Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of sexual abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
John Kricfalusi is a 68-year-old Canadian blogger, illustrator, and former voice actor and animator. He is the brains behind several popular cartoon shows in the 1990s and early 2000s. Kricfalusi is best known for creating The Ren & Stimpy Show, which ran from August 11, 1991, to December 16, 1995.
Spümcø was the animation studio behind The Ren & Stimpy Show. It was founded by Kricfalusi, Lynne Naylor, Bob Camp, and Jim Smith in 1989 and went defunct in 2005. Unfortunately, Kricfalusi’s reputation took a blow after two former Spümcø employees, Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice, accused him of grooming and sexual harassment in 2018. The duo further revealed that they were minors back then.
The 2020 documentary film Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story examines the animated show’s history and dissects the controversy surrounding its creator.
Robyn Byrd said that she and John Kricfalusi were in a sexual relationship when she was 16
In a 2018 conversation with Buzzfeed News, Robyn Byrd revealed that at the age of 16, she and Kricfalusi were in a sexual relationship. Furthermore, by 1997, when she turned 17, she lived with him as his girlfriend in California. The former animator contacted her for the first time when she was only 13 years old.
As per Independent, Byrd explained in an email how she lost a decade because of her relationship with John Kricfalusi. She wrote, “He ruined a good bit of my childhood and my early adulthood, gave me PTSD, and forced me to change careers, putting my life 10 years or more behind.”
Meanwhile, Katie Rice said that she was a minor when Kricfalusi sent her inappropriate AOL messages. He even sent her flirtatious letters and masturbated while talking to her on the phone. Moreover, after she turned 18, Kricfalusi repeatedly sexually harassed her.
