Dr. Daniel Zenus

Dr. Daniel Zenus turns up as one of Futurama's many background scientists and specialists, the kind of brisk, credentialed voice the show wheels out to deliver a diagnosis, a warning, or a burst of pseudo-technical jargon before vanishing back into the crowd of Planet Express's stranger acquaintances.

David Herman, already doing double duty as Scruffy and other odd voices on the show, brings the same dry, unbothered delivery to Zenus that makes Futurama's throwaway characters land jokes efficiently. The character works less as a personality than as a sharp, well-timed piece of comic furniture in a universe built from exactly those.