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Recap / Rugrats S5 E4 - "The Word of the Day" / "Jonathan Babysits"

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The fourth episode of the fifth season of Rugrats (1991).

The Word of the Day

Angelica tries to get on her favorite kids' show, Miss Carol's Happy House and learns a naughty word from the host.

Jonathan Babysits

Charlotte's assistant Jonathan looks after the babies, but when Charlotte tells him that she wants him to dig up dirt on the competition, the babies take that a little too literally.

"The Word of the Day" provides examples of:

  • An Aesop:
    • If you don't want your kid to repeat a word considered offensive, be sure to actually say what the word is, no matter how awkward it might initially be. Also be sure to explain why the word is considered offensive.
    • Some people that you admire on TV are not always what they seem in real life.
  • Aside Glance: Miss Carol does this after Kim, a girl auditioning against Angelica, runs off the stage screaming "I want my mommy!"
  • Back Blocking: In the very beginning of this episode, there is a huge round figure that fills up the screen. Then the camera zooms out to reveal it's the back of Tommy's head blocking Angelica's view of the TV.
  • Cassandra Truth: No one believes Angelica when she hears what Miss Carol really thinks of her kids until she says her phrase while the cameras are rolling.
    Angelica (overjoyed and oblivious to how horrified everyone in the studio is): See?! See?! She DID say it!
  • Curse Cut Short: See Sound-Effect Bleep below.
  • Depraved Kids' Show Host: A rare female example with Miss Carol, the host of Miss Carol's Happy House. When Angelica gets the chance to audition for her show, she overhears Miss Carol's assistant Stephanie saying the new "Fun Phrase" for the show. Miss Carol comments that the real Fun Phrase should be—well, something unseemly. Angelica, being a three-year-old, assumes that Miss Carol actually means that, and nearly ends up grounded. Eventually she ends up on the show with nothing else to say, so... Hilarity Ensues—along with an Engineered Public Confession (Angelica gets Miss Carol to repeat the dirty phrase on air)—and the show eventually becomes Miss Stephanie's Happy House.
  • Dramatic Irony: We know the new fun phrase Stephanie has the auditionees say ("She thinks they're all Swell-O-Matic!"), but Angelica never gets to hear it.
  • Engineered Public Confession: When Drew and Charlotte allow Angelica to appear on Miss Carol's Happy House under the condition that she not say the dirty word, Angelica arrives after the other kids practice the actual "Fun Phrase". Unfortunately, Miss Carol picks Angelica and pressures her into saying it. Unaware of the real "Fun Phrase," she says the dirty word on the air, to the shock of everyone watching the show. When Miss Carol orders her off the set, Angelica says she only said it because the host did earlier. Finally losing it, Miss Carol repeats this herself. She is later fired and replaced with her assistant, Miss Stephanie.
  • Faint in Shock: In response to hearing Angelica say the dirty word for the first time, Charlotte screams and passes out, requiring Didi to fan her some air.
  • Fear-Induced Idiocy: There is an audition for Miss Carol's Happy House. One of the kids, Timmynote , is so nervous when he's onstage that he just mutters, "Hubba, hubba..." Later, after Miss Carol is fired and replaced by her assistant Stephanie, Timmy becomes her new Happy Helper, and when he's on TV, he's still babbling nonsense.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Eagle-eyed viewers might notice that Angelica is making an "f" sound right before she gets bleeped out.
  • Got Me Doing It: This line from Didi when she gives Charlotte advice from Dr. Lipschitz on how to deal with Angelica saying the dirty word:
    Didi: "Ven ze child is bad vord saying, you simply sit ze child down and calmly tell ze child zat ze vord is unacceptable." You see? It's zat... I mean, that easy.
  • Hates Baths: When the babies learn about profanity, Phil considers "bath" a really bad word due to how much he hates taking baths.
  • Innocent Swearing: Angelica honestly had no idea what the dirty word means and why it makes adults upset, which is why she found it unfair that Drew and Charlotte punished her for saying it by denying her the chance to appear on Miss Carol's Happy House.
  • I Want My Mommy!: When asked "What does Miss Carol think of her kids?", Kim stutters, yells "I want my mommy!" and runs off the set.
  • Monkey Morality Pose: Stu, Didi, and Lou do this after Angelica swears on live television.
  • Never Work with Children or Animals: In-universe example of the former towards the end. The two kids who audition against Angelica crack under the pressure, leaving Miss Carol to badger Angelica on the new fun phrase. Despite Drew and Charlotte giving visible warnings from the audience, Angelica repeats what she overheard from Miss Carol. And although Miss Carol confesses that she did say the naughty word, Angelica is still not allowed to help out on the retooled show.
  • Nice Character, Mean Actor: Miss Carol. On camera, she seems like a quirky Genki Girl who claims to be a Friend to All Children, but off camera, she actually really hates her target audience. Angelica overheard her swearing, which led to Angelica repeating it on the show and getting Miss Carol fired.note 
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Angelica unwittingly exposed Miss Carol's true colors, but her cuss word also disallows her from joining even the retool of the show.
  • Performance Anxiety: Timmy stutters when he is asked by Miss Carol what she thinks of her kids. When he is chosen to appear on Miss Stephanie's Happy House, all he can do is stare with his mouth wide open.
  • Recurring Extra: If you look closely at the first three instances of the swear word is spoken and censored, you can see the same man in a blue uniform operating the utility van, the truck and the jackhammer that drown out the word.
  • Rule of Three: Whenever Charlotte hears Angelica repeat what Miss Carol really thinks of her kids, or at least uses the offending word, she always uses the same horrified scream. She is heard off-screen for the first two times and is shown doing it the third time.
  • Show Within a Show: Miss Carol's Happy House, which Angelica auditions for. Thanks to Angelica exposing Miss Carol's true colors, the show eventually becomes Miss Stephanie's Happy House.
  • Soap Punishment: When Charlotte overhears Angelica using the dirty word, she asks Didi if she should wash her mouth out with soap as a solution. She then asks her if she should use toothpaste as a substitute if soap is too toxic.
  • Sound-Effect Bleep: Whenever the dirty word is about to be said, various placements of cutoffs occur with a person honking his horn or someone jackhammering, or in the case of her repeating the word to her mom, a very loud anguished scream being heard in the distance.
  • Squee: Angelica upon finding out that she has been selected as one of the finalists for "Miss Carol's Happy House."
  • Swear Word Plot: This episode involves Angelica learning a dirty word from Miss Carol, and her getting Miss Carol fired from her own show when she gets Miss Carol to repeat the dirty word on air.
  • Visual Gag: As they watch Miss Carol's Happy House at their home, Stu, Didi and Lou make the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" faces from the couch.

"Jonathan Babysits" provides examples of:

  • Babysitting Episode: Charlotte assigns Jonathan to babysit Angelica and the babies while she tries to dig up dirt on Merge Corp.'s competitors.
  • Cassandra Truth: Charlotte doesn't believe Angelica when she honestly claims that she didn't leave dirt all over the house.
  • Commended for Pushback: Jonathan wants revenge on Charlotte for how demanding she is towards him, so he looks for something to blackmail her with. He finds an unflattering videotape of Charlotte in her bathrobe and hair curlers, but when Charlotte learns about this, she decides to give him a promotion because she feels like she's underestimated him.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Phil and Lil distract Angelica so that Jonathan can leave Angelica's "bored" meeting. When Angelica catches them, she orders Jonathan to make them eat vegetables. Jonathan refuses to do so, as by this time, he has found the unflattering evidence of Charlotte he was looking for.
  • A Day in the Limelight: This episode focuses on Jonathan Kraskell, Charlotte's office assistant who is constantly mentioned by Charlotte and previously made a physical appearance in "Mommy's Little Assets".
  • Denied Food as Punishment: Charlotte punishes Angelica by denying her dessert for a whole week when she finds a pile of dirt in the house. That pile of dirt really wasn't Angelica's fault, but Charlotte doesn't believe that the babies put it there, even though they really did.
  • Didn't Think This Through: When Angelica decides to have a "bored" meeting, she tells the babies to follow her. Chuckie points out that they can't because she fired them earlier. Upon hearing this, Angelica re-hires the babies.
  • Digging to China: The babies remember the time that Reptar dug a hole in the Earth to get away from the Mole People, and believe that Jonathan wants to dig up dirt so he can make a hole in the Earth to get away from Angelica. Chuckie then says that he feels like doing that most of the time, and he and Tommy try to dig a hole to the other side of the world.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Downplayed; When Charlotte wants Jonathan to dig up dirt on the corporate competition while also making him babysit the kids in her place, a long fed-up Jonathan decides to do dig up some dirt on Charlotte to teach her a lesson. When he presents an embarrassing home video of hernote  to use against her, she's more impressed than angry because she realizes she underestimated him, and gives him a promotion.
  • Embarrassing Old Photo:
    • While trying to dig up some dirt on Charlotte, he finds some old photos of her as a baby, one of which has her crying when her ice cream falls off the cone, and another of her lying naked, butt-up on a bearskin rug. He decides against using these because they aren't nearly humiliating enough.
    • Jonathan eventually finds a videotape that says, "Angelica And Charlotte", which has footage of Charlotte in her bathrobe and hair curlers scratching her armpit and telling Drew to shut the camera off. When he shows the tape to Charlotte, she tells him that she told Drew to get rid of it, and realizes that she underestimated him and promotes him.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: When Jonathan complains about how Charlotte wanted him to dig up dirt on the competition, he wishes that he could dig up some dirt on Charlotte to teach her a lesson. He then decides that he should do just that.
  • Growing Up Sucks: At the beginning of the episode, Angelica makes the babies play office. The babies wonder why they're playing the game, and come to the conclusion that there are mean adults who act like Angelica by making them play office as well. Lil decides that she doesn't want to grow up, as does Tommy.
  • Inelegant Blubbering: One of the Embarrassing Old Photos Jonathan finds shows baby Charlotte crying in this manner after dropping her ice cream.
  • It Tastes Like Feet: When Angelica plays office, she complains to Chuckie that her coffee tastes like mud. Phil walks in with a coffee pot and tells Angelica that it's because the coffee really is mud.
  • Literal-Minded: When the babies overhear Jonathan saying that he's going to dig up some dirt on Charlotte, they believe him to want to dig with actual dirt, and they spend the episode trying to get it for him.

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