The eleventh episode of the fifth season of Rugrats (1991).
Journey to the Center of the Basement
The babies go to the basement to retrieve Chuckie's Reptar Junior toy from the "mole people".
A Very McNulty Birthday
When Timmy McNulty doesn't let the girls into his birthday party because he thinks they have cooties, the girls get their revenge.
"Journey to the Center of the Basement" provides examples of:
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Chuckie gets his foot stuck between some rocks (in reality, the lever to Chas' water main), and the other babies have to pull him out.
- Imagine Spot: As the babies search the baesement for Reptar Junior, they imagine themselves as explorers in a dark cave.
- Malaproper: Phil mispronounces "eternity" as "paternity".
- Rope Bridge: One is featured in the babies' fantasy. In reality, it is a fallen ladder.
- Running Gag: The plumber Chaz talks to on the phone repeatedly asks if they could come over to check out the situation several times throughout the episode, only for Chaz to always turn down the offer, insisting he can handle it by himself.
- Shout-Out: This episode's title is a reference to the 1864 Jules Verne Science Fiction novel, Journey to the Center of the Earth.
- Tempting Fate: Tommy manages to frighten away a mole person (in reality, a mouse) with his helmet's light, and not long after he and his friends cheer upon discovering this, the light goes out.
"A Very McNulty Birthday" provides examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: The episode begins with a close-up of what looks like leaves in the rain. However, it is soon revealed to be the design on Didi's umbrella.
- Birthday Episode: Timmy celebrates his birthday in this episode.
- Correlation/Causation Gag: Tommy and Phil give everyone infected with the cooties lollipops, believing the lollipops will cure them. Everyone sucks on the lollipops as the rain washes off the green finger paint, believing the plan to work.
- Girls Have Cooties: Timmy doesn't allow the girls to play party games with him, and tells them they have cooties. Tommy and Chuckie, who don't understand what cooties are, try to cure them. Meanwhile, the girls get back at Timmy by pretending they really do have cooties.
- Girls vs. Boys Plot: When Timmy refuses to let Angelica, Susie, and Lil play, claiming they have cooties, the girls get back at him by covering themselves with green finger-paint.
- Hazmat Suit: When Chuckie worries that he and Tommy are going to catch the cooties if they get too close to the girls, Tommy suggests that they wear special clothes like the doctors on TV. Tommy and Chuckie dress themselves in footie pajamas that respectively belong to Teddy and Terry, as well as caps with goggles.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Timmy and his brothers refuse to let the girls play with them and convince Tommy, Chuckie (until he touches the girls' paint), and Phil to do the same.
- Karmic Trickster: Angelica hatches a scheme to trick the boys after they were excluded from playing games by pretending that their "cooties" are contagious with some green finger paint to add to the illusion.
- Kindness Ball: Angelica works with Susie and Lil to get back at Timmy being mean to them simply because they're girls and even lets Chuckie in on their scheme when the boys shun him.
- Noodle Incident: When Didi complains to Colleen about the rainstorm outside, Colleen tells her that on Timmy's birthday last year, there was a monsoon that washed everything away, including a pony she rented.
- Post-Treatment Lollipop: Discussed. Tommy finds a bag of lollipops and explains to Phil that he gets one whenever Didi takes him to the doctor. This leads Tommy to believe that lollipops can cure diseases.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: After the boys are convinced the girls have become contagious monsters, Chuckie, having touched their paint, is kicked out of the party by Timmy. After explaining what has happened, Angelica convinces Chuckie to join them in infecting the others so they can hijack the other party guests from Timmy.
- Team Rocket Wins: A rare case where one of Angelica's schemes actually works, though since it's against the even meaner Timmy, she's more in Karmic Trickster mode here.
