Pinky and the Brain References Guide

Ruth Bader Ginbsurg is an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, the second woman and sixth Jew appointed to that body.

David “Davy” Crockett was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician who eventually died at the Alamo. His place in pop culture was reinvigorated by Disney’s eponymous 1950s TV miniseries starring Fess Parker, which was in fact responsible for the false association between Crockett and coonskin caps (which were real but not worn by Crockett himself, who preferred felt hats).

The scene where the Brain gets in the jungle river to pull the boat free of an obstruction and emerging with a leech attached pays homage to an identical scenario with Humphrey Bogart as Charlie Allnut in The African Queen (1951), who also declares his hatred of them.

Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye (often mistakenly rendered as “Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye”) is a traditional English song written by Joseph B. Geoghegan in 1867, which originally was satirical in tone but has since gained traction with an anti-war interpretation. The title confusion may stem from the 1972 John F. Kennedy biography Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye.

Pinky modifies his “Narf!” catchphrase into an approximation of the distinctive Tarzan yell first employed by the sound department of the 1932 Johnny Weissmuller vehicle Tarzan the Ape Man.

Another jungle-based reference. “Hakuna matata” (”No problems” in Swahili) gained immediate international recognize for its use in one of three Oscar-nominated songs in The Lion King (1994), ranked a decade later at #99 on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs list. It was also used as the theme song for the spinoff Timon & Pumbaa cartoon, which happened to premier one day before Pinky and the Brain.

Air Wick is a brand of air fresheners introduced in 1943 and currently owned by  Reckitt Benckiser.

When Pinky and the Brain land in the jungle, what sounds like several bars of music from Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967) get played in the background.

“Bright Eyes” was the name given to the human George Taylor (Charlton Heston’s character) by chimp scientist Zira in the sci-fi film Planet of the Apes (1968), which later received a callback by being the name of Caesar’s mother in the 2011 reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes. (Note: the original B.R.A.I.N. file claims it is a reference to the name that Jane Goodall gave to her favorite chimp during her study of chimpanzee life, but I have been unable to corroborate this. I have, however, found that an inordinate amount of articles refer to Ms. Goodall’s bright eyes, meaning either they’re all cribbing from the same source material or her eyes really are that striking.)

The "Simian Liberation Army" is taken from "Symbionese Liberation Army", the American left-wing terrorist group active from 1973-1975 and most notorious for kidnapping and brainwashing newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. In its actions it's a swipe at the Animal Liberation Front and other radical animal rights groups which "liberate" laboratory animals.

Gene Shalit is a distinctive book and film critic best known for his appearances on The Today Show, starting part time in 1970 and going full time from 1973 until his 2010 retirement.

The logo appearing at the end of the Brain’s short film, with two hands hammering a symbol into rock, is a parody of the logo for the Mark VII Limited TV production company, owned by Jack Webb and active from 1951 to 1982. Their most famous show was Webb’s series Dragnet.

This episode’s title is a phrase that appears to have made its way into the wider public consciousness thanks to rock band Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 song of the same name, crowned the greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1 in 2009.

The Brain's line confirms the identity of the silver-haired comedian on the TV as Steve Martin, whose second album was A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978).

After Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin, now-ex-dictator Muammar Gaddafi of Libya is shown ceding power to the Brain as well. Of note in his office: a giant boombox, a poster and calendar featuring burqa-clad women, and an electric chair.

"ToDuh" = Today (NBC's morning program), which debuted in 1952 and was the first of its genre on TV. The gentleman on the left is Bryant Gumbel (co-anchor from 1982 to 1997), and the person on the right is Katie Couric (co-anchor from 1991 to 2006).

This time Pinky messes up the name of the Heisman Trophy (fully the Heisman Memorial Trophy Award), given annually since 1935 to the most outstanding college football player of the year, conflating it with the Heimlich maneuver used to stop people from choking.