Things Only Adults Notice In Rocko's Modern Life

The 1990s were a golden age of cartoons. Ren & Stimpy, Doug, Rugrats, and a wide variety of other animated classics dominated the childhoods of many. Prior to this era, cartoons were reserved for Saturday mornings — opening up the schedule to weekdays, afternoons, and even evenings created an animated renaissance. Television hasn't been the same since.

 Fast-forward to the present day, and many of those '90s kids are now adults, re-visiting those classic cartoons with their own children. But this isn't just an exercise in nostalgia — for many parents, it becomes an unintentional exploration of one's long-ago childhood innocence. Take Rocko's Modern Life. It's cute, colorful, it's about an anxious wallaby living in a wacky town full of anthropomorphic animals. It's also absolutely crammed full of adult humor. Sure, you didn't get most of these jokes when you were a child. But nowadays, you're a grown-up with taxes, clogged gutters, and a whole new understanding of the Bigheads' troubled marriage. Somehow, Nickelodeon made kids fall in love with a show full of jokes about the DMV, stale careers, and literally going to Hell — and it holds up just as well today as it did back then. Get ready for a Rocko rewatch with this look into everything the cartoon aims straight at adults.

Rocko lives next door to a pair of middle-aged cane toads, Ed and Bev Bighead. Mr. Bighead has a tendency to be crotchety and private, but Mrs. Bighead is much more lively and outgoing — sometimes a bit too much. She tells viewers as early as the second episode, "Leap Frogs," that she is a "woman with needs," shortly before tempting Rocko with lemonade spiked with spanish fly. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this episode was actually pulled from air.

Mrs. Bighead's amorous nature isn't confined to one banned episode, however. She spends the entire series trying to enjoy some private time with Mr. Bighead, only to fall flat — and turn to others, most frequently Rocko. Her flirtatious nature isn't pointed exclusively at any one wallaby or cane toad, however. Take a gander at "Cabin Fever," an episode in which she plays a game of strip poker with Rocko and Heffer. One hopes she and Mr. Bighead have gotten some marriage counseling and worked on their obvious intimacy issues.

Rocko's life is, as the title states, a modern one. So perhaps it's only natural that this cartoon would contain so many jokes about the facts of life. Still, the sheer volume of racy in-jokes in Rocko's Modern Life is staggering, to the point that the cartoon has become somewhat infamous.

Just how far does Rocko go? Let's take a look at what happens in "Carnival Knowledge." Glimpsed while Rocko and Heffer run around a carnival is a ride operator reading an issue of '"Playslug." Later in that same episode, we see a pair of rabbits enter the Tunnel of Love, then exit the other side with dozens of baby bunnies in tow. Then there's "Road Rash," an episode in which Heffer and Rocko check into the "No Tell Motel," which boasts hourly rates. In a scene that was cut from later broadcasts, the hotel's manager says they're full up — until a light blinks and they have a "premature departure." When Rocko and Heffer tell him they'd like the room until tomorrow morning, the manager whistles in disbelief and remarks, "All night?"

Perhaps the most overt joke in the entire series occurs in "Canned." Rocko, having lost his job, briefly works as a "specialty phone operator" in a booth encouraging him to be "hot" and "naughty." "Oh baby, oh baby," he chants monotonously — only to hear Mrs. Bighead's shocked voice on the other line.

Rocko's Modern Life is absolutely loaded with dark humor. Remember Heffer? How about his family? If you've forgotten, he was adopted and raised by wolves, who were initially planning to fatten him up for supper. They ended up falling in love with him, of course, but Heffer still bears a "birthmark" of the lines delineating how they were going to carve him up.

Perhaps one of the darkest moments in Rocko happens in "To Heck and Back," an episode that sends the character to actual, literal Hell. It opens on a chicken named Karen being interviewed by an executive for a job at Chokey Chicken. The executive, apparently pleased with her, shakes Karen's hand and enthusiastically welcomes her to the company, showing her through some important-looking doors. Then the scene cuts to a meat processing plant in the back. We see a package of processed chicken go down the conveyor belt, bearing a "Karen" name tag. One can't help but wonder how many children became vegetarians after watching this scene.

Rocko's Modern Life constantly pushed the boundaries of censorship with briefly glimpsed visual gags. Take the many, many ways the show plays around with the world "hell." In "Carnal Knowledge," an elevator ride to "Heck" can be seen, while in "To Heck and Back," Heffer is sent to the underworld, complete with a sign: "Welcome to Hell, A friendly community." Those last two letters have been hastily painted over with "ck," barely hiding the original word. When Heffer tries to name where they are, a demon named Peaches hastily slaps his hand over Heffer's mouth and hisses, "censors!"

In addition to h-e-double-hockey-sticks, there are more than a few censor-pushing moments that get away with it by only lasting for a few frames. For example, when Rocko sees his crush, Melba Toast, in "Love Spanked," his heart throbs in and out of his chest — only it goes so far back, it comes out Rocko's rear end, and strongly resembles a certain part of the male anatomy. 

"Sand in Your Navel" contains the most overt joke about censorship of all, however. Once Rocko steps onto a nude beach, a grim-faced man in a suit literally attaches a black censor bar to his lower half.

Rocko's Modern Life is full of references to history ... but they're a whole lot more morbid than they are educational. "Skid Marks" sees Rocko's car get impounded by the police, thanks to a missing gas cap, and so he has to go to — dun dun DUN! — the Department of Motor Vehicles. Just like the real DMV, there are a lot of lines to stand in, with signage overhead directing patrons to the appropriate places. Ominously, one of the lines reads "Jimmy Hoffa." Hoffa was a controversial figure of mid-century labor activism, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

"Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic" deploys an even darker reference to infamous American history. Heffer, watching TV, is seen from an angle that obscures what's happening on screen. We can certainly hear the broadcast, however, which describes a presidential motorcade rounding a corner ... and then a sudden, shocking burst of gunfire. This is an overt reference to President John F. Kennedy's assassination, which begs the question: When, exactly, does Rocko's Modern Life take place?

Once you've heard the sweet serenade that is the Rocko's Modern Life theme song, it's hard to get it out of your head. It underwent some changes over the course of the show, however, starting off in the first season as a decidedly tinny tune. The second season re-calibrated it into the catchy and well-produced song we know and love today. It may have sounded vaguely familiar to '90s kids, but adults were a whole lot more likely to recognize its creators: Legendary American new wave band The B-52s.

Joe Murray originally wanted the composer Paul Sumares to write Rocko's theme music, as Murray loved the theme Sumares wrote for his first show, My Dog Zero. As fate would have it, the network wanted an artist with more experience than Sumares had yet earned. Murray's second choice was Danny Elfman, a former member of Oingo Boingo who has become internationally famous as a composer of movie scores.

Once again, fate intervened, as Elfman was already booked. Eventually, the gig was handed to The B-52s, who were riding high on the wave of their big hit, "Love Shack." The rest, as they say, is history ... funky, funky history.