Professor Frink
Encyclopedia
Professor John Nerdelbaum Frink, Jr., or simply Professor Frink, is a recurring character in the animated television series
The Simpsons
. He is voiced by Hank Azaria
, and first appeared in the 1991 episode "Old Money". Frink is Springfield
's nerdy
scientist
and professor
and is extremely intelligent, though somewhat mad and socially inept. Frink often tries to use his bizarre inventions to aid the town in its crises but they usually only make things worse. His manner of speech, including the impulsive shouting of nonsensical words, has become his trademark.
Frink was originally depicted as an evil scientist in "Old Money". When Azaria ad-libbed
a voice for the character, he did an impression of Jerry Lewis
's Julius Kelp character from The Nutty Professor
. The staff liked the voice and therefore changed Frink to be more like Julius Kelp, both in appearance and personality — he became more nerdy, and went from evil to just mad. Lewis later guest-starred on the show as Frink's father in the 2003 episode "Treehouse of Horror XIV
".
The professor has received acclaim from critics, particularly for his bizarre inventions such as the hamburger earmuffs, and he has appeared on many reviewers' listings of their favorite supporting characters from The Simpsons. Frink has been featured in other media relating to the show, such as comics, video games, and a simulator ride
at Universal Studios Florida
. The character's popularity has led to him giving name to the computer programming language Frink
.
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
. Frink is generally very polite and friendly. He has a trademark mannerism of using Jerry Lewis
-style gibberish
when excited, such as "HOYVIN-GLAVIN!" and "FLAVIN" and impulsively 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. When he rambles he often speaks incoherently in run-on sentence
s without pauses. Frink also has a tendency to over-complicate simple matters and/or invent scientific terminology while expressing various concepts, e.g. "Father and I got along like positron
s and antineutrinos!" or, "microcalifragilistics".
Frink often tries to use his mad and bizarre inventions to aid the town in its crises, but they usually do not work or only make things worse. Most of his inventions never function properly or are of no real use. He is the inventor of, among other things, a frog exaggerator (which largely increases the size of amphibians), automatic tapping shoes for tap dancing, the sarcasm detector, hamburger earmuffs
, the 8-month-after pill
, and a drilling machine that can cut through anything. Some of Frink's unsuccessful inventions includes his small remote-controlled plane
that carries babies as passengers (it crashed), and a burglar-proof house that sprouts legs and runs away from potential danger (the legs of which collapsed causing the house to crash to the ground and catch fire). As a scientist, Frink has discovered and cured "Frink's Disease" and discovered the element "Frinkonium". He has also 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.
The professor has a son who is seen in "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?
" during a convention for infant and toddler products as a pilot of a remote-controlled plane (he flies out the window of the building while in the plane and crashes), and in "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot" at a robot battle (operating the robot). On the show, Frink has made mentions of a wife, but there have also been jokes about him having had little contact with women in his life.
Frink often appears in the Treehouse of Horror Halloween episodes of The Simpsons, which are not accepted as canon
and always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Frink's bizarre inventions and understanding of advanced physics usually fit well into these supernatural plotlines. In "Treehouse of Horror VIII
", Bart
enters Frink's matter teleporter and it results in an accidental mix between Bart's genes and the genes of a housefly that was also present in the transporter at the same time. In "Treehouse of Horror XIV
", it is revealed that Frink had a father who was killed by a shark, who he brings back to life in the episode by piecing together his body parts. Unfortunately, the man decides to steal body parts to improve himself after he is revived. In the latter episode, Frink is awarded with a Nobel Prize
.
Frink first appeared in the season two
episode "Old Money
" that aired on . In that episode, Grampa Simpson inherits $106,000 from his girlfriend when she dies. He eventually decides to spend it on people who are in need of money and holds interviews. In one of these interviews, Frink introduces Grampa to his latest invention, the Death Ray, claiming that "it is just a prototype. With proper funding I’m confident this little baby could destroy an area the size of New York City!" Grampa responds with "But I want to help people, not kill ‘em!", to which Frink replies "Oh. Well, to be honest, the ray only has evil applications. You know my wife will be happy, she’s hated this whole Death Ray thing from day one."
In the original script, Frink appeared more evil. However, when cast member Hank Azaria
ad-libbed
a voice for Frink, he did an impression of Jerry Lewis
's character Julius Kelp from the 1963 film The Nutty Professor
, and the writing staff started making Frink more of a parody of that character. Julius Kelp is a nerdy, mad professor, albeit not evil, and is often unsuccessful with his experiments, so Frink became more like that as the show progressed. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening
told TV Guide
that "He was just written as a mad scientist character until Hank did the voice, and suddenly he became this nutty professor persona. What I love about Hank is that, you give him a single line — and most of these characters have very few lines — and he just brings it to life. Every time." Frink was originally animated without his buckteeth; they were added later on to make him look even more like Lewis's character. He was named after television writer John Frink
, who was later hired on The Simpsons. The nonsensical utterances that Frink makes are written in the scripts as "Frink noise".
Azaria has voiced Frink ever since the first appearance of the professor. Out of the many characters for which Azaria provides the voice, Frink is his favorite to do because he was a fan of Lewis in his younger years and he enjoys imitating the voice of the nutty professor. He has said that "once you start talking like [Julius Kelp] it’s very hard to stop. On each take, I’ll make it sillier, I always have. I’ll add more and more stupid noises and sounds to it. If they let me keep going, it gets ridiculous."
As an homage to Lewis, Azaria conceived the idea of the "Treehouse of " segment in which Frink revives his dead father, with Lewis guest starring as the father. In a review of that episode, which aired around Halloween in 2003, Robert Bianco of USA Today
wrote that it is hard to tell Frink and his father's voices apart: "Azaria voices Frink with such a spot-on Lewis imitation that it's sometimes hard to tell which one of the two nutty professors is talking." In addition, The Knoxville News-Sentinels Terry Morrow commented that "to hear Lewis doing Azaria doing Lewis is a mind-bending gut buster, the kind of pay-off that die-hard Simpsons fans live for."
named him his favorite secondary character from the show. Fort Worth Star-Telegram
s Robert Philpot called the professor one of the five best supporting characters on The Simpsons, writing that "Springfield's mad scientist is a triumph of style over substance, with Hank Azaria giving him a ripoff Jerry Lewis voice that reminds you why we once thought Lewis was funny." On their list of the top twenty-five peripheral Simpsons characters, IGN
's Eric Goldman, Dan Iverson, and Brian Zoromski listed Frink at number fourteen, commenting that he fits nicely into the Simpsons universe "as the town's brilliant mad scientist." They highlighted a scene from the episode "The PTA Disbands", in which Frink becomes a kindergarten substitute teacher and keeps one of the children's toys to himself because the children "wouldn't enjoy it on as many levels" as he did. Nick Griffiths of Radio Times
named Frink one of the best characters of the show, stating that he has "always loved Professor Frink", particularly because of his appearance, gibberish talking, and overuse of the word "the", and because of his inventions such as the matter teleporter that turns Bart into half-human half-fly. The Sydney Morning Herald
s David Hollingworth profiled Frink in his list of "TV's great tech figures", writing that apart from being smart, the professor is best known for his "rather idiosyncratic speech patterns — hmmguyvin-whey-hey." Joe Rhodes of TV Guide listed the following as the professor's most memorable line: "Sorry I'm late. There was trouble at the lab with the running and the exploding and the crying when the monkeys stole the glasses off my head."
Several critics have commented on Frink's inventions. Patrick Goss of MSN
's Tech & Gadgets wrote that "When it comes to gizmos, Frink is the king", and listed the Death Ray as one of the greatest gadgets featured in The Simpsons. Although he added that it "was not one of [Frink's] most successful," since it never received the funding it needed from Grampa. On the same list, Goss also featured Frink's automatic phone dialer, intra bovine ice-cream maker (an invention that is inserted into a cow and uses the four stomachs to mix the various ingredients), and hamburger earmuffs. In a profile about Frink, the publication UGO Networks wrote: "Where would the town be without your Jerry Lewis/Julius Kelp-inspired voice and antics? A lot safer most likely. Professor John Frink's inventions range from distracting to disruptive. Who can forget his hamburger earmuffs? Or his teleportation device, responsible for switching Bart Simpson's head with that of a housefly?" Howard Waldrop and Lawrence Person of Locus
listed the scene in The Simpsons Movie
that features Frink's drilling machine invention as one of the highlights of the film.
"The Simpsons Ride
" at Universal Studios Florida
, and video games such as The Simpsons Wrestling
, The Simpsons Road Rage
, The Simpsons Hit & Run
, and The Simpsons Game
. He has also been turned into a Halloween-inspired action figure
that was packaged with Kids Meals at Burger King
in October and . In addition, Frink was featured on the cover of the issue of TV Guide.
The professor has also had an impact on real life
science. Frink
, a computer programming language, was named after him. It is, according to creator of the language, "designed to make physical calculations simple, to help ensure that answers come out right, and to make a tool that's really useful in the real world. It tracks units of measure (feet, meters, kilograms, watts, etc.) through all calculations, allowing you to mix units of measure transparently, and helps you easily verify that your answers make sense."
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. He is voiced by Hank Azaria
Hank Azaria
Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons , on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief...
, and first appeared in the 1991 episode "Old Money". Frink is Springfield
Springfield (The Simpsons)
Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
's nerdy
Nerd
Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
and professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
and is extremely intelligent, though somewhat mad and socially inept. Frink often tries to use his bizarre inventions to aid the town in its crises but they usually only make things worse. His manner of speech, including the impulsive shouting of nonsensical words, has become his trademark.
Frink was originally depicted as an evil scientist in "Old Money". When Azaria ad-libbed
Ad libitum
Ad libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure"; it is often shortened to "ad lib" or "ad-lib"...
a voice for the character, he did an impression of Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
's Julius Kelp character from The Nutty Professor
The Nutty Professor
The Nutty Professor is a 1963 Paramount Pictures science fiction comedy feature film produced, directed, co-written and starring Jerry Lewis...
. The staff liked the voice and therefore changed Frink to be more like Julius Kelp, both in appearance and personality — he became more nerdy, and went from evil to just mad. Lewis later guest-starred on the show as Frink's father in the 2003 episode "Treehouse of Horror XIV
Treehouse of Horror XIV
"Treehouse of Horror XIV" is the first episode of The Simpsons fifteenth season and originally aired on November 2, 2003. In the fourteenth annual Treehouse of Horror episode, Homer takes on the role of the Grim Reaper , Professor Frink creates a Frankenstein-version of his deceased father and...
".
The professor has received acclaim from critics, particularly for his bizarre inventions such as the hamburger earmuffs, and he has appeared on many reviewers' listings of their favorite supporting characters from The Simpsons. Frink has been featured in other media relating to the show, such as comics, video games, and a simulator ride
Simulator ride
Simulator rides are a type of amusement park ride, where the audience is shown a movie while their seats move to correspond to the action on screen.-History:...
at Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida is an American theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and...
. The character's popularity has led to him giving name to the computer programming language Frink
Frink
Frink, named after the fictional mad scientist Professor John Frink from The Simpsons, is a calculating tool and programming language designed by Alan Eliasen. It is built on the Java Virtual Machine and incorporates features similar to Java, Perl, Ruby, Smalltalk, and various BASIC implementations...
.
Role in The Simpsons
John Frink is generally depicted as Springfield's stereotypical nerdy, mad, and socially inept scientist, inventor, and mathematician. He wears thick glasses, a white lab coat, pink pants, and has buckteeth. Frink is a college professor at Springfield Heights Institute of Technology and runs his own astronomical observatory. He has an IQIntelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several different standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. When modern IQ tests are constructed, the mean score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15...
of 197 — 199 before he sustained a concussion during the collapse of Springfield's brief intellectual junta
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
— and is a member of the Springfield chapter of Mensa
Mensa International
Mensa is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test...
. Frink is generally very polite and friendly. He has a trademark mannerism of using Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
-style gibberish
Gibberish
Gibberish is a generic term in English for talking that sounds like speech, but carries no actual meaning. This meaning has also been extended to meaningless text or gobbledygook. The common theme in gibberish statements is a lack of literal sense, which can be described as a presence of nonsense...
when excited, such as "HOYVIN-GLAVIN!" and "FLAVIN" and impulsively 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. When he rambles he often speaks incoherently in run-on sentence
Run-on sentence
A run-on sentence is a sentence in which two or more independent clauses are joined without appropriate punctuation or conjunction. It is generally considered a stylistic error, though it is occasionally used in literature and may be used as a rhetorical device...
s without pauses. Frink also has a tendency to over-complicate simple matters and/or invent scientific terminology while expressing various concepts, e.g. "Father and I got along like positron
Positron
The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. The positron has an electric charge of +1e, a spin of ½, and has the same mass as an electron...
s and antineutrinos!" or, "microcalifragilistics".
Frink often tries to use his mad and bizarre inventions to aid the town in its crises, but they usually do not work or only make things worse. Most of his inventions never function properly or are of no real use. He is the inventor of, among other things, a frog exaggerator (which largely increases the size of amphibians), automatic tapping shoes for tap dancing, the sarcasm detector, hamburger earmuffs
Earmuffs
Earmuffs are objects designed to cover a person's ears for protection. They consist of a thermoplastic or metal head-band, that fits over the top of the head, and a pad at each end, to cover the external ears....
, the 8-month-after pill
Abortifacient
An abortifacient is a substance that induces abortion. Abortifacients for animals that have mated undesirably are known as mismating shots....
, and a drilling machine that can cut through anything. Some of Frink's unsuccessful inventions includes his small remote-controlled plane
Radio-controlled aircraft
A radio-controlled aircraft is controlled remotely by a hand-held transmitter and a receiver within the craft...
that carries babies as passengers (it crashed), and a burglar-proof house that sprouts legs and runs away from potential danger (the legs of which collapsed causing the house to crash to the ground and catch fire). As a scientist, Frink has discovered and cured "Frink's Disease" and discovered the element "Frinkonium". He has also mastered astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
to the point where he can use it to accurately predict the future, and has been shown to be capable of time travel.
The professor has a son who is seen in "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?
Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?
"Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" is the twenty-fourth and final episode of The Simpsons third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on August 27, 1992. In the episode, Homer is awarded a US$2,000 compensation after the radiation from the Springfield Nuclear Power...
" during a convention for infant and toddler products as a pilot of a remote-controlled plane (he flies out the window of the building while in the plane and crashes), and in "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot" at a robot battle (operating the robot). On the show, Frink has made mentions of a wife, but there have also been jokes about him having had little contact with women in his life.
Frink often appears in the Treehouse of Horror Halloween episodes of The Simpsons, which are not accepted as canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
and always take place outside the normal continuity of the show. Frink's bizarre inventions and understanding of advanced physics usually fit well into these supernatural plotlines. In "Treehouse of Horror VIII
Treehouse of Horror VIII
"Treehouse of Horror VIII" is the fourth episode of The Simpsons ninth season and first aired on the Fox network on October 26, 1997. In the eighth annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode, Homer Simpson is the last man left alive when a neutron bomb destroys Springfield until a gang of mutants come...
", Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
enters Frink's matter teleporter and it results in an accidental mix between Bart's genes and the genes of a housefly that was also present in the transporter at the same time. In "Treehouse of Horror XIV
Treehouse of Horror XIV
"Treehouse of Horror XIV" is the first episode of The Simpsons fifteenth season and originally aired on November 2, 2003. In the fourteenth annual Treehouse of Horror episode, Homer takes on the role of the Grim Reaper , Professor Frink creates a Frankenstein-version of his deceased father and...
", it is revealed that Frink had a father who was killed by a shark, who he brings back to life in the episode by piecing together his body parts. Unfortunately, the man decides to steal body parts to improve himself after he is revived. In the latter episode, Frink is awarded with a Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
.
Character
The Simpsons (season 2)
The Simpsons second season originally aired between October 11, 1990 and May 9, 1991, and contained 22 episodes, beginning with "Bart Gets an F". Another episode, "Blood Feud" aired during the summer after the official season finale. The show runners for the second production season were Matt...
episode "Old Money
Old Money (The Simpsons)
"Old Money" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 28, 1991. In the episode, Grampa's new girlfriend at the Retirement Castle passes away and leaves him with $106,000...
" that aired on . In that episode, Grampa Simpson inherits $106,000 from his girlfriend when she dies. He eventually decides to spend it on people who are in need of money and holds interviews. In one of these interviews, Frink introduces Grampa to his latest invention, the Death Ray, claiming that "it is just a prototype. With proper funding I’m confident this little baby could destroy an area the size of New York City!" Grampa responds with "But I want to help people, not kill ‘em!", to which Frink replies "Oh. Well, to be honest, the ray only has evil applications. You know my wife will be happy, she’s hated this whole Death Ray thing from day one."
In the original script, Frink appeared more evil. However, when cast member Hank Azaria
Hank Azaria
Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons , on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief...
ad-libbed
Ad libitum
Ad libitum is Latin for "at one's pleasure"; it is often shortened to "ad lib" or "ad-lib"...
a voice for Frink, he did an impression of Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
's character Julius Kelp from the 1963 film The Nutty Professor
The Nutty Professor
The Nutty Professor is a 1963 Paramount Pictures science fiction comedy feature film produced, directed, co-written and starring Jerry Lewis...
, and the writing staff started making Frink more of a parody of that character. Julius Kelp is a nerdy, mad professor, albeit not evil, and is often unsuccessful with his experiments, so Frink became more like that as the show progressed. The Simpsons creator Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
told TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
that "He was just written as a mad scientist character until Hank did the voice, and suddenly he became this nutty professor persona. What I love about Hank is that, you give him a single line — and most of these characters have very few lines — and he just brings it to life. Every time." Frink was originally animated without his buckteeth; they were added later on to make him look even more like Lewis's character. He was named after television writer John Frink
John Frink
John Frink is an American television writer and producer. He has written several episodes of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, many of which he co-wrote with his former writing partner Don Payne. Frink and Payne started their career in television writing for the short-lived sitcom Hope...
, who was later hired on The Simpsons. The nonsensical utterances that Frink makes are written in the scripts as "Frink noise".
Azaria has voiced Frink ever since the first appearance of the professor. Out of the many characters for which Azaria provides the voice, Frink is his favorite to do because he was a fan of Lewis in his younger years and he enjoys imitating the voice of the nutty professor. He has said that "once you start talking like [Julius Kelp] it’s very hard to stop. On each take, I’ll make it sillier, I always have. I’ll add more and more stupid noises and sounds to it. If they let me keep going, it gets ridiculous."
As an homage to Lewis, Azaria conceived the idea of the "Treehouse of " segment in which Frink revives his dead father, with Lewis guest starring as the father. In a review of that episode, which aired around Halloween in 2003, Robert Bianco of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
wrote that it is hard to tell Frink and his father's voices apart: "Azaria voices Frink with such a spot-on Lewis imitation that it's sometimes hard to tell which one of the two nutty professors is talking." In addition, The Knoxville News-Sentinels Terry Morrow commented that "to hear Lewis doing Azaria doing Lewis is a mind-bending gut buster, the kind of pay-off that die-hard Simpsons fans live for."
Reception
Frink is a popular character on The Simpsons and he has received acclaim from critics. Mark Hughes Cobb of The Tuscaloosa NewsThe Tuscaloosa News
The Tuscaloosa News is a daily newspaper serving Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, and the surrounding area in west central Alabama.The newspaper is a member of the New York Times Regional Media Group, a subsidiary of the New York Times Company, through the corporate entity of NYT Holdings, Inc., an...
named him his favorite secondary character from the show. Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is a major U.S. daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. Its area of domination is checked by its main rival, The Dallas Morning News, which is published from the eastern half of the Metroplex. It is owned...
s Robert Philpot called the professor one of the five best supporting characters on The Simpsons, writing that "Springfield's mad scientist is a triumph of style over substance, with Hank Azaria giving him a ripoff Jerry Lewis voice that reminds you why we once thought Lewis was funny." On their list of the top twenty-five peripheral Simpsons characters, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Eric Goldman, Dan Iverson, and Brian Zoromski listed Frink at number fourteen, commenting that he fits nicely into the Simpsons universe "as the town's brilliant mad scientist." They highlighted a scene from the episode "The PTA Disbands", in which Frink becomes a kindergarten substitute teacher and keeps one of the children's toys to himself because the children "wouldn't enjoy it on as many levels" as he did. Nick Griffiths of Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
named Frink one of the best characters of the show, stating that he has "always loved Professor Frink", particularly because of his appearance, gibberish talking, and overuse of the word "the", and because of his inventions such as the matter teleporter that turns Bart into half-human half-fly. The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
s David Hollingworth profiled Frink in his list of "TV's great tech figures", writing that apart from being smart, the professor is best known for his "rather idiosyncratic speech patterns — hmmguyvin-whey-hey." Joe Rhodes of TV Guide listed the following as the professor's most memorable line: "Sorry I'm late. There was trouble at the lab with the running and the exploding and the crying when the monkeys stole the glasses off my head."
Several critics have commented on Frink's inventions. Patrick Goss of MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
's Tech & Gadgets wrote that "When it comes to gizmos, Frink is the king", and listed the Death Ray as one of the greatest gadgets featured in The Simpsons. Although he added that it "was not one of [Frink's] most successful," since it never received the funding it needed from Grampa. On the same list, Goss also featured Frink's automatic phone dialer, intra bovine ice-cream maker (an invention that is inserted into a cow and uses the four stomachs to mix the various ingredients), and hamburger earmuffs. In a profile about Frink, the publication UGO Networks wrote: "Where would the town be without your Jerry Lewis/Julius Kelp-inspired voice and antics? A lot safer most likely. Professor John Frink's inventions range from distracting to disruptive. Who can forget his hamburger earmuffs? Or his teleportation device, responsible for switching Bart Simpson's head with that of a housefly?" Howard Waldrop and Lawrence Person of Locus
Locus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
listed the scene in The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
that features Frink's drilling machine invention as one of the highlights of the film.
Merchandising and legacy
Frink has appeared in various merchandise related to The Simpsons, including issues of Simpsons Comics, the simulator rideSimulator ride
Simulator rides are a type of amusement park ride, where the audience is shown a movie while their seats move to correspond to the action on screen.-History:...
"The Simpsons Ride
The Simpsons Ride
The Simpsons Ride is a simulator ride featured at the Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood theme parks. The ride is based on the animated television series The Simpsons. It was first announced in 2007 and replaced the Back to the Future: The Ride at both locations...
" at Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida is an American theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and...
, and video games such as The Simpsons Wrestling
The Simpsons Wrestling
The Simpsons Wrestling is a professional wrestling video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons, made for the PlayStation console. The game was developed by Big Ape Productions, and published by Fox Interactive and Activision...
, The Simpsons Road Rage
The Simpsons Road Rage
The Simpsons Road Rage is a 2001 video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons, and is part of a series of games based on the show. It was developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, and the GameCube...
, The Simpsons Hit & Run
The Simpsons Hit & Run
The Simpsons Hit & Run is an action-adventure video game based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons. It was released for the GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation 2, and Windows in North America on September 16, 2003, In Europe and Australia on October 31, 2003 and in Japan on December 25, 2003...
, and The Simpsons Game
The Simpsons Game
The Simpsons Game is an action/platformer video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons, made for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable. The game was developed, published, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It was released in North...
. He has also been turned into a Halloween-inspired action figure
Action figure
An action figure is a posable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed towards boys and male collectors...
that was packaged with Kids Meals at Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
in October and . In addition, Frink was featured on the cover of the issue of TV Guide.
The professor has also had an impact on real life
Real life
Real life is a term usually used to denote actual human life lived by real people in contrast with the lives of fictional or fantasy characters.-Usage online and in fiction:On the Internet, "real life" refers to life in the real world...
science. Frink
Frink
Frink, named after the fictional mad scientist Professor John Frink from The Simpsons, is a calculating tool and programming language designed by Alan Eliasen. It is built on the Java Virtual Machine and incorporates features similar to Java, Perl, Ruby, Smalltalk, and various BASIC implementations...
, a computer programming language, was named after him. It is, according to creator of the language, "designed to make physical calculations simple, to help ensure that answers come out right, and to make a tool that's really useful in the real world. It tracks units of measure (feet, meters, kilograms, watts, etc.) through all calculations, allowing you to mix units of measure transparently, and helps you easily verify that your answers make sense."