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Futurama character
Lord Nibbler
Age	1007+ (to others 5)
Gender	Male
Species	Nibblonian
Planet of Origin	Eternium
Job	Nibblonian Ambassador to Earth; Leela's pet.
Relatives	Snowy
First Appearance	Official: Love's Labours Lost in Space Real: Space Pilot 3000(Shadow Only)
First Line	Sound: (Love's Labours Lost in Space): (Sniffs and Chirps) Speech: (The Day the Earth Stood Stupid): Thank you. I bear many receipts for reimbursement.
Voiced by	Frank Welker

Lord Nibbler is a fictional character from the animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Frank Welker who provides not only the speaking lines but also the various noises he makes when not speaking English.

Contents 1 Name 2 Abilities 2.1 Dark matter 2.2 Eating ability 3 Species/Race 4 Purpose 5 Continuity 6 Cultural references

This character's true name is not revealed, because "in the time it would take to pronounce one letter of [his] true name, a trillion cosmoses would flare into existence and sink into eternal night". Leela took him for a pet when she found him on the soon-to-be-destroyed planet Vergon 6 in the episode "Love's Labours Lost in Space" and named him "Nibbler", just before observing his ability to rapidly consume animals far larger than himself. When with other Nibblonians, he is referred to as "Lord Nibbler", though again, this name is only used for the sake of nearby humans.

Nibbler is highly intelligent and capable of communication, but uses telepathic manipulation to simulate human speech as his natural speech is incomprehensible jabber. For most of the series he masquerades as a rather unintelligent animal in order to avoid suspicion while he goes about his mission of protecting the Earth in general and Fry in particular from the evil Brainspawn. He only reveals his mission to anyone else when expecting to wipe their memory of it afterwards, something only done twice so far. He wipes people's memories by emitting a bright flash of light from his third eye. Its immediate after effects are strange as, according to Fry, it makes "everything just taste purple for a second". This flashing effect may be a reference to the memory erasing Neuralizer device used in the 1997 movie Men in Black, or to the condition of synaesthesia. His eye is also able to fire a heat ray in Futurama: Bender's Big Score.

Nibbler's waste consists of dark matter, which can be used as starship fuel. An extremely dense material, according to Professor Farnsworth "one pound of it weighs over one thousand pounds". Bender is the only one able to move the droppings, although even he has to drag them. In "The Why Of Fry", when taking Nibbler for a walk, Fry is confronted with picking up Nibbler's dropping. Professing that it "weighs as much as a thousand suns", Fry is unable to pick it up and is promptly fined for "failure to scoop".

Nibbler, much like the rest of his species, is capable of devouring life forms much larger than he is, as shown when he ate every animal onboard the Planet Express ship. He is probably able to hold so much food because of his ability to condense it and excrete it as dark matter. He is, according to Leela, "an adorable, unstoppable killing machine". Bender's Big Score suggests that his stomach may link to an alternate dimension of some sort. When Bender's actions cause a tear in the fabric of reality, he quickly yells "everybody out of the universe" and devours himself, disappearing in a flash of orange light.

Nibbler's race, from the planet Eternium (located at the "Exact Center of the Universe", "Inconceivable dimensions not shown"), is referred to as the Nibblonians, after Leela's name for him. However, just as with "Nibbler" itself, the name is only a convenience for outsiders as the real name is much too long and complicated. However, some state that the species may be known as Nibblonians, due to the Brainspawn referring to them as such in "The Why of Fry".

Brainspawn: "The Nibblonians, good? Ha!"

Nibbler's voracious appetite is shared by other members of the species, who commemorate great events with feasts, such as "The Feast of a Thousand Hams" or "The Feast of a Thousand Beasts". Nibbler, and presumably the rest of the race, have a pair of bat wings under their arms, which may have been used to slow Nibbler's fall when he jumped out the window in "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid".

According to the Nibblonians, their race is ancient and powerful, because when the universe was formed with the Big Bang, their race was already 17 years old, making them the oldest known species to have ever existed. Individual Nibblonians "live long", according to Nibbler, himself at least 1000 years old, though a human veterinarian once incorrectly speculated that the number of rings within a tooth extracted from Nibbler might indicate his age (five) ("I Second That Emotion").

Some Nibblonians also display a cat-like behaviour, purring when their heads are scratched or playing with simple toys. This is distressing at times, as it discourages outsiders (as well as each other) from taking them seriously. "Sometimes I fear we are cute," bemoaned Nibbler during "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid". (To which Fiona replies, "Aww, niggle-snoosh," thus simultaneously dismissing and confirming the claim.)

Nibbler's existence and intentions were planned well in advance. Nibbler only reveals his intelligence and true origins in two episodes, "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" and "The Why Of Fry", as well as the movie Bender's Big Score; other than those episodes, there is no way of knowing that he is actually intelligent. However, a clue to his purpose is seen in the first episode of the series, where you can briefly see his shadow as Fry's chair tips back, implying he may have always been intended to have a secret meaning. Another clue is seen in the second episode of the fifth season, when the scene of Fry's freezing is reshown. In that episode, Nibbler's third eyeball can be clearly seen, poking out of the garbage bin. However, without these references, there is no way of knowing Nibbler's purpose outside of the two episodes in which it is revealed.

Nibbler was initially shown to have pushed Fry into the cryogenic freezer that resulted in him showing up in the year 3000. However, in "The Why Of Fry", it was Fry himself, with encouragement from Nibbler, who did the actual deed. Nibbler then spent the next thousand years on Vergon 6 until being picked up by Leela.

Currently, according to his comment in "The Why of Fry", Nibbler's new purpose is to aid Fry in his pursuit of Leela, known to the Nibblonians as "The Other", as payment for Fry giving up his life in the 20th century.

Although Nibbler is not officially introduced as a character until "Love's Labours Lost in Space", evidence of his existence can be seen as early as "Space Pilot 3000", the series' first episode. Just as Fry falls backwards into the freezer, a seemingly pointless shot of under the desk is shown. Upon further inspection, however, a mysterious shadow shaped exactly like Nibbler can be seen. This supports the assertion made in "The Why of Fry" that Nibbler pushed Fry into the freezer. In "Anthology of Interest I", during which Fry sees what would happen if he was never frozen, Nibbler's shadow is absent from the shot under the desk. Additionally, in "Jurassic Bark", in a flashback to Fry sitting in the chair right before getting frozen, Nibbler's third eye is seen popping out of the trash can. Also, not only is Nibbler's shadow shown, what appears to be Fry's shadow is shown alongside it. In the audio commentary for the first episode the show's creators exclaim "Secret!" when his shadow becomes visible.

• When Fry meets The Nibblonians, he is introduced to the Nibblonian Council, a group very similar to the Grey Council of the Minbari, featured in the series Babylon 5: both groups meet in darkened rooms with each individual illuminated from above. The fact that they tell Fry that he is the most important being in the universe, and that his importance involves a complex time travel scenario, also has echoes of the identification in Babylon 5 of Jeffrey Sinclair as 'the One who Was' who, by going back in time 1000 years, allows victory over the Shadows. If Fry is 'the one' then this accounts for the Nibblonians' description of Leela as 'the other'.

• The character is probably named after Frank Welker's character Niddler on the 1990s animated television series Pirates of Dark Water. On the show, Niddler was a monkey-bird who hailed from the island of Pandawa. He was usually depicted as a little greedy and constantly ravenous for food, his favourite food being minga melons.

v • d • e Futurama
Media	Episodes (by Broadcast Order) · Comic books · Video game · DVD movies
Main characters	Philip J. Fry · Turanga Leela · Bender B. Rodríguez · Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth · Doctor John Zoidberg · Hermes Conrad · Amy Wong
Recurring characters	Zapp Brannigan · Kif Kroker · Nibbler · Cubert Farnsworth · Calculon · Mom · Recurring human characters · Recurring robot characters · Recurring alien characters
Themes	Politics in Futurama · Religion in Futurama
Technology	Cryonics · Nimbus · Planet Express Ship · Robots in Futurama  · Suicide booth
Other	Planet Express Corporation · Chroniton · List of guest stars on Futurama · List of Futurama crew