With Friends Like These is a season 4 episode of Rocko's Modern Life. When Rocko wins wrestling tickets for two, Heffer and Filburt try to butter Rocko up to go with him to the big wrestling match.
Plot[]
At Filburt's trailer home, Heffer and Filburt are listening on the radio DJ Uncle Wee Wee from the station 92.2 announcing that two tickets for the WWWWF will be given to caller number 92. They go on a frenzy and frantically dial every last phone inside the trailer, only to find that they are all busy. When Heffer ends up wrapping himself on the telephone cords, he hears a phone ringing. Filburt searches through every phone to pick up the call, but to no avail. The two soon discover that Rocko is the 92nd caller and that he won the two tickets to the WWWWF. Heffer and Filburt try to accept this fact, but Heffer attempts to surreptitiously sneak to Rocko's house, only to discover that Filburt has beat him there already. As Rocko tells Heffer and Filburt about the wrestling match, Filburt asks Rocko who would he take, to which Rocko equivocally responds that he'll take one of his friends.
The next morning, Rocko wakes up to find Heffer inside his bathroom, offering him his toothbrush. As Rocko goes to the door to get the newspaper, he also finds Filburt cooking breakfast inside his kitchen. He turns to grab the coffee to give to Rocko, but ends up being tripped by Heffer, causing the turtle to fall and accidentally spill the coffee on Rocko. He soon becomes annoyed of his friends' obsequious manner and tells them that acting as his sycophants won't make up his mind. He walks outside to find Heffer washing his car and Filburt mowing his lawn.
Later, at Food-O-Rama, Heffer and Filburt continue to act as sycophants to Rocko and end up following him while he is driving to his house. By the time he gets home, Heffer and Filburt end up bickering. Rocko has finally had enough of the two battling for his friendship and tells them that he is going to the wrestling match on his own, right before walking back inside his house.
Rocko wakes up in the morning to find that not only Heffer is lying with him, but he has also handcuffed himself to Rocko as well, in an attempt to make him bring him to the wrestling match. An irritated Rocko walks downstairs with Heffer and demands him to go home. As he gets outside, Filburt emerges from the bushes and handcuffs himself to Rocko's other arm. This prompts an argument between Heffer and Filburt as they start walking, with Rocko slamming into every object between them as he gets dragged. As they finally arrive at the wrestling match, Rocko, now badly injured and completely fed up with his so-called "friends" fighting over him, losing his mind, then goes hysterical and ends up ripping the two tickets to shreds, right before finally fainting down to the ground.
At Rocko's house, Heffer and Filburt apologize to Rocko for letting two tickets come between their friendship. But when they overhear DJ Wee Wee announcing on the radio that the first person handcuffed to their friend will receive two tickets to the monster truck rally, the three make their way to the stadium, Heffer and Filburt end up arguing again over who Rocko should take to the monster truck rally.
Characters Featured[]
- Rocko
- Heffer
- Filburt
- DJ Uncle Wee Wee
- Ed Bighead (cameo)
- Bev Bighead (cameo)
Trivia/Goofs[]
- Similarly to "Rocko's Modern Christmas", this episode got its own VHS tape with the same name.
- The title is a reference to the phrase "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"
- This episode follows the plot of the Pee-wee's Playhouse episode "Luau for Two" and the Saved by the Bell: The New Class episode "Backstage Pass". All three episodes have the same plot of a character winning tickets for something and their friends buttering up to them and giving them fake flattery, causing the characters in question that won the tickets to become infuriated and call their friends out on their selfish behavior.
- When Heffer handcuffed Rocko while he asleep in bed, Rocko was wearing his white undershirt. The next scene shows Rocko walking downstairs wearing his usual blue shirt with purple triangles and his shoes. But when he walks outside, he is back into his white undershirt.
- The characters' eye colors in this episode is revealed: Rocko has blue eyes, Heffer has green eyes, and Filburt has purple eyes like in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Filburt apparently commits mass murder in this episode, when he blows up the Cine-O-Plex theater, presumably killing everyone inside, and gets away with it.
- Starting with this episode, Stephen Hillenburg takes over as show runner from Joe Murray. As a result, the opening credits of each episode list Hillenburg as "Creative Director".
- Heffer references the events of "Who's For Dinner?" during his argument with Filburt. Filburt also references being married to Rocko in "Kiss Me I'm Foreign".
- During Heffer and Filburt's arguing, Heffer mentions "Chewy Chicken", making this the first time that Chokey Chicken is referred to as Chewy Chicken.
- This is the first episode to have a Dolby Surround audio format.
- Starting with this episode, Martin Ansolabehere takes over as character and prop designer from Chris Savino. As a result, the end credits of each episode list Ansolabehere as character and prop designer. also, Douglas E. Ninneman, the designer assistant, listed as character and prop designer on some season 4 episodes in the end credits.
Quotes[]
- Rocko: HERE'S A TICKET FOR YOU... AND A TICKET FOR YOU... AND TICKETS FOR EVERYBODY!!!!! Now we can all... GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!