Mad Dog Höek

"Mad Dog Höek"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 8
Directed by	Bob Camp
Story by	Bob Camp
Production code	RS5-6B
Original air date	November 21, 1992 (1992-11-21)

Mad Dog Höek is the 8th episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 21 November 1992.

Plot

In a parody of professional wrestling, Ren and Stimpy have joined a WWF-like professional wrestling promotion under the stage names of Mad Dog Höek and Killer Kadoogan. Stimpy expresses concern that he might be hurt, but Ren reassures him that professional wrestling is fake and that no one will be harmed. The opponents of Ren and Stimpy are the well named Lout brothers, Lump and Loaf. In the tag-team wrestling match, the Lout brothers dominate the match and inflict much pain on Ren and Stimpy. Ren fights back, but is overwhelmed while Stimpy takes a masochistic pleasure in being beaten up. It is revealed that the outcome of the match has been decided in advance by the promoters and at the appointed time the Lout brothers lose in an unlikely manner despite the way that they have dominated the match. At the end of the match, the Lout brothers vow revenge for their defeat while Stimpy gives a deranged rant about how he and someone named Darrin really like the Lout brothers.

Cast

• Ren-voice of John Kricfalusi
• Stimpy-voice of Billy West
• Lump Lout-voice of Bob Camp
• The Announcer-voice of Billy West
• Loaf Lout-voice of Bob Camp

Production

For the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show, production of the episodes was divided into an "A" unit headed by the showrunner, John Kricfalusi which were more prestigious and a "B" unit headed by Bob Camp, which were not. Mad Dog Höek was one of the "B" productions assigned to Camp. The "A" productions headed by Kricfalusi had more time and money devoted to them while Kricfalusi later stated that "corners were cut" on the "B" productions which were seen by him just as a way of fulfilling the quota of episodes ordered by the Nickelodeon network. Camp decided the cartoonist world of professional wrestling with its over-the-top storylines and caricatured characters would make for a good subject for a cartoon. Production moved forward swiftly on the "B" productions as Camp was less of a perfectionist than Kircfalusi. Camp described himself as being "more about the gag" as the episodes directed by him tended to be light on plot and were instead just merely a collection of gags centered around a single theme, in this case professional wrestling.

Reception

The American journalist Thad Komorowski in a review gave Mad Dog Höek three and a half stars out of five stars, writing it was an amusing parody of the already cartoonist and silly world of professional wrestling with Stimpy giving a "completely deranged fit" at the end.

Books

• Klickstein, Matthew; Summers, Marc (2013). Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age. London: Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 9781101614099.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1629331836.