Pinky and the Brain

The episode plays on several real life controverseys involving cigarettes. Brain being a cartoony spokesman meant to get kids smoking refers to Camel cigarette's mascot Camel Joe. The company was accused of using Camel Joe to lure children into smoking, and after enough pressure they eventually dropped it. The courtroom scene where judges question the cigarette makers about missing nicotine research documents mirrors real life court cases where big tabacco companies were accused of forging documents and bribing politicians to cover the addictiveness of their products. Brain's desire to take down the cigarette company for getting him addicted is a nod to Wayne McLaren, one of the actors in the Marlboro Man ad campain who joined anti-smoking movements and sued Marlboro Cigarettes after contracting lung cancer.