The Ripping Friends

Ren and Stimpy just wasn't the same when John K. left. Now is another chance to show off his special brand of 'toon. His type of twisted humor was a welcome relief to the tapioca sameness of typical animated offerings. I hope the politically correct Fox network keeps the Ripping Friends around awhile.

Made by Spumco, the same creators behind Ren and Stimpy, the Nicktoon infamous for crossing the line when it comes to content in a show aims at kids, The Ripping Friends is a cartoon that aired on Fox Kids in its final year, before the block became the FoxBox, which was loaded with anime dubbed by 4Kids.

Crag, Slag, Rip, and Chunk are the Ripping Friends, four brothers who are blessed with superhuman strength and muscles. Based in RIPCOT, the four have to fight evildoers where they strike, all crazy villains like the living wad of gum known as The Indigestable Wad, Flathead the spine-stealing invertibre, and even Citracett, the evil dictator of Euroslavia.

Yeah, it's strange how this cartoon was given the okay to air on Fox Kids, especially considering how controversial Ren and Stimpy had become when Nickelodeon aired it. The Ripping Friends look like they could be good friends of Powdered Toast Man, as despite being superheroes, they are actually not very bright sometimes (with Crag, the leader, being the only smart one). Also, the humor is on par with the cat and dog duo, as there is a lot of humor that only adults will get and some gross stuff (in fact, two episodes would not air on Fox Kids and would not air until the series was re-run on Adult Swim due to content Fox felt was in bad taste because of the 9/11 attacks, which caused the first episode to be delayed). Only lasting thirteen episodes due to the episodes being expensive to make, the show is a fun, humorous take on superheroes, as the characters are crazy, and the voice actors all have fun voicing the insanity-fuelled adventures. And the animation is great.

What can I say? God bless the folks at Cartoon Network for giving this another chance after it was canned by the PC, anime hungry (sick isn't it?) folks at Fox. The cartoon is about a group of superheroes (Crag, Slab, Chunk, and Rip) who want to rip (or in other words destroy) all that stands in the way of freedom. Other characters include Jimmy, and the Ripping Friends foster mom He-Mom LOL!!!

Overall, John K., and Spumco have yet another winner on their hands. Sure it'll never capture the greatness of "Ren & Stimpy" but it's still an excellent, yet strange show.

This gets a 10/10.

This animated program is odd. Abnormal. Unusual. Strange. I could keep going, but I can't think of anymore words. Actually I can, but, anywho.

I know you're thinking, "What the *bleep* is a Ripping Friend?". Well, my friend, a ripping, umm, friend is a superhero that wants to rip (or destroy) all that stands in the way of freedom and justice. In order to prepare themselves for this on-going battle, they go through rigorous training. Ummmmm . . . yeah.

It's aimed at kids, but I can't see how (or even why). Let me take that back, I can see it (the characters look funny and say funny things), but I think the average child probably wouldn't get the majority of the jokes. Half of those jokes are dealing with the characters names: Crag (the oldest of the RF's), Slab (the group's little lamb--that's a joke in itself), Chunk (the RF's teenage rebel yell), Rip (I call him 'Rip the Roid'--if you've seen the show, you know what I mean), Jimmy (the everloving man b**ch), and, I saved the best for last, He-Mom (the RF's foster mom).

Here's a sampling of the dialogue in the recent episode I saw: [sic] "Don't die on me. If you do, I will kiiiiiiill you!"

Later in the episode, one of the RF's gets shocked as part of his training. He screams, eyes bulging, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!" When the current is finally shut off, he says, "Aww, I was just starting to have fun!"

I've never seen anything like this on network television for kids, and I love and watch cartoons frequently. Then I remember, it IS Fox. What did I expect?

You know what? I still have to give it an 8. Hey, I grew up watching the Fox Network. What did you expect??

I get the impression that the creators of this show are trying to create something on par with Ren and Stimpy, but are deliberatly holding back. Possibly because it's on Fox Kids. (Although I did see a pretty raunchy episode on YTV.) It's just that whenever I watch an ep, I see that they have an excellent premise and potential, but it's only half fulfilled. It's kind of like shouting when you could clearly scream.