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{{Infobox character
NACHOS
| family = Unnamed father (father)
Unnamed mother (mother)
Unnamed sister (sister)
| spouse = Laurie Forman (ex-wife)
| significantother = Caroline (ex-girlfriend)
Nina (ex-girlfriend)
Jackie Burkhart (girlfriend)
| nationality = Unknown
(living in the United States)
}}
Fez (born August 4, 1960) is a fictional character and one of the four male leads on the Fox Network's That '70s Show, portrayed by Wilmer Valderrama. He was the foreign exchange student in a group of six local teenagers.
Origins
Fez was born August 4, 90000000 as said by himself when the gang was deciding what to get Donna for her birthday (Season 8). The name "Fez" is short for "foreign exchange student," despite the difference in spelling, which the series' official web site describes as "poetic license". His friends know Fez's real name but consider it unpronounceable. Red usually calls him "the foreign kid," or by a random foreign-sounding name (e.g. Hadji, Anwar, Sabu, Ali Baba, Pelé, Ahmad, Stalin, Tutankhamun, etc.). Eric's grandmother calls him Desi (which refers to Desi Arnaz, who played Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy).
A flashback episode shows when Fez first meets the others. They rescue him from a janitor's closet where several bullies had hung him on a coat hook. The bullies had asked him if he wanted to hang out; he tells the gang he "shouldn't have said yes." Moments later he states his real name, which is drowned out by a long, ringing school bell. (What Valderrama was actually saying was the first names of the main actors who appear in the show.) The only known fact about his name is, as he states in the episode "Killer Queen", the first five K's of his last name are silent. Another flashback also shows Fez wearing an actual Fez.
Fez's homeland
His secret country of origin is one of the longest running gags on the show. The reason that Fez's name and country of origin are never mentioned throughout the course of the series is that the creators could never decide on his origins, and eventually decided to leave it a secret. In an interview, Wilmer said he created an accent so no one would know what country he is from. In the episode "Eric's Birthday," Kitty, fantasizing about Eric's friends causing trouble, imagines Fez saying, "in my home country of... wherever it is I'm from; I can never tell..."
In multiple episodes, Fez tells the rest of the group his home country is an island. He says he wants to study in America so he can return and "rule with an iron fist" in his native land, "the beautiful island of..." but he's cut off before he can finish the sentence. A lot about Fez's homeland is revealed in the episode "Love of My Life," where one of Fez's compatriots (played by Justin Long) comes for a visit. In the final teaser, when Hyde finally asks them, "Where the hell are you guys from?", his friend says that the name depends on whether you ask the British or the Dutch. However, the British won't say it because they hate the island, and "no one understands what the Dutch say", as Fez explains. The friend has a heavy English accent. Fez's explanation to this is that his friend is from the west side of the island.
Many theories about Fez's homeland have been produced by fans of the show -- with the locales of the imaginary country ranging from the Caribbean to the Falklands to the Australian Aborigine community -- but since there is no answer that the creators can provide, it will not be known if these are true.
Fez is often assumed to be of Hispanic or Latino descent, but the show never makes it clear if he even speaks Spanish -- though in a job interview he claims he can speak Dutch. In "The Immigrant Song," Fez retells his catch phrase ("I said good day!") in his native tongue, which sounds like gibberish.
Fez's relationship with Jackie
In the first half of the series, Fez painfully longed for Jackie, worshiping her like a queen. Jackie either failed to realize her love for him or didn't act upon it because he was foreign, and therefore way below her standards. They did share a kiss in one episode when he mistakenly thought Jackie was opening up to him. Jackie began to return the kiss, for she was most likely expecting one from Kelso, her boyfriend, before pulling away and noticing it was Fez, Kelso promptly responded by punching him in the face. They shared another kiss when pretending to be dating to help Jackie keep her job. Jackie revealed to Donna that she thought he was a good kisser. Jackie has shown a small interest in Fez including the time when he wowed her with his dancing moves at a disco and when he helped her win at a roller disco contest. Jackie became too inebriated to celebrate her win and hit on Fez. After battling with his light and dark side (shown as two shrunken versions of him on each of his shoulders dressed as Batman and The Riddler,) he decided to be a gentleman and not take advantage of her. The two did go on a "garden date" when Jackie broke up with Kelso, but Fez was let down when he realized that Jackie had not yet gotten over Kelso. He was also disgusted that she was gorging herself with food and constantly asking about Kelso. At the end of the episode when she got back with Kelso she agreed with Fez about becoming friends and that they should kiss on it. Jackie was about to kiss Fez on the cheek but he moved away and kissed her on the lips again, making Kelso chase after him.
Fez's last real attempt to win Jackie over was in the episode "Ice Shack". Fez carefully planned for Kelso to look bad in front of Jackie so that she would realize that he was the man for her. However, his plan backfired and Jackie easily chose Kelso over him. This caused his obsession over her to wane over the next few years. In season eight, Jackie moved in with him after Kelso left for Chicago, adding a new dynamic to their relationship. After the two moved in together, Jackie began to develop feelings for Fez, and eventually told him about how she felt with a kiss. However, Fez refused her advances, saying that she had already dated Kelso and Hyde and did not want to be her "sloppy thirds."
After being turned down by Fez, Jackie decided to get revenge. She flushed his toothbrush, microwaved his lotion, and ruined his car with graffiti and in an attempt to get back at Jackie, Fez dyed her hair green. He later said that she was now ugly on the outside like she was on the inside. Hurt by Fez's words, Jackie decided to move out. Realizing she wanted to be with him, Fez went to apologize but she was too hurt to accept his apology. They eventually reconciled, and in the final episode, Fez and Jackie finally did get together and kissed atop the water tower.
Fez's interests and other relationships
Besides his love for candy, pornography, beer and masturbation others have been:
Fez seems to have the best friendships with Hyde, Kelso, and Eric. He and Hyde both joke around like stealing Kelso's cop car, he and Kelso have similar traits such as flirting with women, and Eric beats up Fez for fun. Fez's childish personality is a lot like Kelso's stupidity causing Hyde and Eric to act as older brothers for Fez.
"Big Rhonda," a fat girl with whom Fez was constantly attempting to lose his virginity. One of his catch phrases was "I'm going to do iittt" or alternatively "We're going to do iittt." Fez consulted Kelso's brother, Casey to help Fez get past second base with Rhonda, and Casey told him to "skip second and go right to third." Seeming like a brilliant plan to Fez, he proceeded with it and wound up getting dumped by an angry Rhonda.
Fez once mentioned an intense love for the book Superfudge, which he claimed to read once a month (even though the book was first published in 1980).
Another short relationship he had was with a girl from school named Caroline (Allison Munn), whom Donna had set up with Fez. They shared a few love-filled months together until Fez realized that Caroline was obsessed with him and also mentally unstable. Others realized she was nuts before he did, and he didn't listen at first. She revealed to Hyde that in order to simulate the pain of him leaving her, she would choke herself into unconsciousness. She snapped on Donna and Jackie after Jackie revealed the she kissed Fez once, but it was nothing and his crush on her sparked it. Caroline told the two if they ever touched Fez, she would kill them. While Fez and Caroline were kissing, Donna and Jackie each placed a hand on Fez's leg (in an obviously friendly fashion), causing her to snap and scream at them. Fez then broke up with her, lying that he and Donna were in love so as not to make Caroline think he ended the relationship because she was crazy. Fez convinced Donna (after Eric's nonchalant approval) to act like they were dating while Caroline stalked them. At a theater, however, Donna got tired of the charade and told Caroline the truth: That Fez doesn't like her. She accepted this fact (surprisingly, considering said obsessiveness) and left. Caroline later returned during the eighth season intent on winning Fez back. She snapped on Fez again after finding out that Jackie was his roommate and that he inadvertently had naked pictures of Donna.
At one point, Fez had a sex dream where Kelso gave him a sponge bath, which lead into him almost being embarrassed by his schoolmate, and in another one, he felt an attraction to Kelso without his shirt leading Kelso to think he himself is gay.
Fez often spoke fondly of Donna, though there is no evidence of feelings for her deeper than sexual attraction. He repeatedly hid in her closet and on another occasion took photos of her in her schoolgirl outfit (even succeeding in taking a picture of her up-skirt). By season eight it became clear that Fez's attraction for Donna was purely admiration of her beauty and nothing more.
Eventually, Fez got a job at the DMV where he seduced his co-worker Nina (Joanna Canton). The two had sex, finally ending Fez's agonizing life as a virgin (and ironically making him the last one in the group to do so). But, as Fez recounted, it was not a magical moment; there was no soft music "like in the movies so I had to hum" - Nina had asked Fez to stop humming but he started again without realizing it. There were then some sounds that "were certainly not applause." The night ended with him sneaking out of Nina's bathroom window, but he forgot his underwear on the floor. Nina did give Fez a second chance but it didn't work. He eventually proved too needy for her, and while he proved he was able to conquer this, he decided not to do it anyway and claimed "there is only one Fez, and that is a Fez with needs."
Near the end of the fifth season, Fez was arrested for vandalism of the town's water tower and came close to being deported back to his native country. But at the last moment, Laurie Forman slept with Fez and subsequently married him so he could stay in America. Red suffered a heart attack upon learning this. Their marriage was clearly not one of love, as Laurie went on their honeymoon to Cancún with someone else. After Laurie's disappearance, Fez stopped mentioning he was married and was referred to as being married only once, by Kelso.
In season seven, Fez said that he has a love for hair and took a job as a hair washer (or as he has stated, "shampoo boy") at the salon where Donna often goes. He had been proven to have a strange love of hair (the reason for taking his job) and has been touching many people's hair (two girls that slapped him across the face and one "long haired hippie" as he said). After Fez began working at the hair salon, he got considerably more female attention (including Donna). By season eight, he had been known for having one-night-stands every day of the week including one with a character named Danielle, played by Lindsay Lohan (notable because he stole her from Kelso).
Fez also had feelings for his co-worker, Hillary (Lara Everly), but this was at the same time that Jackie developed feelings for him. Although Fez playfully flirted with Hillary (telling her that he saved her a bite of his buns), she did not begin dating him until shortly before he began his brief but wild womanizing bout. She soon dumped him, but soon after he renewed his feelings for Caroline (until she attacked him and dumped him after she saw him kiss Jackie on the couch in the apartment).
Host parents
Fez began the show as living with fundamentalist "Bible-thumping" host parents, who forbade "devil's music" like Kiss. Hyde had Fez sneak rock albums into their house that were hidden in Pat Boone record jackets. Fez stated on one occasion that his host parents refused to give him an allowance because he was a pagan. He has also lived with host parents named the Erdmans. His host-mother was named Rebecca. The Erdmans only appeared in one episode throughout the show's run. In the seventh season, Fez's host parents realized that he had graduated from high school a year earlier and kicked him out of their house. Fez was forced to get an apartment with Kelso. When Kelso moved to Chicago to be near his baby daughter Betsy, Jackie moved in with Fez.
References
- "Wilmer Valderrama". That70sShow.com. Carsey-Werner LLC. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
- Barlow, Helen (2007-01-03). "Charmer out of the '70s". Herald Sun. Melbourne. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
- "Frequently Asked Questions". That70sShow.com. Carsey-Werner LLC. 2004. Archived from the original on 2008-02-12. Retrieved 2009-04-16.
{{cite web}}:|archive-date=/|archive-url=timestamp mismatch; 2008-02-06 suggested (help)
External links
- Mastro, Dana. and Morawitz, Elizabeth. Latino Representation on Primetime Television: A Content Analysis, Section Stereotypes of Latinos, pp. 7.
- Thanu Yakupitiyage Battling or Creating Stereotypes in ‘Aliens in America’?, October 19, 2007, Racewire.
- Ben Megargel Reality spin-off falls into familiar traps, The Michigan Daily, February 6, 2007.
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