"Man's Best Friend" is an episode from the second season of the American animated television series The Ren & Stimpy Show. It was originally intended to air on Nickelodeon on August 22, 1992, as the second half of the second episode of Season 2, but was pulled before airing and replaced by a censored version of "Big House Blues". It eventually aired on the soft launch of Spike TV on June 23, 2003. In the episode, Ren and Stimpy (voiced by John Kricfalusi and Billy West) learn about obedience after George Liquor (voiced by Michael Pataki) takes them home with him and swears to make them "champions".
The episode was deemed controversial for the violent scene where Ren beats George with an oar on-screen, along with tobacco references and a joke about feces, and Nickelodeon refused to carry it in its original form, terminating series creator John Kricfalusi and his production company Spümcø from further involvement in the series at the time.[1]
Plot
One day, George Liquor is standing outside of a pet store, watching Ren and Stimpy sleep in the window and gets the idea to adopt them as his pets. Despite the warning on the glass, George bangs on the glass, waking up the duo and frightening them. Upon arriving home, he empties a fish bowl containing a goldfish and forces the duo to live in it, after which then flops out the door and leaves in George's car.
The next day, Ren and Stimpy awaken to find George Liquor dressed as a drill instructor to train them to be proper pets. Their first lesson is house training by doing push-ups using their buttocks on a newspaper. Ren fails, but Stimpy succeeds while reading the newspaper. He is given a cigar-shaped dog treat resembling feces as a reward, after which he dances in joy.
Next, they are taught discipline. In order to learn discipline, they are taught to disobey. George Liquor tells them not to go near the couch, then instructs them to do so in order to be punished. When he begins to become enraged by them not following his orders, Ren collapses to the floor sobbing, and a terrified Stimpy jumps onto the couch as George had instructed, only to be yelled at. Stimpy becomes scared, thinking he is going to be punished. Instead, George compliments him for following orders and gives him another dog treat. George then instructs Ren to ask him for punishment. After Ren does so, George insists that Ren is too "soft" for punishment and instead humiliates him by giving him 20 dollars and allows him to entertain himself with the money; this distresses the normally money-loving Ren. Ren snidely points out that the fish already took the car, which appears to enrage George. Instead, he gives Ren another 20 dollars for backtalking him.
Lastly, George teaches them to protect their "master". Before they learn to defend, they are taught to attack. Wearing a padded suit, he urges the two of them to attack him. Stimpy refuses because George had treated him relatively well, but Ren, who is sick of George Liquor and his apparent ill-treatment, picks up an oar and maniacally begins beating him up with it, much to Stimpy's horror. Believing himself to have beat George into oblivion, Ren was satisfied by his actions, only for George to emerge relatively unharmed (his padded suit had absorbed most of the damage). Ren becomes frightened by George's apparent anger, only for him to express being impressed by Ren's performance. The episode ends with the three of them dancing with the cigar-shaped treats clamped between their teeth.
Produced for the show's second season, the story for the episode was written by storyboard artist Vincent Waller and series creator John Kricfalusi, who also served as the episode's director, with storyboards provided by Chris Reccardi. This is the first episode where George Liquor is voiced by Michael Pataki; previously, he was portrayed by Harris Peet. This episode was meant to take place before "Dog Show", as George had apparently trained the duo by that point. Carbunkle Cartoons provided animation, with Bob Jaques as animation director. Originally, a scene where George Liquor leg-wrestles with Ren and Stimpy was going to be in this episode, but never got past the storyboards.[2] After Spümcø was fired, Games Animation eventually produced it using archive audio and Rough Draft Korea's animation services. Ultimately, legal troubles with John Kricfalusi's ownership of George Liquor prevented them from ever airing the footage.[2]
Controversy
It was scheduled to air on August 22, 1992 on Nickelodeon,[3] but the channel relented due to one violent scene in which Ren beats up George with an oar, as well as the dog treats resembling cigars and feces.[4] Following the episode's ban, Nickelodeon fired John Kricfalusi and the rest of Spümcø. Kricfalusi believed this was done in order to make the show appropriate for younger viewers,[5] but this is not entirely the case; the relationship between John and Nickelodeon had in fact been tense for quite some time beforehand due to John's perfectionism resulting in multiple episodes missing their scheduled airdates, with "Man's Best Friend" merely being the straw that broke the camel's back in this regard.[6] Following this, Games Animation handled the show starting with its third season,[7] with Billy West, Stimpy's voice actor, replacing Kricfalusi's role as the voice of Ren. This controversy had also attracted attention to the inconsistency of Nickelodeon's censorship; a bloody intestine passing out feces in "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen" was not censored in any way while a dog treat resembling feces was met with scrutiny, while Games Animation was allowed to include risqué content and even occasional graphic violence in the newer episodes, despite the previously mentioned oar scene not featuring any blood.[8][9]
Years later, in 2002, Kricfalusi was hired by Viacom to produce the short-lived Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", the "extreme" version and the adult-orientedspin-off of the original series, for Spike TV's animation block. The episode aired, along with the uncut version of the original Ren & Stimpy pilot "Big House Blues", in June 23, 2003, three days before the premiere of Adult Party Cartoon. Both episodes were rated TV-MA.
The episode was also released on Ren & Stimpy's first and second season DVD boxset as a bonus feature.
Reception
Author Thad Komorowski gave it four out of four stars, calling it one of the best episodes in the entire series.[9]
