Reasons We Never Hear About The Fourth Jonas Brother

Thanks to the squeal-inducing fanfare surrounding the Jonas Brothers, who put the "pop" in popularity, most people probably only know of the three Jonas brothers that sang in the internationally frenzied family boy band: Kevin, Joe, and Nick. However, there is a fourth Jonas boy who's received a lot less attention than his elder namesakes over the years. Frankie Jonas, who has been lovingly dubbed the "Bonus Jonas" by fans of the talented trio, has been quietly riding (and sometimes stepping away from) his brothers' coattails, but even so, his public appearances are usually few and far between. Here's why you don't hear much from the littlest Jonas.

The Jonas Brothers first formed their singing group when Frankie Jonas was still just five years old. And Frankie, who trails the second-youngest sibling Nick by eight years, had only reached middle school by the time the band finally called it quits (for the second, and seemingly final time) in 2013. Suffice it to say, then, that he certainly wasn't old enough to take up the family mantle of international heartthrob status during the JoBros' heyday; and even as his brothers went onto busy themselves with other new career ventures, like Kevin's reality television series Married to Jonas, Joe Jonas' new band DNCE, and Nick Jonas' acting career, Frankie Jonas was still just coming into his teen years.

Although his older brothers were always welcoming to their sweetheart sibling along their rise to fame, Frankie once joked, "having rock star brothers can sometimes hurt your ears." Perhaps all the attention he saw his family receive over the years erased the appeal of the limelight life, you ask? Not exactly ...

Although Frankie has led a relatively quiet life compared to the rest of the Jonas brood, he did try his hand (and vocal chords) at the entertainment business by starring as the voiced character Sôsuke in the 2008 animated film Ponyo, which included a musical duet with fellow celeb sibling Noah Cyrus. He also appeared alongside his brothers in Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam and their short-lived family comedy series Jonas. Frankie went on to voice a character for The Reef 2: High Tide and appeared in R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour along with the television movie Gutsy Frog before taking a permanent (as of the time of writing) step back from the industry in 2013. He told Paper magazine in 2015 that his lone post-high school plan was simply to "graduate and move far, far away" and that he tends to spend a lot of time by himself. "I usually just disappear into my room for house, sometimes even days until someone notices," he explained to the mag.

His mother Denise Jonas swore up and down when he was younger that he did not mind being on the back burner while his brothers sizzled in the spotlight, though. For example, she told Good Housekeeping in 2009 that Frankie simply "love[d] his life," despite not being nearly as well-known as his older brothers, and that he had no complaints about the lopsided family dynamic in play at the time. His older brother, Joe Jonas, told Vulture that it was a little tough for everyone to have to separate while the Jonas Brothers went on tour with their father and Denise stayed home to raise little Frankie, but that's about the only negative thing the Jonas family has ever publicly said about the disconnect between the quartet.

In the summer of 2016, Frankie Jonas made nostalgic headlines by suiting up in a swanky tuxedo and taking his girlfriend Austin Wahl to the Carroll Senior High School Prom in Southlake, Texas. The teen had even done a pop culture-savvy "promposal" to ask Wahl to join him at the fancy dance, by dressing up as Captain America's best bud-turned "Winter Soldier" Bucky Barnes and holding up a sign that said, "I'd be red scared if you didn't make me the Bucky-est man on earth by going to prom with me." Austin returned the favor by dressing up as Suicide Squad heroine Harley Quinn and holding up her own sign that read, "I Harley Quinn wait to go to prom [with] you." If you didn't know any better, you might think these were just another pair of ordinary young loves celebrating one of those all-important life milestones just like everyone else.

If you've paid a visit to any of Frankie Jonas' social media pages lately, you might've noticed something equally strange about each. His Instagram page, for example, is now mostly filled with blank photo slides with bizarre and sometimes distorted images dispersed throughout the feed. Meanwhile, his Twitter page is no less bizarre, as he frequently tweets random words and pseudo-philosophical phrases, like "the sky grounds us" and "the question is always the answer" and "the mind is a spiral staircase not unlike the winding of a clock."

The change appeared to happen in August 2016, when he wiped both of his prior accounts clean and started over, tweeting "new" and "needed something else." And while fans were initially confused about the sudden change of digital spirit, an event that happened just a few months later might explain some of this sudden onset of existentialism and self-actualization ...

In November 2016, the fourth Jonas brother proved that he's really not a little boy anymore by getting busted for possession of marijuana while visiting Nashville, Tennessee. He certainly wasn't the first of his name to use the sometimes-illegal substance, of course. His brother Joe Jonas had previously revealed to Vulture that his first time smoking reefer was when he was with fellow Disney tweeners Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, and Nick Jonas told Rolling Stone that he, too, has been known to partake in some recreational use of pot (although he claimed he was a lot more guarded about when and with whom he did so). But for those who still think of Frankie as the pint-sized fourth wheel on the Jonas Brothers family vehicle, the news came as quite a shock anyway.

Even though Frankie Jonas has now graduated high school and is officially in his college era, his older brother Nick Jonas has still been rolling up his sleeves and assuming a protective stance over the still-young and impressionable teen. While promoting the release of his 2016 indie film GOAT, Nick mentioned that he'd made his brother watch the film before considering pledging a collegiate fraternity because it documented some of the dark aspects of hazing involved with Greek life on campus. He told the Today show, "When we were younger, I think it was more psychological warfare with the brothers, which was good training for this movie ... We were all out of the house by the time [Frankie] was like 10, but now he's in college. When he first started, I said, 'Man, you have to watch this movie. ... I don't want you to join a fraternity."