"A Scooter for Yaksmas" is the nineteenth episode of the fifth season and the series finale of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on December 16, 1995.
Plot
Stimpy works at Cobbco where he manufactures fudge pop sticks and earns one stick as his income, with another half being offered as a bonus as it is Yaksmas Eve. On the way home, he is harassed by children and walks to a store where he stares at a scooter he had always wanted; after returning home, he constantly puts reminders to Ren to buy him the scooter for him as a gift. Ren seemingly ignores them and is served chopped liver for dinner; he is annoyed by the liver being in the shape of a scooter.[1]
Stimpy decorates the house in preparation of the festivities, while Ren considers him to be childish; he is dressed up as a rabbit against his wishes. The sleigh dropping sausages with the shaven yak driving appears, finally revealing Stinky Wizzleteats to be a drunken slob. The sleigh crashes, prompting the yak and Stinky to drop down the sewers and emerge in Ren and Stimpy's house. They dip the duo's hands in warm water, load sausages in their long johns and pre-chewed gum in their shoes and collect Stimpy's pickled eggs before passing out in their yard and leaving. Realizing what happened, Ren takes back his arguments and frolics with Stimpy. Stink and the yak return to "The West Pole".[1]
Ren and Stimpy unpack their gifts: Ren gets a jewel-encrusted golden statue of the Queen of England, which Stimpy managed to deliver, while Stimpy gets fudge pop sticks, which he already has a lot of, from Ren. Stimpy breaks down, believing Ren to be unacceptably stingy, and leaves the house in sorrow while Ren seemingly does not mind while unscrewing the jewelry from the statue.[1]
Stimpy returns to the scooter shop and breaks down again, calming when he accidentally breaks the glass and gets the scooter; an old lady calls for help, prompting a police officer to chase Stimpy as he escapes on the scooter; they miss him while they pass through a bridge he is under. Meanwhile, Ren calls for Stimpy to come home. At night, Stimpy sleeps under the bridge, where he dreams of being convicted for the theft, being insulted by Ren, the yak, the woman and the policeman while being sentenced by Stinky in a judge's costume life imprisonment for crimes against humanity. He wakes up and decides to go home, only to find Ren on a television show talking about his absence, fearing that he might have caused destruction outside; Stimpy leaves sorrowfully.[1]
At a filling station's bathroom, Stimpy disguises himself to avoid legal trouble, immediately driving away to find Stinky Wizzleteats. His disguise comes off when he becomes exhausted and accidentally crashes into a morbidly obese man, who befriends him and sits in the front, but betrays him when he discovers Stimpy's arrest warrant. Meanwhile, Ren talks with Muddy Mudskipper on his show about Stimpy's disappearance.[1]
Stimpy drives for 3000 more miles when the front tire pops; he is sent flying and lands right on top of the West Pole, revealed to be a motel. Stimpy finds the scooter to be destroyed, brings it to Stinky, only to find out his true nature; he and the yak are drunken slobs who spend their days wasting away and sustaining on treats offered by children. Stimpy finds a package which Stinky forgot to deliver; it is directed to him from Ren, turning out to be a new scooter. Overjoyed by Ren's hidden generosity, Stimpy prepares to leave with the new scooter, but not before leaving behind the scooter, believing Stinky will fix it. After he leaves, the police barge into the motel, having followed Stimpy; they arrest Stinky and the yak for stealing the scooter, as Stimpy had placed the scooter on his body. The next day, Ren, Stimpy and the statue ride on the scooter in joy, while Stinky and the yak are almost shot dead while escaping on the faulty scooter, ending the episode.[1]
"A Scooter for Yaksmas" is the final episode of the series to be produced, with director Bob Camp's unit shutting down immediately after the episode was completed.[2] Storyboards were completed by Tom McGrath and Stephen DeStefano alongside Camp in one last bid to do so for the series, with Bill Wray painting backgrounds for the final time. Due to its nature, it aired as a double-length special in the manner of "Son of Stimpy"; coincidentally, this makes Bob Camp and series creator John Kricfalusi both being laid off after completing a Christmas special double the length of a normal episode.[3]
Reception
American journalist Thad Komorowski gave the episode three out of five stars, calling it a likable Christmas special but considered it "intensely tired" and inferior to "Son of Stimpy".[3]
Books and articles
Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN978-1593931100.
Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN978-1629331836.
