That was it. Randy was just “some guy.” He wasn’t meant to be other than a background voice to provide scant exposition and/or comforting walla. John DiMaggio was the one to give the character a little “zing.” When asked what his favorite non-leading role on “Futurama” was, DiMaggio replied:
“[…] I love Randy. [Randy voice] Randy’s so wonderful! ‘Oh, my God, that’s gross!’ He’s that guy in the crowd. When that first came up, that’s all he was. They said, ‘We want you to do this part.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ They said, ‘He’s a man in the crowd.’ I said, ‘All right.’ There’s always that one guy who says, ‘This is baloney! I throw a red flag on this!’ There’s always that guy.”
The “that guy” DiMaggio refers to is not necessarily a universal type that everyone might be familiar with; I admit to being baffled. Clearly, DiMaggio was drawing from personal experience. He recalled someone he encountered in a crowd who sounded like Randy.
Randy was also not originally drawn to look the way he did. The character was redesigned to match DiMaggio’s performance. The actor recalled:
“When they drew him — I didn’t see the drawing before I did the voice — he was this old guy who looked like he ought to have your standard old-guy voice, but I was like, ‘No!’ When I did the voice, they were like, ‘Oh, this is wonderful!’ And they put him in a pink outfit, and they added all these hand motions, and it’s just blossomed into this great, ridiculous secondary character who always manages to show up and be just, like, ‘Hiiiiiiii!'”
A notable supporting player was born. DiMaggio co-invented the character. I wonder if he gets a cut of Randy-related merch sales.