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A Sucker
for the Suck-O-Matic
The
purpose of machines is to make daily tasks easier, but in life, things can
still go wrong when using them. When
this scenario is brought to light in animation, there’s a lot of
creative potential to how you can interpret it.
This show is the perfect place to exercise that potential, and that’s
exactly what it does as we watch Rocko get a new vacuum cleaner to clean his
unbelievably messy living room.
His old
one is very faulty and can’t suck up stuff very well, which is a very believable
reason to get a new and more powerful vacuum cleaner. He finds one in a commercial Heffer is
watching which goes all out hyping up the new vacuum cleaner called the
Suck-O-Matic as the best cleaner there is that matches the seductive feel
commercials in general seem to have.
There’s even a creative interpretation of how manipulative they are with
a scene of the TV reaching out and taking Rocko and Heffer’s brains as they
watch, rendering them temporarily mindless to buy it without second
thought.
Once he has the Suck-O-Matic,
there are some off-putting things about it like it not looking the way it did
on TV and innumerable safety warnings that Rocko and Heffer gloss over like
most people in real life would when reading instructions. I see myself doing that. Nevertheless, the big vacuum cleaner works
very impressively with how fast it sucks up large amounts of dust, cities of bugs
akin to something like Godzilla, and
other little remnants of things all around the living room. It has the impression of a vacuum cleaner you
wish existed in real life. However, the
fact that the Suck-O-Matic can also suck up really huge things like all the
layers of Rocko’s car and an entire plane further indicates that it could go
mad with power.
This is when the
Suck-O-Matic starts wreaking havoc. When
taking it outside, the Suck-O-Matic goes loose and sucks up everything in sight. If that’s not enough, when Rocko tries to put
a stop to the senseless sucking, the vacuum cleaner won’t turn off developing a
mind of its own. More creative ways of
showing the problems with machines are shown in a fast-paced climax where Rocko
and Heffer tries to stop the Suck-O-Matic.
They try returning it, but they lose the receipt, they look for the
manual for how to turn it off, but it’s not helpful by literally telling them
to prepare to die, and they narrowly avoid getting sucked by it themselves, but
the vacuum cleaner breaks itself suggesting that everything is now safe. However, this relief is ruined by Heffer
taking out a chip caught in its throat just because, and everyone suffers from
this boneheaded moment.
They all end up
getting sucked up and just carry on with their lives inside it. In fact, the last shot shows all homes on
Rocko’s block sucked up by the Suck-O-Matic, bringing an apocalyptic feel to
the ending. It’s a bit unsettling that
the cartoon ends like this, but at the same time is fascinating for creatively
showing how common buying machines off of commercials and enduring their
problems is for many.
With a great
collection of exaggerated occurrences and creative outcomes from buying and
using machines, this is another good example of a cartoon that’s relatable as
well as imaginative.
A
Canned
Everybody
needs a job to get by in this world even if it’s not the best but is all you
can get. I can only imagine how hard it
can be to get a job after getting fired, but what Rocko’s put through gives a
good idea.
He’s let go of his from his
old comic book store job for productivity reasons. After that, the focus is on Rocko
trying to find a new job in order to get by.
It even shows the importance of having a job when the now unemployed
Rocko is without food for himself and Spunky, and has no money to pay the
bills, the latter being creatively interpreted by traffic meters for all the
things he pays for going down. It’s
amazing how positive Rocko remains in spite of this which makes him a likable
character to follow as he looks to the want ads for a new job.
The show's main strength of
exaggerating modern life’s challenges is seen through these new jobs. Rocko uses a jackhammer to make a tattoo on rhino’s
tooth as a tattoo artist, becomes a plumber’s assistant who’s only allowed to
pull up the plumber’s pants, and has to say “Oh baby” over and over as a
special kind of phone operator. They’re
all effective exaggerations of what could happen on these jobs, and jokes
coming from the basic idea of the positions even astound with how much
the crew was able to get away.
Rocko’s
job attempt that drives the plot however, is a worker at O-Town’s biggest
business center, Conglom-O run by his crabby next-door neighbor, Ed
Bighead. By now, his animosity towards Rocko is crystal clear to anyone who’s been watching the show, especially shown
in an earlier scene of him berating Rocko’s dog, Spunky, for eating his
plants. Ed tries to humiliate Rocko by
giving him a job in the product-testing department. However, all of the products Ed has Rocko try
for humiliation purposes backfire when Rocko actually enjoys the product while
Ed tries it out to see what’s wrong, and karma has him endure the product’s
harsh effects. Each use of a product
demonstrates the show’s talents for creativity and interesting ways for Rocko
to see the good in the product. A nose
modifier give Rocko various nose jobs he enjoys while Ed, who doesn’t have a
nose, ends up with two in his eyes.
Rocko tries some gum that gives him a tree on his head while Ed gets an
actual beehive on his head when he tries several gum pieces. A hairstyle helmet gives Rocko several nice
styles, and Ed gets a buzz saw. Finally,
Rocko is sprayed with mad giraffe repellant which protects him as the giraffes
stampede at Ed instead.
The basic idea is
the same, but the scenes stand out uniquely and are especially entertaining
when Ed, a jerk who wants to hurt Rocko who did absolutely nothing wrong, gets
consequences for his unjust actions.
Still, he does come out on top by firing Rocko even though he did
exactly what he was supposed to do as a product tester. Thankfully, Rocko does end up with a new job
in the end working at a new comic book store, Kind of a Lot O’ Comics. It is weird to see him start working here in
this cartoon since he already was working there in “Power Trip” but we can just
chalk this up to faulty airing order.
As
a result, the cartoon stands as a nice watch centering on the importance of
employment backed by a successful collection of jokes and a satisfying
conclusion for a character often stuck with bad luck.
A+
The Ranking
- Popcorn Pandemonium
- Skid Marks
- The Good the Bad and the Wallaby
- Canned
- To Heck and Back
- Who Gives a Buck?
- Dirty Dog
- A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic
- Trash-O-Madness
- Jet Scream
- Keeping Up With the Bigheads
- Spitballs
- No Pain No Gain
- Power Trip
- Bedfellows
- Leap Frogs
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Rocko tries to win a prize at a carnival, and spends most of a day at the beach saving his dog from harm.
If you would like to check out other Rocko's Modern Life reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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