Professor Ogden Wernstrum

Ogden Wernstrum is Professor Farnsworth's academic archrival, a preening, self-satisfied scientist who delights in outshining his old colleague at every turn. He shows up smug and condescending, quick with a backhanded compliment, always angling to remind everyone whose achievements matter more in the world of science.

He works because Futurama needs exactly one target for Farnsworth's petty, decades-old grudges, and Wernstrum's oily self-regard gives those grudges somewhere to land. David Herman plays the sneer with such nasal precision that a single line reading turns institutional rivalry into something gloriously, believably childish.