Recap / Rugrats S 2 E 21 Feeding Hubert Spike The Wonder Dog

The twenty-first episode of the second season of Rugrats (1991).

Feeding Hubert

The babies think a garbage truck is a monster named Hubert, and that they need to feed him.

Spike the Wonder Dog

Angelica tricks the babies into thinking that Spike can talk.

"Feeding Hubert" provides examples of:

• Call-Back: When the babies go into the garage to find the garbage cans, Chuckie mentions the last time they went in there.
• Green Aesop: Keep yourself and the environment clean!
• Hairstyle Malfunction: Reporter Tiffany Bride is often referred to by the public as "the one with the hair," but at the end, it's revealed that she's actually bald when her wig falls off.
• That Was Not a Dream: Early in the episode, Chuckie tells Tommy, Phil, and Lil about having the same dream every week, about a big green monster who runs down the street early in the morning. Tommy assures him it's not a dream, as he saw the monster, too.
• Trash of the Titans: Stu's garage is revealed to be filled with garbage (thanks in part to the Pickles having not been to the recycling center in six months) and Stu tries to hide it from Tiffany Bride. The babies soon expose this by opening the garage door.

"Spike the Wonder Dog" provides examples of:

• An Aesop: Taunting and making fun of others rudely will come back to bite you.
• Delayed Reaction: When Angelica speaks to a distracted Stu and Didi through Spike, they both idly converse back. In both cases, just after Spike leaves, they are alarmed.
• "I Can't Look!" Gesture: Chuckie does this when Tommy climbs up onto the kitchen table to get the cookie jar.
  Tommy: I got it!
  Chuckie: Can I look now?
• Is This Thing Still On?: When the babies are upset at Spike suddenly being demanding upon having an ability to talk, they overhear Angelica gorging herself on the cookies she had the babies leave for her and gloat that she tricked the babies into thinking that Spike can talk—with her walkie-talkie still on!
• Laser-Guided Karma: Angelica gets hit with this after Spike got Stu and Didi to follow him where they catch her red-handed with the empty cookie jar. Whilst Stu and Didi take Angelica inside to clean her up, they state that they are going to call Drew to inform him about Angelica's actions.
• Noodle Incident: Based on Stu's reaction, Spike has a tendency to leave doodles on the carpet.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: This was Stu's reaction when Angelica spoke for Spike, saying he left a doodle on the carpet.
• Show Within a Show: Oodles the Talking Poodle, an over-the-top parody of Lassie and Rin Tin Tin, starring a pink poodle named "Oodles", who inexplicably wears a red cape everywhere and has an offscreen actor doing his best to lip-synch with him in every scene.
• Skewed Priorities: This exchange from the babies when they discover Angelica tricked them;
  Tommy: You guys, I think Angelica tricked us! I don't think Spike was talking at all!
  Phil: But why'd she do that, Tommy?
  Chuckie: Cause she's mean?
  Lil: Cause she's nasty?
  Tommy: Nope, cause' she's hungry! She wanted the cookies all for herself!
• Spotting the Thread: The babies overhear Angelica eating the cookies and insulting them when Spike just lies on the kitchen floor, and they soon find Angelica's Cynthia 2-way Executive Cellular Phone that she planted in his collar.
• Superheroes Wear Capes: Oodles inexplicably wears a red cape wherever he goes.
• Timmy in a Well:
  • Parodied on Oodles the Talking Poodle;
    Oodles: Billy, Tallulah, Come quick! Uncle Lyle is locked in the barn again, and it's on fire!
    Billy and Tallulah: Oh no!
    (Beat)
    Billy: Hey, wait a minute. We don't have an Uncle Lyle.
    Tallulah: We don't have a barn either.
  • Then done for real when Spike tries to tell Stu and Didi that Angelica tricked the babies into bringing her the cookies.
• Toilet Humor:
  • When the babies try to get Spike's attention by tying Phil to a tree and having him call for help, Spike walks right past him to pee on the bush.
  • While pretending to be Spike, Angelica tells Stu, "I did a doodle on the carpet, you'd better clean it up!".