One day, the Princess is watching the King and General play croquet. She is also sucking on a dummy, but the King tells her no dummies outside. She ignores him and keeps sucking the dummy. The narrator asks why the Princess likes her dummy so much and she explains that she loves the smell, the taste, and the feeling of sucking on it after dipping it in water. She offers him a go, and he understandably declines.
That night, the Queen sneaks into the Princess's room while the latter is asleep and steals the dummy right out of her mouth. The next morning, the Princess searches for it, with Puss's help. They go into the kitchen, and the Princess asks the Maid and Chef where the dummy is. The Chef indignantly claims that there are no dummies in the kitchen.
Outside, the King and General are playing croquet again and the Princess looks in the croquet bag for her dummy. It isn't there, so she asks the General if he has it, but he denies it. The Princess enters the living room, where Puss has traced the Queen's footprints to, and finds the Queen eating chocolate but claiming it to be a bad habit. Upon asked if she took the dummy, the Queen tells the Princess that she's getting too old for a dummy and that she (the Queen) put it away.
The Princess goes upstairs in a huff and looks in the King and Queen's room. Then, she looks in the trash, then in the living room, where she finds the Queen putting her chocolate box away in a cupboard where the dummy is. The Queen says that dummies are a bad habit, but the Princess points out that the Queen said the same about chocolate truffles. The Queen decides to give up truffles as well and have the King give up croquet so the family is "giving up together". The General chuckles, so the King, grumpy that he has to give up croquet, confiscates Nessie. The General tries to use a mop instead, so the Maid laughs at him, making him angry, so he takes her makeup. The Maid gets angry too, so when the Chef laughs, she takes his radio.
Later, the narrator asks the Princess if she's missing her dummy, and she replies that she doesn't miss it at breakfast, outside, when inspecting the General's toy soldiers, or at dinner, but she does miss it a little bit at night.
That night, the Princess sneaks out of bed to check on the dummy and finds everybody else trying to get their items back. The Queen, feeling that the jig is up, gives the Princess her dummy back and she sucks on it for a while, but then decides to give it up for good. Unfortunately, she has everyone else give up their items too, causing them to suck their thumbs.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Puss wears his Sherlock Holmes cap while helping the Princess search for her dummy.
- Affection-Hating Kid: The Princess says, "Bleh!" when the Queen says the saccharine bedtime phrase and kisses her on the forehead.
- Artistic License – Biology: Scruff eats the Queen's chocolate and is fine. In real life, chocolate is bad for dogs.
- Bittersweet Ending: The episode ends with the Princess giving up her dummy, but everyone else (except the pets, Admiral, Prime Minister, and Gardener) sad that they have to give up their things.
- Compressed Abstinence: Nobody really needs to give something up except perhaps the Princess, but it's justified. The Queen decided to give up her chocolate and have the King give up croquet to encourage the Princess to give up her dummy, and the rest took the others' items because they were mad at the person.
- Guilty Pleasure: The Queen thinks that eating chocolate is a bad habit. This is rather odd, since she's never shown signs of feeling guilty about her favourite food before (unless you count claiming sugar is bad for your teeth in "I Want My Tooth") or since.
- Hypocrite: The Queen disapproves of the King and General playing croquet, even though she's played it herself plenty of times.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: The Princess likes sniffing her dummy and dipping it in water. The Maid and Queen agree that this is incredibly lame, and they tut at her for it.
- Last-Second Joke Problem: The Princess has finally given up her dummy (pacifier)... but King, Queen, Chef, Maid, General, and Prime Minister realise that they still made one another give their hobbies up, and they suck their thumbs in disappointment.
- Mistaken for Thief:
- Downplayed. The Princess wonders if the Maid might have stolen her dummy, but she didn't. Later, the same scenario happens with the General.
- Later played straight when the Princess outright accuses the King of stealing the dummy.
- Not So Above It All: The Queen and Maid are the two most sensible of the grownups, but they still suck their thumbs at the end.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Whenever the Princess says the episode title, she does a short pause between each word.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: The Maid and Queen say, "Tut tut tut" when they see the Princess having fun with her dummy.
- Still Sucks Thumb: The episode ends with the main adult cast (save the Admiral, Prime Minister, and Gardener) sucking their thumbs due to missing their objects.
- Stock Animal Diet: Scruff eats the bones the Princess throws from the trash.
- Title Drop: The Princess startles the Queen into dropping her chocolate by yelling the episode title. Then, when the Queen reveals that she put the dummy away, she storms up the stairs chanting the episode title. Later, she says the title again to the Queen when the latter is putting away the chocolate.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Scruff is afraid of a mouse or rat that scurries out of the cellar door.
