The Nutty Professor (character)
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| Sherman Klump | |
|---|---|
| The Nutty Professor character | |
| First appearance | The Nutty Professor |
| Created by | Jerry Lewis |
| Portrayed by | Jerry Lewis Eddie Murphy |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Julius Kelp (original name) Buddy Love (abnormal genetic self and clone) |
| Nickname | Professor Klump |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | College professor |
| Family | Cletus Klump (father) Anna Pearl Jenson-Klump (mother) Ernie Klump, Sr. (brother) |
| Spouse | Professor Denise Gaines-Klump (wife) |
| Relatives | Ida Mae Jenson (maternal grandmother) Ernie Klump Jr. (nephew) |
| Religion | Presbyterian |
| Nationality | American |
Professor Sherman Klump (known as Julius Kelp in the original film (1963) and by his alter ego Buddy Love) is a fictional character portrayed by Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor, and by Eddie Murphy in the 1996 version and its 2000 sequel Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. Sherman is a jolly, kind hearted science teacher at Welman College. Although this was the main character Eddie played he also played the part of the rest of Sherman's family (excluding his youngest nephew, Ernie Jr, for obvious reasons).
Films
The Nutty Professor
Throughout the first film, the professor is portrayed as highly intelligent and generally respected by his students, but his occasional accidents- such as when he accidentally opens every hamster cage in his lab when leaving it because his stomach shifted the release mechanism without him realizing it- and lack of confidence leave him victim to bullying and verbal abuse from the Dean of the university, especially since they now have only one possible source for grant money left to continue his research, their last supporter having left after she nearly swallowed one of the escaped hamsters. Having recently fallen in love with grad student and chemistry teacher Carla Purty (Jada Pinkett Smith), Sherman uses his latest discovery, a weight-loss serum that rewrites the subject's genes, to lose weight in order to spend time with her. Unfortunately, this serum creates the confident but mean-spirited individual known as Buddy Love, due to the testosterone imbalance caused by the transformation causing Buddy to manifest as an independent personality rather than simply being a thin Sherman. When his student and assistant Jason learns what has happened, he realizes that Buddy is gaining increasingly greater freedom from the professor's influence, such as Buddy taking credit for Sherman's work and essentially replacing Sherman on the faculty. This encourages Sherman to take back control of his life, disposing of most of the serum and 'fighting' Buddy for control of the body before Buddy can drink enough serum to eliminate Sherman forever. At the conclusion, Sherman admits what has happened to the faculty staff after he transforms back to normal in public, concluding that he must learn to accept himself as he is rather than worry about his weight.
Jerry Lewis' response
Lewis was not fond on Murphy's characters, due to excessive fart jokes in the film.
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
In the second movie his kind personality is polluted by the Buddy Love gene in his DNA, causing him to occasionally say offensive or insulting things to people without realizing, especially when talking to his new love interest Denise (Janet Jackson). In an attempt to eliminate this, he uses a risky experiment to extract Buddy's DNA from his system. Sherman later proposes to Denise and she accepts. But Sherman's experiment unfortunately results in Buddy manifesting as an independent entity (albeit with some dog-like traits as his genetic make-up filled in the gaps with samples of canine DNA) while leaving Sherman gradually losing his intelligence due to the damage his brain cells have sustained as a result of Buddy being extracted from his system. Eventually, he is able to reabsorb Buddy by using a powerful version of his new youth serum to regress Buddy to amniotic fluid allowing him to 'drink' Buddy and regain his old intellect. Unfortunately, Buddy dies and evaporates into a public coin fountain. Denise and Cletus arrive just in time to help him when he loses his intelligence. Cletus forces Sherman to drink the water from the fountain, which still retains enough of Buddy's genetic pattern, and he regains all of his intelligence. A little while later, he and Denise are finally married and with Buddy dead, he can no longer take over Sherman's mind. He lives happily ever after with his wife.
In other media
Sherman Klump appears in the 3rd season Robot Chicken episode "Endless Breadsticks".