They’re Pinky and The Brain
Yes, Pinky and The Brain
One is a genius
The other’s insane…
Even though the theme song doesn’t directly state which one is which, it is easy to assume that Brain is the ‘genius’ since he often formulates calculated plans to take over the world. While the ‘insane’ one of the duo is Pinky since he cracks jokes along the way and is often reprimanded by Brain for his lack of intelligence.
However, a popular fan theory suggests that the ‘genius’ is Pinky and Brain is the ‘insane’ one.
So, is this theory plausible?
Well, the basic premise for every episode of Pinky and The Brain (1995–1998) is that Brain formulates a plan to take over the world and Pinky often points out a flaw within the plan. Brain ignores him and essentially, never succeeds in taking over the world.
Brain is so determined to take over the world that he executes a plan every night while hoping for the same result. Although it is no secret that Brain is clever enough to build his own machines and work out numerical equations, some believe that he shows clear signs of insanity. People point to Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity (allegedly):
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
Judging by this definition, Brain could be considered insane. However, if his plans are all very different from each other then it could be questionable whether he fits the definition of insanity or not. Unfortunately, Brain struggles to reach his desired result and fails at taking over the world.
Meanwhile, Pinky has almost succeeded in taking over the world — twice.
For example, in the episode “Pinky’s Plan” (Season 3. Episode 6), Pinky succeeds in talking powerful, world leaders into giving him the keys to their countries as a present to Brain. However, Brain’s attitude angers the leaders and they decide to take their keys away from him. In this sense, It could be said that Pinky has a higher emotional and social intelligence than Brain.
Additionally, in the episode “Pinky’s Turn” (Season 3, Episode 29), Brain lets Pinky try to take over the world with a plan of his own. His plan is almost successful until Brain takes control of the world and ruins everything. Brain reflects on this later in the episode:
“How is it that my beautifully crafted plans to take over the world never succeed while you say the first thing that comes into your head and wind up changing the nation’s monetary policy?” — Brain
Furthermore, in the episode “That Smarts” (Season 1, Episode 3) Brain’s research concludes that Pinky’s behaviour is the reason why his plans are failing. However, when he builds a machine to increase Pinky’s intelligence, Pinky finds a flaw in Brain’s research and comes to the conclusion that Brain’s own behaviour is the reason why his plans are continuing to fail.
Pinky finds error after error in Brain’s schemes which causes Brain to yell at him to leave. Pinky says that he liked their relationship better when Brain would simply dismiss whatever he had to say:
“I liked it better when it was ‘no Pinky this’ bop on the head, ‘no Pinky that’ bop on the head, but now egad, being a smarty is no fun. Brain doesn’t like me” — Pinky
This realisation causes Pinky to use the machine on himself to decrease his intelligence because he wants Brain to like him again. Unfortunately, Brain comes to the conclusion that in order to take over the world the duo must have ‘balance’ — with one of them being intelligent and the other being an idiot. Therefore, he also decides to use the machine on himself to decrease his own intelligence without knowing that Pinky was going to use the machine. In the end, the two lab mice are believed to have the same amount of intelligence and thus do not have the intelligence to operate the machine: leaving them both as idiots.
The episode can leave the viewer with some questions. For instance, if Brain is supposedly the genius in the first place then wouldn’t he have been able to realise that he was the problem?
On the other hand, it is possible that the machine made Pinky even smarter than the Brain. However, what is interesting is Brain’s behaviour after the machine decreases his intelligence. He acknowledges that he is not clever anymore, yet he is the one that realises that they cannot operate the machine and therefore he cannot switch back. In this sense, could it be possible that the machine did not actually work in the first place?
But why would Brain pretend to be stupid if It didn’t work?
It could be because he wants it to work. He expects the machine to change his personality, therefore he convinces himself that it actually has: mirroring a placebo effect. As for Pinky, if the machine doesn’t actually work, then perhaps he has always been clever. It could be theorised that he pretended that the machine worked in front of Brain because he doesn’t want to hurt his feelings. After all, Pinky has shown on multiple occasions that he just wants Brain to be happy. Therefore, Pinky uses the machine to ‘change himself back into being an idiot’ because he wants Brain to think that it has worked since he appears to be so concerned about Brain liking him. Also Pinky remains his fun-loving self even after being put through the machine, which combats the stereotype of fun-loving people being stupid and serious people being intelligent.
Funnily enough, in an old Kids WB Brain Drain short, Pinky sings the theme song (2:06–2:22), but adds some additions to the lyrics:
“They’re Pinky and the Brain,
One is a genius, that’s me!
The other’s insane, that’s the Brain”
When Brain asks him what he said, Pinky gets embarrassed and responds with “Nothing!”
Of course, this is just a theory, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible and fun to think about.
