Robot Bartender

The Robot Bartender pours drinks and dispenses deadpan wisdom from behind the bar, a fixture of New New York's robot dive scene. Mechanical and unbothered, it listens to the regulars' troubles with the flat patience of someone who has heard every sob story before and doesn't much care.

Futurama built a whole world of background robots with their own tiny personalities, and the bartender is a sturdy example: a joke delivery mechanism disguised as furniture. Lauren Tom's flat, unimpressed line readings turn a one-note barfly fixture into something that lands its punchlines with barely any effort at all.