Warning: The following feature contains SPOILERS for the Animaniacs Season 1 episode “Of Mice and Memes.”
The first episode of Hulu’s Animaniacs revival opened with The Brain’s biggest plan for world domination ever. It was a plan so intricate that it took 22 years to come to fruition and The Brain had to invent modern internet culture as one part of the convoluted scheme.
Originally part of the classic Animaniacs ensemble, the mousy duo of Pinky and The Brain proved popular enough to merit their own spin-off in 1995. The would-be world-conquerors spent one year as part of The WB network’s Sunday night line-up, before being returned to Saturday mornings. While the series didn’t fare well going up against the news program 60 Minutes, Pinky and The Brain did develop a devout following and won several Emmys, including the 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
“Of Mice and Memes” picks up with Pinky and the Brain when they were last seen in 1998, as Pinky is enjoying his favorite TV program; a funny clip show called America’s Stupidest Pets. As Brain observed the live audience laughing themselves stupid at a video of a frog failing to get through an automatic door, Pinky declared “I wish I could carry the television with me so I could watch this all the time.” This inspired Brain to a new plan to take over the world and within the span of one montage (during which a succession of increasingly complex personal computers was shown) 22 years passed as Pinky and The Brain emerged into Brain’s greatest achievement; the Internet Age and almost everyone having a portable screen they could look at whenever they wanted.
Brain’s scheme centered around taking what he had observed about humanity two decades earlier and coupling it with his creation and a special mind control filter. “Humans are obsessed with cute, silly animals. They can’t look away,” explained The Brain to a dumbfounded Pinky. “Once they upload these adorable videos to the internet, people around the world marvel at them.” It was Brain’s intention to star in the ultimate silly animal video and leave the teeming masses unable to resist his demands, thanks to the mind control filter making them fall in love with him.
One might think that making the public addicted to the internet and oblivious to the world around them would be the endgame of The Brain’s plotting rather than a side effect… The irony that he had already basically accomplished his goal without realizing it and failed because he couldn’t let go of his scheme goes without comment. It spoils little, however, to reveal that things do not go according to plan, in the typical Animanaics fashion, and Brain is ultimately left to come up with a new scheme to take over the world for tomorrow night.
Originally from https://screenrant.com/animaniacs-reboot-brain-take-over-world-internet-culture-explained/