But if you’ve seen enough of this series, you notice this isn’t always the case and once or twice, this friendship was really put to the test.
But first- two episodes where both of them go through different kinds of “growing pains” all of us have gone through on our lives.
Weaning Tommy and Chuckie vs. the Potty
(Chuckie doesn’t make an appearance in the first of these two, but I thought it made more sense to address them in the same post)
Tommy goes to his first dentist's appointment and the doctor STRONGLY suggests that his parents begin transitioning him from bottles to sippy cups, now that he has his first tooth. To address their skepticism, he shows them two pictures. One boy who wasn’t weaned at the right time and another who was; the first one had horrible teeth and the second had a perfect smile.
So Stu and Didi follow his advice and immediately take Tommy’s bottle away... and he’s obviously not happy.
Phil and Lil visit with theirs and he tries to convince them to share with him. (There’s a Msmojo list on YouTube of “adult jokes in Rugrats you missed as a kid”- Tommy saying “I need a drink” was an honorable mention... OK, it sounds bad when you take this out of context, but c’mon!)
He comes close to succeeding, but Didi stops him and says “you’re too big for bottles now.” A nightmarish dream sequence follows and it really sums up how traumatic this is for him. Then his parents (and Grandpa) finally break down and things go back to normal.
Personally, I think that doctor was a bit rash in his judgment, but I don’t have kids (nor do I want any), so what do I know?
What I do know is that the timing of this decision differs for every family and it’s up to them to figure out what works for them.
I know I said Dr. Lipschitz was a bit of a fraud but I wonder what his advice would’ve been on this- considering that Didi takes his books as gospel.
Sigmund Freud certainly had an opinion, derived from his personal experience. Let’s just say it led to him formulating the Oedipus complex.
***
But first- two episodes where both of them go through different kinds of “growing pains” all of us have gone through on our lives.
Weaning Tommy and Chuckie vs. the Potty
(Chuckie doesn’t make an appearance in the first of these two, but I thought it made more sense to address them in the same post)
Tommy goes to his first dentist's appointment and the doctor STRONGLY suggests that his parents begin transitioning him from bottles to sippy cups, now that he has his first tooth. To address their skepticism, he shows them two pictures. One boy who wasn’t weaned at the right time and another who was; the first one had horrible teeth and the second had a perfect smile.
So Stu and Didi follow his advice and immediately take Tommy’s bottle away... and he’s obviously not happy.
Phil and Lil visit with theirs and he tries to convince them to share with him. (There’s a Msmojo list on YouTube of “adult jokes in Rugrats you missed as a kid”- Tommy saying “I need a drink” was an honorable mention... OK, it sounds bad when you take this out of context, but c’mon!)
He comes close to succeeding, but Didi stops him and says “you’re too big for bottles now.” A nightmarish dream sequence follows and it really sums up how traumatic this is for him. Then his parents (and Grandpa) finally break down and things go back to normal.
Personally, I think that doctor was a bit rash in his judgment, but I don’t have kids (nor do I want any), so what do I know?
What I do know is that the timing of this decision differs for every family and it’s up to them to figure out what works for them.
I know I said Dr. Lipschitz was a bit of a fraud but I wonder what his advice would’ve been on this- considering that Didi takes his books as gospel.
Sigmund Freud certainly had an opinion, derived from his personal experience. Let’s just say it led to him formulating the Oedipus complex.
***
For Chuckie, it was equally as traumatic getting potty trained. His nightmare sequence, it could be argued that’s it’s even scarier than Tommy’s.
When the Nostalgia Critic talked about Rugrats during his Nickelodeon month several years back, this was one episode he gave the spotlight. His comments on the babies giving Chuckie advice- they’re pretty hilarious. Basically: yeah, their comments sound cute but when you really think about them, they’re kinda gross.
He’s staying over at the Pickles’ house and even though they try to help, in the end, he succeeds in doing it all on his own. Which is awesome.
This episode also includes one of those “karma can be ruthless” (keeping it G-rated here) instances for Angelica. Just like with “The Shot,” she spends the whole time giving someone else a hard time about something... but it turns out she’s just overcompensating for her own insecurities.
Just a quick honorable mention- Chuckie getting potty trained actually proves helpful in a later episode. In The 'Lympics, Angelica and the babies are competing with the McNulty brothers at the park. Chuckie spends the whole time in agony cuz he has to go and Angelica won’t let him until the end of the race. Then when it’s his turn, she tells him “the sooner you win the race, the sooner you can go potty”... so yeah, he runs like the wind, across the finish line, right to an outhouse.
I dunno- I just thought that was a cool moment. It’s not every day he gets to be the hero, especially when Angelica is involved.
Toy Palace
This episode is one of the typical adventures Tommy and Chuckie go on together.
Tommy has the brilliant idea for the two of them to live in the toy store forever. Both of them happen to find dolls that look just like them and trade places so they can escape. But they get more than they bargain for when they accidentally activate a massive animatronic knock-off of King Kong and they think it wants to eat them. They find an equally large animatronic Reptar and are able to activate it in an effort to save themselves. Just in time for their dads to come back to bring them home.
Yeah... more examples of bad parenting, ladies and gentlemen. They had literally no idea a mixup happened until they got home. But when they arrive at the toy store, we meet an equally inept security guard.
On a side note, as someone who grew up with Toys*R*Us— man, those were the days.
The Odd Couple
Tommy's parents are going away for a long weekend so Tommy has a long sleepover at Chuckie's house. During this time, he learns about how different things are at the Finster house.
He’s staying over at the Pickles’ house and even though they try to help, in the end, he succeeds in doing it all on his own. Which is awesome.
This episode also includes one of those “karma can be ruthless” (keeping it G-rated here) instances for Angelica. Just like with “The Shot,” she spends the whole time giving someone else a hard time about something... but it turns out she’s just overcompensating for her own insecurities.
Just a quick honorable mention- Chuckie getting potty trained actually proves helpful in a later episode. In The 'Lympics, Angelica and the babies are competing with the McNulty brothers at the park. Chuckie spends the whole time in agony cuz he has to go and Angelica won’t let him until the end of the race. Then when it’s his turn, she tells him “the sooner you win the race, the sooner you can go potty”... so yeah, he runs like the wind, across the finish line, right to an outhouse.
I dunno- I just thought that was a cool moment. It’s not every day he gets to be the hero, especially when Angelica is involved.
Toy Palace
This episode is one of the typical adventures Tommy and Chuckie go on together.
Tommy has the brilliant idea for the two of them to live in the toy store forever. Both of them happen to find dolls that look just like them and trade places so they can escape. But they get more than they bargain for when they accidentally activate a massive animatronic knock-off of King Kong and they think it wants to eat them. They find an equally large animatronic Reptar and are able to activate it in an effort to save themselves. Just in time for their dads to come back to bring them home.
Yeah... more examples of bad parenting, ladies and gentlemen. They had literally no idea a mixup happened until they got home. But when they arrive at the toy store, we meet an equally inept security guard.
On a side note, as someone who grew up with Toys*R*Us— man, those were the days.
The Odd Couple
Tommy's parents are going away for a long weekend so Tommy has a long sleepover at Chuckie's house. During this time, he learns about how different things are at the Finster house.
The biggest thing I remember involves Chuckie’s blocks. Not only do the two of them have to put them away themselves, but the blocks need to be organized in a special way. Meanwhile, while all of this is going on, each of them voices their complaints to Phil and Lil about the other. Before these sleepovers started, the twins said they’ll start to get on each other’s nerves sooner or later. Despite their confidence of this not happening... it does. Tommy kinda explodes when Chuckie adds “shape” to the blocks after he just go used to organizing them from “big to small.” Blocks winds up flying all over the place when their frustrations boil over and they have a good cry until they finally apologize to each other later that night.
(Another notable scene in this episode: Chaz is on the phone with a crossword puzzle help line... he's clearly REALLY bad at crosswords because he's asking for help on the simplest words...)
The First Cut
This was one of the later episodes but it presented such an interesting dilemma, I had to include it.
Tommy panics after getting his first cut and has recurring nightmares about all of his blood coming out of him like stuffing from a teddy bear.
(Another notable scene in this episode: Chaz is on the phone with a crossword puzzle help line... he's clearly REALLY bad at crosswords because he's asking for help on the simplest words...)
The First Cut
This was one of the later episodes but it presented such an interesting dilemma, I had to include it.
Tommy panics after getting his first cut and has recurring nightmares about all of his blood coming out of him like stuffing from a teddy bear.
(Going to the wiki for a better refresher, it mentioned how Tommy became very nervous playing games that involved doctors, ambulances and anything with sharp edges. As a result, everyone thinks he's acting very strangely).
Chuckie isn’t present until later in the episode after he helps him get of a thorny bush he'd accidentally pushed him into. Instead of panicking, though, Chuckie actually offers some reassurance. He goes so far as to take off the previous bandage to show him that cut is almost gone.
It’s one of those rare moments where their roles are reversed and I really like that they did that.
The ending is also kinda funny where the Pickles wonder why Tommy isn’t crying, calmly ask to see his finger and the sight of blood makes Chaz faint. Witnessing this, Stu adds “good thing we brought that first aid kit.”
Chuckie isn’t present until later in the episode after he helps him get of a thorny bush he'd accidentally pushed him into. Instead of panicking, though, Chuckie actually offers some reassurance. He goes so far as to take off the previous bandage to show him that cut is almost gone.
It’s one of those rare moments where their roles are reversed and I really like that they did that.
The ending is also kinda funny where the Pickles wonder why Tommy isn’t crying, calmly ask to see his finger and the sight of blood makes Chaz faint. Witnessing this, Stu adds “good thing we brought that first aid kit.”
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