# Ren's Brain

"Ren's Brain" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on October 7, 1995. It is the final episode of the series to be conceptualized at Spümcø, as well as the last with the involvement of writer Richard Pursel and the episode's director and storyboarder Chris Reccardi.

## Plot

Stimpy is an amateur neurosurgeon who operates illegal neurosurgery in a shed next to Ren and Stimpy's house. He conducts experiments on brains, rendering them unable to function after failing. He disappointedly goes back to sleep. The next morning, the Sun shines on Ren's head, making Stimpy realize Ren's brain might be good enough for his experiment. Morally corrupt from his work, he does not weigh the consequences and decides to extract Ren's brain.
Stimpy operates a drill intended for lobotomy, but uses it to open a heavily guarded jar where he acquires his hazardously sharp scalpel. He successfully extracts Ren's brain and spinal column, with four nerves for navigation, making the experiment a triumph. Despite the pain and noise from Stimpy and his chimpanzee assistant, Ren does not wake up. The brain is placed in fluid to keep it alive.
Ren awakes, but does not realize his situation; he sees the time and gets to work, able to drive without problems. Stimpy enters to find Ren's brain missing; he replaces Ren's brain with a telephone to keep him functioning. While Ren's body wakes up, Stimpy cowers in fear as he is too stupid to realize Ren's brain makes him think, believing him to react in anger, but he turns out to be able to survive and think with the telephone, albeit heavily intellectually disabled. Stimpy is moved that Ren's body can "play with him" after he responds to stimuli.
Stimpy plays with Ren's body in the backyard. He sprinkles cat litter on him and watches him run into walls and hits himself with a spoon while Ren hits himself with wood. Meanwhile, Ren is able to work with no issue, apparently able to function normally with just his brain; he had an unusually lucky day at work, gaining a promotion from his employer Stabco. He finds Stimpy with his body, but is too stupid to realize it is his body, believing it to be another Chihuahua, even when hearing voices from the telephone after assaulting him. Stimpy tries to restrain him and sedate him with a needle he prepared. Ren's body manages to broadcast the event on television, killing the entire population of the United States and the world (including Stimpy) from shock at the sight and destroying Earth ("Thus endeth the Republican Party as we know it!"). Ren's brain is the only survivor of the incident, flying in space and realizing what had happened, as he angrily calls Stimpy and his body idiots for the episode's events and ending the episode.

## Cast

* Ren – Voice of Billy West and John Kricfalusi (reused line from "Svën Höek")
* Stimpy – Voice of Billy West

## Production

John Kricfalusi and Richard Pursel wrote the outline of the episode at Spümcø, intended to air as part as the second season, but Kricfalusi was fired in 1992 and Pursel refused to be hired at Games Animation. Most of his outlines and loose plots were used by Games, save for individual rejected outlines like "Ren Seeks Help". Kricfalusi intended it to be the series' next cult classic, noting this when he reacted to the final product with no involvement from him in the home media release. "Ren's Brain" was the last to be used by Games, production being delayed from the third season to the fourth season.
Showrunner Bob Camp attempted to direct the episode as part of the third season, as he had with most leftovers from Kricfalusi, with Spümcø alumni Jim Gomez and Kricfalusi's former protege Mike Kim respectively producing storyboards and supervising layouts; it never went into fruition as production of the third season turned out to be as chaotic as when Kricfalusi was present. He reluctantly let Chris Reccardi, the most capable draftsman that he was able to be hire into Games, to direct the episode as his final outing in the series before Nickelodeon quietly cancelled the series. Reccardi's unit had suffered and eventually closed due to immense conflicts; his wife Lynne Naylor had left the studio the same way she did at Spümcø due to these reasons, but he nevertheless wanted to direct one final episode. Reccardi worked on the episode's storyboards and took over direction all by himself, neglecting rest to make the episode as good as he can.
The episode eventually aired during a Nickelodeon-"commissioned" fifth season, with Reccardi departing immediately after its production. It is the last work Reccardi did on anything related to Ren & Stimpy before his death in 2019.

## Reception

American journalist Thad Komorowski gave the episode four and a half out of five stars, calling it one of Reccardi's best episodes as director.

## Books and articles

* Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1593931100.
* Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1629331836.