Ren and Stimpy had a huge fanbase despite (or perhaps because of) its polarizing nature, and guest stars including Ellen DeGeneres, Annie Lennox, Frank Zappa, Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, Whitney Houston, Fergie, Mark Hamill, Soleil Moon Fryeand Rosie O’Donnellprovided voices for various characters throughout the show’s run.Ī Ren and Stimpy reboot for grownups, Ren & Stimpy Party Cartoon, premiered in 2003, but was canceled after just three episodes.

If not? You likely loathed all five years it was on the air. Ren Höek, the possibly-sociopathic, hot-tempered chihuahua, and the chubby, significantly less intelligent cat Stimpy, went on adventures rife with sexual innuendo, occasional violence and often seriously gross and dark humor. Still, it’s one of the most twisted and hilarious shows, animated or live-action, to hit the small screen. Let’s be real: Upon rewatching as an adult, Ren and Stimpy maybe wasn’t quite as kid-friendly as we thought, but a lot of things probably went over our heads. In one episode, Tommy and Chuckie heroically rock dresses in another, Lil says she’s going to marry Angelica’s imaginary twin sister because “ both pretty.” The show also explored interracial adult relationships and grief in ways that never felt pandering, juvenile or too on the nose.

The show explored progressive themes in a mature way, even as it depicted babies engaging in everyday life: Traditional gender norms were flipped in much of the parents’ relationships, with Didi and Charlotte Pickles as their families’ respective breadwinners and Betty teaching twins Phil and Lil about sports.

Not everything holds up through nostalgia lenses, but these old Nickelodeon shows (many from the ’90s and 2000s) do. In addition to just being full of fun shows for kids, the network provided amazing representation for marginalized groups, even though as little ones a lot of that probably went right over our heads. Though much of the diversity, education and humor was taken for granted at the time, the best Nickelodeon shows remain more relevant than ever.

All that nickelodeon best sketches