Scruffy

Secondary character
Scruffy
Gender	Male
Species	Human
Planet of origin	Earth
Profession	Janitor at Planet Express
First appearance	"A Fishful of Dollars" (1ACV06)
Voiced by	David Herman

Scruffy is the janitor at Planet Express and is the only person working for Planet Express who isn't a primary character. He reads pornography, and believes in his company, which somehow got him to own 40,000 shares of Planet Express while everyone else had 10,000. The other members of staff only see him occasionally, and rarely recognize him when they do. Sometimes he doesn't recognize them, either. Scruffy has indicated that he's been to prison.

Scruffy was originally just a background character seen working various jobs. However writers brought him in on the murder scene of "Anthology of Interest I" (2ACV16) because they were running out of non-dead characters. From there his permanent role as the Janitor of Planet Express was cemented when he was brought back in later episodes without changing jobs.

He also entered the Panama Wormhole at the end of Into the Wild Green Yonder along with all the other Planet Express crew members.

Additional Info

Trivia

Scruffy's first appearance

• The first time he appeared, he didn't speak, and his moustache and hat colors were reversed.
• Scruffy puts cameras up in every room in "Futurama Returns"
• A comment made by Fry in "The Luck of the Fryrish" ("I didn't reveal the clover's location to anyone. Not even to Scruffy!") suggests that the two may have become close friends. But, at the time, this was more likely to be a pun on the fact that everyone always seem not to know who Scruffy is. However, in The Beast with a Billion Backs Fry is shown to keep two of Scruffy's numbers, vs. one of everyone else's. This seems to extend the joke even further.
• Before the episode "Anthology of Interest I" when his real job was cemented, Scruffy had different seen jobs not in Planet Express.
  • He had a career at Le Spa.
  • He also worked as a roadie for the Beastie Boys.
• The Sting suggests he might be Scottish.
• His hair turned gray prior to (or during) "Anthology of Interest I". The hair and hat colour alternates between old and new during that episode.
• Scruffy is regularly seen with adult magazines, he reads the articles, such as National Pornagraphic.
• Has yet to complete his masters in Theoretical Janitorial Science.
• Scruffy's character is based on Billy Bob Thorton's character (Karl Childers) in the movie Sling Blade
• Scruffy was named after a bar in Venice called Scruffy O'Shea's
• The October page of the 2008 Futurama wall calendar states that his last name is "Scruffington", this may not be canon.
• Scruffy often refers to himself in the third person when he talks.
• Has both a home and cell phone available to be called on Fry's cell phone in The Beast with a Billion Backs.
• In Bender's Game, he became a person who apparently cleans up after the Centaurs.

Quotes

Scruffy: I'm Scruffy... the Janitor.

Hermes: I don't even know who this guy is!

Scruffy: Boy, I've never seen him so down. Or ever before.

Scruffy: Somebody called "the robot devil" is here to see somebody called "Fry".

Scruffy: Second.

Scruffy: Life goes on, but I believe we'll forever carry the pain on the inside.

Scruffy: Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived. [turns page of Zero-G Juggs magazine]

Scruffy: Oh, Marmalade!

Scruffy: Scruffy's rolling out a large pill.

Scruffy: Scruffy's goin' to get one of them $300 haircuts, this one's lost its pizzazz

Scruffy: Scruffy knows who killed them people.

Scruffy: [In a deleted scene] The day of reckoning is nigh... I reckon...

Scruffy: Scruffy votes his fourty thousand shares for the mysterious stranger.
Leela: Wait a minute, how come you have four times as much share as the rest of us?
Scruffy: Scruffy believes in this company [Sniff]

Scruffy: Dern it. [after learning about the loss of complimentary porno magazines]

Scruffy: I'm on break. [eats potato chip]

Appearances

• "A Fishful of Dollars" (1ACV06)
  
• "Hell Is Other Robots" (1ACV09)
  
• "Anthology of Interest I" (2ACV16)
  
• "Parasites Lost" (3ACV02)
  
• "A Tale of Two Santas" (3ACV03)
  
• "The Luck of the Fryrish" (3ACV04)
  
• "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" (3ACV05)
  
• "The Route of All Evil" (3ACV12)
  
• "A Leela of Her Own" (3ACV16)
  
• "A Pharaoh to Remember" (3ACV17)
  
• "Anthology of Interest II" (3ACV18)
  
• "Future Stock" (3ACV21)
  
• "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" (4ACV01)
  
• "A Taste of Freedom" (4ACV05)
  
• "Jurassic Bark" (4ACV07)
  
• "The Sting" (4ACV12)
  
• "Three Hundred Big Boys" (4ACV16)
  
• "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" (4ACV18)
  
• Bender's Big Score
  
• The Beast with a Billion Backs
  
• Bender's Game
  
• Into the Wild Green Yonder
  
• Futurama (video game)
  
• "DOOP the Right Thing!" (US#004)
  
• "Who's Dying to Be a Gazillionaire?" (US#005)
  
• "Xmas Time Is Fear" (US#006)
  
• "New Year's Rockin' Evil" (US#007)
  
• "Freaky Fry-day" (US#009)
  
• "Six Characters in Search of a Story" (US#014)
  
• "More than a Filling!" (US#021)
  
• "As the Wormhole Turns" (US#031)
  
• "Planet Michelle" (US#034)
  
• "Anthology of Interest II" (US#045)
  
• "Follow the Reader" (US#046)
  
• "Somewhere Over the Brain-bow!" (US#X01)
  
• "Liquid Diamond Is Forever!" (US#X02)