Singing Bee

A minor buzzing presence in Futurama's sprawling background cast, the Singing Bee turns up for a musical aside rather than a plot of its own — the kind of one-scene oddity the show tosses off between bigger jokes, existing mainly to sing, startle, or amuse before vanishing again.

It works because Futurama trusts a single strange image and a good voice to be funny on their own. Tress MacNeille, who voices dozens of the show's throwaway characters, gives even this tiny role real comic commitment, proof that the series' background gags are as carefully performed as its leads.