Franken-X

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The use of "Franken-" as a prefix to any other word, to indicate an unnatural abomination of the same. Particularly (but not always) one that involves re-animation of dead X, recycling of body parts from dead X, or combining parts of X and Y in a way that is considered wrong. May imply Science Is Bad.

Some blame the creators of the work for not realizing (I Am Not Shazam) that Frankenstein is the name of the creator/scientist who created the monster, said monster's name being Adam. Others see "Franken-X" as meaning X combined in a manner like that used by Frankenstein.

No, this trope does not mean that "Frankenstein" is actually an unnatural abomination of lidded drink mugs.


Examples of Franken-X include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

Film

Live-Action TV

Music

Video Games

  • Frankentetris: nickname for Tetris the Grand Master ACE, whose rules are a mix of traditional TGM rules and the Super Rotation System rules that TGM fans consider to be Executive Meddling.
  • Borderlands has "FrankenBill", a mixture of Frank and Bill found in the zombie island DLC.

Web Original

Western Animation

  • The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Frankendoodle" (although the character it refers to is called "DoodleBob").
  • Veggie Tales once featured a horror movie called "Franken-Celery" that caused Jr. Asparagus to lose sleep.
  • Frankenchokey in Invader Zim, although only briefly mentioned in passing. The Paranormal Investigator Dib was paired with for Career Day claimed he was "a real Franken-thingie."
  • In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003, Mikey calls Baxter Stockman "Dr. Stockman-stein" after seeing his attempt to reassemble himself.

Real Life

  • "Frankenfood", a term used to describe genetically modified food. Guess which side of the debate coined it.
  • Frankenbike: a bicycle constructed from found and/or scavenged parts mainly so one has something to ride.
  • Frankenputer: similar to Frankenbike, a computer made up of spare parts from dead computers and/or leftovers from upgrades of other computers. Often found in a Hacker Cave.
  • Frankenbite: a sound bite created through Quote Mining.