Professor Hubert Farnsworth

The brilliant, forgetful genius running Planet Express with chaotic scientific ambition.

Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, commonly referred to in-show as either Professor Farnsworth or simply Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. He alternates between intelligence and amoral senility due to his greatly advanced age (the exact value of which has differed across episodes). He demonstrates a mastery of any field of science necessary for the series' plots and is suggested to be one of the most brilliant inventors on Earth. However, he falls asleep constantly, and he routinely sends his crews on suicide missions.

Quick Facts

Species: Human
First appearance: Space Pilot 3000
Affiliation: Planet Express Delivery Service
Family relation: Fry is his biological grandson

Lore & Background

A self-described mad scientist, the Professor is a senile, amoral, deranged, and unpredictable old man (160 years old as of 'A Clone of My Own') with very thick glasses and a gift for creating doomsday devices and atomic supermen. He has put at least one parallel universe in peril with his inventions and visited dozens more (see 'The Farnsworth Parabox'). The Professor teaches at Mars University and has worked for Momcorp on several occasions but spends most of his time inventing ridiculous devices and sending the Planet Express delivery crew on suicide missions.

While at Momcorp, he fell in love with the CEO, Mom, only to leave her and Momcorp when she decided to weaponize his 'Q.T. McWhiskers' toy. What he is a professor of is never explicitly stated. In the episode 'Mars University,' when asked what he is teaching, he responds: 'The same thing I teach every semester, the mathematics of quantum neutrino fields. I made up the title so no student would dare take it'; however, this declaration has not precluded the professor from demonstrating mastery of whatever field of science is convenient for a given episode's plot, as shown in Bender's Big Score when he proclaims, 'I can wire anything directly into anything!

I am the Professor!' proceeding to link Hermes' disembodied head to the ship's computer. Approximately 100 years before the series' timeline, he taught a young (not yet Professor) Wernstrom, whom Farnsworth regarded as a prized student. After he returned a pop quiz to Wernstrom with a grade of A-minus (for poor penmanship), the two became bitter rivals (established in 'A Big Piece of Garbage'). As Philip J. Fry's great (x30) nephew, it is likely that he is the great (x29) grandson of Yancy Fry, Fry's older brother from the 20th century.

This would also make him the great (x28) grandson of Philip J. Fry II, Yancy's son, although his exact shared family members with Fry have not been stated. However, since Fry has become his own grandfather, he is also Fry's direct descendant, specifically his great (x31) grandson. In 'All the Presidents' Heads,' he reveals that he is descended from Philo Farnsworth (widely credited as the original inventor of television); Dean Farnsworth, who created the Farnsworth Lantern Test to check for color vision problems in military aviators and sailors; and David Farnsworth, a colonial-era counterfeiter and British agent who was eventually hanged for his crimes.

Reader's Guide

Professor Farnsworth is voiced by Billy West, using a combination of impressions of Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan. West has stated that the voice for Farnsworth is meant to be a bit shaky and that when developing the voice he came up with 'a combination of all the wizard-type characters you heard when you were a kid, Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan in The Wizard of Oz.' There is a direct nod to this in the episode 'Anthology of Interest II', in which the Professor portrays the Wizard of Oz.

Many references to the pulp science fiction magazine Weird Tales indicate the Professor may be named in honor of its editor Farnsworth Wright. Another possibility is that he was named after the American inventor and television pioneer Philo Farnsworth, or after the Colonial American figure David Farnsworth, who appeared in the Futurama episode 'All The Presidents' Heads' as an ancestor of the Professor and Philip J. Fry. The Professor's first name Hubert may have been chosen in honor of University of California Philosophy professor Hubert Dreyfus, of whom writer and producer Eric Kaplan was a former student.

Farnsworth's design has been compared to a combination of Mr. Burns, Grampa Simpson, and Professor Frink from Matt Groening's other series, The Simpsons. In the initial storyboards of 'Space Pilot 3000', Fry presumes that the Professor is descended from a supposed sister and a supposed brother-in-law named Eddie Farnsworth. In the first season, Farnsworth excuses his unhelpfulness by saying that he was 'already in his pajamas'. This was an early attempt at a catchphrase that was abandoned after 'The Series Has Landed'. In the 'Action Delivery Force' segment of 'Reincarnation', Professor Farnsworth is voiced by David Herman.

Did You Know?

He is the biological father of Mom's youngest son Igner, as revealed in Bender's Game.
In 2020, a new species of snake from the Western Ghats of India, Ahaetulla farnsworthi, was named after the character.