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Sick Little Monkeys
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Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story is an unauthorized tell-all by Thad Komorowski, originally published in 2013 and reissued in 2018. It details the turbulent history of Nickelodeon's first original animated series, The Ren & Stimpy Show, the creative forces behind it and the significance of its success during The Renaissance Age of Animation, compiled from extensive interviews with a multitude of artists, producers and fans who were there to experience it.One notable absence from these interviews is the series' controversial creator, John Kricfalusi. While the book goes into detail about his personal biography before, during, and after the show, Kricfalusi himself refused to comment and has gone out of his way to disown, condemn or outright insult anyone who was involved with or approves of the book; numerous artists who left the series alongside Kricfalusi in 1992, such as Jim Smith, Eddie Fitzgerald and Vincent Waller, were likewise not directly interviewed for the book. Nevertheless, it was well received by much of the rest of the series' alumni, including co-creator Bob Camp, storyboard artists Chris Reccardi and Jim Gomez, animation director Bob Jaques, background designer Bill Wray and star Billy West. Respected animation historian Jerry Beck gave it a glowing review at the expense of his 30-year friendship with Kricfalusi.See also Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren and Stimpy Story, a 2020 documentary about the series which Kricfalusi willingly participated in. | |
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Awesome, but Impractical | |
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Awesome, but Impractical: John's push for better animation on TV was well-intentioned, but short-sighted. He regularly put his artists through a sort of "animation boot camp," making them watch some of his favorite cartoons over and over and training them to draw to such minute specifications so that their layout and storyboard drawings will better match his specific vision, all on company time. His perfectionism on Ren and Stimpy resulted in few episodes actually seeing airtime, but they were hilarious and well-animated. Unfortunately, his employers didn't agree that it was a worthy investment of time and money for a weekly TV show to take an indefinite amount of time to be perfect. | |
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Auteur License | |
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Auteur License: Discussed and Deconstructed. In the chapter "Don't Whiz On The Hand That Feeds You," Komorowski argues that auteurism is not a concept that works in animation simply because, moreso than live-action film, it requires too much input from multiple talents for it to be credited to one person. John K.'s Fatal Flaw is trying to get an entire team of artists, each with their own sensibilities and talents, not to create something that all looks like it was drawn by one artist but to create something that looks like he came up with everything himself despite not being able to do even half of what most of the other artists working on the show can. The narrative also insinuates that most of Kricfalusi's directing credits on Ren & Stimpy episodes weren't entirely deserved and that they were an act of the complete autocracy that he was attempting to produce the show under. | |
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Brilliant, but Lazy | |
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Brilliant, but Lazy: John in his early days. He's passionate about his craft, but couldn't make it through one semester at Sheridan College before getting expelled for abysmal attendance. | |
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Foregone Conclusion | |
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Foregone Conclusion: The opinion of Komorowski and a fair handful of the staff was that the show's fate was sealed from the start. Bob Camp is quoted as saying the show was "fucked from the very beginning", in reference to the show forced to air reruns in its second week of broadcast. | |
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The Peter Principle | |
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The Peter Principle: While the book credits his talents as a director and artist, it makes no secret that Kricfalusi is an absolutely terrible leader due to his refusal to compromise on anything. He easily gets drunk on any power given to him and uses it as an alibi to abuse his staff when he doesn't get exactly what he wants or even take out his personal anger on them if he sees fit, and generally acts like a Know-Nothing Know-It-All in order to keep up an appearance of total autocracy, refusing to take responsibility or even blaming other for his own actions. | |
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Crazy Jealous Guy | |
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Crazy Jealous Guy: John fired storyboard artist Chris Reccardi for dating his ex-girlfriend Lynne Naylor. | |
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Staircase Tumble | |
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Staircase Tumble: At one point after his firing, John shoved animator David Koenigsberg, who had left the production months earlier to get away from the drama, down a flight of stairs after he learned that Koenigsberg was returning to Ren & Stimpy once he left. Thankfully, the latter wasn't hurt. | |
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My Way or the Highway | |
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My Way or the Highway: John's habit of biting every hand that feeds him cost him greatly. While Nickelodeon was willing to put up with the long production schedules and excessive spending for Ren and Stimpy, Kricfalusi responded to any and all requests for cooperation by doubling down on doing it his way until Nick had no choice but to push back. Before this, he outright told the producers on The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil that the only way the show will be successful is if they allow him to do whatever he wants. | |
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Drunk with Power | |
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Drunk with Power: See "The Peter Principle" below. John uses any and all authority he's given, be it as a director or showrunner, as an excuse to boss people around. | |
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20% More Awesome | |
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20% More Awesome: Kricfalusi's directing style is very "I'll know it when I see it," as he clearly has a difficult time articulating exactly what he wants from artists and actors. For the most part, the artists took it as a personal challenge, assuming that anything they created that didn't result in enraged frustration or outright punishment must have impressed him, but it was also emotionally taxing and contributed to the show's sluggish production. Billy West had a less positive opinion on this directing style, remembering a particularly grueling session in which he nearly blew his voice out because Kricfalusi's only direction was "You're 98% there." | |
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Percussive Therapy | |
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Percussive Therapy: The Dartboard of Hate was used as this by other show staff. | |
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Comically Small Bribe | |
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Comically Small Bribe: When Adult Party Cartoon was entering production, John Kricfalusi's lawyers tried to get Billy West to reprise his role as Stimpy by offering him $45 per session and a promise that he wouldn't have to work with Kricfalusi directly. West, understandably, was not swayed. | |
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Caustic Critic | |
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Caustic Critic: Thad is very upfront about his opinions of the cartoons he's writing about and does not shy away from negative or dismissive remarks if he feels they are necessary, no matter how beloved they are (including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Simpsons, Animaniacs and the films of both Don Bluth and Pixar). Ren and Stimpy, naturally, isn't immune. Some especially nasty remarks about Adventure Time and Regular Show were even edited out of the revised edition. | |
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Ho Yay | |
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Ho Yay: Invoked in one anecdote from Bob Camp. As a prank, John invited Bob into his office and sat across from him, looking at him very intensely, then said "I love you." After a second, he told Bob that he was just joking and actually wanted Bob to help him look for a new apartment now that he and his girlfriend had broken up. | |
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Damned by Faint Praise | |
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Damned by Faint Praise: Komorowski at one point says that the original episodes of The Jetsons are better than the new episodes made in the 80's (which Kricfalusi worked on) by calling them "merely insufferable". | |
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Rule of Animation Conservation | |
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Rule of Animation Conservation: John either doesn't know this rule or has spat in the face of everyone who dared mention it to him. On Ren and Stimpy, he frequently re-drew entire episodes worth of layouts by himself, often multiple times, when they weren't exactly to his liking. His smaller solo projects, such as his Animated Music Video for Björk's "I Miss You" and his Yogi Bear revival shorts, had just as many production delays as Ren and Stimpy had because John wouldn't stop adding things to them, saying "What's three more weeks? That gives you another minute of animation." Thad's narrative points out that "more" doesn't automatically mean "better" and contests that most of these projects are too frenetic and full of unnecessary details that they would have been better off without. | |
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The Perfectionist | |
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The Perfectionist: One of John's many fatal flaws. Not only did he not let anything leave Spümcø until it was 110% to his liking, but he kept changing his mind often enough to necessitate further alterations once what he wanted at the beginning is finished. | |
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Strongly Worded Letter | |
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Strongly Worded Letter: Kricfalusi's preferred method of putting a stop to Executive Meddling once he runs out of patience is to literally put it in writing to his superiors (via letters through his lawyer) that they need to shut up and listen to him, not the other way around. | |
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Insult Backfire | |
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Insult Backfire: During the production of the episode "Sven Hoek", John got particularly livid about the backgrounds being done for the episode (even tearing them off the wall) and insulted the painters' work by calling it "candy cane lane." The painters shot back by creating a painting with candy canes stuck into Ren & Stimpy's butts and christening their department as "Candy Cane Lane." Upon seeing the painting, John merely stared, said "Fuck." and walked away. | |
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Dartboard of Hate | |
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Dartboard of Hate: A producer had a sign on his office labeled "John's knees" and invited people frustrated with Kricfalusi to kick it. By the end of his tenure, it had been reduced to a hole. | |
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