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Did You Know?

• American journalist Thad Komorowski rated the episode four and a half out of five stars.
• Kim would later go on to work at Fox Television Animation to become a storyboard artist for Futurama, then as director for American Dad!, and currently as director for Family Guy.

Plot

One late night, Ren and Stimpy are at a bus station. Ren insists on being taken farther than any destination a human could reach. The ticket clerk explains that the last stop is the Ursa Minor constellation. It turns out Ren bought a one-way ticket there for Stimpy, intending to send him away forever. After hearing Ren’s reasoning, Stimpy clings to Ren’s leg, confused about what he did wrong. Ren then recalls several past incidents: Stimpy once produced a living fart, shaved Ren’s fur and put a mind-controlling helmet on him, grew an extra buttock, hacked up hairballs onto Ren, and suffered brain damage after being kicked by Mr. Horse. Ren starts yelling at Stimpy just as the bus to Ursa Minor runs them over, despite the driver trying to brake.

Ren wakes up in a hospital. A doctor who looks like Dr. Scratchansniff from Animaniacs is sawing on his body, and a nurse hammers him back into unconsciousness. When they both wake up, they discover they are in a shady discount hospital. They were revived, but fused together. Ren realizes this when he notices his right hand is actually Stimpy’s. The taxi driver who takes them home is horrified by the sight of the fused creature.

That night, Ren cannot sleep because Stimpy snores loudly. At 4 a.m., Stimpy wakes up to watch his favorite show, Stomper Room. When Stimpy mentions it’s Sunday, Ren immediately heads to work at that hour. He is late and his boss yells at him, with Stimpy’s foolish behavior making things worse. Ren begins his job at a secret factory manufacturing nuclear bombs—a position he qualified for after thirteen years of night school, paying enough to feed them both. During a ten-second break, Stimpy pulls a lever at a red light signal, dropping radioactive material and blowing up the factory. The duo are unharmed, but Ren’s boss fires them and suggests they join a freak show, while the boss himself slowly dies from radioactive poisoning.

Production

Michael Kim directed this episode, with Bob Camp and Jim Gomez handling the script. Kim entered the animation industry at sixteen and was later brought onto Spümcø by series creator John Kricfalusi. Recognizing Kim’s skill from his work on The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil, Kricfalusi considered him highly talented, took him on as a protégé, and persuaded him to turn down a higher-paying job on Batman: The Animated Series at Warner Bros. Animation. Kim served as a layout artist on every episode until his dismissal, which came when Kricfalusi grew unhappy with his slow output of layouts during the production of “Man’s Best Friend.” After Spümcø lost the contract for The Ren & Stimpy Show, Kim moved with other studio alumni to Games Animation. Together with storyboard artist and future DreamWorks animator Tom McGrath, Kim aimed to make the episode a tribute to David Lynch, incorporating elements from the 1980 film The Elephant Man. The episode explores Ren and Stimpy’s relationship in a way that contrasts with Kim’s earlier episode “Ren’s Bitter Half.” Where that episode focused on the pair being split apart and distant, this one examines their close bond. During Ren’s flashbacks, the episode includes clips from “Ren’s Bitter Half” as well as several Spümcø episodes: “Son of Stimpy,” “Stimpy’s Invention,” “A Visit to Anthony,” and “Svën Höek.”