Ren Höek and Stimpson J. "Stimpy" Cat are the titular characters of the Nickelodeon animated series The Ren & Stimpy Show and its 2003 spin-off Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon". Series creator John Kricfalusi created the characters during his stay at Sheridan College and they first appeared on film in the pilot episode "Big House Blues". Ren is a scrawny, emotionally unstable and psychotic "Asthma Hound" Chihuahua and his best friend Stimpy is a dim-witted, but good-natured Manx cat. The series portrays their wacky, bizarre and often surreal misadventures.
Characters
Ren Höek Ren Höek is a scrawny anthropomorphized "asthma-hound" chihuahua. Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman of Animation World Magazine described Ren as scrawny, dyspeptic and violently psychotic, who loses his mind occasionally in a cumulative process resulting in his becoming, in Goodman's words, a "screaming klaxon, neon-pink eyes dilating into twin novae inches above his jagged, monolithic teeth." Andy Meisler of The New York Times described Ren as "adventurous", "intelligent", and "emotionally brittle". He, alongside Stimpy, hail from the fictional neighborhood of Hollywood, Yugoslavia; the usually unnamed place of residence is alluded to in "Mad Dog Höek" and "A Visit to Anthony". Episodes that feature George Liquor prominently sees them reside in the United States, while other settings may appear depending on the episodes. Ren has a fairly lengthy and murid-like pink tail. However, in the first two seasons, Ren's tail constantly disappeared and was once even docked by George Liquor in the season 2 episode "Dog Show", while getting Ren and Stimpy both ready for an upcoming dog show (even though Stimpy is a cat), although it continued to appear afterwards in the episode, as well as episodes afterwards. This was because during production of "Big House Blues", John had to animate the toilet scene leading to the "Big Sleep" freakout; as he tried to mix limited animation with smooth tidbits and wanted Ren to move sloppily, his tail was a pain to animate – later on he swore to not animate a tail again. After season 2, Ren's tail had a rare form of continuity throughout the series, not even appearing at all in most episodes. Ren had an ambition to develop huge pectoral muscles, which he never achieved but successfully imitated in the season 3 episode "Ren's Pecs". A running gag involves Stimpy being confused with and treated like a dog, due to his unusual appearance not resembling a cat. Kricfalusi originally voiced Ren in a manner that he describes as "a bad imitation of Peter Lorre". Billy West said that he auditioned to play Ren; the creators of the series believed that having West—who was also voicing the titular character of fellow Nicktoon Doug at the time—voice both Ren and Stimpy would give him too large of a workload. West voiced Ren after Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi; Kricfalusi returned for the TNN episodes and unaired episodes of The Ren & Stimpy Show. Additional lines for Ren were done by sound editor Brian Mendelsohn and Bob Camp, who also did Ren's singing voice in the episodes "In the Army" and "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen". Chris Edgerly voiced the character in the game Nicktoons MLB. In the pilot episode, Pierre DeCelles provided Ren's signature diabolical laughter and screams, while West performed Ren's laugh in the series. His catchphrase is "You eediot!", and he also uses variations of "What is your problem, you sick little monkey?", which is similar to a quote by Lorre in The Maltese Falcon: "You... you imbecile. You bloated idiot. You stupid fat-head, you." Kricfalusi complained about Nickelodeon executives requesting that Ren have "a softer side". Bill Wray said that Ren was his favorite character to write for; Wray described Ren as "fun" because "you can make him mean." In 1993 he added that "It drives me crazy when I tell people I work on the show and they always say, 'Make Ren meaner.'"
Stimpy Stimpson J. "Stimpy" Cat is a three-year-old, anthropomorphic, mildly overweight and red and white-furred manx cat. He has a blue bulbous nose, purple eyelids, is tailless, four-fingered paws concealed with fingernail-tipped gloves, humanoid buttocks and flat feet that have a quartet of wiggly toes on each one and a peanut-sized brain. He is portrayed as intelligent enough in some episodes to be a chef or a scientist and sometimes as nonsensically unintelligent. Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman of Animation World Magazine described Stimpy as "obese" and "brain-damaged." Andy Meisler of The New York Times described Stimpy as "bosom", "barrel-chested" and "good-natured". He hails from the neighborhood of Hollywood, Yugoslavia alongside Ren. Stimpy's trademark facial expression is a blissfully ignorant smile with his tongue hanging out. When he gets excited, he says his catchphrase, "Oh, Joy!", or simply "Jooooooy". Stimpy is named after an art school classmate of Kricfalusi, animator Harold Duckett, whose nickname was "Stimpy Cadogen" ("Killer Cadoogen" was Stimpy's pseudonym in several episodes and in a few others he is referred to as Stimpleton Cadogen). West said that he based Stimpy's voice on an "amped up" Larry Fine of the Three Stooges. West described Stimpy as one of his favorite characters. Stimpy was inspired by Kricfalusi's former girlfriend and the series' co-developer, Canadian animator Lynne Naylor. Stimpy likes to create destructive electronic devices whenever he has the required intelligence for it. Andy Meisler of The New York Times says he feels a fixation for "sensory pleasures of fresh kitty litter". Wray described Stimpy as his favorite character to draw. Wray said that Stimpy does not have "a huge range of emotion." West declined to voice Stimpy in the Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" because he believed that the series was not funny and that voicing Stimpy in it would damage his career. Consequently, Eric Bauza instead voiced the character and reprised the voice role in the video game Nicktoons MLB. West will reprise his roles as both Stimpy and Ren in Comedy Central's unreleased revival of the series.
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