Buddy Love

"Hiya, chicky baby. How's it going?"

- Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor (1963). "Have a seat, have a seat. Wow, everybody has a nice ass at this table, is this the nice ass section?!"

- Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor (1996). "See ya later, Chunky Butt! Bwahahaha!"

- Buddy Love haunting Professor Klump's nightmares in The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps.

Buddy Love is the main antagonist in the 1963 film The Nutty Professor, as well as the remake of the same name, and its sequel The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps.

In the 1963 version, he was portrayed by the late Jerry Lewis. In the 1996 version, he was portrayed by Eddie Murphy.

1963 Version
Jerry Lewis portrays both Professor Julius Kelp and Buddy Love. Professor Kelp is a nerdy, unkempt, buck-toothed, introverted, accident-prone, socially inept university professor who always incurs the wrath of the university administration by continually destroying the classroom laboratory. When a football-playing bully humiliates and assaults him, Kelp tries to beef up. He joins a gym—to no avail. He then invents a serum that turns him into the handsome, extremely smooth, cool, and obnoxious girl-chasing hipster, Buddy Love.

This newfound persona gives him the confidence to pursue one of his students, Stella Purdy. At first she hates Love, but she finds herself strangely attracted to him. Buddy wows the crowd with his jazzy, breezy delivery and an equanimous demeanor at the Purple Pit, a nightclub where the students hang out. He also mixes it up with the bartender, who is instructed on how to mix the latest drinks for the enigmatically mysterious entertainer.

The formula wears off at inopportune times, often to Kelp's embarrassment. He must rush back to his laboratory in the hopes that no one will discover his secret. Although Kelp knows that his alternate persona is an arrogant person, he cannot prevent himself from continually taking the formula as he enjoys the newfound attention that Love receives. Buddy performs at the annual student dance, and while on the dais, the formula starts to wear off.

In the end, his real identity is revealed during the prom, as the Love persona transforms to Kelp during a speech. He gives an impassioned plea that people must learn to like themselves before others can like them in return. He admits that he has learned a valuable lesson, and Purdy admits that she likes Kelp better than Love and they get married. Prompted by his formerly henpecked father's marketing of the formula (a copy of which Kelp had sent to his parent's home for safekeeping), Kelp and Purdy decide to license the product and benefit from the profits.

1996 Version
Eddie Murphy portrays Buddy Love, Professor Sherman Klump as well as the entire Klump family (except for Ernie Klump Jr.) in the 1996 movie, The Nutty Professor, and the 2000 sequel, The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps. Professor Klump was a timid, and somewhat clumsy 400 pound man who was in love with a new teacher Carla Purty (portrayed by Jada Pinkett Smith).

Thinking he would never be perfect for her, he created a formula to make people dramatically lose weight. When he drank the formula, Buddy Love was born. In addition to being thinner and more physically attractive than Sherman, Buddy was also more confident and assertive, standing up to and turning the tables on Reggie Warrington, a cruel stand up comedian who had humiliated Sherman earlier in the film and giving an effective public presentation of Sherman's weight loss formula. At first the Professor could control Buddy, but every time he drank the formula, the harder it was to control Buddy. Buddy came to see Sherman as weak and as holding himself back, so he set into motion a plan to enable himself to take over Sherman's body forever. However, in the film's climax, as Buddy is about to drink the last dose of formula needed to permanently take over Sherman's body, Sherman's personality rises up against him. The two sides vehemently struggle for control, but Sherman's side ultimately gains enough inner strength and confidence to prevail. As Buddy fades away, he tells Sherman, "No matter what, you've got to strut!"

In the sequel, Buddy Love tends to take control over Sherman's mind in a manner similar to a split personality, and make him say what Buddy Love would say. Sherman decided to extract the DNA of Buddy Love so he wouldn't be a problem anymore. However, the lab dog Buster caused a chain reaction that brought Buddy Love to life. As time went on Sherman begins to lose his intelligence, but Buddy's intelligence remains the same. It was then confirmed that Buddy had the instincts of a canine because he has the DNA of a dog. At end of the movie, with the help of Sherman's youth formula, Buddy turned into a young baby, (with a pretty impressive package for a toddler), and eventually transforms into a puddle of genetic goo while on the run where to the point Buddy would rather take his chances than going back inside Sherman. At the end of the chase, Buddy evaporated, where Sherman lost all of his intelligence. Fortunately, thanks to Denise's tears, the genetic material of Buddy has reconstituted in the fountain, allowing Sherman to drink Buddy's DNA, and regains his intelligence.

This is the only Eddie Murphy character in the 'Nutty Professor' series in which Murphy himself used his normal appearance and voice.