Stimpy builds a device that changes Ren's angry behavior altogether, but will it last?
Plot[]
Stimpy decides to be an inventor and ends up inventing various devices/gadgets. He has a reluctant Ren try out his Cheese-O-Phone, which allows people to talk to cheese, regardless of their foreign tongues. Next, he invents a shaver that allows people to get a close shave without even being there, which leads to him shaving off most of Ren's fur. Before Ren can strangle him, Stimpy presents his friend with a gift. The gift is Stimpy's latest invention, Stay-Put Socks (socks that never fall down). Ren is at first delighted, but then discovers that the socks are filled with glue. Stimpy departs to get the Stay-Put hat and raincoat, while Ren attempts to go after but can't get out of the socks. When Stimpy returns, he immediately notices that Ren is angry. Therefore, he decides to invent something that will make Ren happy all the time. After a long inventing session, he comes up with the Happy Helmet, a helmet to control Ren's happiness. Ren is thrust into a state of completely forced happiness. He begins doing nice things for Stimpy, such as cleaning out his cat box and ironing his underwear. Then, Stimpy brings home a record of his favorite song ("Happy, Happy, Joy Joy" by Stinky Whizzleteats, a parody of Burl Ives). The two of them begin dancing to the record. In the middle of the dancing, Ren runs into the kitchen and finds a hammer in one of the drawers. Angered, Ren uses the hammer to smash the helmet, then storms back into the living room and begins strangling Stimpy. It's then that he realizes how much he loves being angry and thanks Stimpy for making him enraged. The episode ends with a shot of Ren grinning evilly into the camera while his maniacal laugh plays in the background.
Ask Dr. Stupid segment[]
From: Jennifer
Location: Bent Armpit, Wyoming
Question: What is that ugly white slab in my can of beans?
Answer: The Queen Bean, and all other beans are the worker beans that serve her.
Production[]
The episode had a very troubled production, taking a year to complete from the beginning of production in February 1991 until it aired a year later in February 1992. The story had its origins in 1990 when Bob Camp developed the idea of a story called "Stimpy's Inventions" in which Ren serves as an unwilling guinea pig for Stimpy's impractical inventions. John Kricfalusi was greatly taken with Camp's idea. Camp later stated that Kricfalusi "fell in love with the idea, that he constantly refined everything in it to the point of ridiculousness, until everything was perfect". Kricfalusi changed the focus on the story as Camp stated that he told him: "Look, why don't we have him [Ren] have a real fit and go insane at one point, and then Stimpy decides he's going to make an invention that's going to cure Ren?". Kricfalusi developed the idea of the Happy Helmet that enslaves Ren, and make the focus of the story Ren's struggle for freedom.
This episode was close to being rejected as Nickelodeon executive believed that the episode would "terrify children", probably due to Ren's creepy smile and his psychotic laughter throughout most of the segment. John K. believed that they'll love the episode and it's story. Ironically, as the executive read the story of the episode, they started to love it, and asked John if he could make another episode that turns out to be a cult hit like "Stimpy's Invention".
Dance of Hours: Theme 1 – Amilcare Ponchielli (“Hey Ren, are you feeling any better?”)
Night on Bare Mountain – Modest Mussorgsky (Happy Helmet introduction)
Flight of the Bumblebee – Nikolai Rimsky Korsakoff (Happy Helmet starting to take effect)
Cacodemon – Maurice Jarre (“I must go do… nice things!”)
Lambs in Clover – Jack Strachey (Ren ironing)
The March of the Ants – Sidney Crooke (Gritty Kitty scene)
Links and Interjections (II – 1 -10) – Alan Braden (Ren in bed happily sleeping)
Happy Outing – Marc Lanjean (Stimpy arriving home)
Romantic – Alan Braden (“Say, maybe Ren is somewhere being sad.”)
Shopping Spree – Laurie Johnson (“Boy, Ren, if you think you’re happy now, wait till you hear this!”)
Happy Happy Joy Joy – John Kricfalusi, Chris Reccardi, Charlie Brissette [original composition]
Symphony #6 “Pastoral” Movement 4 – Ludwig Beethoven (“I’ve never been this angry in my entire life!!!”)
Dance of Hours: Theme 1 – Amilcare Ponchielli (“I love being angry! Thank you, Stimpy.”)
Reception[]
This episode has been considered one of the show's most famous, and also one of the best episodes the show has ever made. It was praised for the song "Happy Happy, Joy Joy!", which was a popular hit from the series.
The episode was ranked #78 during Nick.com's "Top 100 Greatest Moments in Nicktoon History".
This episode, as well as it's sister episode, "Black Hole", are the only two episodes from the first season that aired in 1992, because this episode had been delayed a few months due to missing a deadline.
In Stimpy's brief construction montage, the machines that are used were animated digitally. This is the first time digital ink and paint is shown in the series.
There are cute animals and smiley faces painted above Ren's bed in this episode, due to the influence of the Happy Helmet that forced Ren to be happy. Without the Happy Helmet, Ren probably would hate all of this.
This is also one of the few episodes where Ren and Stimpy are shown sleeping in separate beds instead of one.
The current reruns shown on Nicktoons in the UK have cut out the scene where Stimpy displays the "Cheese-O-Phone" for unknown reasons.
However, Comedy Central UK broadcasts have this scene reinstated
The line "You sick little monkey!" was also used in an episode of South Park.
According to Bob Jaques on a Cartoon Logic Podcast patreon commentary, the reason the scene where Stimpy puts on his underwear looks scratched is because it was sourced from a workprint. Jaques had called for a retake on that scene and was approved on Bob's last day at Fil Cartoons but either wasn't sent over or the post production supervisor didn't fell like including it.
During the scene where Ren cleans out Stimpy's litter box, some of his crazy laughing was improvised by Billy West, the voice of Stimpy, who would later take over the role of Ren in the show's run.
According to the DVD commentary of "Stimpy's Invention", after Ren irons Stimpy's underwear, Stimpy licked the underwear and stuck it on himself. In the final production, he sticks the underwear on him without even licking it.
Ren and Stimpy's dance to "Happy Happy, Joy Joy!" was later used for the SNICK commercial bumper when the show was airing on that line up. The only difference is that Ren and Stimpy are dancing on the SNICK couch instead of under spot lights.
Nicktoons (which aired reruns of the show starting in July 2005) occasionally played the clip featuring the song during commercial breaks from time to time (when it was rebranded as Nicktoons Network in Sep. of that year).
Errors[]
Like most episodes, Ren's tail keeps disappearing and reappearing. This ends up becoming a running gag in the series.
At one point when Ren is on the couch, his right ear is transparent
Ren without his tail showing
In three scenes, Stimpy's nose is red instead of blue.
When Ren comes down the stairs to greet Stimpy, he is wearing a bathrobe. In the next scene, when he is coming toward Stimpy and reaching for his neck, the bathrobe is gone.
When Stimpy shouts "Eureka!" after finishing his invention, his face is off centered.
Stimpy tells Ren that the dial on the remote controls how happy he is, yet he presses the dial like a button.
During the scene with the stay-put socks, when Stimpy turns to Ren and says "They're full of glue!", his eyes do not move along with the rest of his body
When Ren was rubbing the Happy Helmet, when it cut to the jukebox and cut back to Ren, the drawers changed colors.
When we cut to a wide shot of Ren asking Stimpy about the Stay Put Socks, in the previous shot, most of his fur had been shaved off, but a shot later, it grew back.
