The nineteenth episode of the third season of Rugrats.
Chuckie's Red Hair:
Chuckie dyes his hair black after getting sick of adults calling him names, but he soon finds that no one notices him anymore.
Spike Runs Away:
When Spike runs away, Stu and Didi try to find a new pet for Tommy.
"Chuckie's Red Hair" provides examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: The grown-ups call Chuckie names such as "Red-head", "Carrot-top", and "Little French Fry With Ketchup on it". Unfortunately, Chuckie doesn't see these nicknames as affectionate.
- An Aesop: Don’t feel bad because you are different; everyone is different in certain ways.
- Gone Horribly Right: Chuckie dyes his hair black to avoid unwanted attention from grown-ups. Unfortunately, his plan works a little too well, as nobody notices him with his black hair. Chuckie even gets upset when Angelica doesn't pick on him like she did with the other babies.
- Human Ladder: The babies form one when they get cookies from the cookie jar.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Angelica at first seems to comfort Chuckie by stating that the giraffe's long neck allows it to eat leaves from tall trees, that the polar bear's white fur allows it to blend into its icy surroundings, and the elephant's giant stature allows it to trample plants underfoot. But then she claims that Chuckie's red hair makes him a freak.
- My Hair Came Out Green: Chuckie gets tired of getting unwanted attention from his red hair, so he uses Grandpa Lou's black hair dye. Unfortunately, he soon sees that nobody seems to notice he exists without it. Eventually, Chuckie breaks down sobbing, and he begins ranting at how he misses his red hair. However, the exposure to the sun begins to melt the black dye away, leaving Chuckie's red hair underneath. The other babies tell Chuckie this, who rushes to a puddle and looks at his reflection and to his joy he's a redhead again. Grandpa Lou on the other hand, is less than happy as the sun also turned his hair as bright red as Chuckie's. Didi chalks it up to buying hair dye off of an infomercial.
- Name One: When Chuckie is complaining about his red hair, Tommy tries to cheer him up by saying a lot of famous people had red hair. When Chuckie invites him to give an example, Tommy says Bozo the Clown. Unfortunately, this doesn't help to make Chuckie feel better, in part because of his fear of clowns.
- Status Quo Is God: Chuckie dyes his hair black when he gets a hold of Lou's hair dye. Exposure to the sun turns his hair red again.
- Walk Through the Camera: Betty does this when she drops Phil and Lil off at Tommy's house.
"Spike Runs Away" provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: The owner of the animal shelter mistakenly calls Spike "Spot".
- An Aesop: Make sure your home is secure and locked so your pets won’t run off.
- Artistic License – Animal Care: Defanging a tarantula is exceedingly cruel, as they need their fangs to eat.
- Black Comedy Pet Death: Stu gets Tommy Terry the Tarantula as his second replacement pet, but since no one informed Lou of Terry's presence, Lou thinks Terry is a pest and kills him.
- A Boy and His X: Tommy's relationship with Spike is best summed up as this in this episode. Not only is Tommy devastated when he finds out that Spike isn't coming back, but several flashback sequences show Tommy and Spike doing things that dogs do together, such as sniffing bushes and eating from Spike's food bowl. When Stu and Didi try to get Tommy a new pet, none of them make Tommy happy the way Spike did, Cuddles the Poodle being the worst one of all.
- Cartoon Creature: In this episode, Spike is revealed to be a fictional breed of dog called a Siberian Tiger Hound, which in-universe is an extremely rare and highly valuable breed of dog worth thousands of dollars.
- Conspiracy Theorist: When Stu goes to a pet store to buy a new pet for Tommy, the owner is a New-Age Retro Hippie dissuades Stu from buying a turtle by alluding to "grim" stories about "vicious" turtles that are being kept out of the media by the "turtle lobby".
- Dogs Are Dumb: While not an extreme example of this trope, Spike does set this episode's events in motion by running away in the rain to chase a cricket.
- Eat the Camera: At one point in a montage of Cuddles terrorizing the babies, Cuddles jumps up and snarls towards the camera with her mouth engulfing the screen.
- Exploding Calendar: When Tommy assures Chuckie that Spike will be back soon, the next scene shows several pages flying off a calendar.
- Explosive Breeder: Two weeks after Tanya and Rupert go missing, Tommy and Chuckie go to the basement. When they tun on the light, the floor is littered with thousands of newborn gerbils.Stu: Didi! Come quick! The gerbils have reproduced!
- Face-Revealing Turn: When Didi drives across the neighborhood to look for Spike, she, Tommy, and Chuckie find what looks like Spike digging through a trash can. When they drive up to the dog, it turns to growl at them, and is revealed to have a scary-looking face.
- Friendly Neighborhood Spider: Terry the Tarantula. Although Didi finds him creepy, Stu assures her that he isn't poisonous, and has even been defanged, so he can't bite. When Tommy tries to teach Terry how to fetch his ball, Terry crawls into Lou's bedroom and inadvertently frightens a sleeping Lou. Lou, having not been informed of Terry's presence, kills him, wraps him in a wad of tissues, and tosses him into a trash can.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: An extreme close-up of gerbil feces is shown when Tommy and Chuckie think that the "presents" Tanya and Rupert left them are the kind you get for Christmas or your birthday.
- Hypocritical Humor: This exchange when Stu and Didi discuss getting a new pet for Tommy;Didi: Parrots are supposed to be nice.
Stu: Nah, I heard they live to be over 100. Who wants something that old hanging around the house?
(Lou walks into the kitchen.)
Lou: Hey, anyone seen my truss?
Didi: Good point. - Literal-Minded: When Didi complains that she keeps finding Tanya and Rupert's "presents", Tommy and Chuckie believe those presents to be the kind you get for Christmas or your birthday. It turns out the presents Didi was referring to were gerbil feces.
- Lost Pet Grievance: Tommy gets upset when Spike runs away, as the two have had many good times together. Stu and Didi try to cheer Tommy up by buying him a new pet, but every replacement pet is met with dead-ends. Tommy eventually comes to accept that Spike is happy wherever he is now, but on that very night, Spike is found by a rich man named Winston St. George and returned to Tommy's house, which makes Tommy happy again.
- Mistaken for Stray: After Spike runs away from the Pickles' house, he is found by a rich man named Winston St. George, who wanted to keep him for the purpose of breeding (as Spike is a rare (but fictional) Siberian Tiger Hound worth thousands), but returned him to Stu and Didi upon seeing their poster.
- Noodle Incident:
- After Spike runs away, Stu tells Didi that he has done this before, such as the time he followed Mr. Henson back to his house, and the time he chased the Johnsons' cat to the Sixth Street Fish Market.
- When Stu and Didi discuss trying to get a new pet for Tommy, Stu tells Didi that he had an eight-foot boa constrictor as a kid that nearly ate Drew once.
- Psycho Poodle: The first replacement pet is Cuddles, a very aggressive poodle belonging to Mr. Fillihulster, one of their neighbors. Cuddles constantly barks and growls angrily at Tommy and Chuckie, breaks his toys, steals any time he might have had with Stu and Didi from him, and demands they give her what food they do have. According to Didi, when Mr. Fillihulster took her back, she bit him the minute she got inside the door. Tommy sums her up best:Tommy: Chuckie, I knew Spike! Spike was a friend of mine! And let me tell you something, that poople is no Spike!
- Stu isn't too far behind Tommy, with Cuddles biting at and tearing off his pant leg after having to get her a large bag of dog food:
Stu: Dumb dog eats better than we do.
Didi: Stu, have you noticed that Tommy and Cuddles don't seem to be, well... bonding?
Stu: "Bonding? Who could bond with that?" - Replacement Goldfish: Throughout the episode, Stu and Didi try to get a new pet for Tommy when Spike runs away (an aggressive poodle, a tarantula, two gerbils). Suffice to say, all of their attempts turn out to be futile.
- Rule of Three: Stu and Didi attempt to get Tommy three new pets to replace Spike, in the respective forms of Cuddles the poodle, Terry the tarantula, and Tanya and Rupert the gerbils. None of their attempts cheer Tommy up the way Spike did. Chuckie lampshades this when Tanya and Rupert run away after Tommy opens the door to their cage.Chuckie: Boy, we're not having good luck with all these aminals, are we?
- Shout-Out: Tommy's speech regarding Cuddles paraphrases a remark made during the 1988 United States vice-presidential debate by Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis' vice-presidential running mate Senator Lloyd Bentsen to Republican vice-presidential candidate Senator Dan Quayle.
- Spiders Are Scary: Stu buys Tommy a pet tarantula named Terry, whom Didi finds creepy. Stu assures her that Terry isn't poisonous, and has even been defanged so he can't bite. When Tommy opens the door to his cage, Terry crawls into Lou's bedroom, where he frightens a sleeping Lou, who kills him, wraps him in a wad of tissues, and tosses him into a trash can.
- Toilet Humor: Didi, while cleaning up, complains that despite the gerbils being gone for days, they still left plenty of "presents" behind. Cue Gilligan Cut to a closeup of gerbil feces, with Tommy and Chuckie complaining that it's not the presents they wanted.
- Tropey, Come Home: Soike runs away in the rain, leading to a fruitless search for him and kickstarting the events of the episode.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: Cuddles had to be returned to Mr. Fillihulster because she was mean to the babies, Grandpa squished Terry, and Tanya and Rupert run away, poop in the house, and give birth to way Too Many Babies.
- Volumetric Mouth: Tommy does this
◊ when he cries over missing Spike. - Walk Into Camera Obstruction: Stu does this when he brings Terry to Tommy and Chuckie.
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