Word: ren
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Producer-director John Kricfalusi examines the storyboard for a future episode of The Ren & Stimpy Show. Beaming with satisfaction, he congratulates the staff. "This is it," he announces. "Not a glimmer of good taste anywhere...
When the animated series debuted on Nickelodeon last August, there were only half a dozen episodes. Vice presidents at rival networks snickered. The adventures of a rabid Chihuahua and a bulbous cat? Drawn in retro '50s style, with garish backgrounds and gags based on bodily functions? Who knew that Ren and Stimpy were on the cusp of celebrity...
Irresistible to Nickelodeon, anyway. After all three broadcast networks and Fox gave aggressive thumbs-down, Vanessa Coffey, the cable network's V.P. of animation, saw something "uniquely bizarre" in Ren and Stimpy and helped develop scripts and concepts. "At all costs, we wanted to change the face of animation," she recalls. Actually, the price tag was about $300,000 a show. Kricfalusi voiced Ren as a deranged Peter Lorre; ex-standup comedian Billy West enacted Stimpy in a tone vaguely reminiscent of Larry, a founding Stooge...
...Initial responses were mixed. A reviewer for the Austin American-Statesman griped, "I don't remember ever seeing animated retching before, and hope to never see it again." Campus critics took a different view. Ren's constant bleat -- "You bloated sack of protoplasm!" -- began to replace Bart Simpson's "Eat my shorts!" as their put-down of choice. Frank Zappa joined the fan club. So did Robert De Niro and pop singer Matthew Sweet. Dormitories at Yale, the University of Michigan and U.S.C. staged viewing parties, where undergraduates displayed their new Ren & Stimpy T shirts...
Miguel: Ah, Lau-ren. A body like poetry and eyes like burnt caramel flan. I can tell by the way she dances that her soul is tuned to the great cosmic pulse. She moves like dough being kneaded by the hands...