Release date: November 5, 2021
Opening line: (Yakko) "Mirage Arcane-y!"
A Brief History of History: Yakko explains the history of the world.
The Incredible Gnome in People's Mouths: Gerard: Gerard has a gnome in his mouth.
The Prisoners Dilemma: Pinky and Brain are mousenapped by another supervillain.
Math-terpiece Theater: Beachballs: Dot gives a dramatic math lesson about beach balls.
Tropes found in "A Brief History of History":
- Art Shift: Yakko's song is done in a 3D CGI style.
- Bland-Name Product: The Warners play Settlers of Suburbia.
- Continuity Nod: The Jeff Goldblum caricature points out that Animaniacs already made a reference to Jurassic Park back in the pilot.
- Curse Cut Short:Yakko: We mined coals and built trains, machines plowed our grain, and we treated the workers real sh—Alien: How many more of your Earth seconds is this going to take?Yakko: Well-timed interruption!
- Goofy Feathered Dinosaur: The song shows a feathered theropod bumping into the foot of a sauropod. Averted with the partly-feathered Tyrannosaurus that appears in the same song, however.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: To Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time.
Tropes found in "The Incredible Gnome in People's Mouths: Gerard":
- Bothering by the Book: The Gnome itemizes the California labor laws the retirement home is violating and threatens to report them.
Tropes found in "The Prisoners Dilemma":
- Bald of Evil: Baldo Billions.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Pinky uses Yakko's "Goodnight, everybody!" catchphrase, and expresses excitement that he finally "crossed over". Bonus points that Yakko and Pinky are both voiced by Rob Paulsen.
- The Cameo: Francis "Pip" Pumphandle appears on a bus ad for "Take it Easy!" Soda.
- Egopolis: Doppler's village is named Dopplerville.
- Expy:
- Mrs. Kettle looks like Mrs. Potts.
- Phoenicia Leatherpants looks like a Gender Flipped Dick Dastardly.
- Dramatic Irony: Brain didn't value the role Doppler gave him on the plan. When Brain takes over, the plan fails because he didn't do the one thing Doppler told him to do.
- Meaningful Name: Doppler is named after the Doppler weather radar.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Baldo Billions looks like Jeff Bezos.
- Prisoner's Dilemma: By both title and plot. Brain and the other supervillains quickly learn they cannot trust each other (though this is all a result of Pinky's accidental interference) and quickly scheme against themselves despite having gathered to work together for world domination.
- Shout-Out:
- Parts of the episode allude to The Prisoner (1967). The supervillain island closely resembles The Village (itself shot at the Portmeirion result, and the other unnamed villains there are dressed in similar striped suits, shirts and sweaters. This is not the first time Pinky and the Brain have referenced The Prisoner; in the original spin-off series three-part "Brainwashed" episode, the mice are taken to a location where everyone is named by the type of hat they wear (rather than by number).
- There are several references to Titanic (1997): when Mrs. Kettle is frozen, Pinky compares her to Jack Dawson among others; then at the end of the short, when Dr. Doppler climbs on a floating plank that already has a woman lying on it, he exclaims: "See, I knew Jack and Rose could have both made it!"
- Spanner in the Works: Pinky accidentally subdues all of the villains.
- That's What She Said:Brain: It appears, in this game,
I'm not just playing with myself. - Weather-Control Machine: Doppler's specialty.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Brain craves Doppler's approval and even calls him "dad".
Tropes found in "Math-terpiece Theater: Beachballs":
- Art Shift: The math problems are illustrated by grainy, scratchy horror movies.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title and Dot's host segment is from Masterpiece Theatre.
