# Favorite mad scientist **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253 "2015-09-07T17:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/41 "2015-09-08T03:47:39Z")
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew of Muppet Labs. Where the future is being made today. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/42 "2015-09-08T04:09:08Z")
Dr. Emmett Lathrop “Doc” Brown, of course. 🆒 Follow up: Walter White. Honorable Mention: Walter Bishop. John Noble really gave him some great personality and depth. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/43 "2015-09-08T04:49:10Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Brain? “One is a genius…the other is insane.” That cartoon is about The Brain, like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is about Ferris. > > And I believe more often than not…Brain is the one who effs up the plan. If its Pinky he’s probably deduced the chances are nil and he’s pulling the plug. Ah yes, the very plausible fan theory that Pinky was the real genius: > **[5 Fan Theories About Cartoons That Will Ruin Your Childhood](https://www.cracked.com/article_20382_5-fan-theories-about-cartoons-that-will-ruin-your-childhood.html)** > > Crazy is like currency on the Internet, and among all the garbage, some strangely compelling ideas can emerge, making you rethink shows you thought you knew well. > [@](#): > > But the most conclusive evidence comes from the episode “That Smarts,” in which Brain uses a calculation to identify what makes his plans fail. At first, his machine comes up with this: > > [Picture of Pinky] > > So Brain creates a “smart machine” to turn Pinky into a genius … but his personality doesn’t change in the least (which should be our first clue that he was intelligent all along). Smart Pinky then points out that Brain made an error in his calculations, and the real reason his plans fail is this: > > [Picture of Brain] > > At the end of the episode, Pinky goes back to being dumb … or pretending to. It’s clear to us that Brain’s machine never worked, just like most of his inventions, and Pinky simply took this opportunity to reveal his real self to Brain for a while. So, if Pinky is so smart, why hasn’t he conquered the world himself? Same reason Stephen Hawking hasn’t, probably: He’s not crazy. Pinky never wanted to help Brain; he’s just keeping an eye on the maniac and messing with him. Pinky might be the most effective hero ever. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/44 "2015-09-08T05:15:37Z")
Henry Mulligan of Mammoth Falls. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/45 "2015-09-08T05:26:46Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > No love for Dr. Doofenshmirtz? No one makes a better -inator. Should learn to avoid adding a self-destruct button though. How about Diskworld’s Leonard of Quirm. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/46 "2015-09-08T05:51:13Z")
I nominate the legendary Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes. This one was a two-parter. _The Abominable Dr. Phibes_ > **[The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066740/)** > > The Abominable Dr. Phibes: Directed by Robert Fuest. With Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Hugh Griffith, Terry-Thomas. Doctor, scientist, organist, and biblical scholar Anton Phibes seeks revenge on the nine doctors he considers responsible for the... _Dr. Phibes Rises Again_ > **[Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068503/)** > > Dr. Phibes Rises Again: Directed by Robert Fuest. With Vincent Price, Robert Quarry, Valli Kemp, Peter Cushing. The vengeful doctor rises again, seeking the Scrolls of Life in an attempt to resurrect his deceased wife. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/47 "2015-09-08T10:20:02Z")
I’ll go with Dr. Hugo Strange as he was portrayed in Detective Comics back in 1940. Insane, evil, greedy…when they revived the character in the 1970’s it was initially promising but they have taken him in directions less mad scientisty IMO. There was another early Batman foe, Dr. Death, who had some kewel mad scientist action going on. His stories are more notable, though, for the henchmen that Batsy straight up kills. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/48 "2015-09-08T11:34:15Z")
**C.A. Rotwang** \* from Fritz Lang’s **Metropolis** , played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge. The original Mad-Scientist-Who-Lost-A-Hand. His cinematic laboratory inspired Dr. Frankenstein’s in the movies. His dwarf assistant arguably inspired Fritz and Karl and Ygor and a host of other unusual assistants (right down to today’s _Minions_). Plus he had the first really cool robot. He was always a bit on the edge (he created the robot to “bring back to life” his lost love, Hel, who had married Joh Frederson, Master of Metropolis), but at the end of the film he does go completely mad. Runner-up – **Dr. Pretorius** in **Bride of Frankenstein** , played with aplomb by Ernest Thesiger. A guy who can’t be ruffled by the appearance of a brought-to-life creation while he is himself in the process of robbing a tomb is just incredible. (Of course, he’d already created his own creatures, although we don’t know that by this scene.) Jules Verne had some Mad Scientists, but it was his son, Michel, who really loved them – Xirphan Xirdal in **The Meteor Hunt** , Marcel Camaret in **The Barsac Mission**. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/49 "2015-09-08T12:26:45Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Dr. Emilio Lizardo from _The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension_. My favorite, too… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/50 "2015-09-08T13:01:07Z")
Oh, Dr. Emilio Lizardo is the _definition_ of a mad scientist. Still one of my favorite characters. > [@](#): > > Doomed isa your soul, and damned is your life!" For new ones, a shoutout to Gene ray, who may now be deceased and his **Time Cube** , which has been a fixture on the web for years (sadly, the original site is gone, but google around if you’ve never seen it, I’m sure that it is archived somewhere. For fiction, Kevin Andreyasn of _Schlock Mercenary_ webcomic is my favorite. Hey, he’s invented a galaxy-changing mode of travel, cloned himself, traveled in time, and been killed at least five time (he got better). ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/51 "2015-09-08T13:04:03Z")
In real life you have [Barry Marshall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori#History): > [@](#): > > To demonstrate H. pylori caused gastritis and was not merely a bystander, Marshall drank a beaker of H. pylori culture. He became ill with nausea and vomiting several days later. An endoscopy 10 days after inoculation revealed signs of gastritis and the presence of H. pylori. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/52 "2015-09-08T13:16:40Z")
the very earliest reference I’ve found to a real-life “Mad Scientist” refers to **Constantine Samuel Rafinesque** (1783 – 1840), a polymath and autodidact. He was called both an “eccentric genius” and “mad scientist” in his time. The clincher? He was Professor of Botany at [spoiler] **Transylvania University !!!** For real. Of course, it was Transylvania University in Lexington Kentucky, so no crumbling castles or vampires, but still, it’s significant.[/spoiler] > **[Constantine Samuel Rafinesque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Samuel_Rafinesque)** > > Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (French pronunciation: ​\[kɔ̃stɑ̃tin samɥɛl ʁafinɛsk(ə)ʃmalts\]; October 22, 1783 – September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimately settling in Ohio in 1815, where he made notable contributions to botany, zoology, and the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America. He also contributed to the study of ancient Mes... ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/53 "2015-09-08T14:14:13Z")
Doctor Cockroach from **Monsters vs. Aliens** , movie and TV show. Fifty percent cockroach, fifty percent human, and proud of it. Sort of like “The Fly”, except he embraced his new identity. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/54 "2015-09-08T14:21:21Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Doctor Cockroach from **Monsters vs. Aliens** , movie and TV show. Fifty percent cockroach, fifty percent human, and proud of it. Sort of like “The Fly”, except he embraced his new identity. Well, to be fair, Dr. Cockroach had a very human mouth and could monologue and expostulate and go “Bwa-ha-ha!” all he wanted. The original Fly, and his Son, and (in the final transformation) the David Cronenberg “Brundlefly” (and Chris Walas’ “The Fly II”) — couldn’t. No sound-producing mouthparts. This puts a severe damper on Mad Scientist-ing, and suggests a profound disappointment with their lot. (Yeah, I know that the flip sides of the David/Al Hedison Fly and the really poor sequel “Son of the Fly” did have speaking mouths, but they were attached to the bodies of flies, and couldn’t actually DO anything, except speak in high, squeaky voices (“Hellllllp Meeeee!”) Cronenberg’s Fly didn’t even get that – he ansorbed his Fly, leaving no Fly Complement. ) ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/55 "2015-09-08T14:26:56Z")
Anybody else remember this guy? > **[Morgus the Magnificent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgus_the_Magnificent)** > > Morgus the Magnificent, also known as Momus Alexander Morgus, is a fictional character created and portrayed by actor Sidney Noel Rideau (aka Sid Noel). From the late 1950s into the 1980s, Morgus was a "horror host" of late-night science fiction and horror movies and television shows that originated in the New Orleans, Louisiana market. Morgus is a quintessential mad scientist, assisted by executioner-styled sidekick, Chopsley (Tommy George). Morgus' well-intentioned experiments often served as b... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/56 "2015-09-08T14:28:54Z")
Dr. Lizardo was great, but these days I’m digging Rick, from _Rick and Morty_. Everyone’s favorite alcoholic dimension-hopping gun-running sociopathic grandpa. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/57 "2015-09-08T14:39:52Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Lex Luthor. > Crazy, Scientist, **and** Bald… But even before the first appearance (non-bald, BTW) there was: "The Ultra-Humanite is the first supervillain faced by Superman, and among the first supervillains of the Golden Age of Comics. He was designed to be the polar opposite of Superman; while Superman is a hero with superhuman strength, Ultra-Humanite is a criminal mastermind who has a crippled body but a highly advanced intellect. The Ultra-Humanite served as Superman’s nemesis _ **until Lex Luthor was introduced in the comics.** _ The Ultra-Humanite represents one of the most significant threats to 20th century incarnations of the Justice Society. The origins of the super-criminal known as the Ultra-Humanite are shrouded in mystery. Even he claims not to remember his true name or appearance and attributes his vast intellect and mental prowess to scientific experiments of an unknown nature. A fiendish \*\*\* ‘mad scientist’\*\*\* …" (The above is from Wikipedia, with my emphasis added.) Prior to his later incarnations,he was sometimes shown as [nearly bald](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-Humanite#/media/File:Ultrahumanite1.jpg), sometimes entirely. Again, according to Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/58 "2015-09-08T14:41:21Z")
If engineers count, then my favorite real-life example is [Nikola Tesla](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla). He was certainly mentally ill, he gave all the appearance of being the modern-tech version of a wizard, and his legend has inspired a lot of science-woo craziness (and at least one Dope-trope). For actual scientists, [Wilhelm Reich](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich). ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/59 "2015-09-08T14:42:59Z")
In no particular order [Thomas Midgley, Jr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley,_Jr.#Legacy) [Doctor Algernop Krieger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_(TV_series)#Characters) [Dr. Impossible](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soon_I_Will_Be_Invincible) ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253/60 "2015-09-08T14:47:25Z")
> [@Find\_Friends](#): > > Prior to his later incarnations,he was sometimes shown as [nearly bald](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-Humanite#/media/File:Ultrahumanite1.jpg), sometimes entirely. Again, according to Wikipedia. [Hugo Strange](http://www.comicbookreligion.com/img/h/u/Hugo_Strange.jpg) [Dr. Death.](http://cdn3.whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/dcdcdc.jpg) [Simon Bar Sinister.](http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18dyo1bonorcwjpg/original.jpg) Hair-impaired seems to be a mad scientist thing. In fact, these guys and the Ultra Humanite all look enough alike that they could be related. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-mad-scientist/730253.md?page=4)