The twenty-third episode of the second season of Rugrats (1991).
King Ten Pin:
Grandpa Lou participates in a bowling championship.
Runaway Angelica:
Angelica runs away to Tommy's house after Drew punishes her.
"King Ten Pin" provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: The (presumably) teenaged babysitter's idea of looking after the children is by having them watch a Dummi Bears movie. While this actually does an effective job entrancing them, she fails to notice that Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil have resisted it and escaped, being too occupied with a date at the time of the latter. Near the end, the babysitter herself is left entranced by the Dummi Bears movie.
- An Aesop: Cheating is not the best way to win a contest, play the game with good sportsmanship.
- Bowling for Ratings: Grandpa Lou enters a bowling championship and competes against Billy "Strike" Maxwell in this episode.
- Contrived Coincidence: Throughout the episode, the babies look for a "Champion Chip", believing it to be a giant chocolate chip cookie. When they look in the area behind the pins, believing it to be the "Cave of Misery" an arcade machine told them about, they find Ed, a man working for Maxwell, who has been rigging the game with an airgun and unknockable bowling pins. They inadvertently expose him, revealing Maxwell to be a cheater and having him and Lou compete against each other fairly.
- Creative Closing Credits: The Dummi Bears sing "Sing a Happy Song" during the closing credits.
- Credits Gag: Show Within a Show example; the babies make it back to the nursery to see the closing credits of the Dummi Bears movie. The credits list Dan Thompson as the Director, Writer, Producer, Emmy Award Winner, Jeep Cherokee Driver, Japan Visitor, and Not Firer.
- Defeating the Cheating Opponent: After the babies expose a man helping Maxwell cheat, Lou then defeats him fairly.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Ed, a man working for Maxwell to rig the game, is seen with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
- Malaproper: The babies mispronounce "Championship" as "Champion Chip" and "Mystery" as "Misery".
- Mass Hypnosis: When the adults go with Lou to a bowling championship, the kids are left with a (presumably) teenaged babysitter. When Angelica starts to act up, the babysitter turns on a Dummi Bears movie, which appears to literally hypnotize all of the babies present (except Tommy, who's off-screen when the movie is first turned on). They sing along with the movie in an eerie monotone and say things like "Must... stay... here..." and "Must... watch... bears..." Tommy eventually frees them from the hypnosis by violently shaking Phil, Lil, and Chuckie. He neglects to do so for Angelica, and it turns that she's still hypnotized even after they all go home.
- Noodle Incident: Lou tries to tell Stu and Didi about the time he nearly beat Maxwell in a bowling game fifteen years before this episode's events, but they stop him before he gets the chance. Near the end of the episode, Stu and Didi want to know, but Lou refuses to tell them, since they didn't want to hear it the first time.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: After Maxwell is exposed as cheating, Lou, not the least bit surprised, dresses him down for the fraud he is before defeating him on fair terms.Lou: Suddenly it all makes sense...all these years you've been cheatin'! (...) "Undefeated for fifteen years", eh? Well now I'm gonna beat you fair and square!
- Subverted Kids' Show: The video that the babysitter plays is Dummi Bears: Nightmare on Happy Street. It's not shown what dangers the bears face.
"Runaway Angelica" provides examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Drew calls Charlotte "Snookums", which leads to this exchange.Drew: Snookums, I'm going over to Stu's for a few minutes!
Charlotte: [off screen during entire dialogue] Okay. Is Angelica still upstairs?
Drew: Uh-huh. I haven't heard a peep out of her.
Charlotte: I'll go up and check on her. And Drew?
Drew: Yeah?
Charlotte: Don't call me "Snookums."
Drew: Noted. - An Aesop:
- Listen to your parents and don’t vandalize their important belongings.
- If your parents discipline you, don't rebel by running away from home to get revenge.
- Running away can make things stay the same.
- Running away leads nowhere.
- Don't threaten younger children to get them to do things for you.
- Belated Child Discipline: Drew sends Angelica to her bedroom for playing in his office despite her having been repeatedly told not to, even going as far as not to fall for any of her "Sweet, apologetic child" tricks.
- Comically Missing the Point: This exchange after Angelica eats what she thought were cookies:Angelica: These aren't cookies! They're dog biscuits! What do you think I am, a dog?!
Tommy: Uh... Spike likes 'em...
Angelica: Of course Spike likes 'em— Spike's a DOG! - Dog Food Diet: Angelica's desperation for cookies forces the babies to use the box of biscuits in Spike's dog food bowl. Prior to the discovery, Angelica thought they were not half bad. Later, the babies wondered if they could partake the rest of the biscuits themselves, however, to both their's and Spike's dismay, Angelica had already ate them all before realizing.
- Eating Pet Food: Angelica orders the babies to get her some cookies, but when they can't reach the cookies on a high shelf, they opt to give her dog biscuits instead. Angelica eats them with enjoyment until the babies tell her what she's eating, she reacts with disgust and anger. The babies themselves don't understand and remark that they eat them all the time.
- Gilligan Cut: Angelica gets caught playing in Drew's office, despite being told repeatedly not to. She attempts to use the "Sweet, apologetic child" ploy to avoid punishment:Angelica: (smiling innocently) I'm so sorry. I'll never do it again. I promise.
Drew: Angelica, it's NOT gonna work this time!
Angelica: (sighs in defeat) Okay... I'm really, really sorry, Daddy dear, and I promise I'll never ever—
Drew: You're not being sincere, young lady! This time you're in BIG trouble!
Angelica: (In a sweet voice) Oh, Daddy, you're silly. I can't be in trouble— I'm Angelica! Your only daughter. Your princess, your cupcake. Your little tax shelter...
(Cut to Drew carrying Angelica to her room and grounding her)- And again straight afterwards, where Drew assures Charlotte that Angelica will have taken this discipline well. Cut to Angelica in her room throwing an enormous temper tantrum.
- Go to Your Room!: Drew punishes Angelica for making a mess of his office and somehow turning his fax machine into a paper doll machine by sending her to her room.
- Hypocritical Humor: Angelica lashes out at the babies for feeding her dog biscuits asking, "What am I, a dog?!" But she has no problems eating the biscuits off the grass nor sleeping in Spike's own doghouse when it starts to rain.
- Ignored Epiphany: Near the end of the episode, Angelica reveals to Drew that she ran away, and promises him that she'll never be bad again. The babies overhear and ask Angelica if she really meant what she said. She tells them, "Get real!" and splashes them with rainwater.
- Mouthscreen: After Drew found his home-office, equipment and work-papers wrecked by Angelica, a close-up shot of Drew's mouth shouting out "ANGELICA!" comes right on cue.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Angelica regrets running away when she sees Drew laughing with Stu and Didi, believing him to be happy that she ran away.
- Parental Obliviousness: Neither Drew nor Charlotte are aware that Angelica ran away from her house. At one point, Charlotte is about to check on Angelica, but before she can open the door to her bedroom, she gets a phone call from Jonathan.
- Police Are Useless: Two cops see Angelica driving her car down the sidewalk, but they think nothing of it. One of them even eats a donut.
- Pushover Parents: Zig-zagged; at the beginning of this episode, Drew punishes Angelica by sending her to her room, even going as far as not to fall for for any of her "sweet, apologetic child" tricks, and he feels proud of himself for doing so. Near the end of the episode, after Angelica reveals to Drew that she ran away and apologizes for everything she did, Drew tells her he didn't even know she ran away and that her he'll love her no matter what.
- The Runaway: In this episode, Angelica runs away because Drew punishes her for wrecking his office equipment, claiming that he'll be sorry. She stops by Tommy's house, and later sees her dad laughing with Tommy's parents, thinking he's happy she ran away. He didn't even know she was gone.
- Shout-Out: Angelica appears to be watching Gilligan's Island before the power goes off.
- Toilet Humor: This exchange from the babies as it starts to rain:Chuckie: We better get inside before we get wet!
Phil: [patting his diaper] I'm already wet!
Lil: [also patting her diaper] Me too!
[Phil and Lil giggle as they run away.] - Vanity License Plate: The license plate on Angelica's toy car reads "ANGEL1."
- Was Too Hard on Her: Charlotte asks Drew if he was too hard on punishing Angelica, and he responds that she's mature enough to handle it. Or so he thinks.
