Prehistoric Stimpy

"Prehistoric Stimpy"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 6
Directed by	Bob Camp
Story by	Bob Camp Ron Hauge
Production code	RS-322
Original air date	November 5, 1994 (1994-11-05)
Guest appearance
Jack Carter as Wilbur Cobb
Episode chronology
← Previous "Lumber Jerks" Next → "Farm Hands"
List of episodes

Prehistoric Stimpy is the sixth episode of the fourth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 5 November 1994.

Plot

Ren and Stimpy visit the Museum of Natural History where Wilbur Cobb is the guide who gives a confused, rambling and mostly inaccurate account of prehistoric life. ^[1] Cobb states that life on earth began as single-celled amoebas and the story goes back in time hundreds of millions of years into the distant past where amoebas lived in the sea. ^[1] One amoeba that resembles Stimpy annoys an amoeba that resembles Ren, causing the Ren amoeba to slap the Stimpy amoeba, which then divides into new amoebas. ^[1] In the present, Cobb then moves forward in time to the age of the Stimpyfish, which crawled out of the ocean onto land, only to fall into a tar pit while another Stimpyfish crawls out of the ocean to avoid the tar pit and instead is run over by a bus. ^[1] Ren dismisses this story until Cobb shows him a prehistoric bus. ^[1] Cobb then moves forward in time to speak of the Stimpysaurus, the "stupidest creature of all time", a dinosaur that resembles Stimpy which he is shown to be of very low intelligence as it slapped around by a dinosaur that resembles Ren. ^[1] In the present, Stimpy asks Cobb how the dinosaurs went extinct and receives baffling bizarre answers in response such as the dinosaurs went extinct because they watched too much television. ^[1] Cobb is arrested as he is revealed not to be a museum guide and as he is carried away shouts "I killed the dinosaurs!". ^[1] Ren and Stimpy prove their low intelligence by walking into a tar pit that is part of an exhibit and both drown. ^[1]

Cast

• Ren-voice of Billy West
• Wilbur Cobb-voice of Jack Carter
• Stimpy-voice of Billy West

Production

The episode was illustrated by the Mr. Big Cartoons studio of Sydney. ^[1] The cartoon was largely created by the showrunner, Bob Camp, who felt sorry for the financially distressed actor Jack Carter, and Prehistoric Stimpy was intended to be a showcase of Carter's vocal talents that would also give him some needed money. ^[2] The scene where Stimpy rips off pieces of Cobb's face was censored by the network. ^[3]

Reception

The American critic Thad Komorowski wrote that the episode was one of the stronger episodes that featured the recurring Wilbur Cobb character. ^[2]

Books and articles

• Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN   1593931107.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN   978-1629331836.

References

1. Komorowski 2017, p. 402.
2. Komorowski 2017, p. 249.
3. Komorowski 2017, p. 402-403.

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