Wimp on the Barby
One concept to resonate with many as they grow is that of knowing when to stand up for oneself. It’s good to follow orders and not pick fights, but when dealing with forces who are out of line and go against many good principles, you should have the right to say they're wrong. In stories, this is typically a lesson that people who are good by nature mainly need to learn. Being the tame good-natured protagonist in an eccentrically over-the-top world, Rocko is just the character to learn to stand up for himself, which he does in this cartoon.
It starts with a mention that he needs to do just that when being belittled by Ed Bighead again while Bev sympathizes with what he has to put up with. With the idea in place, Rocko later discovers a necessity to put it into place when he learns that an old colleague from Australia named Dingo is coming to visit him. The thing about Dingo is that he was Rocko’s childhood bully who delighted in spelling misery for him all the way up to when he could finally leave for America. Now that he’s coming to visit, Rocko is unsurprisingly deathly afraid of facing his old bully again, demonstrating a need for a backbone as well as good nature.
This in turn leads to one of Heffer and Fiburt’s most productive roles of the season. Knowing that Rocko is grossly unprepared to face Dingo, they step in with their own form of training sessions to allow him to tap into his inner aggression and strength. They put Rocko through typical exercises like running laps and push-ups like drill sergeants, but there’s also a refreshing take on this demeanor. Half the time, it feels like they’re doing what they’re doing to play a role instead of being actually aggressive, making for good laughs. That can also be said for their inaccurate interpretation of Dingo drawn in crayon, suggesting a lack of true connection. Despite all their misguidedness though, it still feels like Heffer and Filburt mean well and are putting in a good effort to help their friend. Rocko doesn’t even suffer too much if at all from their over-the-top training. If anything, he gets all the advancement he needs, and since it’s much easier to laugh at his friends’ efforts than take them seriously, you could say Rocko gets stronger on his own. It even gets to the point where he successfully intimidates so much, that Filburt, dressed as Dingo, has to spend the whole night cowering over him in a car.
Then just as Rocko’s finally ready to stand up for himself, there’s a twist to the whole conflict. It turns out that Dingo was actually coming to see Rocko so he could apologize for all those years of bullying. The fact that he even came bearing gifts for Rocko and is completely different from how the flashbacks presented him seems to legitimize this. That said, he wants Rocko to punch him in the nose to seal the deal, and apparently finish a cult so he’ll be “one with the unicorn” with a unicorn waiting for him in a truck; take that as you will. Rocko understandably hesitates now that he’s seen the reformed Dingo, but when Dingo says please, he goes through with the blow. With that, Rocko ends the cartoon wondering if violence really does solve anything, going through all the good and bad points, all of which feel real to how conflicting the issue is in real life.
Maybe this reveal is too
convenient as is the fact that Rocko has stood up for himself and others very
well in the past, but those are minor gripes compared to the whole. The overall cartoon is still an entertaining
and at times thought-provoking take on self-defense.
A
Yarn Benders
Fairy tales are often well-suited for animation. There’s plenty of historic proof of validity to this opinion with them as a basis for iconic feature films and funny short cartoons to parody them. You could probably guess that we’re covering a work of the latter category and there’s one thing to make it stand out. Rather than being a cartoon to parody one type of fairy tale, this explores what it’s like to take a big book of fairy tales and puts elements of its contents into one spoof.
The setup for the fairy tale angle is as standard as you can get though. Not only does it suddenly rain, forcing Rocko and his friends to stay inside, but Filburt gets some sort of ailment from lying on his back in the rain. It’s hard to tell if this is based on an actual turtle thing, a legit illness, or if it’s just Filburt typically overreacting. That being beside the point, Rocko decides to pass the time by reading from a big book of fairy tales, and a madcap take on these stories unfolds.
At first it starts off simple with taking an
established story, in this case Hansel and Gretel, and changing things around
like character names and types of settings.
Then you see visual interpretations of what’s being read with the characters
portrayed by Rocko and Heffer, with Rocko taking the female role of Gretel Debbie. Yes, this can be interpreted as
cross-dressing as well as a cause to raise questions about sexualities. There are also touches to established tropes
of these stories that make it a part of the world of the series. Instead of breadcrumbs to mark the trail
home, it’s breath mints, making for a funny gag of the birds getting them and
smelling fresh as they make out. The
gingerbread house is now argued over being made of pizza or healthy snacks
before settling on fish sticks. Most
prominent of all, Filburt is made to be the wicked witch, and it’s constantly
funny watching a neurotic nonthreatening figure take on such a scary role.
The biggest tie to the main series this fairy tale has though is how the story goes off the rails shifting from one story to another with Filburt playing a role in all of them. A beanstalk takes Rocko and Heffer up to the clouds where Filburt’s a giant grandma who’s defeated by the mention of porridge making him nauseous. Rocko and Heffer escape, but then they’re confronted by wicked witch Filburt again and are chased through even more fairy tales. Some of them even completely change the plot with Filburt appearing as a fairy godmother deciding on who needs to get dressed for the ball. Ultimately, Heffer becomes the princess while Rocko is the prince, making for even more crossdressing and sexuality questions on the characters. Finally, for an attempt at fairy tale drama of it, or spoof of it, witch Filburt catches the two, and gives Heffer assorted foods that turn him into a nonsentient puppet. The touches of animals gathering around looking sad at what’s happened fits the emotional toll, but have a good wink of humor in how many are out of place for a forest. What fixes it turns out to not be a fairy tale spoof, but a Wizard of Oz spoof with a house crushing Filburt, and the shoes saving Heffer so he can finally marry Prince Rocko. Take that as you will.
In any case, this cartoon’s
approach to fairy tales and how crazy hilarity ensues from them is honestly
impressively crafted. The end result is
indeed a spoof of classic story types that’s also something all its own.
A+
The Ranking
1. From Here to Maternity
2. Yarn Benders
3. Teed Off
4. Wimp on the Barby
5. Sailing the 7 Zzzz’s
6. Pranksters
7. Ed Good, Rocko Bad
8. With Friends Like These
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