The Big Shot!

The Big Shot! is the second episode of the first season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 11 August 1991.

Plot
Continuing the story began in Stimpy's Big Day, Stimpy arrives in Hollywood where he acts alongside his hero Muddy Mudskipper. He is shocked to discover that Muddy Mudskipper is an abrasive misanthrope who berates everyone. Stimpy shows Mr. Horse the virtues of using Nitty Gritty kitty litter. Ren watches TV to keep his mind off the absence of Stimpy, but sees his face everyone. Ren descends into madness. Stimpy finds himself uncomfortable in Hollywood and returns to live with Ren in their trailer park. Ren is first happy to see Stimpy back, but is furious when he learns that Stimpy has given all of his $47 million in prize money.

Cast

 * Ren-voice of John Kricfalusi
 * Stimpy-voice of Billy West
 * Muddy Mudskipper-voice of Harris Peet
 * Pool babe-voice of Cheryl Chase
 * TV announcer-voice of Darrin Sargent
 * TV Announcer-voice of Jim Smith
 * Pillow-voice of Vincent Waller.

Production
Originally, the story of the first episode was intended to be one story, but it was decided to split the story into two parts to properly tell the story. Bob Camp stated: "There was so much we wanted to do with the story, we had trouble packing it into one eleven-minute cartoon. It was actually easier to stretch it out than to compass it". The couple of John Kricfalusi and Lynne Naylor set the story in the 1950s as a reference to the world of their youth. In what became a recurring feature of The Ren & Stimpy Show, Kricfalusi first introduced in The Big Shot! the scatological humor that was to play such a central role for the rest of the show. Much of the plot revolves kitty litter, and the story of The Big Shot! makes no effort to hide what is the purpose of kitty litter. The work of inking and painting both Stimpy's Big Day and The Big Shot! was done at the Lacewood studio in Ottawa. The Lacewood studio had very poorly paid cartoonists, and the American journalist Thad Komorowski wrote that the animation done by the Lacewood studio was inept. Komorowski wrote in both Stimpy's Big Day and The Big Shot! that: "The drawing is occasionally poor, the animation mostly rigid and the cleanup and ink-and-paint work is absolutely atrocious".

Reception
Komorowski wrote that The Big Shot! was "an entertaining start to the series" and awarded the episode three stars out of five. The American critic Matt Langer praised The Big Shot! as an "iconic post-modern commentary" on stardom in Hollywood and a satire of the 1954 film A Star is Born. Langer wrote that Kricfalusi had a deep "concern with the cultural detritus of television centres" as the dialogue said by Muddy Mudskipper and Stimpy on their TV show is recycled from cartoon shows of the 1950s.