A Spiritual Lesson In Toon Language: Lesson 56
Topic: Intellect Of A Child
Series: Pinky & The The Brain
Episodes: Das Mouse, Snowball
Lesson PDF link: 56.pdf
Introduction
Do you know a person that you would consider to have high intellect? Do you know of a person that you would consider to be not as intelligent. (This would include special needs people, people with a mental wasting disease etc.)
To be fair, we are not talking about words that carry insulting ways of thinking like “stupid”, “retarded”, and any other mentally degrading word. We are talking about the literal IQ (Intellegence Quotient) of a person in this section of the lesson.
In other words, nothing like this--
We are talking about understanding of concepts such as taking care of one's self and other needs, ways of thinking as in language etc.. The less intellect a person has, the less likely that a person is able to think in ways that are considered normal and sometimes also in a clear manner.
We are going to look at a couple of clips from the episode of Pinky & The Brain called Snowball.
Cartoon Clip #1: Pinky & The Brain: "Snowball":
What do you see in this clip?
The first thing we see is a plan to dominate the earth with a chain letter stolen by Snowball from The Brain. What I really want to zero in on is that Pinky is to be a pawn in Snowball's scheme and is not with a lot of intelligence - he amuses himself all the time by acting silly all the time just like with his ears etc. The Brain doesn't understand why Pinky is very valuable, after all Pinky isn't that bright (so to speak) a lot of the time.
Cartoon Clip #2: Pinky & The Brain: "Snowball":
What do you see in this clip?
The second thing that we see is that Snowball fakes interest in Pinky and tries to start manipulating him by using the lure of fudge. Pinky almost takes the bait but stops because he believes in the Brain as a friend more than Snowball. Snowball isn't really a good friend at all.
Have you met people like Snowball?
The kind of person that Snowball is like is very dangerous. This is the kind of person that kidnaps children off the streets and does unspeakable harm to them. Brain is no angel himself, but he is a much better friend than Snowball if a choice between the two needed to be made.
Cartoon Clip #3: Pinky & The Brain: "Snowball":
What do you see in this clip?
Snowball's scheme worked, but it wasn't a chain letter plan, it was to buy 51% of the world by buying all of the bankrupt municipalities (government businesses) of the world in the disguise of Bill Grates (a Bill Gates parody) after deceitfully taking over Microsponge (a Microsoft parody). Snowball gives Pinky a token Vice- President position in his empire and manipulates him as well with an amusement park of his own called “Pinkyworld”. As you will see though, all of this baiting doesn't really change the fact that Pinky really loves The Brain and is his friend.
Unfortunately, Brain's sarcasm about using Pinky for his brilliance is taken to heart and Pinky now believes Snowball. One of the things that the lack of intelligence does is that words can hurt more than usual and hypersensitivity is the result. Sometimes my visual disability causes me not to be able to catch on to sarcasm too and I can get hurt just as easily if I'm not careful too, so, this doesn't take a lack of brain power to fall victim to, so this goes to show that words do matter with disabled types of people as well as general humanity, although we have a tendency to get hurt more I think.
Cartoon Clip #4: Pinky & The Brain: "Snowball":
What do you see in this clip?
Pinky is having a really tough time and this time Snowball shows himself in his true hateful self and Pinky finds out the truth, that he is just being used in a very selfish manner and the Vice Presidency isn't really a true position because there is no love behind it only hate. I would be very sad too.
Cartoon Clip #5: Pinky & The Brain: "Snowball":
What do you see in this clip?
Bible Study And Discussion
Finally in this episode, we see that Brain calls Pinky his friend. If you the reader know this series, you will know that Pinky and The Brain are actually true friends in a very weird fashion; they need each other and Pinky is the only one who will put up with Brain's controlling ways and ego. Snowball is much worse and Pinky somehow senses that. Somehow, Pinky knew how to short out Snowball's suit and ruin his plan and save Brain's life, which means that Snowball underestimated Pinky. In this world as well, we experience this with a lot of people when they think about people that don't have as much intelligence and I think that is sad. Disabilities like that are surprising in their result and I think and know that God made it that way for a reason. These Bible passages will describe what a friend like Pinky would be like.
The Bible States In Proverbs 17: 17:
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.
The Bible States In I Corinthians 13: 4-7:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
This is a true classic scripture and very true of Pinky.
The Bible States In John 15: 13
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Pinky embodies this very well because he risked his life for Brain. Jesus is speaking of Himself here in the fact that He is talking about His crucifixion, but understand that the true meaning of an extremely close friend is described in this verse as well.
Now, finally for this lesson we will look at another part of Pinky. We are going to look at a clip from the Pinky & The Brain episode "Das Mouse".
Cartoon Clip Show: Pinky & The Brain: "Das Mouse":
What did you see in this clip?
In this clip, we see a flash of good intelligence for Pinky. Sometimes even people of less intelligence can come up with an interesting plan, but we are not looking at the “pancake jamboree” idea as much as Pinky's taste buds not liking the sample pancakes. These pancakes are bitter because of the frog's fluid, not only that, but there is a lot of castor oil in them which doesn't help. These pancakes are not wholesome for anyone and Pinky finds that out. Even with a disability like lack of a lot of intellect, God makes it so these kinds of people a lot of times know what is good and bad through the other senses.
I will add one more thing, that faith, trust, innocence etc. come easy to this kind of person such as Pinky. This is important because the above kinds of traits are what God looks for the most in a person.
The Bible States In Matthew 11: 25-26:
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
The Bible States In Matthew 18: 1-5
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.
3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
Pinky may have the mentality of a child but he sure gets a lot of the important things right. We need to learn from Pinky, because people like him that seem to have lower intellect are extremely blessed of God and should never be underestimated, shunned, or mistreated. The kingdom of God belongs to those who accept Jesus with full trust, faith, and love. This doesn't mean a person's IQ (Intelligence Quotient). The higher intellect a person has, the more likely it is for that person to think way too much and possibly miss Heaven because of trying too hard instead of showing the innocence and faith needed to accept who Jesus is, that being our savior. The Pharisees of Jesus's day made this mistake; they were too smart for their own good and had a lot of complicated rules. Jesus made sure to point that out in His way (not to mention exposing their hypocrisy).
The Bible States In Psalms 34: 8
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
The Bible States In I Peter 2: 1-3
1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.
2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
What have we learned?
We have seen that intellectual disabilities can be underestimated. I want to demonstrate this with a fun little real world example. My friend Dustin Cruse recently donated a video to me on the game of "Cup Stacking". This is a game that's been around for a little while, but has in the last few years come into a lot of popularity. The problem is that this game takes a ton of coordination and a lot of people can't do it very easily. Let's see Dustin demonstrate.
This game is big with Autistic kids because for some reason, these kids do it well. Look at this article that we got from the New York Times website:
Pinky, like most people without a whole lot of intellect is full of love and not hate. I find that a lot of the time less intellect is refreshingly wonderful, because these people don't know how to hate another person, nor sometimes do they have the capacity and I think that is their advantage and we need to learn from it. This is not to say intellect isn't good (because it is). Higher intellect means that a person needs to fully surrender it so God can harness it for His kingdom's good. People like Pinky are most of the time great examples of how everyone should act, fully trusting, fully loving, fully faithful. This in the spiritual sense is how we all need to be to God and then using these gifts to love all mankind. We need to know the difference between bitter evil and sweet wholesomeness of the Lord. We need to know what is good for us and taste that the Lord is good. Heaven is so simple, even a special needs type of child can do it!!