COVER STORY : The Fans: Isolated Loonies or Crest of a New Wave?

No official “Ren & Stimpy” fan club exists. But like the followers of Ross Perot, there are scores of zealous supporters. They are tired of cartoons as usual, and have increased the show’s popularity by holding Sunday potluck breakfasts, setting up a computer network and finding converts by word of mouth.

Ren and Stimpy, they argue, are real cartoon characters who say what they mean, not mealy-mouthed, cuddly poseurs. Not toys . Ren and Stimpy, they say, can take an anvil in the face and get up the next morning.

Are these people just isolated loonies? Consider this:

Two hundred people in a dark bar outside Detroit stop drinking beers to recite Ren’s lines: “Oh, my beloved ice cream bar. How I love to lick your creamy center. And your oh-so-nutty chocolate covering. You’re not like all the others.”

A Midwest thing? Not quite.

Computer users around the United States, Australia and Germany are networking on a “Ren & Stimpy” electronic bulletin board. Known to each other only by names such as Mad Mark and Xorsist, they share information, argue over the pronunciation of Ren’s last name (Hoek, rhymes with pork) and track down the cartoon’s non sequiturs and obscure references.

“Hey you guys, get a life,” suggests a lone voice on the computer bulletin board, clearly a traitor. Soon, the computer screen fills with cries of outrage: “Shut up,” “Sit down” and “Go away.”

Anonymous “Ren & Stimpy” faithful must rally together. Lately they’ve only had each other and the reruns to cleave to. Starved for new cartoons, they’ve been watching, memorizing, even moralizing on the same six 30-minute episodes over and over again. One fan talks of “something cleansing in the vulgarity” and how the cartoons set him free. Now with 13 new episodes in the pipeline, the fans are breathing easier: Soon there will be more lines to learn by heart.

Not a moment too soon for some, such as Kenny Vasquez, 27, of Monterey Park. As part of his primping routine before going to rock clubs, Vasquez watches his favorite “Ren & Stimpy” episode, “Space Madness.” The cartoon, he says, puts him “in the amped-up mood to cause havoc,” an attitude Vasquez cops from his role model, Ren, the asthmatic Chihuahua with a chronic Type-A personality.

“He’s such a psychopath, such a hothead. He’s just like me,” Vasquez says. “Watching Ren go off makes me see it’s OK to go off, and I become a better person.”

Lucy Ruiz, 18, of Alhambra is another fan who finds something edifying in Ren’s behavior. “I sympathize with Ren. He’s always aggravated,” she explains. “He loves being tense. Stimpy is always happy. Ren is the realistic one.”

There are a few who find a political statement--most likely anarchy--in the show’s wild animation. Still others, such as Barry Koss, 41, of Venice defend their appreciation as “approaching a cerebral factor.”

The show’s violence is tasteful, Koss posits. “There’s not a lot of blatant violence as there is with ‘Tom and Jerry,’ ” he says. “But it’s laid out in a way that you can enjoy it.”

A few fans are more circumspect, however, unsure if “Ren & Stimpy” really does appeal to their better instincts.

“It’s kind of like looking at a car wreck,” says Linda Kay, 27, of North Hollywood. “You want to turn away but you keep looking at it. I’ll be eating and I’ll ask myself, ‘Was that a fart? Why am I eating while I watch this?’ ”

For 45-year-old Charlie Steenrod of Los Angeles, a “Ren & Stimpy” fan and the father of two, watching the show with his children can be disconcerting. “What do kids know about black holes and Salvador Dali?” he asks, referring to the cartoon’s range of topics.

“There are some things I’ve chosen not to comment on to my kids, or if they comment on it, I try to ignore it, such as Ren throwing up in the toilet,” Steenrod says, adding, “Are the creators Betty Ford graduates?”

There’s one thing that worries the most devout of the “Ren & Stimpy” fans: What will happen if the show becomes extremely popular? Will it become “Simpson-ized,” they wonder, where grandmothers will be able to buy “Ren & Stimpy” tea towels and note pads? Will Ren and Stimpy be reduced to stocking stuffers? Some fans say they refuse on principle to buy “Ren & Stimpy” T-shirts, not wanting a hand in transforming their cult hit into the latest craze.

“It’s cartoon rebellion,” says John Oudens, 30, of St. Petersburg, Fla. “That’s why when it becomes fashionable, it won’t be the same anymore.”