The trope of using "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. Less common is naming the character "X-stein," but it has been known to happen.
Some blame the creators of the work for not realizing that Frankenstein is the name of the creator/scientist who created the monster, said monster's not having a name (but saying once "I ought to be thy Adam")note . Others see "Franken-X" as meaning X combined in a manner like that used by Frankenstein, as with the trope Franken-vehicle. See Dr. Fakenstein for when "Franken-X" and "X-stein" are accurately used to refer to the scientist instead of the creature.
No, this trope does not mean that "Frankenstein" is actually an unnatural abomination of lidded drink mugs.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Franken Fran: While Fran herself is never called such in the manga (her name is Fran Madaraki), she spends her time performing Frankenstinian surgery on other people or even herself. She even has the classic head bolts.
- Anpanman has both Frankenrobo-kun and Hiyari-kenstein. Both are robots built for destruction, but are actually very friendly and not evil like intended (though Hiyari-kenstein had to have a change of heart first.)
Comic Books
- The Punisher: Franken-Castle. That is, until he was resurrected, after all, Status Quo Is God.
- Requiem Vampire Knight has a Mad Scientist stitching together a creature that can take on Dracula. Then he's given an Evil Genius' brain, to (sigh) "turn his monster into a veritable frank-Einstein!"
Films — Animated
- The very early Tim Burton film Frankenweenie and its 2012 remake were both about a young boy named Victor Frankenstein resurrecting his dog Sparky after he was struck and killed by a car.
Films — Live-Action
- Frankenhooker
- Frankenfish from the Sci-Fi Channel.
Live-Action TV
- Wizards of Waverly Place: Frankengirl, Justin Russo's self-built robot roommate.
- Beetleborgs: Frankenbeans, the resident Frankenstein-analogue of Hillhurst Mansion's Monster Mash.
Music
- Frankenstrat, Eddie Van Halen's custom-made guitar.
- The Dead Kennedys album Frankenchrist.
Tabletop Games
- In BattleTech, "FrankenMechs" are 'Mechs that have been jury-rigged from the parts of two or more 'Mechs.'
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: FrankenBill. A product of Dr. Ned's sinister experiments, he's a monster cobbled together from the remains of his dead assistants Frank and Bill. The result is what Dr. Ned referred to as "a... Frank'n'Bill. Of note is the fact that he's a boss version of the Tankenstein Giant Mooks.
- Team Fortress 2: One of the Heavy's (cosmetic) equippables turns him into "Franken-Heavy".
- Portal 2: Wheatley produces mashups of Weighted Storage Cubes and Turrets, which players commonly refer to as "Frankenturrets".
Web Original
- The Angry Video Game Nerd once created Frankennerd for a Halloween Special. Eventually, the shitty games made him go crazy.
- Chuck Sonnenburg (SF Debris) uses the X-Stein variant in his Dark City review. He tells the story of Daniel Schreber, a German writer who suffered mental illness and was hospitalized at an asylum called "Sonnenstein".
Chuck: "Sonnenstein also being the name of the monster I brought to life in a lightning storm."
Western Animation
- The Spongebob Squarepants episode "Frankendoodle" (although the character it refers to is called "DoodleBob").
- VeggieTales 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."
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): Mikey calls Baxter Stockman "Dr. Stockman-stein" after seeing his attempt to reassemble himself.
- Similarly, Doctor Venture's experiment at reanimating a mook killed by his bodyguard is called Venturestein.
- The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh has the episode "The Monster Frankenpooh", where the gang tells a story of a mad scientist (Piglet) who creates a giant monster (Pooh).
- Ben 10: Omniverse: Of Ben's previously-unnamed horror monster-themed forms, the Frankenstein-like one is now dubbed "Frankenstrike". (In its one appearance in the original series, its script name referred to the monster's creator and called it "Benviktor" instead.)
- Bugs Bunny tries to convince the irate department store manager in "Hare Conditioned" that a giant "Frankincense monster" is breathing down his neck behind him.
- "Gangnamstein", A police officer dressed in a giant PSY costume with an iPad for a head.
- The obscure Fox Family show Monster Farm featured a porcine Frankenstein's Monster named Frankenswine as one of the monster animals on the farm Jack inherited from his uncle.
- A Pup Named Scooby-Doo had an episode titled "Chickenstein Lives", where the titular Monster of the Week was a chicken Frankenstein monster.
- One of the Magiswords from Mighty Magiswords was named Dummystein and resembled a ventriloquist dummy Frankenstein monster.
Real Life
- The original German name of the town that gave the novel its title (now Ząbkowice Śląskie) has been frankensteined itself from the names of two villages it's located between: Frankenberg (now Przyłęk) and Löwenstein (now Koziniec) after both failed to gain town status.
- "Frankenfood", a term used to describe food made from genetically modified organisms. 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.
- FrankenPad: an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad built out of the best parts of the T60, T61 and sometimes T400 series, for example a 15.1" T60 with a FlexView IPS panel equipped with a more powerful mainboard and CPU from a T61 (which only came with inferior TN panels). Sometimes the leftover parts are pieced together to make another fully working laptop which is called "SchwabenPad" (after Schwabians who are said to be cheap).
- Frankenbite: a sound bite created through Quote Mining. (Partly called such because, in particularly bad cases, you can actually hear the seams between splices, making the result sound like a cobbled-together mess.)
- The 2012 Hurricane Sandy was called "Frankenstorm" because it made landfall around Halloween and was the result of two different storms colliding and combining, until some news networks decided this was insensitive and it became "Superstorm."
