Recap / Pinky And The Brain S 1 E 2

Episode: Season 1, Episode 2
Title:"Of Mouse and Man"
Directed by: Audu Paden
Written by: Peter Hastings
Air Date: September 10, 1995
Previous: Das Mouse
Next: Tokyo Grows / That Smarts / Brainstem
Guest Starring: James Belushi, Jeffrey Tambor

"Of Mouse and Man" is the second episode of the first season of Pinky and the Brain.

Brain's latest idea for world domination is to tie up the entire Earth's phone network in an endless voicemail loop, leaving everyone stuck on the phone and distracted while he takes over. To do this, however, he needs the oddly specific sum of $1,614,000. How to get all that money? A commercial from a sleazy lawyer convinces Brain that the way to go is to get a job, fake a workplace injury, and then sue his employer for workman's comp.

Wearing his human suit, Brain gets a job at an ethically dubious "re-re-insurance" company. Complications in his plan include his boss's delayed suspicions about his resume and a possible sexual harassment suit, but Brain finally fakes his injury, and a contentious trial begins.

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Tropes:

• Answer Cut: When Brain is asked on the stand if he considers mice to be highly intelligent, we cut to Pinky operating the human suit erratically through traffic. Cut back to Brain answering "No."
• Batman Gambit: The prosecutor manages to turn the case against Brain by throwing deliberately absurd trivia about Albert Einstein, the temperature of the sun, and the Fermi-Dirac distribution function at him, touching upon his Insufferable Genius type-ego, thus proving that he is "too intelligent to be a mouse".
• Big Damn Heroes: Just after Brain's lawsuit scheme fails and he's being arrested for fraud and perjury, Pinky shows up in the human suit and gets him out. Unfortunately, he ends up stepping on Brain in the process.
• The Cameo: The Goodfeathers make an appearance outside the courthouse.
• Courtroom Episode: The third act has Brain in court as the plaintiff in a workplace injury suit.
• Foreshadowing: When Brain is hired his new boss his boss drops off a couple of one-sheet documents providing guidance on workplace policies, then dumps a gigantic stack of paper that he identifies as "our sexual harassment policy." Later, Brain does get into some sexual harassment trouble when his wonky human suit leads to him accidentally manhandling his sexy coworker.
• Frivolous Lawsuit: Brain's plan to fake an injury in the workplace and sue his employer, to get money to use in taking over the world. When Pinky points out how illegal that is, Brain says that once he rules the world, he will reimburse the funds and have Gerald Ford pardon him.
• It Runs on Nonsensoleum:
  • Invoked by Brain as he explains his plan for suing the company.
    Brain: In the office kitchen, I will simply stage an accident utilizing the microwave oven and the non-dairy powdered creamer. For no one really knows how a microwave works.
    Pinky: But, why the powdered creamer, Brain?
    Brain: No one really knows how that works, either.
  • The gag doesn't stop there. When it went to trial, the prosecutor is able to explain how the microwave oven works, but he's at a complete loss on the creamer.
• Like an Old Married Couple: This happened a lot on Pinky and the Brain but never more than in this episode, where Brain comes home from work tired and meets Pinky in an apron and wearing lipstick. Pinky starts crying because Brain isn't paying him enough attention.
• Mobile-Suit Human: The first episode in which Brain uses his human suit to pretend to be a human. The gags are 1) the suit both has super-strength and also is hard to control, which leads to stuff like Brain smashing his boss's desk when attempting to shake hands, and 2) Brain makes no attempt to disguise his head, leading to the surreal sight of a tiny mouse head sticking out of a human body.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The lawyer defending the company in Brain's lawsuit is drawn and voiced to be Christopher Walken. And in a topical reference guaranteed to be lost on anyone born after 1980 or so, the judge is drawn to look like Lance Ito, the bumbler in charge of the O. J. Simpson trial.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Brain uses his Mobile-Suit Human to get a job at a company, simulate an accident and sue his employer for turning him into a mouse. The judge rules in favor of the company and orders Brain to be arrested for fraud, perjury, and appearing naked in a public place, but these decisions are based on the belief that Brain is not a mouse.
• Shout-Out: The title is a reference to Of Mice and Men.
  • Brain references American Gladiators.
  • Pinky references TruTV (then known as Court TV), a network whose progamming consists of reality legal programs and legal dramas.
• Take That!: "You think Gallagher is funny?"