The Adjustments at Spümcø
Excerpt from the documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy, The Ren & Stimpy Story (2020)
JERRY BECK: Eric Stefani and the rest of Spümcø did their best to integrate the new staff of the studio. Eric in particular was adamant about the newcomers working on new episodes of their own. But as the new staff started their work on the series, problems started to arise.
*cuts to Dick Dutch*
DICK DUTCH: Most of us had never worked on
Ren & Stimpy before. Like,
at all. *chuckles* Especially me. I just tried to wing it and see what kind of shit I can try to concoct. So knowing a lot about Japanese animation, I made this goofy parody of the show
Speed Racer called “Stimp Racer”. Get it? Cause Stimpy is the main character of
Speed Racer.[1]
*cuts to
Ren & Stimpy episode “Stimp Racer”*
*Rocket car with a huge dome on top speeds by Ren in a white jumpsuit in red stripes before screeching to a halt. Animation style is stilted and heavily reminiscent of 1960s anime such as
Speed Racer, Astro Boy, and
Kimba the White Lion. A sickly and exhausted Stimpy pops out of the car. A dissonant tune similar to the
Speed Racer’s drones in the background.”
REN: Stimpy! I need you to win the race - HA-HA! We are on the verge of a victory - HA-HA!
STIMPY: *in an over-the-top anime melodrama fashion* Oh, but Reny-chan, I am tired and I wanna go home!!!!!! *slumps down over side of vehicle*
REN: I don’t care - HA-HA! We need to win this race - HA-HA - to get to the next race - HA-HA - and win the most races - HA-HA - so we can be the champion of all races - HA-HA!!!!
*Ren swiped a gas canister from the side labeled “Laughing Gas” and snorts the gas in a similar, not-so-subtle way of cocaine, and then leans his head forwards again*
REN: *maniacally* HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA
*the dissonant tune being played by Jasper the Dog right behind him starts to annoy Ren, who leaps from the ground and onto Japser’s chest - pulling him by the throat*
REN: SILENCE YOU EEDIOT!!!!
REN: *continues laughing maniacally*
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA
*cuts back to Bob Camp*
BOB CAMP: We actually presented this episode - like most episodes - to the Spümcø editing staff. And brother, when John saw this episode - that man was fuming. I remember him going “what the fuck is this shit” this, “get this Chinese bullshit out of here” that. But to be honest - even I saw glaring flaws in the episode that couldn’t be ignored. The timing wasn’t all that right, Ren and Stimpy weren’t written like they usually were, and just the whole concept was just something else.
DICK DUTCH: Well, John wanted something all 1950s and 60s like - being an old soul - and that’s exactly what I gave him. Too bad Japanese animation wasn’t one of those things he had lots of love for. *laughs from Dutch, and from off-screen as well*
*cuts to shots of the Spümcø studio interior*
JERRY BECK: Another issue that divided the Spümcø management was Stefani wanting the new staff’s episodes to be script driven - whereas
Ren & Stimpy was normally driven by storyboards. This was in order to make the newcomers comfortable with the work. However, this was one of the most controversial decisions made by Eric Stefani.[2]
*cuts to Bob Camp*
BOB CAMP:
Ren & Stimpy has always used storyboards to map out the gags and plot of each episode. But all the people that Eric pushed to hire were from script driven shows like
The Simpsons and even some live action shows like
Saturday Night Live. Problem was they just weren’t meshing well with the show’s comedic tone. I basically pulled Eric aside and told him “Eric, I like your guts, but we need to pump the brakes and integrate the new staff or things are gonna get real messy.”
*shows where the “Creative Decision Board” is held*
JERRY BECK: Needless to say, the heads of what was at the time Spümcø’s Creative Decision Board decided to hold the matter to a vote about what to do with the situation regarding the newly hired artists.
*cuts to Eric Stefani*
ERIC STEFANI: With every person on the board voting except for me, Spümcø practically placed a “freeze” on all new hiring of artists and all existing rookies were to work with experienced artists and writers. And I was disappointed - all those new artists could have done wonderful things for the show - but I guess things didn’t go as planned. Maybe I would have taken the situation better if Kricfalusi wasn’t so quick as to claim “victory” or lecture to me that my “pie-in-the-sky bullshit wasn’t gonna fly at Spümcø.”
*cuts to writer Greg Daniels*[3]
GREG DANIELS: Much of our craftwork has always been writing - and we mean writing. There wasn’t a lot we could do with both scripts and storyboards at the same time. *pauses* Or was there….
*shows visual reenactment of Eric Stefani and John Kricfalusi training various writers on a special document*
JERRY BECK: Luckily for Spümcø, Stefani and Kricfalusi managed to herald a compromise with a process known as a visual script. This production format combines the visual cues of a storyboard with the structured dialogue of a script. The advantages to this were obvious to the staff from the get go. It streamlined the script and storyboard phases into one - keeping the show’s traditional board driven process while being easy to understand for writers accustomed to script driven series.
JERRY BECK: Kricfalusi however, thought that the process needed to be tested for a single episode before moving forward. Therefore, he allowed for the visual script to be utilized for the episode “Star Chores” - part of the Season 2 finale and more importantly - Eric Stefani’s first episode without the help of other artists and writers.
*cuts to Eric Stefani*
ERIC STEFANI: John figured that I was ready to spread my wings and fly after “Yaks” and I did too, hoping to finally prove my talent. However, when I mentioned that I wanted to make another space based episode like “Space Madness” from Season 1, John probably saw another “Marooned” or “Stimp Racer” on my hands, and thus demanded to be a “creative consultant”. I agreed, blissfully unaware of what he would bring to the table.
ERIC STEFANI: When I told him that I wanted to make a parody of the movie
Alien, Kricfalusi had the
bright idea to weirdly shoehorn in a character of his own. This being a young woman named Sody Pop.
*cuts to
Ren & Stimpy episode "Star Chores", with viewing angle oogling Sody and her breasts and bum*[4]
REN: Stimpy! Stay with me!
*Stimpy wheezes*
SODY POP: Don’t let him sneeze, he'll kill us all with that… thing!!!
*cuts to close up of Stimpy, convulsing and writhing as he prepares to sneeze*
STIMPY: AAAAAAAAACCCCHHHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! *sneezes out grotesque monster made of mucous, and collapses afterwards*
REN & SODY POP: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Sody Pop’s breasts notably shake*
*mucous monster growls and darts away*
*cuts back to Eric Stefani*
ERIC STEFANI: John was constantly trying to push me all over the place on this episode. For starters, his attempts to change the “chestburster” parody to defecation or vomiting instead of mere sneezing was dead on arrival with Network Standards & Practices. Secondly, throughout production he would always try to nudge me to capture Sody from “a better angle”. When I asked what he meant by that, he always told me to capture her “womanly beauty”. Which struck me as rather odd.
ERIC STEFANI: Something that struck me about Sody while trying to play off her certain character traits in making gags is how
bland she was. It’s as if John barely knew what a woman acted like in real life. When I tried to ask John what exactly she was like, he stumbled through and claimed that Sody’s personality was that she was “a beauty queen” and “she’s always boy crazy”. When in actuality she was dull as dishwater.
*cuts to reenactment of Eric Stefani and John Kricfalusi*
ERIC STEFANI: So… what exactly defines her as a character?
JOHN KRICFALUSI: What do you mean? She’s a
girl. Beauty obsessed, crazy about boys, crazy about men? Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know?
*Eric stares in confusion*
*cuts back to the real Eric Stefani*
ERIC STEFANI: In the end, I would add personality traits to her myself. I figured that since she vaguely showed signs of spunkiness, I added traits of adventure-seeking, curiosity, and excitement, while also adding flaws such as clumsiness and temper issues.
*cuts to Spümcø editing room*
JERRY BECK: While “Star Chores” was no “Yodelin’ Yaks”, it was ultimately proven to be an adequate Season 2 episode for the show, and Season 2 ended on a high note. But for Kricfalusi, he was not done “steering the ship” as he called it. Thus he requested he personally train newcomer Dick Dutch for what was supposed to be the Season 3 premier, “Bikini Beach Frenzy”.
*cuts to Dick Dutch*
DICK DUTCH: So you know what John thought would be a great idea for a
Ren & Stimpy episode?
A beach episode. Basically, the episode was about Ren trying to hook up with the ladies on the beach, only to be upstaged by the manly man lifeguard.
*cuts to Ren & Stimpy episode "Bikini Beach Frenzy"*[5]
ANNOUNCER: And now, to save the day, Gary Stu - the manliest of men lifeguards has come to rescue those poor girls from that rabid sandcrab!!!
GARY STU: *flexes muscles rapidly* HUA! HUA! HUA! HUA! *jumps of lifeguard chair* HUAAAAAA!!!!!!
*As Ren is running, he notices a large shadow grow over him. Terrified, he runs as fast as he can, with him briefly loosing the shadow - only to zoom right towards him and Gary Stu to crush him.*
ANNOUNCER: And he has gottem folks!! He twists! *Gary scissors Ren with legs* He pulls! *streches Ren’s entire body like an accordion* He pulverizes!! *Gary grinds his body underneath Ren’s before pulling him out and hammering in his head into the sand thrice* Strike one! Strike two! Strike three! He’s out! Gary Stu has remained the champion of the beaches!!
*cuts to Dick Dutch*
DICK DUTCH: This episode had Standards & Practices shitting their pants. Like, they threatened to pull the episode. But seeing that just made me angry. These “puritans” as I called them, were putting down this amazing artist and his skill to challenge the sense, all because they were afraid of those bleeding heart parents telling their children what they can and can’t watch. And I stood by John Kricfalusi. But… I did recommend him to keep the innuendos on the down-low.
*cuts to reenactment of Kricfalusi and Dutch in the editing room*
DICK DUTCH: Now I’m not saying to not show Ren “pleasuring” himself to the sight of a woman’s ass, but try to just
imply that he’s doing so.
JOHN KRICFALUSI: Ahhh, keep it subtle.
DICK DUTCH: Yeah. Yeah.
JOHN KRICFALUSI: So what about this scene - the one where the white haired bitch hugs Stimpy onto her breasts?
DICK DUTCH: I’m gonna go on a whim and say keep it. So long as S&P don’t see blatant shit like genitalia or a huge closeup of the tits or ass, they’d probably grumble about feminism - but do nothing else. All bark, no bite. Like an angry chihuahua.
JOHN KRICFALUSI: You mean like Ren?
DICK DUTCH: *laughs* Yeah just like Ren!
JOHN KRICFALUSI: *imitates Ren* Stimpy! Don’t you know those pinko feminists wanna enslave men?!?!
DICK DUTCH: *laugh dies down* Alright, I think this can work. Aw man, I can’t wait to see the looks on people’s faces when this newest episode comes out!
*Jerry Beck starts talking over the scene reenactment*
JERRY BECK: “Bikini Beach Frenzy” was ultimately allowed to air on Nickelodeon, but not without significant anger from parental groups. Although Nickelodeon would not ban the episode, reruns became infrequent and scarce in the years after the episode aired. The episodes of
Ren & Stimpy became two faced. On one hand, the episodes directed under Eric Stefani and Bob Camp were considered appropriate by Nickelodeon, while still staying true to the manic, grotesque spirit of the show. On the other hand, the episodes directed by John Kricfalusi were in line with the show’s spirit - but often ran afoul of censors - only being restrained by Camp and in some ways Stefani. But with Dick Dutch at his side, Kricfalusi would only be empowered for the foreseeable future.
[1] For an idea of what this episode is like, it’s basically on par with the average Games Animation-era episode from OTL, although the episode does a good job imitating the art style of 1960s anime - even if it resembles
Astro Boy and
Kimba the White Lion more than
Speed Racer.
[2] Indeed,
Ren & Stimpy was a storyboard-driven series. Scripts aren’t used - but rather the storyboard functions as a storyboard and a script at the same time - giving benefits of a more energetic and wacky cartoon series. One of the ways
Ren & Stimpy was groundbreaking at the time is that it was one of the first animated series to popularize the practice. It has gone on to be adopted in series like
Rocko’s Modern Life and
SpongeBob Squarepants.
[3] Yes,
that Greg Daniels.
[4] ITTL “Star Chores” has a whole lot of scenes like this, though S&P didn’t allow any outfits on Sody that showed too much skin.
[5] Basically TTL’s equivalent of the
Adult Party Cartoon episode “Naked Beach Frenzy”. Most, if not all,
Adult Party Cartoon episodes were rejected scripts from the original series. “Bikini Beach Frenzy” however is vastly superior, due to the compressed run time (down to 11 minutes from OTL’s 22 minutes) making the comedic timing and pacing better and the women being less (relatively) objectified.
