Fez (That '70s Show)

Fez
That '70s Show character
First appearance	That '70s Pilot
Last appearance	That '70s Finale
Created by	Mark Brazill
Portrayed by	Wilmer Valderrama
In-universe information
Nickname	The Foreign Kid, The Foreigner, Boy With The Accent, Cocoa Puff, Ali Baba, Hadji, Pele, Tarzan, Sabu, Anwar, Tonto, Tutankhamun, Desi, Chocolate Milk and Captain Poo-face
Gender	Male
Occupation	Student, shampoo boy, DMV worker
Family	Unnamed father Unnamed mother Unnamed sister
Spouse	Laurie Forman (ex-wife), Possibly Jackie Burkhart

Fez, portrayed by Wilmer Valderrama, is one of the seven main fictional characters from the television series That '70s Show. He was the foreign exchange student in the gang of seven local teenagers.

Origins

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 true name but consider it unpronounceable. Red usually calls him "the foreign kid," or refers to him with a random foreign name, e.g. Hadji, Anwar, Sabu, Ali Baba, Pelé, Ahmad, Stalin, Tutankhamun etc. but can only call him Fez when he is drunk. In the episode "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", Eric's grandmother calls him "Desi." Kitty also called him "Young Man With An Accent". Red once called him Tarzan, which Fez objected to because "Tarzan is a white guy!"

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. Hyde says "Ok, I'm not gonna remember that" in which Kelso replies "I know! We'll call him Captain Poo-face." 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. He once talked about how he would study in America so he could become a dictator in his homeland "The beautiful island of ..." he couldn't finish because he was broken off.

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. Many theories about Fez's homeland have been produced by fans of the show, but since there is no answer that the creators can provide, it will not be known if these are true.

He often views Playboy and eats lots of candy. Where in one episode he bought a heart filled with chocolate inside of it for his Valentine's date but eats it all throughout the day before his date arrives. His date was Big Rhonda who he met up with in a previous attempt to get Hyde a girl. In that episode Fez states "I like them big, I like them small, I like them all." In one episode when he thought he was getting deported back to his home land he states that he is going to spend his last American money on candy and porno (he says it with an accent). Fez is the perverted one in the group and joins the guys in the circle/360 in the very first episode.

Fez's homeland

His secret country of origin is one of the longest running gags on the show. In one episode, he revealed it was an island but was interrupted before he could say the name of the island. In another episode, he spoke a line (the "I said good day" catch phrase) in his native language. He once said he had "Latin pride," which led Red to believe he was Latino. Fez retorted "No, only my pride is, and I have a Swiss sense of frugality." He once said that he could speak Dutch in a job interview. This of course contrasts with his accent, which makes one think in his country people speak a romanic language, because dutch is a germanic language (just like English). "Mukatot" is his language's word for foot, as revealed in "The Pill".

Fez has also been shown to speak Spanish in an episode when he sang a Spanish love song, Besame Mucho, to Jackie; he also said it was the lyrics to his school song. Fez once claimed his country has never fought a war. In another episode, however, he alludes to the fact that his country "won the war" against Britain. He once said that his forefathers were not Mayan. He once stated that his country has "more lizards than people." In episode 110, Hot Dog, Fez remarked that his people "eat bugs." He has also referred to having a sister who lives in the jungle 10,000 miles from Wisconsin in "Surprise, Surprise". In one episode, when the gang was playing in his room (which looked like a room for a little kid) Jackie and Hyde were playing with a couple of large stuffed pandas, to which Fez responded that the black and white one was a present from his cousin who lives in Hong Kong. During a ski trip with friends, he marvels at the sight of snow, claiming he had never seen any before then. In another instance, a friend from his home country visits, and has a heavy English accent. Fez's explanation to this is that his friend is from the west side of the island. Another episode had Fez pointing out his island on a wall map. However, the audience's view was blocked by someone's head. After Eric offers him a chance to attend a Styx concert with him, Fez states that "Where I come from we have a saying, 'Ugh, Styx.'"

Fez stated in one episode that he is from the opposite side of the world. In the season 8 episode Leaving Home Ain't Easy, he said that his harsh words towards Jackie were the result of his "Jamaican fire," only to clarify to Hyde that "Jamaican Fire" was the cologne he was wearing. In episode 199, "Love of My Life," Fez states he is going back to Brazil, but then adds that he is only going there to take a plane to his country. At the end of that episode, Fez says that his country's origin "depended on whether you ask the British or the Dutch." The British hated them and would not answer such a question, and nobody could understand the Dutch's answer. Also in season 4 episode 7 he designs a new uniform as a Photohut employee however he wrote Photo in Dutch (Foto), or it could also be in Spanish, which is spelled exactly the same way. It is noteable that him being dutch is unlikely, because there is a big international airport near Amsterdam (Schiphol).

Fez's relationship with Jackie

In the first half of the series, Fez painfully longed for Jackie, worshipping 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 her friend 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 inebriated to celebrate her win and hit on Fez. After battling with his light and dark side (shown as two shrunken Fezes 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.

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 her, 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 he wanted to be with her, 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, and masturbation others have been:

"Big Rhonda," a heavyset 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 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. Caroline later returned 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.

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. By season eight it became clear that Fez' 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. 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 peoples 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, and 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 [in context] 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 discovered Donna's naked photos and found that Jackie was living with him).

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.

Personality

Fez is both kind and naive. He is often picked on by the local bullies, which he is bitter about. Fez is also a bit perverted; He frequently sleeps and spends time in Donna's closet (to her knowledge) and also references spying on Jackie and Donna (sometimes from a tree) . Eric once called him "a sick bastard." Fez is also quite goofy and charming, as Donna once said. Throughout a range of episodes, Fez, along with other characters, have labeled Fez as "suave and silky". Fez has a very strong love for candy, usually spending most of his American money on it. When being forced to pay Hyde $80, he had instead spent the money on candy. In the beginning of Season 7, after Eric and Donna decided not to talk about their relationship, Fez is excited to talk about cocoa butter, claiming that it "doesn't taste like cocoa or butter". In one episode, Kelso takes Fez to the Piggly Wiggly to pick up girls, but Fez is more excited about going there to buy candy. In the season 5 finale, as Fez gets ready to leave America, he is excited to spend his last ever American money on candy and pornography.

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.