The eighth episode of the third season of Rugrats (1991).
The Last Babysitter:
Alisa, Susie's older sister, gets a job babysitting Tommy and Susie when Tommy stays over at Susie's house.
Sour Pickles:
Lou tells a story of when Stu and Drew were babies.
"The Last Babysitter" provides examples of:
- Accidental Hero: Susie and Tommy unknowingly bust Buster and Sticky's scare prank while searching for monsters.
- An Aesop: Babysitting is a big responsibility and should be taken seriously.
- Babysitting Episode: Alisa gets a job babysitting Tommy and Susie in this episode.
- Big Brother Instinct: Played with.
- Subverted with Buster. He offers to investigate the basement because allegedly he wants to be sure his siblings and Tommy are safe. Neither of them are aware that he's actually doing it to sabotage Alisa's babysitting job.
- Susie provides an inversion; she wants to help Alisa find the monster that's been haunting the Carmichael house because she knows how much her babysitting job means to her.
- Bland-Name Product: When Susie catches what she thinks is a monster, it is really a Hoober vacuum cleaner.
- Character Check: Likely due to the focus on her older siblings, Susie comes off as less precocious and just as naive and superstituous as Tommy, much like she was in her first appearance.
- Cat Scare: At one point, Susie and Tommy get a jump after they accidentally step on Susie's cat, Chowder. Then another noise happens, a nervous Susie insists it must have been Chowder again.
- Double Agent: Buster acts as is he doesn't know what's going on around Alisa. This is all part of his plan to get back at her for making Sticky, his friend, go home.
- Furniture Blockade: After the monster chases Buster out of the basement, he and the Carmichael kids prop the door with a coffee table.
- Go to Your Room!: After Alisa uncovers Buster's ruse, she puts Buster to bed early.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: In Alisa's bedroom, there is a poster of MC Pliers.
- Phone Aholic Teenager: Alisa. At the beginning of the episode, she is seen talking to her friend, Rebecca.
- Power Outage Plot: While Alisa babysits the younger kids, Buster and Sticky cut the power as part of their plan to prank Alisa.
- The Reveal: It is revealed in this episode that Susie has a pet cat named Chowder.
- Something We Forgot: The Carmichael kids trap the monster in the basement by propping the door with a coffee table. After Alisa tucks Susie and Tommy in, Randy is confused as to why it's there.
- Stranger Behind the Mask: The monster that haunts the Carmichael house is Sticky, Buster's friend. It is revealed when he loses the wig from Buster's Halloween costume the previous year.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Susie and Tommy find what they think is the monster's hair. Alisa discovers that it's the wig Buster used for his last Halloween costume, and she plays along with it for their sake (while making clear Buster won't be so lucky...)
- That Poor Cat: As Tommy and Susie climb the stairs, a cat yowl can be heard. It is then revealed that the cat is Chowder, Susie's pet cat, and that she accidentally stepped on his tail.
- To Serve Man: At least one of the monsters in Susie's book.Susie: This is Numerid, he eats bones.
Tommy: Like a dog?
Susie: (grimly) No Tommy. Not like a dog. (Tommy gulps) But don't worry, he lives on another planet! I don't think he ever comes down here! - Token Black Friend: Inverted with Tommy, and Sticky who is Buster's white friend.
"Sour Pickles" provides examples of:
- The '50s: The flashback was set around 1959 or 1960, where Baby Drew and Baby Stu are watching a parody of Rocky and Bullwinkle which premiered as Rocky & His Friends in 1959, Grandpa Lou is trying to fix an Edzell (a spoof on the infamous Edsel released by Ford around that time), jingles are used in ads, Young Lou was working for the Estes Kefauver campaign, Dwight D. Eisenhower is President, and Lou mentions Peyton Place and Lawrence Welk.
- '50s Hair: Lou and Baby Drew both sport similar hairstyles that look like they take up a lot of Bryllcrem, a hairdo that Drew wears into his adulthood in The '90s.
- An Aesop: Don’t fight and bicker especially if you have children; your child would want to do the same with their brother or sister. Monkey see monkey do.
- The Alleged Car: Lou's customer Mr. Namby drives an Edzell, which unfortunately breaks down in front of his store. Despite Lou's best attempts, it ends up having to be towed away.
- Ambiguous Time Period: The exact year the flashback takes place in is never mentioned, but it's clearly set around 1959 or 1960, given Stu and Drew's ages, the Rocky & Bullwinkle parody, the aforementioned Edzell car, and mention of President Eisenhower.
- Anachronism Stew:
- There are parodies of The Flintstones and The Jetsons which came out in the early Sixties. (Though The Flintstones premiered in 1960, it's clear the flashback takes place before the fall of 1960.) Peyton Place is also mentioned, which didn't premiere until 1964.
- A newscast mentions Dwight D. Eisenhower covering up the U-2 incident which happened in 1960. Though the exact year is not mentioned in the flashback (just that it's around 1959-60), this could be an aversion.
- Answer Cut: At one point in Lou's story, Baby Drew breaks a vase with Baby Stu's toy rocket ship after Baby Stu kicks his cash register, having been forced to play Haggle until the next episode of Blocky and Oxwinkle. Before the rest of the story begins, there's this exchange;Didi: So what happened next, Pop?
Lou: Well, I was angrier than a swarm of hornets. It was time to teach 'em a lesson.
Angelica: What'd you do, Grandpa? Push 'em in the mud? Make 'em eat bugs? Put itching powder in their diapers?
Lou: Nope. Something much worse...
(flashback to Lou switching off the television set)
Past Lou: No more Blocky and Oxwinkle!
(Stu and Drew bawl in horror) - Berserk Button: Stu doesn't like when Drew bad-mouths his inventions, or as Drew puts it, when he believes he's putting his inventions down.
- Blame Game: Stu and Drew blame each other for starting the fight that got Block and Oxwinkle forbidden. This extends into present day when they're adults:Drew: Well if you hadn't kicked my cash register, I wouldn't have thrown your rocket!Stu: Oh yeah? Well if you hadn't made me play that dumb game, I wouldn't-Lou: DAGNABBIT, WILL YOU TWO CUT IT OUT!
- Bland-Name Product: Mr. Namby drives an Edzell whose name spoofs Edsel, a heavily marketed lemon from the Ford Motor Company.
- Book Ends: This episode begins and ends with a view through Angelica's kaleidoscope.
- Casting Gag: June Foray, who was the voice of Rocky and Natasha Fatale in Rocky and Bullwinkle, provided the voices of Blocky and Svetlana in this episode.
- Creative Closing Credits: Lou's Magic Wrench jingle plays during the closing credits..
- Doom It Yourself: Lou's attempt to fix Mr. Namby's Edzell ends this way, leaving it in a shape worse than before he tinkered with it.Lou: Did I mention I'm not a real mechanic?
- Epic Fail: Lou's Magic Wrench repair business isn't as successful as the name implies. He has a tricky time repairing an old-fashion adding machine, a jukebox he had in his store shorted out almost immediately upon playing, he causes a television to lose a signal when he fiddles with its antenna, and he's unable to repair a car, though in that case, he's not actually a mechanic.
- Generation Xerox: Baby Stu sounds and acts just like a more standoffish version of Tommy. Drew as a toddler is essentially a Composite Character of Angelica and Chuckie, a pushy but otherwise nerdy older kid, trying to force Stu to play pretentious games but lacking any intimidation factor.
- Got Volunteered: After setting the trampoline in place, Stu tells Drew to be careful, to which Drew assures him it's not that high a jump, before adding that Stu was the one going anyway.
- Grenade Hot Potato: In one episode of Blocky and Oxwinkle, Uri and Svetlana tried to blow up the two title characters with a Time Bomb, leading to this exchange;Blocky: Hey, Mister. You left your clock in the middle of the street. Good thing we conveniently showed up to return it to you before someone runs over it.
(Uri and Svetlana toss the time bomb back and forth until it explodes.) - It Runs in the Family: Lou running a repair shop when he was younger may have been what inspired Stu to become an inventor, and Stu using tools all the time can be linked to why Tommy's Iconic Item is his screwdriver.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Angelica selfishly refuses to let Tommy play with her kaleidoscope throughout the episode, but at the end, when she sees Stu and Drew make up after an argument, she gives it to Tommy and lets him use it.
- Malaproper: Stu refers to President Eisenhower as "Weisenhimer", and later the news reporter refers to him as "Weisenhimer" as well before correcting himself.
- Monochrome Past: Lou's flashback is shown in black and white.
- Percussive Maintenance:
- When Baby Stu and Baby Drew look for another TV to watch Blocky and Oxwinkle on, they finally find one, but the picture is fuzzy. Baby Stu then punches the TV, and it works just fine. When Lou finds out that that TV is working, he moves the antenna, which makes the picture fuzzy again.
- Earlier, the drawer to Drew's toy cash register gets stuck. Stu gives it a good smack and the drawer opens.
- Self-Serving Memory: We had several accounts from the two brothers in past episodes of the other tormenting them. Here we see an unbiased flashback, which shows they were both equally argumentative and rambunctious. Counts for Stu especially, who had several bitter accounts of Drew being a Big Brother Bully, but if anything is most liable to fly off the handle or start fights here (eg. violently kicking Drew's toy cash register, which both his past and present versions consider standing up against Drew for making him play a somewhat dull game).
- Shout-Out:
- The Rocky and Bullwinkle parody, obviously. And the parodies of The Flintstones and The Jetsons.
- The jingle for Lou's business sounds a lot like the theme song for ''The Donna Reed Show''
. - Lou mentions Lawrence Welk and Peyton Place.
- Show Within a Show: The Blocky and Oxwinkle Show, which is an Affectionate Parody of Rocky and Bullwinkle. To a lesser extent, The Dimstones and The Stetsons, which are parodies of The Flintstones and The Jetsons, respectively.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Baby Stu and Baby Drew are grounded by Lou, and are not allowed to watch Blocky and Oxwinkle. When Baby Stu plans to break out, he boasts that not even President Weisenheimer can stop him. When they accidentally turn on the TV's built-in radio trying to find the TV function, the news announcer on the other end is doing a report on Eisenhower, but slips up with "Weisenheimer" at first.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: The bickering between the two siblings in present day is started by Stu accusing Drew of constantly badmouthing his inventions. Drew denies this, but when Stu won't stop hassling him, he makes a low blow:Stu: You've never said a nice thing about my inventions.Drew: Okay, they're more fun than a root canal!Stu: *outraged* My inventions are great!
- Time Bomb: Baby Stu and Baby Drew watch an episode of Blocky and Oxwinkle where Uri and Svetlana plan to blow the two title characters up with one. Their plan failed because Blocky mistook the time bomb for a clock and gave it back to them.
- Title Drop: When Lou sees the mess Baby Stu and Baby Drew made, he cries "Why you rambunctious little rugrats!".
- To Be Continued: A Show Within a Show example; Baby Stu and Baby Drew watch an episode of Blocky and Oxwinkle where the two title characters drive their car towards a level crossing a train is about to cross, and the dialogue implies that Uri had sabotaged their car brakes. The words, "To Be Continued" appear onscreen, and thanks to Lou, Baby Stu and Baby Drew didn't get to see the next episode. In the present day, Stu and Drew finally get to see what happened; Blocky and Oxwinkle make it across the level crossing before the train can hit their car.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Lou flashes back to his old 50s learning that his sons caused trouble at their own infancy.
- Written-In Absence: Lou mentioned that his wife was out of town in the flashback.
