Race Announcer

A background fixture rather than a running character, the Race Announcer turns up whenever New New York needs some contest called with breathless, blow-by-blow enthusiasm. He exists entirely in the moment of the event itself: a booming, professional voice narrating chaos as though it were the biggest sporting spectacle in the universe.

Futurama's gift for one-scene voices is on full display here. Maurice LaMarche, already juggling several recurring roles on the show, gives the Announcer the pure, unearned gravitas of a real sportscaster, which is the whole joke — treating absurd stakes with total sincerity. It's a small part that lands because the commitment never wavers.