Recap / Rockos Modern Life S 3 E 10 Wacky Delly

The eleventh episode of the third season of Rocko's Modern Life.

In this two-parter, Ralph Bighead is contractually-obligated to do another cartoon, but he wants to dedicate himself to "true art", so he gives Rocko, Heffer and Filburt complete creative liberty in an attempt to get fired, but Wacky Delly turns out to be a runaway hit.

This episode provides examples of:

• Accidental Hero: Heffer inadvertently saves the studio from a flood while trying to jack up his car so that he can replace a tire.
• Ascended Fanboy: Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt, huge fans of The Fatheads, are asked to work on Ralph's next show.
• Alliterative Name: Rocko names his bologna character Betty Bologna.
• Amateur Film-Making Plot: Enforced by Ralph, who hires the trio precisely because they have zero experience in the animation industry and could get him out of his contract by making a terrible cartoon.
• Amusing Injuries: When Ralph's attempts to sabotage Wacky Delly only make the show more popular, Ralph is mobbed by fans when he arrives at Bighead Studios and one tears out a piece of his scalp.
• Anthropomorphic Food: The titular Wacky Delly is a cartoon about anthropomorphic deli meats.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Heffer's "Do we really need the cheese at all?" question sets Filburt off in a major way.
• Big "WHAT?!": Twice over during the ongoing storyboard scene. Rocko does it first in response to Heffer once again wanting to ask a question, and then Filburt does it when the question is about including the cheese at all.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: This episode is one big Take That! to Nickelodeon and their process involving animated shows from back in the day.
• Bookcase Passage: Ed has one that leads to an underground lair where he keeps his heat ray.
• Broken Pedestal: Every morning on his drive to work, a crowd of Wacky Delly fans would attack Ralph's car to get a piece of him. Once his changes to the show become unpopular and get it cancelled, Ralph is greeted with with a lone fan who glares at him with disgust before walking off.
• Bowdlerise: Reruns of the episode cut out the part where Sal Ami whacks Betty Bologna with the telephone.
• Call-Back:
  • In the scene where Rocko goes over the storyboards for the pilot episode of Wacky Delly, Filburt asks Heffer if he's seen RoboFrog V yet. Heffer tells him, "Yeah, it's okay."
  • When Ed shows Ralph his heat ray, which he plans to use to destroy Rocko with, he mentions that once Rocko is gone, he won't have to deal with baseballs landing on his front lawn or Spunky eating from his salmon bushes anymore.
  • When Rocko tells Ralph that he should put all his effort into making Wacky Delly the best show it can be instead of trying to sabotage it, Ralph says, "Yeah, Rocko!" over and over, which is similar to when Rocko said "Yeah, Melba!" over and over in "Love Spanked".
• Cartoon Cheese: Filburt initially designed the character of Mr. Cheese as a highly stylized version of this (named "Lester Roquefort") before Heffer redesigned and renamed him.
• Character Development: In Ralph's debut episode, "I Have No Son!", Ed disowned Ralph, chastised him and said Rocko's idiocy would destroy his career, but their relationship has been patched up by Rocko at the end of the episode. In this episode, Ed has grown to respect what his son does and doesn't want Rocko or his friends to taint it. When Ralph explains to his dad that he knows Heffer's idea will likely destroy his career, and that he wants that to happen so he can try his hand as an actual artist, Ed's face lights up when he realizes where Ralph is going with the plan. When this backfires, Ralph goes to Ed for advice on how to get Wacky Delly cancelled, and Ed shows Ralph the heat ray he plans to destroy Rocko with. When Ralph clarifies that he doesn't want to hurt Rocko, Heffer and Filburt because they're his friends, Ed still supports Ralph and easily shifts gears to change the plan as Ralph wants.
• Character Shilling: All of Mr. Cheese's dialogue is just him saying he's better than Betty Bologna and Sal Ami.
• Creator's Pet: In-Universe example with Filburt towards Mr. Cheese, to the point that all of Mr. Cheese's dialogue consists of "I am The Cheese! I am the best character on the show! I am better than both The Salami and The Bologna combined!" repeated over and over.
  • He also loses it when Heffer asked if they needed Mr. Cheese at all.
• Contractual Obligation Project: An In-Universe example; Ralph ends production on his show The Fatheads to create his artistic masterpiece. However, his network contract states that he has to make one more show, so to get it over with, Ralph hires Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt to make a pilot for the new show, hoping it will be bad enough to get the executives to cancel his contract. Unfortunately, they love Wacky Delly and the show becomes a massive hit. Ironically, when Ralph decides to put some effort into making it better, the network instantly cancels the show.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: When Ralph comes to Ed for advice on how to get Wacky Delly cancelled, Ed reveals that beneath his house he has assembled a NASA-esque organization run by dozens of Conglom-O employees and includes a giant heat ray all for the sole purpose of eliminating Rocko, Spunky, Heffer and Filburt because he hates them that much.
• Death Ray: Ed reveals that he's built a heat ray in an elaborate underground lab with the express purpose eliminating Rocko and his friends. When Ralph mentions he doesn't want to hurt Rocko, Ed decides instead to fire the heat ray at one of his satellites, stating it will refract and strike the polar caps, melting the ice and creating a tidal wave that will destroy Bighead Studios and Wacky Delly.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Ralph finds his parents at one point running around their living room, Bev being chased by Ed while he's in a giant hamster ball, with ridiculous expressions on their faces. The fact that Bev's eyes are clearly dilated implies the two are stoned and in the middle of some G-rated sex game.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Mr. Cheese. Though of course this was Heffer's new name for the character's redesign; Filburt originally wanted him to be called "Lester Roquefort."
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • When Heffer suggests that Ralph's new show be about deli meats, Filburt says that idea is so bad, it'll get Ralph kicked out of his contract. When Ralph hears this, he decides to go with Heffer's idea.
  • While passing by the camera room, Ralph hears Heffer and Filburt arguing about turning on the room light, specifically Filburt saying "That will expose the film, Eisenstein!". He then silently backs up before barging into the camera room with a searchlight behind him.
• Everyone Has Standards: Despite resorting to underhanded tactics to get rid of Wacky Delly, Ralph draws the line at hurting Rocko and his friends when Ed shows him the heat ray he created specifically to destroy them.
• Forced Creativity: Ralph Bighead has just finished the last episode of The Fatheads and is hoping to quit making cartoons and do real art, but the studio points out that they are contractually obligated to produce a second show. Not wanting to go through with it, Ralph has Rocko and his friends produce a show pilot of their own, the titular Wacky Delly, and hopes it's so bad it will get them out of their contract. It becomes a big hit instead.
• Fourth-Wall Portrait: Filburt designs a cheese character for Wacky Delly, which he names Lester Roquefort, and draws a realistic (Even by Real Life standards) picture of a cheese wedge. Rocko is amazed, but Heffer quickly decides to "improve" it by erasing it and drawing a crude cheese-like stick figure which becomes the actual design for the cheese, naming it Mr. Cheese.
• Gone Horribly Right: Ralph assigns Rocko and his friends to create Wacky Delly, believing that their incompetence and lack of training will cancel the show outright. Instead, it becomes a major hit and he's stuck in his contract.
• Groupie Brigade: When Wacky Delly becomes successful, Ralph gets an army of psychotic fans that take pieces of his car, his clothes, and his scalp as souvenirs. In a later scene, Ralph pushes his car with a dummy of himself towards the fans to distract them so he can safely walk into Bighead Studios.
• Happily Married: When Ralph returns to the Bigheads' house for advice on how to get Wacky Delly cancelled, Ed chases Bev around the house while he is inside a hamster ball, with Bev laughing hysterically.
• Happy Circus Music: The in-universe Wacky Delly cartoon has upbeat fairground organ music playing in the background. While the cartoon has nothing to do with a circus, the music still sets a comical mood for the surreal cartoon.
• Inconvenient Darkroom Illumination: While passing the camera room, Ralph hears Rocko and the others inside, specifically Filburt saying that turning the light on would expose the film of the newest episode. This prompts Ralph to open the door, and for good measure, brings along a searchlight to ensure its overexposed. Like every other sabotage attempt, it just makes the show better.
• It's All About Me: Filburt really wants the Cheese character involved in the show. The moment Heffer suggests if they should even bother adding the Cheese at all, Filburt bolsters the character up in the pilot.
  The Cheese: I AM THE CHEESE! I AM THE BEST CHARACTER ON THE SHOW!
• Limited Animation: The animation for the pilot episode of Wacky Delly is very stiff and jerky and many of the scenes in it are repeated. Later episodes of the show include one where a jar of mayonnaise is shown onscreen for ten minutes and another consisting entirely of overexposed film footage.
• Long Runner: Show Within a Show example; The Fatheads is revealed to have run for 893 episodes.
• Lowest Common Denominator: Parodied heavily In-Universe; In this episode, Ralph intentionally has Rocko and his friends create a sloppily put-together series to get out of his contract, only for the executives and the general public to adore it. Ralph then tries to have the show cancelled by making it more and more lowbrow, only to make it even more popular. It only takes one intellectually improved episode created by Ralph for the show to be hated by the public and immediately cancelled. It's after this that Ralph expresses his frustration with the masses with this...
  Ralph: You cretins! You don't know what art is!!! I'LL SHOW YOU!!!!
• Magnum Opus: The episode ends in a Flash Forward showing Ralph after he has completed his life's master work, a still life of wine and fruit carved into a mountain a la Mount Rushmore. The subtitles tell the viewer that its creation has taken ten years, although judging from Ralph's mop of white hair and long white beard, those years have taken a toll on him.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: In-Universe example; Ralph felt that the world's largest still life sculpture would be his masterpiece, but it turns out that it's not as popular as Wacky Delly was before he got involved in the show.
• Medium-Shift Gag: The live-action meatloaf footage in the pilot for Wacky Delly, which was filmed by Joe Murray and Richard LeRoy on Murray's patio.
• Moral Guardians: A newscaster starts calling Wacky Delly degrading garbage and invokes Think of the Children!. Upon seeing this, the executives are thrilled at the free advertising.
• Narrating the Obvious: After Rocko, Heffer and Filburt finish photographing a Wacky Delly episode and are ready to get the film developed, Filburt announces, "We have to take the film out of the camera, and put it in the film can."
• Never My Fault: Ralph blames most of his sabotage attempts on Rocko and his friends, except for the moment where he and Ed sent a flood to Holl-o-wood, only for Heffer to accidentally save Bighead Studios by levying it with a car jack.
• Oh, Crap!: Ralph's eyes bulge in complete horror upon hearing the network executives' positive reaction to the Wacky Delly pilot.
• Old-Timey Cinema Countdown: The Wacky Delly pilot opens with one, using Stock Footage of a real universal countdown leader.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Ralph can never live down Wacky Delly, even after he sculpted the world's largest still-life.
• Only Sane Man: When Heffer and Filburt argue over creative differences for Wacky Delly, Rocko's caught in the middle, but just takes all the bickering in strides. Best exemplified when Rocko's tired and annoyed expression remains unchanged during an argument where Heffer beats Filburt with a flatbed editor with Rocko still sitting on it.
• Punny Name: Heffer names his salami character Sal Ami.
• Reaching Between the Lines: In the pilot for Wacky Delly, Betty Bologna answers the phone and suddenly Sal Ami pops out of the receiver to assault her, screaming "I hate baloney!"
• Recycled Animation: The same clip of a squirrel family sitting down to watch Wacky Delly is seen three times during the second act. First is before a news bulletin about Wacky Delly's controversy, the second is before the "mayonnaise" episode, and the third is before Ralph's episode.
• Rousing Speech: When Ralph reveals to Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt that he has deliberately been trying to sabotage Wacky Delly to get it cancelled so he can focus on making real art, Rocko gives him this kind of speech to encourage him to make the show better. Ralph takes Rocko's advice, and ironically, it gets the show cancelled.
  Rocko: Gee, R.B., I think you've got it all wrong. You've been afforded a great opportunity here; running your very own animation series, and everybody loves it! It's your art! Instead of fleeing from your situation, you should be embracing it! You should be trying to make this show the best darn show it can possibly be! You should be the best Ralph Bighead you can be!
  Ralph: Yeah, Rocko. Yeah, Rocko. Yeah, Rocko! YEAH, ROCKO! I'M GONNA DO IT! I'M GONNA MAKE THE BEST DARN SHOW THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!
• Seasonal Rot: An In-Universe example; after a brief speech from Rocko on how he should make Wacky Delly better instead of trying to sabotage it, Ralph takes over writing the show, which gets it cancelled. Ten years later, he's seen in the desert after completing his masterpiece. A yokel walks up to him and asks him if he's seen Wacky Delly.
  Yokel: The first season, that is. Before that new guy ruined it!
• Set Behind the Scenes: The episode involves Rocko, Heffer and Filburt working in a studio to make a cartoon. It shows them going through the processes of character design, storyboarding and animation.
• Shout-Out:
  • After viewing the series finale of The Fatheads, Ralph Bighead's toadies tell him, "It's a credit to your genius!" "A triumph of your will!" "It's okay!"
  • Ralph's episode of Wacky Delly is a spoof of the "Nutcracker Suite" segment of Fantasia (specifically the dancing mushrooms).
• Show Within a Show: The titular Wacky Delly, and to a lesser extent, The Fatheads.
• So Bad, It's Good: In-Universe; Ralph has Rocko and his friends produce the pilot episode of Wacky Delly in an attempt to get fired. Thanks in part to Heffer and Filburt's creative differences, the final product is a poorly-drawn and poorly-edited mess. Unfortunately for Ralph, his plan backfires, as both the network executives and general public love it. Ralph's attempts to sabotage the show, such as having one episode show a jar of mayonnaise for ten minutes, and another episode consisting of overexposed film footage only make the show even more popular. It only takes one intellectually improved episode of the show to get it hated by the public and cancelled.
• Spinning Newspaper: Done when Wacky Delly becomes the newest hit animated series, becomes even more popular with the "10 Minutes of Mayo" episode, and finally, when Ralph's episode of the show leads to its fall and cancellation.
• Spit Take: Ralph does this when Rocko asks him if he'd like to the see the latest episode of Wacky Delly after eating an episode of The Fatheads, because he thought he was eating the former.
• Springtime for Hitler: When Ralph tries to sabotage Wacky Delly, it grows in popularity. But when he's inspired to finally try hard in making it great, it's immediately canned.
• Stock Footage: An actual SMPTE universal countdown leader is shown before the Wacky Delly pilot, compared to other episode where film reels are started up that have a countdown leader animated in the same style as the show.
• Stylistic Suck: Wacky Delly recycles animations and voice clips, the animation is choppy and the "plot" is pure nonsense. It becomes extremely popular regardless.
• Take That!:
  • This episode has a subtle dig at how prevalent The Smurfette Principle was in the 90's, with Rocko creating a character named Betty Bologna and promptly summing up her entire character by saying "she's a girl" and leaving it at that. Unsurprisingly, the show itself dealt with this from the executives at Nick in Season One, which led to the creation of Dr. Hutchinson.
  • When Heffer argues with Filburt, he says "Your cartoons aren't even funny enough to be on The Family Channel!"^note Heffer's kind of right- Fam didn't ever have much in the way of animation until Fox bought them out in the late 90s. They tended to focus on their original game shows, which tended to be quirky, low budget, or both- like Masters of the Maze, Trivial Pursuit with Wink Martindale, Jay Wolpert's Shopping Spree, or The New Shop Til You Drop.
  • The episode's ending is one to how Fantasia, widely considered to be the first animated "art" film, was a commercial flop before being Vindicated by History.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: An In-Universe example; the titular Wacky Delly is beloved by all of O-Town despite being a poorly-animated and poorly-edited mess, and Ralph's efforts to sabotage the show only make it even more popular. When Rocko encourages Ralph to make the show better instead of trying to sabotage it, Ralph takes his advice and makes his own intellectually improved episode. Said episode is hated by the public and the show gets cancelled as a result.
• Wham Line: The executives announcing they love the pilot and are picking it up.