Music

Ren and Stimpy creator is the art director for Miley Cyrus's tour

by Mark Teo

On a day when Miley Cyrus tweeted a bizarre MTV Unplugged promo—which featured her with buck teeth and nipple pasties—the 21-year-old made an even weirder announcement: That she’s linking up with acclaimed cartoonist John Kricfalusi for her Bangerz tour.

In a press conference, it was revealed that the Quebec-born Kricfalusi, whose Ren and Stimpy series walked the line between perverse, hilarious, and subversive, will be the tour’s art director.

“His art is driving a lot of the tour,” Cyrus said in her press conference about the tour. “Our whole tour is literally based on animals,” namely, the “imaginative animals [Kricfalusi] made on his own.”

Kricfalusi, for his part, is no stranger to imaginative creatures. He is, after all, the man who brought eye-scorching illustrated nudity to children’s television. (We’re not kidding: Ren and Stimpy’s Adult Party, which aired on MuchMusic in the early aughts, had a particularly controversial episode named “Naked Beach Frenzy.” Then, there’s the infamous pee boners.) So, we’re hoping that the Bangerz includes characters like Insomniac Ren, Stimpy’s First Fart, or Private Mr. Horse.

His work on the Bangerz tour isn’t Kricfalusi’s first high-profile collaboration. He’s directed the video for Björk’s “I Miss You,” created a series of Stüssy shirts, and even created a mind-melting interpretation of the couch gag for The Simspons. Check that below.

In the meantime, the cartoonist has given us a taste of what’s to come on his blog, where he’s sketched out several Miley-inspired cartoons. One includes Ren and Stimpy, whose iconic “Happy Happy Joy Joy” tagline has been replaced by “Happy Happy Twerk Twerk.”

Check those cartoons below. And get psyched for the Bangerz tour.