Jonathan Frink
John Nerdelbaum I. Q. Frink, Jr
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Character Information
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"Professor frink, Professor frink, makes you laugh, make you think"
Professor John I.Q. Neidelbaum Frink, Jr. is Springfield's main professor, and regularly appears in and around town.
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 ("They Saved Lisa's Brain"). He is a member of the Springfield Mensa.
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." Professor Frink has also made many crazy inventions on the show, most notably on the Treehouse of Horror episodes, though these are generally not considered canon.
Professor Frink has not had a large role in the series, though he has been seen in many episodes. Professor Frink does not make any appearances in Season One and has only one speaking role in Season Two. However, in Season Three he has several speaking roles, and becomes a recurring character from then on. Professor Frink seems to know Lisa better than the rest of her family because she is more interested in science and makes more frequent visits to places such as the Natural History Museum and the Observatory.
Family
Frink had a strained relationship with his father (voiced by Jerry Lewis). Frink said they got along like "positrons and antineutrinos." 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. Also in another episode "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" his son crashes through a window during a demonstration of a remote controled airplane, after this he says "my wife is going to kill me". But since his son is seen in later episodes sugesting that this is either a different son or that his son survived the accident. In The Simpsons Game, he marries a Koopa Troopa from Super Mario Bros., probably because The Simpsons Game parodies several video games.
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 - although this could be a clone or his aforementioned son - , 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. he has been featured in 139 episodes
Episode Appearances
- Old Money
- Three Men and a Comic Book
- Homer Defined
- Flaming Moe
- Radio Bart
- Lisa the Greek
- Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?
- Marge vs. the Monorail
- So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show
- Marge in Chains
- Rosebud
- Bart's Inner Child
- Homer the Vigilante
- Itchy and Scratchy Land
- Lisa on Ice
- Homer Bad Man
- Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy
- Bart's Comet
- Lisa's Wedding
- The PTA Disbands
- Lemon of Troy
- Treehouse of Horror VI
- Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming
- 22 Short Films About Springfield
- Much Apu About Nothing
- You Only Move Twice
- Treehouse of Horror VII
- you only move twice
- The Homer They Fall
- Burns, Baby Burns
- Bart After Dark
- Lisa's Date With Destiny
- Hurricane Neddy
- El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer
- My Sister, My Sitter
- Grade School Confidential
- The Secret War of Lisa Simpson
- The Principal and the Pauper
- Treehouse of Horror VIII
- The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons
- Lisa the Skeptic
- the joy of sect
- This Little Wiggy
- The Trouble With Trillions
- Trash of the Titans
- The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace
- Mayored to the Mob
- Wild Barts Can't Be Broken
- Homer to the Max
- simpsons bible stories
- mom and pop art
- the old man and the c studant
- Monty Can't Buy Me Love
- They Saved Lisa's Brain
- Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo
- beyond blunderdome
- treehouse of horror x
- faith off
- the mansion family
- Alone Again, Natura-Diddly
- Last Tap Dance in Springfield
- behind the laughter
- treehouse of horror xi
- a tale of two springfields
- Insane Clown Poppy
- lisa the tree hugger
- homer vs dignity
- HOMR
- pokey mom
- Worst Episode Ever
- bye bye nerdy
- i'm going to praiseland
- children of a lesser clod
- simpsons tall tales
- treehouse of horror xii
- she of little faith
- brawl in the family
- sweets and sour marge
- tales from the public domain
- the sweetest apu
- the frying game
- papa's got a brand new badge
- treehouse of horror xii
- string arms of the ma
- pray anything
- barting over
- i'm spelling as fast as i can
- scuse me while i miss the sky
- the bart of war
- moe baby blues
- treehouse of horror xiv
- the presidant wore pearls
- the regina monologues
- tis the fifteenth season
- marge vs singles seniors childless couples and teensa and gays
- i [annoyed grunt]-bot
- diatrube of a mad housewife
- my big fat geek wedding
- simple simpson
- bart mangled banner
- fraudcast news
- treehouse of horror xv
- all's fair in oven war
- midnight rx
- homer and ned's hail mary pass
- there's something about marrying
- the seven beer snitch
- future drama
- don't fear the roofer
- a star is torn
- treehouse of horror xvi
- marge's son poisoning
- see homer run
- simpsons christmas stories
- homer's paternity coat
- homer simpson this is your wife
- million dollar abie
- the monkey suit
- jazzy and the pussycats
- please homer don't hammer em
- treehouse of horror xvii
- gi[annoyed grunt]
- little big girl
- springfield up
- yokel chords
- the boys of bummer
- 24 minutes
- the simpsons movie
- funeral for a fiend
- eternal moonshine of the simpsons mind
- e pluribus wiggum
- lost verizon
- homer and lisa exchange crosswords
- mypods and broomsticks
- the burns and the bees
- take my life please
- wedding for disaster
- gone maggie gone
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