Rocko Rama,[2][1] also known as Rocko Wallaby Rama, is a male Australian wallaby who is the titular protagonist of Rocko's Modern Life.
Appearance
Rocko wears a blue polo shirt with purple triangles and orange shoes. His eyes are white with black pupils and he has a black nose. He also has beige skin and fur. He is also noticeably shorter than the other characters.
His fur and skin were yellow in the original version of "Trash-O-Madness".
Personality and traits
Although personally hygienic, polite, caring and practical, Rocko has an almost pathological tendency to neglect his living space and he has anger management issues. Rocko enjoys collecting comic books, watching wrestling, and rainbows. Jean Prescott of The Sun Herald described Rocko as a "pudgy little wallaby" who tries to "do what's right" and is devoted to his friends Heffer and Filburt as well as his dog Spunky. Rocko is typically quiet and keeps to himself, a contrast to his loud-mouthed friends. Rocko appears to be quite bookish and likes showing his knowledge, albeit at inappropriate moments, such as giving a patriotic speech about American history and freedom simply because he didn't want a coffee; or excitedly telling passangers on the Sani-Tours bus about the Eiffel Tower while the driver is trying to give a tour of Paris' trash cans.
Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham, whose review is posted on Go.com, describes Rocko as "paranoid and obsessed with cleanliness" and that he initially perceives his neighbors to be "loud and messy." Graham describes Rocko as accepting of his neighbors' faults and seeing the positive qualities within them; unfortunately, that has also led him to become a bit of a doormat in the eyes of others (no matter how many times a person wrongs him, he always forgives them, despite knowing they will wrong him again in the future) - when angered, Rocko becomes extremely aggressive and even violent, though he tends to be more easily peeved by well-intentioned mistakes (such a store's sale ending prematurely or the Fatheads reboot not meeting his quality standards) and oblivious to intentional malice (such as Ed Bighead cheating at bowling). In an early character profile presented to the networks, Murray described Rocko as "a young anthropomorphic Woody Allen, who has just moved away from his home into a surrealistic world."
A Pesky Fly Interrupts Rocko’s Barbecue Rocko's Modern Life NickSplat
Careers
In his day-to-day life, Rocko worked as a cashier at (and briefly as the boss of) a local comic book shop called Kind of a Lot O' Comics which is owned by Mr. Smitty and sold mostly Really Really Big Man comics prior to his current unemployment which is because of that store replaced by an instant-print kiosk. Rocko originally worked at Super Lot-O Comics, owned by the chairman of Conglom-O, Mr. Dupette, Ed Bighead's boss. His other jobs include tattoo artist, plumber's assistant, and specialty phone operator, a product tester at Conglom-O, a tow truck operator, a Wedgie Boy underwear model, and a cartoonist for the program Wacky Delly. As a hobby, he performs professional jackhammering, sometimes for a live audience.
Relationships
Neighbors
Rocko's neighbors are Ed, who sees Rocko as a nemesis despite the latter's obliviousness, and Bev who considers Rocko a very sweet neighbor and encourages him to stand up to her husband. He and his dog Spunky are a source of constant annoyance to Ed due to his dog, who often chews on the neighbors' salmon bushes.
Friends
Rocko's best friends are Heffer Wolfe, a steer who eats a lot and was adopted and raised by a family of wolves, and Filburt, a bespectacled and nerdy turtle with neurotic, psuedo-intellectual mannerisms, who often feel nauseated. He is also good friends with his dog Spunky. Although he gets along with Heffer, he does not enjoy Heffer's company in certain episodes such as Uniform Behavior and Bedfellows. He is also good friends with Dr. Paula Hutchison, a lady cat who is a licensed doctor wears a prosthetic hook for a hand and a huge grin, who usually helps Rocko with his problems.
Enemies
Beyond the previously mentioned antagonistic relationship between Rocko and Ed, many unnamed O-Town residents, and even some inanimate objects, are malicious against Rocko, sometimes for monetary gain and other times out of blind cruelty - Rocko is very rarely stands up for himself against bullies, even through words, and has somewhat of a bystander mentality, which causes his aggrivations to pile up until he snaps. When Rocko does something to upset his friends, usually by accident, any and all of them can snap and gang up on him - such as the infamous rainbow incident in Closet Clown. Dingo was a particularly bad bully to Rocko in his youth, to the point where the mere mention of his name could cause Rocko mass anxiety, though has since converted into a pacifist cultist, and is friends with Rocko as an adult.
Love life
In early concept sketches, Murray indicated that Rocko bears a strong crush on a character named "Melba Toast". Rocko expresses this trait in Season One, bearing a crush on the unseen character until he discovers that Melba has a serious boyfriend. Melba is only later mentioned by Heffer (Season 4 in "Pranksters") as an April Fool's joke, pretending to spot her in a food court and waving her over, making Rocko nervous as he states that he can't look at her because he is still in love with her.
In subsequent episodes, Rocko bears crushes for other characters.
In the episode, "S.W.A.K.", Rocko has been vying for the attention of the pretty kangaroo mail-lady named Alicia, that comes to his door every day; he writes her a love note, but he is too scared to send it, so Heffer does it for him instead. Rocko fails to retrieve the letter, and gets the impression that the mail-lady would rather go out with Heffer. This turns out to be a joke on the mail lady's part, and she actually reciprocates Rocko's feelings.
In the episode, "I See London, I See France", Rocko falls in love with a girl named Claudette, who turned out to be his wallaby pen pal from Paris, who later falls for Heffer, but he decided that Melba is the one for him.
In the episode, "Wallaby on Wheels", Rocko falls for a roller-skater girl named Sheila and tries to impress her by learning to roller-skate from Heffer. He becomes jealous when it is implied that she is in love with Heffer, brought about from the episode with Claudette, and tries to impress her by doing a dangerous stunt. In the end, she becomes attracted to Rocko after he saves Heffer via his adept skill of the jack hammer, resulting with Rocko teaching Sheila how to use a jackhammer.
In "Leap Frogs", Bev attempts to court Rocko behind Ed's back, though the feeling is not mutual.
Behind the scenes
Conception and early development
Rocko first appeared in a never-released comic, where he has the name "Travis". Joe Murray, the creator of Rocko's Modern Life, believed that the personality of a wallaby suited Rocko after observing a zoo wallaby. Murray wanted to get his comic into syndication. Afterwards, Murray made substantial changes to Rocko. Murray added that the personality of a wallaby mirrored Rocko's humbleness and his tendency to keep his frustrations to himself instead of publicly complaining about them. In the original pilot for the series, the animators colored Rocko yellow. One month before the first episode was submitted to the animation studio in free Korea, Murray changed the color when a toy company refused to license the character after citing that Rocko looked too similar to a yellow character used in one of the company's existing products. Murray fought the changes with the Nickelodeon executives; in the end, the executives insisted on changing the color, so Murray changed the color to beige and disliked the choice. On his website, Murray said, "He was always yellow to me." Murray said that the company later backed out of the commitment and did not create the plush series.
Murray auditioned Alazraqui in San Francisco and chose him as the voice actor for Rocko. Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, a storyboard writer, describes Alazraqui's voice for Rocko as "not really an accurate Australian accent"; according to Marsh, the team used the voice as Alazraqui used the voice for the pilot.
Murray said that as the series progressed he adjusted Rocko's design from episode to episode to be more "animator friendly." According to Murray, when he created independent films and the Rocko's Modern Life pilot, he created all of the character layouts in his mind and other animators used the layouts to create works. Murray said that when Rocko became "high volume," Murray taught Americans and Koreans how to draw the characters. Murray described Rocko as the most difficult character to draw, and he said that therefore he decided to adjust his character design in order to assist the overseas animators. Murray said that as he and the directors continued to "quickdraw" the character changes to the design "naturally" lessened the "victim, paranoid" aspect and gave the character a "happy personality."
According to George Maestri, Rocko has no family name because the writers did not think of a family name that they desired. The writers considered the family name "Stretchbrain" because the character's brain popped out of his head during "odd moments." The writers scrapped the idea, leaving the character with one given name. Some websites, including Hot Topic, give him the family name "Wallabee" and the middle name "James". In "Dental Hyjinks," the first story of the Marvel Comics Rocko's Modern Life series Issue #1, the nurse addresses Rocko as "Mr. Rocko." Most fan communities - including this wiki - have taken to his last name being Rama, as detailed in early concept art and the Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons! book.
According to Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons! and concept art done by Murray, Rocko's age at the beginning of the series is 20.[1]
Voice
Rocko is voiced by Carlos Alazraqui in all his appearances. In the video game SMITE, he is voiced by Matt Cowlrick, being the only time he is voiced by an actor other than Alazraqui in the English dub.
Quotes
- "Hehe, oh my"
- "SPUNKY!!!!! SPUNKY!!!!!!"
- "Garbage day is a very dangerous day" (can be variated on, such as "Laundry day is a very dangerous day", "shopping day is a very dangerous day", or "The 21st century is a very dangerous century.")
- "Heh heh. Good as new."
- "I will do something NOT NICE!"
- "I'm a wallaby on wheels."
- "Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby"
- "I don't want to sleep! I don't need sleep! I am the walking living!"
- "Excuse me, Earl... but garbage and dogs are not part of a balanced diet."
- "I don't think we're in the 90s anymore..."
- "My closet's a bathroom? My basement's a bathroom? My ballroom's a bathroom? Even my bathroom's a bathroom!"
Trivia
- Rocko's shoes might be a reference to Hasbro and Playskool's toy Mr. Potato Head.
- Rocko's patterned shirt is cited as making him more difficult to animate than the simpler outfits of other characters.
- Rocko's surname is never mentioned in the series.
- Although it's mostly a mystery on what Rocko's life as a joey in Australia was like, we learn in Wimp on the Barby that he had a bully at school, Dingo, and in Junk Junkies, we briefly see his unnamed joeyhood best friend and favourite toys, the pogo stick and Mr. Onion Head.
- In the Kaboom! comics his full name is given as Rockefeller Coinsworth Wallaby.
- It was shown that he had blue eyes in the pilot Trash-O-Madness.
In other media
- Rocko was a playable character in the home console versions of Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots, he was a master model in the Nintendo DS version. Spunky appeared as a master model in the Game Boy Advance version.
- Rocko and Heffer appeared in one of the loading screens of Nicktoons MLB for Wii, Nintendo DS, and Xbox 360.
- Rocko, along with Heffer, were playable brawlers in the Nickelodeon mobile game, Super Brawl Universe.
- He appears in the mobile game Nickelodeon Pixel Town (only available in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines). He can be got if Sandy from SpongeBob SquarePants and Vlad from Danny Phantom are merged in the memory center.
- The Owl House series creator, Dana Terrace, is a fan of Rocko's Modern Life,[3] therefore she has put some references to Rocko in the show.
- In "Adventures in the Elements", in the pile of human artifacts that Eda Clawthorne brings at the beginning, there is a blue top with purple prints, being a reference to Rocko's iconic shirt.
- During the intro montage from "Thanks to Them", Hunter wears Rocko's shirt.
- Rocko was added as a paid DLC brawler in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl on October 7, 2022.[4][5][6]
References
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