Trivia / Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"

• Adored by the Network: The show was a ratings hit when it first came out, to the point where Spike would frequently rerun the same few episodes; however, as the show suffered production issues, the show would quickly fade from existence.
• Channel Hop: The Ren & Stimpy Show aired on Nickelodeon. For Adult Party Cartoon, the series aired on Spike TV.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Series co-creator Bob Camp hates the revival for its shock humor and how it temporarily torpedoed any chance of the series getting any future revival, namely his own attempt at pitching a Ren and Stimpy movie in the mid-2010s.
  • Billy West referred to Adult Party Cartoon as "an advertisement for NAMBLA", as well as "one long gay joke that wasn't funny to start with." He refused to reprise Stimpy, not only because he assumed the failure would damage his career if he did, but because of his strained relationship with Kricfalusi. Not helping that he was nearly bribed into reprising Stimpy under the promise of not having to work directly with Kricfalusi, for a meager $45 an episode.
  • Character designer Katie Rice has frequently admitted her contempt for the show. In addition to personally dealing with Kricfalusi, she was tasked with designing and voicing a self-caricature for the sole purpose of getting fondled in "Naked Beach Frenzy." To say nothing of the live-action segment of Kricfalusi talking to her in an uncomfortable way on the DVD intro, which she avoided watching for years (when she finally saw it, she threw the DVD away the next morning).
    "I became a better artist by working for him. I'm not grateful for it. I wish I hadn't. I wish I were a worse artist now and I didn't have all this bullshit to deal with."
  • Animator/character designer Robertryan Corey (best known for his work on SpongeBob SquarePants and Secret Mountain Fort Awesome) said that getting the job was a dream come true, as he had wanted to work on Ren & Stimpy since his childhood. He quickly found out how poorly Kricfalusi treated his staff and has since had nothing good to say about it.
  • Kricfalusi admitted on his blog that Fire Dogs II suffers from truly abysmal animation timing and slow pacing, and encouraged viewers to just play the cartoon at fast forward.
  • While Richard Pursel still loves "Ren Seeks Help", he dislikes the parts with the brutally abused and suicidal frog, which were added into the episode by Kricfalusi despite him being strongly against it and vocal about it.
• Creator Killer:
  • The revival's failure was the beginning of the end for John Kricfalusi's animation career. Carbunkle Cartoons sued Spümcø into bankruptcy for years of unpaid work, and by the time of its 2008 settlement, Kricfalusi had burned so many bridges with his poor attitude and general lack of professionalism that the only work he could get for the next decade were odd jobs like music videos and TV bumpers for networks like [adult swim]. The negative rumors about his work ethic caught up to him thanks to the tell-all book Sick Little Monkeys, with the disastrous production of his crowd-funded indie short Cans Without Labels being seen as the ultimate proof. The tactless, narcissistic content of his infamous blog didn't help his personal reputation either. When he was finally exposed as a statutory rapist in 2018, you could almost hear the entire industry breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that they now had an alibi to wash their hands of him forever. Kricfalusi would finally retire from animation in 2020, capping off a fall from grace that began with this series.
  • The combined failures of this show, Gary the Rat, and Stripperella sent Spike TV's adult-animation block into a premature death.
• Franchise Killer: The series' negative reception and abrupt cancellation put the kibosh on the franchise for nearly two decades. Adult Party Cartoon left such a bad impression that when a Nicktoons crossover film was in development a decade later, those with knowledge of the project outright stated that Paramount didn't want to acknowledge Ren and Stimpy. Even a two-minute short starring the characters to be produced as a companion piece for the second (or third, depending on the source) SpongeBob movie, got the axe by higher-ups after being ordered. It took 17 years before Nickelodeon decided to reboot the original series, without any involvement from Kricfalusi.
• Missing Episode: "Naked Beach Frenzy", "Altruists", and "Stimpy's Pregnant" never aired on American TV at all. They can be found on the Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes DVD.
• The Original Darrin: After being recast with Billy West for the final three seasons of The Ren & Stimpy Show, Kricfalusi returned to voice Ren and Mr. Horse for Adult Party Cartoon.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Eric Bauza replaced Billy West as Stimpy. West not only refused to work with Kricfalusi again after their experiences together on the original show but objected to the even-more-vulgar-than-before content.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Igor Cruz replaced Alfonso Obregón Inclán as Ren halfway through, and Stimpy was recast from José Luis Orozco to Jorge Ornelas due to disagreements with dubbing director Adrián Fogarty.
• Promoted Fangirl: Katie Rice grew up watching the original series and worked as an artist on this show.
• Reality Subtext:
  • "Fire Dogs II" has been described by Kricfalusi as being a documentary about what it was like working with Ralph Bakshi.
  • "Ren Seeks Help" is heavily inspired by Kricfalusi's own childhood, as well as his (then unrevealed) battles with two undiagnosed mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder.
  • "Stimpy's Pregnant" was based on a combination of a very early story pitch for a Ren and Stimpy episode and the then-real-life pregnancy of Spümcø artist Annmarie Ashkar McCarty.
• Real-Life Relative: In "Ren Seeks Help", Ren's father is voiced by Michael Kricfalusi, John K.'s father and the inspiration for many of the father characters on Ren and Stimpy.
• Role Reprise: Harris Peet briefly reprises his role as the Fire Chief in the opening of "Fire Dogs II" before Ralph Bakshi takes over.
• Troubled Production: Spike TV gave Kricfalusi complete Auteur License for Adult Party Cartoon and the result was a combination of the usual production delays and excessive spending that led to his 1992 dismissal from Nickelodeon and the newfound license to refuse criticism from anyone and everyone over just about anything to an even worse degree than before.
• Unfinished Episode: The final three episodes of the first order were still in production when the show was canceled, and several were still in the outline stage.
  • "Life Sucks" - Ren explains to Stimpy that life sucks, much to Stimpy's horror. After that, they have an extensive look at life's past tragedies like the Children's Crusade. According to John Kricfalusi, this was meant to be a prequel episode to "Ren Seeks Help," which suggests that this episode was the cause of Ren and Stimpy's argument, as it is never stated in "Ren Seeks Help" what Ren had done. Production had begun on this episode, with some voice work and roughly a third of the storyboard done, at the time of the cancellation.
  • "The Big Switch" - Stimpy can't tolerate Ren's abuse any longer and the two argue over which is better: to be an idiot or a "psychotic asshole". They finally settle the argument by making a bet that they can switch roles for a day. The episode's basic premise was loosely made in the Games Animation era (the season 5 episode "Who's Stupid Now?").
  • "Fishing Trip" - Ren & Stimpy go on a fishing trip in search of the elusive foul-mouthed bass. The episode's basic premise is loosely related to the season 3 episode "Bass Masters" and the unproduced Spümcø episode "The Wilderness Adventure."
  • "The Wilderness Adventure" - George Liquor takes Ren & Stimpy hunting in the deep woods. The episode was originally written for Nickelodeon but was rejected several times. Michael Pataki was to reprise his role as George Liquor. The storyboard for the rejected episode, however, was completed in the 90s and one of the ideas would later be used in the season 2 episode "The Great Outdoors".
  • "My Little Ass" - A fake commercial. The script for the commercial was written when Kricfalusi was working on the new episodes for TNN, but it was never made.
  • "Powdered Toastman's Rolling Tobacco" - A second fake commercial. The commercial was going to mark the return of Powdered Toastman. The idea for the commercial was conceived, but the commercial itself was never fully produced.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Had he gotten another chance with the characters following this show, Kricfalusi claimed that he would have gone back in the opposite direction and once again make another Ren and Stimpy show for children.
  • He allegedly tried getting Robyn Byrd back on this show by sending her outlines for episodes, including an outline ("The Succubus") where Ren and Stimpy's toxic relationship takes a turn and Ren runs away (based on Kricfalusi's perception of his and Byrd's relationship), and a fake commercial for "Sugar Frosted Butts" cereal.
• Written by Cast Member: "Altruists" was co-written by Stimpy's voice actor, Eric Bauza.

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