All Rise...

Judge David Johnson's life is antiquated.

Editor's Note

Our reviews of Rocko's Modern Life: Season One (published June 23rd, 2011) and Rocko's Modern Life: Season Two (published February 2nd, 2012) are also available.

The Charge

Not too shabby!

The Case

I tend to wince when these mid-'90s (aka old-school) Nick cartoon releases drop on my porch. Though I was outside of the target demographic of these series when they originally aired, I wasn't that far removed and still consider these productions part of my generation's zeitgeist. Unfortunately, I've found these shows to be uniformly lame and dated, making me long for the coherence and cutting-edge humor of Weinerville.

But here comes Rocko's Modern Life. Outside of my wheelhouse as it may have been, it might be best of its Nicktoons peers. At the very least, it's the edgiest. Creator Joe Murray was apparently given a wide berth by network execs to indulge his weirdo humor. And indulge he does, crafting a bizarre world populated by a hip wallaby named Rocko and his gonzo friends Spunky, Heffer, and Filburt. These adventures are as bizarre as their settings, filled with scatological references, surrealist humor, and a few borderline inappropriate double entendres.

Here's how Rocko's Modern Life: Season Three shakes out:

Disc One
• "Bye, Bye, Birdie"
• "Belch of Destiny"
• "The Emperor's New Joe"
• "Schnit-heads"
• "Sugar Frosted Frights"
• "Ed is Dead"
• "Fish-N-Chumps"
• "Camera Shy"
• "Nothing To Sneeze At"
• "Old Fogey Froggy"
• "Manic Mechanic"
• "Rocko's Happy Vermin"
• "I See London, I See France"
• "Fatlands"

Disc Two
• "Fortune Cookie"
• "Dear John"
• "Speaking Terms"
• "Tooth and Nail"
• "Wacky Delly"
• "The Big Question"
• "The Big Answer"
• "An Elk for Heffer"
• "Scrubbin' Down Under"
• "Zanzibar"
• "Fatal Contraption"

In my favorite of the thirteen installments, Rocko and company's failed bird-sitting experience culminates in extended sequences with a bird corpse. And the bird's name is Turdy. Gold!

Rocko's Modern Life is sanitized enough for younger viewers, but more mature audiences will still siphon some laughs. I use "mature" loosely, though, as something that got me snickering involved a bird's eyeballs glued to a man nipples. Really, you can boil down the essence of what awaits you like this: One of the episodes is entitled "Schnit-Heads," and it involves Heffer joining a sausage-worshiping cult.

The DVDs: standard definition 1.33:1 full frame, Dolby 2.0 stereo, and selected scene commentary by series creator Joe Murray.

The Verdict

Not Guilty. It's easy to see why Rocko has a cult following.

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