Kif Kroker

Kif Kroker

Lieutenant Kif Kroker, voiced by Maurice LaMarche, is a fictional character in the animated television show Futurama. He is the assistant to Captain Zapp Brannigan and first officer of the Democratic Order of Planets (DOOP) starship Nimbus. Especially shown in Season 1, he is frustrated by his boss's arrogance, constant sexual innuendo, and tendency to pass all blame and responsibility to his assistant. Kif's portrayal in Season 1 is a disaffected, indifferent, sardonic worker, although his personality is greatly enlarged in later seasons.

In season three, he begins dating Planet Express employee Amy Wong, whom he met aboard the starship Titanic in "A Flight to Remember." Kif's first appearance is in the episode "Love's Labours Lost in Space." Kif has three nipples, and is able to shed his skin when necessary.

Template:Spoiler Kif is constantly annoyed by Captain Brannigan's stupidity, but lacks the self-confidence to stand up for himself. Fry briefly served as Kif's assistant during the conflict on Spheron 1 in "War is the H-Word."

Kif lacks a skeleton. Instead he is supported by a system of fluid-filled bladders. He can also stick to walls like a gecko and blend in with his surroundings like a chameleon. It is the males of Kif's species that carry their young, as Kif did in "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch." Kif explains that his species can exchange genetic information even through simple touch. This occurs during a "receptive phase", which happens when a member of his species is deeply in love.

Professor Farnsworth's inter-species DNA paternity testing machine ("even I laughed at me when I built it," he explains) reveals the "father" of Kif's young to be Leela, though Kif explains that the true parent, or the smizmar, is the one who inspired the original feelings of love, regardless of the DNA donor. Amy faces a deep conflict over the sudden unexpected prospect of parenthood and the end to her freedom. At the baby shower held for Kif, she leaves him suddenly, finding herself unable to make the sacrifice of her lifestyle for parenthood, only to change her mind in the end and return to him in time for the ancient birthing rite on Kif's homeworld. He gives birth to a spoor of tadpoles, and Amy and Leela together fight off predatory creatures to aid in their short journey to the swamp where they will grow up as Kif did. The closing scene is of the newborn tadpoles swimming about. Some of them are clumsy, like Amy; several of them are cycloptic, like Leela.