Pavarotti's Head

In the year 3000, celebrated tenor Luciano Pavarotti survives as a disembodied head in a jar, one of thousands of preserved heads that pop up around New New York for cameos, punchlines, and the occasional aria. He is booked for gigs like any other performer, dignity intact despite his jar.

The joke is simple and the show never overexplains it: of course opera's biggest voice would still be working five hundred years later, just smaller. Maurice LaMarche's booming impression makes the sight gag land as a real performance, and the head format lets Futurama slip in a laugh without breaking stride.