Dr. Vermius

Dr. Vermius turns up in a white coat and a clipboard's worth of confidence, the kind of background physician Futurama wheels out whenever someone needs an alarming diagnosis delivered with total professional calm. He talks fast, sounds certain, and treats whatever bizarre affliction has struck the crew as just another Tuesday.

The joke is entirely in the voice: Maurice LaMarche gives him the stentorian, over-enunciated gravity of a network news doctor, which makes even the silliest space ailment sound like a medical emergency. It's a small role, but LaMarche's commitment to the bit is exactly the kind of texture that makes Futurama's background characters so rewatchable.