Mad Hatter Robot

A minor robot character built along the lines of Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter, dropped into the strange sprawl of New New York's endless supporting cast. Like most of Futurama's background robots, he exists to add one more absurd flourish to a scene, tea-party eccentricity translated into chrome and blinking lights.

David Herman, one of the show's reliable utility voices, gives even a glancing joke like this a distinct comic texture rather than a generic robot burble. Futurama's genius is in never wasting a sight gag: a Mad Hatter robot glimpsed for seconds still contributes to the show's sense that its universe is absurdly, inexhaustibly populated.