During Craig McCracken's first year in the character animation program of CalArts, he created a series of short cartoons based on a character called "No Neck Joe". In June 1991, he created a drawing of three girls with large eyes, inspired visually by the 'waif' paintings of Margaret Keane, on a small sheet of orange construction paper as a birthday card design for his brother. The following year, he included the three girls as the main characters of his short film "Whoopass Stew! The Whoopass Girls in: A Sticky Situation". Initially, McCracken wanted to animate all four "Whoopass Girls" shorts, but only one was produced. McCracken's shorts were selected to be shown at Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation in 1994.