The sixteenth episode of the fourth season of Rugrats (1991).
Angelica Orders Out
Angelica finds Stu's voice-changing invention, the Pickles Voice Frequency Modulator 5000, and imitates her mother's voice to get what she wants.
"Angelica Orders Out" provides examples of:
- An Aesop:
- Never take advantage of the elderly for your own selfish gain. It's greedy.
- Be careful where you leave your belongings.
- Lying will always get you nowhere, because every lie you tell covers up every previous lie called a web of lies.
- Big Eater: Angelica uses the PVFM5K to pretend to be Charlotte and order all the available desserts from Zippy's Deli. She then stuffs her face.
- Bittersweet Ending: For Lou. He has his teeth taken away as punishment for falling asleep while he was supposed to be watching Tommy and Angelica. However, he gets to enjoy some flan from Zippy's.
- Brick Joke: Didi warned Lou that if he let the kids have any sweets, she'd confiscate his dentures. Sure enough, at the end of the episode, Lou ends up eating flan toothless.
- Cast as a Mask: A variation; When Angelica (voiced by Cheryl Chase) speaks into the PVFM5K, she sounds exactly like Charlotte, complete with Tress MacNeille doing the distorted voice.
- Continuity Nod: Didi mentions to Lou that she's trying to take care of the babies' teeth, which was her plan in a previous episode, "Ransom of Cynthia," when it's revealed that Angelica had a cavity after her last visit to the dentist.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment:
- Didi takes Lou's dentures away as punishment for falling asleep and not keeping a closer eye on the kids.
- At the end of the episode, after discovering what Angelica had done behind her aunt and uncle's back, Charlotte punishes her daughter by forcing her to eat the flan she ordered from Zippy's (Angelica ended up not liking the flan).
- Denied Food as Punishment: An inversion—Charlotte punishes Angelica by making her eat all the flan she ordered from Zippy's as punishment for ordering sweets against Didi's wishes. Angelica doesn't like the flan and refuses to eat it—Lou (who has his teeth taken away as his punishment for falling asleep and not watching Tommy and Angelica) eats some himself.
- Does Not Like Spam: Angelica is revealed to dislike both baked apples and flan in this episode.
- Engineered Public Confession: A variant; Angelica had used the PVFM5K to get several things, such as sweets, a Cynthia dollhouse (that her father promised to get if she was well behaved), and a faux surprise party for her. When Tommy's parents came home, they were about to take away Lou's teeth (as they threatened to do so if he didn't supervise the kids), Angelica attempts to quell it, with Tommy activating the PVFM5K and placing it right near her mouth while she is speaking, causing them to realize just how Angelica managed to trick them big time. Needless to say, she has to eat the stuff (specifically flan, which she doesn't like) she ordered as punishment, and Stu puts away the PVFM5K in a safe, stating that some things were better off not being invented.
- I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Inverted. Angelica orders flan from Zippy's, but she isn't too crazy about it when she actually tries some. Even less so when Charlotte forces her to eat the flan as a punishment.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Larry gets a job as a delivery boy for Zippy's Snappy Home Delivery in this episode.
- Not Helping Your Case: When Angelica attempts to order cookies from "Zippy's Deli" herself when Grandpa Lou refuses to, Larry skeptically asks for her age, and she nervously answers "I'm...practically six! Uh, nine!"
- Pretending to Be One's Own Relative: Angelica uses the PVFM5k to imitate her mother Charlotte over the phone to order sweets from Zippy's, make Drew buy her an expensive Cynthia playhouse, and trick the other adults into throwing her a surprise birthday party (even though Angelica's birthday was five or six months ago). She also holds a picture of Didi against the mail slot when Larry drops off the food she ordered from Zippy's.
- Senior Sleep-Cycle: After lunch, Lou falls asleep (as usual) after telling Tommy the story of the first time he ate baked apples with his grandfather. This leads to Angelica ordering sweets against Didi's wishes.
- Voice Changeling: Stu's new voice modulator makes Angelica sound exactly like Charlotte, which Angelica exploits the hell out of in the episode. First, when Larry declines her delivery order for cookies due to her age, then to get Drew to buy her an expensive Cynthia playhouse, and finally to trick the other adults into thinking she's having a surprise birthday party.
- The World Is Not Ready: After all the trouble Angelica causes with the PVFM5K, Stu locks it in a safe, saying to Tommy that it's one invention mankind isn't ready for.
Let It Snow
When the Pickles decide to take their Christmas card photograph early, the babies try to make it snow so that Santa will know it's Christmas.
"Let it Snow" provides examples of:
- Brick Joke: As Didi looks through a photo album of the previous year's Christmas photos, she finds that Stu could never hold still in any of them. At the end of the episode, when Lou takes pictures of the Pickles family, Stu once again can't keep still in any of the photos, except the last one, which Didi doesn't hold still in when she scolds Stu.
- Call-Back: When trying to come up with an idea to make it snow, Tommy brings up the events of "The Blizzard."
- Christmas in July: The Pickles family decide to set up a picture for their Christmas Card in August, leading the babies to believe that Christmas is coming.
- Christmas Songs: The babies sing their garbled version of Christmas carols to let Santa know that it’s Christmas.
- Contrived Coincidence: Stu does the laundry and leaves a new box of laundry soap on top of the washing machine. Near the end of the episode, just as Tommy turns on the air conditioner, the box of soap falls off the washing machine and gets caught in the air conditioner, causing it to snow.
- Correlation/Causation Gag: As soon as the babies make it “snow”, Grandpa Lou comes downstairs dressed as Santa - this reaffirms their theory that Santa Claus would show up if the snow reminded him that it’s Christmas.
- Creative Closing Credits: Christmas music plays during the closing credits.
- Diaper Check: The babies try to sing Christmas carols in an attempt to remind Santa that Christmas is coming. Because they can't talk, let alone sing, Didi thinks there's something wrong with them. She checks Tommy's diaper to see if it needs to be changed, but fortunately, it's clean.
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: Because snow means Christmas, the babies decide to make it snow to get Santa to come. This is easier said than done, considering it’s August.
- Human Ladder: Tommy and Chuckie form one in an attempt to turn on the thermostat. Stu catches them in the act and stops them before they fall over.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Stu is excited to spend all day watching the weather channel.Stu: Well, I better get back to the TV. They’re about to show the precipitation charts for the whole coast!
- Last-Second Photo Failure: When Didi looks through an album of last year's Christmas photos, she finds that Stu could never hold still in any of them. At the end of the episode, when Lou takes pictures of the Pickles family, Stu once again can't keep still in any of the photos, except for the last one, which Didi doesn't hold still in when she scolds Stu.
- Let There Be Snow: Believing Christmas to be coming early, the babies try to make it snow. They even try to ask the weatherman on TV to make it snow, believing him to have control of the weather. It eventually does end up "snowing" due to Stu's box of laundry soap spilling into in the air conditioner.
- Literal-Minded: Besides the babies thinking that Christmas is coming early, they believe that the weatherman has the ability to control the weather, rather than forecast it.
- Malaproper: The babies mispronounce envelope as "antelope", air conditioner as "hair conditioner", Michigan as "Mishagots" and thermostat as "thermosplat". They also believe that a "Hair Conditioner" is called such because the cold air blows their hair.
- Noodle Incident: In the previous year's photos for their Christmas card, Stu could never hold still in them.
- Shout-Out: The Pickles are donating toys to the “Good Samaritan Army”, a reference to the Salvation Army.
- Snowy Sleigh Bells: The babies hear these and think Santa’s coming, but it ends up being the bells on Lou’s boots.
