Supposedly this episode was responsible for the most "concerned parents" mails that Nickelodeon ever got. Not sure if that's accurate, but I think I read that once in an old Spumco paperback.
The ratio of good Kricfalusi to bad Kricfalusi is somewhere around one parts per thousand. When he's good, he's very, very good, and when he's bad, he's awful.
It seems that Nickelodeon has a calming, or editing, effect on those who have a great thing, but are too big a douche to just be unleashed on it without supervision.