50 Fun Facts About The Ren & Stimpy Show

Mike Judge credits the success of Ren & Stimpy reruns for helping which of his cartoons get made?

Beavis and Butt-Head found a willing network thanks to those reruns, and Ren & Stimpy is credited with opening the way for a wave of adult-oriented satirical cartoons.

Which plain wooden toy is advertised in the most famous fake commercials on The Ren & Stimpy Show?

Log stood in for real sponsors, since the show ran mock ads for products that do not exist, and a later spot shows the brand expanding into other goods.

Which voice actor played Stimpy on The Ren & Stimpy Show and later Fry on Futurama?

Billy West voiced Stimpy from the start, then took over Ren as well once the show's creator was fired by Nickelodeon.

Which superhero battled Powdered Toast Man in issue 6 of the Ren & Stimpy comic book series?

Spider-Man could cross over because Marvel published the comic, which ran for 44 issues in the 1990s.

The voice of Stimpy on The Ren & Stimpy Show was modeled on which member of the Three Stooges?

Larry Fine, pitched up and amped up, was the model, and Stimpy's actor also won notice for the impression as a regular on a New York radio show.

Ren & Stimpy animator Vincent Waller later became a showrunner on which long-running Nickelodeon cartoon?

SpongeBob SquarePants also inherited the grotesque close-up, the sudden, physically extreme drawing that Ren & Stimpy made a trademark.

Ren Höek, the hot-tempered half of The Ren & Stimpy Show, is which breed of dog?

Chihuahua is the breed, and a 1950 photograph of one in a sweater at a woman's feet gave the show's creator the idea for Ren.

Which cartoon creator praised Ren & Stimpy as the only good cartoon on television besides his own?

Matt Groening, whose own show was The Simpsons, later criticized Nickelodeon's decision to fire the creator of Ren & Stimpy.

In the Ren & Stimpy episode Stimpy's Invention, which gadget does Ren finally destroy with a hammer?

Happy Helmet is the mind-control device Stimpy builds to cure Ren's bad temper, in an episode that took a full year to finish.

The Ren & Stimpy Show premiered in August 1991 alongside Doug and which other original Nicktoon?

Rugrats launched the same day, and in that first season Ren & Stimpy drew double the audience of Nickelodeon's other cartoons.

Stimpy, the good-natured, dim-witted half of The Ren & Stimpy Show, is which breed of cat?

Manx is the breed, yet Stimpy is mistaken for a dog so often that he once ended up entered in a dog show.

Stimpy, the red-and-white cat of The Ren & Stimpy Show, has a large bulbous nose of which color?

Blue is the nose, purple is saved for his eyelids, and his brain is said to be the size of a peanut.

Which Canadian animator created The Ren & Stimpy Show and voiced Ren until Nickelodeon fired him in 1992?

John Kricfalusi lost the show after clashes with the network's standards department and missed deadlines, and he turned down an offer to stay on as a consultant.

The creator of Ren & Stimpy called his original voice for Ren a bad imitation of which classic Hollywood actor?

Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon was the model, and the show's creator performed the voice himself for the first two seasons.

Which second-season Ren & Stimpy episode was shelved by Nickelodeon over a violent beating with an oar?

Man's Best Friend finally reached television in 2003, when a cable channel for men aired it three days before launching an adults-only revival of the series.

Which loud, ultra-patriotic character does the creator of Ren & Stimpy call the duo's official owner?

George Liquor so alarmed Nickelodeon that his surname was edited out of episodes, with a record-scratch sound covering the word.

Which rock musician voiced the Pope in the Ren & Stimpy episode Powdered Toast Man?

Frank Zappa was too ill to travel to the studio, so he recorded the part at home, in what became his final public performance.

Which grizzled vaudeville comedian hosts Stimpy's favorite children's TV program on Ren & Stimpy?

Muddy Mudskipper turns out to be an actual mudskipper, and Stimpy wins a trip to Hollywood to appear on his program in the very first episode.

The Ren & Stimpy episode Son of Stimpy, a send-up of tearjerker movies, is set around which holiday?

Christmas arrives with Stimpy frozen in a block of ice, and at 21 minutes the episode ran unusually long for the series.

Which game show's theme plays on Ren & Stimpy whenever lawmen Abner and Ewalt face even a simple problem?

Jeopardy lends its thinking music to the hillbilly sheriff and deputy, who are so keen on hangings that they end up hanging themselves.

Which gift in the Ren & Stimpy pilot Big House Blues becomes Stimpy's treasured first material possession?

A litter box from his new owner's mother wins Stimpy's heart, and although Ren later smashes it and even dumps it in acid, it always comes back.

In the Ren & Stimpy pilot, a coat of Stimpy's hairballs gets Ren mistaken for which breed?

Poodle is what a visiting girl thinks she is adopting from the pound, and Ren then talks her into taking Stimpy home too.

In an early Ren & Stimpy episode, the starving pair paint themselves as which breed to land a job?

Dalmatians were the only dogs the fire department would take, and the script was dashed off in an afternoon to fill the first season's order.

Svën Höek, the visitor who proves even dimmer than Stimpy on The Ren & Stimpy Show, is Ren's what?

Cousin Svën bonds with Stimpy at once, the two wreck Ren's prized collection, and all three end the episode in Hell.

In Ren & Stimpy's Space Madness, which forbidden control does Stimpy guard and then give in to using?

History Eraser Button lives up to its name: once Stimpy gives in, everything is erased from existence, and even the duo's images vanish from the show's logo.

In Ren & Stimpy's Space Madness, a deluded Ren guards which bathtub item, convinced it is ice cream?

Soap becomes his treasure after years cooped up in a spaceship, and when Stimpy notices, Ren is sure the cat means to steal it.

A Visit to Anthony reveals that Ren and Stimpy live in a town named Hollywood in which European country?

Yugoslavia is home, so the pair answer a young fan's letter by swimming across the Atlantic to visit him in the United States.

As kilted mounted patrolmen crossing the wilderness on Ren & Stimpy, the starving pair feast on what?

Dirt keeps them going just long enough to plant a flag and claim the wilderness for Canada, and then the meal kills them.

Which made-up holiday on The Ren & Stimpy Show is watched over by a creature who rides a flying canoe?

Yak Shaving Day got its own short segment in the first season, and its shaven mascot can pop in and out of sink and bathtub drains.

In Ren & Stimpy's Rubber Nipple Salesmen, a paranoid Mr. Horse suspects the duo work for which agency?

The FBI is what he fears, and the network approved the script only on condition that the word rubber always came before nipple.

The 2003 adults-only revival Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon aired on which cable channel aimed at men?

Spike TV pulled the revival after only three episodes had aired, and the rest came out on DVD three years later.

Which sister channel of Nickelodeon premiered Son of Stimpy and, in 1996, the final Ren & Stimpy episode?

MTV showed Son of Stimpy before Nickelodeon aired an edited version, and it ran the leftover finale nearly a year after the Nickelodeon run ended.

The Ren & Stimpy Show helped launch which late-night Nickelodeon block for children and adults?

SNICK suited a cartoon that had quickly built a cult following among college students as well as younger viewers.

Which Los Angeles studio, co-founded by the creator of Ren & Stimpy, made the first two seasons?

Spümcø was named after Raymond Spüm, an imaginary figure its founder jokingly called the inventor of animation.

Which artist replaced the fired creator of Ren & Stimpy as the show's director at Nickelodeon's own studio?

Bob Camp had helped found the original studio, and his choice to stay left him estranged from the man he replaced.

After the creator of Ren & Stimpy was fired, production moved to which newly founded Nickelodeon studio?

Games Animation made the last three seasons, with the voice of Stimpy now playing Ren too, and later became Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

Which voice actor replaced the original Stimpy for the 2003 revival Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon?

Eric Bauza stepped in because the original actor thought the revival was unfunny and feared it would damage his career.

Stinky Wizzleteats, singer of Stimpy's favorite record on Ren & Stimpy, is modeled on which balladeer?

Burl Ives inspired both the look and the voice, and the character's angry spoken outbursts are lifted from one of the singer's movie roles.

Wilbur Cobb, the decaying has-been cartoon mogul on Ren & Stimpy, was based partly on which real animation figure?

Walt Disney is the target, though the character's name was borrowed from the show's own story editor.

The Fire Chief on Ren & Stimpy is a caricature of which animation director, who later voiced him?

Ralph Bakshi was a mentor to the show's creator, who had worked for him on a Mighty Mouse revival before pitching Ren and Stimpy.

Powdered Toast Man on Ren & Stimpy was voiced by which announcer from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In?

Gary Owens had form with heroes: decades earlier his deadpan baritone voiced the title character of Space Ghost.

Which actor voiced Sid, the sleazy cigar-smoking clown Stimpy adopts in a late Ren & Stimpy episode?

Phil Hartman played the tiny clown as a Jack Nicholson impression, in an episode from the show's fifth and final season.

David Feiss, a director on the first season of Ren & Stimpy, later created which Cartoon Network series?

Cow and Chicken was joined by I Am Weasel, a second series he created for the same channel.

As stand-in president, Ren & Stimpy's Powdered Toast Man burns the Bill of Rights and which other document?

The Constitution goes on the White House fire simply to keep him warm, a scene that Nickelodeon later removed from the episode.

Mr. and Mrs. Pipe, the 1950s sitcom-style couple on Ren & Stimpy, are always shown in which way?

From the waist down is all viewers ever get, so Mr. Pipe is known by his bathrobe, slippers and sock suspenders.

In Ren & Stimpy's Ren's Toothache, Stimpy says which animal lives inside every tooth, gnawing at nerves?

A beaver does start chewing on Ren's exposed nerve endings, but his breath is so foul that it gives up and leaves.

Which part of Ren kept vanishing in early Ren & Stimpy seasons because it was a pain to animate?

His tail gave so much trouble in the pilot's loose, sloppy movement that the show's creator swore never to draw one in motion again.

In which recurring Ren & Stimpy segment does Stimpy answer children's letters with nonsense advice?

Ask Dr. Stupid also lent its name to the letters page of the Ren & Stimpy comic book, where readers put questions to the doctor directly.

The look of Ren & Stimpy, where emotions distort the body, draws most on which animator's 1940s cartoons?

Bob Clampett was the creator's main influence, and the show's blotchy color-card backgrounds were developed from his cartoon Baby Bottleneck.

The title of the Ren & Stimpy pilot Big House Blues uses American slang for which kind of place?

A prison is how the pilot paints the dog pound, where the inmates lounge in their cell until a guard leads one of them away.