"Hard Times for Haggis" is the 13th episode of the third season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on April 30, 1994.
Plot
Haggis MacHaggis is a narcissistic, bad-tempered Scotsman who stars in a TV show, The Scotsman Show, that consists of him beating his dog, Whacky, with his shillelagh. Despite the manifest lack of humor, Haggis thinks beating up Whacky is the height of hilarity. He lives in a recreation of a Gothic Scottish castle somewhere in California. But then, he hears that ratings on The Scotsman Show has plummeted due to the greater popularity of The Ren & Stimpy Show, and finally Haggis's show is cancelled. Haggis becomes angry and jealous, and goes to beat up Ren and Stimpy with his shillelagh. He discovers that Ren and Stimpy have taken over his castle and that his former agent, the Salesman, has abandoned him in favor of Ren and Stimpy.
Haggis appeals to his fans to help him retake his castle, but finds that he has no more fans. Haggis attacks a Ren and Stimpy fan, and in turn is beaten by the fan's father, the Fire Chief. Haggis is reduced to living in a park and falls into a suicidal state of depression. Meanwhile, Ren and Stimpy engage in what Ren calls "eediotic" shenanigans at the castle. Haggis discovers Whacky beating up a doll of himself, and learns much to his surprise that Whacky hates him. Just when he is about to commit suicide, he sees a flier for the "Rent-a-Thug" company. Thirsting for revenge, Haggis hires their services to beat up Ren and Stimpy. The thugs hired by Haggis tie up Ren and Stimpy during a live broadcast of their show and have puppets perform an inane version of The Ren & Stimpy Show called "Ben and Stumpy". The fans much prefer the puppets to the real Ren and Stimpy. The duo are replaced by the puppet versions of themselves. Ren and Stimpy are homeless again while Haggis attacks them with his shillelagh.
The story that became "Hard Times for Haggis" was conceived of in May 1993 by Chris Reccardi who initially titled it "The Scotsman."[1] The title was only changed shortly before the cartoon was aired as it was felt the title might be taken as anti-Scottish.[1] The character of Haggis is very similar to the George Liquor character who could not be used anymore on The Ren & Stimpy Show because John Kricfalusi owned the rights to the character.[1] Much like George Liquor, Haggis is an immensely arrogant, crass man who sees violence as the preferred means to solve problems, and has a total inability to understand the viewpoint of others. Unlike George Liquor, Haggis falls into depression and self-pity when confronted by set-backs and failures.[1] As a part of an effort to improve ratings in light of the immense controversy that firing of Kricfalusi had caused in 1992, the new showrunner, Bob Camp recruited in 1993 as a recurring guest star the veteran British character actor Alan Young to provide the voice of Haggis.[2]
Reccardi intended the episode to be a metaphor for the animation industry with the inane TV show starring Haggis being an analogy for the cartoon industry before The Ren & Stimpy Show premiered in 1991 as the metareferential Ren & Stimpy Show is depicted as being much superior to Haggis's show.[1] Reccardi had wanted to do more dramatic tales, saying: "I've always been attracted to psychodramas, like William Shatner in "The Enemy Within" and Jimmy Stewart flipping out in It's a Wonderful Life. But those scenes in "Hard Times For Haggis" were the logical result of character arcs. I hate that word, but it's required jargon in the entertainment world".[3] The way that the asinine puppet version of The Ren & Stimpy Show replaces the genuine article in the episode was likewise intended as a metaphor for how the quality of television shows decline over time.[4] Reccardi made the main focus on Haggis in the episode to explore his psychology, most notably his hubris followed by his rage and self-destructive, suicidal tendencies following the cancellation of his television show, making Haggis a more complex cartoon villain than those normally depicted.[1]
Reception
The American critic Thad Komorowski praised the episode as Reccardi had "a gift for delving into the drama intrinsic to the diseased mind", praising "several stirring sequences reminiscent of the better staged and acted set pieces in the Spumco cartoons".[1] Komorowski singeld out for praise the scenes of Haggis's depression and his contemplation of suicide as "remarkably unsettling in their execution".[1] However, Komorowski stated that Reccardi's attempts at comedy in "Hard Times for Haggis" misfired as he wrote that Reccardi's jokes tended to follow flat.[4]
Books
Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN978-1593931100.
Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN978-1629331836.
