"Whoa, I can't die! I'm beloved!"
Appearance[]
Gene appeared as a red container of french fries with a pair of circular blue glasses and a snazzy grin. He also had simple mechanical arms. Possibly the finest character drawn.
Biography[]
Gene was a confident and quirky french fries, able to charm the socks off anyone he meets. He was naturally funny, "a born leader," "beautiful," "extremely charismatic," and unbelievably compelling.
He has also been described as "the greatest character ever written," adored by casual viewers and distinguished critics alike.
Early Life[]
Gene hailed from the same assumed alternate timeline as Future Brandon. In his timeline, witches run the government. At some point, J.D. Salinger wrote the book, The Catcher in the Fry: A Book About my Number One Dude AKA Gene, in honor of Gene. He also won two awards, one being the "Frenchiest Fry Award," and was featured in Fashion Style Magazine. Gene's band, the Risky Fixin's, has won 487 Grammy Awards, and caused the Beatles to quit and open a pizza parlor in Cleveland (confirmed by a note seen in "Believe Me Maizey" reading "This is better than any album we could ever write. Quitting the biz. U rule. Love, the Beatles").
After the Gebra in the present was revealed to be a hologram, whether any Gebra existed in Gene's native time, or if she was purely an invention of the false memories implanted by Pam, is uncertain. If she did exist in Gene's own time, it is assumed they were raised side by side. Much else of his childhood is unknown, though he does indicate he hails from Idaho.
Young Adulthood[]
Gene formed the band Sweet Gene and the Risky Fixin's in the early 1990s with Melba Dill and Steven Rootbeer while they were in nursing school. The band continued for years, winning awards and admiration, until Melba Dill left the band due to poor spending habits by Gene and Steven Rootbeer. The band subsequently broke up.
Gene was the assistant to Doctor Lisa Bratwurst until Bratwurst's project was de-funded by the witch government. However, he stayed with the scientist until he met Future Brandon and time-traveled into the past with him.
Later, he traveled with Future Brandon, Dan, Rebecca, Steven Rootbeer, and Melba Dill on Conductor Craig's train to Gene's sister, Gebra's, wedding. Along the way, he persuaded Melba Dill and Steven Rootbeer to reform the band one last time to play at the wedding. When Rebecca asked how Gene's band existed currently, Future Brandon asked if the band members were real, or if they were "ideas incepted into your brain by a witch luring us into a trap". Gene seemed confused, and attributed their questions to the two teasing him. The group later played a game, Fun Facts About Gene, and most notably learned that Rebecca had dreamed of Gene every night of her life, even before she knew him. Gene did not know this and was alarmed upon hearing of it.
At the wedding, Gene introduced the rest of the Wedding Guests to the Risky Fixin's. Pam, then crashing the wedding, then revealed that most of the Wedding Guests, including Steven Rootbeer and Melba Dill, were her own witch holograms. Gene was distraught to learn that the Risky Fixin's were not "real". Pam also revealed that the wedding venue was not real, and it was actually a rickety bridge suspended over a volcano. However, Maizey, interrupting Pam's speech, convinced the Sausage Priest to marry her and Gebra, even though they were both aware they were holograms. Maizey also got the Risky Fixin's to play a song, "Relish Life". Gene managed to escape the Hawaiian volcano along with Maizey and Mike Soup. The other Wedding Guests perished in the lava.
When Gene awoke on the island, he was uncharacteristically depressed and lethargic until Mike Soup appeared and informed he and Maizey that they "could go back in time to stop it all". With Maizey, he boarded the Starship Minestrone and headed into space for the Graxilon quadrant, to obtain the Bernoulli converter and go through a wormhole in order to travel through time.
When Gene expressed admiration for the quality of the Starship Minestrone and asked how Mike Soup, it was revealed that Mike Soup ran guns in the Space Wars, and that he was in the Sauce. He reprimanded Gene for asking such a rude question, and Gene then asked if Mike Soup was "the" Mike Soup, referring to the Soup Baron. Although Mike Soup assured that he wasn't, it was later revealed that Mike Soup, in fact, was the Soup Baron.
Later, the Starship Minestrone was shot down over by Chili Pirates after Mike Soup refused to negotiate with them, and Gene and Mike Soup crash-landed on Tomat-0 some distance away from Maizey. The Starship Minestrone was badly beaten up and could not fly, so Mike Soup and Gene decided to look for Maizey themselves. They were then attacked by a Beast-Plupple, from which Garce saved them and introduced himself as an interested third party. Gene and Mike Soup accepted the offer of companionship, but not without Mike Soup giving a warning to the Plupple.
Mike Soup and Gene later lay down to rest, trusting Garce as a lookout, and did not hear Garce and Pam's conversation, and were unaware that Pam was trapped inside of Garce's body. The three eventually arrived at Joblet’s stalactite penthouse, where they had drinks and traded stories of the Space Wars. However, it was revealed that Garce and Joblet had drugged them, and Garce proceeded to put their unconscious bodies on the Persica with the Bernoulli Converter, headed for the Dark Master.
The two later awoke on the Persica with Garce. Realizing they had been drugged, Mike Soup expressed that he felt weak, to which Garce admitted that he was sorry, but that there was "not much that [he could] do about it". Garce also admitted that both he and his father, Joblet, were under the control of the Dark Master. Gene attempted to persuade Garce to not be "complicit in the destruction of the universe", but Garce denied that there was anything he could do about it, and proceeded to inform them that the Dark Master had requested the two be brought to their destination (the O-Nion Station Space Buffet). Gene and Soup did not know that the Bernoulli Converter was also aboard the ship. After the Persica landed, Garce led them to their rooms, but was stopped by Weldon Burgereaux, who had received a "mysterious, anonymous, borderline ominous" call requesting that the J.V.I.P. guests be treated with the highest honor. When Burgereaux asked if Gene and Soup had anything to say, Garce pretended that the two were just "here to enjoy their vacation," leaving the two having no choice but to go along with him. Burgereaux then led the gang to his "orientation field," which consisted of machines emitting a soft pink light in order to temporarily put the three under some kind of spell. The spell prohibited Mike Soup and Gene from saying anything negative, and, once finished, boosted the gang's overall self esteem, confidence, and energy, while also taking away their ability to feel anything negative. The group then rushed away to try the Lazy River.
Doctor Goondis, Maizey, Smeech, and Joblet found Gene, Mike, and Garce one by one on the Zero-Gravity Lazy River. Doctor Goondis, finding the crew first, made polite conversation with them until Mike Soup eventually recognized him by asking him if he had assassinated the Pope. The two, joyful at their reunion, welcomed Joblet and Smeech into the group, even though Joblet’s crimes had angered Goondis and Soup before the orientation. Maizey found the crew last, and although she had originally planned to tell them something, she admitted she could not remember, due to the orientation process numbing the negative parts of her memory, saying that "You know, after that orientation [they] just went through, [ Maizey ] just... phew! [She] just [wanted to] chill 'til [she was] dead!"
Weldon Burgereaux, checking on the J.V.I.P.s (Garce, Gene, and Mike Soup), and their guests (Maizey, Smeech, Joblet, and Goondis), then alerted them that the Pasta Parade was due to be soon, and that he had reserved the highest float in honor of them all. After leaving, Joblet brought up that he'd never "totally got the download on why the Dark Master wanted [them] here". However, everyone immediately dismissed it and agreed on not worrying about it.
During the Pasta Parade, Gene was on the J.V.I.P Feel-Good Float along with Garce, Smeech, Doctor Goondis, Joblet, Mike Soup, and Maizey. Before the appearance of the Dark Master, Mike Soup mentioned that he smelled chili, foreshadowing the reveal that the Dark Master was actually Space-Pope Chili IX. While on the float, on request of Weldon Burgereaux, Doctor Goondis shot the Serenity Lights at the crowd, calming them. The Dark Master then interrupted the Parade by taking a bite out of the O-Nion Space Station, killing many of the guests, including Weldon Burgereaux. Before dying, Burgereaux warned the group to run. While the group panicked, Goondis shot the group with the Light, influencing their minds relax and think rationally. However, after being shot with the Light, Garce claimed he felt sick. Joblet suggested Goondis shoot him once more, to heal him, but Goondis refused, saying Garce "[looked] ripe". Garce, then realizing he was possessed by Pam, stated he believed he was going to die, and proceeded to "pop like a balloon." Pam, now free of her prison, proceeded to appear and then scold the group for "frying [their] brains on that pink junk," meaning the group's current addiction to the Serenity Light. Furious and horrified at the death of his son, Joblet swore revenge on Pam. Pam, however, killed Joblet as well. She then explained to the rest of the group that she had appeared to help, and that they needed to "get [their] heads in the game." Maizey agreed, and with that, the group vowed to defeat the Dark Master once and for all.
The group, having very little time, scrambled to make a plan, first wanting to strangle the Dark Master with the pasta they had from their float, but ultimately settled on using the Serenity Light to shrink the bad energy. Before they could fully charge up the Serenity Light in order to use it at its full potential, the Dark Master appeared and killed Smeech. Pam volunteered herself to deal with the Dark Master to buy the group more time, and attempted to kill the Dark Master with a witch blast. The Dark Master held the witch blast in midair, then deflected it at Gene, who was seriously injured. Immediately after, the Serenity Light reached one hundred on its charging power, and Doctor Goondis shot it at the Dark Master, who was shrunk down to his normal size and temporarily incapacitated. After the gang checked in with Gene, the Dark Master called out for Mike Soup, who recognized his voice and identified him as Space-Pope Chili IX. Doctor Goondis urged the rest of the group to grab the Bernoulli Converter off of the Persica and run while they still had a chance, finishing his request with the assurance that he and Mike would stay behind to fight the Pope.
Gene, Maizey, and Pam boarded the Minestrone with the Converter and prepared to make the jump to hyperspace, coming to the conclusion that they had to leave Doctor Goondis and Mike Soup behind, despite Maizey expressing a desire to wait for them. As the ship prepared to jump, Gene indicated he was getting worse, saying he was "getting a little soggy over [there]". Maizey, scared, asked Pam to try and heal him with her witch magic. Pam complied, but ended up injuring Gene even more through her witch blasts. Gene tried to reassure Maizey, but concluded his own death was imminent. Before he passed away, he sung "Believe Me Maizey," in a final epic ballad encouraging her and Pam to continue on without him, where the O-Nion Station exploded in the background. Gene died seeing Smeech, and soon after, the ship jumped into hyperdrive and initiated the jump to the Graxilon Quadrant.
Notes[]
- Until midway through the song Believe Me, Maizey, Gene doesn't swear throughout any of the episodes that he's in.
- Gene is one of the few characters to have lasted all five seasons of the show, other than Pam.
- During an AMA on r/Paranormal, Shane Madej confirmed that Gene bled blood.[1]
- In season two, while having a conversation with Steven Rootbeer, it is revealed that Gene is able to do a magic trick where he sits on his own lap.