Rubber Nipple Salesmen is the 5th episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 29 August 1992.

Plot

Ren and Stimpy have gone to work as a door-to-door salesmen pushing the unlikely product of rubber nipple coverings. Stimpy and Ren disagree about the purposes of their work. In a parody of the 1963 " I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr., Stimpy says he has a dream where every American man and woman will be wearing rubble nipple coverings, which he believes will somehow improve the world. Ren by contrast only wants to sell rubber nipple coverings to become rich. At their first house, Ren pushes Stimpy out of the way and goes to the door, only to have his head smashed in by the psychotic Fire Chief who mistook Ren for the dreaded circus midgets whom the Fire Chief hates. At their second house, Mr. Horse answers the door along with a walrus and is notably nervous. It is strongly implied that Mr. Horse is a sexual predator who has kidnapped the walrus and is now molesting him as the walrus begs Ren and Stimpy to call the police. At the third house, Ren and Stimpy are allowed in by the perpetually clueless couple Mr. Pipe and Mrs. Pipe. Ren and Stimpy demonstrate a variety of impractical uses for the rubber nipple coverings and are rewarded when both Mr. and Mrs. Pipe agreeing to buy the coverings, and then immediately expel Ren and Stimpy from their house.

Cast

• Ren-voice of John Kricfalusi.
• Stimpy-voice of Billy West
• Mrs. Pipe-voice of Cheryl Chase
• Mr. Pipe-voice of Billy West
• Fire Chief-voice of Harris Peet
• Mr. Horse-voice of John Kricfalusi

Production

The idea for the episode came from the showrunner John Kricfalusi and Vincent Waller, one of the writers at the Spümcø studio. ^[1] The network executive Will McRobb gave his approval for the episode despite its risque content, but insisted on removing "all the bits of innuendo John would pretend weren't innuendo". ^[1] The production of Rubber Nipple Salesmen moved forward slowly at the Spümcø owning largely to the perfectionism of Kricfalusi. ^[2] The artists on the lay-out stage complained that it took four weeks for Kricfalusi to give his approval as he wanted every frame to be perfect. ^[2] Much of the drawings along the illustrating the episode was done at the Rough Draft Korea studio in Seoul. ^[3] David Koenigsberg of the Spümcø studio stated that Rough Draft Korea was an inexperienced studio, which was reflected in their work as he stated: "When we tried to have them animate for digital in-and-paint and camera in Hollywood, they could not follow one simple rule: never trace a line. There's no need to for digital. We had to fix scene after scene". ^[4]

Reception

The American journalist Rachel Llewellyn wrote that Rubber Nipple Salesmen was a product of the "bizarro world" of Kricfalusi's mind. ^[5] She wrote that the sexual abuse allegations against Kricfalusi that came out in 2018 as it revealed that he had used his celebrity as the showrunner to have sex with teenage girls who were fans of his TV show tainted her enjoyment of the show. ^[5] The American journalist Victoria Vouloumanos wrote that the scene with the walrus whom it is clearly implied is being sexually molested by Mr. Horse was one of the more disturbing scenes in American animation. made worse by the fact that the scene was played for laughs. ^[6]

Books and articles

• Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN  1593931107.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN  978-1629331836.

References