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Jonathan Frink, Jr.

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Professor John Frink,[1] sometimes referred to as Doctor Frink[5] or Dr. Jonathan Frink, Jr.,[6] is Springfield's local scientist and a professor at either Springfield Heights Institute of Technology[1][2] or Springfield University,[3] and is extremely brilliant, though somewhat socially inept. Frink often tries to use his bizarre inventions to aid the town in its crises, but they usually only make things worse. He is a recurring character in The Simpsons and a supporting character in The Simpsons Movie, but he has a cameo appearance.

Biography[]

Frink is Springfield's local mad scientist. He has a trademark mannerism of using gibberish when excited, such as "GLAYVIN!" 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 almost never seen without his glasses and has only taken them off once.[7]

Frink 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 Mensa[8] and a college professor at Springfield Heights Institute of Technology[1][2] or Springfield University,[3] and he consults at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.[2] He is fond of flubber, a material with enhanced bounce properties, of which his basketball shoes are made.

Professor Frink is the inventor of, among other things, hamburger earmuffs, the flying motorcycle 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."

In the 1960s, Professor Frink made napalm to drop on Da Nang.[9] 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. Professor Frink has more frequent contact with Lisa Simpson than the rest of the Simpson family because she is more interested in science and makes more frequent visits to places such as the Springfield Museum of Natural History and the Springfield Observatory.

Family[]

Frink

Frink has a wife (though they may be separated or divorced) and a young son who looks similar to him. When his son crashes through a window during a demonstration of a remote-controlled airplane, he says "my wife is going to kill me",[10] but his son is seen alive later[11] (Which means that either his son survived the airplane incident, or he has more than one son).

Frink's father appears in the season 15 premiere Treehouse of Horror XIV. It is revealed that they do not have a good relationship, but since this episode is non-canon, it is unknown how well the younger Frink and his father actually get along. In the canon his parents were great chemists who paid attention to their work, so to get noticed Frink used science and changing the pitch of his voice so they couldn't help but notice him.[3]

Non-Canon Appearance[]

Ssi 5 The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened/existed.

Future[]

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 has 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's back, stating "Well, we're up to fifteen!".

In the episode "Days of Future Future", Frink spends thirty years cloning Homer Simpson back to life until Homer uses up all the clones and is only able to store Homer's memory on the flash drive.

Treehouse of Horror[]

In the final segment of "Treehouse of Horror VI", he explains that Homer is in the third dimension.

"Frink out"
―Frink[src]In "Treehouse of Horror XIV", it is revealed that Frink had a strained relationship with his father - 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. Frink brought his father back to life after he died from a Shark Attack, 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 "Neidelbaum". The two rebuild their relationship when the elder Frink is proud of his son for stopping him like a man. Frink had his father's soul put into a machine.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run[]

In The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Frink appears in Level 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 with varying levels of importance to the game's plot.

  • In Level 2, Bart learns that Frink bought up every remaining copy of the new game, Bonestorm II for the purpose of powering his latest creation, Truckasaurus, requiring Bart obtain a satellite dish from Cletus, a vintage radio from Snake, and a blender from Dr. Nick, before being tasked with dispatching cell phone users to prevent Truckasaurus from going berserk.
  • In Level 3, Frink's only role is during the mission Bonfire of the Manatees, during which he informs Lisa exactly what happened on the day Bart disappeared.
  • In Level 4 Frink appears as the lead opponent in the level's checkpoint race instead of Apu. Of note is that this race also eschews the tradition of including 2 traffic cars as "filler" opponents, instead consisting of only Frink and Marge.
  • In level 5, Frink acts as the subject of the level's bonus mission, asking Apu to destroy his Hover Car as it has gone rampant. Despite the mission centering around destroying the Hover Car, the player is granted the car as a reward for completing the mission.
  • In level 6 Bart chases Frink down as he intends to tell the scientist about Kang and Kodos' plot to destroy Springfield. In the very next mission it is revealed that Frink had intercepted an alien transmission, learning that they were hiding dangerous laser guns at the Duff Brewery.
  • Frink played a somewhat more important role in level 7, as it is revealed he discovered that the alien mothership had a strange weakness to nuclear waste. After informing Homer of the ship's fatal weakness, the two drive Frink's Hover Car, loaded up with a barrel of waste directly into the ship's tractor beam. It is unknown if he survived this, as in the mission Pocket Protector he mentions sacrificing himself for the greater good.

The Simpsons Game[]

In The Simpsons Game, he lives inside the Game Engine and marries a Koopa Troopa from Super Mario Bros.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out[]

In The Simpsons: Tapped Out you can have him from level 3, but it costs 150 donuts. It unlocks with Frink's Lab.

The Simpsons Comics[]

In Simpsons Comic #19, Frink (while coaching Bart's baseball team) tells Lisa that in university his best friends were Ben Grimes, and Johnny and Sue Thunder. When Lisa asks what happened to them, he tells her they all died in an unrelated radiation poisoning mishap that is, of course, a reference to Marvel's Fantastic Four.

Frink's icon

Frink's icon in the Simpsons tapped out

Behind the Laughter[]

Professor Frink is voiced by Hank Azaria. The character was originally written as a mad scientist. However, when cast member Hank Azaria ad-libbed a voice for Frink, he did an impression of Jerry Lewis' character from The Nutty Professor, and the writing staff started making Frink more of a parody of Lewis. Frink was named after writer John Frink; however, that was before he became a writer for the show. Frink was originally animated without his buckteeth. The nonsensical utterances that Frink makes are written in the scripts as "Frink noise".

Trivia[]

Frink's eyes with pupils

Frink's visible pupils

  • His popularity has led to him giving a name to a computer programming language.
  • To him, the word "Nerd" stands for "Not Even Remotely Dorky" - possibly because he doesn't want to be belittled.[12]
  • Despite having at least one known son, Frink seems to be a sperm donor.[13]
  • He appears to be the only person in Springfield who knows what a cube is as seen in Treehouse of Horror VI, and as a result, he claims to have invented/discovered it, and names it a "Frinkahedron". However, this is non-canon.
  • He is an insectivore. [citation needed]
  • Frink's use of flubber in his basketball shoes is a reference to the 1961 movie, The Absent-Minded Professor.
  • His pupils aren't usually seen through his glasses, but they are visible in "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", "Homer Badman" and "Trash of the Titans". This also happens again when he turns into a suave gentleman (a la The Nutty Professor) in "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" and "The Blunder Years."
  • According to an interview, Hank Azaria's favorite character he voices is Jonathan Frink.
  • He is the featured character on the Season 16 DVD/Blu-ray box set.

Gallery[]

Professor Frink
The full image gallery for Jonathan Frink, Jr. may be viewed at Jonathan Frink, Jr./Gallery.

Episode Appearances[]

Citations[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Much Apu About Nothing"
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Love Is in the N2-O2-Ar-CO2-Ne-He-CH4"
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Frinkcoin"
  4. ↑ Simpsons Comics 216
  5. ↑ "Future-Drama"
  6. ↑ "The Fool Monty"
  7. ↑ Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy
  8. ↑ They Saved Lisa's Brain
  9. ↑ Homer's Paternity Coot
  10. ↑ Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?
  11. ↑ I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot
  12. ↑ Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind
  13. ↑ Selma's Choice

See also[]

External links[]

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