Futurama Zoidberg / Why Not Zoidberg?

Futurama Zoidberg / Why Not Zoidberg?

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Updated Mar 10, 2014 at 08:58PM EDT by Brad.

Added Aug 27, 2011 at 09:22AM EDT by Sav.

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CAN'T FINDA WOMAN TO DATE? WHYNOTZOIDBERGA

About

Futurama Zoidberg, also known as "Why not Zoidberg?", is an advice animal image macro series featuring the cephalopod-like alien Zoidberg from the cartoon TV series Futurama. Captions typically start with a query of some sort, followed by the rhetorical question "why not Zoidberg?" at the bottom.

Origin

Doctor John A. Zoidberg is a fictional character for the Futurama television series. He is an alien that appears like a mix between a lobster and an octopus, and serves as a doctor despite his poor understanding of human physiology.[1] A "Futurama Zoidberg"[2] Quickmeme page was created on July 5th, 2011. The first submission was captioned with "You call that an ink defense? Blughidihlgidgldgdd…"[10] The same day Redditor mrrabbitfluff posted a thread titled "Zoidberg offers himself"[3] that linked to a Quickmeme submission with the text "Need a new meme? Why not Zoidberg?" The post reached the front page and has received 6,665 up votes as of September 23rd, 2011.


YOU CALLTHATAN INK DEFENSE? BLUGHIDIHLGIDGLDGDDGILIDGIL DGLDLUGDLIGILDILGDILGLDGILD IN NEED OFA NEW MEME? WHYNOTZOIDBERG

Rhetoric Device

According to Wikipedia[12], "why not" is sometimes used to ask rhetorical questions that "bring an end to a debate or to finalize a decision." On March 16th, 2011, a thread questioning Zoidberg's rhetorical use of the phrase "why not" was submitted to the Peelified[11] Futurama forum. Other users responded addressing the speculation that the phrase was inspired by Yiddish stereotypes.


lemily33 on: 03-16-2011 11:01 I searched for a thread and couldn't find one, but please direct me to one if it exists. Can anyone explain Zoidberg's strange use of "why not"? It happens two times in the series: "As the candy hearts poured into the fiery quasar, a wondrous thing happened, why not If you guys have heard the lines, you know the tone of voice is like he's saying, "I molted, you see," or "a wondrous thing happened, you see." It's definitely not a question, and I've never heard anyone IRL speak this way. Is this a Yiddish / classic Jewish comedian thing or just a Zoidberg / Billy West thing? I've looked everywhere!

Spread

Emoticons for Zoidberg were popularized when Redditor SmashBoomPower posted a thread titled "In need of a new emoticon?"[8] featuring an image macro with the emoticon "(V)(°,,°)(V)" on September 20th, 2011. The thread was linked on The Daily What[9] on September 23rd, and several variations of the emoticon popped up afterwards.


IN NEED OFA NEW EMOTICON? WHY NOT V( NEEDANEWIEMOTICON WHY NOTZOIDBERGA?

Several pages of fan art can be found on the art sharing website deviantArt[14] under the tag "#why not zoidberg." The meme has since spread to other sites including Memebase[4], Tumblr[5], FunnyJunk[6] and Reddit.[7] The Quickmeme page has accumulated over 3,300 submissions and a Facebook page has 960 likes as of February 8th, 2012.

Notable Examples


Needd a SImiley? MEMEBASE.com GETTINGA TATTOO? WHY NOT ZOIDBERG NEED SOMETHING TO FAP TO? WHYGA NOTZOIDBER WHY NOT ROIDBERG? WHY NOTZOID BERG? CAUSE HE'S DEAD THATS WHY NEED AVOICE TO THINKIN?

Search Interest

Search queries for "why not zoidberg" began in July of 2011, the same month the Quickmeme page was created.

External References

[1] Wikipedia – Doctor Zoidberg

[2] Quickmeme – Futurama Zoidberg

[3] Reddit – Zoidberg offers himself

[4] Memebase – Zoidberg

[5] Tumblr – #zoidberg

[6] FunnyJunk – why not zoidberg=

[7] Reddit – zoidberg

[8] Reddit – In need of a new emoticon?

[9] The Daily What – Morning Links

[10] Quickmeme – You call that an ink defense?

[11] Peelified – Zoidberg's strange Yiddish use of why not

[12] Wikipedia – Rhetorical Question

[13] Facebook – Why Not Zoidberg

[14] deviantArt – #why not zoidberg

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