''The Ripping Friends: The World's Most Manly Men!'' (also known as ''The Ripping Friends'') is an animated television series, created by

John Kricfalusi Michael John Kricfalusi ( ; born September 9, 1955), known professionally as John K., is a Canadian illustrator, blogger, voice actor and former animator. He is the creator of the animated television series ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', which was ...

, creator of ''

The Ren & Stimpy Show ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' (also known as ''Ren & Stimpy'') is an American animated television series created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi. Originally produced by Spümcø for Nickelodeon, the series aired from August 11, 1991, to Dece ...

'' on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

. The series aired for one season on

Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a jo ...

, premiering on September 22, 2001 and ending on January 26, 2002. The show was subsequently picked up for syndication by

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

, where it reran from 2002 to 2004. The show occasionally airs in Canada on

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts an ...

. The show also aired briefly in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

on the CNX channel and on ABC in Australia.

History

Kricfalusi and his long-time partner Jim Smith created the ''Ripping Friends'' before they created the similar superhero

Powdered Toast Man Over its five seasons, '' The Ren & Stimpy Show'' featured a varied cast of characters, some who appeared in as few as one episode, and some who were practically regulars. Ren and Stimpy Ren Höek Marland "Ren" T. Hoëk (voiced by John Kricfa ...

for ''

''. After Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi from ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' in September 1992, he had plans to make a feature film starring the world's "manliest men". The feature film plan was scrapped, but the characters were used in ''The Ripping Friends''. Also, as early as a 1987 story session for the '' Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures'', Kricfalusi, who would go on to develop the concept for ''The Ripping Friends'' for around a decade, had proposed using a wad of gum as a character, an idea which was employed to create the first villain for the new series, the Indigestible Wad. ''The Ripping Friends'' was slated to premiere in September 2000 along with another Spümcø show on Fox Family, ''The Heart Aches'', which follows the adventures surrounding a girl band. The latter one never made it to television, and ''The Ripping Friends'' first aired a year later, after missing another premiere slated for May 2001, lasting for thirteen episodes. The budget was set to US$400,000 per episode. Because of production costs, the show was cancelled after one season and thirteen episodes. Kricfalusi felt the show's supervisors were doing away with the Spümcø style and was displeased with the direction. He was not fully involved until halfway through production and considers the episodes with his involvement to be experimental. One of his contributions to the show was directing the voice actors, whom he "really worked out" so much that he was afraid he'd give one of them a heart attack, which resulted in re-casting the original voice of Crag, Harvey Atkin, with

Mark Dailey Mark Edward Dailey (August 1, 1953 – December 6, 2010) was an American-born Canadian television journalist and announcer. He was the host of 11 p.m. weeknight City''News'' newscasts in Toronto, Ontario, and a prominent continuity announcer voi ...

. Although Kricfalusi directed the actors, he recorded for his characters separately at his home.

Plot

The show focused on a group of four

superhuman The term superhuman refers to humans or human-like beings with enhanced qualities and abilities that exceed those naturally found in humans. These qualities may be acquired through natural ability, self-actualization or technological aids. Th ...

brothers who attempt to fight crime from their base, RIPCOT (the Really Impressive Prototype City Of (Next) Tuesday): Crag, Rip, Slab, and Chunk Nuggett, Crag being the leader. Friends of the four include Jimmy The Idiot Boy, a mentally-challenged drooling child, and their foster mother He-Mom (the name speaks for itself). The villains range from the Indigestible Wad (a wad of gum who sucks moisture out of people), to the evil Euroslavian dictator Citracett, to Flathead (an

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chorda ...

in search of a

spine Spine or spinal may refer to: Science Biology * Vertebral column, also known as the backbone * Dendritic spine, a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite * Thorns, spines, and prickles, needle-like structures in plants * Spine (zoolo ...

), to their own underpants. Each episode was usually tagged with a short episode which Kricfalusi says was composed of "left overs". These segments were called "Rip Along with the Ripping Friends" and usually portrayed the Ripping Friends solving the problems of fans. These included: addressing the fact that hot dogs come in packs of 12 and the buns in packs of 8; "ripping" the man who creates insane video game controllers and the man who writes the instructions for them; and finding out why toys no longer come in cereal boxes, among others. In each segment viewers (referred to as "kids") are asked to "rip along" with the action by ripping pieces of paper up in front of the television when coaxed to.

Characters

* Crag (voiced by Harvey Atkin in the earlier appearances,

in later appearances) – The leader of the Ripping Friends. * Slab (voiced by

Merwin Mondesir Merwin Mondesir (born February 21, 1976) is a Canadian actor. He is of Saint Lucian descent. He resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Selected filmography Film * 1997 '' Critical Care'' as Head Injury * 2000 '' Steal This Movie!'' as Private Ken ...

) – Crag's right-hand man. * Chunk Nuggett (voiced by Michael Kerr) – The childlike member of the Ripping Friends. * Rip (voiced by Mike MacDonald) – The hothead of the Ripping Friends. * Jimmy the Idiot Boy ("voiced" by

) – A mentally-challenged drooling child. * He-Mom – The Ripping Friends' foster mother. * Citracett (voiced by

) – The evil dictator of Euroslavia who is the recurring antagonist of the series, later renames himself Stinkybutt the Foul after gaining the ability to use his own

flatulence Flatulence, in humans, is the expulsion of gas from the intestines via the anus, commonly referred to as farting. "Flatus" is the medical word for gas generated in the stomach or bowels. A proportion of intestinal gas may be swallowed enviro ...

as a weapon.

Episodes

Censorship

* In a segment where Rip is asked by a fan to find out why hot dogs come in packs of twelve and

hot dog bun A hot dog bun is a type of soft bun shaped specifically to contain a hot dog or another type of sausage. The side-loading bun is common in most of the United States, while the top-loading New England-style hot dog bun is popular in that regio ...

s come in packs of eight, Rip beats up a male hot dog and a female bun and asks them to "hug". The hot dog begins to slip inside the bun, and the segment immediately fades to black. The scene was restored when the episode ran on Adult Swim. * The episodes "The Infernal Wedding" and "Jimmy's Kidnapped" never aired on Fox Kids at all, with the former being skipped due to scenes considered to be offensive following the September 11 attack. Both episodes would subsequently air on Adult Swim during reruns.

Merchandise

Hearst Entertainment Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televi ...

and Spümcø licensed Playmates Toys to create toys based on the show. A video game based on the show, was released by THQ for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

and consulted by

Telecast and home media

In the U.S., the series was first premiered on September 22, 2001 on

until the final episode's airing on January 26, 2002.

later picked up the show, which aired from October 6, 2002 to March 28, 2004. The show occasionally airs in Canada on

. The show also aired briefly in the

on the CNX channel and on ABC in Australia. Two videotapes with two episodes each were initially available with the two volumes later combined into a single DVD release with four episodes. In Australia, the complete series was released on Region 4 DVD by Madman Entertainment. As of 2022, the entire series was uploaded by YouTube's Toon Gods channel.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ripping Friends 2000s American animated television series 2001 American television series debuts 2002 American television series endings 2000s Canadian animated television series 2001 Canadian television series debuts 2002 Canadian television series endings American children's animated action television series American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated comedy television series American children's animated superhero television series Canadian children's animated action television series Canadian children's animated adventure television series Canadian children's animated comedy television series Canadian children's animated superhero television series Censored television series English-language television shows Fox Kids Teletoon original programming Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming Parody superheroes Spümcø Television series by 9 Story Media Group Television series by Lionsgate Television Superhero teams Television series created by John Kricfalusi