The seventh episode of the fourth season of Rocko's Modern Life.
Mama's Boy
Heffer moves out on his own after getting teased for being a "mama's boy".
Feisty Geist
Heffer's past life causes him to become the target of a ghost's wrath.
"Mama's Boy" provides examples of:
- Black Comedy: This episode has a Running Gag of Heffer's mother calling him out of worry and Heffer telling her he's just fine on his own while he's obviously in a horrible situation. The gag eventually escalates to Heffer telling his mother everything is fine even though he's in jail, about to be executed, and in Hell.
- Book Ends: This episode begins and ends with Heffer accidentally dropping the remote while watching television.
- Character Development: In a previous episode, "Bedfellows", we get a good look at Heffer's bad living habits; when Heffer lives with Rocko after his parents rent out his room, he fouls up the bathroom into a near-condemned biohazard, throws parties without Rocko's consent, plays up the volume way too loud when he is in the mood for musical appreciation, and eventually becomes a nudist and invites other nudists to Rocko's house. By the end of the episode, Rocko lets him off with clemency as friends and not so much as a slap on the wrist. In this episode, Heffer's bad habits come around as Laser-Guided Karma as he becomes tired of his family babying him because of his lazy and spoiled lifestyle. The next time we see him, Rocko and Filburt see him working at Chewy Chicken as he is on his own. Behind his smiles and easy played nature however, some shots come to show his posterior littered with footmarks as he reveals that he is allowed to live at work on the premises. It appears that pulling off what he did when he lived at Rocko's didn't fly with any other of his friends or neighbors this time, and his bad habits eventually accumulate to the point that he attracts unwarranted squatters, loses his job, goes homeless, and comes back home having learned the hard way to pull his own weight around.
- Continuity Nod: During George and Virginia's argument near the beginning of this episode, as Heffer is channel surfing, Ralph Bighead can be heard saying "I wanna get out of this business and make real art!" on TV.
- Creepy Cockroach: When Heffer starts living on his own in the sign for Chewy Chicken, his poor living habits attract a cockroach who becomes his roommate. This cockroach becomes a bad influence on his independence, convincing him to stay up late and play video games with him, rather than be well-rested for his new job as a cashier. He then throws a party where he invites other cockroaches, which results in Chewy Chicken being shut down by the health inspector and Heffer being left homeless.
- Failure Montage: Towards the end, Heffer goes from one disaster to another while repeatedly telling his mother over the phone that he's "fine".
- Got Me Doing It: When Filburt teases Heffer for Virginia babying him, he keeps calling him "Heffy". Rocko tells him to stop teasing Heffer, accidentally calling him "Heffy" as well.
- Mama's Boy: Both the title and premise of this episode. Heffer being teased as one sets the plot in motion, to prove he can get by on his own.
- My Beloved Smother: A more mild version; Virginia Wolfe treats her adopted son Heffer like he's still a little kid, but he's is such a Manchild, he doesn't seem to mind... that is until Rocko and Filburt start teasing him about it and calling him a "mama's boy".
- Obviously Not Fine: Heffer keeps telling his mother over the phone how he's fine, even though he's caught in situations such as in being in prison, in an airplane mid-crash, etc. By the episode's near end, he's returned home a complete wreck and repeating that he's fine into an obviously broken phone as his family wordlessly bring him inside and put a blanket over him in his chair.
"Feisty Geist" provides examples of:
- Berserk Button: Heffer goes ballistic when Mortimer Kahn possesses Rocko's refrigerator."YOU HAVE NO RESPECT FOR FOOD!"
- Here We Go Again!: The episode ends with the summoning of another ghost with a bone to pick with Heffer...
- Hindenburg Incendiary Principle: This episode has Heffer learn about his past lives when getting his fortune told, and in one past life he was a hungry German passenger aboard the airship Hillenburger (referencing creative director Stephen Hillenburg), where his heavy body weight when running to the back of the zeppelin caused it to descend to the ground in a fiery crash.
- Shout-Out: The approach of the possessed refrigerator is signaled by Bad Vibrations in a glass of water.
- Tuckerization: One of Heffer's past lives caused the crash of the airship Hillenberger — which, along with being a reference to the Hindenburg, is also a nod to writer Stephen Hillenberg (the future creator of SpongeBob SquarePants).
- Who You Gonna Call?: When Mortimer Khan keeps possessing things to attack Heffer, Rocko and friends outfit themselves with vanishing cream and super soakers to fight back.
