Al Gore returns as a talking head

Former Vice President Al Gore makes a return to “Futurama” this weekend. Surprisingly, he does not play a robot.

Gore guest stars as his own head in a jar as the sci-fi sitcom blasts off for its fifth season Sunday at 7 p.m. on Fox. It’s easy to see how “Futurama” recently won an Emmy for best animated series: This global-warming-themed episode, written by Aaron Ehasz and directed by Peter Avanzino, shows off the show’s formula of clever humor and whimsical graphics.

When warming threatens the Earth in the next century, Gore hosts an emergency summit in Kyoto, Japan, where he is introduced as “inventor of the environment and first emperor of the moon.” Unfortunately for the Planet Express crew, the solution to the crisis may mean the end of Bender and his robotic brethren, whose tailpipe emissions are found to be the cause.

Gore, who appeared on the show in May 2000, may hope another round of self-mocking will help his image. It didn’t hurt Richard Nixon when he went on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” in 1968 to declare, “Sock it to me!”

But the political barbs here are equal-opportunity. In one attempt to solve the crisis, Nixon’s head (long story) urges the Planet Express crew to fetch ice from Halley’s comet, complaining, “I’m sweating like J. Edgar Hoover trying to squeeze into a new girdle.” Liberals take a shot when the polar icecaps melt, causing a flood of biblical proportions, which leads a misguided, would-be Noah to pair same-sex animals aboard an ark.

Sadly for “Futurama” fans, the show is in as much limbo as Gore’s career. There are 16 episodes in the can for this season, but no decision has been made beyond that.