Amy Wong

Amy Wong
Futurama character
First appearance	"The Series Has Landed"
Last appearance	"Simpsorama" (The Simpsons episode)
Voiced by	Lauren Tom
Information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Occupation	Intern at the Planet Express Delivery Company
Family	Leo Wong (father) Inez Wong (mother)
Significant other(s)	Kif Kroker (Fonfon Ru) Armando (dated) Philip J. Fry (ex-boyfriend) Gary (dated) Bender B. Rodriguez (ex-fiancé)
Origin	Mars

Amy Wong, voiced by Lauren Tom, is a main character from the Fox and Comedy Central television animated series Futurama. She works as an intern at Planet Express (supposedly kept around because she shares Professor Farnsworth's blood type, and doesn't notice the Professor's tendency to send his crews on suicide missions). She is a ditzy, spoiled, wealthy daughter of agriculturalist-industrialist Han Chinese rancher parents who raise buggalo on Mars. A graduate student for most of the series' run, in season six, she earns her Ph.D in Applied Physics from Mars University, earning her the title of Doctor.

Character development

When creating Amy's character Matt Groening and David X. Cohen decided that she would be something of a klutz. Groening was interested in exploring the idea of using slapstick comedy and physical humor with a female character since most of this humor was done by male characters in his previous work The Simpsons.^[1]

Amy's personality was initially different; Lauren Tom has stated that she was originally supposed to be "a car mechanic, really tough lesbian sort of character." She was changed in order to provide a better contrast between her and Leela.^[2]

In the season four episode "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch", in which Amy's boyfriend Kif becomes pregnant, there was some disagreement among the writers as to whether Amy should be the real mother of his children. It was eventually decided that having Amy be the mother and reject the children would make her too unlikeable.^[3]

Over the course of the series, Amy is shown that she is not an entirely spoiled rich girl, being able to overcome just about any obstacle in order to help others. Her relationship with the other workers of Planet Express is mostly positive, as she views them as a second family. Fry and Leela, in particular, are considered by Amy to be like the siblings she never had. Like almost everyone on Planet Express, she shows little or no consideration for Zoidberg. However, there have been occasions on which Amy has said that she greatly respects his lifestyle.

Biography

Amy comes from a very rich Chinese family; her parents (Inez and Leo) own the entire western hemisphere of Mars, and her sorority was Kappa Kappa Wong (ΚΚ王), although in season 7 A Farewell to Arms she says she was a member of Sigma Beta. Amy's stereotypically Asian meddling mother and father frequently pressure her to get married and give them grandchildren, which she is not eager to do. They are often shown to be rather unkind to their daughter, including an incident where Amy's father repeatedly made fun of her for being fat as a child ("Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles").

On the show, Amy is known for being somewhat shallow, kind, and ditzy. When Doctor Zoidberg had lost his mind due to hormones and was forced to be tied up, she was fooled multiple times into untying him, despite the dangers. As she said herself, "Fool me seven times, shame on you, fool me eight or more times, shame on me." She uses Martian slang, which is simply American slang with altered consonants, such as "Guh" (duh) or "Shman" (man). She also shouts things in Chinese when angry or surprised. Amy tends to wear rather provocative outfits. Her standard outfit is a midriff baring pink sweatshirt, matching sweatpants and brown boots, anything that reveals her belly button. She confesses to Fry that she dresses that way to rebel against her parents; in the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder, she tells her father that she wears the sweatsuit because she knew he always wanted a son. There is also a half-rivalry with Leela about their looks and love lives, with Amy always ready with a putdown. When angered, Amy occasionally starts cursing in poorly spoken Cantonese ("Amazon Women in the Mood"), such as "Aiya, da sei nei", which roughly translates to "Oh my god, I'll beat you to death". She has also been known to sing in Cantonese, though the exact lyrics have yet to be translated.

According to her, because of her supreme cuteness, Amy had cuteness reduction surgery on her cheek and nose when she was a teenager.^[4]

Amy has dated many men, and she expresses a sexually adventurous attitude. In "Bender's Game" she portrayed bisexual characteristics. In "Proposition Infinity", she had a robosexual relationship with Bender; She also has a thing for 'bad boys'. She dated Fry for a time in "Put Your Head on My Shoulders", but the relationship was brief. However, during their relationship, he was involved in an accident, which caused her to have his head grafted onto her shoulder to save his life. She still carries a disfiguring scar from the incident. She has been dating Kif Kroker since 3001. Although she is not ready for total commitment, Amy is sure that one day she will be. In "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch", she became the "Smizmar" of Kif's children; that is, she inspired the feelings of love that caused Kif to be receptive to procreation. Although Leela is the biological mother because she grabbed Kif's ungloved hand to keep him from being sucked out of his spaceship, not knowing that, in his receptive state, this would impregnate him (some of the children even have only one eye like Leela), the Smizmar is considered to be the true mother in Kif's culture. Amy's love for Kif is undeniable, and she has been seen crying when Kif goes on dangerous missions, fearing for his well-being.

Amy has several tattoos which do not appear to recur between episodes. One "obscene tattoo" (which appears blurred because its design requires a resolution unmatched by modern TVs) was shown to be on her upper left arm in "A Fishful of Dollars"; and in "Three Hundred Big Boys", she buys a talking tattoo of a devil, which resembles the trademark of hot rod artist Coop, on her right arm. In the same episode, three other tattoos are implied to be on her butt, one of which is a horse of some kind; the other two had the voices of a man and a woman. However, in "Proposition Infinity" she claims to have a tattoo of her mother on her butt and shows it to an inmate. None of these are ever seen or mentioned in any episode other than the ones they are first shown in, despite numerous occasions in which their locations are visible, apparently lacking said tattoos.

Amy is also skilled in piloting the Planet Express spaceship, which she learned to do by playing a claw vending machine until she completely drained it of all the prizes. This was an effort to get the keys to the ship, which had fallen into the machine due to her absent-mindedness. It is also shown in Bender's Big Score that Amy can understand (and probably speak) "yeti," proven when she understands the ice apes on Neptune before they begin "assaulting the interlopers". Into the Wild Green Yonder reveals that she was a champion miniature golf player as a child, which enables her to get a ship through a giant course; the episode "Bendless Love" shows her as a javelin thrower on the track and field team at Mars University.

In "That Darn Katz!", after working at Planet Express for 12 years, Amy completes her graduate research and receives her Ph.D. in Applied Physics, and is occasionally referred to as Doctor Wong in the succeeding episodes.

In "A Farewell to Arms," she demonstrates a knowledge of the ancient Martian language, translating a prophecy that foretells the end of the world on Earth. However, she later learns that she has made an error in her translation; the prophecy actually refers to the destruction of Mars, not Earth. During "The Butterjunk Effect," she and Leela enter the ruthless aerial sport of Butterfly Derby and take performance-enhancing drugs to build up their strength so they can hold their own against professional teams. When the Wongs lose their home and fortune to the Robot Mafia in "Viva Mars Vegas," Amy leads the crew in a plan to steal back one of the family's casinos by breaking into its vault, taking advantage of Zoidberg's temporary invisibility. In Stench and Stenchibility, when Zoidberg falls in love with a beautiful flower vendor, Amy assists him when he gives her a nose transplant.

References

1. Cohen, David X (2003). Futurama season 2 DVD commentary for the episode "Xmas Story" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
2. "9 Odd Things We Now Know About Futurama". Total Film. 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
3. Odenkirk, Bill (2003). Futurama season 4 DVD commentary for the episode "Kif gets Knocked Up a Notch" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
4. Futurama season 3 episode 9 "The Cyber House Rules" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. 2001.