10 TV Characters Who Broke Their Own Rules
6. Professor Farnsworth Altered The Past - Futurama
While most of the entries on this list feature rules a character has put in place over their lives in general, this one was focused around one particular scenario in one particular episode. Namely, when Roswell That Ends Well saw the Planet Express crew go back in time to New Mexico, 1947.
As the undisputed authority on all things scientific and weird, Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) immediately established a key rule. Don't do anything that alters the past. With Fry's grandfather, Enos, stationed at Roswell, the Professor used the analogy that if he were to kill his own grandfather, then he would cease to exist.
Well, Fry did a whole lot worse than that. Not only did he get Enos killed, he offered comfort to his future grandmother Mildred by sleeping with her, after his survival convinced him that she couldn't really be his grandma. Turns out she was, and that Fry just made himself his own Grandpa.
After that sh**show, the Professor decided that there was no point in anyone else keeping to the altering the past rule, and so he happily stole a microwave dish from the army base to get them back to the future. You can break rules as long as someone else breaks them harder, apparently.