Professor Farnsworth 1

Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth is Fry's ancient, cackling great-great-nephew's employer — the founder of Planet Express and its resident mad scientist. He's oblivious, absent-minded, and prone to inventing horrifying devices with childlike glee, all while running a rickety delivery company staffed by whoever happened to wander in.

West gives him a reedy, wheezing delivery that turns every senile non-sequitur into a punchline, and the writing never lets his genius and his cruelty resolve into simple kindliness — he's brilliant, careless with lives, and utterly unbothered. That mix of doddering charm and casual menace is what makes 'Good news, everyone!' so funny and so unsettling.