Thaddeus Plotz hires a clown for Wakko's birthday party, unaware that Wakko has an irrational Clownophobia (fear of clowns) that's even worse than Plotz's own. Wakko does everything in his power to get rid of the clown, resulting in the clown being sent to the planet Mars. Once on Mars, the clown gets an audience of Martians who like his act.
The song that Mr. Clown sings in Plotz's office, "Never Laugh Alone," is a parody of "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel, which Jerry Lewis, whom the clown is modeled after, often concluded his Labor Day Telethons with.
The clown is one of the rare characters who runs afoul of the Warners yet gets a happy ending in the form of Martians who like his songs. This is probably due to the fact the clown was not acting out of malice towards Wakko, but simply trying to do a job he was hired for. It is one of the seldom examples where an antagonistic character in a WB cartoon "wins" in the end.
Dr. Scratchansniff incorrectly calls a fear of clowns Clownophobia, when the correct term is Coulrophobia.
Dr. Scratchansniff's line "A clown is not a giant spider" is a reference to Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's IT, whose true form was a giant spider. The line "A clown will not bite me and throw me in the basement" is a reference to John Wayne Gacy, a man who murdered several people and kept their bodies inside the crawl space of his own home. Gacy had become known as the "clown killer" due to a side job he had entertaining parties under the guise of "Pogo the Clown".
This is one of the few episodes where nothing bad and/or mildly inconvenient happens to Dr. Scratchansniff.
The Brain poses as country singer Bubba Bo Bob Brain with Pinky as his manager. He plans to put subliminal messages in his songs to get whoever is listening to the songs to make him their world leader.
This cartoon contains parodies of Billy Ray Cyrus and his infamous song "Achy Breaky Heart", Dolly Parton, the TV show Hee Haw and the Grand Ole Opry. A caricature of Glen Campbell sings a parody of "Wichita Lineman" and a Kenny Rogers caricature sings a parody of "The Gambler".
As always, the Warners and Ralph continue their literal running gag.
The ending is used in the second finale of the Animaniacs game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment system.
The clip of Brain showing Pinky what subliminal message is, is later used in the theme song for the Pinky and the Brain spin-off series.
TMN (possibly the Tennessee Music Network) is a parody of TNN (The Nashville (later National) Network), which is a former name for Viacom-owned network Spike, which was rebranded as the Paramount Network in 2018.
Pinky references the "angel gets its wings" quote from It's A Wonderful Life.
Pinky's alias is "Colonel Pinky", a reference to Colonel Tom Parker, who was the long-time manager of Elvis Presley.
Quotes
Dolly: I want you to know that I'm your biggest fan.
Brain: I'd say puberty was inordinately kind to you.
Brain: It must be inordinately taxing to be such a boob.
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but burlap chafes me so.
Brain: I have calculated every ingredient necessary to become a country-music megastar. Read me the list, Pinky!
Pinky: A cowboy hat.
Brain: Check.
Pinky: A southern dialect.
Brain: Check. "Y'all."
Pinky: Nice, Brain. Working class values.
Brain: I enjoy beef jerky and the comedy stylings of Gallagher. Check.
Pinky: A song.
Brain: Check.
Pinky: A name consisting of not less than three words.
Brain: From now on, I shall be Bubba Bo Bob Brain. Check.
Pinky: And a height of at least six feet.
Brain: A...Drat. There must be some way to increase my height.
Pinky: Hmmm. Let me think. (Hits head)
Brain: Don't hurt yourself, Pinky.
Brain: Pardon my effervescence, but your accolade is more than any mouse merits.
Crystal Gayle: What's he saying?
Garth Brooks: I don't know.
Brain: I'd like to thank my mama and Elvis.
Brain: It's Bubba Bo Bob Brain. You are my manager, colonel Pinky. You discovered me playing guitar on the front porch of my humble pig farm. Any questions?
Pinky: Oh, just one. When you farm humble pigs, how far apart do you have to plant them?
Brain: If I could reach you, I would hurt you. But for now, on to Nashville.
Pinky: On to Nashville!
Brain: (Hits into wall) This is a pain that is going to linger.
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