-Wheeze wheeze-  POW!  -thud-

That is, without a doubt, the classic Brainy gag.  You’d think that a guy named Brainy would be smart enough not to sneak up on Helga like that…

Common Characteristics

• Brainy is typically found sneaking up behind Helga
• Poor Brainy always gets hurt somehow; usually it’s a smack between the eyes by one of Helga’s fist (it’s usually her left fist)
• If you hear wheezing behind your back, you should immediately know that it’s Brainy.  Brainy always wheezes when he’s sneaking up on his crush.
• Helga is usually alone before Brainy appears
• Brainy usually shows up while Helga is thinking about Arnold, be it in the form of a soliloquy or just one of her lovesick swoons
• Helga’s mood whenever Brainy sneaks up behind her tends to be that of annoyance and/or anger; she never seems to care that she created a wheezing mess on the floor

Who knew that the simpleton who loved lemon puddin’ so dearly could be so easy to draw?  Here are a few basic facial proportions you should keep in mind when drawing Stinky:

• His face is basically a rectangle: the width of his face is 1/4 the height of his head.
• The bottom 1/4 of his face forms his neck
• The height and width of his nose is 1/4 the height of his head
• The width of his ear is 1/16 the height of his head, while the height of his ear is 5/16 the height of his head
• The bottom of his eyes touch the horizontal-midline of his head

The next steps are to add his hair (which is within the rectanglar outline), mouth, minor details to the eyes and ears, and erase any guidlines you used.  Now that you have these drawing tips in mind, you can draw Stinky like crazy!  (Like the way I did.)

In some Eastern Asian religions, such as Buddhism, there is the concept of a “hungry ghost”.  For example, in Chinese Buddhism, they conduct Chinese ancestor worship.  I’ve seen and practiced Chinese ancestor worship before, but I’ll admit I’m not the greatest expert on it.  However, I can tell you that ghosts are believed to return during certain times of the year (e.g. on Chinese holidays, days of their death, ect.) in search of food.  Dead ancestors return to the homes of their families, where the living offer them food (such as buns, roasted duck, roasted pig, ect.) to honor and appease them.  Food is often accompanied with incense, prayers, and the burning of banknotes and other paper items.  Some things they pray for can include good health, long life, and prosperity for the family, ect.  In this religion, they also believe that certain items (e.g. banknotes) that are burned will go to the spirit world.  So by burning paper banknotes, money has just been given to the spirits (ancestors).  There are some other cool stuff I have heard about being burned for one’s ancestors, such as a paper house with paper servants.  That is one lucky ghost.

Relating this to the world of “Hey Arnold!”, we have seen the offering of food in an attempt to appease ghosts at least two times (in ‘Four-Eyed Jack’ and ‘Dino Checks Out’).  In both cases, it is Mr. Hyunh who suggests that a food offering should be made to the ghost in the Boarding house in order to appease them and make them go away.  (I’m assuming Mr. Hyunh is, on some level, religious given his beliefs about ghosts.  Buddhist, perhaps?)  Ernie and Oskar, at the very least, are the people who accompanies Mr. Hyunh during the food offering.  Sadly, they end up offering just one fish.  That’s, uh… one helluva offering.

(The fish offered to the “ghost” of Dino Spumoni.  They should have at least cooked it… 😉 )