The Ripping Friends (2001)
Synopsis
The Ripping Friends: The World's Most Manly Men! is a Canadian animated television series, created by John Kricfalusi. The show premiered September 22, 2001 on Fox Kids, but was cancelled in September 2002. Adult Swim later picked up the show. The series occasionally airs in Canada on Teletoon. The series also aired briefly in the UK on the CNX channel. The show is rated TV-Y7 on Fox Kids and TV-PG on [adult swim] in the United States, and C8 to 14+ on Teletoon in Canada.
Network
FOX, Teletoon, Fox Kids
Episodes
The Indigestible Wad
A young girl's wad of chewing gum that she has been chewing since before she was born – the one her mother swallowed – is granted sentience/sapience from a dentist's x-ray machine that is powered by cosmic rays. The wad wanders the streets at night, sucking up people's moisture to sustain himself, turning them into "flavorless" zombies.
The Infernal Wedding
Citracett, a villainous dictator from the fictional country of Euroslavia, decides to seduce He-Mom in an effort to get close to, and rid himself of, the Ripping Brothers, eventually asking He-Mom to marry him. The Ripping Brothers must now follow his orders "as if they were Citracett's own".
Flathead's Revenge
When the boys go swimming in the local water hole Chunk finds that he has a flatworm attached to his armpit. After being removed, the flatworm decides to take one of the brothers' back bones and then wreaks havoc on the town with some of his invertebrate brethren.
Frictor
When Jimmy is unable to fully sew the uniforms of the Ripping friends (due to a lack of friction from his smooth fingers) Crag decides to give Jimmy some friction but Frictor, the master of friction, is created when the brothers' calluses are exposed to radiation. The Ripping Friends eventually track him to the moon.
Rip's Shorts
Rip's shorts alter at the molecular level after being thrown into space. The shorts become evil and take control of Jimmy and then Pooperman, causing them to do "evil" things. The other three brothers mobilize to stop the shorts.
The Ovulator
The boys discover that there is a shortage of beef and they send Slab out to rectify the situation, as he is the only one not affected by the lack of beef in his system. He soon discovers that a mad chicken, calling himself the Ovulator, is holding cows hostage.
ManMan and BoyBoy
A duo of supposed crime fighters called ManMan and BoyBoy are wandering around "solving crimes" with flesh colored accessories. Their brand of crime fighting is soon revealed to be simply putting BoyBoy in peril for no good reason. Crag sets out, because he has not had his own episode yet, to foil the duo and save BoyBoy by dressing himself up as Man Friend and Jimmy as Boy Pal to save BoyBoy.
Stinky Butt
Citracett is banished to the nether regions of the Earth by the Ripping Friends after attempting to destroy it. There, due to some mystical energy, Citracett gains the ability to control his flatulence with destructive results.
The Muscle Magician
Chunk is being made fun of by the other, 36-year-old brothers for only being 35 and a half, and therefore a "kid", so he runs away and attends a circus performance where he finds a magician who controls people's muscles. The magician, realizing the potential that Chunk poses, possesses his muscles and has him commit robbery of the many national banks in town.
Jimmy's Kidnapped
Citracett and a gorilla (named "Gorilla Friend" in an organ grinder monkey outfit, later "Anaxamander – the Noble Primate" in a "Pericles helmet") kidnap Jimmy the Hapless Idiot Boy after Rip harasses him into running away. The Ripping Friends track him down to find that they are torturing Jimmy so Rip knocks out the gorilla, steals his fur, and infiltrates Citracett's basement to rescue Jimmy.
Meet Dr. Jean Poole
The four boys get a lesson on "girls" from He-Mom and, as a final lesson, sets them up on a date with a Dr. Jean Poole. All five of them go out on the date together to the drive-in.
The Man from Next Thursday, Part 1
Someone breaks into RIPCOT's secret vault and steals the Ripping Friends' "perfect" DNA, which he turns into "Riptonite" in order to kill the Ripping brothers. The intruder is revealed to be a man with an enormous thumb protruding from his chest, who claims to be a time traveler from "next Thursday".
The Man from Next Thursday, Part 2
The man from next Thursday relates his plan to his intelligent cat, revealing that his attempts to kill the Ripping Friends is based on revenge; the Ripping Friends ripped the nail off his giant chest-thumb and then re-attached it on the wrong side, making him a freak in the world of next Thursday.
Cast
Details
Original Title
The Ripping Friends
Status
Ended
Seasons
1
Episodes
13
Production
Spümcø, Cambium Film & Video Productions