Forums » Smalltalk » The Rugrats is a little dark (sort of)

Yes I'll admit I still enjoy watching cartoons even at my age....the truth is my sense of humor never really aged with me and the silly antics of the kids shows I watched growing up are still far more entertaining to me than almost anything I've seen directed at adults as far as humor goes. I still enjoy the adult story depths but that's a whole different post.

That said my recent go through on hulu has been The Rugrats originally aired on Nickelodeon when I was a kid. It was no surprise to me that the first couple of seasons were just what I remembered, with silly kids humor surrounding four babies and a 3 year old who enjoyed tormenting them.

As I ended the 3rd season I started noticing some episodes really had taken a strange turn I never fully noticed before. I mean I remember them I just don't remember seeing them with adult eyes and it's been rather impactful for me now as an adult looking at bringing my own kids into the world.

On two occasions they aired semi serious episodes surrounding the Jewish holidays of Passover and Chanukah, something I don't recall a lot of shows doing growing up honestly. Chanukah was mentioned in a few but Passover never came up in any I remembered. It was actually rather interesting to see them tell the stories of these religious holidays that I hadn't much known before in a way that was attractive to the youth of that time, I remember the Passover episode being one of my favorites, yet still somehow I unfortunately didn't take the story away with me years later.

More dark was an episode where one of the babies (chuckie) had a pet rolly polly and named it Melville....he left it with the other babies and went to find the insect some of his favorite leaves which they apparently liked to eat together. Unfortunately the rolly polly died while he was away, and the rest of the episode surrounded Chuckie coming to terms with the death of his pet insect, then mouning his loss and moving past it. They even had a funeral for this bug! The entire thing seemed so sad and I couldn't believe this was an actual episode of a children's show I loved.

The mothers day episode (actually in the beginning of season 4) again was a very sad episode surrounding what had happened to chuckie's mother, as she hadn't been in the first three seasons and it was never even brought attention to the fact she was simply never there. The babies go on an excursion trying to find a mother for him and eventually give up (citing spike the dog was a better mother than Angelica had been haha!). Chuckie decides his dad is the closest thing he has and decides to find him a present in the attic, and accidently comes across a box of his mom's old stuff.....what is it that he decides to give his dad for mothers day? Incredibly it's a picture of his mother! His dad spends the end of the episode telling his son about the good memories he had of his mother, and even reads him a poem which was the last thing she wrote in the hospital (before apparently expiring) which was directed at her son.

I don't remember some of these dark meaningful tones in the same episodes I watched growing up! Watching them again has been great but I really was not prepared for some of the more serious topics they were putting in front of what I'm assuming are like....6-10 year olds.

Anyone remember this stuff from watching this (or another) show as kids? What other shows are doing this at such an intense level I feel emotional at the end of an episode? Is this something kids shows still do today?

For me, it was when they glossed over the fact that Tommy was a NICU baby and the way it was described...

I agree that dark is not an entirely accurate word after rereading and considering some things (which I did shortly after posting this honestly) but I didnt have a better word at the time so I left it....
That said what is an NICU baby and at what point in the show do you remember this being described? I'm still only enter season 4.

(Also as a note, your picture didnt work....I believe because it wasn't a .png or .jpg)

Rugrats was my favorite show when I was little from 4 years old honestly even until now.

I have several VHS tapes still of the Rugrats Movies.

In one of them, the first one I believe, at one point Tommy feels unwanted, unloved, and sad because his parents are focused soley on Dill after he is brought home from the hospital, and I still cry to this day when Tommy is sitting inside a closet cuddling one of his moms slippers and singing about how he wishes they still loved him, and held him when he was sad.

In that same movie rugrats get lost, to the point of rolling out of a semi truck down a hill into the forest. Where Tommy and Chuckie mainly, but Tommy and all of them get into a fight because Dill being an infant, is not being good' and needs things that are hard for Tommy to give him, attention, food, changing, keeps 'messing things up. And at one point Chuckie, Phil and Lil run away, leaving Tommy and Dill to sleep in a small cave in the pouring rain, where Tommy realizes he loves his little brother, and sings him to sleep while they cuddle under one small blanket.

In the second rugrats movie, Rugrats go to Tokyo, I believe there's a specific plot line where Chuckie is upset because he doesn't have a mom to take him to the mother daughter/son dance, and his dad meets a woman who Chuckie feels upset at because she's not his mom, and the specific scene where Chuckie watches this woman dance with her own daughter, while he stands alone on the side, and then his dad picks him up and dances with him beside his girlfriend and her daughter, makes me just ball my eyes out.

I had forgotten that there were movies

Honestly I think I'll have to wait until the series is over to watch them as i have no idea where they would be placed within the show, that being said those plot moments sound like something I'm definately looking forward to viewing.

I havent reached dill yet, but when I do I'm going to be looking for that scene in the closet. That sounds like a heartwrenching moment in the closet hugging his mothers shoe. *sniffles*

Try again, I redid the picture.

It's the mother's day episode.

Yeah I realized that after I checked the picture actually.....it was so glanced over I didnt even realize it was there, even after you told me it was....wow that's some almost subliminal level imbedment right there

I guess the word you're going for there is "serious," or "deep."

I like Rugrats a lot. There are adult jokes I've noticed as an adult, like the name of the psychiatrist. Lol

I think it's good. I don't think it's bad. Not the way they do it. I think even kids will sense a good plot and depth in a plot and theme, even if they can't explain it and don't understand all of it. At least I did as a kid...that's why I loved all those deep Star Trek episodes about peace and war and discrimination and such. And don't even get me started on the Twilight Zone.

Omg that was something that never dawned on me as a kid, but when I was older I heard the name and instantly made the connection 😂😂😂😂

yeah, it was briefly touched on but it was enough to really affect NICU parents like myself.