Circus Midgets is the third episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 26 November 1993.
Plot
Ren and Stimpy are hitchhiking across a desert somewhere in the American Southwest when they are picked up by two diabolically cruel circus midgets dressed as clowns, Shlomo and Momo, who sound like Joe Pesci in the 1990 film Goodfellas. The two midgets play a number of vicious practical jokes on Ren and Stimpy. Shlomo and Momo rob a gas station and take hostages. The car clashes during a police chase and the hostages escape. Ren and Stimpy resume hitchhiking, this time dressed as a clowns, and are picked up by the Fire Chief.
The script for Circus Midgets was written by Peter Avanzino and was heavy with references to the 1990 film Goodfellas, which Avanzino was a fan of.[1] Jim Gomez was assigned to direct Circus Midgets, a story that he did not want to direct as he felt that script for Circus Midgets was too violent and too full of references to Goodfellas..[1] Gomez was told to direct Circus Midgets if he wanted to be a director.[1] Gomez said of Circus Midgets: "I absolutely did not want to do it. I hated all the referential shit. Ballantine said, 'well there's not going to be any more opportunities for you directing if you don't do this one first. Their whole thinking was that this script had already been approved. I just wanted to throw it out, but there was a bunch of bullshit attached to the delivery requirements at the time that we weren't privy to, and that seemed to be the driving force for a lot of it".[1] Gomez was clearly unenthusiastic about the story that he directed, which impacted on the finished product..[1]
Reception
The American journalist Thad Komorowski gave Circus Midgets one star out of five..[2] Komorowski wrote that Circus Midgets was as "mean-spirted" as it was unfunny.[1] Komorowski stated that basic problem with Circus Midgets was Ren and Stimpy were "merely punching bags for a domineering third party" with Ren and Stimpy merely reacting instead of acting as was the case with the two cartoons from 1992 with George Liquor as the villain.[3] The show's producer, Vanessa Coffey admitted that the episode was a failure, saying: "It probably crossed some violent lines that we won't want to do again. We probably won't be using those circus midget characters in future episodes either".[4]
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.
