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"The Scotsman in Space" is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on January 7, 1995.

Plot

In a story similar to "Space Madness", Ren and Stimpy portray Commander Höek and Space Cadet Stimpy, who embark on a 36-year journey to acquire a pack of chewing gum. As expected, Ren begins to acquire symptoms of the titular Space Madness, believing Stimpy to be plotting against him when he is playing Whac-A-Mole. This is exemplified by what seems to be illusions of Haggis MacHaggis, freaking out on every occurrence until he snaps and threatens to eat a fly on board. The plot of the original episode fully derails when all three notice Haggis, finding him floating near the spacecraft and inexplicably able to breathe and survive. After the fly insists to be eaten and flies into Ren's stomach, the duo admit Haggis.

Due to Stimpy's incompetence with the translator, he misinterprets Haggis' intention of retrieving his sheep as wanting to eat cheap. He prepares dehydrated haggis for Ren and Haggis, but Haggis is repulsed by the lack of chutney, causing him to become aggressive and subsequently pinned down by the duo. They bring him in to do tests, which include Stimpy eating a portion of his brain, removing Haggis' wooden dentures (for Scottish people have no teeth) and the "wallet test" where they find Haggis' wallet biologically attached to his buttock, a reference to the stereotype of Scots being tight-fisted. Haggis awakes in rage, immediately takes control of the duo and forces them to embody sheep, grow wool for six months, shear themselves and make kilts as he identifies the duo as sheep from his stupidity.

The trio eat breakfast, only for Haggis to become aggressive again as he does not like the look of the bacon and eggs. His wallet disconnects from his body as he yelps in pain, with a genie coming out after Ren and Stimpy opens it. He allows the duo to make three wishes, with one additional for free as a deal. Ren wishes for beautiful women and all the money in the world, which he finds to be highly satisfying, only to be undone by Stimpy's wishes: remove all humans' need of material possessions, racial equality and for everyone to be in a hot and sunny place. The wishes disintegrate the spaceship, bring the five characters to the Sun's gravitational belt, transform them into racist stereotypes and incinerate to death as they gravitate to the Sun before Ren can slap Stimpy for his stupidity. Haggis' dentures mock the duo, ending the episode.

Cast

• Ren – Voice of Billy West
• Stimpy – Voice of Billy West
• Haggis MacHaggis – Voice of Alan Young
• Genie – Voice of Stephen DeStefano

Production

This is the first official episode featuring Haggis MacHaggis to not have full involvement of Chris Reccardi, as his unit was disbanded and his wife Lynne Naylor left production a second time. Stephen DeStefano produced the storyboards.

Reception

American journalist Thad Komorowski gave the episode two out of four stars.

Books and articles

• 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.

References

1. Komorowski 2017, p. 319.
2. Komorowski 2017, pp. 319–320.

• 1995 television episodes
• The Ren & Stimpy Show episodes
• Television episodes set in outer space