The Ren & Stimpy Show

The Ren & Stimpy show was among the more polarizing cartoons to come out of the 90's. To this day, people either praise it for it's surreal style and inconcequental plotlines, or they chastise it for for its crude and obscene humor. It was created by John Kricfalusi in 1991, ran for 5 seasons on Nickelodeon, and was revived as an adult carton in 2003 by MTV. The plot followed the misadventures of Ren the Chiuaua and Stimpy the Manx Cat. Together, the two had disjointed adventures with plots ranging from simple quests to obtain food to exploring the depths of space.

The show's main claim to fame is not only its unique, surreal animation style, but the controversy that surrounded it at the time of its airing. The show featured a large amount of physical violence, ranging from simple slapstick, to characters getting lobotomized or having their skin torn from their bodies. In multiple episodes, Ren went so far as attempting to kill Stimpy. The show focused a good portion of its humor on "gross" humor, such as the pair eating people's mucus for meals, and titular characters' frequently visible butts.

Having rescued the Pope, Powdered Toast Man contemplates
the impending fate of a fish.

Interspersed within the show were shorter sketches, such as advertisements for the fictional toy "Log", which is, as the name implies, a simple log. Perhaps the most offensive of these is a sketch known as "Powdered Toast Man", who is a muscular man with two slices of powdered toast for a head, and wears nothing but a pair of briefs and gloves (as well as a clerical collar when in disguise). Within the 10 minute run time of this segment, the hero crashes a jet liner into a semi truck in order to save a kitten (which he promptly throws into traffic), acts as though he is going to spare a villain's life, but then ensures his death, leaves the Pope stranded atop a mountain, and burns both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. This same trend of offensive and obscene humor can be found in the 2003 series revival "Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon". One episode is devoted entirely to the pair's exploits on a nude beach, while another begins with the pair living within the bowels of a passed out drunk.

Now, I understand that the show is unique, and I appreciate the surreal nature of the animation, but on the whole, I was among the group that changed the channel whenever the show came on. I found the nature of the show to be crass and unentertaining. The plots were random, meandering, and were often resolved by bending the rules of the world around them. I understand that this is commonly the nature of cartoons, but it is my personal belief that this is not the sort of thing that cartoons should rely on, but rather methods that they should use to exploit their inherit surreal nature and keep the show entertaining. Aside from slapstick and impossible situations, cartoons should still employ small amounts of logic, or at least character development over the course of individual episodes. In my opinion, The Ren and Stimpy Show, while it truly has a unique and impressive art style, uses only filler elements to keep itself going and is devoid of any meaningful entertainment.


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