Zapp Brannigan

General Zapp Brannigan, also referred to as "The Zapper" or "Big Z", is a 25 star General and spaceship captain in the Democratic Order of Planets (the DOOP) in the television series Futurama. His flagship is the Nimbus. Kif Kroker is his beleaguered lieutenant and personal assistant.

Character

Zapp is an arrogant, idiotic, ineffectual space captain and a political officer of no small consequence. He suffers from a sexy learning disability, sexlexia. His tactics in matters of battle are always daring and almost always unnecessary. He wastes no time sending his men to die in ridiculous, easily avoidable altercations.

Career triumphs include conquering the pacifists of the Gandhi Nebulae, carpet bombing Eden Seven, triumphing over the senior citizens of the Assisted Living Galaxy, and repeatedly attempting to destroy the Neutral Planet because he detested their neutrality (their motto is "Live free or don't"). Perhaps his greatest military victory was the defeat of a horde of rampaging Killbots which he achieved by sending in wave after wave of his own men until the Killbots reached their preprogrammed kill-limit. He would later go on to defeat the Giant Arachnids, resulting in a silk surplus.

Brannigan briefly took a break from DOOP to serve as captain of the USS Titanic, which ended up being destroyed in a black hole after Zapp altered the simplistic tour route.

Brannigan was once dismissed from the DOOP along with Kif for his role in destroying DOOP's new $300 billion headquarters. In order to show off, Brannigan used his ship's tactical laser, set on Hyperdeath™, to cut the ribbon to inaugurate the new station, but instead managed to destroy the station by cutting it right down the middle. He served briefly with the crew of Planet Express and led a mutiny against Leela. He ordered the crew to set a crash course against the Neutral Planet (setting off a beige alert) where they would all die horribly, except for Zapp who would escape in the only space suit onboard. Leela was reinstated as captain after this, and lied about Zapp's role in the attack on the Neutral Planet so he would be reinstated in DOOP and stay away from her ship.

Brannigan later would lead the defence of Earth during the invasion of the aliens of Omicron Persei 8. Zapp's battle plan was to send all of his ships on a head-on charge on the gun-turrets of the alien mothership, until "the debris from our destroyed ships clogs their guns". His fleet managed to destroy the Hubble Telescope (while suffering heavy losses), but was mightless against the real alien mothership. He later attempted to end the war by sacrificing the President of Earth to the Omicron leaders; the President was killed, but this did not stop the invasion. Another career high point is when he conquered Spheron 1, home planet of a race of sentient ball-like creatures. Spheron 1 had no strategic value of any kind and no natural resources to speak of; further, first contact had never been made with the Sphereons. Nonetheless, Brannigan boldly conquered the planet, evicting its native inhabitants, and suffering high attrition rates among his men. During this campaign, it was revealed that Zapp named his warhorse—a real live horse that stands on a flying disk as he rides it—"Felicity"; it's a male horse. Zapp never purposely puts himself at equal risk, though his stupidity often lands him in life-threatening situations.

Zapp later very nearly died—by snoo-snoo—when he was captured on Amazonia. Zapp also doesn't understand that firing a weapon within a starship can easily rupture the hull and lead to fatal decompression, a fact he learned the hard way.

Brannigan managed to sleep with Turanga Leela in the fourth episode, "Love's Labour's Lost in Space", a fact he will not let her forget. He is consistently attracted to Leela, like Philip J. Fry, but is a womanizer and pursues just about everything that moves.

Origins

Zapp was probably the character created for Phil Hartman, who was given a permanent role on Futurama before his untimely death. It can be seen through his voice, which sounds like Hartman's, and his mannerisms, which are similar to Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure (who looks and acts like Brannigan) from Matt Groening's other show, The Simpsons.

Another basis for Brannigan's character is the Star Trek captain James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner. The creators of the series envision Brannigan as being similar to what Shatner himself would be like as a starship captain. Brannigan can also be seen as a loose parody of a multitude of other "dashing space commanders", from Buck Rogers to Bel Riose. He also resembles Lord Flashheart from the BBC series, Blackadder.

Production

Zapp Brannigan is voiced by Billy West, who also voices Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and Philip J. Fry. He was originally intended to be voiced by Phil Hartman. Hartman auditioned for the role and "of course, just nailed it" according to creator Matt Groening. However, due to Hartman's untimely death, West was given the role.