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"I'm the one called Larry!"
— Larry

Larry (aka Art) is a lab mouse like The Brain and Pinky who appears in the episode "Pinky & The Brain... And Larry", and makes a cameo in "The Pinky and the Brain Reunion Special" and 24 years later in the Animaniacs reboot cartoon "The Flawed Couple."

Larry was voiced by Billy West.

Character Information[]

Development[]

Larry was created as a response to demand from Kids' WB! executives to include additional characters on the show. His presence is sporadic, as the writers believed that including an additional character would ruin the chemistry between Pinky and Brain - as they worked best as a comedy duo. It was postulated that a third character would, therefore, be out of place, and unnecessary to the plot. It also foreshadows Elmyra Duff being forced into the cast in an ill-fated series.

He is an obvious parody of Larry of the Three Stooges, given they share similar hair styles. Like his human counterpart, he acts as a middle man between the Brain's intellect and Pinky's stupidity. There's also an original theme song for the group which has Larry's name hastily spliced into key parts of the show's normal theme. For example: "They're Pinky and The Brain (and Larry), yes Pinky and The Brain (and Larry), one is a genius, the other's insane (and the other one's Larry). The recurring theme of this episode is the acknowledgment (or lack thereof) of Larry's existence. This also paralleled many of the Stooges' sketches, wherein Larry is deemed the most underrated of the Three Stooges.

Appearance[]

He has green eyes, sort of like Brain's pinkish-red eyes or Pinky's light blue eyes. Larry has brown head hair over his ears. In the reboot, he looks mostly the same but has gained some fangs; and he wears a contemporary suit for the coffee shop setting.

Personality[]

He is an obvious parody of Larry Fine of the Three Stooges, given they share similar hair styles. Like his human counterpart, he acts as a middle man between the Brain's intellect and Pinky's stupidity. While accompanying the duo during one of their schemes, he does little except constantly introducing himself and providing useless observations. His entire character revolves around the fact that he's Larry (which he points out often), and he has no other real traits to speak of. Despite this, the one episode featuring him treats him as if he was always part of the main cast and although never seen onscreen beyond his cameo appearance, Larry is referred to by both Pinky and Brain in subsequent episodes.

History[]

Pinky and the Brain[]

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I'm Larry!

Absolutely no explanation is given for Larry's presence in the episode. Pinky and Brain act as if he had always been there, even though the viewer has never seen him before. Thus, he feels a need to constantly point his existence out (he even takes over the theme song). His lines consisted mostly of greetings, and of reminders that he is a part of the episode. At the end of the episode, when the Brain realizes that they don't actually need Larry, Larry decides to change his name to Art (a reference to Art Garfunkel, whose hair is similar to that of the Three Stooge's Larry) and start a new career as a folk singer, singing "The Smells of Loudness" (a parody of "The Sound of Silence") with Paul Simon.

Just as the Brain declares that he and Pinky will continue to attempt to rule the world without Larry, they are almost immediately joined by a mouse named Zeppo (a parody of Zeppo of the Marx Brothers), and the episode's closing song splices in Zeppo's name like it did with Larry in the opening theme.

Despite their split, Larry was apparently notable enough to later be consulted by the mice for their fictitious television reunion special (and credited under his original name).

Animaniacs (Reboot)[]

Pinky and the Brain and Larry 2021

The gang's all here... And Larry!

Larry makes his grand return 24 years later in the Animaniacs reboot cartoon "The Flawed Couple" during the Cheers parody "Narfs." Pinky appears to be happy to see him, while Brain looks at him in annoyance; implying there is still some lingering resentment towards him.[note 1]

Appearances[]



Trivia[]

Flawed couple art 4

"The Flawed Couple" Production Art Provided by Gabe Swarr

  • Billy West’s voice for Larry an impression of Three Stooges comedian Larry Fine, which he also utilized for Stimpy from Ren and Stimpy.
  • In the Animaniacs reboot, a similar character named Egwind appears in a few Pinky and the Brain segments illustrating a similar purpose to Larry. The two even appear in "The Flawed Couple" (albeit in separate scenes). The difference between them, however, is that while Larry was an awkward fit to the group who is shooed out after his only major appearance, Egwind seems to have some sort of chemistry with the duo but his time with them is cut short by tragedy, yet he shows up again as a semi-recurring character. Additionally, Pinky and the Brain seem to like Egwind a bit, and while Brain was annoyed (if not completely indifferent) by Larry, he appears to enjoy Egwind's company from time to time.
  • Barring mentions of Pinky's Parents and different takes on a sentient Earth, Larry holds the special honor of being the first character who was initially introduced in the spin-off series to make a physical appearance in an Animaniacs episode.

Gallery[]

Notes[]

  1. "Narfs" is said to have been a failed in-universe pilot shot in the 1980's. Contradictory information has been given about the mice's existence on multiple occasions, as well as whether or not their segments' events happen in-canon or they are simply actors; or even a mix of both.

References[]


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