Professor Morris Katz

Introduced as an academic figure in the futuristic sprawl of New New York, Professor Morris Katz carries the clipped authority of someone used to lecturing rather than listening. He turns up amid the show's parade of oddball experts, offering pronouncements with the deadpan confidence typical of Futurama's endless supply of specialists and officials.

Maurice LaMarche, already juggling half the show's booming baritones, gives Katz the same theatrical seriousness he brings to bigger names, which is the joke: a minor academic delivered with the gravity of a Shakespearean villain. It's a small role, but LaMarche's vocal commitment makes even a passing bit of exposition sound delightfully self-important.