On August 22, 1992, the Ren & Stimpy Show was scheduled to air two episodes – “Man’s Best Friend”, in which Ren and Stimpy are adopted by an abusive man named George Liquor, and “Ren’s Toothache”, in which Ren… has a toothache. In 1992, this rivalry between creator and producer reached its boiling point. In one instance, Kricfalusi actually had his name removed from the airing of the episode Nurse Stimpy, as he was so ashamed of the episode in the form that Nickelodeon was willing to let it air he didn’t want to be associated with it (Lagner 136). This resulted in Nickelodeon becoming directly involved in the production of the show and heavily censoring it to make sure nothing went wrong. Nickelodeon, being a company focused on profits, had advertisers to please, and neither Ren nor Stimpy was very advertiser-friendly.

A lot of its humor was aimed at adults, flying right over the kids’ heads. A much bigger part of it, however, was content. Shows were often delivered late, which is what initially created his tenuous relationship with Nickelodeon. This was, in part, due to Kricfalusi’s tendency to miss deadlines. was very well-publicized even as the show was airing and dominated animation news for much of 1992 during the airing of the show’s second season (Lagner 125). In fact, the channel’s feud with creator John K. Judge in particular has directly cited Ren & Stimpy as having created the environment that allowed Beavis and Butt-Head to air.įor all of the success that Ren & Stimpy saw – it’s part of the reason that Nickelodeon is the network it is today – and for all the success it’s inspired both on Nickelodeon and throughout the television animation world, executives at Nickelodeon were actually not fond of Ren & Stimpy at all. It’s also often cited as having paved the way for cruder adult animation, having succeeded Matt Groening’s The Simpsons, a show that pushed the envelope but was intended for general audiences, but having predated Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s South Park, and Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy and American Dad, all shows with a definite adult edge to them. The show, known for its grotesque animation, excessive scatological humor, and heavy adult undertones, was one of the first original cartoons to air on the network, which at that point largely aired foreign imports.

The Ren & Stimpy Show was a children’s cartoon created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi (known professionally as “John K.”) which aired on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1995.

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