The Ren & Stimpy Reboot, John K and the Poisonous Cult of the Creator

Eventually everything that was ever even remotely popular or well-remembered will be rebooted by a culture and an industry absolutely terrified of new ideas. Why wouldn’t we be? New ideas are new! And unproven! And scary! Why bother with the unknown when there is so much known to be recycled endlessly? 

So I can’t say that I was surprised to learn that Beavis & Butthead and Ren & Stimpy were being rebooted while Jodie, a very tardy spin-off of Beavis & Butthead spin-off Daria, has been green lit as well. 

In an earlier era, Ren & Stimpy super-fans would have been apoplectic at the prospect of the show returning to the airwaves without the central presence of John Kricfalusi. John K’s  once formidable cult was built upon his reputation as the mad genius who created one of the greatest and most influential animated shows of all time, only to have it ripped away from him by evil corporate weasels. 

Kricfalusi embodies the cult of the creator as well as the idea that there are some visionaries who are just too damn pure, intense and uncompromising for them to ever be able to play ball with the bean-counters and yes men and soulless suits who call the shots in television and film. 

Oh, but we wasted so much time and energy feeling sorry for him when he was fired from his own show. What a terrible indignity! What a crime! How could they possibly do that to Kricfalusi?

We feel differently about the situation now that Kricfalusi has been exposed as a monster who flagrantly abused his power as a superstar animator to groom underage girls. 

When the Ren & Stimpy reboot was announced the press release made clear that not only would Kricfalusi have absolutely nothing to do with the show; he wouldn’t profit financially from it either.

In a different era, the people behind a Ren & Stimpy reboot would have tried to reassure a public understandably skeptical of reboots that Kricfalusi would definitely be involved for the sake of making the reboot authentic. 

In our #MeToo era, however, the public needed to be assured that Kricfalusi would not only not be directly involved, but that he would not benefit from it in any way. Thankfully, authenticity is not as important these days as protecting everyone from a sociopathic predator like Kricfalusi. 

Besides, it’s not as if Kricfalusi did not get a shot at rebooting Ren & Stimpy himself. As I documented for My World of Flops, Spike TV had the astonishingly terrible judgment to not only give Kricfalusi complete control of a reboot that ended up lasting a mere three episodes, but also freedom to be as vulgar and sexual and transgressive as he wanted to be.

The result wasn’t just a singularly terrible television show that completely destroyed my affection for Ren & Stimpy; it was closer to a crime against humanity. 

Here’s the thing: when you give disgusting men like Kricfalusi power, they will invariably abuse that power. If you tell them that the rules do not apply to them because they’re geniuses and visionaries then they will not only break rules creatively and professionally but morally and legally as well. 

Look at Louis CK. Or Bill Cosby. Or Harvey Weinstein. Or Bryan Singer. Or Roger Ailes. Or John Kricfalusi. Or Donald Trump. 

We empowered all of these horrible men. We told them that they were special and different and that people should feel lucky to be in their world. We gave them power to abuse. We need to stop doing that. 

It’s not enough to keep Kricfalusi as far as hell away from the rebooted Ren & Stimpy as possible; we must do everything in our power to keep future John Ks from happening and wreaking terrible damage in the name of “art.”

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