Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman

"Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 11
Directed by	Chris Reccardi
Story by	Bob Camp Chris Reccardi Vince Calandra
Original air date	November 19, 1994 (1994-11-19)
Guest appearance
Gail Matthius as Waffle Woman
Episode chronology
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List of episodes

Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman is the 11th episode of the fourth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 19 November 1994.

Plot

Powdered Toast Man accidentally ruins the business of waffle tycoon Vicky Velcro, inspiring her to vow revenge. ^[1] Powered Toast Man tries to grant the wish of the sick child Little Johnny by bringing him the president of the United States and kills the president in the process. ^[1] Powered Toast Man returns to the Breadbox of Solitude out of guilt. ^[1] Velcro uses a giant waffle press to transform herself into the super-villainess Waffle Woman and demands that Powered Toast Man fight her or else Little Johnny will never be allowed to watch television again.. ^[1] Powdered Toast Man returns to earth to face her. During the ensuring battle, Powered Toast Man and Waffle Woman first destroy New York City, then England and finally the entire world. ^[1] In the end Powered Toast Man defeats her by destroying the waffle iron and turns Waffle Woman into a pile of slime while she vows to return "maybe". ^[1] Despite all the destruction and death caused by the battle, Powdered Toast Man is hailed as a hero for allowing Little Johnny to watch television again. ^[1]

Cast

• Powered Toast Man-voice of Gary Owens
• Waffle Woman-voice of Gail Matthius
• Little Johnny-voice of Billy West

Production

The story was a pilot episode for a possible spin-off series starring Gary Owens as Powdered Toast Man following the success of the 1992 episode Powdered Toast Man. ^[2] Ren and Stimpy did not appear in Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman as a way to test the appeal to audiences of a story that only featured Powdered Toast Man. The episode was largely the work of the husband and wife team of Chris Reccardi and Lynne Naylor. ^[3] In August 1994, Naylor who was working on the lay-outs for the episode resigned from the Games Animation studio in protest over the way that she was treated by the network. ^[4] One college stated: "She went around to each of us to personally tell us her reasons for leaving. The tight deadlines made the job too much of a hassle despite the pay. The way she put it, it was even if the studio offered a million dollars to work on the project, but the project was due on that day, the money just wouldn't be worth all the hassle". ^[4]

Reception

The American critic Thad Komorowski rated the episode two stars out of five. ^[5] Komorowksi wrote that "Powdered Toast vs. Waffle Woman" had a "profound inanity" and that the story made no sense.. ^[3] After 9-11 the episode was edited to remove the scene involving New York getting destroyed. ^[6] The scene where Powdered Toast and Waffle Woman knock over the World Trade Center was removed after the destruction of the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 and has not been seen since. ^[6]

Books and articles

• Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1593931100.
• Finley, Laura L. (2018). Violence in Popular Culture American and Global Perspectives. Santa Monica: ABC-CLIO. ISBN   9781440854330.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1629331836.

References

1. Komorowski 2017, p. 407.
2. Komorowski 2017, p. 293.
3. Komorowski 2017, p. 293-294.
4. Komorowski 2017, p. 294.
5. Komorowski 2017, p. 263 & 406.
6. Finley 2018, p. 149.

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