Episode 96: John Kricfalusi


John Kricfalusi

John K – Professional Screwball

Joy! It’s the John K episode! John K was the groundbreaking animator who brought us Ren & Stimpy, The Adult Party Cartoon Show, The Ripping Friends, and two new Ranger Smith cartoons.

Tonight, we’re joined by internet animator Spazkid! Please check out his YouTube channel.

We talk about:
Creator-driving cartoons! What a concept!
Working on some of the worst cartoons of all-time
The astonishingly short list of Spümcø programming
“A Day In The Life Of Ranger Smith”
“Boo Boo Runs Wild”
GEORGE LIQUOR! AMERICAN!!!
Eating a girl’s face off
Ripping Friends
Powered Toast Man!
Jimmy The Retarded Boy
The Three Stooges
Games Studio
Bob Jaques
Bob Clampett
Ed Benedict

Ren and Stimpy

The cartoon that changed everything.


Eddie's clean hand

Eddie’s clean hand


Taken from "Stimpy's Invention"

Actual production note from Nickelodeon: “Change duck to woodpecker.”
John K’s response: “No.”


Disciplinary action!

John K pays homage to classic H-B cartoons with the help of Ed Benedict!


Ripping Friends

Weird show, but still animated better than most cartoons on at the time.


Hot Dog and Bun

John K tried to get this obviously dirty joke onto Fox Kids. And he kind of succeeded.




Nerdist Podcast interviews John K.

The Nerdist Podcast

The Nerdist Podcast

Link: The Nerdist Interviews John K

John Kricfalusi is the man who gave us Ren & Stimpy, The Ripping Friends, A Day In The Life Of Ranger Smith, and…uh…He-Hog(?). He also rose to fame when he joined Ralph Bakshi on the late 80s cartoon classic, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures.

I’m really looking forward to listening to this today. John K… he has opinions. He hates a lot of the cartoons that I like, including Animaniacs. He has a lot of opinions about how the animation industry should be run and yet only has about three seasons worth of television under his belt in nearly 25 years of being independent.

But I also have to give him credit. When creator-driven cartoons returned to television, he was on the front line. He is one of the most imitated animators in the world. He pitched Rough Draft Studios to Cartoon Network and brought quality animation to Korean animation, where it didn’t exist before.

So the guy has his ups and downs. He has so many attributes in common with his hero Bob Clampett, both positive and negative.




Here is Mike Blanchard’s opinion of John K. cartoons…