Mad Scientist: Difference between revisions

[[File:mad-scientist2 mtg-lab-maniac 3244.jpg|link=Magic: The Gathering|frame|[[Evil Laugh|"MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"]]]]

 

 

They're scientists, they're somewhat [[Absent-Minded Professor|scatterbrained]], [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate|their practice is questionable]], and they are frequently [[Evil Genius|working for the bad guys]], building [[Gadgeteer Genius|implausible gadgetry]], or [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|slightly ridiculous]] [[Doomsday Device|superweapons]]. They tend to wear lab coats, have either [[Einstein Hair|wild hair]] or [[Bald of Evil|total baldness]], and [[Herr Doktor|speak with fake Central European accents]]. Sometimes they will engage in [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]].

 

 

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* Dr. Nishida from the ''[[Witchblade (anime)|Witchblade]]'' anime.

* Matthew Denton of ''[[Heroman]]'', no question. He's the good version-also no question, because in the second episode he gives many [[In the Name of the Moon]] speeches about how [[The Atoner|the alien invasion is his fault and thus he must stop it]]. And most of the stuff he comes up with could not have been conceived by a completely sane mind, ([[Rule of Cool|Of course, this is Anime we're talking about here]]) the most notable being a weaponized guitar that can kill cockroach aliens.

* Washuu, from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]!'' and its spinoff series ''[[Pretty Sammy]]'' (a mostly heroic example).

* Dr. Franken von Vogler from the ''[[Giant Robo]]'' OVA was introduced as a classic ranting Mad Scientist. {{spoiler|The series subverts this trope, as successive flashbacks reveal more about his real motivations.}}

** However, his invention makes sense, is based on diligent research, operates on the notion that the principles discovered in previous discoveries can lead to new ones, is dependent on capitalism to provide funds and is profitable for mankind in general. Mad Scientists everywhere are very, very disappointed in him.

* At least a third of the major characters in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' are mad, or at least amoral, scientists.

** His Arrancar equivalent is Szayel Aporro Grantz, who shares his twisted science, {{spoiler|represented the aspect of death known as "madness"}} and whose own [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] existed solely to provide him food whenever he needed to heal injuries.

** Also {{spoiler|Aizen}} could count as well, what with his experiments on both shinigami and hollows, and his whole {{spoiler|[[A God Am I|I will become God]] thing.}}

* One story in ''[[The Kindaichi Case Files]]'' features the story of a mad scientist who, during WWII, chopped up soldiers and tried to sew the pieces into the ultimate human. {{spoiler|It turns out that the ''real'' "mad scientist" was a pharmaceutical company that tested experimental drugs on six patients, all of whom died.}}

* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime loves this trope, especially for villains:

** Professor Sebastian, who likes [[Gadgeteer Genius|messing with radio waves]] to lure Pokemon/force them to evolve.

** Dr. Namba, the campiest mad scientist on the list, who builds frequently ridiculous contraptions to capture Pokémon for Team Rocket, particularly Cassidy and Butch. [[Berserk Button|Don't get his name wrong, whatever you do.]]

* Dr. Schroeder from ''[[Darker Than Black]]'' is a nice old man, but, as a [http://www.epicwin.org/2007/10/01/darker-than-black-24/ review] put it, "just when you start thinking he's fairly normal, he goes on a slightly psycho, childish rampage".. He only wants to rid the Earth of the [[Alien Sky]] that shut all space programs down. The side effect he ''expects'' would be {{spoiler|killing as many people as there are stars in the sky, literally}}. A problem not explored in series is that there's [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|no way to test]] his project and ensure that in process the whole Earth will not suffer the same fate as all those vanished rockets, turn into one big [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|Gate]], etc. ''He'' is quite sure his theory will work out ''exactly'' as he expects, so [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?]]?

** Dr. Etou from ''Shikkoku no Hana'' manga, on the other hand, is a [[Slasher Smile|grinning]], stuttering and almost drooling specimen—when his superior [[Dope Slap|snaps him out of rants by punching]] this doesn't even look like needless cruelty.

* ''[[Hanaukyo Maid Tai]]''. Head maid of the Technology Department Ikuyo Suzuki sometimes becomes one of these. When she does so, her spectacles become [[Scary Shiny Glasses]]. In ''La Verité'', her face usually gets distorted as well.

* Rintaro Okabe (or Kyouma Houoin as he sometimes prefers to be called) of ''[[Steins;Gate]]'' is a self-proclaimed example, often prone to peals of [[Evil Laughter]], bouts of paranoia, and referring to his inner circle of friends as lab members. Yet despite all of this, he can be surprisingly grounded at times, and realizes that he and his friends' dabbling in time travel and poking about a [[Government Conspiracy]] could land them in very hot water.

* Doc from ''[[Texhnolyze]]'', who doubles as a [[Hot Scientist]]. Putting aside her prosthetic limb fetish and her tendency to have sex with her patients, she also puts wheels on a rat for no reason other than her own apparent amusement.

 

* [[Doctor Doom]].

* [[Spider-Man]]'s [[Arch Enemy]], Doctor Octopus.

*** The Mandarin is basically Dr. Frankenstein and Remo Williams in one man.

* Doctor Sivana and his family are similarly the archenemies of [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]] and friends. He's a five-foot-tall gnome of a man with a chrome dome, huge [[Scary Shiny Glasses]], and more often than not a white lab coat. His stated goals (in no particular order): To become Rightful Ruler of the Universe in fact as well as in name; to spread evil, cruelty, and nastiness throughout the cosmos; and to humiliate, discredit, and ultimately ''KILL CAPTAIN MARVEL!'' Heh heh heh heh!!! What, exactly, his [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife|incredibly attractive and affectionate]] late wife saw in him is a total enigma.

* A heroic Mad Scientist in [[The DCU]] is Doctor Magnus, creator of the [[Metal Men]].

* In the [[Marvel Universe]], AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics) are a terrorist organization of Mad Scientists, who wish to overthrow the world's governments and institute a technocracy.

* Marvel's High Evolutionary. The man built his own '''''planet'''''!

* Mr. Freeze used to be one of these, with no real backstory, just the whole freezing schtick. Then came ''[[Batman: The Animated Series]]'' which gave him [[Incredibly Lame Pun|chillingly]] tragic backstory and motivation, turning him more into a villainous [[The Woobie|Woobie.]] This new version of the character was [[Retcon]][[Canon Immigrant|ned]] into the main DCU.

* [[Batman]] rogue, Scarecrow is an expert psychologist who creates fear gas that preys on the target's most deeply seeded phobias.

* Krona (of [[JLA-Avengers]] fame) is a mad scientist from a species of humanoids who had discovered immortality and realized the potential of the mind's raw power well before Earth's solar system had formed. He was determined to unlock the secret of existence: How had the universe come into being? To this end, he created a "time window" that would allow him to peer at the moment of creation. Unfortunately, apparently the act of looking caused the creation to go awry, and instead of a single universe, a multiverse was formed. Unfortunately, this included one evil antimatter universe... and the seeds for the [[Crisis on Infinite Earths]] were sown. Krona was banished, but eventually was employed by Nekron (the Lord of the Unliving) and turned into the embodiment of entropy. As such, he gradually grew in power, until he reached a point where he ''vivisected entire universes'' in his restless quest for answers. He forcibly interrogated Galactus to find out what he knew. All in the name of ''science''.

* Dr. Billy Joe Robidoux from ''[[Wynonna Earp]]''. To quote Wynonna "He's a southern-fried gumbo of Dr. Josef Mengele, Dr. Frankenstein and runs a real-life version of ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]''."

* The Military Doctor in ''[[Sturmtruppen]]'': He believes to have discovered the Invisibility Elixir without getting insane, while his attendants point out that's actually the other way around. He also thought that a case of anemia was actually caused by a Vampire.

 

* The scientist from the original 1950 movie ''[[The Fly]]'' was the inspiration for Dr. Cockroach in ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]''.

{{quote|"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist!"}}

* Dr. Finklestein from ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]''.

* Syndrome from ''[[The Incredibles]]''. Created rocket boots before he hit puberty, as part of a youthful desire to become a crime-fighter. But when his hero told him to back off, he spent more than a decade plotting against all the heroes-in-hiding and picking them off. His ultimate goal {{spoiler|was to sell his inventions for profit, ''after'' he grew bored of becoming a "superhero"}}. His hair wasn't the only thing about him that was loco.

* The 1931 ''[[Frankenstein's Monster]]'' and other horror films of the time also drew heavily for their portrayals of mad scientists on Rotwang in Fritz Lang's classic 1927 SF film ''[[Metropolis]]''. Rotwang, in turn, draws on the Mad Scientist depictions of Frankenstein in nineteenth-century stage melodrama.

* ''[[Attack of the Killer Tomatoes]]'': Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene qualifies, what with his diabolical plans to conquer the world with giant killer tomatoes, tomatoes turned into people, people turned into tomatoes, etc., etc. Don't call him mad, though. HE IS NOT MAD. A little angry sometimes, but not mad!

* The ''[[Back to The Future]]'' trilogy has Emmett L. Brown, who is a bit more cuddly than your average Mad Scientist. Then again, this is the man who stole weapons grade plutonium from Libyan terrorists and promised to build them a nuke ([[I Lied|he lied]]).

* [[Vincent Price]] in ''[[Edward Scissorhands]]'' might just be the kindliest Mad Scientist ever. His second-most-impressive creation (after Edward) is a giant cookie-making machine. And he creates Edward with the expressed desire to see if it's possible to make an artificial being with human love. And then amuses both of them with silly poetry later. Aw!

* The Woody Allen comedy ''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask'' has a skit featuring Dr. Bernardo, a mad sex analyst whose experiments include measuring premature ejaculation on a hippopotamus and building a 400-foot diaphragm. ("Contraception for the entire nation at once!") The segment ends with Allen's character battling one of the doctor's creations—a gigantic, disembodied human breast.

* The original ''[[Godzilla]]'' had Dr. Daisuke Serizawa who invented the Oxygen Destroyer that ultimately kills Godzilla. Though, he isn't evil.

* In ''[[Igor]]'' mad scientists are like rock stars, and one of the most well known is Dr Schadenfreude.

* Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr in ''[[The Man With Two Brains]]'' eventually becomes one of these—or, rather, a parody of one:

* Dr. Frank N. Furter from ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'', who is also a [[Villainous Crossdresser]].

* ''[[The Spiderwick Chronicles]]'' has Arthur Spiderwick.

* The film ''[[Terror of Mechagodzilla]]'' has the character of Dr. Mafune who not only turns his own daughter into a cyborg, but he also invents a device that allows him to control the sea monster Titanosaurus.

* The Doctor, a.k.a. {{spoiler|Rex Lewis}} a.k.a. {{spoiler|Cobra Commander}} takes the role of the mad scientist in ''[[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]''.

* ''[[The Prestige]]'' gives you two for one. Nikola Tesla (played by [[David Bowie]]) builds a matter duplicator, which one of the two main protagonists (antagonists?) uses to perform an "impossible" magic trick. The scientist is mad (see ''Read Life'' below) and so is the magician who uses his device.

* Dr. Nai of ''[[The Clones Of Bruce Lee]]'' may have been influenced by Thomas Edison (see Tom's entry below in Real Life); he's a mad scientist who actually just has other people do all the inventing for him, such as a vegetation-destroyer, while he wears a business suit and yells at his scientists to invent faster. For the curious, [[The Spoony Experiment]] did a review of this movie (you are unlikely to ever be able to find the original copy...).

* Krank in ''[[The City of Lost Children]]'' certainly counts. And he appears to be {{spoiler|the creation of another mad scientist}}.

* Dr. Rochelle in ''The Return of [[Swamp Thing (film)|Swamp Thing]]'', who is more interested in causing mutations than in researching the key to eternal life like his boss would want him to.

* Dr. Arless Loveless in ''[[Wild Wild West (film)|Wild Wild West]]''.

* Doctor [[Punny Name|Catheter]] in ''[[Gremlins]] 2'', played to the hilt by [[Christopher Lee]]. Interestingly he subverts it later on when he rejects his experiments as immoral, and vows that he will not commit cruel genetic experiments on animals again.

* Pauline from the independent film ''Excision''.

* Since ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'' is Shakespeare's ''[[The Tempest]]'' [[In Space]], the wizard Prospero is replaced by the (mad) scientist Dr. Morbius. He's discovered the relics of an ancient alien civilization, one of which boost his intelligence to far greater heights than those puny mortals around him could possibly comprehend, do you hear me! Wah ha ha ha ha!

 

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' books, the Alchemists' Guild are also [[Magitek]] mad scientists. Inverted with the character of Jeremy Clockson, who has the detachment from reality and dangerous obsession of the typical Mad Scientist because (most of the time, and in a very specialised way) he's ''saner'' than normal people.

** Bergholt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson may qualify, aside from his architectural and landscaping mishaps he made a mail-sorter with a wheel that has pi as exactly 3, it started churning out mail from the future and alternate universes until the post master smashed it.

** Leonard of Quirm isn't so much mad as unable to foresee the consequences of his inventions.

* The King of the Mountain in [[Enid Blyton]]'s ''The Mountain of Adventure''.

* [[H.P. Lovecraft]] definitely had more than one Mad Scientist character.

** Herbert West, mentioned above in the [[Film of the Book]] (albeit updated to later in the 20th Century.)

* [[Arthur Machen]]'s ''The Inmost Light'' written in 1894 contains a rather horrific version of this trope.

* The villain of [[Hilari Bell]]'s ''[[Knight and Rogue Series|The Last Knight]]'' is a rare example of a mad scientist in a fantasy setting, performing dubiously ethical experiments in order to give magical powers to humans (as, in the story's universe, only plants and animals have magic).

* The ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' introduce Qui'w Xux, an incredibly brilliant scientist who designed the laser for the Death Star, the World Destroyers, the Sun Crusher and a number of other dangerous creations. Unlike many others in this trope her extremely guarded upbringing (she was raised by Imperials in an oppressive cram school where the price for failure was your hometown being obliterated) has caused her to develop a very naive and innocent view of her creations, having been led to believe they were intended for industrial applications (the Death Star would blow up a massive asteroid which the World Destroyers would then be able to harvest for materials, etc.).

* Dr. Griffin from [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The Invisible Man (novel)|The Invisible Man]]''. All the evidence suggests that he was not entirely stable to begin with; after he [[Freak Lab Accident|manages to turn himself permanently invisible]], he becomes a murdering psychopath bent on domination who refers to himself as [[That Man Is Dead|"Invisible Man the First"]].

* Subverted to some extent in the George R.R. Martin-edited ''[[Wild Cards]]'' books. There are Mad Scientists a plenty, on both hero and villain sides. Or at least folks who have been infected with the wild card virus who are now determined to build androids, giant mecha suits and all manner of mad-sciencey devices. The kicker is that the inventions they create ''really are'' just piles of unworkable junk, and the particular power they have developed is the [[Magic-Powered Pseudoscience|ability to make their crazy inventions work]]. Any attempt to analyze and reproduce the devices prove to be fruitless and show that there is no way they should function in the first place.

* Professor Drummond from the Nick Carter short story "Nick Carter and the Professor" from 1902. This story appeared in the reprint anthology Nick Carter, Detective published in 1963 by the MacMillan Company, with an introduction by Robert Clurman. Drummond worked out of Malden, MA and had his underlings steal a body from Mount Auburn in Cambridge. Carter also faced Dr. Jack Quartz.

* Middle-Earth:

** Fëanor in ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' falls somewhere between this and [[Mad Artist]]. An extraordinarily gifted craftsman and scholar, he starts out rather paranoid and nasty ([[Freudian Excuse|because of]] the [[Missing Mom|death of his mother]] and remarriage of his father) and ends up [[Revenge Before Reason|completely unhinged]] after his father is killed and his finest works are stolen.

* Crake from ''[[Oryx and Crake]]'' combines with [[Evilutionary Biologist]]

* ''[[The Corsay Books]]'' have a wide variety, from Frankenstien-style reanimationists, to those dabbling in [[Alien Geometries]], to specialists in disciplines that seem closer to magic. They are the main antagonists of the work, but generally portrayed as misguided and dangerous rather than evil.

{{quote|''And he had to hide his genius or use it'' to play tricks with, ''when, with an ordinary face, he would have been one of the most distinguished of mankind!'' }}

* The main character of [[The Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling]] is one of these. He doesn't start off as one, but by the end of the first episode, he resides firmly in this territory. There seem to be some other characters who are also Mad Scientists, but we haven't seen them in any great detail yet.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[Hermetic Millenium|Count to a Trillion]]'', Menelaus tries a very hypothetical and dangerous experiment on himself the first chance he can get.

 

* Jha'Dur in the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' episode "Deathwalker".

* Beakman on ''[[Beakman's World]]'' had the outward appearance of one, but as this was an [[Edutainment Show]], most of his science was pretty sound. Most of it.

*** Well, it's implied a lot of the tech both at the L.A. and possibly other Dollhouses are his invention, so he's probably earned a place here.

** [[Summer Glau|Bennett]] appears to be one of these, too, if the promo material is anything to go by.

** Disappeared? What show were you watching?

*** Possibly one with an alternate-dimension version of Walter who ''doesn't'' dose caterpillars with LSD, wander around the lab with a cow, express a desire to own a two-headed goat and actually ''say'' [[They Called Me Mad]].

* Obviously, the title character in the ''[[Farscape]]'' episode "DNA Mad Scientist".

* Played with in the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdhwTXwhA4c Dr. Death sketch] on ''[[That Mitchell and Webb Look]]''. Dr. Death is closely modelled on a German scientist immigrant (see [[Real Life]] below) who has been working in secret on technology to help America win the war. Parodied in that his first invention is a laser, a.k.a. Death Ray, that's used to... scan the barcode on a can of beans, and he's disgusted when the president wants his creation used for destruction. Later played straight when Dr. Death unveils his Death Scorpion (with a gatling gun to dispense [[Healing Shiv|helpful bullets]]) and he also tries to destroy it when it's to be used for the war effort.

'''Dr: Death:''' ''(shouting over hammer blows)'' Forgive me, Mr. President, but I created the Laser-Fitted Armored Scorpion of Death to help mankind, not to destroy! }}

* In the ''[[Supernatural]]'' episode ''Time Is on My Side'', the brothers encounter Doc Benton, a Mad Scientist who has used Mad Science to make himself immortal, but often needs to kidnap people and steal their organs when his old ones wear out.

* Dr. Boris Balinkoff in the ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' episode "The Friendly Physician", who performs mind-transfer experiments on the castaways.

** He also appeared in "Ring Around Gilligan", where he was testing his mind-control rings on the castaways.

** Tory in particular has his Mad Scientist moments when building the more bizare props. Like a human sized dummy made from [[Frankenstein's Monster|sewn together pieces of pork]].

* Omaro Cantu from the show ''[[Future Food]]'' has some Mad Scientist overtones.

 

* ''[[Dr. Steel]]'' is a steampunk themed industrial musician whose look consists of a shaved head, [[Beard of Evil|pointy beard]], vintage welding goggles and a mad scientist lab coat.

* The ''[[Abney Park]]'' song "The Secret Life of Dr Calgori" is about a Mad Scientist.

* The [[They Might Be Giants|Mono Puff]] song "Poison Flowers" is about a young would-be mad scientist lamenting the beginning of the school year as he will no longer have time to build bombs and [[Death Ray|death rays]], or to write manifestos.

** In particular, "Skullcrusher Mountain" is notable for for a line that flirts dangerously with [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]:

{{quote|''I made this half pony, half monkey monster to please you,

* Professor Elemental is a [[The Island of Dr. Moreau|Dr. Moreau]]-like Mad Scientist in his song, "Animal Magic".

{{quote|''The myriad wonders of nature it's true

* The Wierd Science theme song by [[Danny Elfman|Oingo Boingo]] is about making a woman. With pot and pans apparently.

** And... [[The Spoony Experiment|SCIENCE!!]]

 

* The mythical [[Greek Mythology|Greek]] inventor Daedalus may be regarded as the first Mad Scientist.

* The god Hephaestus deserves a spot here thanks to his many wacky inventions, some of them fueled by his seething negative emotions, including his trap-throne, which he used to trap his mother, Hera, in revenge for literally throwing him out of Olympus for being an ugly baby, his trap-sofa, which he used to capture and humiliate Aphrodite and Ares in order to highlight Aphrodite's infidelity, and to further spite Ares, gave Aphrodite's daughter by Ares, Harmonia, a magic necklace cursed to bring tragedy and misfortune to its wearers, while simultaneously keeping them young and beautiful. Harmonia's necklace would have several owners, including Semele, the mother-to-be of Dionysus, and Jocasta, [[Parental Incest|mother and *cough* wife]] of Oedipus.

 

* Parodied on one episode of ''[[Dinosaurs]]'': a scientist on TV gives the "They called me MAD!" speech before unveiling his latest creation, a giant living squash. When his assistant calls him mad, the scientist calmly agrees, adding that what made him seek revenge is that he's ''angry''-mad, not ''insane''-mad.

* Dr. Bunsen Honeydew of ''[[The Muppet Show]]''.

 

* ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' gameline had the "Sons of Ether", a "Tradition" of technomantic mad scientists who see their magick as the ultimate form of True Science. Virtual Adepts and Iteration X also fit this mold.

* The fan made ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'', which is all about Mad Scientists so crazy that they can create stuff that ''bends the laws of physics''.

*** ''Staunen''; [[For Science!|curiosity]] and amazement: "''Oh, the things I have seen...''"

* ''[[Promethean: The Created]]'' eventually reveals that most Demiurges are this; [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder|overwhelmed by the force of the Divine Fire]], they decide it's a perfectly logical course of action to [[Creating Life|make something new out of a corpse or parts of corpses]].

** Magnus the Red, Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons, arguably qualifies for this trope, though he's more of a mad wizard. He's got the reckless pursuit of knowledge, megalomania, production of the odd superweapon, and lead an entire legion of super soldiers into daemonic corruption.

** Every Mekboy ever. When they aren't building [[Humongous Mecha|big stompy idols of Gork and Mork]], they're building chaotic field artillery or welding big guns onto bigger guns.

** Its sequel, ''Hell on Earth'', is set in a future where Mad Science brought about the [[Apocalypse How]]. As a result ( {{spoiler|this was the ultimate goal of the demons who caused mad science in the first place, so they stopped 'helping' when it was achieved}}), traditional mad science stopped working, and was replaced with [[Techno Wizard|techno-shamanism]] and a more [[Anvilicious]] source of insanity: "gun spirits".

*** That's not entirely accurate. While the creation of new Mad Science devices is impossible, those already constructed still work as long as they are kept in good repair. {{spoiler|This is why Dr. Hellstrom is still stomping around: He keeps his automaton body well maintained.}}

** ''[[Greyhawk]]'' got some pretty crazy mechanical and [[Magitek|semi-magical]] [[Schizo-Tech]] made by humans and gnomes alike, the craziest of which—along with wacky stories of the inventors—was collected in '[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=4611 The Book of Wondrous Inventions]' [[Sourcebook]] (once [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dungeons-and-dragons/wtf-wondrous-items.php trampled] by [[Something Awful]]). Most of it hardly have a place in a sane game, but is sort of funny—that is, as long as [[The Loonie]] in your party didn't saw it too.

** It's up to ''[[Ravenloft]]'' to take up slack for the others on this trope. Being a "Gothic horror" game-setting, it does so in spades, with golem-crafters (Victor Mordenheim, Emil Bollenbach), [[Biological Mashup]]-makers (Frantisek Markov, Vjorn Horstman), Mind-Raping psychiatrists (Daclaud Heinforth, Celeste d'Honaire-Levode), and Woobie-ish crackpots trying to reconstruct their dead loved ones (too many to list). And that's not counting all the cackling weirdos who'd more properly be classified as Mad ''Necromancers''.

* ''[[Pathfinder]]'' has the Alchemist class, bomb-chucking, drug-swilling [[Expy|expies]] of [[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde|Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde]], [[H.P. Lovecraft|Herbert West]], and [[The Island of Doctor Moreau|Doctor Moreau]].

* A good amount of the masters from ''[[My Life with Master]]''.

 

* ''The Timekeeper'' attraction at [[Disney Theme Parks]] starred a robotic one voiced by [[Robin Williams]].

 

* All the Makuta in ''[[Bionicle]]'', especially Mutran. The Great Beings also qualify.

* The ''Doctor Dreadful'' line of toys features the eponymous doctor as its mascot, and encourages kids to become one too by using his lab toys to make the various gross food creations.

 

* ''[[Advance Wars]]'' had Lash, a girl genius version of the mad scientist. The reboot ''Days of Ruin'' has Caulder/Stolos, probably the most extreme mad scientist ever. Among his creations are {{spoiler|the games equivalent to nukes, a giant bomber, cloned humans intended to be used as [[Super Soldier|Super Commanders]], and most of all, a virus that kills its host by growing flowers all over it's body}}. He also loves to manipulate people into fighting each other just so he can observe them and views humans as little more than test subjects... [[Cloning Blues|Including himself]].

** I would like to point out that he {{spoiler|doesn't think that the flower virus is deadly enough, so he UPGRADES it to kill EVERYONE (rather than just adults, which is what the first version did).}} Also, {{spoiler|'Giant Bomber' means a plane so large that two armies can fight on one wing, and each bomb can destroy thirteen buildings in one explosion.}} Guy is a genius. Completely insane nutcase, but still a genius.

* Klungo from the ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' games. He's responsible for Gruntilda's Beauty-Stealing Machine and in Grunty's Revenge is hinted that he also created Grunty's monster army. Unique in the fact he also happens to be the [[The Igor]].

* Dr. Suchong from ''[[Bioshock]]'' is the sinister and detached version, the warped genius behind much ADAM research, including several plasmids, the [[Creepy Child|Little Sisters]], and the Big Daddies.

** Not to mention the fact that he was the linchpin behind virtually everything that went wrong in Rapture, including {{spoiler|the protagonist himself}}—but, at least, he {{spoiler|died an [[Hoist by His Own Petard|ironic death]]...}}

* Dr. Albert Wily from the ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series; arguably, the heroic Dr. Light as well.

** Wily's so nuts, some of his own ''creations'' are mad scientists, too; most notably, Gravity Man, whose data card quote is taken from Galileo.

** ''[[Mega Man X]]'' gives us Serges (who is speculated to be connected to Wily), Dr. Doppler (although he didn't really have a choice...), Gate (see Doopler).

** We also have Dr. Weil from the ''[[Mega Man Zero|Zero]]'' series, {{spoiler|Master Albert}} from the ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'' series, as well as Wily and {{spoiler|Regal}} from the ''[[Battle Network]]'' series, and Vega and {{spoiler|King}} from the ''[[Mega Man Star Force|Star Force]]'' series. In fact, it seems most Mega Man villains are mad scientists. [[Fridge Logic|How else would they get all those robots, if not building them]]?

** ''[[Resident Evil]]'': Albert Wesker

** ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'': Willaim Birkin

** ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'': Wesker, ''again''.

** ''[[Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City]]'': Four-Eyes

** It should be noted, however, that the same game also hints that he was the one who created the new threat in the first place in the Good Bye Fox scenario.

* Lemon Browning from ''[[Super Robot Wars]]''. While not really 100% evil, she did conduct very mad researches that borders on [[A God Am I|playing God]], such as the premise of W Numbers, which is to create an [[Artificial Human]] that is as perfect as possible compared to usual humans. She's also sort of the [[Evil Twin]] of [[Ms. Fanservice|Excellen Browning]].

** Kenzo Kobayashi was one of these (still is to an extent), but performed a [[Heel Face Turn]] in Original Generation (officially, was doing so slowly anyway after he developed a conscience prior)

** Let's not forget Dr. Bian Zoldark. Initiates research on alien technology and starts a war to get the Earth prepared for alien invasion. Where's the mad part in that? He made Valsione for his daughter.

* ''Dr. Muto'''s title character is a protagonist example: his machine [[Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds|accidentally destroyed his own planet]] and he spends the game trying to collect the [[MacGuffin]]s required to rebuild everything, aided by the fact that he can transform into various creatures to progress.

* [[The Medic]] and The Engineer of ''[[Team Fortress 2]]''. The former is a [[Herr Doktor|German]] [[Deadly Doctor]] who heals out of convenience rather than anything resembling altruism, while the Engineer is a Texan [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|holder of numerous degrees]] [[Gadgeteer Genius]] who has a great [[Evil Laugh]].

** The Engineer is something of a subversion. [[Evil Laugh]] aside, he's probably the sanest character in [[World of Ham|the game]].

*** Aaaaand that's now gone straight out the window, with the engineer cutting off his own hand to replace it with a robotic one that deploys mini-sentries. Or possibly he always had a robot hand, and just hid it beneath his glove all this time.

*** Still the nicest, most down-to-earth guy on his team. Really.

{{quote|'''Heavy:''' Doctor, are you sure this will work?

'''Medic:''' ([[Evil Laugh]]) I have ''no idea!'' }}

* ''[[Thief]] II: The Metal Age'' features Father Karras of the Mechanists. He's mentioned in the first game as the fellow responsible for Garrett's replacement ocular, but by the second installment, he's gone completely 'round the bend and is cheerfully intent on bringing about [[The End of the World as We Know It]]. Among his achievements are the successful invention of robots, cameras, voice recordings, and motion-sensing automatic cannons in a vaguely Medieval [[Steampunk]] setting, along with horrific cyborgs that [[Fate Worse Than Death|constantly weep in agony and beg for death]]. He also has a preoccupation with Garrett...

* Dr. Kranken from ''[[Viewtiful Joe]] 2'' fits the trope (like everything else in the games) to a stereotypical T.

{{quote|'''Hanpan:''' There you go again, with another crazy idea... Isn't this illegal?

'''Jack:''' Someone stop this crazy professor...

* Faust from ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' before and after his [[Heel Face Turn]], although after he's more like a wild, [[Cloudcuckoolander|mad]], [[The Atoner|but generous]] [[Heroic Sociopath]].

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' has several, but Relmyna of ''Shivering Isles'' stands out in particular. Obsessed with the power of flesh (no, really), she enjoys creating twisted monstrosities such as Flesh Atronarchs and the Gatekeeper, and considers them her "children". She also conducts some grisly experiments on the concepts of pain and suffering. Oh, and [[Heroic Sociopath|she's on your side]].

** Great news, everyone! Professor Putricide's become something of an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] since his introduction to the game. [[Memetic Mutation]] probably helps.

** The goblin race as a whole fits this, too. Usually their inventions involve [[Stuff Blowing Up]].

* ''[[Mass Effect]] 2''s Mordin Solus may qualify, although he's more eccentric than outright mad. He's a Salarian doctor who was formerly a member of a special forces squad, then ran a clinic where he cured an entire population of a devastating plague while personally shooting attacking mercenaries in the head, both of which he sees as a public service. He also seems to have a taste for Gilbert & Sullivan.

** He also keeps up a set of ethics and principles that he refuses to break, notably despising the idea of [[Playing with Syringes]] and experiments that lead to more suffering than necessary. In the end, he believes in saving lives, even through [[I Did What I Had to Do|questionable]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|means]].

*** Daro'Xen is appropriately voiced by [[Claudia Black]].

** Halfway between them both may fall {{spoiler|Tali's father}}; A [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] with poor judgment and a bit too little foresight, he performs experiments on the geth solely because he believes it will help his people (his daughter in particular). It backfires and he dies because of it.

** Pretty much ''any'' [[Proud Warrior Race|krogan]] scientist. One laments that he will never be appreciated for his work in the field of [[Stuff Blowing Up]], which he came to realize after [[Klingon Promotion|he pulled the knife out of his mentor's chest]]. And he's the ''sanest one you meet''.

* The ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]'' series gives us Aperture Laboratories, an entire company full of mad scientists. Driven by their grandiosely insane founder and CEO, Cave Johnson, they got started in [[The Fifties]] by recruiting the best of the best of humankind and employing them as human lab rats in a vast array of [[Mad Science]] experiments. Said experiments involved such things as [[Body Horror]] transmutations, [[I Love Nuclear Power|irradiation]], [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|DNA injections]], and, of course, their signature [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleportation experiments]], one result of which was the Handheld Portal Device that forms a core part of the gameplay. Their crowning achievement was [[Artificial Intelligence]], but even here they only succeeded in creating an AI as madly deranged as they were. GLaDOS proceeded to [[Turned Against Their Masters|take over the research program]]... by [[Murder Is the Best Solution|murdering all the scientists]] with a deadly neurotoxin. It is then up to the protagonist to enter this maze of insanity and [[Escape From the Crazy Place|find a way to escape]]. The closing song to the first game (sung by GLaDOS) makes all this starkly clear.

** ''[[Portal 2]]'' ups the ante, primarily by sending the player on an exploration of Old Aperture—the test facilities from [[The Fifties]], where [[Posthumous Character|prerecorded messages]] from Cave Johnson lay out the founding principles of the company and its decline into bankruptcy and despair, culminating with the aforementioned push for AI.

{{quote|'''Cave Johnson:''' "For this next test, we're going to have a superconductor turned up to full power and aimed directly at you. No idea what it'll do. I'll be honest, we're just throwing science at the wall here to see what sticks. Best case, you get some superpowers. Worst case, some tumors, which we'll cut out."}}

* Seath the Scaleless from ''[[Dark Souls]]'' is a ''dragon'' that combines this with [[Evil Sorceror]]. He is described as the grandfather of sorcery and the creator of various magical creatures like the Moonlight Butterfly. He went insane trying to decipher the one mystery that eluded him his whole life: why he was the only dragon born without the scales of immortality that ''every other dragon'' had.

* Dr. Neil Jason in [[Absorption]].

* ''[[Kingdoms of Amalur]]: Reckoning'' has Ventrinio, a [[Token Evil Teammate]] late in the game who had a hand in your character's death and subsequent ressurrection.

'''Ventrinio''': No, I'm a ''scientist''. I ''make'' monsters. }}

 

* Most of the main characters in ''[http://bogleech.com/animations.html The Fear Hole]'' are one of these, with the exception of [[Jerkass|Dan the Janitor]]. They have a tendency to be, how do you say it... [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate|amoral.]]

 

* ''[[Annyseed]]'' has the crazy, charming, sometimes grumpy and a little suspicious, Yet lovable, Professor Tripadiculous. He likes doing tests on Monkeys. He has the documents required or that sort of thing too. So don't question him.

* ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' was created with the tagline, "Mad scientist roommates who periodically die." Both the eponymous mad scientists have, frequently, died, often at each other's hands, and often while indulging in mad science experiments. It doesn't help that one of them dates (a female) Satan, and their neighbour is an extreme [[Weirdness Magnet]] {{spoiler|who is also an international jewel thief}}.

* The Russian atomic bomb researcher from ''[[Atomic Robo]]''.

* ''[[Books Don't Work Here]]'' has Sparky to fill this role, and while he only has a bachelor's degree he is far enough removed from lucidity to qualify.

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' is set in an alternate timeline where "Mad Scientists rule the world. Badly." Some people are born as "Sparks", with Mad Scientific ability as an inheritable trait—accompanied with a tendency to go into [[Unstoppable Rage|a berserk, ranting fury]], and a [[Magnetic Hero|strange charisma]], which helps to gather [[The Igor|minions]].

** Mad Scientists seem to actually outnumber sane scientists in this world. Even those without the "Spark" seem a little crazy. Maybe [[Fridge Brilliance|they're just acting as scientists are expected to act]].

** They even have [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090506 mad social scientists]!

** The protagonist is the latest in a long line of incredibly powerful Sparks, and her Sparky trademark is that she has a habit of creating "dingbots," small (the size of a cartoon pocketwatch) Clanks, to assist her. She's such a powerful Spark that they show Sparky tendencies themselves, and even build dingbots of their own - which may go on to build third-generation dingbots. That's right, she's such an impressive Mad Scientist, her creations are ''also'' Mad Scientists.

* ''[[Narbonic]]'' has "going Mad" as an [[Science-Related Memetic Disorder|inheritable genetic disorder.]] The main characters are a mad scientist, her hapless lackey, her gun-toting assistant, and a superintelligent gerbil she created.

** Not only is mad scientist Helen B. Narbon a [[Card-Carrying Villain|Card Carrying Mad Scientist]] but her mother is also.

* ''[[Nukees]]'' features Gaviscon van Darrin ("I'm not mad, just really disappointed"), Danny Hua (creator of the Giant Robot Ant), and His Royal Highness King Luca, Monarch of the Nuclear Engineering Department of U.C. Berkeley.

* ''[[Umlaut House]]'' and its successor involve several mad scientists, of both good and evil varieties, and even had a Mad Science Convention.

** ''Sluggy'' also gives a pretty good explanation for why mad science is unrepeatable: [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20070706 Riff doesn't write down "no-brainers"] in his notes, so when people try to replicate his inventions, they can't, since they're used to everything being ''exactly'' as written.

* ''[http://www.madaboutu.com Mad About U.]'' is about a ''college'' for mad scientists.

* Jordan Kennedy in ''[[Exploitation Now]]'', an embittered and tragic [[Teen Genius]] who is the last survivor of a project to enhance human intelligence to super-human levels. Known for holding countries for ransom with stolen nuclear weapons and an [[Kill Sat|orbital laser]] or two.

* Morgan La Fey, in ''[[Arthur, King of Time and Space]]'' is an amoral sorceress in the baseline arc, but a Mad Scientist in the Western arc. And in the future arc, she's an amoral scientist ''[[Magitek|and]]'' a Mad Sorceress.

* Most members of the Society of Inventors in ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' are in fact somewhat benevolent mad scientists. Other characters in the series (such as Archie Stanwyck and the monkey-obsessed Dr. Petrescu) are mad scientists pure and simple. Especially Petrescu, who's idea of a mobile phone is a normal landline strapped to a monkeys head.

* Molly the Peanut Butter Monster, Galatea the ''Other'' Peanut Butter Monster, and Dean Martin in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]''. Poor Dr. Jean Poule would probably qualify as well, with her bizarre pet project which accidentally generated Molly?if not for the fact that Jean is, in many ways, the sanest person in the whole comic, a quality which in her universe is actually a bit of a handicap.

* In ''[[Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth]]'', the group of engineers who constructed the Ultimate Goblin Engineered Weapon.

** Probably Flintlocke too, regarding weapon engineering.

* ''[[Minions At Work]]'': Offering [http://www.minionsatwork.com/2009/02/minions-151-hard-to-swallow.html An early retirement plan with a fresh, minty after-taste!]

* Florence, a [[Petting Zoo People|humanoid wolf]] and a main character of ''[[Freefall]]'' sometimes worries that her creator, Dr. Bowman, isn't entirely on the straight and narrow.

** Of course, [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1200/fv01162.htm said wolf also thought breaking down stars for parts was a good idea...]

* ''[[The Mansion of E]]'': Sylvester's ancestor Ludwig, who left behind numerous dangerously useful magical-powered machines.

* ''[[The Whiteboard]]'' has Doc and Roger, though Doc focuses on paintball and military hardware.

* ''[[Game Destroyers]]'' had Dr. Fred Edison of [[Maniac Mansion]] as their army's mad scientist for a period of time. He has yet to be replaced.

* It appears that {{spoiler|Franken}} from ''[[Noblesse]]'' has been one in his old days, which isn't surprising, considering {{spoiler|[[Mary Shelley's Frankenstein|his name]]}}. He even has an eleborate lab in his apartment and is very willing to use anyone for subjects, although it's mostly for harmless and frankly silly experiments, but it horrifies people anyway. It becomes especially evident if he unlocks his seal and unleashes his [[Super-Powered Evil Side]], which is the biggest source of [[Nightmare Fuel]] in the series.

{{quote|Ah, my beautiful, indestructible Heisenberg eels!}}

* May of ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' was most likely one of these back in the day. Her inventions and plans have resulted in a few end of the world scenarios.

* ''[[Wayward Sons]]'': Doctor Chu is a small being resembling a rat, who is a brilliant scientist. He also happens to get a lot of his results by performing torturous experiments on live subjects. And it's often [[Complete Monster|not for science]].

* ''[[Tales Of Gnosis College]]'' is devoted to this trope. Examples include the relatively benign Professor Joseph Corwin and the not-so-benign Dr. Emil Strangeways.

* In ''[[Frankie and Stein]]'', the titular Stein is an [[Adorkable]] Mad Scientist child, complete with [[Mad Scientist Laboratory]].

* ''Rock, Paper, Cynic'' explains the difference: [http://rockpapercynic.com/index.php?date=2014-03-04 The Scientific Method vs. The Mad Scientific Method].

 

* The title character of ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog]]'' is very obviously drawn from this trope's clichés. With a few tweaks.

* Sukebe from ''[[Pokegirls]]''. In an odd application of the trope, he does succeed in bringing about the Apocalypse... mostly. But it's not complete, and the world got better eventually. Still, he will always be remembered as having "showed them all", that's for sure.

* [http://s2b2.livejournal.com/110334.html?view=1613310#t1613310 This] ''Shousetsu Bang*Bang'' fic has a mad scientist as main character, along with his [[Slash Fic|loyal]] [[Evil Minions|minion]], Scarface.

* ''[[The Pentagon War]]'', which tries to be serious Hard SF, actually has a character ''[[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|named]]'' The Mad Scientist.

* ''[http://nequ.deviantart.com/art/Sonny-Gets-Mad-Scienced-144594113 Sonny gets Mad Scienced]'' deconstructs this sort of thing by showing it from the perspective of the potential victim. It addresses issues such as funding and why the henchmen would even still work with a lunatic. Turns out they have a "Death Ray clause" in their contract.

* The ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', like any decent superhero setting based on comic books, has dozens of mad scientists creeping around. Notable examples include Heinrich von Frankenstein, Baron Malthus, Doctor Simian, Phillipe Moreau, the Evil Genius, Doctor Blight, Doctor Sinister, Emilio Astonishing, Doctor XX, Doctor Devastation, Professor Sunday, Professor Septimus, Penelope Periwinkle, and Doctor Gavin von Leggend. And that'ss just the bad guys.

* ''[[Agamemnon Tiberius Vacuum]]'', and his henchman, Dr. Sophocles.

* Herr Doktor Innis du par Nachteltaffen, one of the drop-in characters on ''[[Warning! Readers' Advisory]]''.

 

* Professor Farnsworth on ''[[Futurama]]'' takes this to the lengths of parody and beyond. Case in point:

** "Even '''I''' laughed at me when I proposed the cross-species genetic analyzer, but I guess I showed ''myself''!"

*** His rival and former student, Professor [[Berserk Button|WERNSTROM!]] is of the evil (or at least [[Jerkass|asshole]]) variation.

** [[Leonardo da Vinci]] also counts.

{{quote|'''Frink:''' ''(as a radio controlled baby-plane with his son in it crashes)'' Oh dear. My wife is going to kill me.}}

* The Brain of ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]''.

* Dr Karbunkle in ''[[Biker Mice From Mars]]''.

* Dr. Barbara "Babs" Blight on ''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]'' is literally mad. She is pretty much insane and she is a brilliant scientist, and represents unethical scientific research and technology in the wrong hands, though sometimes, she simply causes environmental damage [[For the Evulz|for the sake of doing so]].

** Some of her plans have a [[Freudian Excuse]] related to her [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|facial scar]], which can actually make her [[Unintentionally Sympathetic]] to some viewers.

* ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'': Dr. Nuvo Vindi.

* Doctor Krieger from ''[[Archer]]''.

'''Dr. Weird:''' It works! [[The Mad Hatter|I am one can short of a six-pack!]] ''([[Evil Laugh]])'' }}

* Chrome Dome from ''[[The Tick (animation)]]''. El Seed and the Breadmaster may also quality for developing formulae that make plants come to life and bread explode, respectively.

* Megavolt from ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]''. Likewise Bushroot, who's usually ignored in this capacity, because his "mad science" is botany.

* Dr. Sevarius from ''[[Gargoyles]]'' isn't quite mad so much as he is amoral, but he displays a touch of the theatricality that is the hallmark of the best nutty professors.

* The first ''[[Superman Theatrical Cartoons|Superman]]'' short, "The Mad Scientist," has one as the villain, threatening to enact vengeance on all those who laughed at him with his electrothanasia-ray.

* Crossing this trope with [[Magitek]] is ''[[Wakfu]]'''s season one [[Big Bad]] Nox, a watchmaker who discovered that the most effective way of powering [[Clock Punk|his inventions]] was [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|draining]] [[Life Energy|the Wakfu]] [[Powered by a Forsaken Child|out of living organisms]]. A sampling of his creations include [[Vampiric Draining]] [[Literal Surveillance Bug]]s, [[Spider Tank|ambulatory pocket watches]], [[Killer Robot]]s literally powered by the residual substance of ''dead souls'' (generated in the first place by Nox's constant killing for wakfu), {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|animatronic replicas of his dead children]]}}...

 

* No report on mad science is complete without the man who might have given creation to the whole trope; [[Nikola Tesla]], and his [[wikipedia:Nicola Tesla#Directed-energy weapon|Teleforce Death Ray]]. If that's not mad science, we don't know what is.

* [[Nazi Germany]] scientist [[wikipedia:Josef Mengele|Josef Mengele]], AKA "the Angel of Death". It's not unheard of to think that his name was pronounced "Mangle". Given what he did to the death camp prisoners, that wouldn't have been too much of a stretch.

** {{spoiler|[[Eye Scream|Butterfly specimen eyeballs]].}}

* Aforementioned webcomic ''[[Casey and Andy]]'' twice had the "Casey And Andy Mad Science Award" for examples of Mad Science in real life. Both times, NASA won: in [http://www.galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=382 2004] for the [[wikipedia:Genesis spacecraft|Genesis Probe]] and again in [http://www.galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=508 2005] for the [[wikipedia:Deep Impact space mission|Deep Impact space mission]].

** It also appears to have been awarded to the Mythbusters, at least in their early episodes.

** Well, that, and because of his probable cocaine addiction, probable sociopathy, and certain theft of the scientific inventions of everyone around him.

*** Plus, he electrocuted an elephant to scare people against Alternating Current, which [[Nikola Tesla|his rival's]] power company used. [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|He possibly invented the Electric Chair to scare people against Alternating Current!]]

** Edison also paid gangs of minions with clubs to smash up early movie theaters and beat the projectionists because they weren't using Edison Brand Projectors.

* There is a real life psychological diagnosis known as "Mad Scientist Syndrome", so named because it tends to be a case of actually believing ''(some wacky event)'' such as alien invasion, or collapse of the world economy will "Show them all that I was right!"

* Yet another article from ''[[Cracked.com]]'' about the [[Science Is Bad|dangers of science]] [http://www.cracked.com/article_17039_9-real-life-mad-scientists.html here]. Surprisingly, Josef Mengele didn't get mentioned. Perhaps [[Even Evil Has Standards|the ''Cracked'' writers]] [[Dude, Not Funny|didn't want to dedicate an entry]] to a guy whose idea of "science" was torturing helpless prisoners for kicks.

** Seanbaby's article about exploring the depths of the human mind with ''The Sims 3'' pokes at the whole Nazi scientist thing. Why, without ethics, he says, scientific knowledge increased by leaps and bounds! But then World War II ended and the Nazis that were left were forced to treat Jews, gypsies, and assorted other non-Aryans like human beings again, and that all stopped. So isn't it wonderful now that EA Games has created a people simulator we can use for the same thing?

** As will a quick look at him in his kitchen. Scientist-looking chef whites, [[Bald of Evil]], frothing beakers of liquid nitrogen and dry ice... the only thing stopping him being a classic mad scientist is that he hasn't actually killed anyone yet.

* [[wikipedia:Buckminster Fuller|Buckminster Fuller]]. He invented many things, few of which saw much use. He made up words by dicing up other words and sticking the parts together. He slept two hours a day, spread across four 30-minute naps, for two years. [[Facebook|He kept a diary of his entire life, updating it every 15 minutes and including a family history, newspaper clippings, sketches, and copies of all bills and correspondence.]] From 1915 to 1983. He was still very influential, however.

** One invention of his that really did take off is the geodesic dome, one of the most efficient ways of enclosing space ever devised, most famously used for EPCOT at Disney World. Also, when a weird class of carbon nanoparticles was discovered that had a geodesic shape, what did they call them? Buckyballs! Or buckminsterfullerene, if you want to be technical.

* Edward Teller, the inventor of the hydrogen bomb, who openly advocated nuking the U.S.S.R. Also advocated building a tunnel across America using nukes to do the mining. Once used a nuclear test to light his cigar (a man could get cancer doing a thing like that ...).

** Teller didn't just invent the hydrogen bomb, he pushed like crazy to get the U.S. government to build it. [[Carl Sagan]] said that this made Teller the greatest menace to humanity in history. His suggestion of using nuclear weapons to dig tunnels, in Sagan's opinion, was just a way for him to deflect the guilt of inventing the worst weapon-of-mass-destruction the world has ever seen.

** He was also the main push behind the [[wikipedia:Project Excalibur|''Excalibur'' missile defense system]], which used a nuclear bomb to power a microwave laser (and a bigger version that could fire at hundreds of targets simultaneously). Neither system actually worked, but it did manage to bring the US and USSR to the brink of war.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Steam]]

[[Category:Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]

[[Category:Transformation Causes]]

[[Category:Tropes On Science and Unscience]]

[[Category:Villains]]