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The
Emperor’s New Joe
There’s
no denying that the cast of characters in this show have a lot of variety to
them whether it’s in the designs or personalities. Some of them tend to make brief yet
significant appearances to drive a plot including the main characters of this
cartoon, Jacques and Leon the Chameleon Brothers. Their gimmick is running random businesses
here and there with trendy mindsets and creative yet somewhat unethical
practices of making everything work.
Here, their business practices are at their wildest in how they get all
of O-Town to buy their brew of coffee from their trendy beatnik club. Rocko is enticed to visit and is soon the
only sane man of all his hometown’s eccentric citizens under one roof. It’s this trait that gets him to be vocal
with how disgusting the coffee is when drinking it. He also flat out says that what he’s drinking
really isn’t coffee at all.
From here
comes the inventive part of the cartoon.
It sets out to explain why Rocko should be more open to trying the
coffee while also seemingly giving background to the Chameleon Brothers. There’s a series of humorous takes on
storytelling tropes with staged narrator voices, the camera struggling to focus
on the right setting, and how each character is portrayed. For the latter trope, it’s especially fun to
see established characters main, supporting, or background assigned random
roles. Some of them bring unusual
friendly personas for cranky characters or place them in an appropriate yet
extreme role like gluttonous but friendly Heffer as a tyrannical czar. He’s one the
Chameleon Brothers served by putting together any random trend that came to his
mind. Out of this come many creatively
funny styles on all the subjects just going with them, some as crazy as
cranberry bushes, fire sirens on the head, or walking on stilts.
This is what led to their brew of coffee when
the czar decided he must have it, and since the Chameleon Brothers didn’t know
how to make it, they were thrown in the dungeon. They only got an answer when sharing a cell
with a sock washer portrayed by miserable Filburt. Rocko’s statement on the substance not even
being coffee proves true with the reveal that the Chameleon Brothers made
coffee from the dirty sock washing water.
So this means that they’re desperate for everyone to like their coffee
because it’s reflective of their history, even if people should have the right
to say they don’t like the taste.
In
fact, Rocko has a great passionate speech of how unlike where the Chameleon Brothers
came from, they live in America where citizens have the power to choose. It may seem preachy down to the point of
Rocko reading an actual quote from Thomas Jefferson, but the staging makes it
feel grand coming from such a soft-spoken outsider. Plus, the Chameleon Brothers relent and respect
his choice in the end. As for the
legitimacy of their story, it’s left as an interesting enigma at the end. They have socks and more from Heffer tying to
their background, but when someone shows dislike for their cheesecake, they
have a completely different story for that.
Plus, since the Brothers always have different businesses, it doesn’t
make sense for them to be dependent on their coffee. It’s a mystery if the story was true or if it
was just a greedy lie, but the cartoon is still very fun anyhow. The final result is one of the show’s most
interesting experiences built upon its distinctive characters.
A+
Schnit-Heads
Fun
cartoons are usually the result of building off of certain characters’ main
gimmicks. Heffer’s innocence and eating
habits have been the driving force of enjoyable and memorable cartoons before,
and this one continues the trend. It
even offers a creative take on a mature topic which is a very strong plus.
While looking for something to eat, Heffer
comes across a place that sells sausage products. He just goes in to order food, and one of the
employees ask if his life feels empty, which Heffer naively agrees to. This allows him to meet the manager who
invites him to a party with his people promising to reveal to him the meaning
of life.
Just the prospect of finding
the meaning of life is pretty suspicious, and the actual party adds to the
strange feelings. The people attending
are practically worshippers of sausage as they all wear giant wieners on their
head and offer nothing but sausage dishes to eat. As someone who loves to eat anything, Heffer
easily goes along with the setup and follows the sausage worshipers’
customs.
Speaking of customs, it’s here
where it’s clear what this whole thing is an allegory for. The talk of finding the meaning of life,
having a set of followers who go through certain motions, and doing everything
possible to spread the word is basically like a cult. Even if they’re using something silly like
getting people to eat more sausages, it’s not far off from real life religious
organizations being overt with spreading the word. In other words, this whole setup is
ridiculous yet relatable.
The disturbed
reactions to people finding Heffer on TV spreading the sausage propaganda is
also reflective of the bad side of religious groups. It’s acceptable to have their own customs,
but this is straight up forcing them onto everyone which is hypocritical and
not ok at all. Heffer himself even
witnesses this to suggest that even members of groups can deal with harsh rules
that are hard to follow. He may enjoy
working with sausages and willingly wear the sausage uniform, but he gets tired
of it after a while. When he dares to
bring another food for one of the meals, pizza, the entire organization does
not take this kindly. The leader even
breaks the friendly demeanor he’s shown for the entire runtime and forces
Heffer into slave labor. This is another
example of funny scenes having a bigger impact for standing for abstract
ideas.
Following through with this are
ways to get Heffer out of this that play to beliefs of the end of time common
to religious groups. First, Rocko and
Filburt come in with a giant metal sausage that cuts to the chase and demands
Heffer, playing to the idea of religious groups making sacrifices. That fails because of Heffer’s weight, and
they’re all tied to posts by sausages.
Honestly, the setup starts getting stupid when no one realizes they can
just eat through the ropes. After a
messed up way of interpreting a line of accepting nonbelievers comes a clever
tie to the rapture where a giant sausage comes down to take the true believers
home. It’s just a ploy to trap them on
an island though, making this an all too convenient rescue, especially since
it’s just Really Really Big Man coming to save Heffer and the others.
Ultimately, it gets kind of dumb and fixed
too easily and unbelievably at the end. Despite that, the character-driven
humor and funny takes on religion make this a real stand-out cartoon.
A
The Ranking
1. The Emperor’s New Joe
2. Bye Bye Birdie
3. Schnit-Heads
4. Belch of Destiny
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode, a Halloween special where Filburt gets his first bit of Halloween candy, and Rocko thinks Bev Bighed killed her husband Ed.
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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