Rocko's Modern Life has got to be one of my favorite shows I watched as a 90's kid. I think apart of what made this little Wallaby living in the modern world so enjoyable was how edgy the humor was.
Sure in comparison to the humor in shows today like "Family Guy", Rocko may not seem all that rebellious..but it definitely was ahead of it's time. I catch on to a lot more watching the show now that I'm grown as opposed to when I was young. Here are some examples of possible subliminal messages in Rocko's Modern Life:
* Rocko and the guys frequented a restaurant called “Chokey Chicken”, however the name of the restaurant was later changed to “Chewy Chicken.”
* Rocko’s favorite hobby was “jacking” (as “jackhammering” is often shortened to).
* Rocko and the guys played a game called “Spank the Monkey”, where there was a monkey on the table between them and they all are holding paddles before Mr. Bighead enters the room and asks them to go bowling.
* During one episode, Rocko and Heffer walk past a demonstration pit for jackhammers which reads, “Jack all you want.”
* In “Who Gives a Buck?”, on Rocko’s credit card, you see, in capital letters “A$$”.
* Rocko, after getting fired from his job, is seen briefly holding a job as a phone-sex operator, where he is talking on the phone in a monotone voice, repeating the words, “Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby.” Rocko later realizes that his customer is Mrs. Bighead, and both parties then hang up. (There was also a sign on the wall that read, “Remember: be hot, be naughty, be courteous”.)
* Rocko finds another job where he is tattooing a rhinoceros named ‘Mr. Horny’.
* A show in Rocko’s Modern Life is called “The Fatheads”, though in the show’s universe, it’s a send-up of the Bigheads and their lifestyle as created by their cartoonist son, Ralph Bighead.
* Rocko’s dog Spunky falls in love with a mop, and there is a scene where the mop and Spunky are cuddling, then a not-so-sexual montage that shows a train speeding through a tunnel and someone spreading mayonnaise on a slice of bread.
* The city of “Ballzach” was shown in an episode.
* Heffer had a nudist party in Rocko’s backyard. (With a nudist band known as, “The Dangles”.)
* When Rocko goes to buy a new bowl for Spunky, he goes to Dog World in the mall, and the guy says, “Hop on our doggy style bowl rides, everybody on your hands and knees!”
* Filburt pretends to be a woman on more than one occasion (and pretends to be Rocko’s wife so Rocko could stay in the country, in an episode spoofing The Odd Couple).
* The Bunmaster TV ads show a guy shoving his buttocks in front of the camera.
* The Wolfe family referring to Rocko as a “beaver” and Grandpa Wolfe suggested that they “eat the beaver.”
* In “Hut Sut Raw”, Rocko finds what looks like two berries side by side on a bush while camping. When he plucks one of the berries, a bear runs out of the bushes clutching his groin in pain. This scene was cut from later airings.
* In the episode where Mrs. Bighead tries to seduce Rocko, she offers him a drink which she had covertly spiked with spanish fly. Literally, she sprinkles brown flies with sombreros and ponchos into his drink.
* In “Wacky Delly”, during the scene in which Rocko, Heffer and Filburt expose the film, Heffer is heard shouting “Stop touching me!” Filburt begins apologizing profusely but fails to be forgiven by Heffer. It should be evident where Heffer was touched to make him that angry.
* In the episode when Heffer gets Rocko on a dating show, it is mentioned that the fish lady “has a fetish for short wallabies”.
* In “Flu-en-u-enza”, Rocko who has the flu, visits a doctor named, “Bendova”, who gives him a prostate exam.
* In one episode, the one where Rocko accidentally orders a complete TV/Stereo system, Rocko, Filburt, and Heffer are watching movies. The first movie shown is called “Night of the Shaved Kittens”.
* In “Leap Frogs”, Mrs. Bighead hands some cash to Rocko (who is not wearing a shirt), for helping her around the house. Seconds later, Mr. Bighead walks in the door and catches the two. A surprised Rocko quickly explains, “It’s not what you think!”.
* A character often known simply as Hippo Lady has made a few appearances on the show, often accompanied by her line of dialogue in a very deep voice, “How dare you!” On one occasion in a supermarket, Rocko falls into her cleavage and gets stuck.
* One character, Bob Bucky Taylor (a spoof of Tim Taylor of Home Improvement which in turn is a spoof of Bob Vila), said on a tv ad that he and his crew built a “26 room fellatio mansion”. (later, he also stated, “I can’t tell a hammer from a hemorrhoid!”)
* In the episode where Spunky falls in love with a broom, a faint sqeaking is heard, possibly referring to a sexual act towards the broom. Spunky does this once, and so does his Psychiatrist.
* In “Commuted Sentence”, Rocko’s car gets impounded, and there is a scene where his car calls him from the impound lot. After asking Rocko to get him out of the lot, Rocko’s car looks over his shoulder, and spots a semi with a menacing grin on his face who laughs at him. Then, Rocko’s car yells to him, “hurry!” The view then shifts back to Rocko, and the sound of metal squeaking against metal, can be heard from the phone. This hints that Rocko’s car was being sodomized. To prove this further, when Rocko comes to pick up his car, he asks the man at the lot, “I’ve come to pick up my car, it’s the red one.” The man at the lot tells him, “yeah, the other cars call him ‘fancy fenders’. (he then says in a disgusted voice) A term of endearment I’m sure.”
* Really Really Big Man at one point tells Rocko to ‘gaze into my nipples of the future,’ after which RRBM’s nipples attatch themselves to Rocko’s eyes
* In the episode “manic mechanic” right before the car returns from sky and into the original body, you can see the words HIV being spelled out with wooden boards.
* In the episode “closet clown” there are numerus jokes that compare being a clown to being gay.
* In the episode “The Good, the Bad, and the Wallaby”, while Heffer is sleeping in a barn with cows, a farmer comes along, mistakes him for a cow, and “hooks him up” to an automated milking machine. After a few seconds of sucking sounds, facial contortions, and stars in his eyes, Heffer orgasms. This scene was only showed once and was removed from further airings.
* On “Road Rash”, Heffer and Rocko stop at a motel advertising “hourly rates” and “wa-wa beds” (vibrating beds), called, “The No-Tell Motel”. They are told by the man at the front desk, that the place is full, and a room will not be available for twenty minutes. A buzzer suddenly interupts the man, and the man tells them, “oh, we have premature departure, you can have room now. How long you want?” Rocko tell him, “Just till tomorrow.” The man responds, “All night? (he then whistles) ok?!” This hints that the motel is rented by prostitutes on the hour. (This scene was shown the first time the episode aired. It was cut from later airings.)
* One of Filburt and Dr. Hutchinson’s babies looks like Heffer. This suggests that Dr. Hutchinson and Heffer had sex. (Actually in the context of the show, all four of Filbert’s and Hutchinson’s were hatched from one egg. When trying to keep it warm Filbert found out he’s a failure at egg sitting and had Heffer do it, who took the role very seriously. At the end of the episode four babbies hatched from the one egg, and apparently because of egg sitting one of the kid’s took on Hef’s apperance in a form of strange cartoon logic.)
* Mr. Bighead, Rocko’s next door neighbor, constantly has a problem with Rocko’s dog playing around in his front yard. Specifically, and to quote Ed Bighead himself, he hates having “Spunky in his salmon bushes”
* At the end of “Power Trip”, Rocko tells Really Really Big Man, “thanks Really Really Big Man, we’ve all been touched by your bigness.”
* When Heffer discovered he was adopted he went searching for his real parents and came to what he thought was his father’s tombstone. While he was crying his father appeared in a vision and explained that he’s not dead, nor is that his grave. After which there’s a cut showing that the grave reads “Here lies a big wet cat”.
