Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Pipe Dreams/Tickled Pinky (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episode 2) - 'Toon Reviews 24


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Pipe Dreams


Leave it to this show to bring creative, if surreal, entertainment out of any little problem.  For this cartoon, it targets the less-than-pleasing occurrence of clogged toilets. 
We already see creative gags as we start at a beautiful river and go through a tunnel up to Rocko’s toilet where the water comes from.  From there, the conflict kicks in when Heffer clogs the toilet while doing his business, given that he is a fat steer.  The clog gets worse when he thinks stuffing the toilet with lots of toilet paper will fix everything; it doesn’t.  With the plumber charging far more than Rocko can afford, surprisingly not in a jerky manner like one would expect, Rocko and Heffer try to fix the clog themselves. 
From there, this cartoon doesn’t have much of a plot and is more of antics mined from the attempts to solve the problem.  However, for a show like this, that’s not a problem.  The antics stress the series’ main theme of how challenging life can be while also being very entertaining.  One gag gets creative with exactly what ends up causing the clog when Rocko tries using a simple plunger and pulls out more unusual things than all that toilet paper.  Pulling things like a bowling ball and safe says a lot about Heffer’s bathroom habits.  The gag doesn’t really go all out though as it turns into a struggle with unsticking the suction part of the plunger.  A gag that does go all out, however, is a following one with a toilet snake as it’s put through the toilet and pops up in random places.  This doesn’t just apply to Rocko’s bathroom, but also a tree and even Mr. Bighead’s toilet just as he’s about to use it.  There’s also a gag that exists in the name of fun. Rocko and Heffer talk like people in a commercial as they bring out a product called Tropical Plumber to fix the toilet.  It even comes with a catchy island slogan from the fruit mascots whom Spunky eats before the substance can work. 
For all this time, the story sets up that Heffer’s bathroom habits caused the clog.  However, following the use of an over-the-top industrial plunger on the toilet that blows a hole under the house, a completely different clog source is revealed.  There’s a huge goldfish named Lolita suck in the pipes.  She apparently was Rocko’s pet, but he flushed her when she decided to take a nap and he thought she was dead.  Lolita giving a long-winded rant about being flushed and trapped in the pipes for three and a half years is a very creative and hilarious outcome.  The delivery of her smart talk in a voice that hardly sounds feminine especially sells the comedy. 
That said, this reveal feels a little too random and contradictory of what clearly appeared to cause the clog earlier.  Also, while her rant is funny, it’s hard to know how to feel about everyone getting mad at her.  Being annoyed by the rant is one thing, but they berate her and Rocko even when she’s not yelling.  Out of this, we do get a nice conclusion where the plumber from earlier gets Lolita out of the pipes with a small metal part from a sardine container and takes her to an aquarium.  It even leaves Rocko himself on good terms with the fish forgiving him and him not being charged.  That said, one last gag shows that the neighborhood still isn’t totally safe from his plumbing problems. 
While it feels like the conflict’s driving force can’t be decided on, this cartoon is still a good demonstration of the show’s strengths of mining creativity of life’s little moments.
A-


Tickled Pinky

There are times when certain diseases or medical problems show up and no precautions can prevent them.  One such disease is appendicitis.  I never had it, but from what I know, getting it can be very frightening as you’re put through severe stomach pains at any given moment.  What Rocko is put through in this cartoon brings a believable, if creatively depicted, sensation of the disease. 
We start with a jackhammer display that seems to have nothing to do with the story.  However, that sells how appendicitis occurs when Rocko first feels the pain while minding his own business.  It’s honestly frightening when you think about it.  This doesn’t mean there can’t be creative and humorous antics to depict what he’s put through.  The pain is creatively interpreted by all of Rocko’s organs as schoolkids and his appendix being too sick for class.  In the real world, when the ambulance fails to get him, Heffer astounds by rushing Rocko to the hospital himself.  It’s a nice play on expectations, and is one of Heffer’s most caring moments. 
At the hospital, Rocko endures much turmoil going through the motions of the treatment.  He has to fill a mountain of forms before diagnosis while in pain.  It’s harsh for Rocko to be put through this, but signing forms despite your ailment does seem believable.  There’s also a nice appearance from Dr. Hutchinson who, in her high-spirited ways, determines Rocko’s ailment by his lightning-shaped pain lines.  In his room, TV keeps reminding him of her claim that his appendix must be cut out.  These moments may be Rocko’s more painful life-endurances, figuratively and literally, but they’re enjoyable and humorous for their creativity.  In addition, even in pain, Rocko remains his usual friendly self.  It shows in a scene where he finds many bottled cut organs, and he hallucinates them pleading to not have his appendix cut out. 
Eventually, he passes out and dreams of his appendix, Pinky, come to life and saddened about getting cut out and never seeing his organ friends again.  It gives him a believable personality of a child with a life-threatening disease, one of the most tragic things imaginable.  Rocko then acts as someone akin to an organization like the Make a Wish foundation, and goes out to fulfill Pinky’s final requests.  However, they’re all very extreme activities that build upon each other.  This may be a dream, but it feels like all these activities are meant to equate the pain Rocko’s actually feeling while passed out.  Plus, it all ends endearingly with Pinky saying it’s time for him to go just as Rocko’s had enough, and they both share a final embrace.  This sensation is a clever one to depict that in reality, the operation is over, and Rocko’s appendix is cut out.  The last scene of Rocko burying his appendix while the spirit of it and other organs that were cut out is saddening in a funny sort of way.  It’s a funeral where Rocko’s saying goodbye to someone close to him, but humorous as a creative idea for body parts that are normal to lose being the dearly departed. 
It’s not easy to make pain scenes enjoyable, but in this cartoon, they’re successfully enjoyable all throughout.  It’s all thanks to creative ways of showing the pain, emphasis on relatability, and even genuine heart.
A+

The Ranking
  1. Tickled Pinky
  2. I Have No Son
  3. Pipe Dreams
The next Rocko's Modern Life review invites you to come crawl with Filburt as he becomes a lounge singer, and Bev Bighead astounds with how well she runs Conglom-O in her husband's place.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes season finale, "You're in Control."
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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