Original air date: 10/1/1994
Ren has finally had enough of Stimpy's stupidity, so he leaves home to live on his own as a hermit.
Hermit Ren contains examples of...
- Big "NO!": Ren screams this when he gets overwhelmed at the beginning.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Ren when all of his imaginary friends all talk at once: "STOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!"
- Dangerously Close Shave: A non-lethal example happens to poor Ren after Stimpy gives him back his razor... after breaking it while nailing a picture frame to the wall.
- Companion Cube:
- For companionship, Ren makes friends with the mummified corpse of the last hermit to dwell in the cave.
- To compensate for Ren's absence, Stimpy makes a model of Ren out of his earwax. Later, it turns out that Ren made a model of Stimpy out of bat guano.
- Furry Confusion: At the beginning of the episode, Ren is heard hitting a dog, even though he is a dog himself.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: After becoming a hermit, Ren gradually goes insane from living in a cave by himself.
- Hearing Voices: After months of living alone in the cave, Ren soon starts hearing the mummy "speaking" to him.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Stimpy, as he butchers a classic campfire song...Someone's DYING MY LOR-ED!! A-KUMBAYAH!!...
- Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: When Ren gets kicked out of the Hermit's Guild, they rip off his beard.
- "Kick Me" Prank: Ren returns from work with the note on his back.
- Literal Split Personality: To compensate for his lonesomeness, Ren makes friends with imaginary figures representing his anger, fear and ignorance.
- Meat-O-Vision: Ren imagines bats as a cow's udders while starving inside the cave, and the tree geezer (in the Untamed World "Field Guide" short) imagines Stimpy's head as jello.
- Sanity Slippage:
- A realistic and horrifying example comes from Ren as he lives out his isolation.
- Stimpy undergoes this as well while waiting for Ren to return, but it was played for laughs a lot more.
- Standard Snippet: The last note of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" plays when we see that Ren did not have a good day at work.
- The Thieving Magpie overture plays when Ren is taking his dinner out of the oven.
- The Barber of Seville overture is heard when Ren goes to the bathroom to shave.
- The Ride of the Valkyries is heard when Ren rants to Stimpy how he is fed up with him and the whole world.
- Stock Audio Clip: Ren's Big "NO!" is the same one heard in Sven Hoek.
- Way Past the Expiration Date: The final straw for Ren is drinking mushy milk when he tries to put out his burning tongue. Stimpy, however, is happy to drink it.
- Weird Trade Union: Ren joins a "hermit's union" in order to get away from civilization (and Stimpy). He gets kicked out when he's caught making imaginary friends.
