Original air date: 8/15/1992
In The Army
The Boot Camp Episode, which has Ren and Stimpy surviving boot camp by a particularly tough sergeant.
Powdered Toastman
This episode features the antics of Ren and Stimpy's favorite food mascot.
In The Army contains examples of...
- Angrish: The Sarge speaks mostly this.
- Armed Farces
- Ax-Crazy: Ren barely gets on his bed when revellie sounds, and is so upset he hacks the bed to pieces with an ax.
- Comically Missing the Point: Upon being ordered by Sarge to give him twenty [push-ups], Ren shrugs and hands him a $20 bill.Ren: "As a rule, I don't like to lend money... but you've got an honest face."
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: To be fair, Ren's constant antics would have made any drill sergeant worth their salt lose their marbles.
- Guilt by Association Gag: Whenever Ren does something that upsets the Sarge, Stimpy ends up peeling alongside Ren.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Ren and Stimpy sing a wildly out-of-tune version of "America the Beautiful" at the end, and get worse as the song goes on.
- Inelegant Blubbering: At its most inelegant for Stimpy during tear gas training.
- Oh, Crap!: Ren has a huge one when he realizes the Sarge emerged from the mire and had caught him piggybacking Stimpy for the march through the mud tracks, even providing the titular pic for the Wild Take.
- Ren: You don't wanna anger that huge, dopey Sargeeeeeee... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!
- Ocular Gushers: In the tear gas room, Stimpy cries so hard his eyeballs bounce around on top of the fountains of tears.
- Peeling Potatoes: Followed by watermelons and atomic bombs.Stimpy: Hey, Ren. I think the sarge likes you best, because he gave you the most potatoes to peel.
- During the watermelon peeling, Stimpy is mindlessly peeling his own nose.
- Sanity Slippage: The rigors of army life start to get to Ren. He eventually explodes, but it's promptly defused because they've graduated.Ren: Psst! Hey, Guido. It's so clear to me now. I'm the keeper of the Cheese, and you're the Lemon Merchant. You get it? And he knows it! That's why HE's gonna kill us! So we gotta beat it. Yeah. Before he lets loose the marmosets on us!!! Don't worry little missy, I'll save you!
- Shameful Strip: Ren and Stimpy are embarrassed to be seen naked during the physical,
even though they are usually unclothed anyway. - Sleep Deprivation: A major contributor to Ren's breakdown.
- Sleepless Alarm Clock: No sooner had Ren set himself down to sleep after a long day of marching than he gets jolted out of bed by revellie.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Just as Ren goes crazy and tries to desert, the Sergeant tells them they've graduated from boot camp and are now "full-fledged tank paratroopers".
- Too Dumb to Live: Ren's got more balls than brains thinking he can get away with bribing his CO after failing to follow basic orders, holding back his breath on gas room drill and getting Stimpy to carry him on his back during a march. It all comes back to bite him hard.
- Too Important to Walk: When Ren gets tired of marching, he has Stimpy carry him on his back. Sarge is not amused, and forces Ren to walk with him on his back.
Powdered Toastman contains examples of...
- Big "SHUT UP!": Powdered Toast Man's first line is him getting tired of the narrator's rambling introducing and telling him to shut up.
- Bowdlerization
- The scene of Powdered Toast Man using The Constitution' and the Bill of Rights, which he calls "some dusty old papers," as fire kindling was cut from reruns after Nickeldeon received complaints from viewers. They also changed any mentions of the pope by name to "The Man In The Pointy Hat" so as not to offend religious groups.
- When reran in Australia, the flashing lights upon PTM's entry were slowed down in fear of causing seizures.
- The Cameo: Frank Zappa as the Pope/Man in the Pointy Hat.
- Character Catchphrase: "Leave everything to me!"
- Constantly Curious: The narrator, enough to annoy even the main character.
- Dastardly Whiplash: Muddy Mudskipper plays one. He briefly has the mustache and a gold tooth.
- Groin Attack: The President accidentally caught in his own zipper. So Powdered Toast Man tie a string between the zipper and a door, removing the zipper but causing worse pain.
- Incoming Ham: "POWDERED! TOAST! MAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!"
- Laughing Mad: Muddy Mudskipper, right before he got blown up.
- Lemony Narrator: The narrator is prone to Suddenly Shouting, but his introduction for PTM goes on long enough to piss him off.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: To save a kitten, Powdered Toastman stops a truck by crashing a plane into it. Seconds later, he haphazardly throws the kitten off his shoulder anyway.
- Out of Focus: Ren and Stimpy are only in one scene and both only have one line.
- Satire: In addition to farcing superhero cliches, the episode satirizes how easily abused political power is.
- Save the Villain: The Pope gets Powdered Toastman to save Muddy. Subverted when Powdered Toastman ties Muddy to his own bomb while the Pope is not looking.
- Say My Name: "POWDERED! TOAST! MAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!"
- Secret-Keeper: The lovely assistant.
- Shout-Out: Powdered Toast Man is a spoof of Hanna-Barbera superheros such as Space Ghost and Birdman, right down him announcing his name wherever he goes and being voiced by Gary Owens.
- Something Else Also Rises: In the final shot, Powdered Toast Man is roasting a sausage while his lovely assistant is roasting a half-melted marshmallow next to it.
- Strapped to a Bomb: Muddy Mudskipper has the Pope tied to a barrel of lit dynamite.
