Professor Algebra

Professor Algebra appears as one of Futurama's parade of eccentric academics, a figure whose very name announces his function: pure exposition dressed up as a person. He speaks in the clipped, self-assured tone of someone convinced his subject explains everything, and the show treats him as background color rather than a character to invest in.

Billy West's gift is making even a one-note gag land with real comic timing, and a name-as-joke character like this lives or dies on delivery. West gives him just enough bluster and self-importance to be funny in passing — a small, precise flourish in a show built from dozens of them.