The thirteenth and final episode of the eighth season of Rugrats (1991).
Happy Taffy
Lulu asks her grand-niece, Taffy, to watch the babies, but since she's trying to think of a new song, the babies think she's unhappy.
Imagine That
Angelica leads the other babies in pretending to be the characters from The Cynthia Team.
"Happy Taffy" provides examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Taffy calls the babies "Minis".
- Babysitter Friendship: In this episode, the parents hire Taffy, the grandniece of Lulu, to look after the babies while Didi goes Back to School to master her degree in child development. Taffy is a songwriter who has her own band, Taffy and the Saltwaters, and she has a soft spot for babies, whom she calls "Minis". In later episodes, Taffy takes the babies to Boingo Burger and a video arcade, and Taffy narrates the stories of Snow White and Jack and the Beanstalk in the "Tales From the Crib" duology of
Direct to Video movies. - Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Angelica. She sings a song about ice cream really loud and off-key, to which Dil throws a rattle at her.
- Mistaken for Brooding: The babies think Taffy is unhappy when they hear her playing off-key music, although she's really just struggling with songwriter's block. They spend the rest of the episode trying to find ways to cheer her up, like giving her "toys" (trash) and dancing for her.
- Mondegreen Gag: Angelica sings a mangled version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" when she tries to be a rock star like Taffy.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Stu and Didi go through one at the beginning of this episode, wherein they turn down a lady named Helgina who grew up on a goat farm. Stu tells Didi that at the rate the search is going, by the time they find a good babysitter, they won't need one because the babies will be old enough to take care of themselves.
"Imagine That" provides examples of:
- Harmless Villain: Angelica casts Tommy as Dr. Doomsbake, a villain who tries to destroy the world's supply of cookies with his laser beam. However, Tommy points out to Angelica that he's bad at being evil, but she doesn't listen to him. Sure enough, with help from Chuckie as the fireman, Tommy uses the laser beam to return the cookies and gets praised by Phil.
- Imagine Spot:
- The babies have one near the beginning, where Lil is an alien princess under a wicked spell, Tommy is a knight who has lost his pet dragon (Spike), Kimi is a scientist working on a potion to cure the alien, Phil is a salamander who lives in mud, which is one of the key ingredients for the potion, and Chuckie is a fireman who puts out the fire in the mud.
- Angelica tries to have one where she's the leader of the Cynthia Team, and Kimi and Lil are her sidekicks; the former being not very smart, and the latter being funny. She also wants Chuckie to be a baker, Tommy to be the evil Dr. Doomsbake, and Phil to be Mr. Really Really Big, the boss of the Cynthia Team. The babies' inabilities to stay in character ends up complicating things for her.
- Irony: Angelica casts the babies as the characters from The Cynthia Team, but their inabilities to stay in character complicates things for her. When she casts Kimi and Lil as her sidekicks, the former being the not very smart one and the latter being the funny one, Kimi keeps pointing out simple solutions while Lil doesn't say anything funny (not that it stops Angelica from throwing her pity laughs). When she casts Tommy as Dr. Doomsbake, an evil villain who steals the world's supply of cookies with his laser beam, Tommy uses the laser beam to return the world's supply of cookies. When she casts Phil as Mr. Really Really Big, the boss of the Cynthia Team, she's more bossy than he is.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Near the end of the episode, when Tommy, as Dr. Doomsbake uses his laser beam to return the world's supply of cookies, Angelica gets upset with him, saying he's supposed to be the bad guy, and shows him what he's supposed to do by using the laser beam to steal the cookies. Tommy tells her that because she did that, she's now the bad guy, and Lil and Kimi arrest her while Phil praises them and Tommy for saving the world.
- Show Within a Show: The Cynthia Team, which Angelica tries to act out when Didi makes her play outside with the babies.
