Original air date: 9/8/1991
Space Madness
Ren and Stimpy are watching themselves on TV as astronauts going into outer space. While on a six-year break in space, Ren and Stimpy spend some quality time together, but the stress of being stuck alone in space stresses out Ren, and no matter what Stimpy does, Ren just keeps getting more and more insane. Finally, Ren tricks Stimpy into giving into the stress as well by tempting him into pushing the HISTORY ERASER BUTTON!
The Boy Who Cried Rat
Ren and Stimpy, here penniless and hungry, pretend that Ren is a mouse and Stimpy a professional mouse catcher to get $5. It's all going well until the clients want Stimpy to eat Ren...
Space Madness provides examples of...
- Big Red Button: The beautiful, shiny, jolly, candy-like History Eraser Button.
- Companion Cube: Ren hallucinates that a bar of soap is an ice cream bar, which he believes he's had since childhood
Ren:' "Oh, my beloved ice-cream bar..."
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Said almost verbatim in regards to the History Eraser Button.Ren:' "DON'T TOUCH IT! IT'S THE HISTORY ERASER BUTTON, You Fool!!!!"
- Food Pills: The tube-form version. This is part of what drives Ren over the edge.Ren:' "THAT'S IT! I NEED SOME REAL FOOD!"
- The Future: The "Commander Hoek and Cadet Stimpy" series is set in "the year four hundred billion".
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Ren starts going off the deep end during his bath, Stimpy is forced to jump him and hold him down.Stimpy: You poor, crazy kid!
- Head Desk: Ren bangs his head against the table repeatedly when he finds nothing to eat but food tubes.
- Help Mistaken for Attack: Due to his increasing insanity, Ren believed Stimpy's Get A Hold Of Yourself Man moment was an attack and that he's the one with space madness.
- Improvised Weapon: When Ren feels threatened by Stimpy, he grabs the nearest thing at hand - a toothbrush - and yells "Don't make me use it!" When Stimpy steps forward, Ren uses the toothbrush... to brush his teeth.
- Interactive Narrator: The announcer steps in and actively goads Stimpy into touching the History Eraser Button. Will he hold out, folks? CAN he hold out?!Stimpy: NO, I CAN'T!!!!note
- Killed Mid-Sentence: The narrator is interrupted as he, Ren, and Stimpy get erased from history.Narrator: Tune in next week, as—(ZAP)''"
- Madness-Induced Omnivore: Ren succumbs to the titular Space Madness and eats a bar of soap, mistaking it for an ice cream bar.
- Misophonia Gag: The first sign of Ren's Space Madness is his reaction to Stimpy tapping his finger on the table.Commander Hoek: DO YOU HAVE TO KEEP TAPPING LIKE THAT? YOU BLOATED SACK OF PROTOPLASM!!!
- Opening Narration:Narrator: All systems go! Prepare for countdown! 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, blast off to adventure in the amazing year four hundred billion, with Commander Hoëk, and his faithful companion Cadet Stimpy, as they roam the endless uncharted regions of space at speeds so fantastic, they throttlenote the imagination...
- Sanity Slippage: Ren, of course!"They think I'm crazy, but I know better. It is not I who am crazy, it is I who am MAD!!"note
- Schmuck Bait: The History Eraser Button.
- Sci Fi Fly By: Parodied. The opening credits play over a beautiful shot of outer space. Then the spaceship appears... and it's a cheap wind-up toy.
- Shout-Out: Ren's line "We're not hitchhiking anymore! We're riding!" is from the 1949 film The Champion.
- Slasher Smile: Ren makes one when he gets the idea to control his partner's...SPACE MADNESS!
- Space Madness: The Trope Namer.
- Title Drop:Ren: You know, they say sometimes people go crazy on these long trips. They get the...(SPACE MADNESS!). Heh, space madness.
- Too Dumb to Live: Stimpy, being Stimpy, never gets the hint that pushing the History Eraser Button would be a bad thing.
- What Does This Button Do?:Ren: That's just it, we don't know! MAYBE something bad? MAYBE something good? I guess we'll never know, because YOU'RE going to guard it!note
- Who's on First?: Near the beginning, Ren and Stimpy communicate to each other in the same spacesuit and use the "Roger!" call. A man named Roger responds to the call.
- You're Insane!:Stimpy: Stop it. You're talking crazy.
The Boy Who Cried Rat provides examples of...
- Animals Not to Scale: Ren is suddenly mouse sized when Stimpy puts him in his mouth.
- Ass in a Lion Skin: Ren dresses as a mouse as part of their scam.
- Dumpster Dive: Ren and Stimpy are introduced eating out of garbage cans.
- Extreme Omnivore:Stimpy: All this talk about eating made me hungry! I ate the five bucks!
- Monster Protection Racket: Ren pretends to be a mouse so Stimpy can chase him out and get paid.
- Never Trust a Title: The title states that Ren pretends to be a rat, but Ren actually pretends to be a mouse.
- Oh, Crap!: When they're told that Stimpy has to eat Ren.
- Sanity Slippage: Ren when he's trapped inside Stimpy's mouth.Ren: Teeth to the left of me...! [slowly gains Voice of the Legion] Gums to the right of me! I tell you, I can't STAND it! I'm going... MAAAAAAAD!!!
- Shout-Out:
- The scenes of Stimpy chasing Ren spoof Tom and Jerry.
- Ren's mouse disguise includes red shorts and white gloves.
- Working Off the Debt: The cartoon ends with Ren and Stimpy doing chores to pay off the five bucks Stimpy ate.
- "Paint the lawn"? "Shave the chickens"?
