Mom (Futurama)

Mom
Futurama character
First appearance	"A Fishful of Dollars"
Voiced by	Tress MacNeille
Information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Occupation	CEO and majority shareholder of MomCorp
Relatives	Children: Walt, Larry and Igner Ex-husband: Dr. Ogden Wernstrom
Origin	Earth

Mom, real first name Carol, is a character from the animated television series Futurama. Voiced by Tress MacNeille. Mom is one of the show's two main antagonists, the other being Zapp Brannigan. However, unlike Brannigan—who is simply an idiotic, comic opera buffoon—Mom is much more threatening and Machiavellian.

Character

Mom manages and owns 99.7% of MomCorp, a large, multi-billion dollar industrial complex with numerous subsidiaries and a monopoly on robot production. Publicly, she retains the corporate image of a sweet, bustling old woman who often slips into the stereotype of a Deep South grandmother (she wears antiquated clothes that greatly accentuate her bust and general figure, while using rustic metaphors such as 'squeaking like an old screen door').^[1] Behind the scenes, however, Mom is a thin, malevolent, foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, deeply bitter, cruel and narcissistic gravel-voiced crow, who routinely abuses her terrified sons (see below) into submission, treating them like gofers. In the episode "Mother's Day", it is heavily implied that at least some of her bitterness originates from an ill-fated romance with Professor Farnsworth who, while reformatting the basic robot design, terminated their affair following savage rows about his work. According to Bender's Game, this has happened at least three consecutive times (due to Farnsworth's increasing senility, he would forget why they originally broke up or that they had even broken up in the first place).

She occasionally attends charity functions as a way of boosting her public image, but really has no empathy for any of the people she's supposed to be supporting (in "A Fishful of Dollars" she describes one such gathering as 'some charity BS for knocked up teenage sluts').

According to the DVD commentary for the aforementioned episode, Mom 'basically became Doctor Laura' when her character was decided.

In the episode "The Tip of the Zoidberg", it is revealed by Dr. Zoidberg that her first name is Carol.

Sons

Mom's sons, left to right: Igner, Larry and Walt

Accompanying Mom are her trio of sycophantic, petrified, childish sons: Walt (Maurice LaMarche), Larry (David Herman) and Igner (John DiMaggio). They all wear matching uniforms and own a 0.1% share of MomCorp, indicative of the way she treats them like grunts instead of family. She frequently resorts to physical and emotional abuse as a way of enforcing discipline, incessantly slapping her sons' faces (sometimes hitting all three with one swing of her hand) and insulting them in an often incoherent way ("Jam a bastard in it, you crap!").

The oldest son, Walt, is theoretically Mom's second in command, the tallest and best built of the brothers with the best posture, and occasionally strikes his brothers. He seems to come up with the plans for many of the lesser schemes the trio must carry out for Mom — although they always involve poor disguises and only Fry is ever taken in. In "Mother's Day" he reveals his Oedipus Complex. He usually calls Mom 'Mother' and slaps both of his brothers, capable of slapping both in one swing, although he strikes Larry more often than Igner.

The middle son, Larry, has an Inferiority Complex and apologizes for everything, being described by Professor Farnsworth as "the snivelling middle child." He even thanks his mother for being slapped and insulted. He stands with a slouch, and can often be seen cowering whenever Mom flies into a rage. On one occasion, Walt and Mom laugh evilly, and Larry joins in nervously. Mom slaps him and asks what he is laughing about. He then comments, "...er, your laugh. It's so infectious." Mom snaps back "So is herpes, now shut up!" He usually calls Mom 'Mom', and is slapped the most often through the series.

The youngest and most pitiful son, Igner, speaks more inarticulately than Walt and Larry, seems to be mentally retarded, and usually finds himself assigned the worst jobs, including being forced into Mom's brassiere for the purposes of a demonstration, and playing the part of Pamela Anderson's body for her head in a jar. He habitually addresses her as "Mommy" instead of "Mom" and often repeats what his brothers say without any obvious understanding. In Bender's Game it is revealed that Professor Farnsworth is his father.

The one act of collective rebellion perpetrated by Mom's sons, albeit without her knowledge, happens during the aforementioned "Mother's Day", when they try and stop her robot rampage against humanity, by re-uniting her with her long-lost love, Hubert J. Farnsworth, thus theoretically quenching her bitterness.

In Bender's Game, the three of them pose as owl exterminators in an attempt to infiltrate the Planet Express offices and steal a crystal with the power to ruin Mom's dark matter business. When Fry leaves them at the door to announce them to Amy and Leela, they can actually be heard slapping each other in the background while he comments on how hilarious they are. Walt tries to take the crystal by claiming it is an owl egg which will hatch into an owl larva but the Professor stops them by loosing a real owl on them, which they can't handle. Later on, it is revealed that Igner is Farnsworth's illegitimate son, thus making him a nephew — many, many generations removed — of Fry himself. The commentary on the film hypothesizes that the other two may be the sons of Farnsworth's rival and Mom's ex-husband, Professor Wernstrom, but does not confirm this. Farnsworth stated that he had a relationship with Mom three times. Near the end of the film, Igner rebels against Mom by swallowing the crystal; his action ultimately causes all dark matter in the world to become totally worthless as starship fuel. On the DVD commentary track, the vowel at the end of Igner's name is specifically identified as an "e," with the writers and director commenting on how often the spelling used online is incorrect.

In Bender's Game, Farnsworth comments that his last relationship with Mom was "Thirty-something years ago". Nibbler later on adds that it was 36 years ago when Mom started mining Dark Matter. Mom was carrying Igner at this time but showed no signs of pregnancy (having only recently fired Farnsworth), making Igner approximately 35 years old, and his brothers born a year or two before him - in the movie, Larry as an infant cannot be much older than a year, while Walt at the same time is about three years old.

Movies

Although Mom has appeared in all four Futurama movies her role is only expanded in the third; in the others she appears only briefly.

In Bender's Big Score Mom is briefly seen hiring inter-galactic hit men to fight for her in the final battle. In the following film The Beast with a Billion Backs she is seen dancing with Yivo and later is briefly seen in the audience of Fry's church sermon to Yivo.

Mom serves as the main antagonist in Bender's Game. She tries to use one of two dark crystals to monopolize the dark matter industry. The Professor tries to prevent this, using the second crystal as a counterbalance to Mom's crystal and rendering the dark matter unusable as a fuel supply. During the ensuing events the characters are transported into a Middle-earth-like dimension. In this universe, Mom is known as "Momon", a sorceress with a Medusa-like head of snakes. The crystal in this reality is a mystical twelve-sided die Momon created in a set of five that she lost and desires to get back. At the film's climax, Momon retrieves the magic die and uses it to obliterate the fantasy world as well as sending everyone back to the proper reality. Upon returning to the correct dimension, Mom is defeated when Igner and Prof. Farnsworth cause the crystals to react, rendering her dark matter fuel useless.

Mom is briefly seen at the end of Into The Wild Green Yonder when Fry reads her thoughts; she is silently gloating about how much money she has.

Games

In Futurama: The Game Mom appears as the primary antagonist where she buys out Planet express, which results in her owning 50% of earth, effectively making her Earth's ruler. She then plans to make Earth into a warship, but needs Professor Farnsworth in order to help with the giant engine. Her plan succeeds, however the crew of the planet express, that managed to escape earlier, travel back in time before the takeover of the planet express, foiling Mom's scheme (the crew dies in the process). Angry at the fact that Mom killed his crew, the professor refuses to sell Planet Express. This prompts Mom to bribe him with a sombrero, after which the professor does sell, once again setting in motion the events that started the game. (It should be noted that the Professor enters the office of planet express with a sombrero at the start of the game).

Cultural impact

Mom was included in the 2007 Forbes list of the richest fictional characters. She was ranked at #4 with an estimated net worth of $15.7 billion.^[1] MomCorp was also included in the list of "The 25 Largest Fictional Companies" which estimated its sales at $291.8 billion.^[2]

References

Futurama portal

1. ^ ^{a b} Michael Noer and David M. Ewalt (2007-12-11). "The Forbes Fictional 15". Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/11/mom-futurama-money-oped-books-cx_de_fict1507_1211mom.html. Retrieved 2008-06-13. 
2. ^ Michael Noer and David M. Ewalt (2007-12-11). "In Pictures: The 25 Largest Fictional Companies". Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/10/largest-fictional-companies-oped-books-fict1507-cx_mn_de_1211company_slide_5.html?thisSpeed=15000. Retrieved 2008-06-13.