The Ren & Stimpy Show
Man's Best Friend (The Banned Episode)
TV Flash files “Man's Best Friend (The Banned Episode)” as a desk essential hour — The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991–1996) on Nickelodeon, season 2, episode 4, aired 2004-10-19, 25 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E04: listed hour 16 of 93 in the The Ren & Stimpy Show guide, hour 4 of 19 in season 2. It aired 2004-10-19 (25 min). The listed hour before it is “Ren's Toothache” (S02E03). Next is “Out West” (S02E05).
Essential hour: “Man's Best Friend (The Banned Episode)”. Man's Best Friend, the banned hour: history as a warning label, ugly still treated as beautiful on purpose.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Ren and Stimpy are bought from a pet store window. Banned from television but included as a bonus feature for The First and Second Seasons dvd box set in 2004.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Man's Best Friend (The Banned Episode) sit in the The Ren & Stimpy Show guide?
S02E04 is listed hour 16 of 93 — hour 4 of 19 in season 2, season 2 episode 4.
When did The Ren & Stimpy Show S02E04 air?
Man's Best Friend (The Banned Episode) aired 2004-10-19 and is listed at 25 minutes.
Is this one of the original Nicktoons?
Yes — with Rugrats and Doug, it launched the brand in 1991, then spent the run colliding with what a kids' network would air.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Gross-out as high art: close-ups of gums, gravy, and nervous breakdowns in a kids’ timeslot. John Kricfalusi’s deranged expressionism colliding with Nickelodeon’s brand until the network flinched. The Nicktoon that taught a generation of cartoonists that ugly could be beautiful, that pacing could hurt, and that a Chihuahua’s scream was a legitimate punchline.
Nickelodeon, 1991–1996: a psychotic Chihuahua and a dimwitted cat endure disgusting, painterly misadventures — close-ups of gums, gravy, and nervous breakdowns in a kids' timeslot. John Kricfalusi created one of the original three Nicktoons (with *Rugrats* and *Doug*) and married beautiful animation to chaos and bodily fluids. Kricfalusi voiced early Ren; Billy West voiced Stimpy and later Ren. Harris Peet in the various file. Gross-out as high art collided with Nickelodeon's brand until the network flinched.…
Filed against
- John Kricfalusi as Ren Höek (early)
John Kricfalusi’s early Ren Höek made The Ren & Stimpy Show gross-out as high art — close-ups of gums, gravy, and nervous breakdowns in a kids’ timeslot. Deranged expressionism colliding with Nickelodeon’s brand until the network…
- Billy West as Stimpy / Ren (later)
Billy West’s Stimpy — and later Ren — made The Ren & Stimpy Show a gums-and-gravy religion — 1990s catalog gross-out as high art, then Futurama asking the same throat for a thousand-year sad joke. TV Flash files him as the voice that can…
- Harris Peet as Various
Harris Peet did various voices on The Ren & Stimpy Show — gross-out as high art, gums and gravy in a kids' timeslot, John Kricfalusi's deranged expressionism colliding with Nickelodeon until the network flinched. Ugly as beautiful. TV…