History NightmareFuel / Rugrats

** It might be just the idea that Mr. Friend isn't meant for infants. Angelica, who is a toddler, gets her own Mr. Friend and loves him, and is completely baffled by the sheer horror the babies feel around him.

* There was one episode where Angelica steals Chuckie's glasses. Without them, his imagination runs wild and he begins seeing ordinary objects as [[MonsterClown creepy clowns]] and the like.

** More to the point, how could Stu and Didi ''not see'' how terrifying the doll was? I mean...''babies cry when around it'' and ''hide when its there''. Oh wait...we're talking about the two most inattentive parents ever.

* The episode "Under Chuckie's Bed" where Chuckie gets a new bed to replace his crib and thinks there is a [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight monster under there]] and imagines that its talking to him. When Chuckie dares to peek under his bed for the monster he actually saw a dark, demonic-looking humanoid WITH AN ARM REACHING TOWARDS HIM.

* The whole show can be considered NightmareFuel if you [[FridgeHorror think about it]], it's young children being place in situations where they could be killed or kidnapped on a regular basis.

* In "The First Cut" Tommy gets cut on a rose bush. He later dreams that when he gets cut, endless amounts of stuffing starts pouring out of the wound, as if he's a stuffed doll (This was inspired by a damaged teddy bear earlier in the episode).
* "The Last Babysitter": With only Susie's older sister in charge, the power goes out, and Tommy and Susie think that there's a monster in the dark house. At one point, they sneak upstairs to read Susie's book of monsters, one of which "eats bones."

* There was one episode where Angelica steals Chuckie's glasses. Without them, his imagination runs wild and he begins seeing ordinary objects as [[MonsterClown creepy clowns]] and the like.

* In "What The Big People Do", Tommy and Chuckie have a dream about being grown up and going to work. All is well and good, until they are called into The Boss's office. They have to first walk down a hallway with giant pictures of past bosses and are thrown into the the boss's room by the carpet in the hallway. The doors slam shut, creepy organ music plays, and the entire room is enshrouded in shadows save for the boss' chair. The Boss is the adult version of Angelica, who threatens to have them "[[LargeHam FIREEEED!]]", and then flames shoot at Tommy and Chuckie from these two statues she has in her office. They flee while the the past bosses climb out of their portraits to stop them. Angelica calls in the Creepiest Robot Minions Ever, and all the time insanely creepy music is playing while the angry-faced robots close in on them. Had to be one of the creepiest things in Rugrats ever.
** The ending lulls you into a false sense of security with Tommy reassuring Chuckie that being a grown up won't be that bad, and then, for no real reason at all other than scaring the crap out of every kid watching the episode, Angelica appears and says the following in such a creepy and horrifying fashion: "Oh booooyyyyys~... Time to play '''HOUSE!'''" Cue her face morphing back into the adult version, complete with a huge SlasherSmile, her EvilLaugh, Tommy and Chuckie screaming in terror and a ''hard'' cut to black.
* Angelica explaining to Tommy that ''parents swap each others children'' at family reunions, ending with "And you'll never see your mom or your dad or your dumb old dog ever again!" Two EatTheCamera takes with Angelica reiterating that line make this even more uncomfortable, with the second reminding ''her'' of her own possible fate.
* In the aptly named episode "The Shot," Chuckie describes getting a shot to Tommy (who was going to get one that day), with images of a friendly-looking doctor morphing into a Mr. Hyde-like monster and thrusting a hypodermic harpoon at Chuckie.
** The doctor introduces himself by saying "Don't you remember me? ''I'm your friend, [[TheSilenceOfTheLambs Dr. Lector!]]''" Can't fault Chuckie for being scared. No sir-ee.
* The first Halloween episode had some pretty creepy background music, as well as views through the eyes of what the babies thought was a monster in the garage. [[spoiler: Turned out it was actually just a mouse, but it's still Nightmare Fuel.]]
* The episode where Chuckie wants to run away from home because the babies destroyed his dad's CD shows a parody of the famous Christmas story ''ItsAWonderfulLife'', where he sees what life would be like if he never existed. What was both terrifying and depressing was when his guardian angel showed him Tommy's dark, grey house, with a beaten, dirty and sad Tommy playing in the trash cans. The dialogue is as follows:
--> Chuckie: Why is he outside, why isn't he inside playing with his toys?
--> Angel: Angelica took his toys.
--> Chuckie: What about his house?
--> Angel: Angelica took his house.
--> Chuckie: What about his parents? ... You can't mean...

** And if that wasn't enough, it then shows a starved Tommy beside a ''[[ReturnOfTheJedi Jabba the Hutt]]''-esque Angelica, with his parents rushing around baking her cakes, completely ignoring Tommy, who begs for food, and is rejected!
*** Also in this episode, Chuckie finds that his father's sanity has been shattered by loneliness, and he lives in a trash-filled dump where rotting food becomes furniture, and his best friend is his schizophrenic outlet: a sock puppet.
*** Also in this episode, Phil and Lil destroying breakables in their house as their parents sob over their ruined home.

** The [[MouthCam animation of Cheren when he says]] "A fish bowl? There's no fish in that thing, Lilian!"

* Chuckie's nightmare sequence in Spike's doghouse at the beginning of "In The Dreamtime" where he approached Tommy (who was facing away from the camera) and tapped him on the shoulder, only to have Tommy's head rotate to reveal a Nightmare Fuel-rific clown face and declare in the most disturbing voice ever, "I'm not Tommy!" before laughing insanely.
** The end of the episode had Charles walk out of Chuckie's room after tucking him in and noticing Stu turned away from him. He says, "Stu, I didn't know you were coming over..." only to be confronted with Stu having a similar clown face that dream-Tommy had and saying, "I'm not Stu..." before also laughing creepily.
* In "Stu-Maker's Elves", Tommy and Chuckie had to go down to the basement to get a fly-away frisbee. The basement was creepy, but the real nightmare fuel was a creepy first-person view of Chuckie's memory of being spanked by the doctors. We see Chuckie being held upside-down with his [[UncannyValley freakishly malformed and tube-like arms]] dangling beneath him, flying around franticly, and the loud "SMACK SMACK SMACK!" coupled with Chuckie crying. It's probably the most terrifying thing to ever happen in the series.[[labelnote:*]]& then you see "Angelica's Worst Nightmare"...[[/labelnote]]
* The episode "Under Chuckie's Bed" where Chuckie gets a new bed to replace his crib and thinks there is a [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight monster under there]] and imagines that its talking to him. When Chuckie dares to peek under his bed for the monster he actually saw a dark, demonic-looking humanoid WITH AN ARM REACHING TOWARDS HIM.
** Angelica's story that she tells halfway through the episode about a boy who got "eaten by a monster under his bed" is also quite disturbing too. It begins with the boy just laying on his bed and reading comic books, when he hears the monster talking to him. The monster tells the kid that he has cake and ice cream under the bed, and the boy, buying the monster's lie hook-line-and-sinker, [[TooDumbToLive drops down to the foot of his bed]], only for the monster to '''eat him alive in a scene that looks like it came from a ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' movie.''' Ending with a horrible belching noise to top it all off as well.
--->'''Angelica''': "And they ''never'' saw little Barnaby Jones again....So remember there's only one place you can hide: Under the covers. And sometimes, the monsters can ''even find you there.'' * flicks Chuckie's teeth and runs around singing* "Chuckie's gonna get eaten, eaten, eaten! Chuckie's gonna get eaten by the monster under his bed!"
* Chuckie's germ nightmare in the episode "Mr. Clean".
** Chaz's psychotic dependency on puppets in that same episode.
*** "I love you, Boppo."

* "Pickles Vs. Pickles": In Drew's nightmare, Angelica sues him and he almost gets thrown in jail. The scenery suddenly darkens as the judge orders him locked up and then the guards take him away from the court, with him kicking and repeatedly screaming "NO! I'm a good father!" while everyone in the audience/jury ''laughs and cheers for Angelica''. He wakes up immediately after this, but it's still a disturbing scene.
* The bull dog in the episode "Barbecue Story", specifically the part where Tommy and Chuckie are in the bull dog's yard searching for Tommy's ball and the dog growls at them, yanking so hard at its chain that it pulls against the dog house and ''[[SuperStrength pulls the dog house out from the ground nail by nail]]'' with the dog getting closer and closer to Tommy and Chuckie. Thankfully Spike comes along in a creepy voodoo mask of some sort and saves them.
* Is it me, or is Angelica's temporary FaceHeelTurn in "Angelica for a Day" creepy? The smile on her face seems so forced and unnatural.
* Worst of all is Angelica's [[NightmareSequence would-be]] [[EnfantTerrible baby brother]] from the episode, "Angelica's Worst Nightmare". It begins with Angelica hearing a baby crying. She finds her parents fawning over the new baby, saying how "precious" and "adorable" it is while not knowing who Angelica is. After the mom and dad leave, Angelica talks to the baby, and, much in the same matter as Tommy and the gang, Angelica's new baby brother can talk. However, he's more like ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'''s Stewie minus the evil humor and with a horrifyingly deep and raspy voice, and tells Angelica that this house isn't big enough for the both of them, and says that Angelica (the "old baby") should be gone permanently. Angelica tries to flee from him, but the baby keeps finding her, and growing every time there's an encounter between them. The dream enters its horrifying climax as Angelica's now Godzilla-sized baby brother catches Angelica in her getaway car, wondering "what a toy car would taste like". It all ends with Angelica screaming, "No! You can't eat me, I'm your sister!" with the baby replying, "WELL NOW YOU'RE NUM-NUMS!" and putting Angelica ([[ExtremeOmnivore car and all]]) in his dark cave-like mouth.

* On the episode "Dust Bunnies", Chuckie becomes scared of dust bunnies. So scared that he has a nightmare where a giant, evil, slobbering rabbit drags him into the basement with its slimy ears, while he screams the whole time.

[[caption-width-right:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chuckiesmonster.png [-[[SurvivalMantra "There's no such things as monsters, there's no such things as monsters, there's no such things as monsters..."]] [[spoiler: Don't worry, it's just Chaz's sweater]].]]-]

Why do babies cry so often? Mostly because they can't talk just yet. But with so much beyond their comprehension, some things we might take for granted (or would just mildly disturb us) make perfect NightmareFuel for infants.

* The original pilot. The [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness animation is much more detailed and makes the characters look ugly or downright monstrous]], especially the necks, and the whole episode has a cold, alien, feel compared to later episodes. The girlish voice of Tommy and the fact it is mostly at night do not help. The worst part are ''the two characters who don't appear in the series proper''.
** The [[MouthCam animation of Phil when he says]] "A fish bowl? There's no fish in that thing, Lilian!"
*** The climax of that episode, where [[ItMakesSenseInContext Tommy is in the bathroom]] and he keeps ''almost'' falling... It isn't scary as a kid, but to an adult, that whole scene is terrifying; what with the AdultFear of walking into the bathroom to find your baby dead on the floor, his skull cracked open. Oh- also, baby's skulls are very soft.
* The episode ''Special Delivery'' has Tommy exploring the post office, and goes through the chute to the dead letter office, on a conveyor belt leading to what is best described as the junk-mail pit of death, complete with the skeleton of a postal worker who had apparently fallen in years before.
** Worse, it has some FridgeHorror to it. Think about it: Tommy goes through an obstacle course of mail sorting machines, getting weighed, sliding down chutes, trapped on conveyor belts, marked as junk mail and almost ends up stuck in the dead letter office if he didn't pull the right switch. It's no wonder Tommy says "You'll like it at home. It's a lot nicer than here!"
* In ''"Chuckie vs. The Potty"'', Chuckie has a nightmare where his potty-training is like death row, complete with screams of ''"Not the chair! NOT THE CHAIR!"'' Just to make it even creepier, the sequence features ''all'' of the babies--Phil and Lil appear as the prison guards that march Chuckie to the chair, and Tommy is an [[DissonantSerenity eerily calm]] monk who tries to console him. The bit ends with Angelica as the executioner, who pulls off her mask to reveal one of the creepiest SlasherSmile / EvilLaugh combinations EVER, and flushes Chuckie down a giant toilet.
* Then there's the episode where Stu's latest invention is Mr. Friend, an [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant unintentionally creepy-looking]] [[MonsterClown robotic toy clown]]. Given the toy's erratic and disturbing behavior, the babies' malapropism "Mr. Fiend" may be a more accurate description. It gets worse when Tommy and friends have to fight off a small army of malfunctioning Mr. Friend dolls.

** Here's some FridgeHorror for you. When Stu and Didi leave the basement after Stu has deactivated all the Mr. Friend dolls, one Mr. Friend doll comes out from behind the boiler and activates them again. Now, why did that one Mr. Friend wait until Stu and Didi leave, and how did it manage to stay quiet for that long?
** More to the point, how could Stu and Didi ''not see'' how terrifying the doll was? I mean...''babies cry when around it'' and ''hide when its there''. Oh wait...we're talking about the two most inattentive parents ever.
** It might be just the idea that Mr. Friend isn't meant for infants. Angelica, who is a toddler, gets her own Mr. Friend and loves him, and is completely baffled by the sheer horror the babies feel around him.
* Another episode was played out like a sci-fi movie with the parents as aliens. It turns out to [[AllJustADream be a dream]]... and it ends with Angelica ''stranded on a desert planet trying to dig for food'', [[MindScrew after Tommy wakes up]].

* In the episode where they act as The Mega Diaper babies, the robot Angelica's face exploding.

[[caption-width-right:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chuckiesmonster.png [-[[SurvivalMantra There's no such things as monsters, there's no such things as monsters, there's no such things as monsters...[[note]]Don't worry, it's just Chaz's sweater[[/note]].]]]]-]

** "I WILL SING A SONG FOR YOU! [[HellIsThatNoise LAAA LALA LA LA LA LAAAA-LA LA LAAA-LA LA LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!"]]

* Weaning Tommy- Tommy more or less goes into [[GRatedDrug withdrawl after a couple of days without his bottle]]. He has a fever dream that cannot be described as anything less than horrifying. At one point, a giant sippy-cup with a SlasherSmile chases him around, shouting "DRINK ME!!!"

* The whole show can be considered {{NightmareFuel}} if you [[FridgeHorror think about it]], it's young children being place in situations where they could be killed or kidnapped on a regular basis.

[[caption-width-right:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chuckiesmonster.png ->[[SurvivalMantra There's no such things as monsters, there's no such things as monsters...-] [[note]]Don't worry, it's just Chaz's sweater [[/note]].]]]]

[[caption-width-right:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chuckiesmonster.png SurvivalMantra There's no such things as monsters, there's no such things as monsters... [[note]]Don't worry, it's just Chaz's sweater [[/note]].]]

* There were many creepy nightmare sequences in this show.

* The entire "Tell-Tale Cell Phone" episode.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chuckiesmonster.png
[[caption-width-right:330:[[SurvivalMantra There's no such things as monsters, there's no such things as monsters...]] [[note]]Don't worry, it's just Chaz's sweater[[/note]].]]

[[caption-width:330:[[SurvivalMantra There's no such things as monsters, there's no such things as monsters...]] [[note]]Don't worry, it's just Chaz's sweater[[/note]].]]

** A subtler one happens early on: Buster goes into the basement, then runs out, saying that something was down there. We briefly get a POV from something coming after him, just before the door is closed. While it's later revealed that the so-called monster was actually Buster's friend, it's pointed out that a monster couldn't get out of the basement without being noticed. If that's so, then [[FridgeHorror ''what was in the basement chasing Buster in the first place?'']]

** A subtler one happens early on: Buster goes into the basement, then runs out, saying that something was down there. We briefly get a POV from something coming after him, just before the door is closed. While it's later revealed that the so-called monster was actually Buster's friend, it's pointed out that a monster couldn't get out of the basement without being noticed. If that's so, then ''what was in the basement chasing Buster in the first place?''

* Angelica explaining to Tommy that ''parents swap each others children'' family reunion, ending with "And you'll never see your mom or your dad or your dumb old dog ever again!" Two EatTheCamera takes with Angelica reiterating that line make this even more uncomfortable, with the second reminding Angelica of her own possible fate.