Character

Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate

Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate in Futurama (1999), played by Phil LaMarr.

Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate slides into the edges of Futurama's sprawling New New York with a nickname that promises easy charm and a manner to match. He's the kind of minor fixture the show tosses off without fanfare — present for a scene, gone before you can pin him down, existing mostly in the margins of someone else's plot.

Phil LaMarr's gift is making even a passing bit part sound fully lived-in, and that's the pleasure here: a voice with just enough swagger and specificity that Bubblegum Tate feels like he has a whole life happening off-screen. It's a small, confident sketch, the kind of background touch that makes Futurama's world feel dense and inhabited rather than empty.

Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate is the leader of the Harlem Globetrotters. He once declared a war of Basketball on Earth for no practical reason. Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth challenged him with a team of Atomic Supermen. However, since they turned out to be mere tots, he had his crew extract chronitons from the Tempus Nebula to accelerate their growth.

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Appears in

Futurama1999