Pinky and the Brain: Christmas 1995 special issue (January 1996)

Cover

Drawn by: Allen Helbig

Pinky and the brain are trying out as elves. They're on a stage, in elf costumes, with a tree and presents; a sign in the background says "Christmas ELF TRYOUTS". Pinky is juggling ornaments with his hands, twirling a wreath on one foot, and balancing a fruitcake on the tip of his tail. The Brain's not doing much of anything.

Pinky sings, "Jingle narf, jingle narf...", then says, "Come on, Brain, sing with me." The Brain replies, "Not even world conquest, Pinky, is worth that humiliation." A voice from offstage asks, "HEY, YOU! The short one -- can you do the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy?"

Jingle Narf

Credits

• Writer: David Cody and Bobbi JG Weiss
• Penciller: Walter Carzon
• Inker: Mike DeCarlo
• Letterer: Bob Pinaha
• Colorist: Jo Meuginot

Synopsis

Pinky is watching his favorite TV show, Rattra, from his cage. Rattra is a superhero rat robot - and the show is, like so many others, a vehicle for selling toys. The Rattra robot toy is the big hit of the upcoming Christmas season. It has a neat feature, too: it's programmable to obey the user's every wish. When the Brain hears this, he immediately concecives his next plan for world domination: he will replace the toy's standard program chip with one of his own design, and the modified toys will do his bidding.

The mice go to their local Toys R Junk store to begin reprogramming the toys. They locate a shelf full, but they're trampled by eager shoppers who buy the entire stock before they can begin. The same thing happens at their local Toy Polloi store, then the nearest Pay 'N' Play store, and they realize that they won't be able to get to them before they're bought up. They decide to go to the factory, which a little research shows is Santa Corp., Inc., at the North Pole.

There really is a Santa Claus, as the mice discover when they reach the North Pole. They first try to gain entrance through the front gate, but are turned away by the Santa Patrol. Pinky spots a sign reading, "Elves wanted!". They decide to get hired as elves; they're taken to an audition room, where they sing and dance their way into the hearts of the hiring manager. The next test is to make a toy, which both mice are able to do in their own unique fashion. Finally, they are taken outside to ride a reindeer to make sure they can be evacuated in case of an emergency. They pass that test too - though the Brain has a bad case of motion sickness - and are hired.

Instead of reporting to their assigned workplace, the mice sneak into a board meeting, where the status of Santa Corp.'s latest toy acquisitions is being discussed. The Rattra robot is their most popular item, and they'll have thousands ready for Christmas. This meshes perfectly with the Brain's plan, and so they go off in search of the Rattra section of the factory.

As they wander through the factory, they are impressed by the accomplishments of Santa Claus, for different reasons. After the Brain gets run over by a Batguy Wheely-Car under test, they find the section of the factory where the Pinky and the Brain merchandise is being made. The elf in charge of quality control sees them, and rejects them as being off-model. They are tossed into a chute marked "Rejects Processing", which dumps them onto a conveyor belt. They come out the other side of processing packaged as Mighty Tidy Rodent Ranger toys.

Pinky and the Brain finally chew their way free and find the Rattra assembly line. The Brain sets to work making the modified chips, and Pinky installs them in the robots on the line. After several hours, the Brain finally has his robot army. He dons the programming helmet, and starts to imprint his will on the robots - but forgets the command phrase needed to start the process. He makes several false starts, and then finally gives up and asks Pinky for help. Pinky dons the helmet before the Brain can stop him, and says the command phrase, imprinting the robots with his will, such as it is.

The robots go crazy, acting like Pinky. Santa hears of the problem, and instructs the quality control elf to abort the entire batch. All of the robots, as well as the mice, are dumped into the trash. Santa instructs his elves to work two shifts to make up the deficit. The mice dig their way out of the trash, and go off to plan for tomorrow night.

Did You Notice...

• Toys R Junk refers to the Toys R Us mega-chain.
• There's a Warner run-through in the halls of Santa Corp., on page 17.
• Dizzyworld refers to Disney, Narisko refers to Nabisco, and the Feebler Elves refer to Nabisco's Keebler Elves characters. The Batguy Wheely-Car is an almost perfect rendition of the Batmobile from the movies.
• There is considerably more Pinky and the Brain merchandise shown than actually exists; it'd be nice to see more, but it's not that likely.
• The term "off-model" is used in the cartoon and comics industries to refer to depictions of characters that don't adhere to the standard representation in one way or another. This makes the idea that the real characters could be off-model especially funny.
• As it happened, the Warner Bros. Studio Stores introduced Pinky and the Brain slippers and Christmas stockings for the 1995 Christmas season - and the Brain is considerably off-model!
• Mighty Tidy Rodent Rangers refers to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, perhaps the most-merchandised kids' series ever.

Technical nits

• Wakko isn't wearing a hat and Dot's tail is missing in the second panel of the run-through. (page 17)
• Continuity error: The Brain is wearing a pink costume on page 23, but taking off a green one on page 24.