YMMV / Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"

• Audience-Alienating Premise: Fans of The Ren & Stimpy Show, old and new, universally agreed that reviving a show already known for its over-the-top vulgarity and melodrama and making it even more vulgar and melodramatic wasn't a good idea. The drama becomes too ludicrous, if not insincere, the depravity and overall grossness is downright unpleasant and the result is that hardly any of the jokes are funny. It's no wonder the show was a flop.
• Awesome Art: Regardless of one's feelings about the show itself, nobody is denying that it has some of the most ambitious, slick made-for-tv cartoon animation ever (episodes like "Ren Seeks Help" and "Fire Dogs II" not only have amazing hand-painted backgrounds, fluid walk cycles and amazing character acting, but even fully animated, three-dimensional backgrounds in some scenes). It makes sense, considering that Carbunkle Cartoons animated this series.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The opening of "Altruists," where Ren is just beating the shit out of Stimpy for no reason for about a minute before the two turn their attention to a crying woman nearby. Word of God says that this is an homage to The Three Stooges shorts which would often begin like this.
• Broken Base: "Ren Seeks Help". It's either the strongest episode in the Adult Party Cartoon series thanks to having an actual story structure, or it's the most ghastly; the point of contention lies within its scenes of graphic animal cruelty. Some say it's just the episode that sucks the least (for better or worse, it obviously had more effort put into it than the other five episodes).
• Fanon Discontinuity: Neither fans or haters of the Games Animation episodes (the latter already viewing them as an example of this trope) want anything to do with this show. Even Nickelodeon seems to agree, with the only thing from this show making it to any of the Nicktoons crossovers being the flute dance from "Fire Dogs II."
• Fetish Retardant: The downright overbearing amount of hypersexual fanservice, combined with Kricfalusi's art style, in "Naked Beach Frenzy" has been known to be a huge turn off for viewers. Knowledge of his history of statutory rape makes it downright unwatchable, especially the scene of Ren (voiced by Kricfalusi, no less) fondling an Ink-Suit Actor of one of his actual victims.
• Harsher in Hindsight: As with nearly all of his work, knowledge of Kricfalusi's extensive history of statutory rape makes watching the show much, much more difficult.
  • Back when the show was on the air, Billy West disparagingly referred to the show as an "advertisement for NAMBLA". To make a long story short, he was completely right.
  • The entire DVD introduction with Kricfalusi and Katie Rice to "Naked Beach Frenzy"^note For many years, it circulated YouTube under the name "John K. Being John K.", which features a visibly uncomfortable Rice standing right next to Kricfalusi while he's casually making sexist and pedophiliac remarks towards her, was incredibly awkward and creepy to watch when it first came out. After the allegations came out, it became horrifying. The Naked Beach Frenzy episode itself is extra disturbing given its rampant hypersexuality, Ren's inappropriate behavior, and the fact that the then-teenaged Rice voiced a self-caricature whom Ren (voiced by Kricfalusi) shamelessly fondles.
  • The gags in "Altruists" involving the mother getting fondled in the end, along with the gag involving a living duckbill getting oral sex forced on her (and is seen later crying to her dad about this) become horrifying to watch in light of Kricfalusi's sexual abuse too.
  • The premise of "Ren Seeks Help" (Ren does something so horribly abusive to Stimpy that he seeks out a therapist and recalls his violent childhood memories) feels more of an on-camera confession of Kricfalusi's unchecked mental illnesses, violent streak, and issues with his father.
  • While "Stimpy's Pregnant" is widely agreed to be the grossest episode of any incarnation of Ren and Stimpy, it becomes downright nauseating when you learn that Kricfalusi actually got Robyn Byrd, one of his statutory rape victims, pregnant (she aborted the pregnancy on her own accord, making Ren's coat hanger abortion joke at the beginning completely tasteless). Note that Kricfalusi did allegedly try to pitch Adult Party Cartoon ideas to Byrd based on his relationship with her, and had pitched her the concept of "Stimpy's Pregnant" before.
    • The scene of Ren bragging to his mother on the phone about how he impregnated Stimpy feels a hundred times grosser when you learn that Kricfalusi was not only committing multiple acts of statutory rape at the time the episode was in production, but had no qualms bragging about it to his colleagues, up to and including showing them non-consensual photos he took of himself having sex with girls who were too young to consent in the first place.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Mr. Horse's lines "YOU'RE FUCKING CRAZY! THAT'S what's wrong with you!" and "Are you nuts?! I'm a horse!" from "Ren Seeks Help" are fan favorites, even for haters of Adult Party Cartoon.
  • Ralph Bakshi waking up ^Explanation  In "Fire Dogs II", a caricature of Ralph Bakshi is shown sleeping peacefully in a bed with Ren and Stimpy, until he suddenly wakes up, sits there with a Thousand-Yard Stare for six seconds while drawn in a much more realistic art style, then suffers an Absurd Phobia-induced freak-out before attacking the duo with an axe. The scene — especially the frame with Bakshi's blank stare — became popular as a reaction meme for a variety of Oh, Crap! moments. In addition, said frame has been used for memes where the poster watches some predicted disaster or catastrophe unfold on the television, as Bakshi's expression can be interpreted as one of utter despair.
• Mis-blamed: The Spike TV executives, according to the book Sick Little Monkeys. While they did want a more adult show, they actually tried to talk Kricfalusi out of doing the most offensive parts, like the implied sex in "Onward and Upward".
• Moral Event Horizon: While Ren had a lot of sympathetic moments and redeeming qualities in the original show, in the episode "Ren Seeks Help", we witness one of Ren's most disturbing moments (even by "Adult Party" standards). Saying what he did to Stimpy is presented like this for Ren, which even he found reprehensible, but it's revealed as a child, he tortured various animals in very painful ways, especially a frog. In this episode, he's really gone off the deep end!
• Padding: One of the biggest problems with the show is that it drags; five of the six episodes were planned for the original show (whose episodes were usually 11 minutes long) but reworked to be about twice as long and you can tell. The only episode made from scratch for the show was "The Altruists," which is 40 minutes long.
• Protection from Editors: Kricfalusi was given carte blanche from Spike TV when producing this series, with the provision that it had more adult content than the original series. He proceeded to create an overly vulgar, poorly executed trainwreck that only lasted six episodes, and proved conclusively that Kricfalusi needed people around him to tell him "no".
• Seasonal Rot: Due to a combination of Executive Meddling and Kricfalusi receiving greater freedom in writing (there are conflicting reports on just what went on behind the scenes between creator and network), the show became far too gross and vulgar for its own good and began indulging in over-the-top violence and Toilet Humour well beyond that of the original series. It also saw the Flanderization of its main characters, particularly Ren, who became abusive and psychopathic compared to his previous hot-tempered character in the original series. These factors led to the show's cancellation after only three episodes were aired, although all six produced episodes later showed up on the Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes DVD.
• Sequelitis: The original show was seen as one of the greatest Nicktoons ever made. This? Not so much. It had so much adult humor and so many unfunny jokes that it was disliked by most who enjoyed the original series.
• Shock Fatigue: This show flatlined almost entirely because of this. The majority of the jokes try to be as outrageous, disgusting, and without restraint as possible, in addition to drawing themselves out longer than they need to. Tellingly the majority of episodes were recycled from the cutting room floor, episodes Kricfalusi had planned for The Ren & Stimpy Show that were rejected. Among the notable examples is "Fire Dogs 2", which Kricfalusi admits suffers from very bad timing and pacing, suggesting the episode should be watched at fast forward.
• Signature Scene: Thanks to it being their taunt in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, the Flute Dance has become one of the most well remembered parts of the show. It's definitely not uncommon for people to say it's the best thing out of the series, if not the only thing worthwhile.
• So Okay, It's Average: For every ten fans who loathed this version of Ren and Stimpy, there's at least one who will say that the cartoon has its moments, with a few decent jokes and even glimmers of good characterization that made the original series enjoyable (it has both a Heartwarming Moments and Funny Moments page for a reason, after all).
• Tear Jerker: Ren and Stimpy's tearful exchange at the beginning of "Ren Seeks Help" complete with Stimpy sobbing and screaming hysterically, and a hopelessly remorseful Ren. Ren forlornly walking away just sold it.
  Stimpy: "You MONSTER! How could you say those HORRIBLE things... to ME?!"
  Ren: "I'm sorry, Stimpy! I don't know why I do these things to you... I'm just a PIG! PLEASE forGIVE me!"
  Stimpy: "Don't you touch me! You BEAST! Forgive me! Words, empty words! That's all they are! No... not this time! You've gone too far this time, Ren!" (wails)
  Ren: "I KNOW I'm insane, Stimpy! I know I can't control my violent urges... But this time, I'll do something about it! I'll seek help... I'll do it for you!"
  Stimpy: "Don't do it for me... Dooon't do it for me... Do it for yourSELF!"
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: It's almost universally agreed that cranking up the adult humor and subversive jokes like there's no tomorrow shouldn't have been done with this show.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Kricfalusi has often expressed his disdain for "fake pathos" (i.e., the idea that it doesn't take that much from the writer to get an audience to cry). However, the original show still undercut its Comedic Sociopathy with moments of perceived sentimentality, despite Kricfalusi being the person he is. Meanwhile, a major complaint of this show is that it was just nonstop, meaningless cruelty, vulgarity and sadism with no pathos at all to balance it out. Older fans slowly came around to the more inoffensive Games Animation episodes as a result, with the belief that a sterilized Ren and Stimpy is more tolerable than a downright nihilistic one and that Kricfalusi needed the Nick executives far more than they needed him.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Ren's physical appearance in this show is not only disturbingly more humanoid than before but can switch between this and utterly animalistic on a dime.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Despite being a Revival of The Ren & Stimpy Show, a cartoon intended (supposedly) for kids, the TV-MA rating is warranted. In fact, the graphic violence, raunchy language, eroticism, and swearing are enough to scare parents. To put the cherry on the cake, the legacy of the franchise had been so stained by Adult Party Cartoon, that any attempts for another revival were put on hold for sixteen years... with that revival also being aimed at adults and set to air on Comedy Central, albeit being produced by Nickelodeon, meaning that the content would most likely be toned to TV-14 levels.
  • On digital cable/satellite boxes whose channel guides color-code shows depending on their genre, this show could show up with the color used for children's shows.
• The Woobie: The frog from "Ren Seeks Help," who's on the receiving end of Ren's most sadistic moments.

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