Fake Dad

Fake Dad is the 14th episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that aired on the Nickelodeon network on 27 February 1993.

Ren and Stimpy are once more engaged in a dubious business scheme, this time working for the Fake Dad agency where Ren and Stimpy pose as a father to neglected children. Ren and Stimpy adopt a murderous, oversized seven year old Lummox named Kowalski (named after a professional wrestler of the 1950s) who is on parole for crimes against humanity for the weekend. Ren and Stimpy take Kowalski home where his great strength, immaturity and limited intelligence led for him to cause all sorts of destruction. It eventually grows to be too much for Ren and he intends on spanking the convict only to have a moment of humanity and embracing Kowalski as his adoptive son. At the end of weekend, Kowalski returns to prison, tearfully bidding Ren and Stimpy farewell, as Ren breaks down sobbing and embraces Stimpy in relief and sadness that he is gone.

• Ren-voice of John Kricfalusi
• Stimpy-voice of Billy West
• Killer Kowalski-voice of Harris Peet
• Fake Dad Agent-voice of Billy west

The script for Fake Dad had been written by John Kricfalusi and Jim Smith of the Spümcø studio in late 1991 for the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show set for 1992–1993.^[1] The production was greatly delayed at the Spümcø throughout 1992, and by the time the Spümcø studio lost the contract for The Ren & Stimpy Show on 21 September 1992, only the lay-out stage had been completed.^[1] Kricfalusi and Smith were considered to be the only cartoonists at Spümcø capable of drawing Killer Kowlaski, who was considered a difficult character to draw. ^[1] After the Spümcø studio lost the contract, Fake Dad was assigned to the Game Animation studio who finished it in the fall of 1992.^[1] Smith and Kricfalusi had wanted Fake Dad to be half an hour long, but Games shorted the story to 11 minutes.^[2] Both Kricfalusi and Smith were unhappy about the decision to abridge Fake Dad.^[2] Smith stated of the abridgment that his cartoon was "taken over by uncaring people who shoved it through".^[2] The Games Animation studio added an American football game to the Fake Dad, but Jim Ballantine stated that the padding made Fake Dad "slow and unwatchable", hence the football game was cut from the version that was aired in 1993.^[3]

The American journalist Thad Komorowksi praised Kricfalusi's voice acting as Ren in Fake Dad that "blends genuine vexation and remorse" as Ren comes to care for Killer Kowalski while feeling guilty about his greed, which was reason for wanting to play a "fake dad" in the first place.^[4]

• Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1593931100.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1629331836.