Scruffy

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, as evident by his purchase of 30,000 more shares of Planet Express than the rest of its employees. The other members of staff only see him occasionally, and rarely recognize him when they do. Sometimes he doesn't recognize them either.

Biography
While little is known about Scruffy's background, he has been working at the Planet Express delivery company since at least 2995, when he became employee of the year. In the early years of the 31st century, he also took several other jobs, for example at the Le Spa and as a roadie for the Beastie Boys.

He entered the Panama Wormhole, after helping to rescue his colleagues, along with all the other Planet Express staff members, and was killed and then reborn a short time later.



Friendships and relationships
Though no-one at Planet Express seemed to know him in year 3000, he and Fry seems to have developed a friendship off-stage. In "The Luck of the Fryrish" Fry says that he didn't tell anyone about the location of his seven leaf clover - "not even Scruffy". In "The Beast with a Billion Backs", Fry is shown having everyone's phone numbers, but he has two to Scruffy, home and cell.

Scruffy also accompanies the rest of the crew to a Sith-il War Reenactment in "Lethal Inspection". For no apparent reason, he was seen cooking Zoidberg on a spit later in the same episode.

In 3010, Scruffy's wash bucket changes bodies with Amy Wong, and confesses her feelings for him. While admitting his own love, he realises that it's wrong, even in a human body, as they are too different - him, a man, and her, janitorial equipment. He ultimately asks her to leave before he changes his mind, and falls back crying to his bed.

Production


Scruffy was originally just a background character seen working various jobs, and the colour of his hat, hair and mustasche often changed between appearances. Writers brought him in on the murder scene of "Anthology of Interest I" because they were running out of non-dead characters at the Planet Express, and from there on his permanent role as the janitor of Planet Express was cemented when he was brought back in later episodes without changing jobs.

Trivia

 * 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 joke 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, though this was during Leela's coma dream.
 * 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 such as National Pornographic, Play-Boy-Ar-De, Zero-G-Jugs, Extra Long Honkers, etc. He reads the articles.
 * 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, except when he has to introduce himself, in which case he will say "I'm Scruffy, the janitor".
 * 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.
 * The fact that nobody remembers Scruffy's name might be a reference to The Janitor, a character from the sitcom Scrubs, who's real name was completly unknown until the last episode.