32 Times Steve Urkel Proved That He Was A Genius

While Family Matters was initially about the Winslows, once Jaleel White came on as Steve Urkel for what was initially intended to be a one-time guest role, he immediately became the star of the show. You may remember the character as merely the Chicago-based family’s nosy, nerdy, clumsy, and even oblivious neighbor. However, Steve Urkel had plenty of moments of genuine brilliance on the classic TV sitcom. See for yourself!

Urkel Is Recruited Onto A Space Mission

In the two-part series finale of Family Matters, Steve Urkel is planning his marriage to Laura (Kellie Shanygne Williams), when he is unexpectedly asked by NASA to help test an anti-gravity device that he designed himself. Unfortunately, the mission goes awry, leaving it up to the amateur astronaut to bring him and his crew safely back to Earth.

Urkel Builds A Jetpack

In an episode called "Brain Over Brawn," Steve Urkel decides to exceed others' expectations of him in gym class and find a way to complete the challenge of climbing a rope. His solution: constructing his own jetpack, which sends him soaring right to the ceiling.

Urkel Repurposes Urkelbot As A Hero

When Steve Urkel first introduced his mechanical clone, Urkelbot, on Family Matters, it went haywire and turned on him. However, in a later episode, he reprograms the machine to become UrkelCop, which successfully apprehends a convenience store hold-up.

Urkel Invents A Time Machine

Steve Urkel uses his wrist-worn time travel device with Carl (Reginald VelJohnson) on two different occasions in Season 8, both of which come with unfavorable consequences. In “Father Time,” Carl, unbeknownst to Steve, alters history to make himself the richest man in the world, but after discovering his children were never born and Harriette (Jo Marie Payton) is unsatisfied in their marriage, he asks Steve to help him revert things to how they were. In the season finale, “A Pirate's Life for Me,” they join an 18th-century pirate ship crew, but a mistake would have trapped them in the past forever if Steve had not given Myra (Michelle Thomas) her own device.

Urkel Prevents An Innocent Man From Going To Jail

One episode sees Carl and Steve Urkel serving on the same jury for a store burglary case that, in a play on the classic courtroom drama, 12 Angry Men, Steve is convinced is not as open-and-shut as the other jurors believe. Using technology similar to but predating modern deepfakes, he is able to prove that the security footage was tampered with by the true culprit, who is also the store's head of security.

Urkel Rescues Laura With His Souped-Up Car

When I say Steve Urkel rescues Laura, I mean he beats her jerk of a boyfriend in a race using a highly modified version of his BMW Isetta.

Urkel Invents A Force Field

In order to get the money they need to fix Laura's computer after accidentally breaking it, Steve Urkel convinces Eddie (Darius McCrary) to participate in a boxing match with a heavy hitter known as Butterball. The way he gets him to agree to it is by building him a belt that will cover him in a powerful force field, making it impossible for Butterball to hit him.

Urkel Helps 3J Learn To Read

The first appearance of Orlando Brown on Family Matters as 3J was in "My Big Brother," in which Steven Urkel volunteers in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program and is partnered with the child. After noticing that 3J has trouble reading, he accepts to responsibility to teach him himself.

Urkel Builds A Cloning Machine

The Season 7 finale of Family Matters sees Steve Urkel successfully developing a device that creates a perfect duplicate of himself, much to the Winslows' chagrin. Laura proposes a solution by transforming the clone into Steve's alter ego, Stefan Urquelle, so that she has him all to herself while Steve continues to date Myra.

Urkel Transforms Himself Into Stefan Urquelle

I suppose you could say that Steve Urkel's greatest invention on Family Matters was his transformation chamber, which he often modified to perform various tasks, and the most notable function was altering his DNA to become another person named Stefan Urquelle. Jaleel White has admitted he never wanted to play Urkel's suave alter ego, but came to realize that it allowed audiences, especially Black females, to see him play a more authentic depiction of himself on the hit series.

Urkel Gives Aunt Oona A High-Tech Makeover

One of Family Matters' best guest star appearances was the Queen of Disco herself, Donna Summer, as Steve Urkel's Aunt Oona, from Altoona, who would return in a Season 8 episode several pounds heavier. Hoping to impress the local Reverend Fuller by shedding off the weight, she turns to Steve, who introduces her to a machine that immediately lowers her weight to average size, until its effects wear off.

Urkel Invents A Remote-Controlled Lawnmower

To be perfectly honest, there are not very many Steve Urkel inventions that I wish truly existed, but I would buy his remote-controlled lawnmower in a heartbeat if it were available. I don't even care that the prototype goes haywire and crashes through the Winslows' kitchen wall. With some improvements, the device would make yard workloads more fun for me.

Urkel Invents Self-Playing Bagpipes

For anyone who ever tried to play bagpipes and found themselves getting dangerously winded, Steve Urkel would come up with a solution by inventing a version of the woodwind instrument that plays itself. I mean, it is really just a standard set of bagpipes hooked up to a vacuum, but I still found it impressive.

Urkel Plays A Mean Game Of Pool

In Season 2's "Fast Eddie Winslow," Steve Urkel helps Eddie settle an issue with a pool hustler by proving to be a master at billiards. Unfortunately, the kid also learns what happens when you beat a disgruntled pro, leaving Carl and Carl's mother, Estelle (Rosetta LeNoire), to come to his rescue by showing that they know their way around a pool table, as well.

Urkel Invents Smell-O-Vision

Have you ever been watching television and an advertisement for food popped up, and you wished you could at least smell what you saw on the screen? Well, you could with Steve Urkel's special helmet that allows the user to experience the scent associated with what they see on TV. The device does end up going on the fritz and causing Carl to smell his own hair burning, but it was a miracle product up to that point.

Steve Invents A Powerful Duck Call

At a time of year when ducks are hundreds of miles away from Chicago, Steve Urkel manages to attract a whole flock right above the Winslows' home with a special duck call of his own design. The birds end up taking a huge dump on Carl's new car, but I'm sure this would have come in handy around hunting season.

Steve Gives Himself Telepathic Powers

Steve Urkel invents a special machine that accidentally gives him the ability to read minds, which proves to be horribly overwhelming for him. He is eventually able to successfully reverse the effect, but also ends up giving himself short-term memory loss.

Urkel Creates A Tornado In The Winslows' Kitchen

With all of the destruction that Steve Urkel has caused in the Winslows' house, you would think that a tornado blew through it on a few occasions. Well, there was one time when, with help from Richie (Bryton James), he managed to create a literal working cyclone in the kitchen. Of course, this experiment eventually goes horribly wrong and creates a terrible mess, but it's still a neat trick.

Urkel Saves Carl's Life

Countless times, Carl has been vocally clear about wishing that Steve Urkel was out of his life, but the cop and family man might not have a life without his neighbor. In Season 5's "Saved by the Urkel," Carl becomes electrocuted, and Steve is able to revive him by performing CPR.

Urkel Invents "The AM/FM Urkel Brush"

Steve Urkel's design for a toothbrush that plays music while you clean your teeth inevitably ends up having a "shocking" effect on Carl. However, its concept is amusing, and it even exists in real life as a successful product.

Urkel Comes Up With A Fun Anti-Gun Violence Rap

In one of the sitcom's "very special episodes," the Winslows host an event encouraging young people carrying illegal firearms to turn them in and save lives. Steve Urkel volunteers to help by busting out a simple rap with a powerful message, which is one of the coolest things he has ever done on the sitcom.

Urkel Invents A Transportation Device

Season 8 of Family Matters begins with Steve Urkel putting together a device that can transport the user or users wherever they would like to go in an instant. This could have resulted in disaster in the vein of David Cronenberg's acclaimed body horror movie, The Fly, but, instead, Steve successfully uses the machine to send him, the Winslows, and Stefan Urquelle to Paris for a vacation.

Urkel Leads The School Basketball Team To Victory

Some may not realize this, but Steve Urkel was not a fully stereotypical nerd character, and even showed great promise as an athlete on some occasions. For instance, one episode of Family Matters sees him prove that he has some real game on the basketball court when he scores a winning basket for his school's team.

Urkel Discovers How To Change Any Object's Size

Wayne Szalinski is not the only scientist in pop culture history to figure out how to instantaneously alter the size of a person or object. Steve Urkel modifies his Transformation Chamber to make anything he wants bigger. However, it ends up having the reverse effect on him and Carl, shrinking them down to two inches tall, and they must work together to return to normal size.

Urkel Invents A Super Turbo Tree Flocker

In one of Family Matters' holiday episodes, Steve Urkel introduces something anyone who ever wanted to decorate a Christmas tree with realistic-looking snow might love: a Super Turbo Tree Flocker. Unfortunately, it ends up malfunctioning and turns the Winslows' living room into a wintry nightmare.

Urkel Builds A Working Rocket

It is no small feat to construct even a miniature-size rocket, much like the one Steve Urkel builds and names after his longtime crush, Laura, on Family Matters. He actually makes it powerful enough to blow a hole in the Winslows' roof, which was never his intention, of course.

Urkel Helps Stephanie Tanner Come To Terms With Her Need To Wear Glasses

Not all of Steve Urkel's finest moments were exclusive to Family Matters, as he also made appearances on other hit ABC sitcoms, such as Full House. In the Season 4 episode, "Stephanie Gets Framed," the middle Tanner daughter (played by Jodie Sweetin) learns she needs to wear reading glasses, but is uncomfortable with wearing them in public. Steve just happens to be visiting San Francisco and offers her some decent advice about making her classmates laugh with her before they laugh at her.

Urkel Has Some Serious Bowling Skills

In the Season 1 Family Matters episode, "Bowl Me Over," the Winslow clan comes into odds with one another over who is better at knocking down pins, and Carl recruits Steve Urkel onto his team, having taken note of his surprising talent in the sport. However, the one thing that gets him weak in the knees is none other than Laura, who pretends to flirt with him as a distraction tactic.

Urkel Invents A TV That Automatically Adjusts To Eye Level

Steve Urkel modifies the Winslows' TV by placing it on a hydraulic stand that raises and lowers the screen to the viewers' liking with the push of a button. The device ends up launching the television set through the ceiling, but I'm sure there are people who would appreciate the idea.

Urkel Invents A Multi-Functioning Chair

Steve Urkel demonstrates to Carl his own design of reclining chair called The Slug Boy, which comes with all kinds of convenient features, including popping popcorn and serving cold drinks. Of course, it ends up malfunctioning and causing a terrible mess, but Steve still had the right idea with this one.

Urkel Invents An Effective Sleep Aid

Steve Urkel creates the ultimate cure for insomnia, which he calls Snooze Juice, which proves to be very effective when a pro tag team wrestling duo called The Psycho Twins drink it and pass out. Steve and Carl are then forced to take their place in the match, leaving us to chalk up this invention as well-meaning, at least.

Urkel Turns Himself Into Bruce Lee

In Season 6's "The Substitute Son," Steve Urkel conspires to seek revenge on some bullies by developing a potion that turns him into a new alter ego, Bruce Lee Urkel. This plot point has not exactly aged well, but you've got to hand it to a scientifically gifted person like Steve to be able to scientifically embody the talents of one of the greatest kung fu masters in history.