The ninth episode of the second season of Rugrats (1991).
No Bones About It
Tommy is sad that Spike didn't get to go with him and his friends to the museum, so he tries to get a dinosaur bone as a souvenir for Spike.
Beach Blanket Babies
Tommy and Chuckie try to free the latter's sea monkeys during a trip to the beach.
"No Bones About It" provides examples of:
- Acrofatic: Sally Payson, the museum's security guard, is heavyset but she keeps a good pace trying to catch Lou.
- An Aesop:
- Always stay alert.
- Don't jump to conclusions.
- Respect public property.
- Let others get a word in edgewise, even if you think they’re lying.
- Call-Back: On his way to the museum, Lou listens to the KOLD radio station.
- Dinosaur Doggie Bone: When Lou takes the babies to a museum without Spike, they try to get him a dinosaur bone as a present. They succeed.
- Get Out!: When Lou reunites with the babies just as they pull the toe bone out from the dinosaur skeleton, Sally catches up to Lou and tells him to get out of the museum. Lou tries to tell her to put the bone back in the skeleton, but she keeps interrupting him and telling him to get out. Lou relents and leaves, just as the whole thing comes crashing down on her.
- Grandparental Obliviousness: Lou gets into a conversation with two elderly ladies, allowing the babies to escape and have an adventure trying to get a bone for Spike. Fortunately, not long after the babies escape, Lou notices their stroller is empty and spends the rest of the episode trying to find them.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: This episode begins with an extreme close-up of Spike's tongue.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: While on the run from Sally, Lou hides out in an exhibit filled with suits of knights' armor and poses as a knight. Unfortunately for him, Sally manages to spot him amongst the suits of armor.
- Poor Communication Kills: Sally’s habit of not letting Lou speak or explain himself throughout the episode eventually comes back to bite her when she was too busy telling him to leave to the museum as he was trying to tell her to put the dinosaur bone back on the skeleton which in turn causes it collapse, and she is fired from the museum.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Lou tries hide from Sally by pretending to be a knight in an exhibit filled with suits of armor, but Sally is fooled for a minute.
- Priceless Ming Vase: While looking for the babies, Lou goes into an exhibit filled with these. He accidentally knocks over one of the stands with the babies' stroller, but catches the vases before they can shatter.
- Vanity License Plate: As Lou pulls into the museum's parking lot, the license plate on the back of his car reads, "I'MOLD".
- Villainy-Free Villain: While Sally Payson was just doing her job as a security guard, her stubbornness and short temper still make her the antagonist.
"Beach Blanket Babies" provides examples of:
- Beach Bury: Angelica buries Chas in the sand as part of her plan to scare the babies.
- Beach Episode: Tommy and Chuckie go to the beach in this episode, and attempt to release Chuckie's sea monkeys back into the sea.
- Crappy Holidays: Besides Tommy and Chuckie's own misadventure during the beach vacation, most of the grown ups end up squabbling over petty details.
- Game Night Fight: Grandpa Lou and Boris play a card game that results in a heated argument who whether or not the player should play a card they draw. It ends with Boris flipping the cards onto the ground and tells Lou he can play 52 pick-up.
- Malaproper:
- Tommy and Chuckie mispronounce Sea Monkeys as "Sea Moneys".
- When Chuckie finds Chas' head sticking out of the sand, he screams that his dad's been "decaffeinated".
- Noodle Incident: When Tommy begins to suspect that Angelica might be making up her story about the sandman, he tells Chuckie about the time she told him his blanket was alive. Chuckie tells Tommy not to remind him of that experience.
- Off with His Head!: Chuckie fears this when he sees Chas buried in the sand.Chuckie: MY DAD'S BEEN DECAFFEINATED!
- Old-Timey Bathing Suit: Being the Pickles patriarch, Lou wears this kind of bathing suit.
- Rousing Speech: Chuckie, of all people, manages to give one to Tommy when the latter begins to give up on their quest to set the former's Sea Monkeys back into the sea.Tommy: You know, Chuckie, I was thinking, maybe the Sea Moneys not worth all this trouble. I mean, they're just little specks.
Chuckie: Just little specks? When a growed-up walks past you and doesn't even know you're there, don't you feel like "just little specks"? When you're not tall enough to open a door or turn on a light or get out the cookies, don't you feel like "just little specks"?
Tommy: Uh...
Chuckie: I don't know about you, Tommy, but for all the little specks out there, I'm pushing that thing down in the water!
Tommy: Let's go! - Sea Aping: When Tommy and Chuckie express sadness at their sea monkeys being stuck in a fishbowl, they smuggle them to the beach in Stu's cooler and help release them into the ocean. Earlier in the episode, Chas declares them to be an educational toy as well as his first pet, while Stu grumbles at how much money he had to pay for "a bowl full of brine shrimp".
- Sibling Rivalry: When Stu tries to teach the babies how to build a sandcastle, Drew takes notice and tries to give Stu a few tips, which soon leads to them arguing about their own childhood sandcastles.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: In this episode, Chas gives Chuckie sea monkeys as a pet, but Chuckie believes the sea monkeys are homesick, and decides to release them in the ocean when he and Tommy go to the beach.
- Word, Schmord!: When Lou and Boris get into a fight about how the card game they're playing goes, Boris says "Friendly game, Schmendly game!".
