The Ren & Stimpy Show

The Ren & Stimpy Show

Since I'm an avid fan of the genre called "adult cartoons" (and sort of fascinated by its evolution) as well as a proud connossieur of kids' TV, I figured I was overdue to revisit Nickelodeon's early-90s cult-classic Ren & Stimpy. I probably hadn't seen the show since I was 6 years old.

Coming into it, I expected to be severely underwhelmed. I fear the mythology surrounding the show is mostly maintained by people who, like me, haven't seen it in 15 years. Everyone venerates the shows from their formative days, but it's typically nostalgia without substance.

Before even watching, I knew it couldn't be as raunchy or adult-oriented as legend would have you believe. The world was a different place circa 1993, this was a time before South Park, before Family Guy, before Adult Swim. Butt-head wasn't even allowed to say "fire." 90s kids shows couldn't dream of the kind of adult innuendo in Dan Schneider's latest work.

But Ren & Stimpy did push the envelope, and it was extremely innovative. When I revisited the series, I found that there was indeed substance to the hype, it's an incredible show with an impressive place in history. It's just not quite the raunchy adult cartoon that people in their late-twenties incorrectly remember it as.

Rather than lecherous, what Ren & Stimpy really was, is surreal and flippant. The naughtiness and violence naturally stood out to kids, but that was far from the show's cornerstone. At its best moments, Ren & Stimpy managed to be 15 years ahead of its time with its bizarre, impeccably crafted stoner comedy. The inventive pacing and exuberant psychedelic animation, the preposterous storylines and equally insane character designs, the prototypal sarcastic dialogue of antisocial abandon, and the flawlessly placed, immaculate soundtrack of classical music, all work together to create this Nickelodeon gem of well-deserved cult-classic status.

Though preempting most of its successors by over a decade, Ren & Stimpy would feel right at home alongside similarly random, snarky cartoons like 12 oz. Mouse, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show and Superjail. In fact, I'll bet my hat that the Williams Street crew (progenitors of most of Adult Swim's original content) are diehard R&S fans to the end.

Regarding 'Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon'

The existence of Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon is an intriguing moment in television history because it's a dream come true for TV geeks like me. It's a common wish for any number of classic shows in the kid & teen genre to be recast for their now-adult audience. I'm still pining for Daria to be remade by Aaron McGruder (with heavy involvment from Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis Lynn, of course). Heck, we iCarly fans frequently fantasize about getting the show on a different network in order to explore its more dramatic and adulty tendancies.

But, of course, Adult Party Cartoon was a doomed outing. The new Ren & Stimpy was near-universally panned, and it was cancelled after only a couple of episodes. And the reason it sucked so bad, is because Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi followed the mythology of grossnesss that surrounds the show, rather than its reputation for black comedy and psychedelics. Adult Party Cartoon is a parade of crude cliche's and poop jokes, ironically (and unintentionally) equating adulthood with immaturity and presenting a program less than half as witty or intelligent as the one that aired on Nickelodeon.

It's not surprising that some powerlines were crossed in converting a show aimed at kids into a show aimed at adults. But as a devout fan of shows aimed at both audiences, I think I understand exactly what happened.

Striking down the restraints around Ren & Stimpy killed the sense of fun and wonder around its antics. Instead of being a smart, dangerous kid's show lording over the likes of Rugrats and Doug, it became a banal, uninspired adult cartoon that could never dream of competing with ten to fifteen years of oneupsmanship from South Park and Family Guy.

It's the same with iCarly. Watching how far they go over the line is part of the fun, the 'adult' content is part of why kids like it so much. But crossing the line for kids and crossing the line for adults are two entirely different categories. Nobody in their right mind wants to see iCarly make the kind of boring, gaudy, one-in-a-billion dick jokes you get from its "adult" counterparts in the sitcom world like Two And A Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. With both iCarly and Ren & Stimpy, skirting the line of acceptable kid content is part of the fun and adventure, and it spurs much more clever, stealth-equipped sex jokes. When the restraints are gone, the danger is gone, the fun is gone, and the writing tends to get lazy.

Focusing the new version of Ren & Stimpy on gross-out raunchiness instead of the original program's irreverent weirdness and nihilistic approach to storytelling ensured that it would be 100% outclassed at every turn, by shows that have been pushing the limits of what you can show to adults (not kids) since they began. It's like bringing a knife to a gunfight, and every bit as cliche.

The sad thing is, if John Kricfalusi had a better understanding of his own show, a new adult-oriented Ren & Stimpy could have been both critically applauded and commercially successful. A decent Ren & Stimpy remake would have categorically outclassed 90% of what Williams Street puts out on Adult Swim. As probably the all-time original stoner/hipster cartoon show (predating Cartoon Network's seminal Space Ghost Coast To Coast by three years, and Beavis and Butt-head by two), it would have coasted past all but the best of its ilk on name recognition alone. That is, if the show was at least watchable. You gotta give us something.

Anyway.... Cartoons of this nature aren't necessarily my forte. Even with Adult Swim's best work, I only indulge sparringly. This satirical, ironic brand of comedy is brilliant in small doses but can quickly become grating. In any case, I'd definitely watch the original Ren & Stimpy if it ran in an accessible slot, like in place of Phineas & Ferb in the afternoon. And I say that as a man who thoroughly enjoys the ocassional Phineas & Ferb.