The tenth episode of the third season of Rugrats (1991).
Give and Take
Tommy gives Boppo, his clown toy, to Chuckie, but both feel uncertain about the situation.
The Gold Rush
After finding a nickel in the sand, the babies hope to find more.
"Give and Take" provides examples of:
- Afraid of Clowns: Chuckie's fear of clowns is once again brought up. He doesn't realize that Boppo is a clown doll until after Angelica tells him about it, and she decides to help him with that problem by telling him to pull the plug. He does so and is at first glad to be rid of Boppo, but then he worries about how upset Tommy will be when he finds out.
- An Aesop: You should always tell someone how you feel about something. It's never okay to keep your emotions bottled up, no matter what other people say.
- Bland-Name Product: Chuckie is revealed to have a Mr. Banana Head doll in this episode.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: This exchange when Chuckie tells Angelica to stop playing with Boppo:Angelica: Ah, who cares? It's just another stupid clown doll anyway.
Chuckie: Nuh-uh, it's not just a stupid clown doll! It's...(Beat) Did... did you say "clown doll"?
Angelica: Yeah, milk breath. "Clown doll". Which word didn't you understand? - My God, What Have I Done?: When Chuckie realizes that Boppo is a clown and that he's afraid of clowns, Angelica decides to help him with that problem by telling him to pull the plug. Chuckie does so, and Boppo deflates. Chuckie is at first glad that Boppo is gone, but then he worries about how upset Tommy will be when he finds out.
- Obsessive Hobby Episode: Subverted; when Chuckie gets Boppo, he spends a lot of time playing with it and Lil says he has a problem because he isn't playing with his friends, but then the plot swerves in a different direction involving him becoming scared of it.
- Vinyl Shatters: When talking with Chuckie, Angelica breaks a few of Chuckie's records just for kicks, by simply hurling them into the air and letting them break among hitting the ground as if they were glass (though such records are difficult to shatter this way in real life.)
"The Gold Rush" provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Don't let greed take over.
- Book Ends: This episode begins and ends with a close-up of the nickel in the sand.
- Green-Eyed Monster: As part of her plan to get all the nickels in the sandbox for herself, Angelica tries to make everyone think they're going to keep the nickels for themselves as well, and Gold Fever sets in for everyone except Chuckie, who just wants to give up and go back to playing in the sandbox.
- Homage: This episode is one long homage to the Bogart classic, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Some notable standouts:
- The entire plot of a treasure hunt where all participants turn on each other.
- Chuckie's laughing fit and speech is a baby-fied version of Walter Huston at the end of the film.
- The final shot, where said treasure is lost to the wind and sand.
- Look Behind You: When an older boy comes across Phil and Lil, he wants to see what's under their bucket. They try to distract him by telling him that Reptar is behind him, but he doesn't fall for it.
- Only Sane Man: While Angelica has successfully turned Tommy, Phil, and Lil against each other, Chuckie is the only one who sees through Angelica's plan, and tries unsuccessfully to tell Tommy about it. Unfortunately, Tommy only thinks that Chuckie is saying that because he wants all the nickels for himself.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Angelica hides the nickel under an X in the sand, and when the babies become suspicious of Angelica's intentions and demand the nickel back, they find that the wind had blown away the X Angelica made, meaning they spent all that time looking for nickels and now don't even have the one they started with. Chuckie even lampshades this.
- Sidetracked by the Analogy: When Angelica tries to explain to Phil and Lil that a nickel is like a piece of pie, as the bigger the piece, the more of it there is, the twins ask what flavor of pie it is, since there's a big difference between apple and chocolate pie. When Angelica tries again to tell them, Phil reveals that he hates apple pie, and Lil reveals that she hates chocolate pie, then she tells them to be quiet.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Chuckie says that the nickel he found was in the sand Angelica dumped on his head, Angelica tells Chuckie that she put the nickel in the sand and that it belongs to her. When Tommy tells her that Chuckie should have the nickel, since he was the one who found it, Angelica tells him that he never would have found the nickel if she hadn't dumped the sand on him.
- Toilet Humor: Angelica hides the nickel under a bucket, and to prevent an older boy who wants to see what's underneath, she whispers something in his ear that he finds gross. When Phil and Lil ask Angelica what she told him, she tells them, "I told him there was baby poop under there.". Upon hearing this, the twins look under the bucket in excitement, only for Angelica to snatch the nickel and are disappointed when there's no poop.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: The babies are looking for nickels in the sandbox after Angelica digs one up by accident. Among the things that, disappointingly, are not what they're looking for, are a 100 dollar bill and precious jewelry, which are unceremoniously discarded as "old junk."
