"Superstitious Stimpy" is an episode of Season 4.
Characters[]
Summary[]
Stimpy becomes superstitious when Tuesday the 17th arrives. Ren denies all of this until it's revealed that he was born on that day, so Stimpy has to help him with his bad luck.
Plot[]
The episode begins with Stimpy nailing a boar's head to the wall, creating a lot of noise. Ren enters and yells at Stimpy, asking as to why he is doing it. Stimpy explains that it is Tuesday the 17th, the most unlucky day of the year and that the boar's head is to expel bad luck. Stimpy suggests that Ren kiss the boar's head in order to combat bad luck, but Ren refuses, seeing Stimpy as stupid for listening to 'old husband tales.' Stimpy tries not to listen, as blasphemy causes bad luck. Ren decides to kick the boar's head, but the body of the boar comes back, causing the boar's head to be re-animated and reunited with the body which kicks Ren into the wall, which is more bad luck.
Later, Ren attempts to start his indoor barbecue. He orders Stimpy to go get the meat, but Stimpy says that cooking indoors is unlucky. He takes the carcass and goes outside with it, determined to stop their bad luck. After waiting half an hour, Ren goes outside to find Stimpy offering the carcass as a sacrifice, as beef carcasses are very, very lucky (once they cover it in bile). Ren steals the carcass back and throws it onto the bed, which is more bad juju, and blasphemes by calling Stimpy's paranoia 'stuperstitions.' He then calls juju to attack him, only to be struck by lightning. Furious, he orders Stimpy to go back inside the house.
Later, Ren cooks the beef carcass on the bed while making the atmosphere as unlucky as possible, which includes having Stimpy dress in black and cross his path. Despite Stimpy's warnings, he dismisses his concerns and gets Stimpy to say that superstitions are fake and he is a moron. Eventually, he cooks the carcass with no bad luck. When Ren turns his head, Stimpy notices a wine red mark on Ren's cheek, which he says is his birth mark. Going through his book of unluckiness, Stimpy discovers many telltale signs of unluckiness, including webbed toes, which Ren has. Stimpy also takes off Ren's chef hat and discovers that Ren has a horn on his head and is the unlucky beast - the most unlucky person in the world. Ren admits that he was born on Tuesday the 17th and as a result, is cursed. Stimpy decides to help Ren counteract his bad luck through a variety of methods.
The first method involves having Ren gargle several things, including owl pellets, baboon drool and toad squeezing. The next method is to jump off the roof, as juju is scared of heights. Ren and Stimpy along with the beef carcass jump off the roof with goats. Finally, Ren is dressed in a variety of unlucky devices, including a cinderblock hat with a rodent, underwear full of garlic, skunk shoes, mouthfuls of pig intestines and leeches on his arms. Ren must hold a pose until the next day to be certain his bad luck is completely gone, but Ren ends up swallowing the intestines after Ren must go to the bathroom. He goes to an outhouse and manages to defecate, but lightning strikes the outhouse and undoes Ren's luck. Ren comes back inside, burnt to a crisp. To stop it, Stimpy decides to give Ren his family's heirloom, a lucky leper's foot. Ren kisses the foot and becomes luckier, but a leper (precisely where Stimpy's lucky family heirloom came from) along with the same boar earlier in the episode come in. The boar tells the leper that Ren is the "one" who stole his missing other foot and the leper takes his missing other foot back and starts to hit him with it. However, Stimpy says that Ren is very, very lucky, as he was hit by a leper because Stimpy thinks it's good luck to get smitten by a leper.
Trivia/Goofs[]
- This episode, along with "Travelogue", aired during Season 5, despite being in Season 4.
- Despite the main animation being done at Rough Draft Studios, the layouts were done by Mr. Big Cartoons.
- This episode serves as a parody of Friday the 13th, a day in the Western world which is considered extremely unlucky. Tuesday the 17th actually comes four days after Friday the 13th.
- This is the final episode in which Peter Avanzino is credited.
- When Stimpy started to nail the boar's head to the wall, there were three nails. When Ren says "And what does that have to do with nailing a boar's head to the wall?", there are no nails. When Stimpy starts talking, a nail is seen on the boar's forehead but when Ren grabs the boar's head, one is normal and the other two are broken.
- When Stimpy says, "Must counteract bad ju-ju!", in a close-up, he has flowers in his hands and puts them on the floor. He also had bruises and flower thorns on his face. But when it zooms out, Stimpy looks normal and the flowers aren't on the floor or in his hands.
- According to this episode, Ren's birthday is Tuesday the 17th although it isn't specified what month. As a consequence, he is the unlucky beast, the most unlucky person in the world.
- The calendar Stimpy points to while stating that it was in fact Tuesday the 17th reads "Marge" instead of "March".
- When Stimpy teaches Ren all about Tuesday the 17th, there's some references to other cel animated cartoons.
- When Stimpy says “When the moon enters Libra…”, this is a reference to a British spin-off of Danger Mouse, titled Count Duckula.
- Stimpy's line “This causes the planets to align in a conga line of chaos and disaster!" is a reference to the Rocko’s Modern Life episode "Born to Spawn".
- Stimpy's chant uses lyrics from the song "Good Morning Starshine" from Hair, and also mentions Ub Iwerks.
- One of the items Stimpy tosses out of the closet was the Happy Helmet from "Stimpy's Invention".
Production[]
Art[]
Music[]
- Nyanga Dance – Sam Sklair (title card)
- Comedy Signature – Erik Markman [OGM] (opening)
- Creepies – Robert Farnon [CPM] (“Don’t you know what TODAY is, Ren?”)
- Jewels of India (c) – Richard Harvey (Stimpy describes Tuesday the 17th)
- Set to Pounce – David Farnon [CPM] (“This causes the plants to align…”)
- String Sustain – David Farnon [CPM] (“…in a conga line of chaos and disaster!”)
- Minuet-String Quintet in E – Luigi Boccherini, Fiachra Trench (Stimpy saying why he put a boar’s head on the wall)
- Approaching Danger – James Clarke (Ren chews out Stimpy)
- King Lear I – Henryk Kuzniak; Pain – David Mellor [CPM] (“Don’t you know it’s bad luck to ridicule superstitions?”)
- Big Bad Giant – Paddy Kingsland (“Ah, that’s better.”)
- Like Strange – Kenny Graham; Bungo – David Bradnum (boar kicks Ren)
- Pounding Heart Beat – John Fox (“Uh oh, head embedded in ceiling!”)
- Deep Drama – John Fox; Pain – David Mellor [CPM] (Stimpy slaps himself with roses)
- Teenage Party – Erik Markman [OGM] (heard in the kitchen)
- A Ride in the Country – John Fox (“But Ren, barbequing indoors is terrible bad luck!”)
- Deep Drama – John Fox (“Poor Ren, he’s in mortal danger!”)
- Rough and Ready – John Fox (“He leaves me no choice!”)
- Teenage Party – Erik Markman [OGM] (music in the kitchen again)
- Cold War – Christopher Payne, Paul Rogers [CPM] (Stimpy praying to carcass)
- Intrepid – Christopher Payne, Paul Rogers [CPM] (Ren throws the carcass on the bed)
- Day of Wrath – Fiachra Trench (“I wave my shiny red keister in the face of you, and your stuper-stitions!”)
- Happy Golightly – John Fiddy (“Gee, Ren, I guess you didn’t know that it was unlucky to-“)
- On Fire – Gregor Narholz (“GET IN THE HOUSE!!!”)
- Left Foot Forward – Graham Preskett (all sorts of bad luck around Ren)
- The Petulant Penguin – Dennis Farnon (Ren convinces Stimpy that superstitions are stupid)
- Suspended Time – Bill Connor; Oddball – David Mellor [CPM] (“Yow! Ren! What’s that on your neck?”)
- Solo Effects 28 – David Bell (Stimpy reads about webbed toes)
- Air Raid – Gerhard Trede (Stimpy grabs Ren’s shoe)
- Raspberry! (a) – Richard Myhill (“Webbed toes!”)
- Intrepid – Christopher Payne, Paul Rogers [CPM] (“Yeah, so?”)
- Exciting Action C – Mladen Franko (“You’re… the unlucky beast!”)
- Bliss – Alec Gould (Ren cries)
- Mabumbumbo – David Bradnum (Stimpy mixes up a concoction)
- Alpine Festival – Paddy Kingsland (jumping off roof)
- Happy Holiday – Anthony Spurgin (checklist)
- Static Time – John Scott (Ren has to stand still all night)
- Let Me Call You Sweetheart – Roger Wootton [CPM] (“Okay Ren, but be careful.”)
- Haunting – David Snell (Ren ventures outside)
- Easing Tension – Paul Orm, Peter Orm [CPM] (lightning hits the outhouse)
- Miss World (b) – Tony Kinsey (Stimpy knitting)
- Disorientated A – Mladen Franko (Ren reaches for the doorknob)
- Point of Departure M – Gregor Narholz (Ren crawls into the spitoon and is struck by lightning again)
- Main Assault – Laurie Johnson (“That tears it! There’s only one thing left to do!”)
- Gounod: Funeral March of a Marionette – Lee Ashley [OGM] (Stimpy reveals lucky leper’s foot)