Rocko's Modern Life Season One

Over a decade after its airdate, season one of Nickelodeon animated series Rocko's Modern Life has finally emerged on DVD. Created and produced by Joe Murray and Games Productions, Rocko is the predecessor of more recent cult hits Spongebob Squarepants and CatDog, with many similar elements in visual and content style, specifically the tongue-in-cheek social commentary and skewed "squash and stretch" animation. Although much tamer than similar shows (often characterized as a more straightforward Ren and Stimpy), each episode is packed with underlying metaphors and disguised double entendres that shy away from being overtly obvious while adding a tinge of dark humour to an otherwise slapstick-style series. Rocko centres upon a Wallaby living in O-Town, USA, with a mess of mentally unstable animal characters, who Murray says are developed to form a type of, "social caricature." Heffer (the sidekick best friend) initiates comedic situations that Rocko is forced to clean up. The duo are involved in mundane, everyday life circumstances laden with unique complications and side swerves. "Skidmarks" involves a harried trip to the DMV, where Rocko is forced to endure an overly timid, Woody Allen-type clerk. Absurd, often random spurts of silliness infiltrate each episode. In "Who Gives A Buck," Hef, a transgender cow, proudly proclaims that he "sold his second stomach for cash!" with a cut to a Scotsman playing it as a bagpipe while organs spill out. Audiences are able to clearly follow the ascending levels of grotesquery and slapstick that made the show a cult hit. Rocko grows increasingly risqué throughout the season. Highlights are the biting social commentary ― the majority of the town works at Conglom-O Mall, with the slogan, "We Own You." Rocko provides the nostalgic comfort of a simple, yet resonate, animated series, short-lived but representative in content and style what would follow.