The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball

"The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball" is the 16th episode of the second season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that aired on the Nickelodeon network on 3 April 1993.

"The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball"
The Ren & Stimpy Show episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 16
Directed by	Ron Hughart
Story by	Bob Camp Vincent Waller
Production code	RS5-9A
Original air date	April 3, 1993 (1993-04-03)

Plot

Stimpy keeps throwing up hairballs, which disgusts Ren until he learns from a TV report that cat hairballs are now more valuable than gold. Ren converts their home into a factory where Stimpy keeps throwing up hairballs onto an assembly line while Ren's nephew Bubba boxes them. Stimpy eventually runs out of hair and cannot make any more hairballs. Ren forces Stimpy to lick him and Bubba in an attempt to make more hairballs to no avail. Bubba is sent inside of Stimpy where he discovers that Stimpy's hairball gland has turned to dust. Ren and Stimpy then realize that this means the episode is over, causing them to dance with glee.

Cast

• Ren-voice of Billy West
• Stimpy-voice of Billy West
• Bubba-voice of Billy West

Production

The episode was started by Spümcø in 1992 and it fell behind schedule and over budget. The script for "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball" was taken from a fan-made comic sent to Spümcø. As a cost-saving measure, the lay-out stage of the episode was done at the subcontractor, Rough Draft Korea in Seoul, instead at Spümcø in Los Angeles. When Spümcø lost the contract for The Ren & Stimpy Show on 21 September 1992, the Games Animation studio took over, which further delayed the production of "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball".

Reception

The American journalist Thad Komorowski condemned "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball" as an "annoying juvenile" story whose gross-out gags were immature and unfunny. Komorowski wrote that "The Cat That Laid the Golden Hairball" bore all the signs of indifference from the Games Animation studio who were not clearly interested in the story.

Books

• 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.