A Particularly Creepy Futurama Robot Sent Online Fans Into A Frenzy

In the "Futurama" episode "The Luck of the Fryrish" (March 11, 2001), Fry (Billy West) is incensed when a trip to the racetrack leaves him with only his last dollar. Waving the dollar above his head, he boasts to the fates that it will remain his. A rogue breeze, however, whips the dollar out of his hand and deposits it on top of some nearby power lines. Fry, determined to retrieve his last dollar ... not terribly bright ... climbs up to the power lines with a metal rake, hoping to scoop up his money. Predictably, touching the rake to the power lines electrocutes Fry. Then, to add insult to injury, the rake attracts a lightning bolt, electrocuting Fry a second time. He falls into a garbage can, his hair burned off. 

Later, back at Planet Express, Fry seethes, his bald head still smoldering. Luckily, a Hair Robot — a character never before seen on "Futurama" — approaches him and offers him replacement hair. The Hair Robot is an outsized clown-like head affixed on top of tank treads. It wears various wigs, able to grow replacement hair for a wide variety of customers. It plops a new wig on Fry's head and hastily exits. 

The Hair Robot may be one of the most terrifying creations in "Futurama." It already had a murderous Pennywise vibe, but considering that it can also grow its own human hair somehow makes it more horrible to contemplate. Hair Robot returned briefly in a robot insane asylum in the episode "Insane in the Mainframe," and was in robot group shots in "The Mutants Are Revolting" and "The Silence of the Clamps." 

The makers of "Futurama" addressed the horrified fan reaction to Hair Robot on the DVD commentary for "Fryrish." Viewers were all weirded out. The showrunners were proud.

The Hair Robot was the creation of "Fryrish" writer Ron Weiner, and he is proud of his creepy robot mutant. "Futurama" co-creator David X. Cohen, on the DVD commentary track, referred to Hair Robot as "one Ron Weiner's greatest creations." Cohen prided himself on keeping abreast of fan comments online, wanting to get a general bead on what "Futurama" viewers were responding to. Showrunners sometimes visit online forums just to see what is being predicted for the futures of their respective programs, and sometimes have to change scripts if fan theories prove to be too accurate. 

As such, Cohen knew exactly how fans responded to Hair Robot. He said:

"That guy's name is Hair Robot. I want to read, if I may, one comment from the internet. There were a lot of posts on the internet after this episode, and most of them very positive about the episode. Here's one particular one. 'I wanna know what the hell that creepy hair robot thing was.'"

Weiner joked that his creepy robot was enough to have "brought down Europe." Show animator, writer, and producer Rich Moore merely commented that it was "Just the creepiest damn robot."

Fans on Reddit, meanwhile, eventually regained their cool and began to form theories about Hair Robot. Notice that it seems to be equipped largely with the hair of "Futurama" characters Fry, Leela, and Hermes. This has led some to posit that Hair Robot is actually the property of Planet Express and not an independent hair-producing contractor; why else have such specific hair at the ready? Later on, when Hair Robot was in an insane asylum, some fans began to wonder what made him snap and require psychiatric care.

Hair Robot lives on, and is behind you right now.