If we you ever wondered which was the first ‘adult cartoon’ aired on a network dedicated for children, well, the Ren & Stimpy Show gets the gold medal.

Quick Brief:

@ Genre: Black Comedy, Toilet Humor, Surreal Comedy;

@ Ren and Stimpy cartoons were created by John Kricfalusi which revolved around the misadventures of Ren (a paranoid chihuahua) and Stimpy (a stupid manx cat);

@ Nickelodeon was the first television on which Ren & Stimpy was aired, in 1991, and after the popularity increased, the show was moved to MTV;

@ During its ‘golden period’ when its popularity was increasing day by day, parents started to complain about the violent character of Ren, eroticism, toilet humor and other claims that were suggesting damage for the children viewers. Eventually it was cancelled in 1996.

 How Ren and Stimpy Show came to life?

Vanessa Coffey, Nickelodeon’s Exec spread the news that she is looking after “creator driven cartoons“. The Canadian animator John Kricfalusi who was known as a rabble rouser, decided to get involved. He showed his concept named “Your Gang” to Coffey, which was a big cast cartoon show, but that wasn’t in the interests of Coffey. However, the pets of one of the characters of that show caught her attention and made her want them in a cartoon show. She also requested to own copyright on them and succeed, despite Krisfalusi’s fight to keep it. If Coffey would at least really WATCH Kricfalusi’s previous cartoons, she would knew that troubles will knock the door. Before starting the work, Kricfalusi made his own team of rebel cartoonists. He applied the traditional creative process of not using writers and just scripting by storyboards.

Rise and Fall

The Ren and Stimpy show was a quick success mostly because it was one of a kind and also for its notorious black comedy applied in a televised cartoon. As time passed, the popularity increased more and more, making Kricfalusi to force the “children friendly zone”. In one of the episodes, Stimpy was showing a demonstration where he was swallowing a sword behind a toilet, making reference to a blowjob. It got spread among all ages and places, especially in the College bars from USA where it was running on MTV. This wasn’t a surprise, actually it was the most EPIC thing for stoners to watch:

However, problems were increasing due to the sick nature of the show, which eventually lead to the demise of the creator. Kricfalusi was complaining about permanent interference and approvals delay while Nickelodeon was claiming that he was “difficult and slow”. After his dismissal, the show was given to Bob Camp, but it started to suck, loosing its “mojo”, leading to being cancelled in 1996.

Second Chance, Missed

Kricfalusi obtained the opportunity to bring back the show in 2002, on Spike TV, targeting an adult audience. He went to far this time, that far that it sucked even for its fans. “Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon” lasted only one month before it was cancelled; however it was later released on DVD, including the unaired “Naked Beach Frenzy“. These series were into more adult themes, suggesting also a gay relationship between Ren and Stimpy, and an episode full of naked girls. After the first 3 episodes out of the initial 9 ordered by Spike TV, after the loads of bodily fluids, vomit, saliva, nasal mucus and so on, the cartoon was out from the programming schedule, ending for good the Ren and Stimpy era.