Wallaby Wednesday: The deprived childhood of Ed Bighead

Among Ed Bighead’s flashbacks, his bowling-championship choke job and Ralph’s alleged betrayal of Conglom-O have nothing on the treasure-map fiasco.

Unlike the preceding pair, the memory depicted in “Sailing the Seven Zzz’s” occurred in Ed’s early youth. It also triggers a tearful outburst that not even his wife, let alone their fellow opera attendees, can contextualize.

In the next scene, the dialogue makes it clear that Ed is only explaining himself to Bev now. If not for their outing to a pirate-themed show, he would have kept suppressing his own play. Although by the time of this episode, a three-year sample size of Rocko’s Modern Life confirms that strategy has not helped him, let alone those around him.

In an upload of the flashback sequence, one YouTube user beat this author to an inescapable theory. Danielle Romero1 commented, “Maybe Ed is grouchy because of his rough childhood.”

Danielle is right to suspect this. After seeing Ed’s temper for three years with a dearth of explanation, Rocko viewers get multiple clues about his upbringing. Those hints cast a streak of new light on some prior sequences, building the case all the more.

“Sailing the Seven Zzz’s” is Season 4’s first segment prominently featuring the Bigheads. (Its Part A partner, “With Friends Like These,” only shows them joining the handcuffed-to-your-best-friend race to the KWOO studio.) It is also the first of two storylines to address the simple pleasures Ed missed out on as a boy. The other comes when he faces and acts on his interest in entertaining present-day children and children at heart.

Dealing with a difficult, antagonistic peer, especially in school, often comes with a third-party explanation along the lines of, “He’s having a hard time at home. That doesn’t excuse his behavior, but we should try to understand.” Any attempts to meet halfway may work, although the person in question may revert.

Such is the fluctuating pattern in the final, and therefore most evolved, season of Rocko. As if to restore a semblance of normalcy, such as it is in the show’s universe, Ed’s callousness returns for the final episodes. In the de facto series finale, he is seen holding a monkey captive, with plans to send it to space.

The subsequently premiered Thanksgiving special essentially has turkeys replacing bugs in an abysmal upgrade from Season 3’s “Rocko’s Happy Vermin.” (Incidentally, both of those plots culminate in a piano falling on the bad guy.) Before those two plots, Ed runs for dog catcher with intent to institute policies of animal cruelty.

Yet in between, he obtains more sympathetic collateral to go with his unresolved pirate memory. “Closet Clown” came at the halfway mark of Season 4, depicting him as insecure about an ostensibly stigmatized fun-loving part of him.

Though reluctant to divulge his moonlighting gig to Bev, Ed takes it up all the same at the behest of his Conglom-O boss. As Mr. Dupette hands him his first assignment, he is subtly overcome and nearly speechless.

“A birthday party,” he says with soft excitement. “A real birthday party.”

As basic as that line is, it joins the delivery to pack big food for thought in a small box.

It is worth noting what Ed’s performer, Charlie Adler, said about his occupation at the 2015 Florida Supercon. At the 63-minute mark of the linked video, he states, “This is not a thought process, this is a feeling process.”

The way Ed softens from season to season underscores how Adler’s feeling process with him evolved. Yes, the actor got more sympathetic storylines to work with in the latter stages, but he needed to do his part to enliven them. The beginning of “Sailing the Seven Zzz’s” and the entirety of “Closet Clown” epitomize that.

Why is Ed, a veteran Conglom-O executive with a history of spoiling his younger neighbor’s fun, so moved by the prospect of visiting a stranger’s birthday party? The way Adler puts the emotion into it should spark critical thinking.

After all, the flashback and Ed’s reaction thereto in “Sailing the Seven Zzz’s” is easier to dismiss as a mere joke at the expense of Rocko’s chief antagonist. His could’ve-would’ve-should’ve rant about “That stupid treasure map!” alone is not enough to dig deep into his lasting lack of fulfillment.

“Closet Clown” is different. It evokes memories of the show’s prior depictions of Ed’s history as a father. On its own or along with the premise of “I Have No Son,” it raises questions regarding Ed’s never-seen parents.

Because six-year-old Ed and two elementary-school staffers are the only figures seen and heard in his lone childhood flashback, speculation is a necessary evil here. With that said, what are we to gather from Ed’s melted-heart line in “Closet Clown” if not that he never got to attend “a real birthday party” growng up?

Ed’s handling of his own son could be a continuation of a vicious cycle. When Ralph reappears, his father blasts him for having “disgraced the Bighead name!” He goes on to reference Ralph’s cartoon with a derogatory delivery.

If the pirate-play debacle circa first grade did not singlehandedly suppress Ed’s fun-loving side, his parents may have. His father may have preceded him at Conglom-O or a similar corporate behemoth and compelled him to focus on career training. This would set the pattern for the way Ed raised Ralph, as Bev briefly recounts to Rocko through a photo album.

Under that theory, Ed would not only have missed out on schoolmates’ parties, but also denied Ralph those moments. Even if he does not express it, his regret surely starts breaking out by the time the two reconcile.

His first step toward reversing his attitude comes at the end of “I Have No Son.” He stops hate-watching The Fatheads and even invites his inner-child-pleasing neighbor to share a good laugh over it.

But by that point in the Rocko canon, “Closet Clown” is still two-and-a-half years away. Ed has a long way to go, as his timeline of sadistic deeds slows down a tad, but continues nonetheless.

In Season 1, Ed tries to have Rocko’s house condemned, then ceremoniously shreds Rocko’s baseball. He later tries to have Rocko electrocuted and trampled while testing Conglom-O’s sketchy products. In the mountains, he tries to bury Rocko and Heffer with a colossal snowball.

After its double-segment premiere, the rest of Season 2 depicts Ed as comparatively less cruel. He is still selfish and overbearing, most notably with his bowling team, but has eased off his penchant for peril.

By Season 3, he garners a fair share of sympathy via “Old Fogey Froggy,” as this space previously addressed. But two segments later, his inner sociopath resurges to unprecedented heights in “Rocko’s Happy Vermin.”

In “Wacky Delly,” he shows his son an elaborate plan to melt Rocko and his friends. When Ralph rejects this, they send a tsunami to Hollowood with a clear lack of regard for residents’ safety. He is also the last holdout when O-Town grows and acts on its collective environmental conscience.

Yet we know he is not a mere cantankerous caricature of a cane toad. While he may not fully mollify, let alone turn his personality 180 degrees, his three-dimensional persona is permanent once put in place.

Perhaps he does not use the park, and would just as soon dump his trash there, because that was the site of countless parties he did not get to attend. Following “Zanzibar” by half a season, “Closet Clown” brings that possibility to light. Based on the reception Ed gets when his secret spills, his healthful way of making up for childhood miss-outs is better late than never.

Naturally, none of this absolves him, retroactively or going forward, for threatening death and destruction. But to their credit, Ed’s wife and acquaintances quickly embrace him when they realize he is the clown catering to the first birthday party of Filburt and Paula’s quadruplets.

Perhaps there is hope for his relationship with young nieces, nephews and potential grand-tadpoles.