Recap / Rockos Modern Life S 1 E 12 Spitballs Popcorn Pandemonium

Original air date: 12/26/1993

The twelfth episode of the first season of Rocko's Modern Life.

Spitballs

Rocko and Heffer go to a baseball game after Rocko's prized foul ball gets shredded by Mr. Bighead.

Popcorn Pandemonium

Rocko and Heffer go to the movies after blowing out Mr. Bighead's TV while trying to recreate the drive-in movie experience.

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"Spitballs" provides examples of:

• Baseball Episode: After Mr. Bighead destroys Rocko's only baseball, Rocko and Heffer go to a baseball game to get a new one, since the O-Town Zeros hit more foul balls than any other baseball team.
• Eye Scream: When Spike Hammerhead bats, he takes a baseball straight to one eye, which gets knocked through his head and into the other end, dislodging the other eyeball completely. He's perfectly fine in a later scene, though.
• Fire-Breathing Diner: When Heffer eats hot tamales and is about to do this, Rocko points him to the opposite direction. The duck that was sitting next to him becomes a cooked goose.
• Fun-Hating Confiscating Adult: When Rocko's baseball lands in Mr. Bighead's front yard, not only does Mr. Bighead refuse to give it back to Rocko, he destroys it with his wood chipper.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: When Heffer spots two empty seats in the front row, he suggests to Rocko that they move down. Rocko's devil agrees while the angel protests. When the devil shows the angel the view with binoculars, the angel changes its mind and tells him to get the good seats before they're gone. At the end of the episode, Rocko has caught a foul ball (which would have been ironically easier if he didn't move down) but a little kid asks for it. The devil tells Rocko to keep it while the angels says it is better to give then to receive and ensures Rocko gives by hitting him with a baseball bat.
• Irony: Rocko is about to leave the game, feeling that he will never get a foul ball due to him and Heffer having The Worst Seat in the House. Just as he and Heffer climb down, a foul ball is hit towards their seats.
• Idea Bulb: Heffer gets one (a small one, since Heffer isn't very bright) when he tries to think of a way to get Rocko a new baseball.
• Loser Team Mascot: The O-Town Zeros' mascot is a shrimp named Gumbo. When Gumbo enters the field, everyone starts booing and jeering at him, and throwing whatever they have at him. Heffer asks Rocko why everyone hates Gumbo, and Rocko tells him it's because he's the mascot.
• Produce Pelting: When Gumbo, the Zeros' team mascot enters the field, everyone starts booing and jeering at him, and throwing whatever they have at him.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: When Rocko finally gets a new foul ball, he is stopped by a little kid who wants it instead. Rocko's convinced to give it up and his only souvenir (besides the jockstrap) is a huge wad of tobacco from Spike Hammerhead. As Rocko imagines that the kid with the foul ball is gonna cherish it, it is revealed that the little brat ripped it to pieces.
• Unreliable Narrator: Rocko mentions to Heffer that he got his foul ball as a kid when a nice gentleman gave it to him. In the flashback, we see a rather rude Pig Man yell at the baseball players and get a foul ball caught in his throat, which he spits out when the customer behind him slaps him on the back, which lands in Rocko's baseball glove.
• Visual Pun: When Rocko and Heffer get to their seats, Rocko looks at the game through some binoculars and says, "Oh, bugger! They look like ants down there!" Cut to a view of an ant playing baseball through the binoculars.
• The Worst Seat in the House: When the baseball game sells out, Rocko and Heffer buy scalped tickets from Slippy the Slug. It turns out that their seats are beach chairs on top of an extremely tall lighting rig that's even above space satellites and where Rocko would have no chance of catching a foul ball. Luckily, Heffer is able to spot two empty seats in the front row with a pair of binoculars, where they're able to sit out most of the game until an usher sends them back to their original seats, even though the rest of the stadium is completely empty. Funnily enough, a foul ball is actually hit into their original seats while Rocko and Heffer are making their climb back up to the top of the lighting rig, before falling back down toward the field of play.

"Popcorn Pandemonium" provides examples of:

• Alliterative Title: Popcorn Pandemonium.
• And a Diet Coke: Rocko and Heffer are behind Tammy, a rotund pig woman at the movie concession stand, and she orders a substantial amount of snacks. Tammy ends her order with "and a diet cola. After all, I've gotta watch my girlish figure."
• Blind Without 'Em: Due to losing his glasses, Filburt mistakenly puts the movie projector out of focus.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: As Rocko and Heffer enter a dark room (later revealed to be the men's restoom), all that can be seen of them are their eyes.
• The Cameo: The Richard Simmons Pig from "No Pain, No Gain" appears on a show called Sweatin' in Your Undies, much to the horror of Rocko, Heffer, and Mr. Bighead (with Rocko and Heffer screaming because they recognized him while Mr. Bighead screamed out of disgust over seeing a man drop his pants on TV).
• Disrupting the Theater: When Rocko and Heffer go into an extremely cramped theater with only six seats, a very large elephant sits in the two empty seats in front of them, blocking their view (he even tells his wife to come in, saying there's plenty of room). In a later scene, Tammy mistakes Rocko for an usher and makes him kick a warthog smoking a cigar out, since his cigar smoke is ruining her viewing experience.
• Drive-In Theater: At the beginning of this episode, Rocko and Heffer treat Mr. Bighead's big-screen TV like a drive-in, as there isn't a drive-in theater in O-Town. After Heffer and Mr. Bighead inadvertently destroy the TV with a channel-changing war (the former wants to watch a sci-fi movie, while the latter is trying to watch a football game), Rocko and Heffer go to the Googa Plex cinema, getting the main plot underway. At the end of the episode, a disaster with Filburt's glasses and the popcorn storage room results in the theater being destroyed, making its remains look like a drive-in.
• Eye Scream: While watching the trailer for The Cuddly Little Poots, a baby sitting next to Rocko chews on his eye.
• Hong Kong Dub: An in-universe example; the trailer for Enter The Rodent: Part VII is a reference to badly dubbed kung fu movies, where none of the characters' mouths sync with what they say in the preview.
• I Am Not Weasel: Perhaps a literal example; Rocko is mistaken for a weasel by Tammy's son when he catches him stuck in a pile of his gum.
• Impact Silhouette: After he gets tossed out of the theater by the cigar-smoking warthog, Rocko lands on the wall and gets Squashed Flat by the warthog after Tammy kicks him out. Then Heffer pulls the flattened Rocko off the wall, leaving a Rocko-shaped mark on the wallpaper.
• Ironic Juxtaposition: After accidentally blowing up Mr. Bighead's big-screen TV, Heffer suggests he and Rocko go to the Googa Plex Cinema, as according to the newspaper, there are "hundreds of movies to choose from". But when they arrive, the only movie playing in all the theaters at said cinema is Lethal Odor IX.
  Rocko: Well, that makes the choice easy.
• Instant Wristwatch: Rocko looks at one as he and Heffer are in line at the concession stand.
• Lemony Narrator: The trailer voice for Dracula: Done to Death states:
  Announcer: It's not new, it's not original... it isn't even very interesting... but it is coming this summer.
• Mistaken for Servant: In this case Theater Usher. Rocko is twice mistaken for one of the theater employees due to the actual theater employees all literally wearing his trademark shirt as their uniforms.
• Movie-Theater Episode: At the beginning of the episode, Rocko and Heffer treat Mr. Bighead's big-screen TV like a drive-in. After Heffer and Mr. Bighead inadvertently destroy the TV, Rocko and Heffer go to the Googa Plex cinema, where every movie playing is Lethal Odor IX. Rocko and Heffer try to find a good theater to watch the film in, and see previews for upcoming films, including The Little Poots, Garbage Strike: The Musical, and Dracula: Done to Death.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Filburt has a job as a projectionist in this episode.
• Out Of Control Popcorn: Near the end of this episode, Filburt, who works as the projectionist, accidentally falls over and leaves his glasses in front of the projector. This causes the projector to set the screen on fire, and the fire makes its way to the popcorn storage room, causing the popcorn to fill up the entire theater, destroying it and making its remains look like a drive-in. At the end of the episode, as Rocko and Heffer eat the popcorn from the pile that buries them, two of the rat garbagemen from the trailer for Garbage Strike: The Musical refuse to clean up the mess, and why is that? Cause' they're on strike!
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: From the trailer for Dracula: Done to Death:
  Announcer: Dracula. It's been... Done. To. DEATH.
• Remote Control Ruckus: This episode begins with Rocko and Heffer treating Mr. Bighead's big-screen TV like a Drive-In Theater, since there isn't a drive-in theater in O-Town. Heffer wants to watch a sci-fi movie, while Mr. Bighead is trying to watch a football game. After Heffer and Mr. Bighead inadvertently destroy the TV with a channel-changing war, Rocko and Heffer go to the Googa Plex cinema, getting the main plot underway.
• Running Gag: Rocko wears the same shirt as the employees of the Googa Plex cinema, and as a result, he keeps getting mistaken for an employee.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The movie theater is destroyed, and Rocko and Heffer get buried in the Out Of Control Popcorn.
• Shout-Out:
  • The sci-fi movie that Heffer watches on the Bighead's TV features a monster that looks like Ro-Man.
  • The movie theater Rocko and Heffer go to is named the Googa Plex Cinemas, very similar to the Springfield Googolplex Theater in The Simpsons, also known for housing an unusually high number of screens.
  • The preview for The Cuddly Little Poots mentions that another Poots movie is coming soon. The other Poots movie is called Das Poot, a reference to the 1981 movie Das Boot.
  • A moviegoer smoking a cigar is Disrupting the Theater.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: Rocko gets mistaken for an usher by Tammy due to wearing the same shirt as the employees at the Googa Plex cinema. She wants him to kick a warthog smoking a cigar out of the theater, as she paid good money for her ticket and she doesn't want him ruining her experience.
• Stealth Pun: Dracula: Done to Death is a parody of the abundance and cliches of vampire movies, down to its' title.
• Sticky Situation: While he and Heffer search for a theater to watch Lethal Odor IX in, Rocko steps in a huge pile of gum and taffy.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Heffer and Ed Bighead's channel-changing war causes Ed's TV to explode.
• Toilet Humor:
  • Perhaps a literal example; Rocko and Heffer enter a dark room, where all that can be seen of them are their eyes. Heffer sits down, and a squish sound effect can be heard. He then says, "Hey, Rock, I think somebody spilled something on my chair, it's all wet." An alligator then turns on the lights, revealing the room to be the men's restroom and Rocko and Heffer to be sitting in urinals.
  • The Cuddly Little Poots from the trailer for their titular movie resemble poops, and have rolls of toilet paper on their heads. There's even a sign that calls Pootville "a stinky community" to hammer the joke in further.
  • In the trailer for Garbage Strike: The Musical, one of the pieces of garbage that the rat garbagemen refuse to pick up and instead sing about is a dirty diaper.
• Two Decades Behind: The movie projector Filburt operates resembles a small older classroom-style 16mm film projector, contrasting to the large 35mm projectors with film platters that actual cinemas began adopting in The '70s.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Filburt bumping his head on the projection window leads to his glasses dropping from his face and sitting in front of the projector, setting off a chain reaction of events that lead to the Googa Plex Cinema being destroyed: the glasses start a fire that spreads to the popcorn storage room, leading to Out Of Control Popcorn spreading everywhere, leveling the building, and burying everyone (except Filburt) in said popcorn.
• Why We Need Garbagemen: Rocko and Heffer see a trailer for a movie called Garbage Strike: The Musical. In this trailer, the Rat Garbagemen sing about how they won't pick up any garbage that's polluting O-Town, and why is that? 'Cause they're on strike!
  Heffer: The book was better.