Wallaby Wednesday: The two times Rocko tackled ageism

The impact cannot be more instantaneous when Rocko and Heffer switch age groups with their customers on a seniors’ cruise.

“Lookee, Hef,” the former observes. “We’re a thousand years old, and surrounded by wild kids.”

Heffer, suddenly hard of hearing, asks his friend to repeat the statement. Instead, Rocko continues, “I never realized what old people have to go through.”

Given how open-minded Rocko is, he surprises no one by digesting his lesson this quickly. But before and after this second-season eye-opener, his lack of perfection shows with his shortage of sensitivity for older individuals.

Frustration with Grandpa Hiram Wolfe’s cantankerous demeanor trips up his morals for the first part of “Cruisin.’” Hiram persistently calls him a “beaver” and heckles him through the chores he must do after Hiram and Heffer’s protracted pit stops get him stuck on the ship.

In Season 3, fear of property damage by wild baseball pitches and embarrassment by exasperated comic-shop customers impels Rocko to dodge an uncharacteristically fun-loving Ed Bighead. After Heffer and Filburt abandon him, he is once again worn down, along with his patience.

The age-group swap is less literal this time, but different means arrive at the same end in both episodes. Those varied settings, situations and personnel help to reaffirm the moral with sustained resonance going forward. That can benefit not only the characters absorbing the lesson, but also the program’s young target audience.

Hiram and Ed alike have it hard enough dealing with the reality or illusion of irrecoverable youth and opportunity. It is on Rocko and his peers to mitigate that by accepting the invitation, however unorthodox, to build generational bridges.

Here is a brief breakdown of both storylines and how the main character cultivates and regains his compassion therein.

“Cruisin’”

Besides the captain, Rocko and Heffer are the only non-geriatrics to start the cruise. Other staffers have inexplicably jumped the ship, allowing the “stowaways” to fill in and make amends for their inadvertent infraction. As they do this, they cannot escape being an overwhelmed minority.

Being in such a position is not a new experience for either young man. Heffer is a steer who has lived with wolves for as long as he can recall. Rocko is an Australian immigrant still acclimating to American culture.

Nonetheless, working amongst senior citizens cannot help yielding unique growing pains for the pair of twentysomethings. Besides being outnumbered, they are at a stark deficit in general life experience.

For Hiram and his peers, this ostensibly relaxing and entertaining journey backfires by illuminating what they have lost, missed and come up short on through the decades. Facing those reminders away from their natural habitat, let alone in a setting with no viable exit, exacerbates the pain.

This is why Hiram shoots down Rocko’s simplistic plea for harmony and scolds, “You don’t have a clue, do you, you little runt!” Rocko proves him right when he fails to read the room on the rehashed story of Winifred Wolfe.

By that point in his young love life, Rocko has not so much as approached his nextdoor crush, Melba. When he tries to divert his attention from her, he realizes he cannot fake an interest in another woman. But he still has time to make an impression if and when the opportunity arises.

Conversely, Hiram did try his luck with Winifred, failed through youthful foolishness and is now desperate to capitalize on serendipity. Alas, his bid for redemption crashes as soon as he launches his bold attempt at a reunion.

Upon yet another prompt rejection by Winifred, the last thing he needs to hear is “So, Grandpa, how’d it go with your old girlfriend?” By addressing Hiram by that title despite being admonished not to earlier, calling Winifred his “girlfriend” when she never was and adding the adjective “old,” Rocko swings for three swift strikes. Though a little over the line himself, Hiram literally strikes him with his cane.

Frustrated, Rocko walks off muttering about Hiram’s “crotchety” temper, prompting another lone cruiser to enlighten him. Absorbing the man’s calmer candor, Rocko starts brimming with his familiar empathy. For good measure on that front, he spots endangered ducks before the ship, and fate takes the journey into the Bermuda Triangle.

It is one thing to hear about aging from someone who has lived it. It is quite another to feel it firsthand. While stuck in Bermuda, if only for a moment, Rocko and Heffer get that walk-in-your-shoes experience.

During the short role reversal, Rocko brooks the annoyance of having youngsters pester him with unsolicited, uninformed advice and bombard him with energy when he needs a rest. Heffer witnesses Hiram’s near-death experience, but averts his eyes before Winifred comes to a last-second rescue. This lends him that sense of “the heartbreak of losing a loved one” the duck-feeding man had told Rocko about.

When everyone’s worst fears are allayed and everyone’s best qualities come through, normalcy returns. Back on land, Heffer even looks on the bright side of age-induced tooth loss, noting that “I could swallow food whole!”

More crucially, Rocko is armed with more substance as he renews his case for cordial relations with Hiram. But within a year (based on the air dates of his chronicles), another elder acquaintance’s surprising thirst for friendly fun will test him again.

“Old Fogey Froggy”

For Rocko and Heffer plus Filburt, the lessons from “Crusin’” bear repeating via a third-season plot.

Like Hiram with Winifred, Ed has waited for an incalculable stretch of time to catch a big break. But his boss bursts his bubble by promoting a bespectacled, acne-laden intern from the mail room to the hot-tub department. Mr. Dupette adds insult to injury by saying, “Face it, Bighead, you’re too old.”

That remark is the tipping point after Ed endures an onslaught of ageist jeers from strangers on his commute. He too is now facing a cruel crowd of missed opportunities, ill luck and lost glory. All he wants is to regain a little of the latter, and his sprightly neighbors are his best bet.

By the episode’s end, Dupette denies Bighead another promotion, claiming “you just act too young for your age.” While the inconsistency is ludicrous, the reasoning underscores the way Ed overcompensates to counter the earlier slight.

With that said, neither Rocko, his friends nor any bystanders take the time to ponder Ed’s abrupt change in attitude and behavior. Rocko observes that his neighbor is “acting strange” and “trying to be a kid again.” Yet he does not bother considering, let alone inquiring as to why. Instead, Heffer tries curtailing the conversation by saying, “I was just glad to get rid of him.”

Heffer later tries to divert everyone’s minds when Rocko, riddled with guilt after snapping at Ed, expresses his concern over the toad’s prolonged absence. Even after nearly losing his grandfather to “the angry sea,” he coldly says, in reference to Ed, “Who cares? He’s old.”

By this point, Ed has relented and all but let his self-esteem succumb to internalized ageism. Rocko, given his knee-jerk tirade when Ed follows him to his bedroom, is right to say, “I feel kind of responsible.” The blame is not entirely his, but he has not been a part of the solution.

That is until he is the first to step up and think of a solution.

To everyone’s credit, Heffer and Filburt join Bev and Rocko in the latter’s creative idea to make amends. Their faux funeral and teasing threat to bury Ed in cement instantly refill the toad’s energy tank.

While his new lease on life still cannot get him into Conglom-O’s coveted hot-tub department, it does make him the youthful go-getter he was three-plus decades earlier. His exuberant personality just resides in a more mature body now.