The fourth episode of the fourth season of Rugrats (1991).
Spike's Babies
Spike cares for a litter of kittens.
Chicken Pops
The babies catch the chicken pox and worry that they will literally turn into chickens.
"Spike's Babies" provides examples of:
- Cute Kitten: Five of them.
- Dropped Glasses: Tommy, in a desperate attempt to save the kittens, snatches Didi's glasses before throwing them near Spike. When she bends to pick them up, Tommy uses the opportunity to unleash Spike.
- Malaproper: Angelica calling barbecue "barbe-cube."
- Papa Wolf: When the babies see that Spike has adopted a litter of kittens, they decide to get them some milk and do everything they can to save them from the unwitting grown-ups.
- Running Gag: Stu trying to make a perfect concrete pathway, only for the babies or Spike to run across it while it's still wet. He eventually allows the babies, Didi, and Lou to leave their handprints on the pathway, and he himself does the same.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: It's never revealed where the kittens went after this episode.
"Chicken Pops" provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Phil accidentally calls Chuckie "Cluckie" when he thinks Chuckie turned into a chicken.
- An Aesop:
- If you have chicken pox, stay home and don’t touch other people because chicken pox is contagious.
- Never tell fake stories with the intent to scare your younger siblings, cousins, and your playmates.
- Artistic License – Medicine: While Dr. Carmichael is indeed right that it's safer to get chickenpox as a child than as an adult, it's still dangerous to get it as a baby. A chickenpox outbreak among babies, while likely not lethal, would be a serious matter.
- Believing Their Own Lies: After Angelica gets chickenpox as well, she finds an egg on her booster seat and ends up believing she’s turning into a chicken too.
- Bittersweet Ending: Downplayed—while the kids (minus Susie) all have chickenpox by the end of the episode, Susie informs Tommy, Chuckie and the twins that the illness won't turn them into chickens.
- Call-Back: Didi calls the Dr. Lipschitz hotline for advice on what to do about Chuckie's chicken pox, but a recorded message picks up her call. This recorded message is the exact same one used in a previous episode, "Naked Tommy".
- Chickenpox Episode: Chuckie gets chickenpox (which the babies call "chicken pops"), and Angelica says that means he's going to turn into a chicken. The babies don't believe her until Chuckie gets feathers from a torn pillow stuck to him (because he's covered in calamine lotion), so Chuckie learns how to act like a chicken in preparation for his transformation. The other babies catch chickenpox as well, but claim solidarity with Chuckie and cluck at Angelica until she leaves them alone. Susie explains to them later that chickenpox doesn't actually turn you into a chicken.
- Cowardly Lion: After Tommy, Phil, and Lil all catch Chuckie's chicken pox, Angelica tells the babies that they're going to be delicious food at Charlotte's picnic, upsetting Tommy and the twins. Chuckie stands up to her, saying that their parents would never eat him and his friends, and they're going to enjoy their new lives as chickens.
- Everybody Cries: Tommy, Phil, and Lil cry when they catch chicken pox.
- Forced Transformation: Angelica convinces the babies that Chuckie will turn into a chicken as a result of his chicken pox. The fact that the feathers from the pillow have stuck to the calamine lotion Chas has applied to him doesn't help. However, this is subverted when Susie points out that chicken pox doesn't actually turn you into a chicken.
- I Ate WHAT?!: After the babies believe Chuckie turned into a chicken, they bring him a snack. Chuckie likes it at first, but spits it out when Tommy tells him the snack is bird food.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After lying to the babies about Chuckie turning into a chicken, Angelica herself gets chicken pox and, upon seeing an egg in her booster seat, she screams, "I'm turning into a chicken!" Also earlier in the episode, when Chuckie gets fed up with Angelica scaring his friends, he exclaims that they'll be chickens together and they're proud, and he clucks loudly, driving Angelica away shouting "You chickens are crazy!"
- Noodle Incident: Betty mentions that when she was a kid, her mother would expose her and the rest of her family to diseases every week.
- Shown Their Work: When the rest of the adults notice that Tommy and the twins have caught the chickenpox from Chuckie, Lucy assures them that Tommy, Chuckie and the twins will be just fine and claims that they're actually better off getting it while they're still young—Lucy elaborates on this by explaining that the chickenpox are way worse if you get them as an adult, especially if you're a man
(which worries Stu upon realizing that he might never have had the chickenpox as a kid). - Sick Episode: Chuckie suffers chicken pox and spreads it to Phil, Lil, Tommy, and eventually Angelica.
