Episode 73: Static Cling - can kind of hurt sometime…
(Music fades in)
I guess this is a welcome back from the podcast saga. Welcome back to the… Yeah, nothing on this program is regularly scheduled. Not regular and maybe only scheduled for now… because I can easily see myself falling behind on it again because it is only the tiniest buffer I have given myself. And in general, super not optimistic person over here, but I am doing my best at staying optimistic for now, if it means keeping on top of this podcast and—well—everything.
The Podcast Saga was a lot of fun, but on the other side of it, it did lead to me miss some topics that would have given this show great SEO traffic. And that’s okay. What’s not okay is having to then scramble to pull together some of the thoughts that I know I had about the other types of media I was consuming between now and then that I—dumbly—had not thought to write down. Pro tip for any aspiring anything. Keep a little notepad with you and jot down anything you think you will remember later because I’m getting increasingly sure that the mere thought that you will be able to remember something later is what guarantees that you will forget. Because of course that’s how it works.
Regardless, I did manage to pull some of them together, including the thoughts on this show and maybe even this intellectual property as a whole. Even if they are more than a little late.
(Music fades out)
Hi. It’s M. Welcome to episode 73.
(Music fades in)
If you haven’t noticed, is the rock you’re under big enough for two, by chance? Because that would be great.
Okay, but actually, if you haven’t noticed we live in an era of reimagination. Or rebooting to be a little less polite about it. Whether it all be shameless cash grabs or a product of our desperate addiction to the opiate of nostalgia in an age of uncertainty or a mixture of both, intellectual properties are being rebooted with slight alterations all over the place. And I mean slight alterations. It’s not that much, just enough to make the reimagination seemingly justified or palatable. And while the mere mention of this might make you think about Disney, Nickelodeon and Netflix jumped into the action last summer with two things that exist in the in-between space relative to television specials and movies, but I’m pretty sure they are more on the television special side I’m just not 1000% confident on that one.
And look, I’m sure there was promotional material and hype surrounding the Rocko’s Modern Life and Invader Zim specials that I missed because I was working on too many projects for any sane person to undertake and have been for many years, but that’s a conversation for my therapist. Probably.
Look, I might talk about the Invader Zim special some another time. It was incredibly interesting, and there’s some meat to it. However, it didn’t resonate with me the same way Rocko’s Modern Life did, and I can’t really tell if I’m talking about the special or the original run of the show anymore. Because Rocko’s Modern Life had a special place in my heart. Maybe it shouldn’t have, but it definitely did. And the same thing could be said about this new special.
(Music fades out and new music fades in)
Rocko’s Modern Life was one of my favorite shows growing up, even if I was probably a little too young for it, even by the standards of the 90s. And that was a while ago, so to refresh your memory, it was this cartoon by Joe Murray that now has this reputation of being a bit… adult despite it being marketed to kids. Not overly so, mind you. There were a lot of subtle jokes in there that no kid in the 90s could have caught but are still definitely there and very visible if you rewatch the show today.
And it had this surreal quality that doesn’t always land with kids. Or at best, it can be a bit hit or miss.
Premise-wise, it was about this wallaby named Rocko trying to live in the (quote) “modern world,” doing his best to get by. And that’s in quotes is because this show was made in the cultural consciousness of the 90s, and you can definitely tell. And it’s the main reason, I think, that Rocko’s Modern Life couldn’t have existed in current year. But that’s just my theory.
And look, I’m not going to deny that it would be hard for the writers or animators to sneak in some of the jokes that they did, but that’s not the main problem. I don’t think and didn’t think the humor is what the main barrier was for this show, and to think that somewhat downplays the character of the show or what made it so special.
Rocko’s Modern Life had something to say about life in the 90s and some of the pitfalls therein. That was the thematic core of the endeavor. In the rapid cultural and technological evolutions that have happened in the about twenty fives years after it premiered—that’s two and a half decades, just to drill the point in—things have changed rather drastically. And those comments don’t really apply anymore. Or at least not in the same way.
Rocko’s Modern Life as a concept is interesting, but the actual show Joe Murray created that so many of us loved was greatly influenced by the time it was made. And adapting that, with the knowledge that so much of what we loved about it would have to be left in the 90s, doesn’t seem so appealing, now does it? Honestly, could we love Rocko’s Modern Life without the things that make it Rocko’s Modern Life? Because it can seem like that’s what we asking for by asking for a reboot. But that’s only in theory.
And in that theory, I get it. It can be hard to be optimistic about the prospect of a reboot in the face of such overwhelming odds. And in general, it’s hard to not be cynical when you know just how much money these reimagined properties can make. But the Netflix specials actually did something kind of amazing. And while I don’t know what happened behind the scenes to make these specials work as well as they do, I can be happy these mysterious events happened as they did.
Because here’s the thing: this new special, Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling manages to be not just Rocko’s Modern Life in the late 2010s but also a sternly worded love letter to the past and our longing for it. And a pep talk for all reboots could be.
Which is a lot to unpack, and we’re already fairly deep in this review. But let me explain.
(Music fades out and new music fades in)
Static Cling picks up where the original run of the series left off. Rocko and his friends are stuck in space because rocket entered house, and pro tip don’t think about the logic of the universe too much, because remember there’s a talking wallaby. But in the course of rocket hitting house and being shot into space, the three friends have been trying to make the most of it for the past twenty years they’ve been up there. In these trying times, they did have this record of their favorite show, The Fatheads, to get them through. In the face of all this… nothingness? Difficulty? Incomprehensible cosmos and the existential dread contained within it? Whatever. In the face of this, this tape recording has become a bit of their lifeline. Or their literal lifeline. Once again, don’t think about the other details so much.
Anyway, they make it back to present day earth and chaos ensues. This ability to return home comes to them right as the tape breaks or falls apart from being used too much. So it comes right at the point that all hope would otherwise be lost. Neat. But while they land on the exact spot Rocko’s home used to be and aspects of the neighborhood are largely unchanged, O-Town is not the place they left. The entire world really isn’t. After all, it’s not the 90s anymore.
(Music fades out and new music fades in)
Rocko’s friends are able to adapt to this new life. Maybe even more than adapt. They jump right in with all the enthusiasm they could muster, whereas he finds himself overwhelmed by all the changes and challenges. And okay, I think we can all agree that landing back on earth after twenty years in space with no communication back to earth is going to be jarring. That’s just written into the fabric of the situation. But even those of us who didn’t drop in like that might also realize how far things have changed in that time period.
I mean, I find myself pining for my old flip phone, with the battery that lasted the entirety of my weekend-long class trip. Especially whenever my phone is about to die after three hours of Netflix.
But that was in the early 2000s, and back then, cell phones that connected to the internet were still a somewhat new-ish concept. However, the sales pitch couldn’t justify the price tag for most people. And now, it’s the norm. Maybe more than the norm, we’re approaching double digit generations of all the major smartphones, and we’ve hit at least one already. Or I think we’ve hit one and only one. I really can’t keep track anymore.
If you think about it, like I am, it can be jarring regardless of whether or not you were able to ride the wave with everyone else. For Rocko, he just has to think about it all the time. Because this sudden change is literally his reality and not the product of frustration-incited nostalgia. And it helps that the creative team of this new project were able to capture the reality of this new era with the same magic they treated the old even in the limited time they had to explore this world.
It’s pretty incredibly in fact. So much so that even watching a world you know all too well can feel overwhelming. Even the audience can feel what Rocko is feeling, but wow, Rocko gets kicked around, literally and figuratively.
And while he wants to retreat to his favorite television show where everything feels okay, this tried and true coping mechanism, known as The Fatheads—although maybe different episodes than what was on that tape, probably—technological developments have made The Fatheads obsolete and impossible to air. If anyone was going to, which does seem a bit unlikely.
(Music fades out and new music fades in)
In an age of reboots or reimaginations, however, there’s a way around this. Which becomes the central conflict of the show. Or the surface level conflict. Or a manifestation of the full conflict. The inability to handle sudden or even gradual changes remains the ultimate issue. This is just a way to see that.
And yeah… I’m going to go into spoilers. I know, I know. I keep saying that I’m not going to do that, and then I tread that line way too closely. But seriously, the most moving and significant part of the special is in its conclusion. And without it, Static Cling would not be what it has ended up being.
So here’s your spoiler warning. You can find the special on Netflix. Go watch it. Three. Two. One.
(Music fades out and new music fades in)
Okay to do the bare minimum of spoiler reveals. Rocko does manage to get his Fatheads special. In the course of it, he finds even more changes, but he takes them in stride. Not everyone does, and it looks like this inability to accept change will derails the whole process and the special is doomed. But then the specially isn’t doomed, and it becomes a way to understand and even embrace the changes that have happened while Rocko was gone.
It wouldn’t be a Rocko’s Modern Life special without animating and personifying a concept. In this case, it’s the Winds of Change, and this cloud that takes on this role of wise sage trying to teach our characters about… well, change as it is constantly being referred to throughout the special. And as strong as he may blow, the cloud that is Winds of Change don’t erase the past. The actual winds of change can’t erase the past either. You can and should be grateful for the good that came before and not let the bad hinder you from going about your life. But at the same time, you are going to be blown forward with a force that can’t be resisted. You will fly into that new day. Regardless of what jarring it an be.
(Music fades out and new music fades in)
And in many ways, it’s a necessity and but it is also a version of a theme that I’ve heard before. And almost got a tattoo of, but I am a wimpy wimp about pain.
You see, there’s this expression “This too shall pass.” I’m sure there are different origins to it and maybe different wordings of it across cultures, but the story I always heard was about a king who would get these really high and really low moods, and it was difficult for him to rule effectively, and also it just overall it sucked. So he turned to his wisest experts, science men, magicians, literally anyone and asked them for a remedy to get him through these trials or to dampen the damage caused by these lifts and falls.
They go searching, but they come to is a simple ring that bears the inscription. “This too shall pass.” As a reminder that the difficult moments would always have another side, an end or alleviation, and that we should not wallow in our miseries, and that pleasant times should be savored because they too are not permanent. It’s not a prescription so much as the king might have been expecting. It’s not a celebration of a reality that can make us uncomfortable. It’s just a reminder of the objectively true perspective that sees and knows all things shall pass.
Really, it’s our reactions that are under our control. And while that is true in pretty much every context ever, it has a particular meaning here. In the abstract, change can be difficult. Try upgrading an older person’s phone for a handy illustration. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad. There are highs and lows. It’s not all lows, so how are we going to see ourselves through.
(Music fades out and new music fades in)
In Static Cling, the surprise problem with The Fatheads special is that of the entire conflict: a change. Which is probably to be expected. The show can’t be exactly like it was back then. For many reasons, but especially because the creator who put more personal touches into it than anyone seemed to realize needs it to go into a new direction.
And that new direction poses a tiny problem. In this way, though, the special doesn’t just become an object of change to be dealt with. Because prior to that reveal the Winds of Change had given us the big talk about why change needs to happen. And the fallout of it takes all of thirty seconds to resolve.
Rather, the Fatheads special became a way for the audience of the Netflix special to understand what reimaginations can actually be.
Specifically they can be a way shed a new light on the realities of our current age through the lens of the familiar. It can remind us about what really matters and has always mattered: these small details that are easy to lose sight of in the shock of change. And reboots can become a way to emphasize a sense of connection that might feel loss during a change but will always endure if we let them.
This is the unique and critical takeaway from Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling in its incredible self-awareness that always seemed characteristics of Rocko’s Modern Life. In other words, it offers up a prescription of what reboots could and should be.
There’s another way of looking at this: through the process of elimination. Reboots are not just a way to reminiscence about the past or escape the trials of day in a nostalgic haze. They are not even a just way to savor that which came before. Rather, they allow us to express ourselves in a language that feels incredibly familiar and is non-threatening about a newness that can feel like the complete opposite.
We could, in certain circumstances, approach genuine issues or critique the current world through these revivals. Through what we were and what we have been. We can better connect the past and the future by connecting it to the past. Is that going to happen all the time? Nope. Sometimes they are going to be shameless cash grabs or ways to test technology in a still profitable context. But there are gems within the mud. And this is one of them.
(Music fades out and new music fades in)
This has been a production of Miscellany Media Studios with music from the Sounds like an Earful music supply. Thank you for listening. If you like the show, please leave a review, donate to our Ko-Fi account, or check out our other shows. Links in the show notes.
(Music fades out)