The Ren and Stimpy Show: Difference between revisions
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Who in their right minds would give a mainstream animated series to the enigmatic [[John Kricfalusi]], known for causing chaos throughout the 80s in the animation industry with his attempts for putting out a [[Gross-Out Show|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 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 [[Hammerspace|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]]
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.
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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]]
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 Butthead|Beavis and Butt-head]]''.
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* [[Absurdity Ascendant]]: Where to start...
** [[Acid Trip Dimension]]: The setting of "Black Hole".
** [[
** [[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".
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* [[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
{{quote|'''Narrator''': And thus ended the Republican party.
'''Ren''': You EEDIOTS!!!}}
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* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: The end of {{spoiler|"Space Madness"}}.
* [[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
{{quote|"Staying on model is only for wimps and communists" -- [[John Kricfalusi]]}}
** Not to mention there were many studios behind the animation process, including [[Rough Draft Studios]] (in their first project) and [[Carbunkle Cartoons]].<ref>
* [[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.
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** In "Ren's Pecs", Ren goes to have pectoral enlargement surgery. In the background you can hear over the hospital's loudspeaker, "[[The Three Stooges|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 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NIuGkSikOU a similar scene] in the [[Bob Clampett]] [[Porky Pig]] cartoon "Porky in Egypt", except with a yak instead of a camel. [[Word of God|John K. even confirmed it.]]
** "Happy Happy Joy Joy" is a salute to [[Burl Ives]], according to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lRGNiqVxiE&feature=related this video]
*** 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" [[In Which a Trope Is Described|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 [[Rocky and Bullwinkle|Fearless Leader]] appears from beneath the tree stump that Fifi pulls out of the ground.
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[[Category:Zany Cartoon]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ren and Stimpy Show, The}}
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