The fifteenth episode of the sixth season of Rugrats (1991).
Silent Angelica
Angelica tries to stay quiet because her mom and dad (busy with an important phone call and a badminton game on TV, respectively) promised her toys.
Tie My Shoes
Angelica ties Chuckie's shoes for him, but Chas thinks Chuckie did it on his own.
"Silent Angelica" provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: When Angelica tries to get Drew to answer the door, he and Stu are so distracted by a badminton game on TV that she has to do it herself. To be fair, Charlotte had told her that she would get a Cynthia dollhouse if she spoke not a word, and trying to get a parent's attention without saying anything is very difficult, to say the least.
- Continuity Nod: The Reptar Wagon from The Rugrats Movie is shown again.
- Imagine Spot: Angelica has one of her driving a Cynthia car and living by the Cynthia townhouse, which is interrupted by the babies singing and dancing to a song playing on the record player.
- Literal-Minded: When Angelica doesn't speak to the babies, Tommy asks her if Fluffy has her tongue, as he heard that cats can do that.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Rugrats take note when Angelica does not yell at them for Chuckie's breaking her Cynthia plane toy.
- Remote Control Ruckus: Stu and Drew fight over the remote, as the former wants to watch a football game on television, while the latter wants to watch a golf tournament. When Dil gets a hold of the remote, he changes it to a badminton game, which Stu and Drew settle on watching.
- The Reveal: It is revealed that Drew's birthday is May 25.
"Tie My Shoes" provides examples of:
- Child Prodigy: Discussed by Didi; she reads from one of Lipschitz' books that a two-year-old who can tie his shoes at a third-grade level will learn algebra by the age of four.
- Continuity Nod:
- Miss Carol is shown teaching her audience to tie their shoes on a VHS tape Angelica is watching.
- Betty mentions Phil and Lil's baby commercial.
- Don't Eat and Swim: Parodied; after the babies bring Angelica a piece of Didi's pie so she can tie Chuckie's shoes for them, she claims that you have to wait an hour after eating before you can tie shoes. Likely, she was using this as an excuse not to tie Chuckie's shoes and got the inspiration from hearing about the swimming rule.
- Fear-Induced Idiocy: Angelica gets so shy about everyone watching her tie her shoes that she keeps messing up.
- Food as Bribe: The babies have to bring Angelica food that she likes, such as a slice of Didi's pie, a bag of Cheese Curly Q's, and a cheesecake so that she can tie Chuckie's shoelaces.
- From Bad to Worse: It starts with Chas thinking Chuckie is able to tie his shoes, then Chas goes on to tell the other parents about this, which leads Chuckie to try to prevent his shoelaces from going undone and rely on Angelica when they do go undone.
- Laborious Laces:
- Chuckie's shoelaces are almost always untied, which often leads to him tripping over them. In this episode, the babies get Angelica to tie Chuckie's shoelaces, since she learned them from Miss Carol's video lesson, but they have to bring her food that she likes first. This leads to the adults believing that Chuckie can tie his own shoelaces.
- At the end of the episode, when Angelica forgets how to tie her own shoelaces, Drew and Charlotte enroll her in Miss Carol's week-long shoe-tying empowerment seminar. On her way out of Tommy's house, Angelica trips over her own shoelaces.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After tying everything in sight and making Chuckie give in to her demands for food other than burgers, she confesses that she tied Chuckie's shoes, so the grown-ups try to make her tie her own shoes in front of them. She messes up every time, so Drew and Charlotte enroll her in Miss Carol's shoe-tying seminar. She also trips over her own shoelaces on her way out of Tommy's house.
- Performance Anxiety: Drew tells Angelica that if she's famous on TV people will stare at her all the time and she gets nervous about it. She then tries to tie her shoes but can't under pressure.
- Rule of Three: Angelica gets the babies to bring her three different types of food from Stu's barbecue that aren't burgers so she can tie Chuckie's shoelaces; first a slice of Didi's pie, then a bag of Cheese Curly Q's, and finally a cheesecake.
- Series Continuity Error: Miss Carol is still operating as an apparently popular children's show host, despite the fact her previous appearance ended with her being fired from her own show for swearing in front of her child audience.
- Tempting Fate:
- After Angelica ties Chuckie's shoelaces a second time, Chuckie says "Phew. Now I don't have to worry about tying my shoe again!" Cue Chuckie tripping over his shoelaces, which become untied again.
- When the babies build a wall made out of building blocks around Chuckie to prevent anyone from untying Chuckie's shoelaces, Chuckie proclaims "Nothing's ever gonna untie my shoes again!" Cue Angelica untying Chuckie's shoelaces.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Perhaps a literal example; when Angelica tells the babies that snakes taught her how to tie shoelaces, Chuckie exclaims, "Snakes?! I'm never learning to tie my shoes!"
