Television Debate #1: Ren & Stimpy

[Gloves | 11,783]

"Why should movies and games get all the attention?", I asked myself today. And so here I am stealing @Reed Rothchild's formula for success and totally definitely not gonna stop at number like 10 or whatever cuz I get bored or busy or something.

So let's start with something people have probably actually seen. Ren & Stimpy.

 

[RH | 4,904]

You know I attempted this already, right?

Twas an utter failure on my part.

 

[Sumez | 2,958]

32 minutes ago, Gloves said:

So let's start with something people have probably actually seen. Ren & Stimpy.

I've seen pictures of these characters before. That's where my familiarity with them both begins and ends

Not gonna pretend it looks particularly appealing

Edited March 21 by Sumez

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

I know better than to revisit shows I watched as a kid.  I'll go with "like"

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

Seeing this an adult makes me question how this was a kids show lol I definitely loved it as a kid though

[Gloves | 11,783]

1 hour ago, RH said:

You know I attempted this already, right?

Twas an utter failure on my part.

 

 

And here I was thinking I was being original! I have a terrible memory lol.

Maybe I'll call it a "revival"!

[TDIRunner | 2,741]

I enjoyed the show as a kid.  I have not rewatched it as an adult, and I'm not sure that I want to.  I prefer to remember it as awesome.  

Edited March 21 by TDIRunner

[RH | 4,904]

I remember the vignettes like "Everyone wants a log" where they declared "Tell your Grandmother to go suck on an egg."

So edgy.  So 90s!

[Tulpa | 3,505]

3 hours ago, Sumez said:

Not gonna pretend it looks particularly appealing

It was a very ... deliberately repugnant show. So it fit well with the 7-13 year old demographic. Fart jokes and gross out humor turned up to 11, and paved the way for shows like Rocko's Modern Life and Cow and Chicken. 

It was also one of the shows that I noticed a very marked change from the squeaky clean cartoons of the 70s and 80s. All the moralizing and setting good examples for kids was replaced by "how can we get the audience to projectile vomit." 

It had its moments. I remember the show about the tooth fairy was one of the most effective PSAs about brushing your teeth. I still shudder at that one. 

Edited March 21 by Tulpa

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

A little hard the head but some good stuff in this show. George Liquor and the Man’s Best Friend episode may be one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life.. ever. I still go back to that episode regularly. 

[Brickman | 3,987]

Hopefully this lasts longer than your last poll  

I haven’t watched it since it was on TV. I enjoyed it back then but I don’t know if I would today so I won’t revisit it. It’s very 90’s with its edgy and different humour vs the 80’s style.

[Splain | 2,570]

I didn't have cable as a kid, but I was vaguely aware of Ren n Stimpy. My extremely uptight high school physics teacher brought in a TV for the last ~3 days of school and we just watched Ren and Stimpy while he giggled in the back of the room. It was so weird. But that was my first time really seeing the show. It's definitely unique and quirky, but the fun/random/shocking nature doesn't really hit after the first viewing of each episode.

 

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

One of the all time greats and some of the best animation on TV.  Can't believe it lasted as long as it did.  And I don't give a crap about today's standards.  Cartoon domestic violence is hilarious.  I crack up every time Ren slaps the shit outta Stimpy.

Shame about John K though.

[Tabonga | 2,318]

34 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

 Cartoon domestic violence is hilarious.  

 

[Ankos | 442]

I haven't seen it and probably won't because of what I've heard about John Kricfalusi, but it sounds like it was a positive experience for a lot of people, so that's nice

[Link | 2,713]

Kricfalusi as has been mentioned, unfortunately turned out to be a creep. Also as some people have said, it's a little hard to watch now and/or as an adult.

But it does have several things to recommend it. In short, it was truly groundbreaking.

It was a breakout role for Billy West. It was a real labor of love for John K, in that it pushed boundaries in scatological ways; paid homage to methods and many influential giants of classic animation and MCM culture and was quite influential itself; and displayed true artistry in the painted backgrounds, even as they may be (for example) disgusting displays of dental decay á la Basil Wolverton, or a cat's litterbox full of turds and why the hell not, boogers too. 

I loved it in its heyday - I was the target audience. It gets an extra boost for me because seeing it was a special treat. We didn't have cable in my house so I only experienced it at sleepovers at my best friend's house.

The original 6 episodes, if left as a miniseries with nothing more, would be even more cult classic than the overall show generally is. 

voted Seen it, like it. I just made a social media gif reference to it yesterday. It doesn't hold up great, but it is better than some contemporaries.  

[Sumez | 2,958]

8 hours ago, Tulpa said:

 

It was also one of the shows that I noticed a very marked change from the squeaky clean cartoons of the 70s and 80s. All the moralizing and setting good examples for kids was replaced by "how can we get the audience to projectile vomit." 

This is pretty much exactly what I figured! 

Not selling it to me, sorry 

[RH | 4,904]

13 hours ago, Tulpa said:

It was a very ... deliberately repugnant show. So it fit well with the 7-13 year old demographic. Fart jokes and gross out humor turned up to 11, and paved the way for shows like Rocko's Modern Life and Cow and Chicken. 

It was also one of the shows that I noticed a very marked change from the squeaky clean cartoons of the 70s and 80s. All the moralizing and setting good examples for kids was replaced by "how can we get the audience to projectile vomit." 

It had its moments. I remember the show about the tooth fairy was one of the most effective PSAs about brushing your teeth. I still shudder at that one. 

Though not a cartoon, I always felt what set the stage for this, and other "edgy" Nick shows was You Can't Do That On Television. Nickelodeon really floundered in it's early days and, if I recall, I'm not even sure it started out as a kids channel and it had to pivot a bit to take off.  The execs found their niche when they sat down and eventually asked "If I were a kid, what would I want to see" rather than asking themselves "How do we make a kids channel."  So they licensed a bunch of stuff that was cheap from around the globe and got to work building an appealing brand.

One of those licensed shows was YCDTOTV and that specific, edgy, slime-dumping, irreverent humor from Canada was what gelled most with American children and they sort of built their brand off of that vibe.  After having success with their old format of mostly licensing shows, plus filming a few, cheap live-action shows, I recall that they made a big marketing push where they released their first three in-house made cartoons--Rugrats, Doug and Ren and Stimpy.   All three were a success, but I can see how Ren and Stimpy paved the way for the edgier content.

Sponge Bob was after my time and I don't think I've ever seen an entire episode.  Maybe I've seen about 5 minutes here or there when it's happened to be on at someone's house I've visited but Sponge Bob is what Nickelodeon is today.  It's easy to see that it's kind of an amalgam of all that they got right in the past and, somehow, it's now remained relevant for about 25 years.

[Tulpa | 3,505]

Yeah, Rugrats and Doug were positively wholesome compared to Ren and Stimpy, though Rugrats occasionally had a dose of gross out jokes here and there. But Ren and Stimpy was the one with all of the imitators.

Good point about YCDTOT. It's amazing that the green slime from that show is still a Nickelodeon icon, even though it's pretty much divorced from its original context. I wonder if any kids today are even aware of where it came from.

[spacepup | 2,404]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

This is pretty much exactly what I figured! 

Not selling it to me, sorry 

I understand haha.  I am currently the sole vote for saw it but dislike.  

I found it to be too intentionally gross at times, just for the sake of it.  I don't know, something about this show just did not resonate with me at all even when I was younger.  Not every show has to be squeaky clean of course, but I just didn't care for this one.  I also didn't like South Park or Beavis & Butthead either - and not just because I was "offended" or whatever.

Rocko's Modern Life was mentioned in this thread - now that is one that I absolutely LOVED.

[mbd39 | 2,024]

7 hours ago, Sumez said:

This is pretty much exactly what I figured! 

Not selling it to me, sorry 

You should watch some of the earlier episodes such as Space Madness and In The Army. They're genuinely hilarious and ahead of their time. The show got much worse when the original creator was fired.

Edited March 22 by mbd39

[Tulpa | 3,505]

8 hours ago, Sumez said:

This is pretty much exactly what I figured! 

Not selling it to me, sorry 

What, you didn't fart and try to make your little bro puke as a kid? Or as an adult?  

It was really a product of its time, but when it came out in 1991, it hit like an atomic bomb. Nothing outside of underground cartoons had anything like it been seen. With all the imitators coming out, it doesn't seem as groundbreaking, but it was a shock to see it when it first hit. 

And it really did break mainstream cartoons out from the stuff that was cool in the early 80s but by the late 80s had grown stale. Granted, the gross out cartoon got stale, too, but it just shows that these things go in cycles. I'm always appreciative of things that shake up the status quo, even if it isn't universally acclaimed. 

 

26 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

You should watch some of the earlier episodes such as Space Madness and In The Army. They're genuinely hilarious and ahead of their time. The show got much worse when the original creator was fired.

Yeah, there was a wry, subversive sense of humor that was lost on younger kids but did give some Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror moments for older kids and adults. 

Edited March 22 by Tulpa

[Tulpa | 3,505]

1 hour ago, spacepup said:

Rocko's Modern Life was mentioned in this thread - now that is one that I absolutely LOVED.

Rocko was even more subversive in some respects. I'm still amazed that the local fast food place was called The Chokey Chicken. 

I think that one holds up better today overall than Ren and Stimpy. 

[spacepup | 2,404]

There are some jokes in Rocko's Modern Life that I'm actually surprised made it on television.  Overall, they were slightly more subtle and clever and not as in-your-face "here's this gross shock thing" image like Ren & Stimpy did.

But yes, Rocko's Modern Life was one of my favorite shows around that time, and I absolutely love it.

[xelement5x | 66]

12 hours ago, Link said:

Kricfalusi as has been mentioned, unfortunately turned out to be a creep. Also as some people have said, it's a little hard to watch now and/or as an adult.

But it does have several things to recommend it. In short, it was truly groundbreaking.

It was a breakout role for Billy West. It was a real labor of love for John K, in that it pushed boundaries in scatological ways; paid homage to methods and many influential giants of classic animation and MCM culture and was quite influential itself; and displayed true artistry in the painted backgrounds, even as they may be (for example) disgusting displays of dental decay á la Basil Wolverton, or a cat's litterbox full of turds and why the hell not, boogers too. 

I loved it in its heyday - I was the target audience. It gets an extra boost for me because seeing it was a special treat. We didn't have cable in my house so I only experienced it at sleepovers at my best friend's house.

The original 6 episodes, if left as a miniseries with nothing more, would be even more cult classic than the overall show generally is. 

voted Seen it, like it. I just made a social media gif reference to it yesterday. It doesn't hold up great, but it is better than some contemporaries.  

I agree with pretty much everything you say in this post.  It was a product of the time which was unique and different for a young kid to watch compared to most other cartoons out there, and helped more "edgy" cartoons to get made.