Ren's Brain

Did You Know?

• American journalist Thad Komorowski gave the episode four and a half out of five stars, calling it one of Reccardi's best episodes as director and one of the best from the Games era.
• Kricfalusi intended this episode to be the next cult classic in the series for its home media release.

Plot

Stimpy, an amateur neurosurgeon, performs illegal neurosurgery in a shed next to the house. His experiments on brains render them nonfunctional, and he disappointedly returns to sleep. The next morning, sunlight on Ren's head gives Stimpy the idea that Ren's brain might suffice for his experiment. Morally corrupted, he extracts Ren's brain and spinal column using a scalpel from a heavily guarded jar, successfully keeping the brain alive in fluid.

Ren awakens unaware, goes to work, and drives without issue. Stimpy replaces Ren's missing brain with a telephone, allowing Ren's body to function but with severe intellectual disability. Stimpy plays with Ren's body in the backyard, sprinkling cat litter and watching it hit itself. Meanwhile, Ren's disembodied brain works normally, earning a promotion from Stabco.

Ren's brain encounters his own body but fails to recognize it. Stimpy attempts to sedate the body, but the body broadcasts the event on television, killing the entire population of the United States and the world from shock, destroying Earth. Ren's brain, the sole survivor, floats in space and angrily calls Stimpy and his body idiots.

Production

John Kricfalusi and Richard Pursel wrote the episode outline at Spümcø, intended for the second season, but Kricfalusi was fired in 1992 and Pursel refused his position at Games Animation. Most of Kricfalusi's outlines were used by Games, though "Ren's Brain" was the last. Production was delayed from the second half of the second season, then restarted in the third season and continued until near the end of the fourth season. Showrunner Bob Camp attempted to direct the episode for the third season, with Spümcø alumni Jim Gomez and Michael Kim handling storyboards and layouts. Kim worked on every episode as a layout artist until his firing, but after his termination the episode did not enter production as the third season proved chaotic; Kim left Games to work on Batman: The Animated Series.