An Abe Divided

Plot

Ren and Stimpy are starving and homeless in Washington, D.C. Ren eats a maggot-infested porkchop, and Stimpy licks the newspaper it was in, accidentally licking an ad recruiting security guards for the Lincoln Memorial. They apply and are hired by Sergeant Bigbutt, a transvestite who threatens them with towels. Told to clean Abraham Lincoln's statue, Stimpy confuses Lincoln with Santa Claus and writes a wish list; Ren corrects him, but Stimpy misinterprets this as Santa being dead.

The next day, Ren overhears a man telling his grandson about a treasure inside the statue's head. Ren fantasizes about riches and closes the exhibit. He tries entering through Lincoln's nose but gets stuck. Stimpy pays a nickel to make the statue pick its nose, painfully extracting Ren.

Other guards had died similarly, consumed by greed, in a spot where Lincoln hides his mucus. Ren and Stimpy saw off the statue's head; Stimpy recalls there is caramel corn inside, and indeed finds it. Ren realizes the crime and orders Stimpy to repair the statue. Stimpy rebuilds the head to resemble Santa Claus and a hillbilly, which Ren rejects.

They make a convincing recreation with sausages, but pigeons devour it. They try a penny, an elk head, a tiki, and the Statue of Liberty's head, eventually settling on a dumpster with a crude Lincoln face drawn on it, set on fire. An obese man living in the dumpster appreciates the redecoration and carries it away. Ren begs Lincoln's ghost for help, who appears and kicks them.

Sergeant Bigbutt discovers them the next morning, threatens to kill them, but instead forces them to stand in as Lincoln's head permanently, where they starve to death.

Production

Jim Gomez directed "An Abe Divided" as his second episode for the series, and it was the second without involvement from Spümcø. Gomez was more enthusiastic about this episode than he had been for "Circus Midgets". The story paid homage to Laurel and Hardy films. Michael Kim handled layout, assisted by Donald Shank, Tom McGrath, and Steve Loter.

Many of the Games Animation cartoonists working on the episode were novices, and their inexperience caused production difficulties. Kim noted that the layout artists were green and schedules tightened as the budget was consumed. Jim Ballantine called the episode a schedule disaster; the layout stage took twelve weeks in summer 1993. Rough Draft Korea animated the episode in six weeks in Seoul under rushed conditions.

Although the episode was well received, Gomez declined to direct further episodes and returned to writing, having experienced a more chaotic version of what John Kricfalusi endured.