The Ren and Stimpy Show

Ren and Stimpy had gone downhill since 1993.

A bunch of people have always said, “Nickelodeon has gone downhill ever since CatDog

premiered in 1998”. I’d say its best stuff had started to go downhill ever since 1993. The year after John Kricfalusi was fired by Nickelodeon, and The Ren and Stimpy Show's cleverness was already starting to decline. For example……

Ren and Stimpy

When Ren and Stimpy debuted in 1991, the same year the internet started and the Genesis picked up popularity after the blue haired hedgehog, Sonic,

was introduced to the world, it made a mark in the cartoon hall of fame, something no cartoon had done for the past 30 years. It’s amazing music and voices, cultural references and quality animation picked up on everybody. Not to mention it was the funniest thing on any other kid’s network. And that, my friends, is exactly what angered Nickelodeon.

(How he sold the 'The Ren & Stimpy Show' to Nickelodeon): "I tricked 'em! I told 'em it was going to be unfunny; that it would be wiggly lines, nobody would be able to follow the stories, and nobody could identify with the characters. And they said, `Oh! That's exactly what we want!' And I totally lied." John Kricfalusi

See my point? Kricfalusi admitted himself that Nick wanted their shows to suck. They just don’t get it that most children don’t mind clever stuff. The only reason ratings are still good with today’s crummy programming is that all that kids are used to. Every time something clever comes along the lines, they try as hard as they can to cancel it, or at least convince the writers and storyboard artist to dumb the heck out of it. They want everything to make sense, and everything to be something that kids want, even though they would actually treasure the funny stuff. What Ren and Stimpy did was insane.

A cartoon should be insane. A Cartoon should be funny. A cartoon should have good animation, good voices, good jokes,and good characters with distinct original personalities. Ren and Stimpy excelled in all these qualities. Their story plots and gags were insane. Not only were there jokes funny, but they were so unpredictable and happened when you least expected it. Besides a couple episodes in the first season, their animation was extrordinarily good. It was so cool. The color was right, the timing and poses were correct... EVERYTHING WAS GREAT!!! Ren and Stimpy personalities were so distinct and original. Ren is a angry guy who is very feeble and when he tries to hurt someone(besides stimpy) he can't because he's so feeble and that just makes him angry. His voice went perfect with the jerk he was, although when Kricfalusi had to stop, Billy West didn't do a great job without John K.'s strict direction. Stimpy is a fat bloated eediot who has one and only nerve ending where he likes to get slapped at (especially by Ren) because he thinks it is a sign of affection. If you hit him just hard enough he'll like you forever. Sometimes Stimpy's character doesn't make any sense because he acts like a stupid child, yet sometimes he can be smart enough to invent a happy helmet and he even has a jewish man's deep voice sometimes(not after Kricfalusi left actually) , but who cares, because that only adds to the brilliance of the show.I loved watching Ren and Stimpy as a kid because it was better then anything on at the time. That's why Nickelodeon started a war with it.

Billy West Voice Artist for Stimpy

John Kricfalusi Voice Artist For Ren

The censorship of his work on the "Nickelodeon" kids network): "The main thing is that they never understood the show. Even the basics. I'm not talking about the outrageous stuff. Just talking about things like "Well, we'd like to do a cartoon with Ren and Stimpy in space." The response was, "What do you mean in space? How could they get in space?

" Well, I'd say, "They're just in space in this cartoon." "That doesn't make any sense," they'd reply. "How will the kids understand it?" Well, I'd ask, "Haven't you people ever watched cartoons before? Sometimes Bugs Bunny's in space, sometimes he's a caveman, sometimes he's in a forest. It's a cartoon." They never quite got that." John Kricfalusi

One thing Nickelodeon did to mess up the show was to give it a bad reputation. I don't just mean after the second season, but pretty much ever since the show started. They made a bunch of gross closeups that nobody liked.Yet they didn't even have that many. But the Nickelodeon Executives alllowed him to have a bunch of crap jokes, and not as much as cartoony freeedom. I'm sure had they let Kricfalusi have more cartoony freedom, those gross closeups would've been taken away, and the show would've been even better(IMAGINE THAT!) but they didn't want it to be. They didn't do a very good job, but they made a little progress every once in awhile.You could tell just a little bit more in the first season, because there were a couple filler segments, yet those were even good, just not as good as the non filler.But they hated him. They had so many more crap jokes in the seasons 3,4, and 5 but and the few they had in the first season were kind of funny. But they reran the first two seasons also during the time of the later sesons, so it gave a bad reputation to the whole project. Not to mention the episode delay. They constantly edited episodes that didn't not to be edited(yet they never would edit the crummy Bob Camp episodes who didn't want it as much. John K. and Bob camp(the treason man) were complete opposites). Then they'd chastisize them to the public that they didn't get the 13 promised episodes (which was their own fault).Thank goodness for Carbunkle Cartoons, or the second season would have been crappyily animatied too. Carbunkle Cartoons(a co-animation team for Ren and Stimpy) finished those up, and then left the show.(I wonder what it would've been like if they stayed. But I'm getting off topic here.)

"when my family watched it the first time my brothers saw ad just laughed their heads off. i think they watched about 30 times before they finally finished the episode." rodanelcoolio on youtube.com [align=left]

referring to the royal canadian yaksmen episode(season 2 finale)
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I didn't watch Ren and Stimpy very long when season 3 debuted. Problably for a couple months, but after that I could't take the cartoon much longer. I didn't think about collecting any merchandise after this. I just wanted to stop watching it forever when the really bad episodes came around. Some of the really bland and boring ones make you want to just sit around and doing nothing.But not in a relaxing way like opium.At least their is one better thing about that killer drug then those crappy seasons. Well anyway, the most you can do for Ren aand Stimpy classics is buy the dvd set. Please support the best cartoon of my youth.

Nickelodeon, why did you have to ruin one of your only good shows?

It's wierd, it actually turned from the best cartoon to the worst.
Kind of like Happy Days!
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Comments

here, ill type the word that "offends" people:
CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP- now, what is so freaking offensive about it??? its my all-time favorite word!!!

I used to sing Happy Happy Joy Joy when I was little and I got a spanking for it.

I'm confused why they fired John K? The Bob Camp episodes are far more violently graphic and feature the word c**p in it yet the complexity was at a children's level so basically what I'm saying is:
John K's were complex enough for adults while children can watch them.
Bob Camp's are aimed at children although they can't watch it because of the violence and swearing.

i know this kid who wrote it.he lives on my block.he's just saying that the show got crappy.. cause it true because different people ran it. and he actually complains when people say nick was better back then thean it is now because its never been that great. and he hasnt ever seen happy days he just put it there for the people who like it

Don't Wiz on the electric fence!

Ren and Stimpy.

Actually, not even the animaics was quite up to par with Ren and Stimpy. But I know what syndrome you're talking about. Still, even now I can eaasily say it's the best cartoon ever created. Defitnely better then anything on Nick. I know that some stuff people like only because it is a childhood memory, but ren and stimpies first two seasons seem to get even better in some ways.

ren and stimpy pwnz!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuk u if u h8 it!

Can we try using a little historical perspective here. Think back to the year 1991 and what was going on at the time, the country was being beaten over the head with Family Values. TV,MOVIES and Music were under attack by politcians with an agenda. A show like Ren and Stimpy was perfect fodder for the Family Value hot button pushing that was going on. In fairness to Nick, their first responsability is not too children but to advitisers. Yes I know that sucks but its the truth. Second they have to answer to parents. Why you ask because parents push the advertisin dollar. Last time I checked Children dont work, for the most part and there for have no real disposable dollars to spend. They relie on there parents money. The same dollar that allows the cable that comes into the home that brings Nick into the home. So if your Nick and you have a show drawing the fire of parents your also going to have the attention of advertisers. Another point I think the writer of this is suffering from what alot people do as they get older and that is its never as good as it use to be syndrome. Which is mostly true, not because nothing good has come out since your beloved hay day but the way your brain process's it has changed. There are plenty of cartoons that are far smarter and more daring then Ren and Stimpy ever were on today. I liked Ren and Stimpy too, but it wasnt the best show to come on Nickelodian.

I'm not saying they didn't complain, but what episode were they ticked off at? And now you're saying that EVERYONE knew this nformation but you just got it from a magazine that barley anyone read? Try not to make me feel like such an unknowing idiot next time. Sorry, but I'm only 11. I'm sorry. I'll do bette next time. It's just that I thought Ihad all the information this time.

bush is what I meant to say.Dick Cheney thought of having this pointless war in Irqu, but Bush didn't have to allow it. So It's like that with Nickelodeon. By the way, in the first comment, you didn't say they were a mother. You just said they were responsible.And anyway, whendid that person complain? Nick's beenediting the show since the beginning.

No one On the internet has posted what you just said. And anyway, I wasn't alive when that happened. I was born in 1995(I put 1970 on my profile because I didn't want to put my true age.) John K. always blames Nickelodeon. Sure, that Clarie person did fight about it,but like Dick Cheney thinking up the idea was bad, but Nickelodeon(like Buh) has the choice to use it and they did. So I'm sorry if my article didn't include everything, but I didn't have access to th information. There's this website that publishes articles off dvds, and someone wrote a review off ren and stimpy(this is far more official then retrojunk) and even they didn't include what you just did. Maybe I'l rewrite the article using the information you just did,(I'll give you some credit) but still, It w kind of Nick's faul. Now I do want to be spcific as possible, so I will inded rewrite this. Bye,

Actually, I use the 'Confidentially,' as sort of an in-joke, Bugs used to always say that when he was ironically giving out 'info' to someone at times.

In truth, the reason most people never really knew the true story behind Ren & Stimpy was Nickelodeon was trying to keep the real reason hushed from their audience.

Apparently they feared if it got out that one woman literally forced them to fire the best refreshing animator in North America over one episode, it might hurt their cred with kids.

The information I received came from two sources, one was done by a magazine called Cartoon Quarterly which was a special called "Ren & Stimpy Exposed," then another by Starlog Enterprises called "Ren & Stimpy Confidential," both pretty much cited the same source behind John K.'s unfortunate removal.

Mainly I considered the whole thing incredible inane by Nickelodeon and Viacom because I always felt if John was the creator, he should have some say in his show, and he's also a seasoned animator, so he knows pretty much what he's doing. Like I said before, it's a crying shame now how most networks will cave-in to people with literally no-time on their hands, or like Brian Griffin pointed out, how the FCC will rear its head when something remotely controversial hits the airwaves.

Fangarius, I found you comment far more informative than this article. Nice work. Although, I have to giggle. You write "Confidentially, I tell you the real problem actually started..." Um, you do realize the comment sections for all articles are open to public viewing?" Heh. ;-)

Hey be sure to look in ren and stimpy show I've posted two seasons in there. I will work on uploading more as soon as I can.

No, R&SDied, Kay Claire was this woman who got her knickers in a twist because her kids were laughing at what she considered 'inappropriate.' But rather than be mature about it and simply switch the station off, or change the channel, she started this campaign where everyone in her town would boycott Nickelodeon and their sponsors until Ren & Stimpy was "Cleaned Up."

I guess the real reason John K. never mentioned it in his blog because the whole incident was just too unphenomenal, because Nickelodeon kept claiming John K. wasn't following 'proper procedure' but it took two seasons for them to tell him that. When in reality, many of us knew it was Ms. Claire's doing.

In fact, her behaviour was inspired in an episode of Murphy Brown, where a woman threatens to have her community boycott FYI's sponsor's products if Murphy airs a controversial story. But unlike what Nickelodeon did, the sponsor stuck by his guns backing FYI and allowing Murphy to air her story.

The thing is, censorship really ruins great ideas, because if you're offended by something, then don't read, watch, or listen to it, but don't ruin someone's hard work and effort just because you don't like something. The problem with Kay Claire was she really never gave the show a chance, all she concentrated on was this one episode which was satirical, and basically demonstrated how we do treat our sacred documents nowadays. It wasn't meant to be offensive, but humourous.

I'm glad you liked my response, because despite the negative feedback, I feel many people needed to the real story about what really caused Ren & Stimpy's demise.

On a funnier note, when Marvel Comics did Ren & Stimpy strips, even after the John K. removal, Marvel ticked Nickelodeon off by accrediting John K. as the creator of the duo, not to mention using John's ideas for stories over Games Animations' suggestions. Which was why the comic series didn't last too long. And why the comic still retained the John K. quality of the first two seasons of the show.

Strange how a chihuahua and a cat could shake things up.

Wow. Nickelodeon's Executives are autistic!

DEE DEE DEEEEE!

Hey Fangarius,
thanks fo the info. I knew somehow it was Nickelodeons fault, but I didn't know it was just one person.I guess if that one person didn't do that, Ren and Stimpy could've easily surpassed the Simpsons by years.Anyway,I hope that person is fired by now. Were they president of Nick? Anywho, nowhere on the internet{(not even on Kricfalusi's personal blog) had I read that. You took that time to do one comment. That comment was great. You seem to have more knowledge about this incident. You should be the on doing the article, not me.

Confidentially, I tell you the real problem actually started. Not really with Ren & Stimpy, but when Viacom actually bought out the network from the NEA when they were about to permenantly shut down the network for lack of ratings.

In reality, John K. admits the only reason he lied was Nickelodeon was being a bit hypocritical with their programming for older kids. Because you had gross-out shows like 'You Can't Do That On Television,' but at the same time these Nick Jr. shows to even it out.

The real problem was a woman known as Ms. Kay Claire, who ultimately decided if Nickelodeon was a network for kids, it should have nothing but nonsensical, bland, boring, wholesome shows and that was it. And she never hesitated throwing her weight around when something ticked her off.

In the case of Ren & Stimpy, John K. wanted to do something Bakshi had done with Mighty Mouse: bring back entertaining cartoon which were slapsticky fun. Think about it, the best cartoons we ever refer to are the ones Tex Avery, MGM, Warner Bros., Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng had ever done. Why? Because originally they weren't made for kids, they were made for adults but in a sophisticated humour.

But Kay Claire doesn't like kids having sophisticated humour, no, no, she prefers if children lived in the age of Beaver Cleaver, where they were oblivious to things considered humourous.

The trouble started when John K. aired a short called "Powdered Toast Man." You recall it, where PTM goes on missions, saving breakfast and people, and ends up taking over for the President. Now here's where it got sticky.

At the end of the short, PTM finds the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and uses them for kindling. Which was supposted to be subtle political satire.

Unfortunately this did not cotton to Kay Claire's way of thinking and as with people with far too much time on their hands, not knowing how a remote control works on a television, started protesting against the show, and threatening boycotts on all Nickelodeon merchandising until something was done.

John K. (like most people) thought the woman was rather nuts, because she wasn't an animator nor a writer, and definitely NOT a spokesperson for children. She was just one person who was incessantly griping about one stupid episode within his series.

Eventually, however, instead of supporting John K., Nickelodeon canned him from his own creation. This subtly also caused a major rift with the MTV Networks of Viacom because MTV felt John K. had a right creating whatever he wanted with the series, regardless of what some stupid overzealous soccer mom wanted instead.

In fact, MTV aired the Ren & Stimpy shows completely "unedited" to demonstrate to Ms. Claire what they thought of her protesting.

Meanwhile Nickelodeon tried "retooling" the show with their new animation department, Games Animation, but many loyal fans felt the show had already crashed and burned due to the network's decision.

The problem was Nickelodeon had shot themselves majorly in the foot by giving in to Ms. Claire's tactics. In fact, shows like 'YCDTOT,' and 'All That,' were considering pulling the plug because they feared Ms. Claire might set her sights on their programs.

So Nickelodeon deliberately started putting in more gross jokes and stuff in the new seasons of R&S, in hopes their audience and programs would still view them as the disgusting kid's network they had once made people believe they were.

Regrettably, no one was buying it, and not even Danger Mouse & Count Duckula could repair the damage which was done. Nickelodeon had sold out to a woman who thought she could control what kids thought. And the worst part was, their slogan about the network being run by kids for kids was nothing more than one big hypocritical joke.

Though shows like Rugrats, Avatar and Skyland have somehow salvaged the network. It's a shame how its animation has devolved into something of a former shell of itself.

Personally, if Nickelodeon had genuinely backed John K. and told Ms. Claire to take a flying leap, Ren & Stimpy might have thrived as long as The Simpsons (okay, 'not quite' that long, but you know what I mean), and with better and more memorable stories.

But unfortunately that's what happens when you let corporates take over, they only care about profit-sharing than quality programming these days. And it was a shame, because Nickelodeon had so much promise. Ren & Stimpy could've been their 'Holy Grail' of animation, but instead they ruined it because some woman had problems with the animator's vision.

Sad, when you think about it.

Hiro, I've never seen avatar but I promise I will watch it.

I saw it, but it was too gross-out for me. I don't know if I would ever watch it again since it was that gross-out. (Ed, Edd, and Eddy I believe were even worse.)
But 1991 was also the height of Grunge as well. Seems everything went downhill fast after the 90's.

Ren and Stimpy (the first 2 or 3 seasons) was a great part of animation history, but Nickelodeon didn't go downhill in 1993 and they never will go downhill as long as they have Avatar.

And 90sguy, Renandstimpydied was a kid during the 90s, he wasn't born in the early 70s.

John K, and his mentor, Ralph Bakshi, believed that cartoons didn't have to be a form of entertainment strictly made for children, a sentiment he and Bakshi carried on from the artists of the Golden Age of animation. While it's true that Ren and Stimpy attracted a cult following of more mature viewers than it's originally targeted audience for just a while, merely by reason of the fact that the humor was at times marginally racy, they would still continue to be popular despite the fact that their "rightful" owners attempted to compromise the integrity of the characters, thereby (intentionally) rendering them unmarketable. In fact, that's how it's always been in an industry-run artform that has always been aware of the potential marketing aspects of it's output. Nowadays, when you have a cartoon show like, say, "The Simpsons", which has an appeal with a general family audience despite the "blue" humor that pops up from time to time, the popularity it gains across the demographical spectrum assures it for cult icon status, generally on the basis that it doesn't solely rely on offending or mocking any particular ethnic or political group just to get a cheap laugh from mature (and not so easily affected) viewers that can understand the reference being made.

Btw, if you want to see some of John K.'s REALLY funny stuff, you should check out what he did with the classic Hanna-Barbera characters for Cartoon Network (especially the Yogi Bear related shorts). You'll find them on YouTube.

Thanks to Ren and Stimpy's animation, I also started drawing cartoons myself with the same concept and detail that was in the show. FUNNY! Not only is it the greatest exaggerated show, but one of the funniest.

Bless you all!!!

I have gone there COOLHAND, but thanks for suggesting it anyway.

oh yeah you definately need to go here if you havent already...

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/

its john k's blog

I liked your article, i think that ren and stipmy has to be the best cartoon made since the golden age of cartoons...

Is everyone reading the same thing I'm reading? Is there a youtube and happy days picture at the bottom? This is kind of confusing me.

I don't think everyone quite got the point of this article. I am just mad at Nickelodeon sucked completely. I liked some other shows like arnold zim, or tiny toons.But ren and stimpy was my all time favorite. I'm just mad they gave them such a bad run.

Where are my grammar mistakes? I noticed a few, but not unreadable sentences.

Besides, I didn't submit this article in August. I submitted it just yesterday. How did that nickelodeonfan97 guy see it in August?

Sorry, I must have mistooken world wide web for internet. I never quite got the reference.

Hey 90'sguyon. I was born in the ninties. Renandstimpydied is just a coincidence that it is the realation towards this article, but I just use that everywhere because it's a good username. Good job on pointing that out though. Anyway, someone posted a comment here that there was unorganized grammar, but I took that out before I even submitted my work, and I am looking at it right now. The person who said my article said I had "bupoop eddite fitzgeral" it is not in here. As for the pictures, I don't like it if pictures are all in a straight row. That's not fair to judge, as that's just difference of opinion. Anyway, I thought this was a pretty good article, and thought it met up with the standards of retrojunk. Besides, in my opinion, kennaan and kel, and a lot of live action shows were garbage. But I respect your opinion. And anyway, I hope my article will meet up to your standards next time.(P.S. Did anyone happen to get the jump the shark joke? If you didn't, that's okay, but just wondering.

Your article sucks. You're just another annoying ass born in the Early 70's who thinks everything started going downhill once the 90's began.

It's so ignorant to say that Nickelodeon started going downhill in 1993, when infact, that was the PRIME of Nickelodeon. "Rocko's Modern Life" premiered in 1993 and Nick was at it's best throughout the Mid 90's.

Even your username is the same as the topic of your article. Did you sign up here just to whine about when "Ren & Stimpy" died?

The first assumption was actually correct, that Nicklodeon did start going downhill around 1998/1999. Deal with it.

Good pictures. But Also kinda messy....

Ren & Stimpy to me are classic Nickelodeon at it's best. I think it's true though that Nick wanted their shows to be childish like they are now since they are, first and formost, a kids network. Even if shows like this and Invader ZIM are successful to them they still don't care for their content and try whatever they can to make them the way they'd want them to be.

By 'internet', if he meant or had inserted 'World Wide Web' then he might be more accurate in his assertion.

This article has potential, but you did a very sloppy job with this I'm afraid. Picture's are placed all over the place, like you just slapped them in any old place. But it would look a lot nicer if they were placed in the middle, or on just one side. Not all 3.

Also, your grammar is quite bad, and I'm not even a Grammar Police! I'm usually quite relaxed about grammar and spelling mistakes because we're all human, but this.... This is very very hard to read. I don't know where some sentances stop and others begin. It's always good to reread before you post.

Finally, you didn't make a very good point with this article. You just basically repeated the same stuff over and over again rather then giving good, well thought reasons.

IMO, I thought the animation in Ren and Stimpy was terrible. And that it relied on cheap humour for laughs.

Make sure you do your research because the internet was created before the 90s.

The very last part made no sense whatsoever though. What exactly does "Dvd watched 30 times way more creative imput for camp didn't want it as much, John k reverse Bob camp eddie fitzgerald better job bupoop jokes, reran old ones to make you hate that" mean?

Awesome article! What John K. did to get his show on the air was very clever. xD