncommon even in the future. Bender is an amoral robot who dreams of killing all humans and Fry is a well-intentioned idiot, and yet they're essentially best friends.
* OfficialCouple: He and Leela start dating in the Comedy Central seasons, though their exact relationship status [[DependingOnTheWriter can vary from episode to episode]].
* OlderThanTheyLook: While Fry looks to be in his mid-twenties at the start of the series, he's actually over a thousand years old as a result of becoming a HumanPopsicle. The events of ''Bender's Big Score'' add another thousand years to his count, and "The Late Phillip J. Fry" has him live through the death and rebirth of the universe twice over, essentially making him ''millions'' of years old by the end of the series.
* OnlyFriend: He's the only person Bender considers a friend. Whenever he chants, "Destroy all humans" in his sleep, he always whispers, "Except Fry." under his breath. Similarly, if anyone shows a notable degree of sympathy for Zoidberg, it's often him.
* OnlySaneMan: His idiocy aside, he's still an AudienceSurrogate, and often seems more normal than most of the future characters.
* OtherMeAnnoysMe:
** Gets annoyed at his Universe 1 self, and is jealous that he's married to Leela.
** More seriously, [[spoiler:he's jealous of Lars Fillmore, his own older time duplicate, due to Leela falling for him (though he didn't know they're the same until after Lars dies)]].
* ParadoxPerson: He's a temporal anomaly due to [[MyOwnGrampa becoming his own grandfather]], making him the only person in creation without a Delta Brain Wave. [[spoiler:Taken literally with his duplicate Lars Fillmore, who was created via TemporalParadox.]]
* PopCulturedBadass: Spends his free time indulging in popular media of the 20th century and frequently quotes and references stuff from said media. His indulging of entertainment actually comes useful throughout the series, inspiring him to heroic resolve and making him find solutions outside the box inspired by the shows he loved.
* ReallyGetsAround: Not nearly as much as Amy, but there's a pretty good-sized list of wom-- er, ''females'' he's gotten with. Some of them weren't even human! Like the [[CompanionCube radiator girl from the Radiator Planet]]... which [[SubvertedTrope turned out to just be a radiator]]. But who later showed up to his funeral in "The Sting".
* RedIsHeroic: Wears a red jacket and is TheHero of the series, saving Earth on several occasions.
* RelationshipUpgrade: At the end of ''Into The Wild Green Yonder'', Leela finally reciprocates his feelings, and from then on out the show is relatively consistent at depicting them as a couple.
* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: He's surrounded by aliens, mad scientists and robots. And he's just a working-class guy from Brooklyn.
* RobosexualsAreCreeps: The Planet Express crew is disgusted with Fry dating a Lucy Liu-bot, and they show him a propaganda film to try (and fail) to make him stop.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive Guy to Bender's Manly Man. He's the SociallyAwkwardHero while Bender is the boisterous Hedonist.
* TheSlacker: Even after coming to the future, he spends much of his time sitting on the couch and drinking beer.
%%* StableTimeLoop: His immediate family tree.
* SurpriseIncest: Since the man he thought was his grandfather died before having children, but Fry isn't erased from existence, he assumes neither his supposed grandfather nor the man's fiancee who's coming onto Fry are his relatives. [[MyOwnGrampa He's half-right]].
* TakingTheBullet: Multiple episodes have him jump in front of a threat to protect Leela. "The Sting" has him take the brunt of a deadly space bee stinger ([[spoiler:though she gets most of the poison and is thus in worse condition]]), and "Lrreconciliable Ndndifferences" has him shield her from a ray gun (which luckily turns out to be a teleporter).
* TemporalParadox:
** In a what-if scenario, Fry not getting frozen causes this, which eventually leads to [[RealityBreakingParadox that timeline collapsing in on itself]]. This is because if he's never frozen, he'd not be able to go back and [[MyOwnGrampa be his own grandfather]].
** [[spoiler:Lars Fillmore's existence in a nutshell-Fry ended up interfering with his own past self for pizza, resulting in the two becoming separate beings. This is only achieved through a literal TimeyWimeyBall, and it means Lars is doomed to die in order to correct the paradox.]]
* TeenyWeenie: According to Amy and Leela, due to selective genetic engineering being rampant by the 31st century, Fry's normal "equipment" apparently doesn't stand the test of time. PlayedForLaughs by Bender, who occasionally makes "small" jokes at Fry's expense (who, of course, insists it's [[CompensatingForSomething "huge"]]). So he might just be small by the future's standards or maybe Bender was just being a jerk.
* ThisLoserIsYou: A lazy, dimwitted everyman who serves as AudienceSurrogate.
* TimeAbyss: He has been frozen for a period of 2000+ years, and with the events of ''The Late Phillip J. Fry'', he may be one of the oldest living beings (chronologically).
* TookALevelInDumbass: In the earliest episodes, where he was supposed to be a FishOutOfTemporalWater and stories would mostly focus around him adapting to life in the 31st century, he was a fairly average guy with a dash of Cloudcuckoolander and a few moments of genuine cleverness. As the show progressed, he adapted to his surroundings much faster than the writers intended, and so he devolved into a gibbering manchild unless the writers needed him to say something profound.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Pineapples. He also loves anchovies on his pizza. Too bad they went extinct while he was frozen.
* TrueCompanions: If his friends are in trouble, he'll stop at nothing to save them, even when that friend is Bender, and Fry openly acknowledges he is both evil ''and'' a terrible friend.
* UnderstandingBoyfriend: Fry has always liked Leela and never had a problem with her appearance. He's the only one who objects when she wants phaser eye surgery to get two eyes. Later, when he actually is her boyfriend, he shows this further in "Leela and the Genestalk" where he refuses to break up with her despite her having fully undergone squidification and promises her he'll always love her no matter what. She's touched and thanks him.
* UnfazedEveryman: It takes him a while to cope with the weirdness. Once he does, he realizes that he probably never really belonged in the 21st Century anyway. Although the fact that he was conceived as his own grandfather giving him no delta brainwaves, and deliberately sent into the future by Nibbler specifically because of this may disqualify him.
* UnluckyEverydude: Played with. In his youth, Fry had bursts of luck after finding his seven-leaf clover, but since he lost it in the future, he constantly runs into bad luck scenarios. Some are the result of his stupidity, but others are just pure happenstance screwing him over (like the wind blowing his dollar into a power line).
-->'''Fry:''' I've run over black cats who were luckier than me.
* UnreliableNarrator: Fry's jaundiced views of his 20th century life are gradually revealed to be signs of his own immaturity. [[spoiler:Notably, The Why of Fry and Bender's Big Score show how much his family really loved him, and an early script of The Cryonic Woman had Fry's mother, not his girlfriend, follow him to the future.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Bender; the two may insult and occasionally mutilate each other, but they care for each other and will always have the other's back.
* VocalEvolution: In the first season, Fry's voice was a bit higher, and he spoke faster. As the series went on, his voice gradually hewed closer to Creator/BillyWest's natural speaking voice by becoming slightly lower and slower.
* TheWatson: Fry is generally the one to ask questions, ranging from TechnoBabble to questions about someone's BackStory.
* WholeCostumeReference: He is dressed like Jim Stark from ''Film/RebelWithoutACause''. Which puts him in the same company as Terry Bogard from ''VideoGame/FatalFury''...
* WillTheyOrWontThey: There's constant romantic tension between him and Leela, but she almost always pushes him away. Leans toward they will as the series progresses, but still fluctuates per episode. [[spoiler:It's only truly confirmed when they get married in the last finale.]]
[[/folder]]
[[quoteright:232:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/philip_fry.png]]
[[caption-width-right:232:''"People said I was dumb, but I proved them!"'']]
->'''Voiced by''': Creator/BillyWest
->'''Debut''': ''"Space Pilot 3000"''
->''"Existing is basically all I do!"''
The main character. Fry is a decent, honest and fun-loving guy with a huge heart, but he's also immature, lazy, and not very bright. Once a pizza boy from the 20th century, he accidentally cryogenically freezes himself during a delivery run on New Years' Eve, 1999 and wakes up on New Years' Eve 2999. HilarityEnsues when he gets a job at Planet Express as a delivery boy, working for his closest living relative, distant nephew Professor Farnsworth.
----
[[foldercontrol
[[folder:A-]]
* AcePilot: Surprisingly proves himself to be one whenever he takes control of a ship. All of his time playing video games paid off.
* AllLovingHero: He's a pretty compassionate guy and has a tendency of bonding with his enemies.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Fry not fitting in so well in his own time is implied to be related to him getting along so well in the future.
* AlmightyJanitor: Fry is little more than a twentieth century loser stuck in a dead-end delivery boy job even in the thirty-first century, but he's managed to save Earth ''and'' the entire universe several times thanks to his missing Delta Brainwave, and has experienced countless amazing events over the course of the series, including the end and rebirth of all existence.
* AmazonChaser: Fry seems to have a thing for tough women. He is seen flirting with an Amazonian woman in "Brannigan, Begin Again" and is excited at the thought of being snu-snued to death by the Amazonian women. He also falls in love with Leela, who is known for her fighting abilities.
* AmbiguouslyBi: Obviously attracted to women, but when Bender (voicing Leela's feelings about Amy) accused Fry of dressing like a slut to get the attention of guys, Fry didn't deny this, but responded, "They're just responding to my personality!" Fry also entered a romantic relationship with Yivo, a celestial being of indeterminate gender... though the entire universe eventually did as well.
* AmicableExes: He previously dated Amy but they remain close friends after breaking up.
* AmusingInjuries: Horrifically painful things happen to him on a regular basis (Bender slashing his throat, Bender strangling him for drinking his beer, Bender trying to run him over...)
* AngstWhatAngst: Lampshaded in-universe, his reaction upon learning he's woken up a thousand years in the future. Justified in that no one from Fry's time liked or even respected him and he had a miserable life as a delivery boy (though later episodes do show that his family did care about him, and Fry had a dog named Seymour who was loyal to him):
-->'''Fry:''' My God, it's the future! My parents! My co-workers! My girlfriend! I'll never see any of them again!\\
''[{{beat}}]''\\
'''Fry:''' YAHOO!
* AscendedFanboy: He was a big fan of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and its film sequels, and (as he points out several times) he got to be a real space hero just like the main characters of the show.
* AttractiveBentGender: In "Neutopia" ("[[BrainlessBeauty Now when I say stupid things guys all laugh and buy me stuff]]."). While he's always a pretty good-looking guy, he's an absolute bombshell as a woman.
* AudienceSurrogate: During some of his FishOutOfTemporalWater moments, he doesn't know much about the future world, just like the audience.
* BadassAdorable: His (admittedly ''gross'') naivete keeps him from being too much of a hardened badass (and lets him be likeable as just a regular guy) but he has a lot of really heroic and outstanding moments through the show.
* BasementDweller: It's only been touched upon in one episode, but Fry actually lives in Bender's (absurdly spacious) closet. Before that, he lived in the Planet Express office.
* BestFriend: To Bender, to the point where Bender will intervene if he thinks something will get in the way of their friendship.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He was all mellow while he was fighting with Zoidberg to the death. But when Zoidberg cut his arm off, he screamed "[[UnstoppableRage You BASTARD!!! I'll kill you! YOU BASTARD!!!]]" Also he starts choking Nibbler because he doesn't like being used.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He may be a silly, goofy, naive ditz, but make him mad and you're ''dead meat''.
* BlitheSpirit: He has a PositiveFriendInfluence on the Planet Express crew and basically brightens up everyone's lives.
* BookDumb: He's a lazy, childish slacker who doesn't have much more knowledge regarding anything else outside of a small sector of nerdy interests. In one episode, he attends Mars University, ''just so he can drop out''. Despite all of this, he does manage to be quite clever at times, as well as pull off some remarkable feats and moments of clarity when given the right motivation.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: He ''loves'' living in the 31st century, due to always dreaming of going to space and being interested in what the future would look like, and never feeling like he had much going for him back in his own time. He still doesn't have much, but he enjoys his surroundings a lot more.
* BrooklynRage: Though he grew up in Midwood, Brooklyn, it takes a lot to get him angry. But when he does get mad...
* BuffySpeak:
** Occasionally has trouble making a coherent speech.
---> '''Fry:''' But, but, Bender need brain... for smart making.
** And in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before"...
--->'''Leela:''' It's not working! He's gaining strength from our weapons!\\
'''Fry:''' Like a balloon and... something bad happens!
* BunnyEarsLawyer: PlayedForLaughs. In "Near Death Wish", Fry wins Delivery Boy of the Year! His competition were all children who also happened to have been killed while delivering packages, meaning he was the only candidate left.
* ButtMonkey: He is the LoserProtagonist and regularly suffers a lot of physical comedy and AmusingInjuries.
* {{Catchphrase}}:
** "He's dead.", delivered in a blunt, deadpan fashion and a wave between the deceased being's eyes to affirm that they're actually dead.
** From Season 5 onwards, whenever he gets trapped in some manner that's guaranteed to be his own fault in some way, he'll shout "help, police!", which never happens anywhere near a police officer who could hear him (in a high-rise apartment he lives in, on another planet with no other sentient beings other than the Planet Express crew on it, etc).
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In regards to his sensitivity. Early on in the show, there was actually a plot point in one episode that Fry was too masculine and dense to cry; this is a ''complete'' 180 of his personality later in the show, where he practically cries every other episode ([[HopelessSuitor usually over Leela]]). He also celebrated arriving in the future in the pilot, which is inconsistent with later episodes that depict him as missing his family, though he justifies this as having convinced himself that he hated the past just because he knew he could never go back there.
* TheChewToy: He is often crushed by various objects, has had a metal pipe going through his body, even damaging internal organs and is regularly beaten up.
* ChickMagnet: He has attracted several very good looking women, including Leela and Amy. His dorky nature and NiceGuy attitude probably have something to do with it.
* TheChosenOne: [[spoiler: His lack of the Delta Brainwave has made him the most important person in the universe, regularly saving it from certain doom.]]
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Always.
-->'''Fry:''' Wait, I'm having one of those things... like a headache, with pictures.\\
'''Leela:''' An idea?\\
'''Fry:''' ''[nodding]'' Mmm hmm...
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: He's actually quite competent whenever the chips are down.
** In "Bender Gets Made", he manages to simultaneously fight off the Robot Mafia and pilot the Planet Express ship via a pulley system. Had Leela not been hugging the IdiotBall for dear life, they might've gotten away.
** In "Godfellas", he does pretty well in the battle against the SpacePirates, taking out both of their ships by manning the weapons while Leela drives.
** In "Law and Oracle", he joined the police force and actually made Detective... but got fired because he warned Bender that he was suspected of a future crime.
** "Fun on a Bun" [[TookALevelInBadass takes this trope to a new level]] where, after a freak accident, Fry loses his memories, is found by a secret society of Neanderthals (and is mistaken for one of them), leads them in a war against the far more technologically advanced human civilization... and brings them an [[CurbStompBattle easy victory]] [[RockBeatsLaser over them]]!
** He challenges [[ActionGirl Leela]] to hand-to-hand combat and holds his own quite well. This feat clearly [[{{Awesome/Futurama}} takes the cake on Badass]]!
** Fry is amazing at anything related to or involving video games. He's an excellent gunman on the Planet Express Ship and he completely owned the entire crew at a video game.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: Implied by Bender (who lives with him) with many off-hand insults/jokes that Fry masturbates frequently. A whole episode, "Spanish Fry", featured one long RunningGag of Bender making jokes about this at Fry's expense.
* DependingOnTheWriter: Fry is often accused of {{Flanderization}}, but his intelligence actually fluctuates depending on the episode, with the second episode already making him act like an idiot. Whether women find him attractive or not also tends to vary with whatever is most convenient for the plot.
* {{Determinator}}: When Fry really sets his mind on something, he'll never give up no matter how bad his odds are. Summarized when Bender gets lost in space in "Godfellas" and Fry tries everything he can think of to find him, even as the rest of the Planet Express crew gives up.
-->'''Leela:''' Look, I miss Bender almost half as much as you do, but you can't bring him back this way. It's hopeless.\\
'''Fry:''' You can't give up hope just because it's hopeless. You gotta hope even more. And cover your ears and go, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah, blah."
* DirtyCoward: In "The Series Has Landed" Fry gets a moon rover caught in a lunar dust pool. He declares "It's every man for himself!" and bails out, only to sink up to his neck in the very same dust. He immediately calls for Leela to save him. He gets called this in "War is the H-Word" when he, wielding the only charged phaser, blasts himself a hole to hide in. Though at the end of that episode, he does ride a bouncing ball to the peace meeting to save the life of his best friend.
* DisabilityImmunity: Due to his past-nastyification which caused Fry to become [[MyOwnGrandpa his own grandfather]], he's unique as the only sapient being in the universe without the Delta Brainwave, thus making him [[ImmuneToMindControl immune to the Brain Spawn's mental attacks]], at the cost of making him rather dumb. The Nibblonians refer to this as his "superior, but inferior mind". This later proves even more efficient when he [[spoiler:faces the Brain Spawn for a second time and saves a primordial, unborn creature from "the Dark One".]]
* DisneyDeath:
** He has way too many to count. Arguably, the first is when he was frozen in the year 2000, and his family assumed him to be dead. Averted in "Fun on a Bun", when he [[spoiler:is presumed dead after falling into a meat chopper]]. Granted, [[spoiler:he didn't die, but the implications before this revelation are quite macabre]].
** [[spoiler: Double Subverted in the series finale. He -- yes, Fry himself and not a clone or something of the sort -- ''finally'' dies for real via falling to his death from hundreds of stories. But, thankfully, TimeTravel saves the day before it's too late.]]
* TheDitz: Partly because he's a FishOutOfTemporalWater and partly because of that whole Delta Brainwave thing. In either case, he always seems to be a little slow on the draw.
** Here's an example from "All the Presidents' Heads":
--->'''Fry:''' Guess I better head over to my night job.\\
'''Leela:''' You have a night job?\\
'''Fry:''' Yup. It's exhausting, but I need the extra money to buy coffee so I can stay awake for my night job.\\
'''Leela:''' But--\\
'''Fry:''' Gotta go!
* DoggedNiceGuy: He chased comically after Leela. As time went on Leela returned more and more of his affection.
* DrunkWithPower: During "Bender's Game", he becomes too obsessed with Momon's dice after using its power by accident. Though it's less about being powerful than actually being stupidly fascinated with it ala Gollum.
* DumbIsGood: For the most part. Sometimes his lack of intelligence causes him to be rather insensitive, but he's generally one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He's also one of the dumbest.
* EndearinglyDorky: Mostly due to his childish nature and his kooky mannerisms, and he's a Trekkie. He's not seen as particularly attractive in-universe, but he manages to date some fairly hot women at times.
%%* EvenTheGuysWantHim: In "Hell Is Other Robots", Fry says how a mobster claimed he was giving him the kiss of death, but Fry thought he was actually gay. Apparently, he french kissed him a little.
* TheEveryman: While he's frequently made to be ridiculously stupid, Fry is generally an average and relatable guy.
* ExtremeOmnivore: Fry has eaten a variety of non edible things such as a heaping bowl of salt, a jigsaw puzzle, silverware and a softball.
* ExoticExtendedMarriage: Fry once embarked on a polyamorous relationship with a woman named Colleen and four other guys. As hard as he tried to accept it, however, he couldn't stand the thought of sharing Colleen's attention with other men.
* FirstFriend: To Bender.
-->'''Bender:''' You know, Fry, of all the friends I've had you're the first.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: At first, but he quickly adapts. In fact, 'The Cryonic Woman' makes light of the fact that he adjusted ''very'' quickly and well to the future, and that he fits in better there than in his native time.
%%* FiveTemperamentEnsemble: Phlegmatic.
%%* {{Flanderization}}: He started out as just an ordinary, kinda dumb 20th-century everyman. After accidentally [[HumanPopsicle getting cryogenically frozen for a thousand years]], he was just your average modern college dropout trying to adjust to an unrecognizable sci-fi future where everyone he ever loved was long-dead. However, he had mostly adjusted to his new life fairly early into the long-running series, so the focus of his character shifted to his below-average intelligence instead, which started getting more pronounced until he was too stupid to be real, even by modern standards.
* FluffyTamer: A bone vampire with acidic spit and urine, razor sharp talons, enormous strength and an insatiable lust for bones, that loved him to bits and acted like a puppy around him.
* FoolForLove: Fry does genuinely love Leela, but his childishness puts her off, regardless of how hard Fry tries. Not helping matters is that Fry's attempts to impress her are equally childish, or poorly thought out.
* FreakyIsCool: When one of Fry's friends gets singled out for being different, Fry will inevitably stand up for them and defend them for being unique because that is what makes them special to him. This probably has a lot to do with him being from the 20th century. Everything in the 31st century is new and cool to him, even things most people of the future consider abnormal or unappealing. His attitude is perhaps best exemplified in the very first conversation he has with Bender:
-->'''Bender:''' You really want a robot for a friend?\\
'''Fry:''' Yeah. Ever since I was six.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Has been shown to inspire an amazing loyalty and connection with all of his pets, ranging from his old dog, Seymour, who waited for him to get back for 12 years, to his hamster that was still loyal to him after he put it through astronaut training, to a narwhal that he taught to eat and live again, to...
* FutureBadass: [[spoiler:Lars Filmore was a time sphere-created duplicate of Fry who spent several years in the past and became older, wiser and more competent as a result]]
* GeniusDitz: Sometimes he does things ridiculously well to the point of brilliance (e.g. writing a symphony (once he got the hands to play it), driving the ship and shooting at a chasing car of robot mafia at the same time, and re-arranging an entire galaxy with a gravitational array to write Leela a love message).
* GuyInBack: Fulfills this role on the rare occasions when the Planet Express ship is involved in combat. Leela pilots the ship, while Fry serves in the gunner position.
* TheHeart: He's pretty much singlehandedly responsible for keeping the Planet Express crew together. In an episode where he quits to become a police officer, the rest of the crew learn the hard way that his absence makes the company dull and the crew more prone to snapping at each other.
* HeCleansUpNicely: Fry's outfit choices are usually limited to his usual red jacket and jeans but when he does dress up, he actually looks pretty snazzy.
* TheHero: Being an impulsive {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and IdiotHero has not stopped him. He tends to have the most focus, often saves the day (even if accidentally) and most importantly of all, is the one who drew the RagtagBunchOfMisfits together.
* HeroicSacrifice: A lot, every one to protect Leela [[spoiler:but the only time that killed him was in ''Rebirth''. And technically the time it killed him in Bender's Big Score.]]
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Bender, the two are best friends and very close, but it's clearly not romantic.
* HiddenDepths: Despite being TheDitz, and having a superior/inferior brain, and often doing very stupid/suicidal things, when given the opportunity, he's pretty darn capable. This is perhaps best demonstrated in "Bender's Big Score", when [[spoiler:he spends years working his way up to assistant director of an aquarium back in the year 2000ish before returning to the year 3000ish as the suave, competent, charming Lars]].
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood:
** Whenever we get a flashback to Fry's parents, they are usually shown being ludicrously neglectful towards their son (although they didn't exceptionally favor his brother either). In "The Cryonic Woman", we even learn that when Fry went missing due to being frozen, his parents didn't even want the police investigating the case due to them believing it would be a waste of taxpayers' money. However, in "Bender's Big Score", Fry went back in time and reunited with his parents, in whose perspective he didn't stay absent long enough to justify calling the authorities.
** This trope is gradually subverted later in the series. Each member of Fry's family has an episode dedicated to exploring his relationships with them. These episodes all portray his family in a much more loving manner than their initial appearances in flashbacks and Fry's own reaction to them being gone in the pilot, though they all still have their flaws. [[spoiler:In the episode that focuses on his mother near the end of the series, Fry even admits that he may have tried to exaggerate his family's faults to himself in order not think about how the family he loved very much has been gone for over a thousand years.]]
* HollywoodDateless: In a sense, before taking many [[RelationshipUpgrade Relationship Upgrades]] with Leela in later seasons. Before all that, he often complained about why no woman would date him. But, he's clearly not as hopeless as he claims, having successfully picked up and slept with plenty of women over the show's run (still, they all admit he's... "meh" in bed). Still, none of them are repulsed by him.
%%* HonorBeforeReason
* HumanPopsicle: Spent 1000 years as one (i.e. in suspended animation), [[spoiler:even longer after time travel screws with things in TheMovie]].
* IdenticalGrandson: A literal example. He actually ''is'' his own grandfather. He also bears a strong resemblance to Professor Farnsworth, despite being a thousand years of generations apart.
* IdiotHero: "No I'm... doesn't!". He shows some awareness of this, and tends to move forward in spite of it. As he himself says in "The Duh-Vinci Code", "There's always going to someone smarter than you, so the only way you can be happy is to make the most of what you've got!"
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Before finding out he was to be the savior of the universe. (Funny -- he has a dead end job, sorta, but he still managed to rack up a list of one-of-a-kind adventures.) Oddly, he continues to have this mindset even after saving the world about a half a dozen times.
* IKnowMortalKombat: Somewhat useful even ''outside'' the WhatIf episode where they're being invaded by Nintendians. (That one time he blew up a Space Pirate ship with an arcade console-style targeting mechanism, for example, in 'Godfellas'.) Ironically, if the first episode is any indication, he actually kinda sucks at videogames, an idea reinforced by the fact that he apparently never got the last ship in ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' when he was a kid.
* ImmuneToMindControl: Due to his lack of a Delta Brainwave, Fry is immune to any and all forms of mind control. This includes the Hypnotoad, the Brainspawn and the Dark One.
* IncestIsRelative: Incest ''[[UpToEleven twice]]''. First with his grandmother in the past, conceiving ''[[StableTimeLoop his own father]]'' in the process, making him his own grandson. Then later (in the sixth season episode "The Prisoner of Benda") when his mind was in Zoidberg's body he had sex with Leela while she was in ''in Farnsworth's body''. Though Farnsworth is a very distant descendant of Fry's brother, the two have acknowledged each other as family since the beginning of the series. It was the first time Fry had sex with somebody ''he knew at the time was related to him'', though Zoidberg nor the professor experienced this because their minds were in other characters' bodies too.
* InformedFlaw: From all the comments about Fry's physique over the years, and all the injuries he's taken at Planet Express, he should really be a physical wreck, and badly out of shape. You'd never tell from looking at him: the worst thing you could say about him is that he has a flabby gut.
* InnocentlyInsensitive: He has on a couple occasions unintentionally hurt one of his companions' feelings.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Many, but especially [[spoiler:in the first movie]]. When you stack it up, that example becomes Fry wanting Leela to be happy [[spoiler:on top of Lars wanting Leela to be happy.]] It's super-confusing when you work it out.
* IronButtMonkey: He's very resistant to the huge amounts of AmusingInjuries he receives. He get slammed into a wall at full speed by those transport tubes, surviving a fall from a helicopter without deploying his parachute, eating a big heaping bowl of salt, three cola induced heart attacks in high school. And those are the ones that don't involve super-advanced medicine or symbiotic worms.
* JumpedAtTheCall: He was overjoyed at the concept of working for Planet Express, despite having spent the last several hours trying to avoid being a delivery boy. He also told Nibbler he'd willingly help if the Nibblonians ever needed him again.
* JustFriends: With Leela for the first several seasons, before their RelationshipUpgrade.
* KavorkaMan: Fry is usually portrayed as an unattractive loser, but is still pretty successful with women [[DependingOnTheWriter when it's convenient for the plot]].
* KindheartedSimpleton: As mentioned by Fry himself: "I may not be clever, but I have a good heart. That's what my mom used to say."
%%* TheKirk: He will ''freak out'' when presented with a life-threatening situation, though.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Whenever explaining to his friends about his own time, Fry either explains to them wrongly or is just as clueless as them.
* LastNameBasis: From everyone, including his own great-great-[...]-great-grand-nephew. {{Lampshaded}} in one episode, when the TV mentions "Turanga Leela":
-->'''Fry:''' ''"Turanga"?''\\
'''Amy:''' That's her name, Philip!\\
'''Bender:''' ''"Phillip"?!''
* LazyBum: Fry often slacks off, takes naps, and refuses to get off the couch. He even says, in one comic, "I take my laziness seriously".
* {{Leitmotif}}: For some reason, Katrina and the Waves' "Walkin' on Sunshine". Even played at his funeral. On bagpipes. And it's his ringtone. And yet he can never get beyond the first verse (because it blows out Billy West's vocal chords).
* LikeADuckTakesToWater: Literally unfrozen in 3000, he adapted readily to his new environment and picked up a few skills; and his (rather spotty) knowledge of how things worked in the past has helped out the crew a few times. He does get to do everything he ever wanted to do in the future such as go to space.
-->'''Professor:''' Tell us of this 'the wheel'!
* LimitedWardrobe: Almost always wears his combination of red jacket, T-Shirt, and jeans, which is a tribute to James Dean. It's a bit out of style in the 31st century. More impressive is the fact that his outfit has been destroyed or otherwise unrecoverable at the ends of some episodes, so he might be getting replacements somewhere. He evidently only owns one outfit at a time.
* LivingDistantAncestor: Professor Farnsworth's great-great-[...]-great-grand-uncle, and thanks to the "past Nastyfication" a slightly more distant direct ancestor as well.
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: He's often this to Bender, who has been known to [[AIGettingHigh go off his alcoholic fuel source]] when Fry brushes him off.
* LoserProtagonist: The opening alone has him get ridiculed by children, yelled at by his boss and dumped by his girlfriend. While he's still not much in the year 3000, he's at least content with his life and has found several friends... and Zoidberg!
* LoveAtFirstSight: Fry says that he fell in love with Leela the first time he met her. He doesn't admit it until the third season (because he wasn't able to articulate his thoughts) and it becomes a regular theme in the show from then on.
* ManChild: Although he mans up pretty quick in a crisis. Leela admits that she likes Fry's boyish charm but hates his childishness.
-->'''Fry:''' At last, war has made me into a man. ''Wheeee!''
* ManOfKryptonite: Fry's lack of a delta brainwave means he's ImmuneToMindControl, which means he's the only character who can actually fight back against the [[IdiotBall stupefying abilities]] of the Brainspawn.
* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Feminine Boy to Leela's Masculine Girl, although it's usually downplayed. Leela is a strong-willed, tough-as-nails ActionGirl, and Fry is laid back, awkward, emotional, and usually a NonActionGuy, but their interests are still fairly conventionally gendered. A few of the pulp poster parodies [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/dd659a15f32992032ac1d341774a4f79/1d0cb88cd431d571-53/s500x750/b4fea07ae97f42b8f6cf287e2ce759c011859c6b.jpg put Leela in the more powerful "masculine" pose]] and [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/4a9a8d56bf35e8585416a746a2a02505/1d0cb88cd431d571-9c/s1280x1920/880b74cf381e4c026cb3b1e9d8b2ddb5951645a3.jpg Fry in the more submissive "feminine" pose.]]
* MeaningfulName: After Phil Hartman (the original intended voice of Zapp) was murdered, production gave Fry his first name in his honor.
* MoralityPet: Is the only human that Bender doesn't want to kill, and one of the only creatures Bender will treat with any sort of kindness. Applies literally too -- in "Jurassic Bark," Bender says he loves Fry similar to how a human loves a dog.
-->'''Bender:''' All those times I said, "Kill all humans", I'd always whisper, "except one". Fry was that one. And I never told him so!
* MustHaveCaffeine: ''Generally'' doesn't try to chug down 100 cups a day, except for that one time, but he does like his coffee. He is also constantly drinking Slurm Soda (enough to turn green when a soda machine was installed) and in high school, used to drink a hundred cans of Cola a week, which lead to ''three'' coca-cola related heart-attacks.
* MustMakeAmends: Fry finds his old dog from the 20th century fossilized in a construction site. Feeling bad for abandoning it (despite not meaning to) he arranges for the professor to actually revive it. With Science!
* MyOwnGrampa: Fry unwittingly becomes his own grandfather by the direct expedient of doing, as he later puts it, "the nasty in the past-y". Surprisingly, this actually became a major plot point in some later episodes. And in a previous episode, it turned out.
* NaiveNewcomer: He starts out as clueless about the future due to being a FishOutOfWater from the past. He quickly adapts to the 31st century.
* NiceGuy: While it varies somewhat DependingOnTheWriter, Fry is generally a very considerate and kindhearted person. He can just be very lazy, immature and dimwitted. He befriends Bender quickly because he sees no problems with befriending a robot and supports Bender going beyond his programming, and goes out of his way to make Leela less lonely even before their strong ShipTease begins.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Fry is usually responsible for almost every episode's crisis as a result of his stupidity, poor attention span or both.
** He ruined {{Heaven}} for ''EVERYONE'', all just so he could tell Bender that he's happy where he is. There was nothing actually ''wrong'' with wanting to contact his best friend, but he clearly didn't expect Yivo to be such a CrazyJealousGuy and evict everyone for "cheating on him" with another universe or for Bender to use the letters he sent through the rift to create hypermatter weapons with which to attack Yivo and attempt to destroy heaven.
** His attempt at a HeroicSacrifice ends up kickstarting the plot of "The Sting" because [[spoiler:by using his body as a shield, the bee stinger winds up having to go through two bodies and Leela gets pierced by the tip, injecting her with all the venom. Had he not got in the way, she would just have been impaled like he was, which could be fixed with surgery]]. Of course, he had no way of knowing that would happen so it was still noble.
** In the episode "Future Stock", his speech cost the crew from becoming millionaires by causing Planet Express stock prices to fall hard.
** In most time traveling episodes, Fry is sure to cause problems such as [[spoiler:sleeping with his own grandmother]] and causing Paul Revere to fail to alert the colonies.
* NonActionGuy: While he certainly has his moments (only person who can defeat the Brainspawn?), in most stand-up fights he's cowering behind Leela.
* OddFriendship: Fry seems to be able to befriend just about anyone. His first and most prominent example is his friendship with Bender, especially as robot-human friendships seem to be uncommon even in the future. Bender is an amoral robot who dreams of killing all humans and Fry is a well-intentioned idiot, and yet they're essentially best friends.
* OfficialCouple: He and Leela start dating in the Comedy Central seasons, though their exact relationship status [[DependingOnTheWriter can vary from episode to episode]].
* OlderThanTheyLook: While Fry looks to be in his mid-twenties at the start of the series, he's actually over a thousand years old as a result of becoming a HumanPopsicle. The events of ''Bender's Big Score'' add another thousand years to his count, and "The Late Phillip J. Fry" has him live through the death and rebirth of the universe twice over, essentially making him ''millions'' of years old by the end of the series.
* OnlyFriend: He's the only person Bender considers a friend. Whenever he chants, "Destroy all humans" in his sleep, he always whispers, "Except Fry." under his breath. Similarly, if anyone shows a notable degree of sympathy for Zoidberg, it's often him.
* OnlySaneMan: His idiocy aside, he's still an AudienceSurrogate, and often seems more normal than most of the future characters.
* OtherMeAnnoysMe:
** Gets annoyed at his Universe 1 self, and is jealous that he's married to Leela.
** More seriously, [[spoiler:he's jealous of Lars Fillmore, his own older time duplicate, due to Leela falling for him (though he didn't know they're the same until after Lars dies)]].
* ParadoxPerson: He's a temporal anomaly due to [[MyOwnGrampa becoming his own grandfather]], making him the only person in creation without a Delta Brain Wave. [[spoiler:Taken literally with his duplicate Lars Fillmore, who was created via TemporalParadox.]]
* PopCulturedBadass: Spends his free time indulging in popular media of the 20th century and frequently quotes and references stuff from said media. His indulging of entertainment actually comes useful throughout the series, inspiring him to heroic resolve and making him find solutions outside the box inspired by the shows he loved.
* ReallyGetsAround: Not nearly as much as Amy, but there's a pretty good-sized list of wom-- er, ''females'' he's gotten with. Some of them weren't even human! Like the [[CompanionCube radiator girl from the Radiator Planet]]... which [[SubvertedTrope turned out to just be a radiator]]. But who later showed up to his funeral in "The Sting".
* RedIsHeroic: Wears a red jacket and is TheHero of the series, saving Earth on several occasions.
* RelationshipUpgrade: At the end of ''Into The Wild Green Yonder'', Leela finally reciprocates his feelings, and from then on out the show is relatively consistent at depicting them as a couple.
* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: He's surrounded by aliens, mad scientists and robots. And he's just a working-class guy from Brooklyn.
* RobosexualsAreCreeps: The Planet Express crew is disgusted with Fry dating a Lucy Liu-bot, and they show him a propaganda film to try (and fail) to make him stop.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Sensitive Guy to Bender's Manly Man. He's the SociallyAwkwardHero while Bender is the boisterous Hedonist.
* TheSlacker: Even after coming to the future, he spends much of his time sitting on the couch and drinking beer.
%%* StableTimeLoop: His immediate family tree.
* SurpriseIncest: Since the man he thought was his grandfather died before having children, but Fry isn't erased from existence, he assumes neither his supposed grandfather nor the man's fiancee who's coming onto Fry are his relatives. [[MyOwnGrampa He's half-right]].
* TakingTheBullet: Multiple episodes have him jump in front of a threat to protect Leela. "The Sting" has him take the brunt of a deadly space bee stinger ([[spoiler:though she gets most of the poison and is thus in worse condition]]), and "Lrreconciliable Ndndifferences" has him shield her from a ray gun (which luckily turns out to be a teleporter).
* TemporalParadox:
** In a what-if scenario, Fry not getting frozen causes this, which eventually leads to [[RealityBreakingParadox that timeline collapsing in on itself]]. This is because if he's never frozen, he'd not be able to go back and [[MyOwnGrampa be his own grandfather]].
** [[spoiler:Lars Fillmore's existence in a nutshell-Fry ended up interfering with his own past self for pizza, resulting in the two becoming separate beings. This is only achieved through a literal TimeyWimeyBall, and it means Lars is doomed to die in order to correct the paradox.]]
* TeenyWeenie: According to Amy and Leela, due to selective genetic engineering being rampant by the 31st century, Fry's normal "equipment" apparently doesn't stand the test of time. PlayedForLaughs by Bender, who occasionally makes "small" jokes at Fry's expense (who, of course, insists it's [[CompensatingForSomething "huge"]]). So he might just be small by the future's standards or maybe Bender was just being a jerk.
* ThisLoserIsYou: A lazy, dimwitted everyman who serves as AudienceSurrogate.
* TimeAbyss: He has been frozen for a period of 2000+ years, and with the events of ''The Late Phillip J. Fry'', he may be one of the oldest living beings (chronologically).
* TookALevelInDumbass: In the earliest episodes, where he was supposed to be a FishOutOfTemporalWater and stories would mostly focus around him adapting to life in the 31st century, he was a fairly average guy with a dash of Cloudcuckoolander and a few moments of genuine cleverness. As the show progressed, he adapted to his surroundings much faster than the writers intended, and so he devolved into a gibbering manchild unless the writers needed him to say something profound.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Pineapples. He also loves anchovies on his pizza. Too bad they went extinct while he was frozen.
* TrueCompanions: If his friends are in trouble, he'll stop at nothing to save them, even when that friend is Bender, and Fry openly acknowledges he is both evil ''and'' a terrible friend.
* UnderstandingBoyfriend: Fry has always liked Leela and never had a problem with her appearance. He's the only one who objects when she wants phaser eye surgery to get two eyes. Later, when he actually is her boyfriend, he shows this further in "Leela and the Genestalk" where he refuses to break up with her despite her having fully undergone squidification and promises her he'll always love her no matter what. She's touched and thanks him.
* UnfazedEveryman: It takes him a while to cope with the weirdness. Once he does, he realizes that he probably never really belonged in the 21st Century anyway. Although the fact that he was conceived as his own grandfather giving him no delta brainwaves, and deliberately sent into the future by Nibbler specifically because of this may disqualify him.
* UnluckyEverydude: Played with. In his youth, Fry had bursts of luck after finding his seven-leaf clover, but since he lost it in the future, he constantly runs into bad luck scenarios. Some are the result of his stupidity, but others are just pure happenstance screwing him over (like the wind blowing his dollar into a power line).
-->'''Fry:''' I've run over black cats who were luckier than me.
* UnreliableNarrator: Fry's jaundiced views of his 20th century life are gradually revealed to be signs of his own immaturity. [[spoiler:Notably, The Why of Fry and Bender's Big Score show how much his family really loved him, and an early script of The Cryonic Woman had Fry's mother, not his girlfriend, follow him to the future.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Bender; the two may insult and occasionally mutilate each other, but they care for each other and will always have the other's back.
* VocalEvolution: In the first season, Fry's voice was a bit higher, and he spoke faster. As the series went on, his voice gradually hewed closer to Creator/BillyWest's natural speaking voice by becoming slightly lower and slower.
* TheWatson: Fry is generally the one to ask questions, ranging from TechnoBabble to questions about someone's BackStory.
* WholeCostumeReference: He is dressed like Jim Stark from ''Film/RebelWithoutACause''. Which puts him in the same company as Terry Bogard from ''VideoGame/FatalFury''...
* WillTheyOrWontThey: There's constant romantic tension between him and Leela, but she almost always pushes him away. Leans toward they will as the series progresses, but still fluctuates per episode. [[spoiler:It's only truly confirmed when they get married in the last finale.]]
[[/folder]]
