Futurama's John DiMaggio Had To Regularly Suffocate Himself In The Show's Early Days
At the start of Matt Groening's and David X. Cohen's 31st-century sci-fi sitcom "Futurama," the alcoholic robot Bender (John DiMaggio) sounded a little bit more like a drunken vagrant. He slurred his speech more and seemed less able to concentrate. As the show progressed, Bender became more self-assured, like the guy at the bar who — after his fourth shot of Jim Beam — is 100% confident he could thrash the bouncer. Bender became egotistical in addition to being a drunken criminal. On DVD commentary tracks, the makers of "Futurama" have said that Bender, in being a robot, allowed them more explicit depictions of violence and vice; a human character cannot drink a gallon of rotgut whiskey and smoke four cigars simultaneously, but a robot can. The Fox censors are weird.
Prior to "Futurama," DiMaggio only had a few credits to his name. His first gig was playing ancillary voices in Eric Vogel's 1994 MTV series "The Head," a surreal show about a man with a purple alien living inside his skull, causing it to grow an extra six feet. DiMaggio also has supporting roles in "Johnny Bravo," "Rugrats," and "Spawn" before landing the "Futurama" gig. Cohen's and Groening's series shot him to superstardom in the voice-acting world, and he has enjoyed a broad and prolific career ever since.
Back in 1999, however, DiMaggio was still seen as the "new kid," and he was clearly tickled pink to be working on a show made by the "Simpsons" guy and acting alongside heavy hitters like Billy West, Tress MacNeille, and Maurice LaMarche.
Back in June of 2017, DiMaggio, Cohen, and Groening took to Reddit to answer questions from fans, and they revealed that DiMaggio's greenness — and resultant constant snickering — led to a lot of near-suffocations by pillow.
DiMaggio almost ruined every take on Futurama
When Cohen was asked about the funniest moments he experienced while recording voice tracks for "Futurama," the show creator noted several outstanding incidents. He remembered the time Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner both came in to record at the same time and all the show's writers — unilaterally Trekkies the lot of them — all crammed into the cramped engineer's booth to watch. He also liked the moment in the episode "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences" (August 26, 2010) wherein he was allowed to play his own severed head in a jar. He and the severed head of Matt Groening announced a new series they were working on called "Futurella" set in the year 4000. The show was canceled before the lights went down.
But the first story Cohen remembered involved DiMaggio and his incessant chortling. He wrote:
"In the earliest days, John DiMaggio was the 'new guy' who could not stop laughing while the other actors were trying to record their lines. We had to get a large pillow for him to hold over his face and suffocate himself temporarily. True."
Of course, who could blame him for having a few cracks in his professionalism right at the start? As stated, "Futurama" is rather funny.
Since then, DiMaggio has become deeply embroiled in several massive media franchises including "Adventure Time," "Ben 10," animated DC Comics movies, animated Marvel Comics movies, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," "DuckTales," "Animaniacs," "Interview with the Vampire," and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." He clearly has learned to stifle his laughter.