The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotionally unstable and psychotic chihuahua dog; and Stimpy, a good-natured and dimwitted Manx cat.

This controversy contributed to the production staff's altercations with Nickelodeon's Standards and Practices department, in addition to Spümcø's failure to deliver episodes on time, all of which led to Kricfalusi's termination from the show in 1992.

[10] According to animator Bill Wray, John Kricfalusi created the characters Ren and Stimpy in 1978 for "personal amusement" while studying at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada.

[7] He was inspired to create Ren by an Elliott Erwitt photograph, printed on a postcard, called "New York City, 1946", showing a sweatered chihuahua at a woman's feet.

[13] The pilot was produced by Kricfalusi's Los Angeles-based animation company, Spümcø, and screened at film festivals for several months before the show was announced in Nickelodeon's 1991 cartoons line-up.

[18][19][20][21][22] Author Andy Mangels, writing for Wizard magazine, commented that "Kricfalusi's lax treatment of deadlines angered not only the networks, but his loyal viewers as well.

[7]: 15 Nickelodeon terminated Kricfalusi's contract in late September 1992[22][26] and offered him the position of consultant for Ren & Stimpy, but he refused to "sell out".

[32] Animation historian Michael Barrier writes that while the creators of the Games episodes used crude jokes that were similar to those used by Kricfalusi, they did not "find the material particularly funny; they were merely doing what was expected".

[3] The animation production methods used in The Ren & Stimpy Show were similar to those found in Golden Age cartoons of the early 20th century, where a director supervised the entire process.

"[37] The show's aesthetics draw on Golden Age cartoons,[10][38][39] particularly those of animator Bob Clampett from the 1940s in the way the characters' emotions powerfully distort their bodies.

[12][11] One of the show's most notable visual trademarks is the detailed paintings of gruesome close-ups,[12] along with the blotchy ink stains that on occasion replace the standard backgrounds, reminiscent of "holes in reality or the vision of a person in a deep state of dementia".

[citation needed] KJ Dell'Antonia of Common Sense Media describes the show's style as changing "from intentionally rough to much more polished and plushie-toy ready.

[12] Some notable artists and performers who voiced incidental characters on the show were Frank Zappa (in his final public performance before his death), Jack Carter, Stan Freberg, Tommy Davidson, Randy Quaid, Gilbert Gottfried, Rosie O'Donnell, Dom DeLuise, Phil Hartman, Mark Hamill and Soleil Moon Frye.

The opening theme, "Dog Pound Hop", was performed by a group of Spümcø employees under the name "Die Screaming Leiderhôsens"; they include developer Jim Smith, animator Chris Reccardi and production assistant Scott Huml.

A cover of this song, performed by Wax, is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.

Years later on Spike TV, the show's revival, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", debuted with this banned episode as their unofficial pilot, even receiving a TV-MA rating.

[12][40] Mike Judge credits the success of Ren & Stimpy reruns on MTV for the network's willingness to commission Beavis and Butt-Head.

[61] Writer Larry Brody credits Ren & Stimpy for leading a new golden age of animation, as other networks followed Nickelodeon and invested in new cartoons, opening the way for more adult-oriented satirical shows like Beavis and Butt-Head.

[12] A direct influence can be seen in the series SpongeBob SquarePants with the physically extreme drawings that contrast with the characters' usual appearance, the "grotesque close-ups".

[65] The cover story of the October 2001 issue of Wizard, a magazine for comic book fans, listed the 100 Greatest Toons ever as selected by their readers, with Ren & Stimpy ranked at number 12.

[67][68][69][70] In 2003, a reboot of the series helmed by John Kricfalusi, titled Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", was launched on a late night programming block on Spike TV and was rated TV-MA.

The new series is more adult-oriented than the original, and features an explicitly homosexual relationship between the main characters,[71] strong profanity, graphic violence and female nudity.

From the first episode, fans and critics alike were put off by this revival,[14] which featured the consumption of bodily fluids such as nasal mucus, saliva and vomit.

[78] Despite this, an animatic of the short that was originally made as a promotion for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water before being cancelled was released as a bonus feature on the Cans Without Labels DVD in May 2019.

[86] Paramount Global (at the time operating as ViacomCBS), the parent company of Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, has not responded to requests for a comment about the status of the show, though West reiterated that it was still in production.

[87][88] Other returning crew members from the original series include Bob Jaques, Chris Sauve and former Spümcø alumni Robyn Byrd, who previously advocated to get the reboot canceled.

For instance, The Classics Volume 1 VHS was released in 1993 and included three episodes from Season 1 ("Space Madness", "Untamed World" and "Stimpy's Invention"), as well as the short segment "Breakfast Tips" and a "Log" commercial.

[95] One of the episodes from the second season, "Svën Höek", did have footage reinserted from a work-in-progress VHS tape, but with an editing machine timecode visible on-screen; the scene was later restored by fans.

Three other episodes ("Powdered Toast Man", "Dog Show", and "Big House Blues") contain extra footage that was not originally broadcast on Nickelodeon.

[99] Paramount released "The Almost Complete Series" 9-disc set that combines the individual season discs into a single package, on February 6, 2018,[100] and was re-released on January 11, 2022.