Dr. Frankenstein is a character in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1823) who creates a monster. This “body building” is different from “bodybuilding,” but a joke was posted on Twitter on February 25, 2014:
 
“Frankenstein enters a bodybuilding competition and finds he has seriously misunderstood the objective.”
   
This joke has been printed on images. “Shouldn’t pregnant women be called body builders?” is another literal “body building” joke.
 
Several versions of the Frankenstein bodybuilding joke had been made before 2014. “Bodybuilding took a long time to recover after Victor Frankenstein retired” was posted on Twitter on April 7, 2010. “I wonder if Dr. Frankenstein ever won a bodybuilding competition?” was posted on Twitter on February 22, 2011.
   
   
Wikipedia: Frankstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque but sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition of the novel was published anonymously in London in 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared on the second edition, published in France in 1823.
   
Twitter
AlteredEgg
‏@AlteredEgg
Bodybuilding took a long time to recover after Victor Frankenstein retired.
11:37 AM - 7 Apr 2010
 
Twitter
Matt Nedostup
‏@nedostup
I wonder if Dr. Frankenstein ever won a bodybuilding competition?
7:02 AM - 22 Feb 2011
 
Twitter
Maximillian Elf
‏@Maximillian711
man walks into a gym “hello, I hear you do bodybuilding” “yes, I’m the trainer, name’s frankenstein”
2:52 AM - 21 Jul 2011
 
Twitter
Brian I. Block 👞
‏@briguyblock
I saw a tweet about the “history of bodybuilding.” I was upset to see that Dr. Frankenstein was nowhere to be found.
10:02 AM - 13 Nov 2011
 
Twitter
Rene Benavidez
‏@renebenavidez
“So, Dr. Frankenstein was technically the first bodybuilder, right?” -me, every time Frankenstein or bodybuilding is brought up from now on.
1:58 AM - 3 Jun 2012
 
Twitter
Richard Reese
‏@richardtweese
Dr. Frankenstein once entered a bodybuilding contest under the wrong assumption.  That was a grave mistake.
7:24 PM - 5 Jun 2012
 
Twitter
monica underwood
‏@monicawesome
Frankenstein enters a bodybuilding competition and finds he has seriously misunderstood the objective.
10:49 PM - 25 Feb 2014
 
Reddit
Frankenstein enters a bodybuilding competition
submitted July 29 2016 by ilovedillpickles
And was promptly left in embarrassment when he realized that he’d severely misunderstood the objective.

Reddit
Dr. Frankenstein entered a bodybuilding competition…
submitted October 5, 2016 by Crimson_Raven
...and discovered that he’d gravely misunderstood the objective.