Movies - TV
How Futurama’s Maurice LaMarche Found Morbo’s Monstrous Voice
By DEVIN MEENAN
Voiced by Maurice LaMarche, Morbo, the green-skinned alien newscaster in "Futurama" is implied to be an advance scout for an invasion of Earth — and does a terrible job hiding it.
In almost all of his scenes, Morbo proclaims his hatred for "puny Earthlings," and his intent to conquer them in a voice way louder than the show's creators anticipated it to be.
As LaMarche told MTV, Billy West, who plays Fry and many more, initially voiced Morbo by mimicking John McLaughlin, host of the weekly public affairs show "The McLaughlin Group."
McLaughlin's moderating style was loud and hostile, but West's performance "wasn't fitting the mouth of the character," LaMarche said. Thus, the showrunners brought LaMarche in.
LaMarche recalled, "They pitch shifted [my voice] down and made it even deeper." However, when he returned to do more of Morbo, LaMarche found he could hit the right tone himself.
"I wasn't aware that I wasn't supposed to do that, but they were surprised that I could do something that wasn't supposed to be possible," LaMarche explained.
We can’t deny that Morbo’s initial, electronically altered voice sounded slower and less enthusiastic, but thanks to LaMarche's comic timing, that’s not the case anymore.