Blast from the Past: Rocko's Modern Life

By Bruna Costa     2/14/13 6:00pm

So it may be a little insane and may even drive you up the wall, but you know the feeling. It is when you suddenly find yourself overcome with happiness - wait, there's also a little sadness infused in there. That is just what nostalgia is, I guess: two competing emotions, grappling for your attention. This feeling is enough to get you to talk up the old Nicktoons as though they were the best things in existence, and naturally, you grew up in the best decade ever: the '90s. The other day, I revisited an episode of Rocko's Modern Life, and while I loved the show as a kid, I wonder how warped my childhood mind must have been for me to have enjoyed it for so long.

The episode "I Have No Son!" details Rocko's neighbors, called the "Bigheads," and their cartoonist son. It starts off with the same funky little theme song I always remembered in which Rocko's brain flies out and he gets flicked downward into a place where a flashing sign reads "Real World." Satirical commentary and strange sexual undertones follow. Do not let the cute little Australian Wallaby fool you for one second - this show is not for the faint of heart.

Mr. Bighead works at Conglomo, a blatantly capitalistic corporation with a flashing slogan that fittingly beams "We Own You." Mr. Bighead wants his son to continue onward in the legacy of paper-pushing, so he offers him a position in the company. Of course, little Bighead denies the position; his heart is set on becoming a cartoonist. Mr. Bighead reacts in a fit of anger, disowning him and vehemently shouting, "I have no son." The rest of the episode is spent in the city of "Hollowod," where Rocko attempts to restore morale and the Bighead family is finally brought together again when the father realizes the error of his money-loving ways.

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Moreover, as the episode progresses, Rocko is repeatedly grabbed by an old man who twirls him around with an elongated tongue. I am not sure whether the word "dancing" qualifies here; it is really just that strange. So strange, in fact, that I browsed through some other clips online and discovered that casual references to masturbation and voyeurism were also frequent occurrences in the show. The town diner is called Chokey Chicken, and its favorite board game is Spank the Monkey. Rocko's favorite activity is jackhammering, and he enters a Jack-a-Thon competition in O-Town. There is also an episode in which Rocko gets a job as an operator for a sex hotline, repeating "oh baby, oh baby, oh baby" over and over again. I seriously wonder how Rocko's Modern Life slid under the radar for so long as ''appropriate for general audiences." For now, it remains a mystery.

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