I Love Chicken

"I Love Chicken"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 10
Directed by	Ron Hughart
Written by	Bob Camp Jim Gomez
Original air date	November 19, 1994 (1994-11-19)
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"I Love Chicken" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show . It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 19, 1994.

Plot

Ren returns home with groceries while Stimpy greets him, gives him his slippers and pipe, and goes off to cook dinner. He removes the items, a mix of food and human organs, until he finds a whole chicken who he finds attractive. He prepares to bake the chicken, who suddenly responds, being alive, and stares at Stimpy lovingly, convincing him to spare it.

Stimpy dances with the chicken and they almost kiss when Ren, realizing something is not right, checks on him. He demands his dinner while Stimpy pleads with him, claiming the chicken has asked his hand in marriage. Ren is served cornbread stuffing with giblets for dinner, which enrages him; the chicken carries Stimpy off to Las Vegas for their honeymoon. Two weeks later, they return to a hungry Ren, who tries to bake the chicken but is caught by Stimpy on time, despite him disguising a football as the "chicken".

The next day, Ren and the chicken read newspapers. When he sees Stimpy giving the chicken his amenities, he immediately enacts his plan of turning the chicken into sausages. Despite this, Stimpy still treats the sausages as if they are his wife, frustrating Ren. Ren decides to emotionally appeal to Stimpy, to go out for a picnic as a last resort. Stimpy, too stupid to realize, agrees and waits at the picnic site while Ren drives home to retrieve the sausages. He does not suspect anything until night when he hitches a ride home to find Ren devouring the sausages. He falls into a deep depression for six months, when Ren forces him to cook dinner. Ren makes the fatal mistake of buying a goat head, which Stimpy immediately becomes engaged with again, enraging Ren and ending the episode.

Cast

• Ren – voice of Billy West
• Stimpy – voice of Billy West

Production

The story was written by showrunner Bob Camp and Jim Gomez, with Ron Hughart directing. Peter Avanzino produced the storyboards. It differed from the usual "gag reels" episodes produced during the Games Animation seasons, focusing more on the characters rather than jokes. ^[1]

Reception

The American critic Thad Komorowski rated the episode three stars out of four, noting that Camp was at his best when he did not direct episodes he wrote. ^[2]

Books and articles

• Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1593931100.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1629331836.

References

1. Komorowski 2017, p. 263.
2. Komorowski 2017, p. 263 & 406.