Big Baby Scam

Plot

Ren and Stimpy are homeless and starving, eating bark in a tree. Seeing twin babies Eugene and Shawn in the Pipe family residence, Ren decides to exploit the pampered life of a baby. They bribe the twins, who are articulate and act like gangsters, with $50 to take their places. Mrs. Pipe fails to identify the imposters; she is disappointed by Ren's lack of defecation but praises Stimpy for filling multiple diapers.

Stimpy is whacked for getting more attention. Ren breaks a teddy bear and spits on it. Mr. Pipe returns, wearing rubber nipples, and also cannot tell the imposters from his children. He punches Ren lightly, but Ren does not respond.

Mr. Pipe mentions his father, which Mrs. Pipe forbids. He demands the "twins" learn to walk; Ren teeters forward and Stimpy stumbles, earning compliments. Mr. Pipe wants them to walk on magma under the sofa, but relents and throws Ren onto the ceiling. During a family bath, a policeman returns the real children.

Mr. Pipe's father is revealed to be Old Man Hunger, prompting Ren and Stimpy to flee. They escape without consequences, but Ren is pummeled 50 times in the chest when he demands his money back from the twins.

Production

Vincent Waller directed the episode and drew most of it himself. Production was troubled and over-budget, so the layout stage was moved from Spümcø in Los Angeles to Rough Draft Korea in Seoul. Waller supervised layout work in South Korea for this episode and "The Great Outdoors" over three weeks. During this time, John Kricfalusi was fired alongside Spümcø, notified by Gregg Vanzo. Nickelodeon heavily censored the episode, removing the nude family bath scene where Ren stares at Mrs. Pipe's breasts and the scene of Mr. Pipe rubbing Ren across his facial stubble.

Reception

British critic Becky Barnicoat described The Ren & Stimpy Show as "confounding" when it aired in the United Kingdom in 1994 on the BBC, citing its violence and vulgarity as unprecedented on British television. She used the uncensored nude family bath scene in "Big Baby Scam" as an example of the show's revolutionary nature. American critic Shaun Scott praised the episode as a "deeply skeptical look at the price of human life under modern capitalism," noting the inattentive parents and the twins portrayed as money-grubbing thugs. Thad Komorowski gave the episode four stars out of five.