Tour Guide

A minor, recurring fixture of New New York, the Tour Guide shepherds newcomers through the city's landmarks with brisk, chirpy patter, rattling off facts and history like a recording set to overenthusiastic. She's unfailingly cheerful and a little robotic in her delivery, treating even the strangest sights as routine tourist-brochure material.

Tress MacNeille's delivery is the whole joke: a bright, sing-song monotone that makes absurd future-history sound like something you'd read off a plaque. The character works because she never breaks character to acknowledge the weirdness around her, which lets the show slip in some of its driest one-line world-building gags.