Powdered Toast Man (episode)

Powdered Toast Man is the second episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 15 August 1992.

In a parody of Superman, Powered Toast Man is a superhero who lives under the disguise of Pastor Toast Man. After receiving a message from his Catholic Schoolgirl Assistant that his help is needed, he shreds his disguise and goes to work. Invariably, his attempts to help caused more problems than what he solves. He saves a kitten from being run over by clashing an air plane into the oncoming bus; rescues the Pope who has been kidnapped by Muddy Mudskipper, helps Ren and Stimpy by making their powdered toast "taste right" and rips out the zipper of the fly of president of the United States with such force that the president has to be hospitalized. With the president in the hospital, Powered Toast Man takes over the duties of president and has a romantic dinner in the White House with his Catholic Schoolgirl Assistant. To keep warm, he casually tosses what he calls "dusty old papers" into the fireplace that are the U.S. constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

• Powered Toast Man-voice of Gary Owens
• Catholic Schoolgirl Assistant-voice of Cheryl Chase
• The President of the United States-voice of Jim Smith
• Ren-voice of John Kricfalusi
• Stimpy-voice of Billy West
• The Pope-voice of Frank Zappa
• Muddy Mudskipper-voice of Harris Peet

The showrunner, John Kricfalusi, had wanted to do a "special" episode that would feature the voice of Frank Zappa who was one of his heroes, which inspired him to write Powered Toast Man.^[1] At the time, Zappa was dying of the prostate cancer that was to kill him in 1993, and the scenes featuring his voice were recorded at his home as Zappa was too ill to make it to the studio.^[1] The character of Powdered Toast Man had first appeared in the mock TV ads in the first season of The Ren & Stimpy Show.^[2] Kricfalusi had wanted to do more with the character in the second season. Unlike many of the other episodes of season two, Powered Toast Man was completed on time for its scheduled premiere in August 1992.^[3] The episode was illustrated at the Rough Draft Korea studio in Seoul.^[4]

Powered Toast Man generated a firestorm of controversy when it aired in 1992, being widely denounced for being "anti-American" owing to the scene where Powdered Toast Man burns the U.S. constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.^[5] The Nickelodeon network and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was flooded with complaints over the "anti-American" episode with one woman, Kay Claire, writing in to the FCC to say after that watching Powdered Toast Man: "I was so repulsed, I couldn't calm down. I was outraged when I saw that program. I want that cartoon pulled from the air because it has no social value whatsoever".^[5] The burning scene attracted so much attention that the overtly sexualized appearance of the character known only as Catholic Schoolgirl Assistant; that it is clearly implied that Powered Toast Man is going to have sex with Catholic Schoolgirl Assistant after their romantic diner in the White House; and the scene where the Pope clings to the oversized buttocks of Powered Toast Man passed almost unnoticed.^[6] In subsequent airings, the burning scene was censored while the rest of the episode went uncensored.^[6]

The Irish journalist Padraig Cotter praised Powered Toast Man as the "ultimate parody of superheroes".^[2] Cotter wrote: "Powdered Toast Man is a dark, but somewhat loving, parody of superheroes and comics. Despite being universally beloved within the show itself and having an ego to match, he's hilariously ill-suited to saving people. His lack of care often causes fatalities and in most cases, it would have been better if he wasn't around to save the day at all...The fact nobody within Ren And Stimpy appears to realise how awful he is becomes part of the gag".^[2] The character of Powered Toast Man became so popular as a result of the episode that in 1993 he had a cross-over appearance in the Spider-Man comics where he faced Spider-Man.^[2] In 1994, the character of Powdered Toast Man returned in the episode Powdered Toast Man vs. Waffle Woman, which was a pilot episode for a possible spin-off series featuring him.^[7]

• 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.