- “Glayvin!”
- ―Frink's catchphrase
- “And the (random object) and (other random object) and the hey hey hey!”
- ―Another one of Frink's catchphrases.
- “Oops, I forgot to carry the one.”
- ―Professor Frink
Jonathan "John" I.Q. Neidelbaum Frink, Jr., A.B., B.Sc., Ph.D. M.R.S.C., C.Chem, M.Phil, M.A., better known as Professor Frink and once referred to as Doctor Frink[2] (born 1950), is Springfield's local scientist and college professor, 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
Born in the 1950s, Frink is Springfield's local mad scientist. He has a trademark mannerism of using Tourettes-like 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.[3]
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[4] and a college professor at Springfield Heights Institute of Technology. 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.[5] 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 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",[6] but his son is seen alive later[7] (which means that either his son survived the airplane incident, or he has more than one son).
Frink's father appears in 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.
Non Canon Appearance
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 having 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!"
Treehouse of Horror
- “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 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 it 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.OThat is of course a reference to marvels fantastic four.
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's 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
- His popularity has led to him giving 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.[8]
- Despite having at least one known son, Frink seems to be a sperm donor.[9]
- 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.
- 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."
- In the episode "Love Is in the N2-O2-Ar-CO2-Ne-He-CH4", he is seen without his glasses, only to be able to see through "invisible blue contacts" which make his pupils blue.
- According to an interview, Hank Azaria's favorite character he voices is Jonathan Frink.
- He is the featured character on the on the Season 16 DVD/Blu-ray box set.
Gallery
Episode Appearances
- Episode – "Old Money"
- Episode – "Three Men and a Comic Book"
- Episode – "Homer Defined"
- Episode – "Flaming Moe's"
- Episode – "Radio Bart"
- Episode – "Lisa the Greek"
- Episode – "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?"
- Episode – "Marge vs. the Monorail"
- Episode – "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show"
- Episode – "Marge in Chains"
- Episode – "Rosebud"
- Episode – "Bart's Inner Child"
- Episode – "Homer the Vigilante"
- Episode – "Itchy & Scratchy Land"
- Episode – "Lisa on Ice"
- Episode – "Homer Badman"
- Episode – "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy"
- Episode – "Bart's Comet"
- Episode – "Lisa's Wedding"
- Episode – "The PTA Disbands"
- Episode – "Lemon of Troy"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror VI"
- Episode – "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming"
- Episode – "22 Short Films About Springfield"
- Episode – "Much Apu About Nothing"
- Episode – "You Only Move Twice"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror VII"
- Episode – "The Homer They Fall"
- Episode – "Burns, Baby Burns"
- Episode – "Bart After Dark"
- Episode – "Lisa's Date with Density"
- Episode – "Hurricane Neddy"
- Episode – "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)"
- Episode – "My Sister, My Sitter"
- Episode – "Grade School Confidential"
- Episode – "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"
- Episode – "The Principal and the Pauper"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror VIII"
- Episode – "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons"
- Episode – "Lisa the Skeptic"
- Episode – "The Joy of Sect"
- Episode – "This Little Wiggy"
- Episode – "The Trouble with Trillions"
- Episode – "Trash of the Titans"
- Episode – "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace"
- Episode – "Mayored to the Mob"
- Episode – "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken"
- Episode – "Homer to the Max"
- Episode – "Simpsons Bible Stories"
- Episode – "Mom and Pop Art"
- Episode – "The Old Man and the "C" Student"
- Episode – "Monty Can't Buy Me Love"
- Episode – "They Saved Lisa's Brain"
- Episode – "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo"
- Episode – "Beyond Blunderdome"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror X"
- Episode – "Faith Off"
- Episode – "The Mansion Family"
- Episode – "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily"
- Episode – "Last Tap Dance in Springfield"
- Episode – "Behind the Laughter"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XI"
- Episode – "A Tale of Two Springfields"
- Episode – "Insane Clown Poppy"
- Episode – "Lisa the Tree Hugger"
- Episode – "Homer vs. Dignity"
- Episode – "HOMЯ"
- Episode – "Pokey Mom"
- Episode – "Worst Episode Ever"
- Episode – "Bye Bye Nerdie"
- Episode – "I'm Goin' to Praiseland"
- Episode – "Children of a Lesser Clod"
- Episode – "Simpsons Tall Tales"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XII"
- Episode – "The Blunder Years"
- Episode – "She of Little Faith"
- Episode – "Brawl in the Family"
- Episode – "Sweets and Sour Marge"
- Episode – "Tales from the Public Domain"
- Episode – "The Sweetest Apu"
- Episode – "The Frying Game"
- Episode – "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XII"
- Episode – "The Strong Arms of the Ma"
- Episode – "Pray Anything"
- Episode – "Barting Over"
- Episode – "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can"
- Episode – "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington"
- Episode – "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky"
- Episode – "The Bart of War"
- Episode – "Moe Baby Blues"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XIV"
- Episode – "The President Wore Pearls"
- Episode – "The Regina Monologues"
- Episode – "'Tis the Fifteenth Season"
- Episode – "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays"
- Episode – "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot"
- Episode – "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife"
- Episode – "My Big Fat Geek Wedding"
- Episode – "Simple Simpson"
- Episode – "Bart-Mangled Banner"
- Episode – "Fraudcast News"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XV"
- Episode – "All's Fair in Oven War"
- Episode – "Midnight Rx"
- Episode – "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass"
- Episode – "There's Something About Marrying"
- Episode – "The Seven-Beer Snitch"
- Episode – "Future-Drama"
- Episode – "Don't Fear the Roofer"
- Episode – "A Star is Torn"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XVI"
- Episode – "Marge's Son Poisoning"
- Episode – "See Homer Run"
- Episode – "Simpson Christmas Stories"
- Episode – "Homer's Paternity Coot"
- Episode – "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife"
- Episode – "Million Dollar Abie"
- Episode – "The Monkey Suit"
- Episode – "Jazzy and the Pussycats"
- Episode – "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XVII"
- Episode – "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)"
- Episode – "Little Big Girl"
- Episode – "Springfield Up"
- Episode – "Yokel Chords"
- Episode – "The Boys of Bummer"
- Episode – "24 Minutes"
- – The Simpsons Movie
- Episode – "Funeral for a Fiend"
- Episode – "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind"
- Episode – "E. Pluribus Wiggum"
- Episode – "Lost Verizon"
- Episode – "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words"
- Episode – "Mypods and Boomsticks"
- Episode – "The Burns and the Bees"
- Episode – "Take My Life, Please"
- Episode – "Wedding for Disaster"
- Episode – "Gone Maggie Gone"
- Episode – "MoneyBART"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XXI"
- Episode – "500 Keys"
- Episode – "Gorgeous Grampa"
- Episode – "Pulpit Friction"
- Episode – "The Fabulous Faker Boy"
- Episode – "White Christmas Blues" (Seen at town square)
- Episode – "Days of Future Future"
- Episode – "Opposites A-Frack"
- Episode – "Simpsorama"
- Episode – "The Musk Who Fell to Earth"
- Episode – "Mathlete's Feat"
- Episode – "Halloween of Horror"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror XXVI" (Homerzilla)
- Episode – "Paths of Glory"
- Episode – "Barthood" (6 years younger)
- Episode – "The Girl Code"
- Episode – "Love Is in the N2-O2-Ar-CO2-Ne-He-CH4"
- Episode – "The Marge-ian Chronicles"
- Episode – "The Burns Cage" (Seen in the school auditorium)
- Episode – "Simprovised"
- Episode – "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus"
- Episode – "There Will Be Buds"
- Episode – "The Serfsons"
- Episode – "Whistler's Father"
- Episode – "Grampy Can Ya Hear Me"
- Episode – "The Old Blue Mayor She Ain't What She Used To Be"
- Episode – "Haw-Haw Land"
- Episode – "Frink Gets Testy"
Video game – The Simpsons Road Rage
Video game – The Simpsons Skateboarding
Video game – The Simpsons: Hit and Run
Video game – The Simpsons Game
Video game – The Simpsons: Tapped Out
Citations
See also
- Frinkiac.com - prepare to be amazed!