Recap / Pinky And The Brain S 1 E 6

Episode: Season 1, Episode 6
Title: TV or Not TV
Directed by: Al Zegler
Written by: Peter Hastings
Air Date: November 19, 1995
Previous: Brainania
Next: Napoleon Brainaparte
Guest Starring: David Alan Grier, Tress MacNeille

"TV or Not TV" is the sixth episode of the first season of Pinky and the Brain.

Brain decides that the key to taking over the world is becoming famous, and the best way to become famous is to get on TV, and the most important thing about being famous is to have a dazzling smile. To that end, he decides to go to Hollywood and pitch a sitcom, and to ensure success he crafts himself a pair of dentures that give him a dazzling smile.

The dentures work surprisingly well, not only making people like him but actually hypnotizing them into worshipping them. Unfortunately, his pitch for a sitcom fails, because the TV producer is wearing sunglasses. This leads Brain to Plan B: become a standup comic.

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Tropes:

• Bland-Name Product: Brain gets on the cover of a magazine called Peeple, which of course is supposed to be People.
• Brick Joke: Pinky mentions "I know how you can get on the cover of Peeple: marry Prince Charles!" So when Brain decides to appear in said magazine, he calls Buckingham Palace to hypnotize Lady Di and warrant a cover.
• Catchphrase Insult: Brain caps off his insult comic act by calling everyone in his audience "Repugnant! Repugnant! Repugnant!"
• Contrived Coincidence: The TV guy recovers from his injuries caused by falling out of his chair via hypnotherapy. Unfortunately his hypnotic trigger word is "repugnant", which is also Brain's catchphrase. He falls out the window.
• For Want Of A Nail: Brain unwittingly causes the failure of his plan. First, he makes the TV executive laugh so hard he falls off his chair. He's cured through hypnosis, where the word "repugnant" both stops and triggers the pain. Unfortunately, that word is Brain's insult comic catchphrase, with a taping of his show causing enough pain to make the executive fall out of the window. Once Brain visits, he is kicked out.
• Hypnotic Eyes: Everyone who sees Brain's dazzling smile gets spiral eyes and says "I'm adoring you for no good reason." They then do whatever he says.
• Hypno Trinket: Brain decides that the key to taking over the world is getting on TV and becoming a celebrity. So he makes a pair of dentures which give him a winning smile. They work fabulously, actually hypnotizing whoever sees them. At the end, one of the two hacky TV writers gets ahold of Brain's dentures, wears them, and gets his show—which is basically a Bland-Name Product version of Pinky and the Brain—on the air.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Pinky suggests that Brain get on the cover of Peeple by marrying Prince Charles, Brain sneers, saying, "Who'd want to marry someone with ears like that?" Brain, of course, has gigantic ears.
• Insult Comic: Brain tries out a stand-up comic act. He is desperately unfunny and he bombs. Enraged, Brain starts flinging insults at his audience, and that causes them to laugh uproariously. He becomes a very popular insult comic, with an act that's nothing but insulting his audience and calling them "repugnant!"
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The secretary has a poster of Yawni, parodying composer/musician Yanni.
  • A caricature of Budd Friedman introduces Brain at his first stand-up.
  • Ed McMahon, Howard Stern, David Letterman and Paul Shaffer make cameos as Brain hits the big time.
  • The head of The WB is named Jerry Kilmer, a clear reference to Jamie Kellner, the real network head from 1995 to 2002.
• People Fall Off Chairs: The TV producer laughs so hard at Brain's Insult Comic act that he falls off his chair—and severely injures himself.
• Shout-Out:
  • The title references the famous soliloquy from Hamlet.
  • Pinky pulls off two references - pretending to be in Clutch Cargo, and referencing the famous "quarter pounder with cheese in France" line from Pulp Fiction.
  • Both Brain and Pinky reference Mr. Belvedere.
  • The motorcycle Brain drives is the same as the one driven by Peter Fonda’s character in Easy Rider.
  • Pinky and Brain describe the set-up for Friends.
  • Brain starts off one of his jokes with "Did you ever notice?"
  • Brain puts in an appearance on "Circus of the Stars".
• Spinning Paper: A spinning magazine announces Brain's engagement to Princess Diana (who has fallen victim to Brain's Hypno Trinket).
• Take That!: The hypnotist shows Kilmer a Kenny G album to make him fall asleep. It works instantly.
  • The host of "Circus of the Stars" hopes that Bob Saget gets trampled by a bear.