Father Changstein El-Gamal

A robot clergyman who turns up in Futurama's New New York whenever the plot needs someone to officiate a wedding, funeral, or crisis of conscience, Father Changstein El-Gamal is unfailingly solemn and sincere. His name alone announces the joke: an ecumenical mash-up of faiths crammed into one earnest metal minister.

He works because Futurama treats religion the way it treats everything else in the thirty-first century — with a straight face and a ridiculous premise. David Herman plays him with flat, dignified gravity, never winking at the joke, which is exactly what makes the joke land. A small role, but a perfectly calibrated one.