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John Kricfalusi
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Born
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Michael John Kricfalusi
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Birth date
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September 9, 1955
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Birth place
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Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada
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Other names
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John K.
Raymond Spüm Raymond S. |
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Occupation
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Animator, voice actor
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Years active
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1979-2020
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Notable work(s)
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The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Goddamn George Liquor Program, Weekend Pussy Hunt, The Ripping Friends, Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon
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John Kricfalusi (born Michael John Kricfalusi, September 9, 1955 in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian former cartoonist, and creator of The Ren & Stimpy Show.
Kricfalusi was heavily involved in the first two seasons, where he directed, wrote storyboards and produced many episode, and even provided the voice for Ren Höek.
Kricfalusi was fired from the Ren and Stimpy Show in 1992 for reasons having to do with constant missed deadlines and for his deteriorating relationship with Nickelodeon over the direction of the show and has not achieved the same commercial success his series had since. He is a controversial figure in the animation industry due to his openly rude, egotistical, immature and inappropriate behavior and for creating a hostile work environment in his animation studio Spümcø. In 2018, he was accused of sexual harassment by two woman named Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice, who have reported to BuzzFeed that they were sexually harassed and groomed while underaged. As a result, he has reluctantly retired from the animation industry and will not have any involvement or financial gain from the upcoming reboot for the Ren and Stimpy Show by Comedy Central.
Early work
Kricfalusi first worked on projects with Ralph Bakshi, especially on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, and later went to work on the 1980s revival of Beany and Cecil, where he would work with many of the people with whom he would later work on Ren and Stimpy.
Ren and Stimpy
Earlier in his career, Kricfalusi would draw pictures of Stimpy, a "retarded cat" based on of a pair of cats in a Tweety Bird cartoon, A Gruesome Twosome, which had cats with big bulbous noses. Around that same time, he created "asthma-hound Chihuahua" Ren Höek from a postcard one sent him of a Chihuahua with a sweater on. Later on, Joel Faynor, who worked with Kricfalusi, suggested to him that he should put the two characters together, and the advice was accepted. Kricfalusi goes into more depth on the creations in "Ren and Stimpy: In the Beginning," a featurette on Disc 1 of The Ren & Stimpy Show: The First and Second Season (Uncut) DVD.
Kricfalusi, along with partners Jim Smith, Bob Camp, and Lynne Naylor, founded the studio Spümcø in 1988, and pitched The Ren & Stimpy Show around several networks until Nickelodeon picked it up. It first aired on August 11, 1991, with "Stimpy's Big Day|The Big Shot."
Throughout the series' five seasons, Kricfalusi was only involved with the first two. He started to battle with the executives at Nickelodeon over missed deadlines and content and began to develop a reputation for behaving inappropriately as well as being difficult to work with. After the episode, Man's Best Friend, Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi, and Spümcø, from his own series. The last three seasons were done by Games Animation, Nickelodeon's studio, with some season two and three episodes originally started at Spümcø.
Later efforts
Kricfalusi would go on direct several music videos, for Björk's "I Miss You" (animated by the entire Spümcø staff) in 1997, Tenacious D's "Classico" in 2006, and "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Close But No Cigar" that same year.
He would also create two Internet-only cartoons: The Goddamn George Liquor Program (the first Internet-only cartoon) in 1997 and Weekend Pussy Hunt in 1999.
Kricfalusi returned to television and directed two Yogi Bear cartoons, dedicated to Hanna and Joseph Barbera: Boo Boo Runs Wild and A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith and the animated series The Ripping Friends in 2001.
In 2019, he would release the infamous short Cans Without Labels.
Adult Party Cartoon
In 2002, Kricfalusi was contacted by the struggling TNN (now Spike) network to produce new episodes of Ren and Stimpy. John created Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", which used plots developed from the original series, but with swearing, violence, sexually explicit adult themes and extreme dialogue added, and the show aired in June 2003. However, the reboot was cancelled after only three episodes aired, due to heavy criticism and adverse reviews. These episodes and several unaired episodes, were put out on DVD as "Ren & Stimpy: The Lost Episodes" in 2006 after Spumco was filed lawsuit on July 18, 2005 by Carbunkle Cartoons in Canada. However, Kricfalusi was unhappy with how Adult Party turned out. Newer fans of Ren and Stimpy panned and hated this reboot and somewhat older fans hated it as well. As the reboot was poorly received, it damaged the reputations of both Ren and Stimpy and John Kricfalusi.
Sexual allegation incidents
In 2018, Kricfalusi was accused of sexual harassment: Animators Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice alleged in a BuzzFeed report on March 29, 2018, that they were sexually harassed and groomed for sexual abuse by Kricfalusi while they were underage. Byrd said that she was in a sexual relationship with Kricfalusi in 1997 when she was 16 and moved in with him when she was 17. Katie Rice said that she was sexually harassed by Kricfalusi when she turned 18 and began working at his animation studio, Spümcø.
Documents they had saved from those years corroborate their stories, and several people who worked with Kricfalusi referred to his sexual harassment as an open secret in the animation industry. Kricfalusi was also alleged to possess child pornography on his computer. Kricfalusi's lawyer confirmed that "for a brief time, 25 years ago, he had a 16-year-old girlfriend", but denied that Kricfalusi's "avid pursuit" of Rice was sexual harassment or that he had ever possessed child pornography.
On April 6, 2018, Robyn Byrd revealed the graphic threats from Kricfalusi she had received via Twitter, further harming his reputation. She posted screenshots of Kricfalusi posting under a known pseudonym. In one of those messages Kricfalusi said to Byrd in defense, "It's not my fault you were (expletive) underage you were just so (expletive) sexy."[1]
In early May 2018, Kricfalusi published an apology on Facebook on the matter and his subsequent actions. Byrd referred to his apology as a "non-apology and a big pile of manipulative crap" and an attempt to deflect the blame.
Retirement
In the 2020 documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story, Kricfalusi confirmed that he had officially retired from the animation industry, though "not exactly by choice".
Episode credits
| Ep # | Episode Title | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot | ||
| 0 | Big House Blues | director writer producer animator storyboard artist voice of Ren |
| Season 1 | ||
| 1a | Stimpy's Big Day | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 1b | The Big Shot! | director writer producer voice of Ren voice of Mr. Horse |
| 2a | Robin Höek | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 2b | Nurse Stimpy | director (as Raymond Spum) writer producer voice of Ren |
| 3a | Space Madness | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 3b | The Boy Who Cried Rat | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 4a | The Littlest Giant | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 4b | Fire Dogs | director writer producer voice of Ren voice of Mr. Horse voice of Mrs. Buttloaves |
| 5a | Marooned | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 5b | Untamed World | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 6a | Black Hole | producer Voice of Ren |
| 6b | Stimpy's Invention | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| Season 2 | ||
| 7a | In The Army | producer voice of Ren |
| 7b | Powdered Toast Man | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 8a | Ren's Toothache | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 8b | Man's Best Friend | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 9a | Out West | writer producer voice of Ren voice of Mr. Horse |
| 9b | Rubber Nipple Salesmen | director writer producer voice of Ren voice of Mr. Horse |
| 10 | Sven Höek | director writer producer animator voice of Ren |
| 11a | Haunted House | writer producer voice of Ren |
| 11b | Mad Dog Hoek | producer voice of Ren |
| 12b | Big Baby Scam | producer voice of Ren |
| 12b | Dog Show | director producer voice of Ren |
| 13 | Son of Stimpy | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 14a | Monkey See, Monkey Don't | producer |
| 14b | Fake Dad | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| 15a | The Great Outdoors | writer producer voice of Mr. Horse voice of Mrs. Buttloaves |
| 15b | The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball | producer |
| 16 | Stimpy's Fan Club | writer producer voice of Ren |
| 17 | A Visit To Anthony | director producer voice of Ren voice of Mr. Horse |
| 18 | The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen | director writer producer voice of Ren |
| Season 3 | ||
| 19a | To Salve And Salve Not | producer (uncredited) |
| 19b | A Yard Too Far | writer producer (uncredited) |
| 20b | No Pants Today | producer (uncredited) |
| 21a | Ren's Pecs | writer (uncredited) producer (uncredited) |
| 22 | Stimpy's Cartoon Show | writer producer (uncredited) |
| 23a | Jimminy Lummox | producer (uncredited) |
| 23b | Bass Masters | writer (premise) producer (uncredited) |
| 27a | Eat My Cookies | producer (uncredited) |
| 28 | Lair Of The Lummox | writer producer (uncredited) |
| Season 4 | ||
| 33a | Magical Golden Singing Cheeses | writer (uncredited) producer (uncredited) |
| Season 5 | ||
| 45b | Ren's Brain | writer producer (uncredited) |
| 47b | Who's Stupid Now? | writer (uncredited) producer (uncredited) |
| 50a | Terminal Stimpy | producer (uncredited) |