Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren Stimpy Story

by Thad Komorowski

The all-time greatest TV cartoon's psychotic saga!


In the 1990s animation boom, The Ren Stimpy Show stood supreme. Animation's most talented and disturbed artists created an entity for the Nickelodeon cable network that pulled the art form out of a 25-year rut. The world has never been quite the same since, and we're eternally grateful!


Now you too can join the rollercoaster ride that is the fascinating, insane real-life story of art, money, and ego that gave birth to Ren Höek and Stimpson J. Cat. History Eraser Buttons need not apply. No stone has been unturned, no magic nose goblin unpicked, in this extensively detailed history of the show that defined a generation and changed an entire medium.


Fully revised and bursting with new information, interviews, and illustrations, it's everything you wanted to know about Ren Stimpy—but were afraid to ask!


"A compelling cautionary tale of rags to riches success in Hollywood. Thad Komorowski's book documents the entire story behind Nickelodeon's first cartoon hit, The Ren Stimpy Show, utilizing extensive interviews with the program's key players, justifying the show's important role in the recent history of animation. A great read." — Jerry Beck, animation historian and author, proprietor of CartoonResearch.com


"Animation is a collaborative art form. When inspiration and enthusiasm are ignited among a group of gifted men and women, the results redefine the medium and hold audiences enthralled. In Sick Little Monkeys, Thad Komorowski explores the genesis of Nickelodeon's groundbreaking Ren Stimpy Show and details how the talents, passions, and united vision of a once in a lifetime gathering of artists created, and ultimately ended, a cartoon classic." — Paul Dini, animation and comic book writer, author of Dark Night: A True Batman Story

Genres: Nonfiction, History

ebook

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

A graduate of Ithaca College, Thad Komorowski is a longtime animation fan and film collector. His caustic and sometimes perverse sense of humor can be seen in his blog WhatAboutThad.com.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always been a major fan of Ren & Stimpy, for as long as I've remembered. Sick Little Monkeys, written by longtime animation blogger Thad Komorowski delves into the dark past history of the show's inner machinations. Never before has the other sides of the story seen the light, in the way that Komorowski interviews almost everyone involved, except for a slight handful of people who still belong to creator John Kricfalusi's inner circle. Of course Komorowski couldn't get John K., but his side of the story has been long aired out on the internet and can be found with a simple search.

As a kid, I'll admit I didn't understand why Ren & Stimpy would often go on hiatus even a week or two after airing a new episode, or why all of a sudden the credits at the beginning excised the "Created by John K." credit and Spumco logos at the end, but Sick Little Monkeys is a superfan's dream. Almost everything that went wrong is explained to excrutiating details, from the dirty laundry regarding John K.'s very loud and public split with Nickelodeon to the mundane like why Stimpy is pictured as a milkman during the credits of the post-Spumco "Games Animations" episodes, and every chapter is a page turner.

You'll discover that even some episodes that were credited fully to Kricfalusi were often the creation of other writers or some were even finished well after John had been fired from Nickelodeon. Everything in this story is the full, uncensored dirty story of one of the most influential and artistic animated series' ever. I can't go into extreme detail because I feel any R&S fan owes it to themselves to read this book through, because if you're like me, you won't be able to put it down. It's a big read, but I managed to put it down in two days, so if you're devoted it will be finished in no time.

At the end is a very extensive episode guide featuring exact airdates for every episode, with a capsule review and a nifty guide to the many edits done to episodes. If you own the so-called "uncensored" dvd sets released almost a decade ago I'm sure you know that they're chopped to hell, so thanks to the episode guide you'll know exactly what got cut.

Overall I have nothing to really slight against this book, other than the few grammatical and spelling errors, but coming from an indie house like Bear Manor Media it's understandable. Truly the one definite article on R&S, not to be missed!

[Garrison Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sick Little Monkeys details the career of Ren & Stimpy’s eccentric and rebellious creator John Kricfalusi, who has been described by many as either an animation genius or a creative control freak. Mr. K always insisted on doing things his way whether his bosses agreed with him or not. The byproduct of his madness was cartoons that embraced toilet humor, bodily horror, and an uncaring attitude towards the youths they were marketed to. John K made many enemies during his time creating cartoons, but it begs the question of whether or not it was all worth it given the cult following Ren & Stimpy had and still has today.

I swore I would finish this book all the way through, but the repetitive and dull writing style makes it impossible to do so. Many of the same talking points were shoved down my throat over and over again whether it was John K’s rebelliousness, his inability to meet deadlines, his cartoons’ disgustingness, and worst of all, how “awful” and “disastrous” competing cartoons were. About the last item on that list, it would appear as if the author was taking sides with John K, but there were also times when he criticized the animator with as much venom as he did the competitors. If this book has a message, it was lost a long time ago the minute the writing style bored me to tears.

Perhaps the writing style could have been improved with some showing instead of telling. Instead of telling me how “bad” other cartoons are, show me what specifically made them that way. But of course, the author couldn’t do that without alienating the laymen of the animation world. Insider terms are used a lot in this book, which would have been fine if the book was marketed to professional animators as opposed to merely fans of Ren & Stimpy. I went into this read wanting to learn about the cartoon that made my childhood a happy time of my life. Instead all I got was technical drivel combined with a desert-dry writing style.

The closest the author ever got to showing instead of telling was pictures scattered here and there of John K’s sketches and storyboards. While pictures are always more effective at communicating than words, if that was all I wanted, I would have watched a movie. I wanted to read a book and use my imagination, an imagination guided by an author who’s supposed to be as entertaining as he is informative. I would have even settled for a graphic novel if that’s what the author really wanted. At least with a graphic novel, it wouldn’t feel like my eyes were being dragged across sandpaper. Now there’s a visual worthy of a Ren & Stimpy episode!

This was not a fun book to read and I can’t recommend it to my friends. I tried. I really tried. I wanted to like it and become a more educated person because of the reading experience. But no matter what, it just wouldn’t happen. I’d already known John K was a little off-color and this book does a good job of illustrating his depravity, but ultimately it’s not enough to keep my interest. I’m sorry, Mr. Komorowski, but this book gets a failing grade.

[Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, I would just like to say that I recently have been cheated out of money from John Kricfalusi himself, through his "Can's Without Labels" Kickstarter project. Unfortunately for me this book was released after I had already pledged my 45 bucks. This book digs deep into a history that had been skewed and for the most part covered up by Kricfalusi. The author, Thad, states right from the beginning that he did not attempt to contact him because of a history of online feuds between them. And the book is better off without his input, because Kricfalusi has been running his mouth off for almost 20 years now. This is the most well documented account of one of the most influential animated shows and the people behind it. Thad goes in deep to set the record straight, and it's not pretty- don't listen to the loyal Spumco fans/ Kricfalusi lackeys that are childishly and anonymously giving it negative reviews and 1 stars.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid (and, as the author says in his preface, likely to be the only) history of the rise and fall of Ren & Stimpy, providing lots of background info on the show, the people -- particularly John Kricfalusi -- and even individual cartoons.

The author is pretty opinionated and has a tendency to editorialize on the merits of various R&S episodes (not to mention other shows and movies) rather than present a dispassionate history. The book is also sprinkled with odd malapropisms -- such as "undeterred" for "unaltered," "exercised" for "excised," and "eschewed" on multiple occasions, sometimes correctly but more often for "excluded." But in neither case does it detract (or distract) too much from the story being told. Definitely a book I would recommend to fans of the show -- a much better vehicle for nostalgia and reliving your childhood than watching the R&S revival episodes.

[Kenya Starflight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure -- I have not watched Ren and Stimpy. Our family didn't get cable when I was growing up, and I have a feeling Ren and Stimpy would have been banned in our conservative Mormon household even if we did. But I got sucked into the drama surrounding the show's creator, John Kricfalusi, around the time the worst of his behavior and indiscretions came to light, and when I learned a tell-all book had been written about the creation of the show, I knew I had to read it. And while this book came out before the scandal that would finally tank John K's career, it's still an informative, if slightly biased, look at one of the most influential and controversial cartoons of all time.

During the Dark Age of Animation, when cartoons were little more than half-hour toy commercials made on the cheap and even Disney was floundering in the water, John Kricfalusi was an animator with a singular vision to save what he saw as "pure animation" and return to the style of the old cartoons he grew up with. Despite getting kicked out of animation school after one semester, he went on to found his own animation studio and pitch a cartoon to the Nickelodeon network... and in the process created Ren and Stimpy, a gross and wacky cartoon that pushed boundaries and became a runaway hit. But despite this resounding success, John K's erratic behavior and ego -- and the meddling of Nickelodeon executives -- would set into motion a chain of events that would doom both the show and John K's career.

Thad Komorowski doesn't bother to hide the fact that he's a bit of an animation snob, and his bias when it comes to cartoons is perfectly clear. His disdain for Disney, Don Bluth, Tiny Toons, The Animaniacs, and what seems to be any cartoon that's not Ralph Bakshi or Ren and Stimpy shines through in the text. Also, I find it interesting that John K called this book out for being unflattering towards him when, in my opinion, Thad is almost TOO nice regarding him, excusing a lot of his erratic behavior as genius and perfectionism. I understand every book, fiction or non-fiction, is going to carry some bias, however, and most of the time I can overlook it.

This book isn't a biography of John K, but an in-depth history of how Ren and Stimpy was made... and it's not only a fascinating look at the animation process and the difficulties in making animation for television, but a harrowing account of how one man can bring an entire project crashing down. Animation, more than almost any other art form (except perhaps video games), is not something that can be done by a single visionary auteur but requires a group of people, and it seems John K forgot that in the process of making Ren and Stimpy. His insistence on perfection even if it meant delaying episodes, his brutal treatment of his animators, and his disdain for authority figures made him a maverick in the industry, but it was that same maverick attitude that would ultimately doom the show and his studio.

For the hardcore Ren and Stimpy fans, there are even illustrations in this book -- animation cells, layouts, and character sketches from Ren and Stimpy, as well as from other John K projects such as the Beany and Cecil reboot and the "Harlem Shuffle" music video. There's also an extensive episode guide in the back of the book, which includes all six episodes of the short-lived revival Ren and Stimpy's Adult Party Cartoon. (Though the less said about THAT mess, apparently, the better...)

This book was released before the events that would truly tank John K's career -- the sexual assault allegations, the revelation that he used alcohol to treat his mental illness, and the utter failure of his Kickstarter project Cans Without Labels. Given that the edition of the book I read was the 2017 revision, it makes me wonder if Thad will revise it yet again to address more current events. At any rate, this was a fascinating read, and a revealing look at both the industry and the troubled production of a beloved cartoon.

[whit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent account of the battles between Nickelodeon business people and the artists at Spumco and Games animation studios. Oh sure, that might sounds dull on the surface, but author Thad Komorowski does a great job of relaying the challenges of producing cartoons, making deadlines, and dealing with egos. His portrayal of the controversial John Kricfalusi is as fair and balanced as it can be. John K. is a remarkable talent and I'm nearly obsessed with his Ren & Stimpy cartoons. I also own "Ren & Stimpy Adult Cartoon Party" and "The Ripping Friends" on DVD, so despite all of his...baggage, I still can appreciate his work.

This book also has sketches and illustrations from many of the artists and an indispensable episode guide (loaded with Thad Komorowski's opinions and ratings). One wish would be for Komorowski and Bob Jacques to revive their "Cartoon Logic" podcast. They were terrific together and are absolute animation experts.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a book looking at Ren and Stimpy, it succeeds on this front, making a dense history about how John’s perfectionist qualities lead to wide delays, overspending, and his own downfall, albeit an account not outdated by the reveal that John is a statutory rapist. That said, the book has a horrible tendency to make very strong opinions on other animations of the time, none of which are pleasant and which really make the book a slog to read, especially in the final chapter. Is The Jetsons being described as insufferable and Ducktales described as a bastardisation of Rosa Banks’ work really needed in the book? I doubt it.

[Max Freese · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think I'm going to finish this. The book is filled with information and details which paint a vivid picture of just how toxic and volatile it must have been to work on The Ren and Stimpy Show, which it turn makes this really overbearing to read.

It certainly doesn't help how the author refuses to be objective at any point. He is constantly tossing in his snide and smug opinions about every cartoon and person involved. The author comes across as just rude and immature.

[AaronL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly well-researched, well-written, even-handed and thoughtful look at the history and production of one of the most important animated series of all time.

[Bob Mackey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know why, but I'm really drawn to stories about mercurial, self-destructive geniuses. And in the world of animation, no one fits this description quite like John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren & Stimpy. If you've been at all aware of his online presence within the past 15 years, it's easy to view him as an unbalanced, unrealistic crackpot who lashes out at just about everything that's been created since 1950, because, for the most part, that's an entirely accurate description of the guy.

But, even with the terrible behavior he's exhibited throughout decades of work in the animation industry, without him, it's likely that cartoons would be just as insipid and dreadful as those that polluted the airwaves from the '60s to the '80s. Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story frames the history of John K.'s cartoon in this very specific context, and the drama, agony, and battles over this landmark show prove just as interesting as the episodes themselves.

It should be noted that John K. had no input in the creation of this book, and that's definitely for the best; his own narrative of the behind-the-scenes antics at Ren and Stimpy has been widely available for years, thanks to his tendency to publicize and vocalize the details about Nickelodeon firing him from his own show. And SLM provides more than enough evidence that John K. enjoys twisting the truth to fit his self-serving agenda, since the book practically overflows with plenty of stories about how much everyone hated working with him -- though these former co-workers never deny his skill and brilliance at animation. Basically, author Thad Komorowski lets John K. dig his own grave with various quotes and accounts that stand as extreme contradictions to John K.'s portrayal of himself as a martyr at the hands of heartless animation executives.

Since the Ren & Stimpy narrative has largely been in John K.'s hands, the many cartoons produced after his departure rarely receive the attention they deserve. Thankfully, Komorowski spends plenty of time covering the hits and misses of Games Animation's seasons of the show, while highlighting specific artists and their biggest strengths. I've been rewatching the entirety of the series lately, so it's nice to see amazing episodes like Ren's Brain and Ren's Bitter Half get the credit they deserve.

If the idea of a 300-page tome about Ren and Stimpy seems like it would be limited in scope, believe me: it's not. The sturm und drang of the show's production could easily fill several hundred more pages, and there's also the fact that SLM provides an awesome look into the mini-animation boom that took place from the early to late '90s, which spawned some of the greatest (and most expensive) TV animation to ever exist. Really, an entire book could be written about this period alone, and I'm hoping someone eventually gets around to this before the people who grew up in that era get too old and crusty (in the manner of Wilbur Cobb).

Some of my favorite television shows of all time, by all accounts, should have never existed. Creations like Ren & Stimpy, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Liquid Television, and Wonder Showzen managed to sneak onto TV thanks to daring or negligent TV executives, and raised the bar for what the medium can and should do. Sick Little Monkeys drops the reader directly into this world of punk rock programming, and sucked me in so much that I tore through this book in just a few days. Obviously, it helps if you have some familiarity with the show or an interest in animation, but it's worth reading Sick Little Monkeys for the wealth of John K. stories alone. And if you walk away having learned one thing from the Ren & Stimpy story, it should be "never give John Kricfalusi money." Let's pray that his recent Kickstarter generates more content than some half-finished storyboards.

[Bradley Bethel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If any cartoon represents the dichotomy of mainstream animation, the ongoing struggle between artistic dreams and economic reality, it would be "The Ren & Stimpy Show".

"Sick Little Monkeys" gives the most detailed story to date about the rise and fall of one of the most iconic cartoons of our time. This book was written and published without the participation of series creator, John Kricfalusi, perhaps as an unintended necessity. Having seized primary control of the behind-the-scenes story early on, he was granted a rare yet brief second chance in 2003, which ironically gave rise to the broader story that had been obscured up until recently.

There are two great assets behind "Sick Little Monkeys". The first is how it gives a voice to the personnel behind the Games episodes. Correcting years of unfair malignment, many of those who worked for Games, including co-creator Bob Camp have long since developed successful careers far beyond the world of Spumco. The second asset is how fans are now granted a well-rounded story behind the conception of Ren and Stimpy, as well as the establishment of the Spumco studio and the Nicktoons program, and the series' long-term influence in the animation industry.

"Sick Little Monkeys" is a well-deserved gift for all Ren & Stimpy fans, and a case study for anyone entering animation how seeking a balance between art and commerce is crucial to a cartoon's success.

[steen · Rating 3 out of 5]

To the author's credit, the book is well-researched and he obviously has a passion for the world of animation. He really looks into every nook and cranny, creating a thorough --- albeit at times tedious --- history of "Ren & Stimpy" and the impact it had in the animation world. My main gripe is that the book doesn't explain certain aspects of the animation process; it just kind of assumes you already know these things. I found myself having to stop, Google some things, and try to teach myself about animation when a quick footnote would have sufficed. I approached the book from the perspective of a cartoon fan, not necessarily an animation expert. But hey, I learned a few new things!

At any rate, underneath all the technical information, there's a story about a creative mind who had the potential to expand his legacy, only to be inhibited by his determination to self-destruct. The book does a great job at giving you a peek into his thoughts, his processes, and, ultimately, his downfall.

[Tim Vargulish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting look at one of my favorite shows growing up, if I had any complaint it might be how dense it is. Obviously that's not really a bad thing, especially if you're coming to the book as a fan and wanting to know every detail about the shows troubled production you think you'd just lap it up but at times it felt a little tedious to me. I'd still recommend it to any animation and/or Ren & Stimpy fan.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading through all the shenanigans that happened through the runs of the various incarnations of Ren & Stimpy, it's amazing to think that any cartoons of any measurable quality managed to be released.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched but poorly written, with the author injecting opinions and hyperbole throughout.

[Jon Mann · Rating 2 out of 5]

As comprehensive as anyone could wish. However, it could've done with an editor to knock into shape, and I got a little sick of the author passing off his critical opinion as fact.

[Koen Crolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Komorowski has a lot of bad opinions on animation and one reasonable-if-still-too-kind one on John Kricfalusi.
Ren & Stimpy, in its original incarnation, has the distinction of being the first cartoon in which I recognised not just bad writing but also very bad animation and directing, even in elementary school, and it stuck with me for that reason. Failures in writing usually have obvious reasons—in this case, John K and people like him being garbage human beings—but I don't know much about how animation studios work, so why the animation should be so bad was always less clear. Turns out it's for more or less the same reason: John K being the sort of nightmare of a human being who screams at employees and is just generally an incompetent manager of time, money, and people, as well as the sort of ``artist'' who doesn't believe anyone can actually be better than him at some aspect of production and refusing to defer to them (which especially explains the piss-poor timing present in every cartoon he ever did). That the show only showed slight improvement but mostly just started sucking in different ways after Kricfalusi rightly got fired two seasons in is because the people he had surrounded him with at Spumco (``Spümcø'') and who moved to Games Animation were, by and large, more of the same.
This isn't Komorowski's message, of course; he actually thought many of the Ren & Stimpy cartoons produced by Spumco were brilliant and to some extent even justified the abusive nature of their principal creator, though by the time he gets to discussing Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon (the mercifully short-lived R-rated 2003 reboot) even he stops being able to pretend Kricfalusi is anything but a self-indulgent man-child who fundamentally doesn't understand how humour works.

Anyway. Komorowski does a decent job of tracing Ren & Stimpy's development from John K's time under Ralph Bakshi (another animation ``great'' who by rights should have starved to death in the street) in the '80s all through what we can only hope is its final end in 2003. It could use a few more passes by an editor and maybe someone to explain to Komorowski what the difference is between a non-fiction book documenting historical events and an anonymous comment on an imageboard, but if you're interested in Ren & Stimpy, it's not a bad read.
If you're an aspiring animator and you're considering picking this up to see what the TV animation industry is (or, at least, was, at these two studios) like, though, it will convince you to find a different career.