As a self-proclaimed mad scientist (I spent most of last year trapped in a UofT lab analysing fly wings), I believe that this 100 percent gives me the right to comment on the attractiveness of various mad scientists, both those from fictional media and those who exist in real life. Being a scientist myself, I have very scientifically stratified my ratings into ‘madness’ and ‘hotness.’ This is visualised in the graph provided (BIO220 is really coming in clutch here with the Excel skills).
Hermann Joseph Muller from real life
I had never heard of this man until taking my Principles of Evolution class, where it was mentioned that this man did some wack shit. Muller worked on X-ray mutagenesis in fruit flies. The context in which I learned about him regarded the accumulation of genetic loads in asexual lineages. Honestly, he’s only in this ranking because the photo of him that was used in our class looks like the villain of a 1940s horror movie, and I’m kind of into that.
Madness: 4
Hotness: 7
Victor Frankenstein from Frankenstein
Ah yes, the mad scientist blueprint. He literally dropped out of university so that he could build a person using corpses that he dug out of graves. And honestly? That’s relatable—I’m about two lab reports away from doing the same thing. I have a personal soft spot for him and for Mary Shelley in general. However, seeing that he 1) is a terrible father, 2) repressed his homoerotic tendencies, and 3) married his sister/cousin, that docks him quite a few points in the hotness category.
Madness: 8
Hotness: 6
Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show
I mean… what more can you want from a mad scientist? He’s “just a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania.” He’s basically if Victor Frankenstein wasn’t a coward, fell in love with the person he created, and was also very bisexual. Tim Curry had no reason to be so hot in this role, but I thank him for it every day.
Madness: 9
Hotness: 10
Dr Jekyll from Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
This dude wasn’t a coward. He didn’t waste time conducting science-y schemes on other people—he cut right to the chase and experimented on himself. Dr. Jekyll was a real doctor (take that, Victor) who created a serum that allowed himself to change into his evil alter ego, allowing him to “indulge his vices without fear of detection.” He gets low points on hotness because he is a 50 year old man, but scores very high on madness because he fucked around and found out (i.e., he died).
Madness: 9
Hotness: 2
Doctor Carmilla from The Mechanisms
This is actually not Carmilla from the book Carmilla, but is in fact the in-universe creator of The Mechanisms, which is a steampunk band composed of humans who have been altered with various mechanical body parts. Doctor Carmilla is a lesbian vampire, just like her namesake, so that’s fun, I guess. Also, she cloned herself and raised a moon who became a spaceship? Good for her.
Madness: 8
Hotness: 9
Willy Wonka from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
In conducting my research for this article (which entailed reading the TV Tropes website on Mad Scientists), I was shocked to see Willy Wonka listed. But if you think about it, it checks out. He killed so many children just for funsies and built multiple death traps inside his factory. I kinda wish I could lock myself in a building and perform unethical experiments, tbh.
Madness: 10
Hotness: 5