List of Recurring The Mighty Boosh Characters - Central Cast - Bob Fossil

Bob Fossil is portrayed by Rich Fulcher. In the radio series Fossil is the ill-tempered owner of Bob Fossil's Funworld, an inept zoo. In the TV series, he is the manager of the Zooniverse and zoo owner Dixon Bainbridge's right-hand man. He is loud and brash and is normally portrayed as Howard and Vince's enemy, often trying to set them up for disaster, although on occasion he has expressed attraction to both of them. On radio, Fossil liked Vince and hated Howard, on television he generally dislikes both of them (although he is sometimes friendly to Vince), and his radio persona is somewhat replaced by employer Bainbridge. Fossil has a desperate crush on Bainbridge, and declares that he is very interested in getting involved in Bainbridge's "shady operations". Bainbridge often pushes Fossil roughly aside, knees him in the groin or punches him in the face but Fossil claims this is something they do all the time and it's a way of showing affection. On at least one occasion, Fossil and Bainbridge apparently rode in a pick-up truck and beat up midgets, though this may be more rambling from Fossil.

In the TV series Fossil is portrayed as incompetent; for example he does not know how to dial with a phone and calls a portable tape recorder his "talk box". He is often very childlike and emotional, and when confronted with something disturbing (such as a mysteriously floating cup, or a cage full of mutants) he will shriek horribly. Though Fossil is chief zoo keeper, he knows nothing about animals. He is unable to identify the animals he supposedly cares for at the zoo, even the relatively easy ones, such as the elephant (which he calls "the grey leg-face man"), The panda ("The black eyed Chinese people who eat sticks") or Ivan the bear ("the hairy Russian carpet guy"). According to the radio series, Fossil also had a traumatic childhood which involved his mother hiding in a bunker at breakfast while throwing eggs at him, whilst calling him "wimp-wabb". In the series, Fossil has his own theme song for the zoo: "Nicey nicey zoo zoo, for him and her and me and you!" In the radio series, Bob has a brother called Wilbur who reunites him and his mother, who had believed that Bob died in Vietnam.

Though Fossil and the zoo were, without explanation, absent from the second television series, he makes a brief reappearance at the end of The Nightmare of Milky Joe as the presenter of "The Pie Face Showcase" TV music programme. In this appearance he makes a joke about his wife; it is unclear if he actually has a wife or not, although she is also mentioned in the radio series ('I got a tiny wife to support'). He returns in the third episode of series 3, "The Power of the Crimp", as the owner of the Velvet Onion club, where Vince and Howard regularly gig. It is revealed that his mother thinks he is in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp and that he has sent a bundle of sticks to his brother, Donny. Fossil was last seen on the TV show, in the episodes "Party" and "The Chokes".

In the live show it is revealed that he starred in the title role of a detective show called "Big Leg". The character of Big Leg later appears to defeat The Hitcher.

Fossil speaks with an American accent. He does not like cricket, and communicates this through the medium of dance, particularly to 10CC's "Dreadlock Holiday". It is possible this dislike stems from a bad experience, as he tells Naboo "...that's why you should never bring a cricket bat to Greece". Fossil also created the "Pocket Cup" in the episode 'Killeroo'. He was later seen selling them at the fight for 5 euros.