Lumber Jerks (The Ren & Stimpy Show)

"Lumber Jerks"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 5
Directed by	Bob Camp Bill Wray
Written by	Jim Gomez Ron Hauge Bob Camp Bill Wray
Production code	RS-316
Original air date	October 15, 1994 (1994-10-15)
Episode chronology
← Previous "Blazing Entrails" Next → "Prehistoric Stimpy"
List of episodes

"Lumber Jerks" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show . It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on October 15, 1994.

Plot

Ren and Stimpy are paperboys in a village called Lumberville. They demand unpaid funds from lumberjack Jacques LaPierre, who owes their employer $1200 and had beat up Ren on a prior attempt. He convinces the duo to abandon their job to be lumberjacks to improve their strength by showing his wife, who had acquired super strength from this job.

Jacques tells the duo that he chops wood because he believes trees are dangerous and crafty beings who are defended by the spiny tree lobster, who will absolutely not let go of whoever harms its tree. He orders the duo to find a tree, with the instructions digested by Stimpy.

Every tree nearby was cut by the lumberjacks, so the duo walk through a desertificated area until they find a forest. They cut a tree for 3 hours, barely making protest when a lobster abducts Ren. He shows Ren the animals he had been threatening, including a wasp couple, a bird who farts as its mating call and the lobster's own offspring. Ren pretends to learn not to disturb the animals, only to return with machinery, successfully sawing the forest down and chasing the lobster away. Suddenly, the lobster reappears to attack Ren, only for him to reveal himself as Jacques in disguise. He reveals that they actually resort to blowing up forests with dynamite, but he hires the duo nonetheless. He brings the duo to a jacuzzi at night at the lumberjacks' club, where they relax as two wolverines maul the trio's body, much to Jacques' amusement and the duo's horror, ending the episode.

Cast

• Ren – voice of Billy West
• Stimpy – voice of Billy West
• Jacques LaPierre – voice of Billy West
• Tree Lobster – voice of Billy West

Production

The episode was illustrated at the Rough Draft Korea studio in Seoul in the summer of 1994. ^[1]

Reception

The American critic Thad Komorowski gave the episode two stars out of four. ^[1]

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. 401.

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