The High-Five of Doom
This show is known for having wildly imaginative ways of interpreting life, which often makes for a variety of twists in stories. In the case of this cartoon, relatable life situations lead to one twist after another.
Filburt has a private journal that quickly piques the interests of his friends. Heffer in particular notices Filburt writing attentively in it, and is instantly tempted to see his friend’s personal thoughts on him. In a decisive move, Heffer gets hold of the journal, but his act is soon discovered by Rocko. Being moral by nature, Rocko scolds Heffer for wanting to look into Filburt’s private thoughts, but sympathizes with his understandable lack of will power. In fact, although Rocko has the right mind to do what’s right, even he can’t resist the temptation of finding out what Filburt thinks of him. Eventually, they both come to a compromise where they just read one page of the journal and then stop there. That’s honestly a suitable approach for anything that involves bending the rules. It satisfies desires and never goes too far.
This act of Rocko and Heffer looking at Filburt’s journal would certainly fit that criteria if not for them giving into temptation shortly after their one look at a page. They end up reading a lot more of it and dig up all sorts of unusual facts about Filburt. According to the journal, he’s apparently an alien from another planet and part of an entire race of turtles who look just like him. Their plan is to annihilate all of the planet’s population, taking advantage of people’s tendencies to give each other high-fives. Reading all of this makes Rocko and Heffer paranoid whenever they see Filburt going about his day. In addition to unusual lunches and groups of turtles happening to show up at the same restaurant as him, he also does the same tactics as described in the journal. There’s nothing much to say about things like using mustard for deodorant or wearing a TV antenna on his head.
Then when Rocko and Heffer read the last journal page out of desperation, they’re shocked to find that Filburt’s next plan is to give his deadly high-five to a wallaby and a steer. Thus, Rocko and Heffer are thrown into an intense climax where they rush to barricade themselves as Filburt comes to greet them. All it takes is a casual mention of a high-five after seeing they found his journal to make Rocko and Heffer completely frantic. What follows is a sequence of events that make what happens kind of confusing. First, Filburt reveals that his journal is actually groundwork for a science fiction novel he’s writing, which would explain a lot. Then, his high-five to Rocko and Heffer destroys them, suggesting he really is an alien. However, after that grim scene, we cut to Rocko and Heffer reading it in the journal, and that suggest what was witnessed didn’t actually happen. Still, for some reason, it all ends with Rocko and Heffer scared when Filburt comes to the door.
All of this in mind leaves bafflement in what
to make of everything. On one hand,
there aren’t many compelling measures in place, but on the other hand, baffling
is kind of in line with the series.
A-
Fly Burgers
This time, bizarre concepts combine with the kind of life elements that you don’t expect to go through every day. In the process, there’s a tonal whiplash where things seem pleasing, but then events are hit hard by a dense view of the world around the central character.
To elaborate, we start with Rocko receiving a great gift from home, high quality Australian beef needed to make the perfect burgers. His cooking soon gets the attention of a fly who’s minding his own business, complaining about being unable to get good food. By the way, it’s not clear or explicitly mentioned, but there’s a good chance that this fly is the often seen Flecko. Since, again, this is never stated clearly, for the sake of a consistent review, he’ll just be referred to as simply, the fly. Anyway, the fly gets a scent of Rocko’s burgers, and when he lands to taste one, Rocko has the impulse to swat him away. Since the fly is basically soiling his beef, I’d say that Rocko has the right mind to do what he does.
Despite that, Rocko isn’t even the least bit aggressive with the fly, even being considerate of the insect who then trips on a rock. The fly instead acts like the trip caused a lot of injury, acts like Rocko did this to him when he clearly didn’t, and threatens to sue him based on a commercial he saw. Sure enough, Rocko does end up sued, coming to him unexpectedly like most court summons would, and it’s crazy to imagine a fly being the one to sue. If that’s not enough, the fly even gets the best lawyer out there to have the trial be rigged in his favor to make the obviously innocent Rocko look bad. However, since there are people he knows witnessing the trial, you have to wonder why no one sticks up for him.
Ultimately the judge, portrayed as a sock puppet, sentences the ridiculous punishment for Rocko to spend 30 days as a fly, and he turns him perfectly miniscule with wings. From then on, Rocko endures the common hardships flies normally face by being swatted at by the world around him out of annoyance. The fact that no one even bothers to notice something familiar about the fly clearly turned from a wallaby is the biggest concern along with no convincing reasons Rocko deserved this. Again, he wasn’t even a jerk to the fly who sued him, so there’s no need for punishment.
Thankfully, that fly is almost quickly exposed as a fraud, for by chance, with wealth gained from his lawyer, he’s eating at the same restaurant as the judge. So even while Rocko suffers things are still working in his favor. Even after this though, Rocko still has to endure the worst suffering. His friends, Heffer and Filburt, show no remorse for his condition and throw a party at his house without permission. When Rocko even flies up to them, they forget what happened despite being at the trial, and attack him. That’s no doubt hard to take in and I can’t fathom why they’d do this to their friend. Fortunately, it all works out when the judge clears Rocko’s name, Rocko speaks his mind, the party backs off, and he’s turned back to normal.
The ending is
marred by Rocko realizing how hard flies have to deal with life, and while you
can tell this was realized, I’m still not convinced he needed to learn
this. At least there’s enough heart to
end the cartoon well. I accredit the
cartoon’s imagination, but the major unfairness of the conflict is hard to sit
with until a good dose of heart and justice comes in to rectify everything.
C
The Ranking
1. From Here to Maternity
2. Yarn Benders
3. Feisty Geist
4. Mama’s Boy
5. Teed Off
6. Wimp on the Barby
7. S.W.A.K.
8. Closet Clown
9. Sailing the 7 Zzzz’s
10. Pranksters
11. The High-Five of Doom
12. Magic Meatball
13. Fly Burgers
14. Ed Good, Rocko Bad
15. Seat to Stardom
16. With Friends Like These
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