Thursday, October 10, 2019

The Emperor's New Joe / Schnit-Heads (Rocko's Modern Life Season 3 Episode 2) - 'Toon Reviews 36

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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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