(WARNING: Unpopular Opinion) During my childhood, I avoided this show like the plague. I found it disgusting, manic, painfully unfunny and intelligence-insulting. I recently tried watching a few episodes on YouTube to see if I'd like it more as an adult, but I still found intolerable, so I still cannot see what people love about it. As a kid, I always thought of it as Tom and Jerry for stupid children, and I never once believed that I would ever be seen as some cartoon classic.
I meant to write "I never once believed IT would be seen as a cartoon classic". Sorry for the typo.
Of course you're not a cartoon classic. You're a real life human being.
But to be serious, you are entitled to your opinion, but then again, you probably didn't have access to a lot of adult-oriented magazines that were praising the show to high heaven as a modern cartoon classic.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
I really appreciate this show. Although the review, I must say, was nowhere near perfect, it was a really cool show, no question about it. Dexter's Lab was a good show in my opinion, PPG was not (for reasons I am compelled not to repeat here, and you'll find plenty of those reasons in my other comments). Despite borrowing a few writers from Ren & Stimpy, Dexter's Lab and PPG were not that much influenced by this show. In fact, I've heard that Craig Mc Cracken (creator of PPG) once pitched PPG to Nickelodeon, and Nick rejected it (probably because it was way too violent, among some other good reasons out there). Rocko's Modern Life was a bit more in the spirit of Doug than Ren & Stimpy, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was much more in the spirit of Rugrats (another show from Klasky-Csupo, who created Real Monsters). Other than those details I brought up, I felt the review was OK.
Jon Mc Clenahan, animator for the 90s WB cartoons, mentioned that Genndy was a big fan of Ren and Stimpy and that Dexter's Laboratory was sort of a tribute. Craig, however, was a fan of Bakshi's Mighty Mouse show.
Genndy hired writers for R&S who had started as layout artists. I believe his affection for the show had to do with it. Otherwise they probably would have ended up on Hey Arnold! with R&S vet Craig Bartlett.
Rocko was akin to the surreal, wacky side of R&S, while Real Monsters was more in the vein of the show's gross and dark side. Neither of them, tonally, were like Doug or Rugrats.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
Thanks for the clarification on Genndy and Craig. I have to revise my thinking on Dexter's Lab, at least.
As for the two Nicktoons that followed the original three, my views are unchanged on how they relate to Ren & Stimpy as opposed to Doug or Rugrats. I have seen some striking comparisons in reviews of Nicktoons betweeen Doug and Rocko's Modern Life, and between Real Monsters and Rugrats. I have seen such things particularly on retrojunk.com.
If you still don't agree, well, we can agree to disagree, can we not? It all depends on your point of view. ;)
Personally, I don't really like R&S (I won't say why), but I can appreciate its influence in animation history. The Mysterious Mr. Enter sums it up pretty well. To paraphrase him, its talent at Getting Crap Past the Radar lead to lots of other people making their own shows that used radar-dodging humour like Rocko's Modern Life, Billy and Mandy, Invader Zim, and Johnny Bravo. Eventually, people put this "mature content" to more intelligent (for lack of better term) uses like serious content in comedic shows. That's where shows like Gravity Falls and Adventure Time take their influence from R&S. Overall, awesome review for a show I'm no fan of.
"Detecting trace amounts of mental activity. Possibly a dead weasel or a cartoon viewer"
But animators have always snuck mature content past the censors. I have no idea why R&S gets praise for doing it like it was the first cartoon to do so. Plus, the artstyle is hideous to people who have eyes.
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A cultural milestone, in more ways than one
It is commonly accepted in this day and age that the main contribution of Ren and Stimpy to culture is that it popularized the Gross Out Show. This is about as accurate as saying that The Beatles' main contribution to culture is that they inspired millions of shitty bands to write their own shitty songs.
What people do not realize is that Ren and Stimpy is, with The Simpsons and Batman: The Animated Series, one of the most influential shows of the 90s. Without it, a huge chunk of animation today might not exist. It was not only the first kid cartoon in decades to gather an adult audience, but it popularized the creator-driven cartoon, giving us some of the most beloved programs of the past 25 years - not only on Nick, but Cartoon Network and Disney, who decided to do their own creator-driven toons to get in on the action Nick had with R&S.
Is it any accident that two of CN's biggest hits were created by fans of Ren and Stimpy, and staffed with former R&S writers and animators? (Nick also seemed to get the show's popularity - the next two Nicktoons were Rocko's Modern Life and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, which were in the spirit of R&S.)
But why was this? Why did it gain such a devoted audience? Why did it have such a wide ranging influence? Simple - it was a terrific show, surely one of the best programs Nick ever produced.
Its first two seasons are masterpieces of animation. I don't mince my words. Such episodes as "Stimpy's Invention," "Space Madness," "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen" and "Son of Stimpy" are up there with "What's Opera, Doc?", "Duck Amuck" and "One Froggy Evening" in terms of genius. "Stimpy's Invention" in particular ought to go up there in The 50 Greatest Cartoons list, it's that good.
The Games Animation episodes are polarizing, yes. It is my opinion that they're perfectly good on their own terms. Despite that, though, there is something missing - John K.'s input. Still, episodes like "Stimpy's Cartoon Show," "House of Next Tuesday" and "Reverend Jack" prove that the show could still be entertainingly funny even if the creator was gone.
The less said about Adult Party Cartoon the better.
Thus you can see why Ren and Stimpy deserves its status as one of the most influential cartoons ever made.