Ah, Mad Scientists! Those lovable maniacs who want to destroy all of mankind with their zany antics (or, at the very least, are morally ambivalent to the collateral damage of the creations they make even if their intent is not destruction itself).
I'm going to rank them -- but a quick disclaimer! I'm not sure what your definition of a "mad scientist" is, but while doing some research I saw a lot of people mentioning Doc Brown (Back to the Future) and Bunsen Honeydew (The Muppets) as "mad scientists." I'd say they are really more "absent minded professors" by my definition, which is a totally different thing.
Another disclaimer - there are no females on this list. Don't blame me for being sexist for a female-less list of mad scientists. Blame society and pop culture for not creating any. Can you name one?
25. Dr. Henry Wu (Jurassic Park / Jurassic World) - This is a bit of a sleeper one here, hence the low ranking. In the first Jurassic Park, Henry Wu was barely a bit character, and he certainly didn't have any tell-tale marks of a mad scientist. But by the time the Jurassic World reboot of the series rolled around, he returned in a slighter bigger role and... yep... this guy is clearly willing to do morally objectionable things with DNA for profit. He's no longer just a misguided guy who thought he was helping out with a theme park.
24. Doctor Sivana (Captain Marvel AKA Shazam) - There are a lot of mad scientists in comic books. This is one of the better ones.
23. Simon Bar Sinister (Underdog) - Underdog's nemesis was a definite mad scientist. But you know what's even madder than his plans to kill Underdog? His decision not to pluck those eyebrows. Yikes, man. Anthony Davis at his worst never looked that rough.
22. Dexter (Dexter's Laboratory) - Can a small child be a mad scientist? Yes, obviously. Because I'm including him here.
21. Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene (Return of the Killer Tomatoes!) - Look, this is PROBABLY going to be the most obscure one on the list. Dr. Gangrene is the villain in Return of the Killer Tomatoes!, a 1988 B-Movie Sequel to the 1970s C-Movie Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! If you remember the Killer Tomatoes cartoon show in the early 90's, it was based more on this sequel than it was the original movie. This is a bad movie... but it's bad in a good way. Dr. Gangrene is played by a super over-the-top John Astin (Gomez from the Addams Family) and his send-up is great.
20. Dr. Weird (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) - Dr. Weird was in pre-title opening sequences in this TV show, but only on a rare occasion did his evil creations or anything he was up to actually have any role in the episode itself. It was usually just a nonsensical throw-away joke for a nonsensical show.
19. Dr. Robotnik AKA Eggman (Sonic the Hedgehog) - This guy was Sonic's enemy in the video games and cartoon show. He, as his name would imply, is always going around and inventing evil robots.
18. Dr. Miguelito Loveless (The Wild Wild West) - I just want to specify that I'm talking about the classic 1960s Western-Comedy TV show here. Not the 1990s Will Smith movie that remade it. In the TV show, Dr. Loveless was an AWESOME mad scientist. In the movie, he was a racist Kenneth Branagh with spider legs. Which is stupid.
17. Old School Lex Luther (Superman) - Just to be clear, I absolutely LOVE the rebooted Lex Luthor who is now more of an ruthless businessman than a mad scientist. The 1990s Superman: The Animated Series version of him, which has almost no mad scientist traits, is the best version. But still... there is a small place in my heart for the old-school (Silver Age, it's usually called in comics) purple-and-green mad scientist Luthor. I think we can all agree that the versions of Lex Luthor in all the Superman movies are just horrible.
16. Dr. Mindbender (GI Joe) - I just talked about this guy recently, so no reason for me to talk too much about him again.
15. Rotwang (Metropolis) - Rotwang invented the first evil female sexbot in history, and TV and movies have loved using gynoids ever since. So thank you, Rotwang. Although we suppose your plans were less about "ruling the world" and more about "infiltrating an emerging labor union to spy on its inner workings and disrupt probable worker strikes". Still, you gotta start your plans somewhere. If you jump right to taking over the world, you're destined for failure. Start with infiltrating unions and work your way up from there slowly. Good plan, Rotwang. The slow burn!
14. Angry Scientist (Sheep in the Big City) - Despite continually shouting at people and telling them that he was merely an "angry scientist," Angry Scientist is definitely a mad scientist. But then again, this cartoon also features characters named "General Specific," "Private Public," "General Lee Outrageous," and "The Ranting Swede." This cartoon was great.
13. Dr. Frank N. Furter (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) - Dr. Frank N. Furter was indeed a mad scientist, as he was trying to create new life. But then again, his ambition for this new life was simply to make some hunky man meat. Which I feel is even less ambitious than conquering German Expressionist labor unions.
12. Doctor Drakken (Kim Possible) - I can't actually remember any evil plans or plots that Dr. Drakken came up with, but I do know he definitely was an evil mad scientist with blue skin. Clones? I feel like maybe he must have made some clones at some point. But he also had a little pony tail too. Yikes. He's probably got to be the only mad scientist with a pony tail.
11. Qyburn (A Song of Ice and Fire) - There is indeed a distinction between "fantasy" and "sci-fi," with mad scientists usually only existing in the latter types of fiction. But the expelled Maester Qyburn from A Song of Ice and Fire seems to be the exception, as even in this fantasy series did the Maesters of Westros go, "Whoa man, this guy is some type of crazy guy trying to bring zombies back from the dead and shit. We need to kick him out of our order of scientists." And so they did. But I feel like I'll talk about this more in a different blog.
10. Dr. Clayton Forrester (Mystery Science Theater 3000) - Dr. Forrester is obviously a mad scientist. He's just screaming mad scientist. But his greatest experiment -- giving a man robot friends and forcing them to hilariously talk over B-Movies -- doesn't make much sense. But then again, he is "mad," so there's that.
9. Doctor "Octopus" Otto Octavius (Spider-Man) - This is the best comic book mad scientist. So there. Although now that I think about it, I'm missing Mr. Freeze. Whatever. I'm not going back and re-doing this list now.
8. Mojo Jojo (The Powerpuff Girls) - Mojo Jojo was always trying to take over the world (or maybe just Townsville) with his mad scientist schemes, typically having something do to with Chemical X or giant destructo-rays.
7. Doctor Krieger (Archer) - Mad? Check. Scientist? Check? Nazi? Check. That's the trifecta.
6. Doctor Moreau (The Island Of Doctor Moreau) - H.G. Wells' greatest mad scientist. "But what about Dr. Jekyll?", you might be saying right now. Well, that was actually Robert Louis Stevenson. But don't feel bad. Everyone gets confused with that one.
5. Dr. Henry Jekyll (Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) - As mentioned.
4. Davros (Doctor Who) - Well, this guy mutated the Kaled race after a period of thousands of years of endless war in an attempt to make the "perfect" being and master race, the Daleks. But he's absolutely blameless for Alanis Morissette.
3. Doctor Strangelove (Doctor Strangelove) - Mad? Check. Scientist? Check? Nazi? Check. That's the trifecta. Again.
2. Dr. Herbert West (Reanimator) - Leave it to H.P. Lovecraft (inventor of H.P. brown sauce, as well as the CYCLOPEAN DREAD OF ACCURSED NAMELESS EDRITCH HORRORS) to create Dr. Herbert West, a really messed up guy who liked to bring people back from the dead. He's have been a footnote in Lovecraft's short story history without the 1980s horror film Re-Animator, in which Jeffrey Combs shot him out into cult pop culture notoriety.
1. Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus) - The progenitor of mad scientists. There really would be no mad scientists without this mad scientist. All previous mad scientists are a little bit of a rip-off of this one. And remember everyone, FRANKENSTEIN IS THE DOCTOR'S NAME! NOT THE MONSTER!
I'm going to rank them -- but a quick disclaimer! I'm not sure what your definition of a "mad scientist" is, but while doing some research I saw a lot of people mentioning Doc Brown (Back to the Future) and Bunsen Honeydew (The Muppets) as "mad scientists." I'd say they are really more "absent minded professors" by my definition, which is a totally different thing.
Another disclaimer - there are no females on this list. Don't blame me for being sexist for a female-less list of mad scientists. Blame society and pop culture for not creating any. Can you name one?
 |
| Dr. Wu, founder of the Wu Tang Clan. Or not. |
24. Doctor Sivana (Captain Marvel AKA Shazam) - There are a lot of mad scientists in comic books. This is one of the better ones.
23. Simon Bar Sinister (Underdog) - Underdog's nemesis was a definite mad scientist. But you know what's even madder than his plans to kill Underdog? His decision not to pluck those eyebrows. Yikes, man. Anthony Davis at his worst never looked that rough.
22. Dexter (Dexter's Laboratory) - Can a small child be a mad scientist? Yes, obviously. Because I'm including him here.
21. Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene (Return of the Killer Tomatoes!) - Look, this is PROBABLY going to be the most obscure one on the list. Dr. Gangrene is the villain in Return of the Killer Tomatoes!, a 1988 B-Movie Sequel to the 1970s C-Movie Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! If you remember the Killer Tomatoes cartoon show in the early 90's, it was based more on this sequel than it was the original movie. This is a bad movie... but it's bad in a good way. Dr. Gangrene is played by a super over-the-top John Astin (Gomez from the Addams Family) and his send-up is great.
20. Dr. Weird (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) - Dr. Weird was in pre-title opening sequences in this TV show, but only on a rare occasion did his evil creations or anything he was up to actually have any role in the episode itself. It was usually just a nonsensical throw-away joke for a nonsensical show.
19. Dr. Robotnik AKA Eggman (Sonic the Hedgehog) - This guy was Sonic's enemy in the video games and cartoon show. He, as his name would imply, is always going around and inventing evil robots.
 |
| Ha! One is short and one is tall. Classic. |
17. Old School Lex Luther (Superman) - Just to be clear, I absolutely LOVE the rebooted Lex Luthor who is now more of an ruthless businessman than a mad scientist. The 1990s Superman: The Animated Series version of him, which has almost no mad scientist traits, is the best version. But still... there is a small place in my heart for the old-school (Silver Age, it's usually called in comics) purple-and-green mad scientist Luthor. I think we can all agree that the versions of Lex Luthor in all the Superman movies are just horrible.
16. Dr. Mindbender (GI Joe) - I just talked about this guy recently, so no reason for me to talk too much about him again.
15. Rotwang (Metropolis) - Rotwang invented the first evil female sexbot in history, and TV and movies have loved using gynoids ever since. So thank you, Rotwang. Although we suppose your plans were less about "ruling the world" and more about "infiltrating an emerging labor union to spy on its inner workings and disrupt probable worker strikes". Still, you gotta start your plans somewhere. If you jump right to taking over the world, you're destined for failure. Start with infiltrating unions and work your way up from there slowly. Good plan, Rotwang. The slow burn!
14. Angry Scientist (Sheep in the Big City) - Despite continually shouting at people and telling them that he was merely an "angry scientist," Angry Scientist is definitely a mad scientist. But then again, this cartoon also features characters named "General Specific," "Private Public," "General Lee Outrageous," and "The Ranting Swede." This cartoon was great.
 |
| He looks, ah, different from other mad scientist on the ranking. |
12. Doctor Drakken (Kim Possible) - I can't actually remember any evil plans or plots that Dr. Drakken came up with, but I do know he definitely was an evil mad scientist with blue skin. Clones? I feel like maybe he must have made some clones at some point. But he also had a little pony tail too. Yikes. He's probably got to be the only mad scientist with a pony tail.
11. Qyburn (A Song of Ice and Fire) - There is indeed a distinction between "fantasy" and "sci-fi," with mad scientists usually only existing in the latter types of fiction. But the expelled Maester Qyburn from A Song of Ice and Fire seems to be the exception, as even in this fantasy series did the Maesters of Westros go, "Whoa man, this guy is some type of crazy guy trying to bring zombies back from the dead and shit. We need to kick him out of our order of scientists." And so they did. But I feel like I'll talk about this more in a different blog.
 |
| Mad scientist or possibly your high school chem teacher. |
9. Doctor "Octopus" Otto Octavius (Spider-Man) - This is the best comic book mad scientist. So there. Although now that I think about it, I'm missing Mr. Freeze. Whatever. I'm not going back and re-doing this list now.
8. Mojo Jojo (The Powerpuff Girls) - Mojo Jojo was always trying to take over the world (or maybe just Townsville) with his mad scientist schemes, typically having something do to with Chemical X or giant destructo-rays.
7. Doctor Krieger (Archer) - Mad? Check. Scientist? Check? Nazi? Check. That's the trifecta.
6. Doctor Moreau (The Island Of Doctor Moreau) - H.G. Wells' greatest mad scientist. "But what about Dr. Jekyll?", you might be saying right now. Well, that was actually Robert Louis Stevenson. But don't feel bad. Everyone gets confused with that one.
5. Dr. Henry Jekyll (Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde) - As mentioned.
4. Davros (Doctor Who) - Well, this guy mutated the Kaled race after a period of thousands of years of endless war in an attempt to make the "perfect" being and master race, the Daleks. But he's absolutely blameless for Alanis Morissette.
 |
| "Strangelove" is an unfortunate family name. But I guess it's better than "Rotwang." |
2. Dr. Herbert West (Reanimator) - Leave it to H.P. Lovecraft (inventor of H.P. brown sauce, as well as the CYCLOPEAN DREAD OF ACCURSED NAMELESS EDRITCH HORRORS) to create Dr. Herbert West, a really messed up guy who liked to bring people back from the dead. He's have been a footnote in Lovecraft's short story history without the 1980s horror film Re-Animator, in which Jeffrey Combs shot him out into cult pop culture notoriety.
1. Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus) - The progenitor of mad scientists. There really would be no mad scientists without this mad scientist. All previous mad scientists are a little bit of a rip-off of this one. And remember everyone, FRANKENSTEIN IS THE DOCTOR'S NAME! NOT THE MONSTER!
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