History Fridge / Rugrats

* In TheMovie and ''WesternAnimation/RugratsInParis'' Aunt Miriam has brown hair while she has grey hair in the show. In "A Visit From Aunt Miriam" it's established her hair is a wig, so it's a different wig in the same hairstyle.

* In "Reptar's Revenge" we see Didi freak out when a clown approaches her. This happens right in front of Chuckie, whose legendary fear of clowns develops a few episodes down the line. Studies have suggested that phobias are caused by seeing someone else react with fear to the same thing. Therefore Didi gave Chuckie his fear of clowns.

* In “The Trial”, Tommy suddenly asking Angelica if she’d already taken a nap that morning before coming over seems to come out of nowhere, especially since there’s no mention or foreshadowing of that fact in the episode. But when you think about it, it ''does'' make sense - isn’t it exactly the sort of thing that a parent would tell a babysitter so their kid’s sleep schedule wasn’t accidentally thrown off? It’s perfectly possible that when Angelica was being dropped off at the house, Tommy overheard Charlotte or Drew quickly telling Didi that Angelica didn’t need to take a nap because she’d already had one!

* In “The Trial”, Tommy remembering Angelica had already taken a nap before coming over seems to come out of nowhere, especially since there’s no foreshadowing of that fact in the episode. But when you think about it, it ''does'' make sense- isn’t it the sort of thing that a parent would tell a babysitter so their kid’s sleep schedule wasn’t accidentally thrown off? When Angelica got dropped off, Tommy could’ve easily overheard Charlotte or Drew telling DiDi that Angelica didn’t need a nap because she’d already had one, and that’s why he vaguely remembered it!

* In “The Trial”, Tommy remembering Angelica had already taken a nap before coming over seems to come out of nowhere, especially since there’s no foreshadowing of that fact in the episode. But when you think about it, it ''does'' make sense- isn’t it the sort of thing that a parent would tell a babysitter so their kid’s sleep schedule wasn’t accidentally thrown off? When Charlotte or Drew dropped Angelica off, Tommy could’ve easily overheard them quickly telling DiDi that Angelica didn’t need a nap because she’d already had one, and vaguely remembered it!

** Further brilliance: Susie claims "Angelica let go of the balloon"--read, she sealed the consequences of her behavior once she did it [[Spoiler: even though she didn't actually steal the trike.]] It isn't likely Susie, being three, would've come up with this by herself. More likely, this is a moral framework she's being raised with ("When you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences"/"don't blame others when ultimately, you did wrong." Sort of like the FridgeBrilliance related to Josh's concept of "fair," but Lucy and Randy being the GoodParents they are, better executed.

* In "Chuckie vs. the Potty", Stu reveals that he wasn't potty trained when he was two. Lou says that they nearly didn't get him into the Boy Scouts which has a minimum age of ''ten''. However, Stu, eccentric as he is, doesn't seem to be having any developmental delays when we see him in the past, and usually kids potty train at four at the latest. Maybe Stu was potty trained at age three or four, but still wet the bed for awhile afterwards? Of course, it's also entirely possible that Lou was exaggerating.

* In "Chuckie vs. the Potty", Stu reveals that he wasn't potty trained when he was two, and Lou says that they nearly didn't get him into the boy scouts. However, Stu, eccentric as he is, doesn't seem to be having any developmental delays when we see him in the past, and usually kids potty train at four at the latest. Maybe Stu was potty trained at age three or four, but still wet the bed for awhile afterwards? Of course, it's also entirely possible that Lou was exaggerating.

* The end of "Rhinceritis!"'s B plot reveals that Stu is ''over 32 thousand dollars in debt''. No wonder he's so desperate to put Pickles Toys on the map throughout the series!

** It's revealed at the end her accent is a fake. Her surname Umlaut means those two dots over letters in Northern European languages, such as German. The fridge brilliance meaning that she could've been lying unless she legitimately traveled around.

* If the NostalgiaFilter hasn't fully fogged up your vision of past cable cartoons, try watching ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' now in a world where everyone is much more careful when it comes to the safety of children. [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist Shudder at the many instances of neglect. Gasp at the fact that the only thing saving the babies from being crushed, burned, exposed to the elements, abducted, starved, eaten, cut to ribbons, drowned, or permanently traumatized was dumb luck or their dim-bulb parents eventually realizing they were missing.]] It's like the Nickelodeon execs said, "You know, ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren and Stimpy]]'' was too gross and bizarre and ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'''s too boring. Maybe kids will get a kick out of child neglect and psychological trauma, but we'll hide it under a veneer of adventure and comedy so the MoralGuardians won't get on our asses about it. Then, we'll run it into the ground for ten years and make [[WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp a spin-off]] [[WesternAnimation/RugratsPreSchoolDaze or three]]!" I mean, what would've happened if the parents were too late in realizing where the babies were whenever they went off somewhere? One must also consider the many instances in which Angelica plays on the babies' naiveté and paranoia in order to torment/scare them, for fun or for profit. And considering this happened to them while they're still quite young, what negative effects could this have possibly had on their mental health?

** The episode "Together At Last" is especially notable. Both sets of babies manage to easily sneak out of the house. Tommy, Lil and Chuckie sneak out through the kitchen door while Didi is too busy cooking, and Phil easily gets out of the playpen while Betty is in the other room. Phil climbs ''on top of a fence'' and falls off. If it weren't a cartoon, he could have been seriously injured. He's also left alone with Spike and actually forces the dog's mouth open. Yeah if this weren't a cartoon...that probably wouldn't go down too well. And by the end, neither Betty nor Didi noticed that the babies had left.

*** Had Angelica not mellowed out of messing with the babies' heads by the time of ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'', it's very possible she would've become a [[DistaffCounterpart female version]] of [[Lightnovel/{{Durarara}} Izaya]] [[{{Troll}} Orihara]] .

** On the note of the babies eating bugs, that is rather normal as babies do put thing in their mouth to see what it is and, if they like the taste or commonly the feel, they'll be more inclined to eat it, nothing to worry about. On the note of the poisonous insects, well, that would be normal, too, if you take into account no one really expects for babies to eat the bugs, be them poisonous or not.
*** It it something to worry about when it's dangerous. A lot of babies swallow and taste things they shouldn't, such as poisons or small objects.

** In all fairness, she's three and, through some means or another, she doesn't know any better. That aside, however, the one's she's picking on are babies, who, thankfully, won't remember.

** Maybe a raccoon or possum, if not a stray dog or cat that got into the basement through some entrance into the basement (as does occasionally happen). Alternatively, it was really nothing and he was either imagining things or was just playing along to a prank his friend was playing.

* In some early {{Imagine Spot}}s from Chuckie's perspective, he tends to see himself a CosmicPlaything and his so-called-friends being unsympathetic or outright worsening things for him. "Chuckie vs The Potty" is possibly the darkest, where he sees as Angelica as his executioner, Phil and Lil as ChaoticNeutral guards dragging him to face his punishment, and Tommy as a pious priest apathetically telling him [[CatchPhrase not to be such a baby]]. This actually doesn't seem to far off how he is treated in real life episodes such as "The Alien" (where Phil and Lil are very easily swayed into helping Angelica terrorise him) or "Farewell My Friend" (which was the last straw for him, leading him to call out Tommy on his selfish treatment). Noticeably Tommy genuinely mellowed out afterwards and other perspective moments from Chuckie tend to view him more favourably, if not extremely idealistically (eg. TheMovie).

** There are also a few instances of Chuckie not being around, and Tommy gives in to Angelica's bullying, whereas when Chuckie is around, Tommy usually stands up to her. The logic behind this appears to be that, despite there being four of them, the main characters are essentially two groups of two babies-- best friends Tommy and Chuckie, and siblings Phil and Lil. Phil and Lil could possibly be considered Chaotic Neutral characters, in the fact that they're less susceptible to Angelica's negative influence than Tommy and Chuckie, but generally have good intentions otherwise.

** Was she a fraud? She seemed to be a legitimate dog groomer, even though she hated it and was kind of a [[{{Jerkass}} jerk]] to Spike. I also believe that she said she was from Helsinki and went to SCHOOL in Stockholm.

* In the Mirrorland episode, Chuckie tells the younger babies that mirrors are portals to another world where everything is the same but backwards. It's understandable that a 2-year-old would sincerely believe this, but where would he get the idea? Well, what's his favorite show? ''Space Trek Babies'' -- they must have had a MirrorUniverse episode just like [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original]].

* The episode "Chuckie's Wonderful Life" shows that without Chuckie, [[BrokenBird Chaz is a mess,]] living alone in his house surrounded by empty pizza boxes and talking to a sock puppet. It gets worse when you realize that his wife (Chuckie's mother) died of an unmentioned disease (according to the Mother's Day special episode). And since Chaz doesn't have a kid, he wouldn't be as close to the other parents and therefore would have no friends to help him through his wife's illness and his own mental breakdown.

* In the movie and the episode "Barbecue Story" one or all of the babies are in danger of getting mauled to death by animals and are only saved due to Spike. In Barbecue Story a neighbor's dog (who might just be intimidatingly friendly) and in the movie, definitely would be eaten by a wolf.

** The entire movie is especially horrifying. Most parents would be slow to give an infant Hot Wheels for fear that he might eat it. Stu gives them what is essentially a go-kart. This ended in the worst case possible.

* In some early {{Imagine Spot}}s from Chuckie's perspective, he tends to see himself a CosmicPlaything and his so-called-friends being unsympathetic or outright worsening things for him. "Chuckie vs The Potty" is possibly the darkest, where he sees as Angelica as his executioner, Phil and Lil as ChaoticNeutral guards dragging him to face his punishment, and Tommy as a pious priest apathetically telling him [[CatchPhrase not to be such a baby]]. This actually doesn't seem to far off how he is treated in real life episodes such as "The Alien" (where Phil and Lil are very easily swayed into helping Angelica terrorise him) or "Farewell My Friend" (which was the last straw for him, leading him to call out Tommy on his selfish treatment). Noticeably Tommy genuinely mellowed out afterwards and other perspective moments from Chuckie tend to view him more favourably, if not extremely idealistically (eg. TheMovie).

* In some early {{Imagine Spot}}s from Chuckie's perspective, he tends to see himself a CosmicPlaything and his so-called-friends being unsympathetic or outright worsening things for him. "Chuckie vs The Potty" is possibly the darkest, where he sees as Angelica as his executioner, Phil and Lil as ChaoticNeutral guards dragging him to face his punishment, and Tommy as a pious priest apathetically telling him [[CatchPhrase not to be such a baby]]. This actually doesn't seem to far off how he is treated in real life episodes such as "The Alien" (where Phil and Lil are very easily swayed into helping Angelica terrorise him) or "Farewell My Friend" (which was the last straw for him, leading him to call out Tommy on his selfish treatment). Noticeably Tommy genuinely mellowed out afterwards and other perspective moments from Chuckie tend to view him more favourably, if not extremely idealistically (eg. TheMovie).

[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* One would think that the main four babies (Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil) were really just terribly misbehaved children who do things they know they shouldn't, just because. But for the most part, their parents NEVER punish them for anything they do. All they do is stop them from doing whatever they were trying to do, say "No, don't do that," and put them back in the playpen. No wonder the rugrats keep acting up-- they're receiving almost NO negative reinforcement for their actions.
** Um....Yeah they're babies. Babies don't know right from wrong, all you can really do is remove a baby from whatever situation and say "No no don't do that!" The only character you can say really doesn't tend to suffer the consequences of her actions is Angelica. She's 3, she's old enough to be say sent to a time out when she's in trouble.
*** Which is actually brought up in the episode "The Baby Vanishes" where Drew acknowledges his shortcomings with disciplining Angelica, only for him to snap back to it at the end of the episode.
* Dil can't talk, yet somehow in the movie in which he's born, a whole bunch of other newborn babies at the exact same hospital '''perform a song and dance number'''.
** So maybe babies can only talk to others of their own age?
** It's for the same reason that the main babies can understand each other, but the adults can't understand ''them''. It's easier for them to communicate with people who are closer to their own age.
** Actually, Dil can talk, just not much. Remember, in the movie he says "mine" while fighting with Tommy, says "my Tommy" at one point, and then once randomly says "pooping" while, well, you know...
** Dil is a CloudCuckooLander, so it could just be that he doesn't have anything comprehensible to say.
* 'Tanya' is a boy because she's bald.. She's one. A little baby without hair isn't anything odd.
** That's not damning evidence, but the wig and the manner in which it was pulled off is.
*** For that matter, why did Didi damn near have a heart attack when the host announced the winner as "Tanya Pickles"? As if they're the only family on Earth with the last name "Pickles."
*** Maybe since the baby looked so similar to Tommy, Didi was a little suspicious, and when she heard the name, that just set off alarm bells in her mind. Especially when the host mentioned that "Tanya" was brought to the contest by her father and grandfather; that just led Didi to connect the dots, and...
* Captain Blasto's oath ends with the line "It's Captain Blasto, wrong or right!" Wrong or right? What kind of superhero is he? Does he just go around beating people up without regard for morals and ethics?
** While on the subject of "Superhero Chuckie", the characters they had see the show made no sense in hindsight. Drew and Stu being there makes sense as they're big fans, and of course Drew brings his daughter Angelica... but why was Chuckie there? Where's his dad Chaz? Or heck, where's Tommy?!
* Coco Labouche may be a mean spirited, insulting, thoughtless ChildHater, but she is quite a shrewd and cunning business woman, who has made millions for her company, and managed to run a super successful and world famous Theme Park. However she gets passed over for a promotion for that very reason, a woman who chose her career over having a family. Why is this okay? Sure she's not the most sympathetic person but do people really overlook this discrimination because she is supposedly a villain for being good at her job?
** The head of the company isn't just in it for the money and doesn't see her as a worthy successor. Remember, he is also the head of the company and choses his successor based on how he made it. Plus when he saw that she is willing to put kids in danger (basically KIDNAPPING THEM), I doubt he'd want her to get close to any kids again. Plus her theme park has apparently ninja guards and her assistant is all too happy with jabbing his arm down a 4-year-old's throat. She's not a villain because she's good at her job, she's an authoritarian who enjoys scaring her employees and basically working them within an inch of their lives given how dangerous some of the animatronics are.
** Mr. Yamaguchi specifically says, "The candidate [for the presidency] should not be concerned only with money. They must understand what it means to bring joy to children. They themselves must have the heart of a child." He doesn't even mention the fact that Coco is unmarried and not a parent. She's the one who lies and claims that she is marrying a man with a child.
** The fact remains, she has made hundreds of millions, possibly even billions to a company. Having a so called "heart of a child" is one thing. But being super successful and making giant income for her boss, who most assuredly doesn't mind living off of her contributions, pretty much paints Yamaguchi as a hypocrite. Reaping the profits of his employees, then shaming them for doing exactly what they were hired to do, that's pretty messed up.
* In "Stu Gets a Job", Stu thinks Drew is pranking him (it's actually the babies because Tommy doesn’t want him going to work) so he makes two phone calls to get even: one for 50 pizzas to be delivered to Drew’s house and the other to have his car towed. He disguises his voice which is completely unnecessary in both cases. For the first, a pizza place likely wouldn't keep track of who's ordering, unless that person's a regular. For the second, anyone can report an illegally parked car.
** Which brings into question how Stu's pranks worked in the first place. For the car, it would have been no problem for Drew to prove the vehicle was his and was legally parked, and I can't see any pizza place making 50 Pizzas and actually delivering them without some sort of confirmation or deposit...

* If the NostalgiaFilter hasn't fully fogged up your vision of past cable cartoons, try watching ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' now in a world where everyone is much more careful when it comes to the safety of children. [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist Shudder at the many instances of neglect. Gasp at the fact that the only thing saving the babies from being crushed, burned, exposed to the elements, abducted, starved, eaten, cut to ribbons, drowned, or permanently traumatized was dumb luck or their dim-bulb parents eventually realizing they were missing.]] It's like the Nickelodeon execs said, "You know, ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren and Stimpy]]'' was too gross and bizarre and ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'''s too boring. [[HumansAreBastards Maybe kids will get a kick out of child neglect and psychological trauma, but we'll hide it under a veneer of adventure and comedy so the]] MoralGuardians [[HumansAreBastards won't get on our asses about it. Then, we'll run it into the ground for ten years and make]] [[WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp a spin-off]] [[WesternAnimation/RugratsPreSchoolDaze or three]]!" I mean, what would've happened if the parents were too late in realizing where the babies were whenever they went off somewhere? One must also consider the many instances in which Angelica plays on the babies' naiveté and paranoia in order to torment/scare them, for fun or for profit. And considering this happened to them while they're still quite young, what negative effects could this have possibly had on their mental health?

* If the NostalgiaFilter hasn't fully fogged up your vision of past cable cartoons, try watching ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' now in a world where everyone is much more careful when it comes to the safety of children. [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist Shudder at the many instances of neglect. Gasp at the fact that the only thing saving the babies from being crushed, burned, exposed to the elements, abducted, starved, eaten, cut to ribbons, drowned, or permanently traumatized was dumb luck or their dim-bulb parents eventually realizing they were missing.]] It's like the Nickelodeon execs said, "You know, ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow Ren and Stimpy]]'' was too gross and bizarre and ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'''s too boring. [[HumansAreBastards Maybe kids will get a kick out of child neglect and psychological trauma, but we'll hide it under a veneer of adventure and comedy so the]] MoralGuardians [[HumansAreBastards won't get on our asses about it. Then, we'll run it into the ground for ten years and make]] [[WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp a spin-off]] [[WesternAnimation/AngelicaAndSuziesPreSchoolDaze or three]]!" I mean, what would've happened if the parents were too late in realizing where the babies were whenever they went off somewhere? One must also consider the many instances in which Angelica plays on the babies' naiveté and paranoia in order to torment/scare them, for fun or for profit. And considering this happened to them while they're still quite young, what negative effects could this have possibly had on their mental health?

* In "Chuckie vs. the Potty", Stu reveals that he wasn't potty trained when he was two, and Lou says that they nearly didn't get him into the boy scouts. However, Stu, eccentric as he is, doesn't seem to be having any developmental delays when we see him in the past, and usually kids potty train at four at the latest. Maybe Stu was potty trained at age three or four, but still wet the bed for awhile afterwards?

* In "Tommy's First Birthday", Stu mentions that when "we were eight or nine years old" (so presumably he was eight and Drew was nine), [[NoodleIncident something]] happened when they tried to do a show that led to Drew's eye being injured, and he now sees ''almost'' perfectly fine out of it. Perhaps that's why Drew wears glasses.

* In the episode "Reptar's Revenge," the adults take the babies to a carnival. Before they go in, Didi sees a man in a Reptar costume and says "Stu, look at that terrible lizard!" The word "Dinosaur" literally means "terrible lizard" (even though dinosaurs aren't really lizards, but that's a different story).

** Tommy actually implies this in ''Toys in Attic'' with the line "Where's Chuckie when I need him?" as Angelica strong arms him into Boris and Minka's attic.

** He might be scared of the clowns ''because'' of the clothes, because he does call him "The Guy On The Oatmeal Box ''With the Scary Hat''"

*** Out-of-universe. InUniverse it could be explained that they are related and the same age. It's difficult to tell a baby's gender and most of the time so them switching outfits and looking just like the other is understandable.

*** Out-of-universe. InUniverse it could be explained that they are related and the same age.