Rocko’s Modern Life was the quintessential ’90s cartoon. Created by Joe Murray for Nickelodeon, Rocko was a wacky ball of absurdity whose grossout humor surpassed even Ren & Stimpy at times. Sloppy, gloppy, and weird, Rocko’s Modern Life told the story of Rocko, a single wallaby navigating adulthood with disastrous results. With risqué jokes like a restaurant named “Chokey Chicken,” Rocko’s Modern Life often felt like an adult cartoon masquerading as a kids’ show — which only made kids love it even more.
Choosing the funniest episodes was a daunting task. It would have almost been easier to pick out the ten-or-so, not-that-funny episodes than to single out less than a dozen that represent the cream of the crop. We’re nothing if not tenacious, however, and so after much deliberation, we bring you the 10 funniest episodes of Rocko’s Modern Life.
1) Canned
Just in case you didn’t get the hint, Rocko’s Modern Life snuck a lot of adult jokes past Nickelodeon’s censors. “Canned” features one of the most famous. Rocko, recently fired from his job at Super Lot-O-Comics, begins trying out various occupations in an attempt to find a new career. One of these occupations is “specialty phone operator,” a kid-friendly code for phone sex operator.
Watching Rocko deadpanning, “Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby,” while sitting next to a note taped to the wall reading “Remember, be hot, be naughty, be courteous,” is just as hilarious now as it was 32 years ago when the episode debuted.
2) Popcorn Pandemonium
Cartoons used to have specific beats that they would all hit, like an episode where everyone becomes babies, or an episode where everyone shrinks, etc. “Popcorn Pandemonium” featured the trope, “main characters go to multiplex and theater hop,” often employed by a series as an opportunity to do several short movie parodies — think Rick & Morty‘s interdimensional cable for all you youngsters.
Rocko, of course, took the premise to the extreme with a fake film about anthropomorphic feces called Cuddly Little Poots and an annoying baby who mistakes Rocko’s eyeball for a pacifier.
3) Junk Junkies
When local pizzeria Pizzaface Pizza tells Rocko he owes them $500.95, the hapless wallaby has no choice but to have a yard sale to raise the funds. This leads to several memorable scenes, including Rocko and neighbor Mr. Bighead haggling over a toilet seat, and Heffer extoling the virtues of G.I. Jimbo — a melted soldier toy that, according to Heffer, survived “eight tours of duty” on his family’s stove.
Still, it’s the absurdity of a pizzeria operating like the mafia — Pizzaface Pizza sends a large brute named Wallace to intimidate Rocko — that really earns this one a place on the list.
4) With Friends Like These
Many cartoon protagonists are only as good as their supporting cast, and Rocko is no different. The put-upon wallaby’s best friends, Heffer and Filburt, carry several episodes of Rocko’s Modern Life, and nowhere is that more evident than “With Friends Like These.” When Rocko wins two wrestling tickets from a radio contest, it kicks off a vicious rivalry between his two closest friends, resulting in comedy gold.
The highlight is an argument between the two that includes ridiculous boasts such as “I could be married to him [Rocko]” and “My father was a monster truck.”
5) Closet Clown
“Closet Clown” is not only one of the funniest episodes of Rocko’s Modern Life but also one of the most meaningful. The episode, which revolves around Mr. Bighead’s secret life as a clown, also serves as a metaphor for LGBTQIA+ individuals coming out.
By using clowning as a stand-in for queerness, Rocko was able to get its message across without offending the more conservative sensibilities of the 1990s and set up some hilarious scenes of the stodgy Mr. Bighead dressing and acting like a buffoon.
6) The High Five of Doom
If any Rocko’s Modern Life character were secretly an alien, it would be Filburt. He’s not, but that doesn’t stop Rocko and Heffer from suspecting their friend is a dangerous extraterrestrial thanks to the contents of Filburt’s personal diary.
Rocko misunderstands a series of increasingly more worrying situations until he and Heffer finally confront their friend at the end of the episode. The Kicker? Everything was part of a science fiction novel Filburt was working on.
7) Sailing the Seven Zzz’s
Once again, Rocko wrings a lot of humor out of Mr. Bighead playing dressup. This time around, the surly toad spends the bulk of the episode sleepwalking and cosplaying pirate “Cap’n Blackhead.” The “pirate captain” attacks Rocko’s house as if it’s a ship, using his dryer as a makeshift cannon to fire objects like bowling balls at his neighbor.
The episode doesn’t truly go off the rails until Heffer and Filburt join in as their own swashbuckling alter egos.”Sailing the Seven Zzz’s” is a perfect example of the kind of inspired lunacy that Rocko’s Modern Life often excelled at.
8) Zanzibar!
Everyone loves a musical episode, and Rocko’s Modern Life is no exception. “Zanzibar!” is Rocko’s attempt at an Earth Day episode complete with catchy tunes about Spring Cleaning and Pollution. We’re willing to bet that most ’90s kids reading this can still sing along to the “Recycle Song,” three decades after “Zanzibar!” Originally aired.
Like “Closet Clown,” “Zanzibar!” doesn’t deliver its eco-friendly message in a preachy way but wrapped in belly laughs and gross-out humor. Like Captain Compost Heap always says, “If you’re not nice to Mother Nature, she’ll kick our butts!”
9) Heff in a Handbasket
How do you handle the concept of Hell in a children’s cartoon? If you’re Rocko’s Modern Life, you change the name to Heck and make satan a black clad demon with udders on his head named “Peaches.” When Heffer says he’d do “anything” to get on his favorite game show, Peaches makes a stereotypical Faustian bargain with him in exchange for his soul.
Surprisingly, Heffer does end up in Heck, but his eternal damnation is short-lived thanks to his Grandmother — herself a resident of Heck — complaining to Peaches that she doesn’t like having her idiotic grandson around.
10) Wacky Delly
“Wacky Delly” is the Rocko’s Modern Life version of the Mel Brooks classic The Producers. When Ralph Bighead wants out of his animation contract, he gets Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt to create a new cartoon, expecting whatever they come up with to tank so badly the studio will fire him. Instead, the opposite happens. Wacky Delly, an incoherent mess starring anthropomorphic cold cuts, ends up being a huge hit.
Fans fondly remember the episode, and with good reason. The clips of Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt’s amateur animation effort are genuinely hilarious if utterly perplexing. “Wacky Delly, particularly the show-within-a-show elements, could be seen as a harbinger of the equally bizarre cartoons to come in the early ’00s, such as the similarly food-themed Aqua Teen Hunger Force. We’re not saying that Rocko’s Modern Life predicted the golden age of Adult Swim, but we’re also not not saying it.
Got any fond memories of Rocko’s Modern Life? Let us know in the comments. You can watch the full series for yourself on Paramount+.
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