The Professor is clearly a physicist and inventor. Is it ever shown why he is running a small scale shipping company with only a handful of employees, instead of (for example) working in a government lab or university research center?
asked Nov 27, 2016 at 21:22
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Even if the professor claims to be a physicist, not much of what we see him do in the show is actually physics. The technical term is "mad scientist" (or some would say "engineer") :-P– David ZCommented Dec 2, 2016 at 7:04
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2 Answers
For the money
Fry: This is awesome! Are we gonna fly through space fighting monsters and teaching alien women to lurve?
Farnsworth: If by that you mean "transporting cargo" then yes. It's a little home business I started to fund my research.
You may wish to note that the Professor does maintain an office at Mars University, something of a sinecure given that no-one ever takes his classes.
Farnsworth: No, I need it shipped to my office at Mars University. It's a little experiment that may well win me the Nobel Prize.
Leela: In what field?
Farnsworth: I don't care, they all pay the same.
...
Fry: Oh, I don't know. Hey, Professor, what are you teaching this semester?
Farnsworth: Same thing I teach every semester: The Mathematics of Quantum Neutrino Fields. I made up the title so that no student would dare take it.
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4Also he'd never be able to work with anyone elses... (cf. A big ball of garbage)– k_gCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 3:42
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4Curiously, a common plot device is that the company is going bankrupt or has to officially reclassify everyone as slaves instead of as employees, etc. Commented Nov 28, 2016 at 7:51
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31@Zibadawatimmy - Because the company is incompetently run. When Fry and the Professor disappear into the future, you can see the success Leela makes of it.– ValorumCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 8:04
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21@Daft Again? As in you weren't already? Does not everybody live their life in an endless cycle watching the entire series over and over again?– DasonCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 18:51
Professor Farnsworth may have started the company to fund his research (see Valorums answer), but he also sees it as cheap source of labor for his projects (similar to a research group in a lab):
Farnsworth: This is not a business. I always thought of it more as a cheap source of labor, like a family.
from Future Stock
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18And spare blood in Amy's case, albeit she's one of his students, not a member of the crew.– ValorumCommented Nov 28, 2016 at 11:06