Top 10 Best Characters Between The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life and SpongeBob SquarePants

Yes, the overall show itself might be INCREDIBLY far from what it's cracked up to be to say the LEAST, but I simply cannot say the same about this absolute iconoclastic masterpiece of a character.

While he might not have been "able to carry the entire show's weight on his shoulders alone" as many of his fans claimed, there is simply no denying that as far as aggressively cynical and depressed nutcases go, Ren is easily one of THE most terrifyingly real and relatable ones you will ever see in pretty much ANY form of media, let alone just cartoons.

Before you start questioning this item's placement on this list, I would like you to answer a rather important question for me: can you name even ONE character from 1990s cartoons as a whole that has had more memorable highlight moments than Ren?
To be fair, the Rocko cast DOES come astonishingly close at quite a few times, but seriously, I'm not even TRYING to exaggerate here; literally EVERYTHING about this character, if ...more

Whereas Ren might be the realest psychopath in all-ages cartoons, Rocko is perhaps the realest CHARACTER in all-ages cartoons full-stop, at least if you're willing to ignore the fact that he's somehow able to afford a ridiculously oversized and fancy house despite working part-time at the local comic shop with a ridiculously cruel and stingy boss.
While I won't deny that at his core he's really just a more relatable anthro version of Doug and a far, far, FAR less annoying version of Spongebob, there's just something about him (I meant BESIDES being a furry foot fetishist's dream come true) that genuinely makes him stand out from pretty much every other cartoon character of his "unlucky everyman" archetype; whether it's his adorably shy personality and the ever-so-endearingly clueless way that he navigates the modern world (that later ended up seeping into UmJammer Lammy as well, just for good measure) and/or the fact that he literally looks like Wallace and Gromit mixed together, ...more

I think a lot of us can realate to Rocko who constantly has life S-t on him and just have things constantly go wrong like going to the grocery or going to the DMV.

And now for perhaps the SECOND realest non-psychopath character in Nickelodeon history outside of Hey Arnold; basically a more intelligently written and developed remake of Mr. Bighead from the Rocko series (minus the wife and son, hence why he's so alone all the time), Squidward is pretty much THE most literal representation you could ever hope to ask for of what modern-day society, deep down, has turned most of us into.

(IE depressed, nihilistic, antisocial, smug, irritable, lonely, pathetic, soulless, hopeless, suicidal, etc)

Needless to say, even if living right next to Spongebob is technically his fault for being too stupid and lazy to actually bother with moving, I STILL feel immensely bad for him regardless

Truthfully ANOTHER one of the only things I actually DO like about his resident show besides its music, voice acting and animation style, Powdered Toast Man is, simply put, one of the absolute funniest parodies of superheroes that you will EVER see; seriously, do NOT miss out on his debut episode, or the one where he battles Waffle Woman for that matter
To be quite frank, even Captain Underpants arguably has NOTHING on this guy in terms of sheer ridiculousness level

Probably one of THE most criminally under-utilized characters I've EVER seen in a cartoon (well, besides his late-series wife Dr. Hutchison, at least), Filburt is one of the absolute funniest walking stereotype caricatures of Jewish people that you will ever see, has nearly all of the show's best lines of dialogue and is just generally a genius character, with a genius (by the show's standards) intellect AND an incredibly genius voice actor to boot

Let it be known that before Doug Lawrence became famous for his phenomenal performance as the tragically misunderstood social outcast that Plankton was in the Spongebob series, he laid the initial groundwork for his future acting career by giving arguably an even more phenomenal performance as the plain-old hilariously stuck-up and arrogant douche nozzle that Filburt is

Honestly, he comes across as a pretty bland and stereotypical villain overall, but when you consider how hilariously pathetic yet horrifyingly persistent him and his never-ending attempts to seize the Krabby Patty formula and enslave all of Bikini Bottom are (as well as his literally having a straight-up computer for a wife, combined with his once-again-genius intellect, ridiculously epic voice and definitely-more-than-slightly unsettling mastery in the art of brain intrusion, among numerous other things), he becomes elevated into easily Nickelodeon's all-time best villain besides Ren, Zim and the Fire Nation

Despite also being a massively overrated character and admittedly starring in some EXTREMELY lame and disappointing episodes (Mama's Boy, Belch Of Destiny, Elk For Heffer, etc), Heffer, to be quite frank, is simply awesome and deserves WAY more credit as a character than people give him.

His voice (while ungodly annoying) was endearing and a perfect way to start off Tom Kenny's acting career, his personality (while reeking pretty strongly of "fat, selfish pig" stereotype syndrome) was extremely charming and actually made sense because of him being literally raised by wolves (the "mother" one of which was also the classic "smotherly grandma" type, effectively explaining why he's such a spineless man-baby as well), many of the jokes revolving around him are shockingly funny in their own right, he's the main subject of at least three of the best episodes in the entire series (To Heck And Back, Who's For Dinner, Heffer In A Handbasket), and his relationship with Rocko is just about ...more

While I do personally find him to be quite overrated and honestly by far one of the weaker characters on this list's "top ten" tier, Spongebob (while he lasted) was still an extremely funny and creative character that brought all KINDS of joy and laughs to children worldwide, whether it was his insufferably ridiculous antics with Patrick and Squidward or the countless times that Plankton and/or other characters snuck inside his brain through his countless head-holes while he wasn't looking or his ridiculously brutal karate training with Sandy or what-have-you

Overrated and stupid (much like the show itself, mind you), but still easily deserves to be here just for providing the perfect "dumb and blissfully naive" personality foil to Ren's "smart but downright lethally cynical"