# Reverend Jack

"Reverend Jack" is the eighteenth and penultimate episode of the fifth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on December 9, 1995.

## Plot

Ren and Stimpy are hired by accomplished genius Reverend Jack Cheese to operate his meat theatre. The local children love the theatre, jumping out of windows to follow their van as they hear the jingle. Stimpy reminds Jack to start holding the show; Jack is shown for the first time, with the words "pity" and "self-pity" on his hands and holding a kielbasa.
Jack starts the show after Stimpy hands him his screw-on thumb to play his one-stringed guitar. He preaches the "gospel of meat", with meat puppets being portrayed by the duo. A cow appears, distraught towards the show and knowing Jack's true nature, and throws rocks to harass Jack; Ren is flattened by a meat-made cow puppet and hit with a rock. It is clear that the children do not like Jack's show and are only there for the meat he shows and sells, which Ren and Stimpy helps with.
At night, Stimpy counts their earnings for the day, including bottle caps paid by children in malice. Meanwhile, Jack rests in his bed of meat and drinks barbecue sauce, disliking the way Stimpy applies the sauce on his body when he clearly wants it for the taste. He orders the duo to do rapid and absurd manual labor in preparation of a "ceremony", including his buttocks needing to be "flat and square"; Stimpy steals a slab from a baseball match where the Pope is playing for this. Jack wears his meat robe and hat and has his innards coated with ice, before starting the ceremony, where he cuts blood sausages as a homage to meat.
The next day, Jack wakes up with a vision where his father apparently tells him to learn to drive. He demands Ren to keep driving without serving any children, to the point the meat starts to rot and tiring the duo out. Stimpy finds Jack sitting and doing nothing, prompting Jack to "lecture" him about the importance of the meat over that of children while pumping false tears. Suddenly, they are confronted by Jasper the police officer, who notes that they have drove with a gasoline pump dragged miles from the filling station connected to the fuel tank, while running over two "circus midgets" in the meantime. Jasper is disgusted by the sight of Jack in the rotting meat, revoking his license to sell meat and immediately ending his career. Jack leaves with a cow's carcass and promises to be back.
Four years later, Ren and Stimpy had taken over Jack's business, revamping the show to be more watchable while being paid more fairly without Jack's meddling. Jack still follows them every show to pelt rocks at them out of spite like the cow from earlier, but the duo have already adapted with protective equipment against this act, ending the episode.

## Cast

* Ren – voice of Billy West
* Stimpy – voice of Billy West
* Jasper – voice of Harris Peet
* Reverend Jack Cheese – voice of Frank Gorshin

## Production

"Reverend Jack" is the third and last episode in the series to be directed by Craig Bartlett, who had successfully pitched Hey Arnold! to Games Animation while working as a story editor to Rugrats at Klasky Csupo; he was given directorial work on The Ren & Stimpy Show before production of the series can officially start, with the episode premiering shortly before. He was told not to tamper with the episodes' writing whenever he directed, serving as what he considered a "mechanic" role. Reverend Jack Cheese is an unsubtle caricature of series creator John Kricfalusi; aside from a similar appearance, Jack's mental instability and abuse of his subjects (in this case Ren and Stimpy) is evidently taken from his impression according to crew members at Games Animation. Jack's constant harassment of Ren and Stimpy taking over his act is also a jab on Kricfalusi manipulating public favor against Nickelodeon and Games Animation, subjecting them to harassment from individuals with no involvement and knowledge in the situation. John Kricfalusi noted that he believed Nickelodeon simply wanted to capitalize on his poor public image with the episode, when reacting to it in commentary of the home media release.

## Reception

American journalist Thad Komorowski gave the episode four out of five stars, calling it an outstanding episode that would not work without sufficient knowledge of its in-jokes, while also a clever parody of cults.

## 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.