Ren and Stimpy returning to Comedy Central with new episodes
Grab your Happy Helmet and find your Log: The iconic cat and dog show that only looks like it's for kids is coming back.
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That's right! It's the Happy Happy Joy Joy song! Ren and Stimpy are returning/
Happy, happy, joy, joy -- The Ren & Stimpy Show is coming back. On Wednesday, Comedy Central announced a reimagination of the adult-aimed animated show that ran from 1991 to 1995. Ren was a red-eyed psychotic Chihuahua, while pal Stimpy was his dim-witted cat friend.
Ren & Stimpy weren't exactly your grandfather's cartoon cat and dog. Plots from the 1990s show included Stimpy farting and believing he's had a child, Ren putting his teeth nerve endings under his pillow after all his teeth fall out, and Stimpy traveling inside his own bellybutton and meeting Jerry, the Bellybutton Elf.
In one episode, Stimpy invents the Happy Helmet to force Ren to always be happy, and in another, viewers meet superhero Powdered Toast Man. One show famously introduced the kids' toy Log, which was just a wooden log.
"We are excited to reinvent this iconic franchise with a new creative team and our partners at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio," said Chris McCarthy, president of ViacomCBS Entertainment & Youth Group, in a statement. (Disclosure: ViacomCBS is CNET's parent company.)
Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi was not mentioned in the statement. Kricfalusi left the show in 1992, though he has denied reports he was fired. In 2018, Kricfalusi was accused of sexual misconduct with two teenagers in the 1990s. A new documentary about the show, Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story, comes out on Aug. 14.
Comedy Central recently announced a new version of Beavis and Butt-Head from creator Mike Judge, as well as Jodie, a spinoff of Daria, which was itself a Beavis and Butt-Head spinoff.
No date was given for the show's return.
