Canadian cartoonist John Kricfaluci wanted to bring to life animated characters that were so pungently original that you could smell the freshness through your TV screen. He and his partner created Ren Hoek, a neurotic chihuahua and Stimpson J. Cat, his slovenly feline friend. The rest is cult history.

The show was picked up by Nickelodeon and the network was in for a surprise. The cartoon was violent, subversive and relied heavily on gross out humor. Nary an episode went by without references to bodily functions, boogers of several types, slime and questionable food stuffs. Ren's violent outbursts provided a good dose of mayhem and episodes were often censored or banned outright.

But it wasn't all farts and poo for Ren & Stimpy. The show also showcased the zany humor that made cartoons from the middle part of the century such classics. Situations were surreal and bizarre and the secondary characters could only have been thought up by disturbingly funny (or funnily disturbing) minds. There was Powdered Toast Man, a superhero with a toast-shaped head, Muddy Mudskipper, an ornery fish and, very memorably, The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksment. Kilt+Yak=Genius.

The show featured two 11-minute stories per episode, as well as various spoofs, parodies and many commercials for "Log," extolling the joys of a plain wooden log. Ren & Stimpy's success owed a lot to word of mouth, especially among college students who were young enough to appreciate a good fart joke but too old to enjoy the standard sugary cartoon fare. The show really took off when it started airing on MTV, helped along by a successful merchandising campaign.

Things got rocky in the second season, after Kricfaluci was fired by Nickelodeon, and only a few new episodes appeared before the series went into reruns. Ren & Stimpy's influence certainly lived on as it inspired a slew of imitators and heirs to their gross out cartoon legacy.