The Ren and Stimpy Show



Who in their right minds would give a mainstream animated series to the enigmatic John Kricfalusi, known for causing chaos throughout the 1980s in the animation industry with his attempts for putting out a grotesque, almost obscene animation style which played up every body hair, pimple, bulging vein, oozing sore, lump of unsightly fat, and butt-cheek and proudly flaunted around showing off the most disgusting and disturbing parts of internal anatomy? Well, Nickelodeon did, and the result was The Ren and Stimpy Show -- the adventures of a mentally unbalanced, arthritic chihuahua named Ren Höek and his sidekick, the cheery but moronic Stimpson J. Cat.

The show was over-the-top in every way imaginable: In its animation, even traditional Animation Tropes were taken up a notch. Characters rarely Temporarily Atomise anything smaller than a nuclear submarine and Non-Fatal Explosions generally take out at least one state. Even its dialog was pulled Up to Eleven—Ren didn't so much talk as scream threats and insults in other people's faces. And that's not even counting its macabre tone—in The Ren & Stimpy Show, even a standard Sitcom plot such as "Ren is jealous that Stimpy has a fan club" could become a tale of operatic angst and rage. And just when you thought you've seen everything, it comes up with a story about a fart cloud Stimpy made that turns into a major Tear Jerker.

Its surprising success made a huge impact on the style of Nickelodeon's animated shows. Unfortunately, of all the inventive and challenging elements exhibited by The Ren & Stimpy Show, the only one copycat shows seized on was the disgusting animation, and thus the Gross-Out Show was born.

Friction between Nickelodeon execs and Kricfalusi - mostly over Kricfalusi's attitude and penchant for late work - eventually led to his removal from the show in 1992. Production was then absorbed by Nickelodeon itself as most of the original staff gradually left in disgust over Kricfalusi's firing. The show was canceled in 1995 after a total of 53 episodes and was removed from Nick's lineup in 1996.

In 2003, Kricfalusi successfully brought the pair back to TV when Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon debuted on Spike TV. However, there was some Executive Meddling still—for starters, and much to his chagrin, he was forced by Spike to shove a lot of, in his words, "unnecessary adult themes" into it due to Spike wanting another money-maker along the lines of South Park. The show was fairly well received in ratings and reviews (although many fans hated it for its excessive gross-out jokes) but due to John only being able to complete three of the nine requested episodes on time, the show was canceled after just a month of airtime. Plans for a second season for Adult Party Cartoon, three episodes were drafted. Spike however decided to cancel those plans on the last second.

At the height of its popularity, Ren & Stimpy also started airing on Nickelodeon's step brother MTV. As one of the few non-music shows on the channel at the time, it thus unwittingly played a role in MTV's Network Decay even before Beavis and Butt-head.

Now has a character sheet and a radar page, which would very much like to be updated with tropes and examples of your choice.

1990

 * "Big House Blues": The pilot for the series.

1991

 * "Stimpy's Big Day" / "The Big Shot": Two-parter episode.
 * "Robin Höek" / "Nurse Stimpy"
 * "Space Madness" / "The Boy Who Cried Rat!"
 * "Fire Dogs" / "The Littlest Giant"
 * "Marooned" / "Untamed World": The latter episode is a remake of an episode John directed for The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil.
 * "Black Hole" / "Stimpy's Invention"

1992

 * "Man's Best Friend": Unaired due to a positively brutal scene of Ren beating George Liquor with an oar, but it can be found on the first DVD set.
 * "In the Army" / "Powdered Toast Man"
 * "Ren's Toothache"
 * "Out West" / "Rubber Nipple Salesman"
 * "Svën Höek"
 * "Haunted House" / "Mad Dog Höek"
 * "Big Baby Scam" / "Dog Show": The episode where Ren loses his tail. Only appearance of George Liquor on the air.

1993

 * "Son of Stimpy" aka "Stimpy's First Fart"
 * "Monkey See, Monkey Don't!" / "Fake Dad"
 * "The Great Outdoors" / "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball"
 * "Stimpy's Fan Club"
 * "A Visit to Anthony"
 * "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen"
 * "To Salve and Salve Not!" / "No Pants Today"
 * "A Yard Too Far" / "Circus Midgets": The former is based on a Yogi Bear cartoon.
 * "Ren's Pecs" / "An Abe Divided"

1994

 * "Stimpy's Cartoon Show"
 * "Lair of the Lummox"
 * "Jimminy Lummox" / "Bass Masters"
 * "Jerry the Bellybutton Elf" / "Road Apples"
 * "Ren's Retirement"
 * "Hard Times for Haggis"
 * "Eat My Cookies" / "Ren's Bitter Half"
 * "Hermit Ren"
 * "House of Next Tuesday" / "A Friend in Your Face!"
 * "Blazing Entrails" / "Lumber Jerks"
 * "Prehistoric Stimpy" / "Farm Hands"
 * "Magical Golden Singing Cheeses" / "A Hard Day's Luck"
 * "I Love Chicken" / "Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman"
 * "It's a Dog's Life" / "Egg Yölkeo"

1995

 * "Double Header" / "The Scotsman in Space"
 * "Pixie King" / "Aloha Höek"
 * "Insomniac Ren" / "My Shiny Friend"
 * "Cheese Rush Days" / "Wiener Barons"
 * "Galoot Wranglers" / "Ren Needs Help!"
 * "Superstitious Stimpy" / "Travelogue"

1996

 * "Ol' Blue Nose" / "Stupid Sidekick Union"
 * "Space Dogged" / "Feud for Sale"
 * "Hair of the Cat" / "City Hicks"
 * "Stimpy's Pet" / "Ren's Brain"
 * "Bellhops" / "Dog Tags"
 * "I Was a Teenage Stimpy" / "Who's Stupid Now?"
 * "School Mates" / "Dinner Party"
 * "Pen Pals" / "Big Flakes"
 * "Terminal Stimpy" / "Reverend Jack"
 * "A Scooter for Yaksmas"
 * "Sammy and Me" / "The Last Temptation"

2003: Adult Party Cartoon Episodes

 * "Onward and Upward"
 * "Ren Seeks Help"
 * "Fire Dogs 2"
 * "Naked Beach Frenzy": Unaired, can be found on the "Lost Episodes" DVD.
 * "Altruists": Unaired, can be found on the "Lost Episodes" DVD.
 * "Stimpy's Pregnant": Unaired, can be found on the "Lost Episodes" DVD.

"There's no dog... *snicker* but there's a baboon!"
 * Absurdity Ascendant: Where to start...
 * Acid Trip Dimension: The setting of "Black Hole".
 * Non Sequitur Episode: Most of them.
 * Deranged Animation: If Bob Clampett was the original king of Deranged Animation, his prostégé John Kricfalusi carried on the torch for him with this show, and took this trope to levels Serial Escalation.
 * Disney Acid Sequence: "Climb Inside My World" from "Jerry the Bellybutton Elf".
 * Surreal Humor: Occasionally verges on Surreal Horror.
 * Adam Westing: Gary Owens as Powdered Toast Man.
 * Addiction Displacement: In "My Shiny Friend", Stimpy overcomes his TV addiction. However, he merely replaces that with an addiction to gambling.
 * Alan Smithee: John Kricfalusi wasn't happy with how "Nurse Stimpy" turned out, so he credited himself as "Raymond Spum" instead. Season 5's "Dinner Party" has no director credit at all.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Word of God is that their sexual preference varies depending on what is needed for that story.
 * And I Must Scream: The happy helmet will make you happy twenty-four hours a day, against your will. With you being perfectly aware the whole time that you shouldn't be so damn happy.
 * Angry Guard Dog: Double subverted; Stimpy announces that a home the two plan to steal food from is not guarded... by a dog. When Ren hears this and attempts the theft, Stimpy then makes an announcement:

"Ren: To the guy who made it all possible: Charles Globe!"
 * Animation Bump: The episodes done by Carbunkle Cartoons.
 * And no, it's not Carbuncle.
 * Anthropomorphic Food: There have been a few instances of these in the franchise, ranging from raw chickens to potatoes.
 * Aren't You Forgetting Someone?: At the end of "Ren's Pecs", Ren forgets to give Stimpy credit for his new-found fame and success.

"Stimpy: He took all our loot. He trapped us here to die! But, worst of all... HE TOOK MY COOL MINER'S HAAAAAAATTT!"
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "Cheese Rush Days", after Ren double crosses Stimpy:

"PTM: The Lord is my shepherd, but thou shalt want... B-11!"
 * Another example is the ending of "Svën Höek" where, after gruesomely describing how he's going to tear Stimpy and Sven's lips out, then gouge out their eyes, then rip out their arms, Ren simply states he's going to hit them and then they're going to fall. Possibly averted because, by that line, the tension is so high, and Ren so calmly angry, that it comes across as the most disturbingly sadistic act. Must be how Ren says he's going to look down on them and laugh.
 * Art Evolution: The first season was done by a handful of studios, some of which didn't quite "get" Ren and Stimpy's art style. Things improved dramatically in Season 2 when then-newcomer Rough Draft Studios was hired to do animation. Additionally, Carbunkle Cartoons (who did the best work in Season 1) was given more to do, showcasing some of the finest visual acting seen on TV in years. When Spumco was fired, Games Animation didn't use Carbunkle at all, instead relying heavily on Rough Draft (who admittedly, still did a fine job), as well as adding Mr. Big in Australia and Toon-Us-In in Korea (Wang Film Productions did a couple of episodes as well). The art style got noticeably flatter and more UPA-influenced around this time. With Adult Party Cartoon, Spumco returned and the episodes became more detailed than ever.
 * Artifact Title: "Fire Dogs 2" has very little to do with the original episode. It just starts where "Fire Dogs" ended, then the fireman randomly transforms into Ralph Bakshi (with the man himself doing his voice), then he, Ren, and Stimpy hang out together doing everyday things, and their jobs as a fireman and fire dogs are completely forgotten about.
 * Art Shift: Stimpy's amateurish cartoon: "I Like Pink".
 * Ass Shove: Happens twice in the episode "Altruists". The first is Ren accidentally shoving his finger into Stimpy's ass while they were performing their routine beatings, and the second happens when Ren intentionally pushed a tile in-between Stimpy's butt-cheeks.
 * Another occurs in "Son of Stimpy", in which Stimpy does this to Santa.
 * As the Good Book Says...: Subverted at the beginning of "Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman": PTM is in a church and begins to recite Psalm 23, only it's the intro to calling a number in Bingo.

"Ren: (with tears in his eyes) You're right! I will mend my evil ways!... (normal) ...Starting tomorrow!"
 * The Atoner: Ren, in "Bell Hops", after hearing Mr. Noggin's sob story:

"Ren: Hey, Jasper. Where's Phil? Jasper: I told you, they put him to sleep. Ren: So wake him up. Jasper: You don't wake up from the big sleep. Ren: The big sleep... The big sleep? The big sleep! The big sleep!! (curls up whimpering) Stimpy: What's the big sleep, Ren? Ren: [gets close to Stimpy's ear] ...He's DEAD!!! HE'S DEAD, YOU IDIOT!! Do you know what "dead" means? That's what we'll be if we don't get out of here!"
 * Author Avatar: John K has admitted Mr. Horse to be heavily based on himself.
 * This is further solidified by "My Shiny Friend", which features Mr. Horse repeatedly saying "What are ya?" Apparently, "What are ya?" was a catchphrase of John K.'s.
 * Ax Crazy: Ren.
 * Ralph Bakshi literally becomes this in the Adult Party Cartoon episode "Fire Dogs 2" out of fear of thinking circus midgets are invading his apartment.
 * Beach Episode: The Adult Party Cartoon episode "Naked Beach Frenzy".
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: At the end of "The Scotsman in Space", a genie grants Ren a wish; Ren wishes for babes and a lot of money. Stimpy begs for a wish too, and Ren relents. Stimpy wishes that people be free of want (Ren's money disappears) and that everyone should be treated equally, regardless of race or creed (Ren's babes turn into men from different countries). He also wishes to be where it's always warm, at which point Ren and Stimpy are hurled towards the sun.
 * Berserk Button: Don't even think about overcooking The Scotsman's eggs, feeding Jerry The Bellybutton Elf lint loaf, or showing the Fire Chief any circus midgets. Ren himself is a walking Berserk Button.
 * BGM: There have literally been THOUSANDS of unique stock music cues used in this show.
 * Biblical Motifs: The ending of "Wiener Barons" parodies the story of Noah's Ark.
 * One episode begins with their house being a manger-like building on a starry night and a camel's head in the frame, complete with a motif from "we three kings", even though it wasn't a Christmas Episode.
 * Big Eater: Stimpy.
 * Big No: Ren in "Svën Hoek" when he finds out Stimpy and Sven have violated his collection of rare, incurable diseases.
 * The same sound clip is reused in "Hermit Ren" when Ren gets overwhelmed with living with Stimpy.
 * Ren screams "OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" in "Jimminy Lummox" when he finds out Stimpy washed his collection of used celebrity underwear.
 * Bigger on the Inside: Parodied to the extreme in "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball", which had Ren and Stimpy living in a birdhouse, yet there's plenty of room inside.
 * In that same episode, Stimpy himself. Ren's nephew Bubba is able to walk inside Stimpy's interior like a damp cavern in spite of being several times larger than him.
 * Big Red Button: "The Jolly, CANDY-LIKE button."
 * Big Sleep: Discussed in "Big House Blues":

"Stimpy: Sorry, pops, the world needs me! Thanks for the grub, old man! I'll call you when I need money! (flies off) I'll write, if I learn how!"
 * Bittersweet Ending: The ending to "Magical Golden Singing Cheeses". To elaborate: Ren and Stimpy had been starving for the entire episode, and when Stimpy finally retrieved some cheese that fit Ren's tastes, the cheeses transformed into milk curd princesses, whom they were both forced to marry. So while they lived "happily ever after", the duo never did solve their food problem and died from starvation shortly after.
 * "City Hicks" ended with Ren and Stimpy being saved by Dusty Claus from dying on the streets of starvation... except now they have to toil in his dust mines for the rest of their lives. Neither seem to mind, though, so maybe this is a Happy Ending instead.
 * "A Yard Too Far". The baboon is doing who-knows-what to Ren's hand puppet and therefore his hand, but they boys finally get to eat their hog jowls.
 * Black Bead Eyes: Generally averted, though Stimpy was given these in one scene of "Breakfast Tips" as an animation error.
 * Bland-Name Product: One of the perks of life as a hermit for Ren it that he can finally listen to his "Urethra Franklin" albums.
 * Body Horror: You better believe it. Examples run the gamut from Ren plucking exposed nerve endings out of his mouth in "Ren's Toothache" to Stimpy removing a giant cyclops' toenail with a crowbar in "Magical Golden Singing Cheeses".
 * Boot Camp Episode: The episode "In the Army".
 * Bottle Episode: "Rubber Nipple Salesman", according to John Kricfalusi. While it didn't have Ren and Stimpy locked in a room together (as do most Bottle Episodes), it did have them either in their truck or at the door of someone's house. This was done as a cost-saving measure and actually animating them driving off or down the street would have put the show over-budget.
 * Bowdlerise: Things censored from the show in reruns range from somewhat understandable, such as extreme threats of violence, to head-scratchingly stupid, such as Powdered Toast Man burning the US Constitution.
 * Burning an American cultural treasure is Serious Business. Especially if it's a superhero parody, according Nickelodeon.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Oath segments.
 * Break the Haughty: Happens to Ren in "Stimpy's Fan Club".
 * Burping Contest: Done by two lummoxes in "Lair of the Lummox", with the best belcher winning a female lummox.
 * But Now I Must Go: An adult Stimpy at the end of "I Was a Teenage Stimpy", after Ren is overjoyed to finally have an adult there to take care of him:

""I picked them myself.""
 * Call Back: The shocked bystanders watching Ren through the window, featured in both "Nurse Stimpy" and later, "Stimpy's Fan Club".
 * Remember when Ren would pray for huge pectoral muscles in Season 1? Guess what he got in Season 3's "Ren's Pecs"?
 * And earlier in "Son of Stimpy", he prayed for Stimpy's safety, and even told God he'd give up asking for bigger pecs if it got Stimpy home safe.
 * Can't You Read the Sign?: "Exact change ONLY!" at the end of "Black Hole", thereby causing Ren and Stimpy to be kicked off the bus back to Earth.
 * Captain Ersatz: Ren and Stimpy are essentially updated versions of the Terry Toons characters Sourpuss (Ren borrowing his short temper and grumpiness from him) and Gandy Goose (Stimpy inheriting his infantile, flamboyant speech pattern as well as his stupidity). No surprise considering John K is a big fan of Terry Toons and even claimed Gandy and Sourpuss's relationship was part of what inspired Ren & Stimpy.
 * An in-show example is Jimminy Lummox, as well as Tinker Galoot.
 * Cartoon Cheese
 * Catapult Nightmare: Stimpy jolts up and screams "MUDDY!!!" after waking up from his nightmare that Muddy Mudskipper ate him in "My Shiny Friend".
 * Ren pulls off a particularly spectacular one in "Robin Höek" after dreaming that he married Maid Moron (Stimpy).
 * Catch Phrase: "No, sir, I don't like it"; "YOU SICK LITTLE MONKEY!"; "YOU EEEDIOT!"; "Happy happy happy! Joy joy joy!" and others.
 * The funny thing is that those weren't even intended as catchphrases.
 * Cats Are Mean and Dogs Are Dumb: Reversed, Ren the dog is the Jerkass, and Stimpy the cat is the simpleton.
 * However, in "Who's Stupid Now?", these tropes are played straight when the duo's roles are switched around.
 * Cats Have Nine Lives: The premise of "Terminal Stimpy".
 * Chainsaw Good: The ghost in "Haunted House" tries to scare Ren and Stimpy as a chainsaw-wielding masked killer. Also, little Ren is given a chainsaw (rather than a gun) to euthanize a poor frog he's been torturing for a while in "Ren Seeks Help".
 * Chekhov's Gunman: George Liquor stars in "Man's Best Friend" and "Dog Show", and made cameo appearances in a few others. Years later, he gets his own webshow, complete with a supporting cast. It has recently been Uncanceled.
 * And now canceled, since George's voice actor died.
 * Chew Toy: Stimpy, who is always at the receiving end of Ren's abuse.
 * Christmas Episode: "Son of Stimpy" and "A Scooter for Yaksmas".
 * Collector of the Strange: Ren's collection of used celebrity underwear in "Jimminy Lummox", and, in "Svën Hoek", his collection of rare, incurable diseases. Not to mention Stimpy's dried booger collection.
 * You mean his "magic nose goblins"?

"Satan: So, you whizzed on the electric fence, didn't ya?"
 * Ren also had a collection of celebrity wigs in "The Last Temptation".
 * And autographed glass coffee tables in "Ren Needs Help!".
 * Concussions Get You High: One episode features Stimpy excusing himself because "It's time for my appointment." He walks over to a door in the wall, inserts a quarter, and the door lifts to reveal a horse. The horse kicks him in the head, sending him flying. His reaction to this is almost orgasmic.
 * Continuity Nod: Many of the more memorable songs from early in the show are heard in snippets later on in the series.
 * "Did you say "Log'?"
 * "Dinner Party" features numerous characters from the show's run all attending Ren and Stimpy's dinner party. This includes Muddy Mudskipper, Powdered Toast Man, Haggis McHaggis, the Fire Chief, and even recent characters like Sammy Mantis.
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "An Abe Divided", the punishment for disgracing the country by not being good security guards for the Lincoln Memorial is towel whippings.
 * Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: POWDERED TOAST MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
 * Cradle of Loneliness: Ren gets very lonely when Stimpy goes off to be the Gritty Kitty mascot. At one point he is seen cradling a bag of kitty litter with Stimpy's face on it.
 * Crazy Cultural Comparison: The entire premise of "Travelogue" is Ren and Stimpy partaking in the many odd cultural customs of Acroneglia, such as the back shaving ceremony, eating monkey brain soup, and dipping themselves upside down in hot boiling water.
 * Ren and Stimpy themselves have their own unorthodox holidays, like Yak Shaving Day.
 * Darker and Edgier: The show itself is this when compared to basically every other Nicktoon (other than Invader Zim, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and occasionally Rocko's Modern Life).
 * Naturally enough, its Adult Party spin-off takes this even farther (way too far, in fact).
 * Deadpan Snarker: Ren is occasionally, when he's actually calm.
 * Death by Irony: If only Stimpy had realized he had pocket change when he and Stimpy were on the bus in "Black Hole", and not after the bus had left and they were about to implode.
 * Deer in the Headlights: Ren and Stimpy, right before getting hit by a bus in "Double Header".
 * Depending on the Artist: The entire look of the show could vary from cartoon to cartoon, largely based on who directed it.
 * Deserted Island: "Aloha Höek".
 * Destructive Saviour: Powdered Toast Man, full stop. For example, he shoots down and crashes a commercial airplane into a truck in order to stop it from running over a kitten crossing the street.
 * Detachable Lower Half: One of the mutations in "Black Hole".
 * Digital Destruction: The Ren & Stimpy Season 1 and 2 DVD set had some issues with DVNR line thinning and art erasing, but nothing particularly bad.
 * Dirty Old Man: Old Man Hunger.
 * Distress Call: Powdered Toast Man gets these, naturally.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Husk magazines in "I Was a Teenage Stimpy" (literally, pictures of corn stalks) are the show's equivalent of porn, apparently.
 * And Stimpy playing with his bellybutton in "Jerry the Bellybutton Elf" is almost definitely symbolism for masturbation.
 * "For I have a dream that one day, everyone... everywhere... will know the wonders of my nipples!"
 * Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): "Ren's Bitter Half": near the end, Ren's evil side decides to replicate himself so that the world will be full of Evil Rens, the first clone turns out to be female and they fall in love, near the end after they get married they playfully get into a fight, you will notice that none of his punches are able to strike her and she is able to beat him up all she wants.
 * Downer Ending: As per the old lady's will, Ren and Stimpy are killed and stuffed at the end of "It's a Dog's Life", so that they may join her in the eternal salvation of the hereafter.
 * Driven to Suicide: The frog that Ren was tormenting in "Ren Seeks Help", after Ren wouldn't honor his request to put him out of his misery.
 * The Ghost in "Haunted House".
 * Drowning My Sorrows: Stimpy goes to a bar in "Terminal Stimpy" when he realizes he only has one of his nine lives left.
 * Dumb Is Good: Stimpy is the nicest character on the show.
 * Dumb Muscle: Kowalski.
 * DVD Commentary: A few commentaries on the DVD sets feature John K. and Eric Bauza in character as Ren and Stimpy.
 * Eek! A Mouse!: "The Boy Who Cried Rat!".
 * Emotion Bomb: The Happy Helmet.
 * Episode Title Card: Most were just a still image set to some music, but "Svën Höek" was live action footage of a lederhosen-wearing, accordion-playing man. John K. abhors the latter, confirmed by his DVD Commentary of "Svën Höek".
 * "Everybody Laughs" Ending: "Eat My Cookies".
 * Everything Explodes Ending:
 * "Ren's Brain" is such a Mind Screw that the audience is seen with their heads exploding, and eventually the Earth itself explodes.
 * "Svën Höek" ends with Ren, Stimpy and Sven being blown straight to Hell after Ren pees on a game named Don't Whiz On The Electric Fence.
 * Reversed on "Black Hole", which ends with Ren and Stimpy imploding.
 * Expy: Sgt. Big Butt from "An Abe Divided" is more or less the same as the Sarge from "In the Army", except with a slightly different voice and sporting a wig and breasts.
 * The Bloody Head Fairy in "Haunted House" is intentionally modeled after Doug Funnie.
 * Extreme Omnivore: In "The Boy Who Cried Rat!", Ren and Stimpy are paid five bucks in their mouse-exterminating service, but Stimpy gets so hungry, he ends up eating the five bucks. When he confesses, Ren is not happy. Neither are their customers, the Pipes, who force them to do chores to pay them back.
 * Eye Pop: Besides the eyes, Ren's heart has popped out of his throat when shocked in one instance.
 * The Faceless: Mr. and Mrs. Pipe, who are only seen from the neck down.
 * "Altruists" subverts this trope: the woman's son that Ren and Stimpy help doesn't have a head at all.
 * False Teeth Tomfoolery: At one point in "Stimpy's Cartoon Show", Wilbur Cobb coughs out his false teeth, which land into Ren's mouth, leaving the poor dog to swallow them.
 * This happens with Ren's dentures in "Jimminy Lummox" when Stimpy uses them to prepare dinner.
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: In one episode, Ren and Stimpy attempt to rob a bank with a Scud missile instead of a gun. Particularly glaring since Ren and Stimpy are hoping to get arrested for "armed robbery".
 * Family-Unfriendly Violence: The show was full of it.
 * Fan Disservice: The unbelievably hairy lifeguard from "Naked Beach Frenzy".
 * Fan of the Underdog: Despite the constant abuse he inflicts upon him, Stimpy is undyingly loyal and sympathetic to Ren. Revealed rather bluntly to the latter in "Stimpy's Fan Club".
 * Fan Service: Adult Party Cartoon had quite a bit, especially in "Naked Beach Frenzy".
 * Non-skin example: "Onward and Upward" was John K. fulfilling a fan request to make an episode of nothing but gross-out jokes. However, for many, especially those who grew up with the show, this episode went too far and John K. probably should've known that the fans don't always know what they want.
 * Fanservice Extra: The babes in "Naked Beach Frenzy". Most of them don't have names and aren't seen again after this episode.
 * Fantastic Voyage: "Blazing Entrails", when Ren traveled inside Stimpy to find out why he was acting abnormally stupid.
 * Fat and Skinny
 * Fat Best Friend: Stimpy.
 * The Final Frontier: The Adventures of Commander Höek and Cadet Stimpy, "IN THE YEAR 400 BILLION!"
 * Fire and Brimstone Hell: The ending to "Svën Höek":

"Stimpy: *cheerily* Here's your breakfast, Ren! Ren: Uh...Stimpy? You forgot the toast. Stimpy: TOOAST??! HEEEERE'S YOUR TOOOOAST!!!! *slams toast into Ren's face and rubs it violently*"
 * Flanderization: Games Animation episodes tend to boil down Ren and Stimpy's personalities to "Jerkass" and "idiot" respectively. Ren's psychotic tantrums are also Flanderized a great deal, to the point where he does one in almost every other G.A. episode.
 * Flashback Cut: Ren & Stimpy never had an entire episode devoted to showing old clips, but the beginning of "Double Header" featured a brief flurry of clips from earlier episodes of Stimpy acting stupid.
 * Fluffy Cloud Heaven: Seen in "The Last Temptation" and "Terminal Stimpy".
 * Follow the Bouncing Yak: The second half of the Royal Anthem of the Canadian Kilted Yaksmen.
 * Food Pills: Revealed by Stimpy in "Space Madness", which causes Ren to go berserk.
 * A variant occurs in "House of Next Tuesday"; instead of being used for food, a pill enlarges into a bed.
 * Freak-Out: Happens so many times (usually by Ren) that it's not worth listing them all.
 * Stimpy occasionally gets one as well, such as his rant that he can't walk another step in "Road Apples".
 * Free Prize At the Bottom: In one early episode, Stimpy pours all of the cereal in a box into a big bowl so he can get at the free Muddy Mudskipper cereal bowl caddy at the bottom.
 * Freudian Couch: Seen in "Ren Seeks Help".
 * Fur Is Clothing: Ren and Stimpy have revealed their fur to be nothing but a suit in a few different episodes, by unzipping to take a bath or go skinny dipping.
 * Gag Boobs: In "Ren's Pecs", Ren is able to punch the beach tough and throw him out to sea... all using only his pecs.
 * Gag Nose: Stimpy.
 * Gainax Ending: Seen in several episodes.
 * Genre Savvy/Wrong Genre Savvy: Zigzagged by Ren: whenever he identifies a pattern, it promptly shifts out from under him. An example from "A Yard Too Far": when he's about to steal some hog jowls from the front yard, he states that in other cartoons, there's usually an Angry Guard Dog prepared to maul the ever-loving crap out of whoever enters the porch. Stimpy mentions that there is none present. He does not, however, mention the guard baboon.
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Ren says this to Stimpy, who begs to talk at the next house in their rubber nipple-selling job.
 * Ren also does it to a yak in "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen", who's suffering a psychotic breakdown in the middle of the desert.
 * In "Double Header", Ren goes crazy near the end, and Stimpy slaps him, saying, "Pull yourself together, boy!"
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: A LOT of the shows content. Just look at the page.
 * Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: The infamous Happy Helmet.
 * Go Mad From the Isolation: Frequent with Ren:
 * In "Hermit Ren", he gets so sick of Stimpy he leaves to join a hermit guild. They provide him with a cave and a boulder to lock him in forever. Completely alone. It doesn't take long for him to lose his mind..
 * His Recycled in Space counterpart goes insane in "Space Madness" when, confined to a spaceship on a long mission, he is deprived of all contact besides Cadet Stimpy. Interestingly, Stimpy does absolutely nothing to instigate this as the only bit of mischief he causes in this episode occurs after Ren is long gone.
 * Ren goes more than a little nuts at the end of "Farm Hands" when he thinks he and Stimpy are the last survivors after a devastating tornado. However, it turns out the farm's cow also survive (and took a dump on them).
 * Ren and Stimpy both slowly lose their sanity in "Big Flakes" while they're trapped in the cabin.
 * Gonk: Ren and Stimpy themselves, along with many of the show's other characters.
 * Gross-Out Show
 * Gross Up Close-Up: This show may have started it all.
 * The Grunting Orgasm: Stimpy has, or at least greatly implies, one in the episode "Altruists" of Adult Party Cartoon.
 * Hair-Trigger Avalanche: Demonstrated in "Big Flakes", though playing against expectations, Ren isn't the one who sets off the avalanche which would bury their cabin. He shouts for Stimpy to shut up already, yet it's Stimpy's "AMEN!!!!!" which is the trigger which causes the avalanche.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: Ren in the episodes post-Kricfalusi, when his anger and screaming traits were played up more, whereas in the earlier episodes he only broke down under the most manic and frustrating of circumstances.
 * Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Subverted by Stimpy in "No Pants Today". He suddenly realizes that he wears no clothes and feels ashamed about it.
 * Hands in Pockets: Ren doesn't have a tail because John didn't like animating it.
 * It is actually removed in "Dog Show" by George Liquor using a rubber band and is never seen again.
 * But then it reappears when Mr. Horse passes Ren during the prejudging (he even wags it in excitement). That's right. Negative Continuity is so strong in Ren & Stimpy that the character's physical attributes aren't even consistent between scenes in the same cartoon.
 * Hard Work Montage: "Stimpy's Cartoon Show". Stimpy makes a cartoon all by himself, but when he promotes Ren to producer, Ren cuts his budget. So Stimpy is forced to literally chop down trees to make the paper he needs to draw on. Stimpy also does every task involved afterwards, including photographing each frame, one by one. By the end, he's appropriately exhausted.
 * Head Desk: In "Space Madness", Ren bangs his head on the table after seeing the Food Pills Stimpy presents.
 * Here We Go Again: Stimpy falling in love with a goat head at the end of "I Love Chicken".
 * Hero Worshipper: Stimpy's idol is Muddy Mudskipper.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Ren and Stimpy, although in the Adult Party Cartoon version it varies from episode to episode whether they're heterosexual or not.
 * Hint Dropping: Stimpy drops a ton of hints to Ren that he wants a scooter for Yaksmas. Ren doesn't get the hint.
 * Hollywood Healing: And how, given how much Ren and Stimpy are maimed in the show.
 * Honest John's Dealership: Hey, It's That Guy!, who first appeared in "To Salve and Salve Not!" and appeared in a number of Games episodes.
 * Hotter and Sexier: "Naked Beach Frenzy".
 * How We Got Here: "Who's Stupid Now?" is partially a flashback story, as it begins with fat Ren and spends half the episode leading up to how he got that way.
 * I Am Not Weasel: Ren is occasionally mistaken for a mosquito or rat. This could possibly be a Lampshade Hanging, based on how he's drawn.
 * I Ate What?: The episode "Onwards and Upwards" dealt with Ren and Stimpy living in a spittoon and savoring many of the... er, foods it had to offer.
 * This is actually a subverted trope, as Ren and Stimpy are fully aware of what they're eating, yet dine on it like it's fine cuisine.
 * Idiot Savant: In the space-themed episodes, Stimpy was surprisingly adept at science, such as when he described what imploding was to Ren in "Black Hole".
 * I WILL KEEL YOU!
 * In Another Man's Shoes: The premise of "Who's Stupid Now?" involves Ren becoming the fat one and Stimpy becoming the skinny one, in order to keep their TV show. Ren gains empathy by knowing what it's like to be the ridiculed one in the duo.
 * Instrumental Theme Tune
 * Interspecies Romance: Ren lusts after human women. In "I Love Chicken", Stimpy falls in love with a chicken.
 * Mr. Horse also had a girlfriend who was a sheep.
 * Invisible to Gaydar: The duo's sexuality remained ambiguous to fit in with the show's humour, until John Kricfalusi effectively outed the duo as a gay couple in a January 28, 1997 interview with the San Francisco Examiner.
 * Iris Out
 * I Take Offense to That Last One: Seen in "Who's Stupid Now?" when the boss insults Ren.
 * I Will Show You X: In a Ren & Stimpy episode dealing with the Stimpy facing his own mortality and going throuh various emotional phases. To illustate "Anger", there's a short bit where Ren is at the dinner table, ready to eat.

"Narrator: And thus ended the Republican party. Ren: You EEDIOTS!!!"
 * I Will Tear Your Arms Off: In "Svën Höek", this is one of the threats Ren gives Stimpy and Sven for messing up the house.
 * Jeopardy Thinking Music: A Suspiciously Similar Song version is heard in "Out West" when Abner and Ewalt have blank expressions for a long time.
 * Jerkass: Ren.
 * Kill'Em All: "Ren's Brain" ends with the Earth being blown up, due to a chain reaction of everyone watching The Ren and Stimpy Show exploding.

"Narrator: And so, our heroes head north. (Ren and Stimpy, represented by a dot on the map, are moving west) AND SO, our heroes head NORTH, STUPID! (the dots begin to travel north)"
 * Large Ham: A lot of characters. Most notably Ren.
 * POWDEEEEEEERED TOOOOOAAAAAST MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 * The JOLLY, CANDY-LIKE BUTTON!!!
 * Law of Disproportionate Response
 * LEGO Body Parts: "Prehistoric Stimpy" has Ren and Stimpy saw off their heads and place it on each others bodies (offscreen) out of boredom.
 * Leitmotif: A Powdered Toast Man short is almost always accompanied by the heroic-sounding "Reach For the Stars" by Richard Harvey.
 * The Announcer Salesman (including an expy in the form of a salesman fish in "Bass Masters") is always accompanied by "It's That Man Again" by Michael North.
 * Wilbur Cobb is always accompanied by two pieces from "Peter and The Wolf": The Cat and Grandfather themes.
 * "Kumbaya" is a recurring theme throughout "Hermit Ren".
 * Lemony Narrator: Wilbur Cobb in "Prehistoric Stimpy".
 * In "Wiener Barons", the narrator flat out insults Ren and Stimpy when they don't do what he's describing.

"And the buzzards, they soar overhead, And poisonous snakes will devour us whole; Our bones will bleach in the sun. And we will probably go to *fart*, And that is our great reward For being the royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen."
 * In "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen", the narrator somehow seems to think the year 1856 is "thousands of years ago". In the same episode, the narrator says the world will never forget the main characters, whose names he can't remember.
 * In "Son of Stimpy", the narrator (who is only heard at the very beginning of the cartoon) contradicts himself by saying the true story he's about to show is all made up.
 * Letting the Air Out of the Band: Occurs in "Untamed World" when Ren is shot by a tranquilizer dart and runs slower and slower.
 * Lighter and Softer/Denser and Wackier: The show's Games Animation episodes (when compared to most of its other episodes).
 * Limited Animation: The very first few episodes, most notably "Stimpy's Big Day" and "The Big Shot". Then we get beautifully smooth animation in "Son of Stimpy" and "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen", only for it to go downhill with Games Animation taking the steers and never be as good again.
 * Lions and Tigers and Humans, Oh My!: Humans and talking animals co-exist and outside of (maybe) acknowledging the difference in species, nobody thinks anything of it.
 * Logo Joke: The Ren and Stimpy logos are played with in "Space Madness" and "Black Hole"; in the former, Stimpy pressing the History Eraser button caused R&S to be removed from the logo, while in "Black Hole", they're already absent when the camera cuts to it, due to having imploded a few seconds earlier.
 * Loony Fan: Stimpy is this to Sammy in "Sammy and Me".
 * Loud Gulp: Stimpy, before eating monkey brain soup in "Travelogue".
 * Luxury Prison Suite: The plot to "Pen Pals": Ren and Stimpy want to be arrested and thrown in jail, because a TV commercial paints it as a luxury residence. Their plan backfires, though, when a colossal inmate is put in with them, eating up all the free space in the cell.
 * Lyrical Dissonance: The fireworks-inducingly regal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen's anthem jumps from the quasi-coherent first stanza to the following (second) stanza without any shift in mood:

"Stimpy: Aren't you just the cat's B.O.!"
 * Malaproper: Stimpy often falls into this, such as in "I Love Chicken":

""Staying on model is only for wimps and communists" -- John Kricfalusi"
 * Man of a Thousand Voices: Once Games Animation took over, Billy West did the vast majority of voices on the show, including many female characters.
 * The Man They Couldn't Hang: "The scrawny one don't weigh enough, and the fat one ain't got no neck!"
 * Marionette Motion: In "Stimpy's Invention".
 * Media Watchdog
 * Mid-Air Bobbing: Seen in "Haunted House" with the ghost, among other episodes.
 * Mistaken for Pregnant: A subversion: in "Stimpy's Pregnant", Stimpy believes that he himself is pregnant, due to throwing up in the morning and feeling bloated. It's not until they reach the hospital that Dr. Horse reveals to Ren that Stimpy's merely constipated.
 * Mood Whiplash: "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball"'s ending: Ren, Stimpy, and Bubba are all fighting back tears when it's announced that if Stimpy doesn't have his hairball gland, it's over. Suddenly, Ren and Stimpy gleefully state that it's over, and start dancing while happy jazz music plays. Biggest mood whiplash ever.
 * The opening titles of "Man's Best Friend" are relatively cheerful-looking and accompanied by a happy-sounding Raymond Scott piece ...and then VERY abruptly cut to an loud dramatic sting and a ominous-looking "Starring George Liquor" card.
 * Morality Chain: Stimpy is this to Ren, to an extent. While more often than not Ren acts like an abusive jerk towards Stimpy, it seems like Stimpy's the only person he's ever been remotely nice to. Stimpy's also been able to calm Ren down somewhat when he's having one of his mental breakdowns, instill some sense of right and wrong in him, and get him to loosen up once in a while. It's implied that if Stimpy were to ever disappear Ren would go completely and irreversibly Ax Crazy, and be overcome by his loneliness.
 * Except in episodes like "Double Header", when he'd rather put Stimpy on a bus to Ursa Minor than spend another minute with him.
 * Naked People Are Funny: The title characters and Old Man Hunger.
 * Name and Name
 * Nature Documentary: Parodied in "A Cartoon (Untamed World)", "Lair of the Lummox", and the unnamed short that followed "Hermit Ren" about senior citizens.
 * Negative Continuity: Many episodes end with Ren and Stimpy dead or irreversibly maimed, but return alive and well in the next episode.
 * Additionally, each episode featured Ren and Stimpy living in a brand new home or being homeless. This kept things from getting too monotonous.
 * Never Say "Die": Averted; the series frequently used the words "die" and "dead". One episode "Terminal Stimpy" was even centered around the idea of death.
 * Newsreel: A Soviet version about advances in space travel appears at the beginning of "Space Dogged".
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Ren's voice is basically Peter Lorre 's with a vague Mexican accent overlaid. Stimpy's is a slight variation on Larry Fine from The Three Stooges.
 * Word of God states that Ren is essentially the bastard love child of Lorre and Kirk Douglas.
 * The islander's voice in "Aloha Höek" is based on Marlon Brando.
 * Subverted in "Fire Dogs 2" when the fire chief, which is based on Ralph Bakshi, morphs into Bakshi himself (complete with voice and everything), and stays that way for the rest of the episode.
 * No Ending: "Big Flakes" just abruptly stops. Do Ren and Stimpy ever make it out of the snowed-in cabin? Who knows.
 * Noodle Implements: Just try and guess what the various "tools" in Stimpy's laboratory are for. Some of them make the sounds of real-life power tools, but how exactly a beaver can function as a drill is anyone's guess.
 * No Pronunciation Guide: No two episodes seem to agree on just how to pronounce Ren's last name. Stimpy, other characters and narrators usually go with some variation of either "Hork" (rhymes with "pork"), "Ho-eck" or "Ho-ack".
 * Even Ren isn't consistent about the pronunciation; he does blow up at least once when someone fails to pronounce it "Hork", but other times he says nothing.
 * Nose Nuggets: In one episode, Stimpy has a booger collection.
 * Nothing Is Scarier: The end of.
 * Nurse with Good Intentions: "Nurse Stimpy".
 * Off-Model: One of the most prominent aspects of the show in its first two seasons was John's strict rule that the animators were forbidden from ever drawing the same expression or pose, or drawing any character the exact same way twice. Note that this isn't the typical definition of Off Model (i.e. in that it's bad drawing) so much as it was John's way to breaking his animators out of bad habits and to keep them from falling into formula acting and drawing—although many sloppy drawings did get into the show, which John considers among the many mistakes Ren and Stimpy made.

"Ren: I can't go through with it! I'm not a dog! I'm a mosquito..."
 * Not to mention there were many studios behind the animation process, including Rough Draft Studios (in their first project) and Carbunkle Cartoons.
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: A few of the music tracks feature this.
 * One-Shot Character: Dr. Brainchild from "Blazing Entrails", the leprechaun from "A Hard Day's Luck", Mr. Noggin from "Bellhops", the islander and crab family from "Aloha Höek", Jerry the Bellybutton Elf, Jiminy Lummox, the head parasites from "A Friend in Your Face!", and Bubba from "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball", among many others.
 * Overly Long Gag: Happens frequently on Adult Party Cartoon.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Ren and Stimpy in "Wiener Barons"; they're dressed as wiener inspectors to bypass the gate guard, but it's obviously them underneath the disguise. Additionally, the guard kicked them out before (and heard their voice, which they didn't distort when in costume), so it's hard to believe he fell for such a thing.
 * Parental Bonus: What kid would:
 * Know that the newsreel montage in "Ren's Bitter Half" is actually a parody of the 1943 film "Victory Through Air Power"?
 * Know why Frank Zappa voicing the Pope was such a big deal?
 * Recognize the Captain Beefheart salute from that episode?
 * Parody Commercial: Log, Gritty Kitty Litter, Sugar-Frosted Milk, Dog Water, etc.
 * Parody Episode: "Egg Yölkeo", which parodies Pinocchio.
 * Parody Name: In "The Last Temptation", Ren throws out all his worldly possessions, including celebrity toupees of William Shallert and Bazoo the Clone.
 * Performance Anxiety: Ren experienced this in "Dog Tags" when he was forced to clean himself in public to prove that he was a dog. After weakly licking his leg:

"Ren: Someone has breached my security system..."
 * Petting Zoo People: Ren's parents in "Ren Seeks Help".
 * Pilot: "Big House Blues", one of the most gorgeously-animated made-for-TV cartoons of all time.
 * Plot Allergy: Ren's allergic to Stimpy's shedded fur in "Hair of the Cat", though it takes him the whole episode to realize it. The solution? Have Stimpy live in a sealed jar.
 * Polka Dot Paint: To get jobs in the fire department, Ren and Stimpy use 'dalmatian paint' - one quick swipe each with a brush and they're white with black spots - Stimpy's tongue included.
 * Porn Stash: In "I Was a Teenage Stimpy", Ren hides numerous Husk magazines in his dresser. He realizes that it was Stimpy who stole the magazines when a single hair of his stuck to a piece of scotch tape.

""And now... (giggles insanely) you... (giggles again, then inhales) DIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!""
 * Potty Emergency: Ren, at the start of "Pixie King". Unfortunately for him, Stimpy is occupying the bathroom and won't be able to, erm, do his business, until Ren reads him a story.
 * Precision F-Strike: In the Adult Party Cartoon episode, "Ren Seeks Help," Ren seeks psychological help after abusing Stimpy in some (unexplained) manner that is regarded as being horrible, even by Ren himself. He goes to Mr. Horse and proceeds to tell him about his youth, and the various displays of genuine psychopathy he exhibited then. He finally works up the nerve to tell Mr. Horse what it was he did to Stimpy, and then asks, "What do you think is wrong with me?" After some consideration, Mr. Horse says "So you wanna know what's wrong with you? You really wanna know?" He then punches Ren in the face and screams "YOU'RE FUCKING CRAZY!!! THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!!"
 * The F-bomb is also dropped in "Onward and Upward" and "Altruists".
 * Also, in the original series, "crap" is uttered often by the characters.
 * Prepare to Die: When Ren's Sanity Slippage in "Jimminy Lummox" almost causes him to actually kill Stimpy, over the latter ruining his collection of used celebrity underwear:

"Ren: I wave my shiny red keister in the face of you, and you "stuperstitions"! Stimpy: No, Ren! It's bad juju to blaspheme! Ren: Juju, huh? Oooh, I'm so scared. The big bad juju's about to get me. COME ON, JUJU, I'M CALLING YOU OUT! (struck by lightning)"
 * Pro Wrestling Episode: "Mad Dog Höek".
 * Recycled in Space: SPAAAAACE MADNEEESSSSSSSS...
 * Refuge in Vulgarity: Adult Party Cartoon is often accused of this. Hell, even the original show is often accused of this.
 * The Renaissance Age of Animation
 * Restraining Bolt: The Happy Helmet.
 * Ret-Gone: What happens when you press the History Eraser Button.
 * Retraux: The '50-'60s art style.
 * Scenery Censor: When the woman removes her top in "Naked Beach Frenzy", despite her nipples being shown for a brief moment, Stimpy stands in front of her breasts, obstructing Ren's view. With his butt, no less.
 * Schmuck Bait: In "Man's Best Friend", George Liquor tells the duo about discipline and explains at length why they they shouldn't sit on the couch. Then he tells them to go ahead and jump on the couch. Ren refuses to follow through, but Stimpy does. A few moments of false security later, Stimpy is subjected to George's discipline.
 * Not to mention the History Eraser button from "Space Madness".
 * The board game Don't Whiz On The Electric Fence from "Svën Höek." In something of a subversion, it's Ren, not Stimpy or Ren's Stimpy-like cousin Svën, who ends up urinating on the fence, despite the obvious, cartoony electrical charges emanating from it. When the resulting electrocution sends them all straight to Hell, the Devil immediately knows why they're there: "So, you whizzed on the electric fence, didn't ya?"
 * Can't accuse Ren of stupidity here - all he wanted to achieve was do something as horrible to Stimpy and Svën as they did to his beloved posessions. He probably didn't think much about it, considering he was really angry.
 * Screams Like a Little Girl: One of the show's main running gags, to such an extent that an episode without at least one good high-pitched scream feels incomplete.
 * Stimpy can do a very good one in the German dub.
 * Secret Test of Character: Reversed in "Lumberjerks": Ren and Stimpy are supposed to chop down every tree in the forest, as ordered by their boss Pierre. But a disgruntled tree lobster grabs Ren and shows him what happens when he does so (such as birds losing their home). The crab fully expects Ren to have a change of heart, but all it does is make Ren want to chop down more trees. Just as the crab looks like it's about to kill Ren, the crab takes its mask off, revealing Pierre underneath, who said he passed the test.
 * Serious Business: Dog shows in this universe. Dogs that don't pass pre-judging don't just miss the finals, but are literally fed to bigger, larger dogs.
 * Set Right What Once Was Wrong: The original proposed ending to "Space Madness", nixed by Nickelodeon editors, would have featured Ren and Stimpy going back in time and undoing the damage caused by Stimpy pushing the History-Eraser Button.
 * Sexophone: Such a musical motif is heard in "Pixie King" when Stimpy poses in his pixie outfit.
 * Short-Lived, Big Impact: At 5 seasons and a spin off (the last two of which and the spin off are barely talked about nowadays), this show did not last so long as the two other shows in the original Nicktoons line up, Rugrats and Doug, which continued in some form or another for the better part of a decade. And yet, R&S is among one of the most influential cartoon shows of the last twenty years, spawning dozens of imitators and being the Trope Maker for the Gross-Out Show genre.
 * Shout-Out: The first episode has Stimpy making several to the catchphrases of several beloved Hanna-Barbera TV cartoons, as well as Looney Tunes.
 * In "Ren's Pecs", Ren goes to have pectoral enlargement surgery. In the background you can hear over the hospital's loudspeaker, "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard..."
 * The scene of one of the yaks going insane in the middle of the desert in "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen" is a pretty direct lift of a similar scene in the Bob Clampett Porky Pig cartoon "Porky in Egypt", except with a yak instead of a camel. John K. even confirmed it.
 * "Happy Happy Joy Joy" is a salute to Burl Ives, according to this video—which manages to dig out all the lines from Ives' various songs and film roles quoted therein.
 * Burl Ives himself was reportedly asked to sing the song, but his schedule prevented him from collaborating. When John K. played the song for him later, he was disappointed that he'd missed his chance to be Stinky Whizzleteats.
 * The beginning of "Sammy and Me" is an obvious homage to "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", with Stimpy eagerly waiting at the mailbox for a special package to arrive, and then running at a lightning pace down the road to a secret spot to open it.
 * In "Superstitious Stimpy", one of the phrases Stimpy chants while praying to the beef carcass is Ub Iwerks.
 * Blink and you'll miss it, it's rather subtle but in the scene from "Powdered Toast Man" wherein our hero saves the Pope, note that Muddy Mudskipper is wearing a top hat.
 * One of the nonsense phrases Stimpy says in "Blazing Entrails" is "Want Some Sea Food Mama", which was the name of a song by the Andrews Sisters.
 * In "Lumber Jerks", a character resembling Fearless Leader appears from beneath the tree stump that Fifi pulls out of the ground.
 * In "Jimminy Lummox", when Stimpy is watching TV, you can hear clips from The Three Stooges and The Simpsons.
 * Show Some Leg: Stimpy woos the duck guard in "Altruists" by pretending to be a sultry female duck.
 * Show Within a Show: Muddy Mudskipper and The Scotsman are a couple examples.
 * "Bass Masters" is takes place in a fishing show, where Ren even speaks to the viewers.
 * Shrunken Organ: Stimpy's bean-sized brain accidentally falls off when he leans down. Ren's cousin Sven marvels at how big it is, and then shows Stimpy his own, pinhead-sized brain.
 * Sick Episode: "Nurse Stimpy".
 * Skinny Dipping: Ren and Stimpy take off their "skin" to go skinny dipping in "The Great Outdoors".
 * The Sleepless: Ren in "Insomniac Ren".
 * Sliding Scale of Fourth Wall Hardness
 * Slow Motion: The buxom woman running down the beach in "Naked Beach Frenzy".
 * Small Reference Pools: Averted, as many of the classical music tracks used in the show aren't the famous ones heard everywhere. Who but classical buffs know about Frederic Chopin's "Ballad in F-Minor Op. 52", or Josef Suk's "Asrael" symphony, or Claude Debussy's "Canope", or Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Francesca da Rimini"?
 * Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter!: In "Superstitious Stimpy", Ren, fed up with Stimpy praying to a beef carcass he's supposed to be cooking, smites "juju" (which Stimpy believes in).

""Don't you know that smoking can KILL YOU?!"
 * Smoking Is Cool: Seen in "Fire Dogs 2".
 * Kowalski thinks so in "Fake Dad", but Ren begs to differ]].

"Stimpy: Just like the title of this cartoon!"
 * Snipe Hunt: Seen in "Eat My Cookies". Turns out a snipe actually exists, and devours Ren.
 * Snowed In: The premise of "Big Flakes".
 * Something Completely Different: "A Hard Day's Luck", "Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman", and "Feud For Sale", all of which don't feature Ren and Stimpy.
 * The prequels to the first two do feature Ren and Stimpy, but only in brief cameos and mostly focus on Haggis McHaggis and Powdered Toastman, respectively.
 * Something Person: Powdered Toastman.
 * Sound Effect Bleep: The Canadian Kilted Yaksmen's Anthem, which contains the verse "And we will probably go to hell" had the word "hell" masked out, quite fittingly, with a fart...
 * ...although its not masked out very well, and Ren and Stimpy's lip movements leave nothing to the imagination, nor is the word all that well covered-up in the Follow the Bouncing Ball version...
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy" eventually devolves into this.
 * Space Madness: Trope Namer; the trope takes its name from an episode title.
 * Speaks Fluent Animal: "Bass Masters" reveals that Stimpy is fluent in fish by making gurgly vocalizations.
 * Spin-Off: The Goddamn George Liquor Program, a webtoon which Nickelodeon had nothing to do with.
 * Spiritual Successor: Countless examples, but Cow and Chicken, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Two Stupid Dogs, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and SpongeBob SquarePants which employed ex-Ren and Stimpy staffers. Some still do.
 * Standard Fifties Father: Mr. Pipe.
 * Sting: Numerous musical stings were used in the show. Perhaps the most famous one is "Shock Horror (a)" by Dick Walter: Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNN!!!!
 * Stock Footage: "Farm Hands" reuses some animation from "Out West"; specifically, the scene where Abner and Ewalt get an idea and laugh goofily.
 * "Marooned" and "The Littlest Giant" also use truncated versions of the openings of "Space Madness" and "Robin Höek", respectively.
 * Stylistic Suck: Despite the massive amount of praise that the show has received for its visuals, its art style actually was deliberately made to be as ugly as John Kricfalusi could possibly make it.
 * Sudden Anatomy: In "Superstitious Stimpy", Ren suddenly has a large birthmark on his face. Stimpy freaks out when he sees this, because it's a sign that he's cursed.
 * Suddenly Sexuality: Ren and Stimpy acting like a couple in "Onward and Upward" surprised a lot of fans.
 * Superhero: Powdered Toast Man.
 * Can also be considered to be a Super Zeroes.
 * Super Window Jump: Stimpy resorts to this in "Bellhops" when he's protecting Mr. Noggin from Ren's camera.
 * Take Our Word for It: Occasionally done when Ren is savagely beat up off-screen, such as in "Pixie King", though the end results are shown.
 * Take That: The Season 5 episode "Reverend Jack" has been theorized by some as being a subtle analogy/in-joke about original R&S creator John Kricfalusi and what it was like to work under him.
 * Confirmed by Bob Camp and John K., who also notes that Jack Cheese is named for an unrelated cartoon character he created in 1979.
 * Take That, Audience!: In the first episode, Ren berates Stimpy for "watching cartoons even though he's a full-grown cat", and tells him that "cartoons will rot your brain."
 * Talking Animal: Ren, Stimpy, many of the other regulars.
 * The Teaser: "Who's Stupid Now?" features a brief sequence before the title card where fat Ren disrobes in front of the audience, which is seen in context later in the episode.
 * Thick Line Animation: Mostly averted, though the couple of episodes by Wang ("Lair of the Lummox", "It's a Dog's Life/"Egg Yölkeo") play this straight.
 * Thirteen Is Unlucky: Stimpy is extra cautious on Tuesday the 17th in "Superstitious Stimpy".
 * Through a Face Full of Fur: Out of all the show's characters whose faces (or bodies) would turn a different color, Ren seems to be the one who did that the most, most notably Ren when infuriated. Episodes in the case of this occurring with him include:
 * In "Svën Höek", Ren, who's on his way out the door to work, gets red-faced as he turns around and is irritated by Stimpy and Sven's antics.
 * In "The Great Outdoors", Ren is angered and turns red when he can't find the source of what's causing him to itch while he's trying to get a night's rest and he searches for it on various parts of his body. He then finds a mosquito, which with sadistic and malevolent glee, he swats and kills with his hand.
 * An exception of not turning red while in a rage is "To Salve and Salve Not!", with Ren instead turning some shade of blue and what looks like he's on the brink of decomposing, fighting to repress his rage after The Announcer Salesman shows up once more (this time from a toilet tank) to attempt selling the salve to Ren while Ren's almost done using the toilet.
 * In "Stimpy's Cartoon Show", Ren becomes red-faced while ticked off at Stimpy's answer to his question.
 * In "Jiminy Lummox", Ren turns a less intense shade of red when he finds what Stimpy is doing with his dentures after looking for them.
 * In "I Love Chicken", Ren is steamed and becomes very red-faced when Stimpy still won't let him have the chicken for dinner (due to Stimpy having fallen for it).
 * In "Hermit Ren", Ren turns a deep shade of red when he notices his razor is missing and angrily asks Stimpy (who uses it as a hammer) where it is.
 * In "House of Next Tuesday", Ren turns red wholly from the heat and burn he receives, after viewing himself on screen as a lobster (which a chef drops in hot water) through a smell-o-vision helmet. As if he were the lobster (whose head Ren sees turn into his minus the long ears) and physically being dropped into the pot, as part of a cooking show. Then Ren himself has actually and physically been turned into a lobster.
 * In "Pixie King", Ren turns deep red irately, when he struggles to prevent wetting himself as Stimpy delays his turn from using an outhouse.
 * In "Ren Needs Help!", Ren madly (both in terms of anger and mania) turns a slight shade of red after Stimpy drives him bonkers one too many times and finds Stimpy broke part of the former's favorite chair while golfing.
 * In "Big Flakes", Ren turns intensely red after learning from Stimpy that the latter threw a moose's head (which was their dinner) into a lit fireplace and Ren becomes so ticked that he has Stimpy play charades with him, and after guessing correctly what Ren's about to do in response, he slugs Stimpy on the nose.
 * In "In the Army", Ren and Stimpy are told by the sergeant to remove their gas masks. When Stimpy does, he turns green frontally from breathing in the poison gas, which causes him to cry hysterically and since he can't bear it, he flees outside for some clean air (this doesn't faze Ren due to using the cheating tactic of holding his breath).
 * In "Dog Show", Mr. Horse's face turns red deeply, boiling over a poodle's imploration of not having to be subjected to getting inside a bulldog's mouth, as punishment for failing to pass the judgment.
 * In the missing episode "Man's Best Friend", which later and finally shows up as an Adult Party Cartoon episode, while repeatedly telling Stimpy to get on the couch as part of a disciplinary test and Stimpy does what he says, George grabs him and turns a deep red in the face, then a brighter shade of red, complete with eyes bulging and neck stretching with veins popping in response. Just as Stimpy thinks he's really in trouble for his disobedience, it turns out George is actually content ironically and he rewards him with a cigar. George also turns the same shades of color bodily, when he gets out of a padded suit that he wore while Ren flogged him with a boat oar.
 * In "A Visit to Anthony", the episode's titular boy turns pale and starts to hyperventilate again getting knocked down by Victor.
 * In "Who's Stupid Now?", Anthony's dad (from "A Visit to Anthony"), who acts as Ren and Stimpy's director here, is steamed and intensely red-faced with incense, snorting heavily and nostrils flaring when Ren (who has been forced to switch roles with Stimpy as the fat, dimwitted sidekick), fails to remember his exact lines.
 * In "A Dog's Life", Stimpy turns blue frontally from asphyxiation while trying to eat a rock giving to him for his meal.
 * In "The Last Temptation", Ren becomes blue-faced after choking on a cluster of oatmeal and passing away.
 * In the Adult Party Cartoon two-part episode "Fire Dogs 2", Stimpy frontally turns green from inhaling and exhaling smoke from the wrong end of a cigar.
 * In "Atruists" from the same later series, Stimpy turns red with embarrassment frontally when he notices where Ren is (looking back at Stimpy face up, having gotten stuck inside a toilet drain), after Stimpy foolishly and mistakenly thought the voice he kept hearing was some spirit's rather than Ren's, who kept calling for him.
 * Title Drop: Lampshaded in "Marooned": Ren remarks that he and Stimpy are marooned.

"Our country reeks of trees, Our yaks are really large..."
 * Title Montage: Every clip from the opening comes from "Big House Blues", which is rather unusual. Usually in a montage opening, clips are taken from multiple episodes.
 * Toilet Humor
 * The Tooth Hurts: "Ren's Toothache", natch.
 * Toothy Bird: The duck guard in "Altruists".
 * Also the seagull in "Untamed World".
 * To the Pain: The end of "Svën Höek". Ren is so angry he's looped back into calm, and bluntly describes the various tortures he's going to inflict on Stimpy and Sven. It includes tearing out lips, gouging out eyes, ripping out arms from their sockets, and hitting them.
 * Tranquil Fury: Er... this.
 * Tranquillizer Dart: Subverted in a cartoon parodying nature shows; Ren is accidentally shot with a tranq dart by Stimpy, and it takes a minute for him to go down. In the meantime, his voice slows down.
 * Travel Montage: Seen in "Wiener Barons" when Ren and Stimpy head for Canada.
 * Travelogue Show: Parodied in "Travelogue".
 * Tsundere: Ren.
 * Two Shorts: Though a few episodes also took up the full 22 minutes, such as "Son of Stimpy" and "Stimpy's Fan Club".
 * Universal Adaptor Cast: This is especially true for the space-themed shorts: "Space Madness", "Marooned", "Black Hole", and "The Scotsman in Space".
 * Unmoving Pattern: The man who helps Ren and Stimpy move into Haggis's former mansion in "Hard Times for Haggis" has a shirt that features this.
 * Unusual Euphemism: "DO YOU HAVE TO KEEP TAPPING LIKE THAT, YOU BLOATED SACK OF PROTOPLASM?!?!"
 * The "Adult Party Cartoon" episode "Onward and Upward" has "You're the pitcher, I'm the catcher!".
 * Vague Age: Ren and Stimpy. In fact, one episode plays with this, by revealing that Ren is retirement age in dog years.
 * Vomit Discretion Shot: Ren vomits in "Travelogue" when he sees a hair in his soup, but we never actually see the vomit itself.
 * "Magical Golden Singing Cheeses" contains a partial subversion; Ren turns away from the camera to vomit, but you can still see some come out of his mouth.
 * Vomit Indiscretion Shot: The camera never cuts away when Stimpy spews up hairballs.
 * Welcome to the Big City: Ren and Stimpy in "City Hicks" are immediately beat up by thugs and have their sheep stripped upon entering the city. They also are informed they can't just shovel dirt right off the bat, as it's a union town and they have to start at the bottom first.
 * Who Even Needs a Brain?
 * Widget Series
 * Wild Take: This show helped bring them back into fashion.
 * With Friends Like These...: The relationship between the characters goes between this and Vitriolic Best Buds.
 * Word Salad Lyrics: The Canadian Kilted Yaksmen Anthem.

"If'n you ain't the grandaddy of all liars! The little critters in nature... They don't know that they're ugly. That's very funny: A fly marrying a bumblebee. I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY DIDN'T YOU BELIEVE ME? Happy happy joy joy..."
 * Also, the even more deranged psychedelic rock spoof "Crawl Into My World."
 * Catchy, yes. Sane, no.

"Stimpy: Kissin' dew drops here, boss!"
 * Working on the Chain Gang: Ren and Stimpy's job as pixies in "Pixie King" is more or less this, especially since they're whipped by policemen if they slack off for even a second.


 * World of Ham: Do I even need to give an example?
 * Worst News Judgment Ever: "Ren Höek takes bubbly sponge bath"?!
 * Written Sound Effect
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The beatnik food items from "Egg Yölkeo".
 * You Mean "Xmas": Yak Shaving Day.
 * Younger Than He Looks: Kowalski is stated to be seven years old, despite him looking like a grown man in his fifties.
 * Your Favorite: Ren loves hog jowls, as seen in "A Yard Too Far".
 * Your Mother Sews My Socks!
 * Zany Scheme: "The Boy Who Cried Rat!", which involved Ren posing as a mouse and Stimpy pretending to eat Ren so they could get $5 for rodent killing. Also "Big Baby Scam", which had Ren and Stimpy posing as babies so they could be pampered and not have to work for food or shelter.