The ninth episode of the first season of Rugrats (1991).
Candy Bar Creep Show
"Candy Bar Creep Show" provides examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Stu and Drew are quite dismissive of Lou's claims of seeing real ghosts, until the old man asks, "Which one of you heroes is goin' in there first?"
- Bedsheet Ghost: Due to getting covered with a curtain, Tommy is mistaken for a ghost by Lou, Angelica and a few other trick-or-treaters.
- Calling Your Nausea: Chuckie says he’s going to throw up after he gets motion sickness from the distorting mirror in the haunted house.
- Contrived Coincidence: Thanks to the babies hiding out in the haunted house, they manage to scare some older children (including Angelica) and Lou. Lou even asks why the haunted house had two snake-haired zombies in it and how his mask moved by itself.
- Correlation/Causation Gag: Upon seeing trick-or-treaters coming out of the haunted house screaming while holding Reptar bars, the babies believe that they'll get Reptar bars if they scream.
- Foreshadowing: When Stu, Didi, and Drew assemble a haunted house in Tommy's back porch, Didi worries that the grape eyeballs might be too scary for the trick-or-treaters. Sure enough, she's right when Angelica backs into them and spills them on the floor. Humorously, though, Tommy wasn't scared and even plays around with them beforehand.
- Halloween Episode: On Halloween, the babies try to get Reptar Bars from the haunted house in Tommy's back porch.
- Irony: Didi was worried about letting the babies see the haunted house, thinking it would be too scary for them, yet believes Angelica was mature enough for it. The babies aren't scared in the slightest of the creepy decorations (not even Chuckie), but thanks to their unknown involvement, Angelica, and even the adults are terrified.
- Malaproper: Angelica and the babies call Halloween “Holly-ween”.
- Miles Gloriosus: After Lou is traumatized by the goings on in the haunted house, an amused Stu and Drew call him out on his tales of "real" monsters in the old days.Lou: Well, that was now. This is then![Stu and Drew snicker.]Lou: Okay, then, which one of you heroes is goin' in there first?[Cue Stu's and Drew's Oh, Crap! looks.]
- Mouth Cam: When Tommy shows off his green tongue after he finally gets to eat a Reptar Bar.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Phil and Lil cover themselves with spaghetti worms and, thanks to their reflections in a fun house mirror, neither Angelica nor Lou recognize them.
- Scare Chord: This episode has some pretty creepy Background Music.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After getting spooked by the other sights in the haunted house, Angelica and the other trick-or-treaters run away after seeing Lou in his monster mask.
- Suddenly Shouting: As Stu and Drew try to pass on the buck on going into the haunted house first, Angelica escalates to this when demanding a Reptar bar.
- Unusual Euphemism: Lou has a couple in the haunted house: "Leapin' Librarians!" when he thinks his mask has come to life (not realizing that Chuckie's underneath it) and "Hoppin' horny toads!" when he mistakes Tommy for a ghost.
- When I Was Your Age...: When recalling his trick-or-treating days, Lou claims he and his brother would walk 15 miles by themselves to get to each house and would encounter real ghosts. Stu and Drew happily remind him of this when he gets scared inside the haunted house.
- Who Will Bell the Cat?: Stu and Drew argue over who will enter the haunted house after the babies scare Angelica and Lou out of it.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Lou when telling Stu and Drew about the "snake-haired zombies" and how his mask moved by itself. They're quite dismissive of these claims, until they're asked when they're setting foot inside the haunted house.
Monster in the Garage
Something is causing chaos in the garage, and while the adults think Spike did it, the babies discover that something else is causing the noise.
"Monster in the Garage" provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: The adults don't do so well in regards to Spike, but this is narrowly averted after the first garage crash. Tommy is about to eat some spilled paint, but Didi grabs him.
- Big Damn Heroes: Granted, a dog scaring away a mouse with a minor bark isn't much, but Spike still comes running when he hears Stu crying for help.
- Clear Their Name: When Spike is accused of wrecking the garage, it's up to the babies to prove his innocence, which is difficult for them, since they can't talk to adults.
- Dramatic Thunder: A thunderstorm happens outside as Boris tells the babies a scary story.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: Stu has a moment like this when he discovers the thing wrecking his garage wasn't a rowdy Spike, but a mouse. He even apologizes to his dog when he "saves" the day by chasing it away with a bark.
- Failed a Spot Check: For some reason, Lou is among the adults who believes that Spike was responsible for the mess in the garage, despite the fact that Spike was right next to Lou when the chaos precipitated in the garage. Later on, when the dresser in the living room is knocked over, Stu and Didi believe that Spike was responsible for the mess. Spike was outdoors when that happened, and Chuckie even lampshades this. Stu had even just seen Spike tied up in the backyard right before the crash.
- Here We Go Again!: The episode ends with Spike chasing the mouse that caused all the trouble away. Tommy believes the mouse to be miles away by now, but then he hears a crash and Stu shouting, "Didi! It's happening again!" and comes to the conclusion that the mouse has returned.
- Irony: Despite being the scaredy-cat of the group and the most apprehensive about going in, Chuckie's the only one of the babies to not get scared by the things in the garage.
- Lampshade Hanging: Stu bemoaning that they've once again been tasked with looking after their neighbors' babies.
- Mood Whiplash: Boris builds a lot of atmosphere and tension when telling his scary story, only for Minka to occasionally interrupt to point out some of his terminology is going over the babies' heads.
- Oh, Crap!: The mouse's reaction when Spike barks.
- Scare Chord: This episode has scary music when Boris tells the babies a scary story.
- Scary Shadow Fakeout: The babies see the shadow of what appears to be a scary monster, only to find out that the shadow belongs to a mouse that was hiding behind the overturned lamp.
- Shout-Out: Tommy and the mouse attempting to touch fingers is a direct reference to the iconic scene from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: A half-literal example; after all the grief he got this episode, Spike is hailed as a hero by Stu for scaring the mouse away and is told he's sleeping in their bed as a reward.
- Vanity License Plate: If you look closely on the Pickles' car, the front license plate reads, "PKLS".
- Was Too Hard on Him: Immediately after wrongly blaming Spike for the second time, Stu feels guilty and wants to give the dog an extra dog treat.
- When I Was Your Age...: Lou scoffs at Stu's Eek, a Mouse!! moment.Lou: Why, in my day, we thought nothing of finding herds of elk living in our garage!
