Belch of Destiny is episode 27b of Rocko's Modern Life.
Summary[]
Heffer has a unique talent which embarrasses his dad.
Plot[]
Rocko drives Heffer and Filburt to their Weasel Scouts meeting and stops so Heffer and Filburt can have lunch at Burger Boy. They return to Rocko's car, which continues to drive. Rocko drops the two off to the scout's house and get an unwanted greeting from them. The scouts are making model rockets and on Heffer's turn, he launches a huge rocket, which causes the scout's house to catch fire and the scoutmaster informs the scouts that the talent show is Saturday and the scout troop that has the best act gets to go to Astro Camp.
Heffer and Filburt are back at Burger Boy, where Heffer laments his failure of certain tasks. While the two play with their food, Heffer belches out a poem and Filburt laughs at this, telling Heffer that he has a talent at belching, which he could use for the Weasel Scout talent show, much to Heffer's confidence.
Back home, Heffer practices on his belching and joins his family at the dinner table. George deplores Heffer's childish antics and tells him to be mature. The next day, at the Weasel Scout talent show, Heffer is nervous about performing his talent. Rocko is oblivious of Heffer's talent and asks his friend what he would do. But Heffer prepares himself to go on stage and Rocko takes a seat adjacent to Filburt. On stage, Heffer becomes nervous and reads his poem wrong. When the audience boo him, Heffer finally shows off his belching talent, which literally blows the audience away. They all cheer for him and Heffer wins the talent show.
George reads about it in the newspaper and admonishes Heffer for his belching and tells him to grow up, devastating Heffer as he refuses to go to Astro Camp with his fellow scouts and sadly slumps into his room. At Astro Camp, the other scouts miss Heffer and Teddy walks over to the front seat of the spaceship and pushes the lever to fast, sending the spaceship zooming down and onto the front lawn of the Wolfes. The scouts demand that Heffer come out of his room to attend Astro Camp with them. But Heffer sticks his head out of his bedroom window and tells them to leave. After being reminded by Virginia that he was as eccentric as Heffer when he was young, George goes up to his son's room and apologizes to him. He tells him that he is always somebody despite his idiosyncrasies, explains that he just hopes he'll eventually accomplish something more worthwhile, and shows him his armpit noises. Heffer reunites with the scouts, who try to help out a senior citizen as the episode irises out.
Behind the Scenes[]
Murray described "Belch of Destiny" as one of his favorite episodes because the episode supported his theory to "let kids be kids." In addition Murray recalled the memories of himself, Hillenburg, and O'Hare laughing after listening to the "belch talking" track of David Pritchard, a former Warner Brothers producer. Olson imagined Heffer "belch-talking," an activity he describes as "popular with kids" and something "parents would hate." Murray approved the story and Olson wrote the story. Olson, Hillenburg, and O'Hare arrived at Pritchard's studio and recorded a test recording. Olson believes that Hillenburg created the idea involving Heffer belch the "You talkin' to me?!" lines of Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. Murray and his crew arranged an official recording with Pritchard. Murray recalls that, during that period, Pritchard could not belch talk, even after Murray bought him beer and spaghetti. Olson recalls Murray giving Pritchard an "extra spicy" burrito to help the belch talking. The belch talking tape used by Murray arrived several days afterwards. Olson recalls that most of the belch talking used in the episode originates from the test recording instead of the official recording. Olson described the "Belch of Destiny" scene involving Heffer belch-talking in front of a mirror as one of his favorite individual scenes.
Characters[]
- Rocko
- Heffer
- Filburt
- George Wolfe
- Virginia Wolfe
- Grandpa Wolfe (silent)
- Peter Wolfe (silent)
- Cindy Wolfe (silent)
- Dr. Katz (cameo)
- Gib Hootsen (cameo)
- Teddy
- Paul
Trivia[]
- "My boots are heavy. My pants are tight." is from the beginning of a less family-friendly chat from Animal House (1978) that continues "My ****s are swinging from left to right".
- When The Weasel Scouts sing, "All we are saying is give Heff a chance." it's a parody of the John Lennon song "Give Peace A Chance".
- Peter Wolfe is mentioned to be a cheerleader, as evidenced in his outfit he was wearing at dinner.
- The newspaper that George reads is "Daily Poot".
- This is the first episode of the series with the Joe Murray Productions logo.
- This episode foreshadows Joe Murray's following series Camp Lazlo. The Weasel Scouts are an early version of the Bean Scouts.
- When Heffer falls into a deep depression, both of his eyes become round. When he cheers up, his right eye has a notch at the bottom again.
Quotes[]
- Heffer: Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet... (belching) THIS BELCH IS FOR YOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU!!!
- Heffer: (belching in the mirror) Roses are reeeeeeeed.... This burp is for yooooooooouuuuu.... You talkin' to me? I said you talkin' to me? I am Burpman, gimme a merit badge! Gimme a merit badge noooooooowwwwwww!
- Counselor: Okay, who wants to blow up the next satellite?