| rdfs:comment | - 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 grotesque, almost obscene animation style which played up every body hair, pimple, bulging vein, oozing sore, lump of unsightly fat, and buttcheek 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 Hoek and his sidekick, the cheery but moronic Stimpson J. Cat.
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| abstract | - 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 grotesque, almost obscene animation style which played up every body hair, pimple, bulging vein, oozing sore, lump of unsightly fat, and buttcheek 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 Hoek 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 grossout 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 APC, three episodes were drafted. Spike however decided to cancel those plans on the last second. However, there is an an attempt to revive the show. At the height of its popularity, Ren and 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.
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