Original air date: 10/24/1993
The fifth episode of the first season of Rocko's Modern Life. This is notable for being the only half-hour Heffer does not appear in.
Clean Lovin'
Spunky falls in love with Rocko's mop, and Rocko tries to cure him of it.
Unbalanced Load
Rocko washes his clothes at the laundromat, and goes into another dimension after his lucky shirt is stolen.
"Clean Lovin'" provides examples of:
- Animal Sweet on Object: This episode has Spunky fall in love with Rocko's mop. It's unclear if this is because Spunky thinks the mop is another dog, or because Spunky is just very, very stupid.
- Bedsheet Ladder: Spunky makes one to climb out Rocko's bedroom window when Rocko is asleep, but makes the mistake of not tying the other end to something, which wakes Rocko up.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- When Rocko and Spunky are waiting in Dr. Katz's waiting room, Dr. Katz says he'll be right with them, as he's having a little trouble with another patient. a lion's growl can be heard and paws with claws can be seen, implying that he's dealing with a ferocious lion. It is then revealed that it wasn't a lion attacking him, but rather a rabbit with anger management issues.
- Spunky is heartbroken when Dr. Katz takes Rocko's mop away and has a date with it. He then sees a poodle near a fire hydrant and reacts lustfully. Rocko encourages Spunky to run towards the poodle, then in the next scene, it is revealed that Spunky took the fire hydrant home with him, much to Rocko's ire.
- Heart Beats out of Chest: When Spunky falls in love with Rocko's mop, he sticks out his tongue with his still-beating heart on it.
- Heart Symbol: When Rocko and Spunky are in Dr. Katz's waiting room, hearts emit from Spunky due to his crush on Rocko's mop.
- Here We Go Again!: This episode ends with Spunky falling in love with a fire hydrant.
- Naïve Animal Lover: In the commercial for Dr. Katz, Pet Psychologist, a little pig girl holds her pet rabbit by his neck and swings him around, causing him to bite her in retaliation.
- Spaghetti Kiss: Spunky fantasizes about having a spaghetti dinner with the mop, only to accidentally suck up one of the mop's strings and kiss it.
- Sticky Situation:
- When Rocko first enters his kitchen, he hears some starving bugs stuck to a stain calling for help. One of the flies is already a skeleton, but still moving.
- When Rocko tries to pull a celery stalk off the kitchen floor, it sticks to the tile and pulls it off. Rocko's feet then get stuck to the tiles and pull them off when he falls over, then his hands and face get stuck to more tiles, pulling them off as well.
- Urine Trouble: After Rocko locks up the closet where his mop is, Spunky deliberately pees on the table so Rocko will have to bring the mop out and mop it up.
- Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: Discussed; when Rocko wakes up and finds Spunky isn't in his bed, he thinks that Spunky must be thirsty, so he goes into the bathroom, and when he sees that Spunky isn't drinking out of the toilet, he says, "No.".
- Trash of the Titans: When Rocko goes into the kitchen, he finds it so messy that a pair of underwear with a chicken leg attached to it crawls across the floor and some starving bugs stuck to a stain calling for help.
- Wingding Eyes: Spunky's pupils turn into hearts when he sees Rocko mopping in the kitchen.
- Wild Take: After Dr. Katz takes Rocko's mop away and goes on a date with it, Spunky is heartbroken. He then sees a fire hydrant and reacts lustfully to it; his eyes pop out of his head, then he turns red and shoots into the air like a rocket.
"Unbalanced Load" provides examples of:
- Brick Joke:
- Early in the episode, when the change machine won't accept Rocko's dollar, Rocko uses a steamroller to flatten it, but the dollar gets stuck to the roller drum. Near the end of the episode, Rocko is launched out of the laundromat and into the road by Gladys the Hippo Lady after accidentally wearing one of her undershirts, and he gets Squashed Flat by the same steamroller. Fortunately, he gets his dollar back.
- When Rocko uses a washing machine to wash his clothes, the washing machine bounces out of the laundromat and sends him on a wild ride through O-Town, but he manages to stop it by destroying it with a baseball bat. At the end of the episode, when Rocko comments on how clean his house is now that he did his laundry, the washing machine bounces through his house, spreading its laundry everywhere.
- Call-Back: When Rocko tells Spunky about how lucky his lucky shirt is, he says that he wore it the time he won a prize at the carnival, and a brief clip from "Carnival Knowledge" is shown.
- Catch Your Death of Cold: After Spunky catches fire and extinguishes himself in a sink, Rocko finds him all wet. Not wanting him to catch a cold, Rocko puts him in a dryer and sets it on low. Spunky comes out with his fur frizzed up, making him look like a poodle, and also giving him a static cling that attracts other peoples' clothes.
- Circling Birdies: The washing machine that Rocko washes his clothes in has stars spinning around it when Rocko hits it with a baseball bat for bouncing him around O-Town.
- Doorstop Baby: In a flashback, Rocko finds Spunky as a puppy in a basket on his doorstop.
- Eye Pop: Rocko does this when he sees the washer with his clothes inside bounce out of the laundromat. He does this again when he sees black smoke emit from the dryer he dries his clothes in.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Rocko: He wears his lucky shirt and no pants, but suddenly gains a pair of briefs when his shirt is stolen by the Gripes, anthropomorphic socks who steal and destroy clothes.
- Recycled Animation: The car crashing in reaction to Rocko and the runaway dryer is reused from the prior episode "Who's For Dinner?"
- Rump Roast: Spunky stows away in the dryer when Rocko puts his clothes in it. When Rocko sets the dryer to "Surface of Sun", Spunky's rear end catches fire, and he extinguishes himself in a sink.
- Squashed Flat: When the change machine refuses to accept Rocko's dollar, Rocko takes the dollar into the road to have it flattened by a steamroller. The dollar gets stuck to the roller drum, and near the end of the episode, he gets launched out of the laundromat and into the road by Gladys, where the same steamroller flattens him.
- Tempting Fate:
- After Rocko successfully gets his laundry done without a single article of clothing missing, he says, "This is a lucky shirt! I'm so happy!". Just then, his shirt is pulled off by the Gripes.
- At the end of the episode, Rocko comments on how clean his house is now that he did his laundry. Just then, the washing machine bounces through his house, spreading its laundry everywhere.
- Trash of the Titans: Rocko's house is filled with dirty laundry that comes to life and attacks him and Spunky, and underneath Rocko's blanket is a colony of bedbugs having a dance party.
- Visual Pun: When Rocko sees his house filled with dirty laundry, he says, "This place looks like a pig sty!". An anthropomorphic pig then appears and "What, you got a problem with that?". Rocko then tells the pig to leave.
- Wingding Eyes: In a flashback, Rocko's pupils turn into hearts when he sees Melba.
