The ninth episode of the third season of Rugrats (1991).
Reptar 2010:
The babies imagine their own endings for a Reptar movie after Stu's VCR eats the tape.
Stu Gets a Job:
Tommy feels lonely when Stu starts working at Consolidated Lard, so he tries to keep him from going to work.
"Reptar 2010" provides examples of:
- Artistic License – Paleontology: The movie claims dinosaurs ruled the Earth fifty-thousand years ago (they're off by millions of years) and that Tyrannosaurus rex was the "hugest dinosaur" (especially jarring considering the most famous sauropods like Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus were bigger).
- Art Shift: The opening of the movie exhibits one with its prehistoric setting being done in a more realistic, colored pencil-esque style. Made more noticeable when the T-Rex fades into Reptar, who is drawn in the show's usual style.
- Big Applesauce: The titular movie appears to take place in New York City, as evidenced by the many landmarks found there, including the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, and even the World Trade Center.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: At one point, Reptar wrecks a skyscraper with the Viacom logo on it, Viacom being the company that owns Nickelodeon, MTV, and Paramount.
- Cryo-Prison: Reptar is kept in one when he is taken to the year 2010. He breaks free from it and wreaks havoc.
- Cut Short: An in-universe example; Stu's VCR eats the VHS tape of the titular movie just before the ending, inspiring the babies to imagine their own endings. Lou manages to fix the tape near the end of the episode.
- Imagine Spot: The babies imagine their own endings to Reptar 2010, visualizing themselves as Reptar look-alikes of their human counterparts.
- "King Kong" Climb: In Angelica's fantasy, King Kong is seen climbing the Empire State Building, until Angelica picks him up and tosses him away.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: In Chuckie's fantasy, Chuckie hides from the President and the Professor by posing as the Statue of Liberty, leading to this exchange;President: Wow, the Statue of Lizardy sure looks big close up.
Professor: Yeah, and green, too.
(Beat)
President and Professor: The Statue of LIZARDY?! - Our Presidents Are Different: The President in the Reptar 2010 movie is a generic-looking one very different from the actual President in 2010.
- Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: Inverted when the babies imagine themselves as Reptar. Tommy and Phil wear their normal clothes, and Chuckie wears his shorts albeit in a different color pattern. Lil and Angelica wear nothing underneath their dress and skirt, respectively.
- "Rashomon"-Style: The babies imagine their own endings to Reptar 2010 after Stu's VCR eats the tape. Each of them believes that Reptar would do something that they themselves would likely do if they were in that situation; Chuckie believes he'd run away and find a somewhere to hide, Phil and Lil think that he'd play in the sewers, Angelica assumes that he'd boss everyone around to get what he wants, and Tommy thinks that he'd just want to have adventures.
- Take That!: One of the buildings that Reptar destroys is a skyscraper with the Viacom logo on it. This makes it Hilarious in Hindsight from the YouTube debacle years later.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The titular film takes place in the then-distant year of 2010.
- Vocal Dissonance: In Tommy's fantasy, when Phil tells Chuckie, "Oh, Chucktar, dont be such a dinosaur", he says it in Lil's voice.
"Stu Gets a Job" provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Never give up your dreams.
- Analogy Backfire: In this exchange:Stu: Deed, an inventor of my stature can't be worried about petty financial details. My mind has to be free to create!
Didi: Oh. Well, when does an inventor of your stature intend to finish this bubble thing?
Stu: Did Mozart's wife ask how long it would take to finish his requiem?
Didi: Stu, Mozart died without finishing his requiem.
Stu: Okay, bad example. - Escalating War: Tommy's efforts to keep Stu from going to work (throwing out his clothes, replacing his coffee with mud, etc.) are mistaken by Stu as pranks by Drew, after Stu's late on repaying a loan to Drew. Stu pranks Drew in response, leading to this exchange:Drew: I couldn't get to the office yesterday because someone had my car towed!
Stu: And I suppose I wore my disco suit to work yesterday just for kicks, huh?!
Drew: I don't know what you're talking about. But I bet you know something about the 50 pizzas I got the other day! - Exploding Closet: One of Tommy's attempts to keep Stu from going to work is by filling his closet with his toys. When Stu opens his closet, an avalanche of toys falls on him, and he believes that Drew filled his closet with toys as a prank.
- Gilligan Cut: Stu has taken a job outside of the house, and Chuckie warns Tommy that he won't be around so much anymore...Tommy: Chuckie, listen, maybe your dad goes to a job all day, maybe other peoples' daddies go to jobs all day, but not my daddy. He stays right here at home with me.
(cut to the driveway with Stu in the car saying goodbye to Tommy)
Stu: Bye, Tommy, daddy's off to the lard mines. - "Home Alone" Antics: Tommy sets up various traps to prevent Stu from leaving for work, later enlisting Chuckie, Phil and Lil to help him. Stu thinks that Drew's behind them all as revenge for being late on a loan repayment.
- It Tastes Like Feet: One of Tommy's attempts to keep Stu from going to work is replacing his coffee with mud, leading to this line from Stu:"This coffee tastes like mud!" (looks inside) "Ew, it is mud.''
- Mouth Cam: Used at the beginning of the episode, when Stu is eating potato chips and drinking cola as he watches an episode of The Dummi Bears.
- Noodle Incident:
- According to Stu, the last time Drew borrowed a book from him, namely a coloring book, he ate the cover. Drew protests that it happened when he was five.
- Chuckie mentions a couple that happened to his father: namely one time, he got his tie caught in the garbage disposal and in another, he accidentally locked himself in the bathroom.
- Ring-Ring-CRUNCH!: Discussed; Chuckie says that the first thing his dad does when he wakes up in the morning is throw the noisy clock against the wall.
- Rube Goldberg Device: Tommy builds one to trap Stu in a net and keep him from going to work.
- Rule of Three: Tommy attempts to keep Stu from going to work three times. In his first attempt, he fills his closet with his toys, in his second, he replaces his shampoo with honey, takes all of his clothes except his disco suit, and replaces his coffee with mud, and in the third, he traps him in a net.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In the B-plot of this episode, Drew tries to get Stu to repay him $120.00 he loaned him for a barbecue grill, though Stu insists that he paid Drew back last summer. He also mistakes Tommy's attempts to keep him from going to work as pranks from Drew when Drew got upset about it. Near the end of the episode, Didi reveals to Drew that Stu had mistaken a check for $120.00 he meant to give to Drew for a bookmark.
- Status Quo Is God: Stu gets a job at Consolidated Lard in this episode. Thanks to Tommy, he gets an idea to improve his Bubblerama 3000 and quits his job at Consolidated Lard to work on it.
- Walk Into Camera Obstruction: Stu does this when he is in his pajamas and goes into the closet to look for his clothes.
- Walk Through the Camera: Stu does this when he says, "Well, turnabout is fair play.".
- You Just Had to Say It: After accidentally giving Tommy an idea of using the net to prevent Stu from going to work, Chuckie says, "When am I ever gonna learn to keep my mouth shut?".
