Ruth Ginsberg's Head

Preserved as a head in a jar in the year 3000, Ruth Ginsberg's Head is one of the countless historical figures New New York keeps bottled for posterity. She turns up in crowd scenes and cameo bits, a Supreme Court justice reduced to background scenery, occasionally offered up for a punchline or a vote.

Futurama's running gag of jarred celebrities depends on the deadpan absurdity of treating towering historical figures as disposable furniture, and Ruth Ginsberg's Head is a sly, quick example of that machine at work. Tress MacNeille's voice work gives even a passing cameo a flicker of dignity before the joke undercuts it.