Jonathan Frink
John Nerdelbaum I. Q. Frink, Jr
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Character Information
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Professor John I.Q. Neidelbaum Frink, Jr. is a recurring character, a scientist and professor on The Simpsons.
Creation
Originally, Frink was simply written as a "mad scientist". When Hank Azaria first performed Frink's voice, he based it on Jerry Lewis's character from The Nutty Professor. As reference to this, Azaria pitched the section of "Treehouse of Horror XIV" in which Frink brings his father back to life, with his father being voiced by Jerry Lewis.[1] Frink was named after The Simpsons writer John Frink.[1]
A programming language and a space reactor analysis tool [2] have been named in honor of Professor Frink.
Character information
Professor John Frink (referred to as Dr. Frink in the episode "Future-Drama") is generally depicted as Springfield's local stereotypical mad scientist. He has a trademark mannerism of using tourettes-like gibberish when excited, such as "GLAVIN!" and shouting other words that have no relevance to the situation at hand. He also occasionally refers to the importance of remembering to "carry the one" in various mathematical calculations. He is never seen without his glasses and almost never takes them off.
Frink is said to have an IQ of 197; 199 before he sustained a concussion during the collapse of Springfield's brief intellectual junta (see "They Saved Lisa's Brain"). He is a member of the Springfield chapter of Mensa International.
He holds an advanced degree in hyperbolic topology, mentioned in "Treehouse of Horror VI" when Homer gets trapped in the 3rd dimension. (This information could be considered non-canonical, as it appears in a TOH episode.)
He is a college professor at Springfield Heights Institute of Technology.
Frink is fond of flubber, a fictional material with enhanced bounce properties originating in the movie The Absent-Minded Professor. Professor Frink has basketball shoes made of flubber, as does Robin Williams in the 1997 Flubber movie.
He is also the inventor of, among other things, hamburger earmuffs and the 8-month after pill. Some of Frink's inventions, such as the automatic phone dialer, work better than others, such as his radio-controlled plane, which carries babies as passengers under their parents' control, or a secure house that sprouts legs and runs away from potential danger (the legs of which often collapsed causing the house to crash to the ground and catch fire). Frink has also discovered and cured "Frink's Disease" and discovered "Frinkonium."
Family
Frink had a strained relationship with his father (voiced by Jerry Lewis). Frink said they got along like "positrons and anti-neutrinos." The senior Professor Frink was a "he-man" scientist who, according to his son, worked on the atom bomb by day, slept with Marilyn Monroe by night, and sold secrets to the Russians at lunch. In "Treehouse of Horror XIV", Frink brought his father back to life, but he went on a rampage and younger Frink was forced to kick the elder in the nuts, killing him. It is indicated in this episode that their shared middle name is "Nerdelbaum". The two rebuild their relationship when the elder Frink is proud of his son for stopping him like a man, and said that he must now go to Hell. Frink managed to catch his father's soul with his newest invention the "Soul Catcher." Since Frink's father was seen in a Halloween episode, this information might be inaccurate, as it comes from a non-canon Halloween special.
Frink has a wife,though in later episodes they may be separated or divorced, and a young son who looks similar to him.
Personal life
In "Future-Drama", an episode set eight years into a possible future of Bart and Lisa's, a bespectacled skeleton dressed in a lab coat is observed hanging on a rope from a rafter in Frink's basement laboratory—indicating the professor has committed suicide in the interim, his death gone unnoticed by family and friends. However, another episode set further in the future, "Lisa's Wedding", shows him alive and well as he leads a team trying to discover the cure for seventeen stab wounds in Mr. Burns' back, stating "Well, we're up to fifteen!". Any successfull attempts to see into the future are most likely not canon.
At one moment in The Simpsons, Frink is commanded by a hypnotist to act desirable to women, whereupon Frink loses the glasses and frumpy appearance, and quickly becomes engaged with a nubile young waitress. However, the hypnotist shortly reverts Frink back to his usual nerdy self, with a quick snap of the fingers.
Frink: I don't wanna go back to the nothing!...Oh dear, I've re-dorkulated!
A similar event happens when Frink drinks Abraham Simpson's aphrodisiac tonic. Both events are references to Jerry Lewis' character from The Nutty Professor transforming into Buddy Love.
In the 1960s, Professor Frink made napalm to drop on Da Nang, according to "Homer's Paternity Coot." He once predicted that computers would be so large and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe would own them, a paraphrase of Thomas J. Watson's misquote.
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