Rocko's Modern Life: Introduction

Behind Hey Arnold!, Rocko is probably my 2nd favorite Nicktoons series… ok, maybe tied with Doug for 2nd cuz of the nostalgia factor.

I honestly can’t explain what about Rocko made me love the show so much. Maybe the animal characters and I love animals. Probably the jokes and the humor. It’s chock full of quotable lines we still say to this day.

The show stars an Australian wallaby named Rocko and it focuses on his various antics as he makes a new life for himself in America. Really, the show could’ve taken place on any continent and it wouldn't have made a difference. Only once or twice does Rocko being an immigrant get brought up. Usually, it involves him missing his family.

Along with him, there’s additional focus on his best friends Heffer (a steer) and Filbert (a turtle) and his next door neighbors, the Bigheads (both hilariously voiced by Charlie Adler).

Quick fun fact- two of the voice actors from the series voiced Spyro the dragon from the video game franchise. As a HUGE fan of that series, I will always appreciate Carlos Alazraqui and Tom Kenny for their contributions to it.

Another notable thing that needs to be addressed: the humor of the show is great, but it’s arguably funnier as an adult. Firstly, you’re more likely to have gone through these shenanigans in your own life once you reach a certain age… and you’ll also be amazed by how much this innuendo-laden series got away with.

Prime example I won’t get to mention otherwise:

In “Canned,” Rocko is trying out for various jobs until he finally get hired at Kind of a Lot O' Comics. One is a plumbers assistant where he’s essentially there to pull up the plumber’s pants cuz it keeps dropping and exposing his plumber’s butt (“hey, can you get that? Thanks a lot”...)

But by far the funniest (and possibly most disturbing)...

“Oh baby (x3)”

“Rocko?”

“Mrs. Bighead?”

[both slam their phones down]

That wasn’t the last incident involving Mrs. Bighead that raised eyebrows. One time ["Leap Frogs"] she hires Rocko to do house work for her and Mr. Bighead walks in when she’s paying him and one (or both of them, I forget) is wearing a robe cuz their clothes got ruined. I believe this is one of a few episodes that got skipped over in syndication cuz it was too suggestive.
[I read further into the plot-- she did invite him over to do favors because she was feeling neglected by her husband, so yeah... some weird stuff with Rocko and Mrs. Bighead has happened on this show. I'm still learning things]

Another scene in another episode ["The Good, The Bad, and The Wallaby"].. Rocko is with a relative at a farm and Heffer has to stay in a barn with the other cows. A farmer comes in to milk the cows with a machine and at one point attaches it to him. Let’s just say his pleasurable reaction to it reads a lot differently when you’re an adult… so yeah that happened.
[According to a wiki page about censorship with this series, there were supposed to be hearts in his eyes during this scene and it was changed to stars... either way, this whole scene plus Heffer saying goodybe to the milking machine were completely taken out in syndication]


Anyway, I’m going to keep this series to a top 20 format. Maybe not in an exact order, but it’ll include most of my memorable moments from across the series.