| The Simpsons character | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| John Frink | |
| Gender | Male |
| Job | Scientist, inventor, professor |
| Relatives | Father: John Frink, Sr. Son: John Frink III Wife: name unknown |
| Voice actor | Hank Azaria |
| First appearance | |
| The Simpsons | "Old Money" |
Professor John I.Q. Nerdelbaum Frink, Jr. is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria, and first appeared in the episode "Old Money". He is Springfield's 39-year-old 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, especially during the Treehouse of Horror episodes, but they usually only make things worse.
Contents |
Role in The Simpsons
Prototype
John Frink (referred to as Frink in the episode "Future-Drama") is generally depicted as Springfield's local stereotypical nerdy scientist/inventor. Frink is a college professor at Springfield Heights Institute of Technology. He has a trademark mannerism of using gibberish when excited, such as "HOYVIN-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 and also has a tendency to over complicate simple matters, such as "Father and I got along like positrons and antineutrinos!". He is rarely seen without his glasses and almost never takes them off.
Frink has an IQ of 197; 199 before he sustained a concussion during the collapse of Springfield's brief intellectual junta, and is a member of the Springfield chapter of Mensa.[1]
Frink is also the inventor of, among other things, automatic tapping shoes for tap dancing, the frog exaggerator, monsterometer, the sarcasm detector, hamburger earmuffs (which are apparently much more complicated than one would think, with problems that include the "pickle matrix"), the 8-month after pill and discovered the cube, which was named the 'Frinkahedron' in his honour as mentioned in the partially 3D episode of The Simpsons. 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 (it crashed), or a secure building 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). Also, in the 1960s, Frink made napalm to drop on Da Nang.[2] Frink has also discovered and cured "Frink's Disease" and discovered "Frinkonium." Frink has mastered astrology to the point where he can use it to accurately predict the future, and has been shown to be capable of time travel.
Many of Frink's major appearances have been in the Treehouse of Horror episodes, which are not accepted as canon (usually because most of the characters die in those episodes). Frink's bizarre inventions and understanding of advanced physics usually fit very well into these supernatural plotlines.
Family
Frink has a son who resembles him. He has only been seen on two occasions: during a convention for infant and toddler products as a pilot of a remote-controlled plane in "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" (Frink's son flew out the window while in the plane), and the other at a robot battle in "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot" (operating the robot). It is revealed in an issue of The Simpsons comics that the son is a clone named John Frink III. Frink is also purported to have a wife, although a repeated joke involves him briefly becoming a 'ladies' man' as a result of hypnosis or other temporary means. He also has a father who was killed by a shark, who is brought back to life in a Treehouse of Horror episode.
Character
Frink was originally written as a mad scientist.[3] However, when cast member Hank Azaria ad-libbed a voice for Frink, he did an impression of Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor character, and the writing staff started making Frink more of a parody of Lewis.[3] As a homage to Lewis, Azaria conceived the idea of the segment of "Treehouse of Horror XIV" in which Frink revives his dead father, who is voiced by Lewis.[4] Frink was named after Simpsons writer John Frink; however, that was before he became a writer for the show.[3] Frink was originally animated without his buckteeth.[3] The nonsensical utterances that Frink makes are written in the scripts as "Frink noise".[5]
Cultural impact
A computer programming language and a space reactor analysis tool have been named in honor of Frink.[6]
References
- ^ "They Saved Lisa's Brain". Selman, Matt; Michels, Pete. The Simpsons. Fox. No. 22, season 10.
- ^ "Homer's Paternity Coot". Cohen, Joel H.; Anderson, Mike B.. The Simpsons. Fox. No. 10, season 17.
- ^ a b c d Groening, Matt; Jean, Al; Kogen, Jay; Silverman, David; Wolodarsky, Wallace (2002). Commentary for "Old Money", in The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- ^ Joe Rhodes (21 October 2000). "Flash! 24 Simpsons Stars Reveal Themselves". TV Guide.
- ^ Groening, Matt (16 February 2000). Simpsons Comics A Go-Go, Simpsons Comic #30, 10. Bongo Comics. ISBN 0-0609-5566-X.
- ^ David I. Poston David D. Dixon Thomas F. Marcille Benjamin W. Amiri (30 January 2007). "FRINK - A Code to Evaluate Space Reactor Transients". AIP.
External links
- Frink Rules Website: Audio Clips
- The Definitive Frink
- Professor Frink at the Internet Movie Database
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