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Sure, Futurama is set a thousand years in the future, but when it came to creating the voice of one of the show’s most beloved characters — the oh-so-dry Kif Kroker, the perpetually beleaguered first officer of Zapp Branigan — show co-creator Matt Groening has his sights set firmly on the past.

Speaking at the Futurama Reunion panel at MCM x EGX 2024, Maurice LaMarche talked about what it took to come up with his voice for the character, and his close collaboration (and trial and error) in doing so.

“Matt worked really intensely with me on developing the voice of Kif,” LaMarche explained. “He really wanted Kif to have, you know, a certain quality. So we stopped the recording, and Matt and I went off into a corner. He said, ‘I want him to sound […] like if Spock had to deal with William Shatner instead of Jim Kirk.”

(Sorry, William Shatner.)

He continued, “So the test line was, ‘Sorry, I think the rest of the crew doesn’t share your passion for velour.’ Well-known line, it’s one of the first things Kif says. So, I did it as Leonard Nimoy and I went, ‘Sir, it seems the rest of the crew doesn’t share your passion for velour,’ and he said, ‘Okay, good Nimoy, but it doesn’t sound like it would come from that mouth. I want him to sound tired.’ I was like, ‘Okay, I always thought Truman Capote sounded exhausted, so I did it [like that] and he says, ‘okay, alright, but I want him to sound pissier, like Jon Lovitz.”

This was manna from heaven for a man who’s spent years working with Lovitz on The Critic, as it turned out.

“So, Kif became an amalgam of Jon Lovitz and Truman Capote,” LaMarche concluded. “I don’t know if Matt ever heard Kif in his head the way I did it, but I think I molded myself to the directions that Matt [gave], and I he was very happy with it.”

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