is a man at war with himself, with women, and with the world. The fact that his most famous show is about a defeated id furious at his louche ego isn’t a coincidence. But while John Waters or Gary Panter takes a stylish and skewed eye towards the false dream, John K.’s work - I now see - is filled with rage and sadness. There is a broken-dreams-cum-surrealism edge that is in the genre of the late ’80s art-pop trashing of 1950s Americana. It is a Dad who has had too much to drink before Saturday Morning cartoons. Part of the draw of John K.’s work was that it is scary. About two years ago, Buzzfeed reported accusations of sexual assault against young women and girls which were deeply disturbing. When they came to light, the details of John K’s life were not at all impressive to me. “The red candy-like button” was a mantra to ward off social isolation.īut the art was both the cure and the disease, an ouroboros of cause and effect that both ties and unties itself at every step. My weirdo friends and I would repeat the lines to ourselves in the schoolyard while the jocks played football on the blacktop.
It was art by pure id, Tex Avery pushed through a meat grinder on acid. Every smile on the show is a deeply psychotic grin, each ear a bright red cauliflower, each mouth a dripping cave. imprinted on me young enough to feel like his art is seared on my eyeballs. A beloved inspiration of mine, rogue animator and Southern California pop art icon John K. Ren & Stimpy was my be-all and end-all in junior high. THE REN & STIMPY SHOW | JOHN KRICFALUSI | 1991–1996
As if to up the ante in a very Ren & Stimpy way, the "Haunted House" episode sees a ghost trying to kill himself with an axe, only to succeed later by using poison and coming back to life.One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of our favorite animated TV series. Ren tries to kill himself on multiple occasions, like that time with the trash compactor. A darkly animated version of the Grim Reaper shows up, the two go shopping for coffins, and they end the episode being eaten by a worm. The episode "Ren's Retirement" was initially banned by Nickelodeon due to Ren being told he's old, having war flashbacks and experiencing PTSD before yelling at Stimpy to finish it with a bullet to the brain.
The concept of ending one's own life is even more prevalent. Death is all around in this show, from characters having nooses around their necks to a child's death being referred to as his "nap." We see the main characters being stuffed and mounted or imploding, two bullies driving off a cliff and exploding, or just good old-fashioned Ren threatening to kill Stimpy, like in the episode "Stimpy's Fan Club." Many of the segments end with the characters dead or in a depressing situation, leaving a lasting impression on younger viewers.
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