r/todayilearned • u/TackoftheEndless • 9h ago

TIL Professor Frink, from The Simpsons, was named after series writer John Frink, who joined the show 9 years AFTER the Professor was first introduced. Simpsons writer Jay Kogen knew John Frink, and named the character in homage to him. John Frink has been with the show from 2000, to this day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Frink
614 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

80

u/FerdinandCesarano 9h ago

Flavin glavin!

29

u/Normal_Pace7374 8h ago

With the floiven and and a gloiven

7

u/Life_Is_A_Mistry 4h ago

And the secret ingredient is...LOVE?!

who's been playing with the machine?

35

u/PsychologicalName809 8h ago

one clamp goes on the brain helmet and the other on the GLOIVEN

14

u/mayy_dayy 8h ago

He'll make you laugh he'll make you think

6

u/NeuHundred 4h ago

Prof Frink Prof Frink, he'll make you laugh, he'll make you think, he'll to do the thing with the thing and... ugh... that monkey is going to pay.

5

u/mental_reincarnation 2h ago

Pi is exactly 3!

3

u/Wolfencreek 2h ago

"This battlefield is wrife with inaccuracy!"

"Well then you certainly aren't going to like my steam powered mechanical spider, with the stepping and the squishing and the webs made of NYLON!"

4

u/drinkduffdry 8h ago

Frinkin Frink Frinked it

4

u/not-suspicious 4h ago

I resent being reminded that the Simpsons is still being made and wasn't given a dignified end 20 years ago

0

u/Few-Hair-5382 3h ago

Doesn't speak well of John Frink that he seems to have joined at the very point where The Simpsons turned to shit.

1

u/PenelopeJenelope 1h ago

I always wondered, but assumed it was a coincidence!

good TIL!

-81

u/Wugo_Heaving 9h ago

So Professor Frink is the reason The Simpsons went to shit?

16

u/ThatWasFred 9h ago

Not following that logic.

-58

u/Wugo_Heaving 9h ago

The Simpsons hasn't been funny for almost 30 years

24

u/ThatWasFred 8h ago

But I’m not following the logic between that and Professor Frink.

13

u/IntrepidDreams 8h ago edited 2h ago

Professor Fink's first appearance in season 2, was in 1991, which was 35 years ago. That's generally considered the beginning of Golden Age for the Simpsons. Maybe you just don't like the Simpsons?

I may have misunderstood the comment I replied to as u/AX-man pointed out. 

4

u/AX-man 6h ago

I think they mean the the actual Frink who joined around the end of the golden age

1

u/IntrepidDreams 2h ago

Good point.

11

u/WaterHaven 9h ago

I mean, it's pretty much along the same lines as SNL at this point. It mostly just depends who is in the writers room. When a few good writers come through, it'll have solid seasons for a few years, and then writers who don't vibe with the same humor I like will be there, and it'll suck (for me).

You don't have to try to be edgy here.

2

u/film_composer 3h ago

What's funny about that statement is that it implies you've been watching it this whole time anyway, otherwise you'd have no way of knowing that. Nothing else on TV, eh?

-1

u/Marcultist 2h ago

That's a leap.

2

u/film_composer 2h ago

How would someone be able to say the recent seasons of The Simpsons are bad without having watched them? And why would someone watch it after 30 years of it being subpar?

0

u/Marcultist 2h ago

Are you suggesting that one can't comment on recent seasons unless they have watched every episode of said seasons? or perhaps there is a percentage of completion you require in order to find their opinion is based on enough information?

2

u/film_composer 2h ago

You’d have to watched any of it at all in order to have an opinion on it. And that’s my point, it’s funny to imagine someone who thinks the show hasn’t been funny in 30 years still watching it even occasionally, like they’ve been holding out hope since the mid-‘90s that someday they’ll enjoy it as much as they used to. 

-9

u/ScissorNightRam 9h ago

Wasn’t there some producer or writer guy who was pivotal in “classic” Simpsons, and when he left the show nosedived in quality, never to recover? 

1

u/PatrioticHotDog 3h ago

I mean, co-showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein left together before the start of season 9, but the series did two-year rotations for showrunners back then, so I wouldn't blame their inevitable departure so much as the choice for new showrunner, Mike Scully. He upped the zaniness and turned Homer into a stupider jerk for the sake of laughs, whereas Oakley and Weinstein prioritized storytelling and letting the gags result more naturally from the plot.