The fifth episode of the eighth season of Rugrats (1991).
The Doctor Is In
Angelica starts giving advice to the babies that will allegedly keep their friendship intact.
The Big Sneeze
Chuckie thinks he's allergic to Kimi because he keeps sneezing whenever she's around.
"The Doctor Is In" provides examples of:
- An Aesop: You don't always need other people's advice on how to be happy, especially if you were happy to begin with. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
- Comically Missing the Point: Two examples from Phil and Lil when Angelica gives them advice; when Angelica tells them that if they continue to be disgusting and gross, they'll never have any friends, and Phil asks, "What about just gross and disgusting friends?" Then, when Angelica tells them not to put their fingers in their noses, Lil asks, "What about other people's noses?"
- Establishing Character Moment: Dr. Kathy isn't exactly established as a qualified doctor on her own radio talk show. A prime example is when a patient phones in asking for advice on how to be assertive and taken seriously. ...only for Dr. Cathy to not take her seriously either, despite that her job is to be impartial and listen to her patients' problems.
- Everybody Has Standards: What ultimately helps settle Didi and Betty's argument is when Dr. Cathy grouses rather snide advice to each woman even they don't agree with. She tells "Mimi" that she should stop interfering with "Bessie's" life, and "Bessie" that she should stop leaving her "monster" children with "Mimi". To this, Didi begs to differ that she doesn't mind having the twins over, and Betty argues to Dr. Cathy that Didi doesn't "interfere" so much as be a good friend.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Angelica is coloring in the kitchen while Didi and Betty are listening to Dr. Cathy on the radio, she overhears Betty saying that if she knew she could become rich and famous just for being loud and bossy, she'd have cashed in on it years ago. This gives Angelica the idea to be a radio doctor.
- Feud Episode: Betty gets into a feud with Didi when she accuses Didi of trying to tell her how to raise her children. They reconcile when Didi tells Dr. Cathy that Phil and Lil are wonderful babies whom she loves having over at her house.
- Gone Horribly Right: The advice Angelica gives the babies works too well. When Chuckie decides to be more assertive, he drives Angelica's car. Angelica begs for the other babies to stop him, but Tommy refuses because he's not allowed to tell his friends what to do anymore, Phil and Lil refuse because they're not allowed to get dirty, and Kimi refuses because she takes on a more cool personality.
- I Have This Friend: Didi and Betty go about trying to throw shade at each other about listening to Dr. Cathy by going under the respective aliases of "Mimi" and "Bessie".
- Literal-Minded: When Angelica tells Chuckie that he lets people walk all over him, Chuckie tells her he never saw someone do that to him. Later in the episode, he believes what Angelica said to be true when a bug crawls onto his shoe.
- Malaproper: The babies mispronounce assertive as "dessertive". Angelica tells Chuckie that one of the ways to be "dessertive" is to tell people to give you their dessert.
- Malicious Misnaming: Betty calls Dr. Cathy "Dr. Quacky".
- Nose Shove: Discussed; when Betty accuses Didi of telling her how to raise her children, she mentions that Phil and Lil like to put strange objects up their noses.
- Roadside Wave: When Chuckie drives Angelica's car through a mud puddle, Angelica gets splashed with mud.
- Wearing It All Wrong: Discussed; When Didi talks to Betty about how babies learn bad habits from their parents, Betty notes that the day before, Phil wore his diaper as a hat, and he didn't learn that from her. She then notes that she can't keep an eye on Howard 24/7.
"The Big Sneeze" provides examples of:
- Abnormal Allergy:
- Chuckie thinks that he's allergic to Kimi.
- Chas spends the epidsode making a list of his, which includes pencil shavings, mini-blinds and the gold locket he got for Kira.
- Call-Back: While trying to come up with a cure for Chuckie's sneezes, Tommy brings up the time he had the hiccups.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Chuckie sneezes after Kimi gets near him, Tommy asks Chuckie if he notices something weird about him. Chuckie asks him, "Where do you want me to start?"
- Happily Married: Chas and Kira. Chas even gives Kira a gold locket as an anniversary present.
- Malaproper:
- When Chuckie sneezes in front of her for the first time, Kimi tells him "Bob dress you".
- When Kimi tries to follow Chuckie into the bathroom while trying to get him to tell her why he's been avoiding her, he tells her that sometimes a baby needs his "piracy".
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: In this episode, Chas states that it's his and Kira's 3000 hour* anniversary, yet the babies don't seem to have aged a day.
- Plot Allergy: The babies believe Chuckie is allergic to Kimi, as he sneezes every time she gets near him. Fearing the adults will get rid of her if they find out, they try to keep Chuckie away from her. It later turned out that Kimi was carrying a dandelion, which she was planning to give to Chuckie as an anniversary present.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Chuckie sneezes a lot whenever he's near Kimi, and Angelica tells the babies that he's allergic to Kimi. While Kimi was responsible for Chuckie sneezing, and the sneezing was indeed an allergic reaction, he was not actually allergic to her, but rather the dandelion she was harboring.
- The Runaway: Discussed; Chuckie considers running away from home when he can't stop sneezing, because he doesn't want his parents to give Kimi away.
- Shy Bladder: When Chuckie goes to the bathroom, he doesn't appreciate Kimi trying to follow him inside.
- Sneeze Interruption: Whenever Kimi tries to tell Chuckie that it's their anniversary, Chuckie sneezes before she can finish her sentence.
- Sneeze of Doom: Chuckie sneezes every time Kimi gets near him (due him being allergic to the dandelion she was carrying), at one point knocking over a block tower he and Tommy built.
