Inaccurate Sports Scenes Nobody Will Ever Care About: Rocko's Modern Life

Remember the old Rocko's Modern Life where Rocko and Mr. Bighead were facing off in the finals of their bowling league? Mr. Bighead had won some ridiculous number of years in a row, and Rocko had just started bowling, so, being the surly guy that he was, it bothered Mr. Bighead that Rocko got to the finals and was hanging with him in the final game.

Anyway, Rocko and Mr. Bighead got down to the tenth frame, with Mr. Bighead bowling last. When he stepped up to shoot, the announcers noted that he needed only one pin to win the league. (You mean your bowling league doesn't have announcers?) If you've seen the episode, you know that Mr. Bighead, in an act of sheer defiance, kicks the ball down the gutter intentionally for his first shot, and ends up completely destroying every inch of the bowling alley—except for the pins—with his second shot. In the last scene of the episode, Rocko wins the league trophy—in quite humble and gracious fashion, I might add. Very funny stuff, but that's not the issue here.

My question is: How can Mr. Bighead have needed only one pin to win the league? If he needed just one pin, that implies that he and Rocko were tied heading into the final frame; if Rocko were ahead, one pin would have, at best, tied him. Assuming they were tied, one pin would win the league, yes, but wouldn't the fact that he rolled a zero on his tenth frame leave them tied? Instead, Rocko immediately won. I would think that the two would have to play another game to determine the league championship.

Or maybe Mr. Bighead's league had some bylaw concerning tiebreakers, à la the Big Ten and the Rose Bowl, where the first tiebreaker is that last year's team can never go a second consecutive year.

Or maybe they did play a tiebreaker game but it was edited out in the interests of time.

I'm not sure. All I do know is that when you need just one point to win, in any sport, you're probably tied. (I'm sure there's some example where this is not true, but I think enough thought's been put into this for one night.) GP, out.