The Ren and Stimpy Show

[Osmium]

The Ren and Stimpy Show was a cartoon series that ran from August 11, 1991 to December 16, 1995 with 52 episodes. It was one of the original three Nicktoons along with Rugrats and Doug. 

 

 

It was created by John Kricfaluski, but he only worked on the first two seasons after being fired for missing deadlines. John is a pretty interesting guy, judging on this show and some of his others....

 

Ren and Stimpy, the characters themselves were created for John's own personal entertainment long before he even got the idea for the show. 

 

This show is infamous for it's gross out humour and extremely crazy setups and disturbing scenes. This show is pretty revolutionary as it basically started a new era of insane gross out animation. Also, it was one of the first cartoons to be created by actual cartoonists instead of TV executives. 

 

I personally love this show to pieces, especially the first two seasons. Episodes like "Space Madness", "Black Hole", and "Stimpy's Invention" are absolute classics. Every episode of this show is incredibly strange, and unique in their own ways. 

 

I can understand why people don't like this show very much. You have to have a very acquired taste to really enjoy stuff like this: 

 

Is it wrong that I crack up at both those scenes? 

 

I seriously think this is one of the best cartoons ever made. Every episode is hilarious (If you can hand some psychological torture and have a strong stomach).

 

So, discuss this amazing cartoon here! 

 

 

 

[Gregzilla]

Ren and Stimpy was most definitely one of the most important cartoons to ever be released.  It basically introduced television animation to the idea of drawing characters off-model.  Before then, it was pretty much unheard of to draw characters differently from their normal appearance for any reason, but then John K came along and went crazy with it.  

 

Just think, without this show, cartoons may have never given us these beautiful moments:

 

[Krockhead]

If curiosity gets the best of you and you get the urge to watch Adult Party Cartoon, just watch Ren Seeks Help. That episode is the one saving grace of the series, mostly because of Mr. Horse has some of his best moments in that episode. Mr. Horse's screentime in Ren Seeks Help is second only to Rubber Nipple Salesmen.

[E-122-Psi]

Have a fondness for the show as well. I read through Kricfalusi's blogs and use a lot of his style and characterisation theories for inspiration. Granted it might be what fuels some of my pretentious rants about how story and character should be developed.

 

While I agree the Spumco seasons were the best, there were a fair few great Games episodes (eg. Insomniac Ren). Adults Party Cartoon is more cringeworthy to watch, though isn't all around horrible. I do admit I kinda wished it had kept going, it might have grown it's beard and some of the future episodes sounded fun (e.g. Life Sucks and Wilderness Adventure (a third George Liquor episode)).

 

I suppose we have Cans Without Labels to look forward to though:

 

[Mauro Fonseca]

I like the idea of it and what it's allowed.

I like the use of music, and I love John's blog.

I really don't like the cartoon itself, and I find the idea of inherently funny and anarchic animation was done much better by Knight in Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. All I can call John's work is "spastic", "twitchy", "uncontrolled", as opposed to "demented" and "surreal" for Knight's work, what little I know of it at least.

[E-122-Psi]

Truthfully I remember watching Twisted Tales and just being unimpressed, just randomness for the sake of randomness. Ren and Stimpy is very surreal but at least there's shades of personality and story in there.

 

Knight did some great stuff in AoSth though. The episodes themselves went in and out, but some of the animation and gags there were just all out hilarious.

[Chili Dawg]

 

This one of my favorite cartoon moments...

 

THESE ARE THE HANDS OF A WORKING MAN