A Hard Day's Luck

A Hard Day's Luck is the ninth episode of the fourth season of The Ren & Stimpy Show that originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on 11 November 1994.

Plot

Haggis MacHaggis lives in his Scottish Gothic castle in the Highlands of Scotland with his moronic Swedish servant Myron.^[1] Haggis is ashamed to be bald and wants hair again.^[1] Haggis discovers a leprechaun who promises to give Haggis hair on his head again, but only if Haggis passes three tests of self-control, generosity, and courage.^[1] Haggis successively fails all three tests due to his anger, greed and cowardice.^[1] The leprechaun gives Haggis a malformed head of hair anyhow, and Haggis happily runs off into the sunset where he explodes.^[1]

Cast

• Haggis MacHaggis-voice of Alan Young
• Leprechaun-voice of Billy West
• Myron-voice of Billy West

Production

The episode was a pilot episode for a spin-off series starring Haggis and Ren and Stimpy did not appear in the story as way to test the appeal to audiences of a story that only featured Haggis.^[2] Chris Reccardi who created the character of Haggis directed the episode.^[2] The American critic Thad Komorowski wrote that Reccardi was talented at stylized designs, but not at comedy.^[2] The episode was illustrated by the Rough Draft Korea studio in Seoul.^[1] The scene where Haggis tosses aside a clam rather give him a quarter out of greed was censored by the network.^[1]

Reception

Komorowski rated the episode three stars out of five, writing that the story was "amusing".^[3]

Books and articles

• Dobbs, G. Michael (2015). Escape – How Animation Broke into the Mainstream in the 1990s. Orlando: BearManor Media. ISBN 1593931107.
• Komorowski, Thad (2017). Sick Little Monkeys: The Unauthorized Ren & Stimpy Story. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1629331836.

References

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