Wallaby Wednesday: When Virginia Wolfe pulled a Homer

Five years after “Homer Defined” and a decade and a half before Bob’s Burgers, Virginia Wolfe exhibits multiple dimensions of Linda Belcher while pulling a Homer in her most prominent Rocko’s Modern Life segment.

Season 4’s “Driving Mrs. Wolfe” sees Heffer’s adoptive mother enlist Rocko as her unlicensed behind-the-wheel instructor. With presumably no permit in hand, she lets her motherly habits cloud her capacity for literal street smarts.

All the while, she alternates between exuding enthusiasm and scolding her son’s friend when his justifiable fear boils over. The gusto and admonishment are both, most naturally, misplaced in the situation.

The naivete-driven misadventure approaches its climax when Virginia determinedly agrees to “play” with a demolition-derby heavyweight. The start of that confrontation marks a brief fast-forward ahead of the rewind at the start of the episode. It also marks a rare fourth-wall teardown, as Rocko prepares to explain how he got there.

That presentation could be a court-mandated public-safety speech as part of his plea bargain for unauthorized behind-the-wheel training. Rocko gives no indication that he possesses a driver education instruction certificate, and thus should not let Virginia take him on the road.

Both parties should be in legal trouble, but their could-have-been-worse debacle bears several potential cases for a lighter sentence. A clean driving record on the former’s part and sound citizenship on the part of both are safe to presume.

One should also not overlook the neophyte motorist’s impressive performance, both on the road and at the derby. Parking-lot light displacements and railroad-crossing failure aside, the student and the not-formally-qualified instructor avoid doing any harm.

The only visible damage afflicts Rocko’s besieged car. That is until the pair take George Wolfe’s new car on a wrong turn into the demolition derby.

 

Against all odds, all of the destruction at the derby hits those who are expected to take dents in that setting. Virginia and Rocko, however, escape personal injury and property damage without the former even making sense of the peril.

Virginia can therefore say she pulled a Homer — both by driving safely when logic says she will not, and by winning the derby despite not knowing how the competition works.

Strictly speaking, the third-season Simpsons episode that coined the phrase defines pulling a Homer as “To succeed despite idiocy.” Idiocy is a strong word, even for Homer. After all, he averts a nuclear meltdown twice in as many tries by correctly choosing the right button at random. Even if it is dumb luck, multiple strokes of it look less accidental than one ever will.

Besides, “Homer Defined” premiered two years before the title character is found to be working at the power plant despite lacking a requisite college degree. Substandard training is therefore a more operative noun than idiocy when one refers to pulling a Homer.

It is the same situation with Virginia in the driver’s seat. Unfamiliarity with demolition derbies and a dearth of vehicular experience in general are her harrowing flaws on this wild ride. In short, she is driving and doing so harmlessly despite having yet to earn a license.

You could condense those flaws into the word incompetence, which everyone has in certain areas by nature or from lack of education. That is what Virginia hopes to rectify when her biological son Peter expresses qualms about her driving the family car.

“Well, I can learn,” she replies in a tone that adds a silent, How hard can it be?

Naturally, learning is much harder than she assumes, though her confidence does not wane much after she gets behind the wheel. Granted, she does start learning with the help of Rocko later in the segment. Nonetheless, logic dictates that she cannot learn enough in one day to qualify for a demolition derby.

 

Of course, she never does try out, let alone qualify. Instead, she steers into the fairgrounds arena after missing the exit to Rocko’s house and continuing to misread the map. For that reason, you could also substitute absent-mindedness for idiocy, and Virginia is still en route to pulling a Homer.

Whether it is through misplaced attention or an utter lack of knowledge of the event, she does not even recognize the setting when she drives herself and Rocko into the derby.

Yet despite knowing little of what she is doing, she wins, thus completing her answer to “Homer Defined.” Her short-term memory commits enough of Rocko’s reverse-driving, zigzagging and braking lessons for her to outmaneuver every opponent.

Most derby winners, like the last and most formidable opponent standing, thrive on offense. Conversely, Virginia plays constant keepaway, which would ordinarily be maligned as cowardly in this competition.

But being no ordinary, let alone informed demolition driver, Virginia innocently believes she has encountered chaotic traffic and rude motorists. To her credit, and surely to Rocko’s relief, safety is her priority now. (If only she had rated that over politeness when they crossed the railroad.) It works to their advantage and, as a bonus, it keeps George’s car pristine, just as he intends.

With that said, as he hitches a ride home with the entire Wolfe family, Rocko loads up on seatbelts. By that point, George is at the wheel, and will do everything in his power to keep the car and (by default) its passengers unscathed.

But despite winning the derby, Rocko indicates no one is winning his trust in traffic for a while. His greatest source of relief is the chance to quit while he is ahead.

There is no need for him to channel Aristotle Amadopolous, who admonishes Homer for succeeding by happenstance. But given the parallels, this is Virginia’s first of two strikes before the anti-charm third time she drives unlicensed.

She had better achieve that formal training before she causes a traffic accident without even involving herself in traffic.