TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Ren And Stimpy Reboot For Comedy Central

Go To

NesClassic Meh-meh!? from Flyover Country Since: Dec, 2012 Relationship Status: In another castle
Meh-meh!?
#76: Sep 8th 2022 at 10:29:25 AM

Being the butt of some Simpsons jokes is a testament to its influence, if anything- and besides, it isn't like they didn't homage the series in a more affectionate manner either.

I don't think it's fair to write off Ren & Stimpy's influence just because of one person on it, who if anything was the biggest obstacle the rest of the show's production had to deal with. Arguing the show is outdated and not fit for a modern take is fair, but that doesn't undo how much it shaped animation in the 90's either. In terms of affecting how cartoons were structured and getting a bunch of other big names a portfolio to start their own cartoons from it was pretty much to then what Adventure Time is to modern cartoons.

🏳️‍⚧️she/her | Vio Rhyse Alberia
Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#77: Sep 8th 2022 at 10:33:57 AM

The Simpsons also got Chris Reccardi to storyboard this sequence:

(They should have gotten Billy West as well, but that's just my opinion, of course.)

Edited by Aldo930 on Sep 8th 2022 at 10:34:29 AM

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
kablammin45 art lizer from Cleese's Battle Circuit (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
art lizer
#78: Sep 8th 2022 at 10:34:28 AM

I think if you even just compare shows from the mid-80s before Ren & Stimpy came out to shows from the mid-90s after it did, there is a very marked difference. Ren & Stimpy was still a considerable success in spite of its infamously Troubled Production (and having a pretty awful creator) and everyone wanted to recapture what made it work, such as the storyboard-driven approach the show used and the ability to just go wild with the plots and the gags and putting whatever the crew thought was funny to paper. Without the show, we probably wouldn't even have shows like Rocko's Modern Life, Dexter's Laboratory, or even SpongeBob SquarePants, all of which took the approach that Ren & Stimpy did and are still remembered (or even still running in the Sponge's case) to this day. If nothing else, you could at least say that shows like those I mentioned vastly improved on the storyboard-driven style of production that Ren & Stimpy used.

Ren & Stimpy might have aged badly and not have the best reputation nowadays, but even if you personally hate the original show (I myself have very mixed feelings toward it) there is no denying that it had a drastic effect on TV animation that you can still sorta feel today.

"Hey, least I didn't lose all my artistic talent when I crash landed in the arena here."
Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#79: Sep 8th 2022 at 10:36:26 AM

You have only to look at all the What-a-Cartoon shorts to see the influence R&S had on TV animation. So many of them are influenced by the show; a few even have crew members from the original working on them.

Dexters Laboratory was essentially Genndy's homage to R&S; Cow And Chicken was created by a former crew member, and when it became a show, was essentially a reunion for the old crew.

People really don't remember how much of a splash the show made when it was new - just how many people in animation were inspired by it. One crew member who later went on to feature animation remembers that people weren't much impressed by the Disneyesque stuff in his promo reel, but they were laughing their heads off at the R&S clips he included.

Edited by Aldo930 on Sep 8th 2022 at 10:38:10 AM

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
badtothebaritone (Life not ruined yet) Relationship Status: Snooping as usual
#80: Sep 8th 2022 at 10:37:16 AM

I think it goes back more to The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack personally, since that's where much of the Adventure Time crew as well as Alex Hirsch got their starts.

Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#81: Sep 8th 2022 at 10:42:49 AM

When I look back at Ren & Stimpy, I remember a lot of continuity errors in the animation, or things simply not being drawn at all because John K. or the animators didn't want to. An example being Ren's tail.

Like creepy stories? Check out my book!
Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#82: Sep 8th 2022 at 10:45:45 AM

Ren had a tail?

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#83: Sep 8th 2022 at 10:48:24 AM

Yes, in the first few episodes. It was quickly phased out though. John K. claimed once it was a pain to animate so it was dropped.

Like creepy stories? Check out my book!
SpongeGuy11 Since: Jun, 2018
#84: Sep 8th 2022 at 12:29:54 PM

[up][up][up][up][up]David Feiss (Cow and Chicken's creator) never worked on Ren and Stimpy, he was at Hanna Barbara at the time Ren and Stimpy was in production.

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#85: Sep 8th 2022 at 1:23:11 PM

No, he did work on the pilot and on the first season; he was at Hanna-Barbera afterwards, however.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
XMenMutant22 The Feline Follies of Felix the Cat Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Hoping Senpai notices me
#86: Sep 11th 2022 at 1:05:13 PM

Hyde Goltz, one of people on the receiving end of John K.'s inappropriate advances, recently made a thread noting their own minor contributions to the reboot.

This is gerbilfluff's secret account.

I'm starting to see news online about the Ren & Stimpy reboot, and I'd like to shed some light on what's going on, if I'm able.

You can @ / DM any questions you have. Maybe I'll answer. Or not.

Some ground rules.

  1. I refuse to let this cartoon traumatize me any further. If a question is triggering for me, I simply won't answer.

  2. Anyone who doesn't accept my "I don't want to talk about that" will be quickly blocked, and put on my own personal public Naughty List.

  3. Yes, I knew John K. Intimately.

    • No, I don't know what he's up to, or why he did what he did, or his opinions on anything in particular. I've long worked past the point where I care.

    • So, unless it's about the lawsuit he and I had, don't ask me about him. I will ignore you.

  4. As of right now, I am no longer triggered by the sight or sound of Ren. This is a *very recent* change, and the result of literal solid years of therapy.

    • This may change.

    • But I promise you all, I will never push past what I'm comfortable saying. Not anymore.

  5. I've spoken with Katie and Robyn some, yes, but we are acquaintances, not friends, on purpose. Boundaries are very important, I've learned.

    • I will not speak for them, nor divulge anything that they've said to me. Theirs is not my story to tell.

    • We stay in our own lanes.

  6. I love Ren. I always did, and a part of me always will.

    • The Ren of this upcoming reboot has been modified at my request, to help me work through all the trauma I held around the character.

    • The Internet's going to be upset. And I don't care.

    • I feel safe, now, at last.

  7. If you're asking me what they changed, I can't say. I'm not under formal ND As, but I promised one of the staff that I wouldn't let it out, and I keep my promises.

    • But the staff agreed to change this thing, so I'd no longer see Ren as purely John's fursona (which he used to be).

    • The change I requested wasn't to warp him into something different. I wasn't trying to divorce Ren from the spark he originally had; then he wouldn't be Ren.

It was more like, "Hey, can you please not include this one thing that was used to hurt specifically me."

Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#87: Sep 11th 2022 at 1:09:44 PM

OK,what if up with that tumbler link? His biggest fan.pdf?

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Psi001 Since: Oct, 2010
#88: Sep 11th 2022 at 1:33:35 PM

The whole "triggered by Ren" thing leaves me wondering if that played into how Games Animation depicted him. That they associated him with John K, even with the voice change, and so he pretty much became a Take That! of him, going from a cartoonishly psychotic but still kinda pitiful character to just on-the-nose unlikeable. It already obviously played into one episode, "Stimpy's Cartoon Show".

Even Adults Party with all its creepy exagerration of Ren's Comedic Sociopathy and.... other elements of John K's writing, never quite made him as much of a Hate Sink as Games Ren often was, not without Refuge in Audacity in play anyway.

Edited by Psi001 on Sep 11th 2022 at 9:41:25 AM

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#89: Sep 11th 2022 at 1:34:08 PM

I don't want to go into detail about how I know this, but this person is not lying about anything.

He (I want to note that this person was a woman when all this went down and is a man now) once posted the details of an AIM chat from the 90s between him and John. I can tell you that he did indeed know John, and some of the stuff he said to him was incredibly sick. He said so many other things like it, to so many other women...

If it is only one particular thing, and Ren will still be the bad-tempered asthma-hound chihuahua we know and love, I have no real problems with this. Bob Camp, as I said, gave the reboot's crew his blessing. So I think they can do this well.

[up] Not to gossip, of course, but there's kind of something of the relationship between John K. and Lynne Naylor in Ren and Stimpy. They broke up... and you can imagine why. When Lynne returned to the show it was only with the understanding that she wasn't going to work on anything with Ren and Stimpy actually in it. You wonder why?...

Edited by Aldo930 on Sep 11th 2022 at 1:41:15 AM

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
FOFD Since: Apr, 2013
#90: Sep 11th 2022 at 1:35:47 PM

Putting aside my feelings about any of the above, Ren and Stimpy was creepy to me even as a kid.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from The Wiggle Room (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#91: Sep 11th 2022 at 1:37:33 PM

I preferred Cow and Chicken honestly,they had many of the same writers too

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Psi001 Since: Oct, 2010
#92: Sep 11th 2022 at 1:40:05 PM

I think Ren and Stimpy at its best was a fun show, especially when they had good animators on their side, but the excess, yeah, is often kind of unpleasant. I don't mind gross out humour but it doesn't MAKE a good cartoon.

[up][up][up]Really, it makes sense if so, and truthfully you listen to some of the other people on board and it felt like they just got a platonic dose of that.

Ren is pretty much an adult swim representation of "funny" abusive jerk in the Games episodes. Those almost strawman like characters that seem to be just going up to the screen and expositioning "I am nasty and cruel. I don't like anyone else but myself. Laugh." like this sort of mean spiritedness on its own is a clever one liner.

Eerily it's not even the violence that's the primary element, he's toxic in a petty mundane way and often in ways the cast complained about with John K. Like sure, Ren was clearly a hot headed jerk in the original episodes, but still had genuine pathos about him, while Games episodes like Stimpy's Cartoon Show and Ren's Pecs seemed to always like to pull the rug under and make you regret feeling sorry for this asshole, much like the people on board said they could almost pity John K but then he'd throw it back in their faces in the most horrid way.

Edited by Psi001 on Sep 11th 2022 at 9:57:00 AM

Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#93: Sep 11th 2022 at 1:45:53 PM

[up][up] I preferred "I Am Weasel" more, and remember being excited it got a spin-off.

Like creepy stories? Check out my book!
RacattackForce (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#95: Sep 11th 2022 at 2:08:14 PM

[up] They mean that they got excited when I Am Weasel got spun-off into its own show, I presume.

badtothebaritone (Life not ruined yet) Relationship Status: Snooping as usual
#96: Sep 11th 2022 at 2:09:19 PM

I know that between I Am Weasel and Cow and Chicken, one was a spinoff of the other, but I can't remember which one it was.

Edit: [nja]

Edited by badtothebaritone on Sep 11th 2022 at 4:09:37 AM

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#97: Sep 11th 2022 at 2:17:00 PM

[up][up][up][up][up] See, the thing is, even then it was still lighthearted because they kept it that way. Ren smacked Stimpy around, but it was always cartoony, and Stimpy always responded cheerfully, as if it was nothing.

But when Adult Party Cartoon came around, for some reason, John decided to turn their relationship into a realistic portrayal of domestic abuse, with Ren as the abusive husband and Stimpy as the battered wife. What exactly he was thinking, or why he thought anyone wanted to see that I have no idea.

[up] I Am Weasel got a fifth season that's been little seen since it was reintegrated into Cow And Chicken. Which is a shame because there are some very funny episodes in it. (But you can see it if you have HBO Max... in Mexico.)

Edited by Aldo930 on Sep 11th 2022 at 2:18:40 AM

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
Psi001 Since: Oct, 2010
#98: Sep 11th 2022 at 2:26:34 PM

[up]Really I think the Spumco era was a weird balance of the creators and the Executive Meddling actually combining in a miraculously perfect way and leading to a mostly good show.

Afterwards, I think a mix of different creators and their hangups staying or going and the wrong sort of mandates from high up led to them never managing to catch lightning in a bottle twice again. It's why I'm skeptical about the reboot, there's so many factors that could go wrong here, even without John K's involvement, his legacy could take its toll.

Edited by Psi001 on Sep 11th 2022 at 10:30:18 AM

TargetmasterJoe from Velocitron Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: I like big bots and I can not lie
#99: Sep 11th 2022 at 2:56:09 PM

In a strange twist of fate, Robyn Byrd, one of John K.'s victims who advocated strongly for the reboot to not go forward, is actually in the show's crew. (Maybe as a producer or showrunner.)

Well, if that isn't a big FU to John, I don't know what is.

Aldo930 Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon from Quahog, R.I. Since: Aug, 2013
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
#100: Sep 11th 2022 at 3:51:41 PM

This is, I think, a sign that they did indeed shelve the reboot but tried to do it over, a different way, which explains a lot... Good on her, I guess.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."

Total posts: 163
Top