Stimpy's Cartoon Show

Did You Know?

• American critic Thad Komorowski gave Stimpy's Cartoon Show four and a half out of five, calling it one of Games Animation's best episodes on the series.
• Komorowski considered the final scene to be one of Bob Camp's best work.

Plot

Stimpy holes up in the basement for ages, trying to make an animated film, which gets Ren's attention. He's driven by his admiration for Wilbur Cobb, an animator who was once successful but is now past his prime. Ren tries to talk him out of it, but realizes Stimpy actually has skill; Stimpy had previously won a respected award, making Ren feel guilty about his own lack of ability. Wanting to help but knowing he can't draw or do much, Ren breaks down crying.

To lift Ren's spirits, Stimpy makes him the producer, a role Ren finds appealing because it seems to involve little work and lets him take credit from the animator, so he eagerly agrees. This decision ruins Stimpy. Stimpy works nonstop on the cartoon while Ren blows their money on a fancy lifestyle, harshly cutting Stimpy's budget and time, even forcing Stimpy to buy pencils from him and make his own paper. One night, Stimpy is nearly done with the storyboards when Ren, dressed as John Kricfalusi, shows up and savagely destroys most of the scenes, leaving only four random ones.

Stimpy is devastated. After finishing a barely passable storyboard, Stimpy animates the whole film alone, working day and night. He's exhausted and worn out, but a portrait of Wilbur Cobb keeps him going. He edits the film on a hand-cranked viewer while Ren cheerfully snips the film at random with scissors.

He completes the film and collapses from fatigue. Stimpy shows it to Ren, who has only gotten more extravagant. Even though Stimpy's exhaustion has ruined the film, Ren gives it the thumbs up; they then take it to Wilbur Cobb, who turns out to be a senile old man falling apart. Wilbur gives a lecture, hinting that he got ahead by cheating animators and then fighting in both World Wars; he trails off into nonsense as his ear and teeth fall out, horrifying the pair.

Wilbur and the two watch the final product, a well-animated but meaningless film called "I Like Pink" starring Explodey the Pup; Wilbur enjoys it. Later, it comes out that Wilbur is in prison, on death row for some serious crime. The three sit in the electric chair, and Wilbur pulls the switch, electrocuting all of them to death, which closes the episode.

Production

The story for this episode was first imagined in 1992 by John Kricfalusi, the show's creator. He wanted to write a plot where Ren becomes a producer who is completely out of sync with the animators, meant as a jab at the Nickelodeon executives he was frequently clashing with. Those executives did not find the idea funny and rejected it with a memo stating, "You thought we had a sense of humor about ourselves – we don't." Even so, after Kricfalusi argued that the story was not actually about them, the network agreed to purchase the rights.

Kricfalusi was let go from the series on September 21, 1992, and Spümcø lost the contract for The Ren & Stimpy Show, which went to the new Games Animation studio. Bob Camp took over and reworked Kricfalusi's original script into the final version. Camp noted in 1993 that, in contrast to Kricfalusi's frequently censored work, about 95% of Games Animation's scripts went uncensored. Hoping to boost ratings following the controversy of Kricfalusi's firing, Camp brought in comedian Jack Carter as a recurring guest star to voice Wilbur Cobb, a character making his first appearance here.

Camp did this because Carter was struggling financially and he felt sympathy for him. Camp continued to hire Carter for the role as often as possible to help stabilize his life, a decision that drew criticism from crew members like Bill Wray, who felt it hurt the quality of the episodes.