Difference between revisions of "Jonathan Frink"

Revision as of 15:32, October 28, 2007

Professor John Nerdelbaum Frink, Jr. is a scientist and professor. His catchphrase is such that when he is discussing something, he may say "With the (says something relevant) and the (says something else relevant) and the (screams words mixed with gibberish)".

Character information

Professor John Frink is generally depicted Springfield's local stereotypical mad scientist, voiced by Hank Azaria. It is hinted in various non-canon sources and in a few episodes that he is in fact from Canada and is Jewish. However, he was attending school in Springfield at age eight. His character is heavily based on Jerry Lewis' character, The Nutty Professor. He has a trademark mannerism of using tourettes-like gibberish when excited, such as "GLAVIN!". He also occasionally refers to the importance of remembering to "carry the one" in various mathematic calculations.

Intelligence

He is said to have an IQ of 197; 199 before he sustained a concussion during the collapse of Springfield's brief intellectual junta. 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.)

Inventions

He 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.

He is also the inventor of, among other things, hamburger earmuffs. Some of Frink's inventions such as the automatic auto-dialer work better than others such as his radio-controlled plane that was designed for infants to ride in, allowing babies to fly under their parents' control.

Family

Frink had a strained relationship with his father (whose character was 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 kill the elder. It is indicated in this episode that their shared middle name is "Nerdelbaum".

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 had committed suicide in the interim, and his passing had gone unnoticed by his family and friends. However, another episode set farther 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's back ("Well, we're up to fifteen!").

At one moment in The Simpsons, Frink is commanded by a hypnotist to become desirable to women, whereupon Frink loses the glasses and frumpy appearance, and quickly becomes engaged with a nubile young waitress at the bar they are at. 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!

A similar event happened when Frink drank Abe Simpson's aphrodisiac tonic. Both events are references to Jerry Lewis' character from The Nutty Professor transforming into Buddy Love.

"Future-Drama" is also the first time in the entire run of The Simpsons that Frink was referred to as "Dr. Frink" rather than "Professor Frink".

In the 1960s, Professor Frink made napalm to drop on Danang, 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.

In the episode "Springfield Up," Frink travels back in time to stop himself at 7 years from becoming a scientist. However, he is hit by two cars in a row and a child (actually Carl Carlson) stole his time machine. He may or may not have survived the incident. Professor Frink is, however, seen in a later episode.

Frink also wrote his own theme song, the lyrics of which go:

Professor Frink, Professor Frink

He'll make you laugh, he'll make you think

He likes to run and do the thing with the ..... person?

Creation

Orignally, 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 has been named in honor of Professor Frink.