Haunted House

Haunted House
Season	2
Number	4b
Original air date	November 21, 1992
Directed by	Ron Hughart
Animation by	Wang Yaquan
Written by	John Kricfalusi Bob Camp Jim Smith Richard Pursel
Storyboards	Bob Camp Jim Smith Richard Pursel
B.G. Color by	Bill Wray
Production #	6b
Transcript
Gallery
Credits
Episode Guide
Previous	Sven Hoek (episode)
Next	Mad Dog Hoek

"Haunted House" is the eighth episode of the second season.

Characters

• Ren
• Stimpy
• Shaven Yak
• The Ghost
• Rudolph the Jazzman
• Bloody Head Fairy (deleted scene)

Plot

Ren and Stimpy arrive at a mansion not knowing it is haunted and decide it is the perfect place to "kill twelve minutes". While they are outside, a Droopy-like ghost plans to scare them. First, he tried to scare them with his most hideous grimace, but got knocked down by the door. In his second attempt, Stimpy went to standing up knight armor, thinking it is a wood burning stove. The ghost tries to slice him in half, but the ghost goes to the bottom, Stimpy puts the wood in his mouth, and burns the ghost to a crisp. Later the ghost hides in a stack of bread attracting the duo by yelling, "I'll hide in this...BREAD!!" But he gets covered in peanut butter, marmalade, fish eggs, and a fish. And then he gets beaten by Shaven Yak. Later on the ghost tries to attack Stimpy while he is showering, (Psycho shower scene reference) but instead he gets used like a rag. (deleted scene) Later the ghost tries to scare Ren by placing a bloody, disembodied head on his head while he is fast asleep. Fortunately, a fairy comes and removes the head, replacing it with a couple of dimes, before leaving again. Ren wakes up feeling something strange. "Quick, Stimpy!" he exclaims, "There's something in my ear!" Stimpy inspects poor, scared Ren's ear and realizes the situation; after calming Ren down he explains that he has just been visited "by the Bloody Head Fairy!" Oddly, this cheers Ren up. When the ghost sees this, he punches himself in the face repeatedly. (end of deleted scene). Later on the ghost tries one last thing. Inside a treasure chest, he hops out wearing a witch doctor mask, and wielding a chainsaw, as lightning begins flashing. He later approaches the bed waking up the two by screaming, "Wake up you...PIGS!!!" Ren and Stimpy then mistake him for a trick-or-treater and give him candy. Exasperated, he yells, "That's it! I quiiit!" He takes off the mask and admits to them that he has been trying to scare them all night, to little avail, and calls himself a failure. Later, Stimpy tries to cheer him up, but the ghost tries commit suicide by hammering a nail in his head. Stimpy gives him a bottle of poison to use instead. The ghost drinks it then comes back to life as a naked African-American man named "Rudolph the Jazzman." He then leaves in a big red car, with the episode ending with Ren & Stimpy waving goodbye to him in bewilderment.

Production Music

• Toccata D Minor – Johann Bach (title card)
• Saw Theme – W Trytel (ghost’s first appearance)
• Little Symphony-Spooky Scherzo – Sam Fonteyn (Ren and Stimpy kick down the door)
• Gothic Towers (b) – Richard Myhill (“I must go freshen up.”)
• Saw Theme – W Trytel (“This calls for the direct approach.”)
• Exciting Percussion – John Fox (wood burning stove)
• Building Tension – John Fox (ghost stuffed with wood)
• Romantic Evening – Gary Hughes (sausage-fied ghost)
• Sublime Ghost – William Loose, John Seely [Capitol Hi-Q] (“Where are they?”)
• Rock N Roll Bop – David Morse [CPM] (kitchen scene)
• Red River Valley – Erik Markman [OGM] (yak gives thanks)
• Tension Tag #1 – Dan Kirsten [OGM] (yak punches ghost sandwich)
• Gothic Towers (b) – Richard Myhill (“Maybe it’s up those hideous stairs.”)
• Brahms: Lullaby – Les Peel [OGM] (Ren and Stimpy in bed)
• Dramatic Sting #9 – Dan Kirsten [OGM] (Ren smells Stimpy’s armpits)
• Smouldering Fury (a) – Trevor Duncan (ghost enters bathroom)
• Scared Stiff – John Fox (Psycho parody)
• That Crazy Rag – Keith Nichols (Stimpy drying himself with the ghost)
• Gothic Towers (b) – Richard Myhill (establishing shot of mansion)
• Menacing Threat – John Fox (when the ghost puts the head on Ren)
• Tchaikovsky: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies from “The Nutcracker Suite” – Lee Ashley [OGM] (bloody head fairy)
• Graveyard – Johnny Pearson (“Quick, Stimpy, there’s something in my ear!”)
• Terror – Alan Braden (ghost punching himself)
• Gothic Towers (b) – Richard Myhill (“I’ve had it with this child’s play!”)
• Inferno – Fredric Bayco (ghost approaches the bed with the chainsaw)
• Symphony #9 “New World” – Largo – Antonin Dvorak, Fiachra Trench (ghost thinks he’s a failure)
• Funeral March – Frederic Chopin, Fiachra Trench (“Sweet Lord, no!”)
• Without Walls A – Mladen Franko (choir)
• Creole Clarinet – Keith Nichols (“I’m alive. Killer.”)

Trivia

• This is the first 11 minute episode in production order to use digital ink & paint, whilst the episode "Sven Hoek" was the first double-length episode to use digital ink & paint. It is also the first digitally-colored episode to not be animated by Carbunkle Cartoons (it was animated in Taiwan by Color Key Studios).
• The animation arrived during the final week when the show was still at Spümcø. Subsequently, the newly-formed Games Animation performed post-production on the episode, notably converting the scene in which the ghost ambushes Stimpy in the shower into an extended Psycho allusion.
• After the end credits, it cuts straight to the Nickelodeon logo. (source: https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroNickelodeon/comments/14xeo0s/commercial_break_from_snick_october_30th_1993/ and https://nickstory.fandom.com/wiki/October_30,_1993)
• This is the first episode to use CGI effects, notably being used for the title card opening credits.
• The towel gag from "Ren's Toothache" is reused in this episode, where Ren tells Stimpy to "wash where the sun don't shine".
• The bloody head fairy scene was cut from the DVD release. The reason for this was that John K. was unhappy with the scene, as the original idea for the bloody head fairy (George Liquor in a tu-tu) was rejected by Nickelodeon and replaced with a parody of Doug Funnie from the show Doug.

• This is the only episode to be animated by Color Key Studios Taiwan, who later collaborated with Spümcø again to make Boo Boo Runs Wild.
• This episode is Ron Hughart's directorial debut.
• The scene where Stimpy is taking a shower is a reference to the 1960 film Psycho, although it was not intended as such within either the original storyboard or layouts.
• The box for the bloody head gag reads "SPUMCO".
• John K. did not want the shower scene, but Nickelodeon kept it.
• This episode was originally going to be made for a rejected Tiny Toons Adventures segment "Hi, Spirits" featuring Gogo and Hamton. The plot in the original Tiny Toons storyboard is pretty much the same as this with a few differences:
  • The fourth wall is broken in the beginning of the episode as Stimpy says that the haunted house would be a good place to "kill twelve minutes", a reference to the episode's length. This replaces Gogo and Hamton saying they would use the haunted house as a Hog Scouts clubhouse in the original Tiny Toons script.
  • Gogo refers to the raw fish eggs he squirts onto the sandwich as "caviar" (since caviar is cooked fish eggs).
  • The Bloody Head Fairy in the original storyboard is Elmer Fudd.
  • The scene where Ren and Stimpy mistake the Ghost with his witch doctor mask and chainsaw for a trick-or-treater was carried over from the original Tiny Toons version, most likely a reference to a scene in the 1952 Looney Tunes short "The Hasty Hare" where Bugs Bunny initially mistakes Marvin the Martian and K-9 for costumed trick-or-treaters and gives them candy.
  • The Ghost breaks the fourth wall near the end of the episode where he tells the duo that he's been trying to scare them "all through this picture". The joke was carried over from the original Tiny Toons version, where similar fourth-wall breaks were often employed.
  • The end of this episode is entirely different. Instead of the Ghost drinking the poison given by Stimpy, he sings a sad song of how no one is afraid of him as he unintentionally summons other ghosts and monsters.
  • Instead of the Ghost resurrecting as Rudolph the Jazzman, Gogo accidently bumps into the furniture and a moose head falls down on him. Hamton is now terrified as he looks at the head of the moose, mistaking it as a monster. As Hamton is running for his life, he runs out the mansion, with Gogo following him to remind Hamton that it's just him. The Ghost watches the chase from the window, very confused. He then tells the audience that he now "seen everything". It ends with the Ghost looking himself at the mirror, and even his own reflection is now terrified of him.
• Stimpy sings "Happy Happy Joy Joy" in the shower.
• In the UK, the Bloody Head Fairy scene was banned and cut in the UK because the word "bloody" is a swear word in the United Kingdom. (For example: Bloody Hell)
• This episode aired on NickRewind in September 2021, with the Bloody Head Fairy scene included.
• This episode is not on Paramount+ due to its' sister episode "Mad Dog Hoek" featuring a Raymond Scott music track and the clearance rights issues involving it.