Release: April 13, 2016
Nostalgia Critic looks at the much-maligned Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain to see if it deserves it's reputation.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: The Critic admits to laughing out loud at several moments in the show.
- Department of Redundancy Department: After watching the entire show, the Critic admits that he's "disappointed he wasn't more disappointed".
- Executive Meddling: Discussed in the context of the show's origins. As the Critic notes, Warner Bros. executives kept pushing to add a third member to the duo of Pinky and the Brain, concerned that their success alone wasn't enough to drive toy sales. While the creators held out for a while, this show's creation would end up being the result.
- Fun with Subtitles: The captions on the YouTube version transcribe the average reaction to the show as "[sounds of extreme pain and frustration]".
- Irony: The Critic considers it ironic that the central concept of the show - a dumb little girl with a super-intelligent lab mouse who wants to Take Over the World for a pet - is actually a clever idea, and had it been the original premise it could have been very funny and creative. But since the show is a combination of two ideas that weren't supposed to be that, it isn't allowed to properly explore that concept.
- Lighter and Softer: The Critic notes the show's much heavier leaning towards a younger demographic, with shorter episodes, more songs and much more child-friendly material.
- Merchandise-Driven: Critic sarcastically notes that the executive drive to add a third main character to Pinky and the Brain was clearly based more on pushing toy sales than concerns for the show's actual success.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: The episode "Pinky and the Brain... and Larry" is brought up and discussed. Essentially, it was created as a "surreal slap in the face" to the original executive demands for a third main character, demonstrating how the show only worked because Pinky and the Brain were the perfect Smart Jerk and Nice Moron duo, and inserting a third wheel was a case of fixing what wasn't broken.
- Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: The Critic notes that the original show worked because Pinky and the Brain played off of each other perfectly in this manner. The addition - and focus on - Elmyra resulted in there being two morons for Brain to work with, making Pinky redundant.
- Took A Level In Cynicism: As the Critic notes, much of the show's humor had taken a darker and more cynical turn, possibly due to the creators essentially being under protest.
- Wolverine Publicity: Discussed in the case of Elmyra Duff. The Critic suspects that somebody in Warner Bros. must have been a huge fan of her, considering how often she made appearances. He points out that this actually works against Elmyra in this case - a character designed to be an antagonist and endured in small doses is now the central focus, making her antics far less tolerable.
