The fourth episode of the eighth season of Rugrats (1991).
Quiet, Please
When Chuckie loses his library card, he thinks he lost his "window to the world" and the babies must find it.
Early Retirement
Angelica insists the babies "retire" so she can watch her show Cynthia P.I. (which apparently is airing a sweepstakes she entered) in peace, but it won't be easy for her in the least bit possible.
"Quiet, Please" provides examples of:
- Blind Without 'Em: The storyteller can't see anything without his glasses. When he loses them, Phil takes them to distract him so that they can look for Chuckie's missing library card.
- Brick Joke: Early in this episode, when Chas tells Chuckie that his new library card is his ticket to the world, Chuckie has imagine spots where he is a fish swimming in the sea, a saxophone player, and a martian floating through space. When Chuckie loses his library card later in the episode, he has imagine spots where he falls from space, down the ocean floor, and loses his saxophone and most of his clothes, leaving him in his underwear.
- Chekhov's Gag: Chuckie shows Lil a stain on his pants that he got from sitting on a blueberry. Near the end of the episode, Kimi spots Chuckie's missing library card, due to it having gotten stuck to the stain.
- Disproportionate Retribution: A small nick on the book Chas returns results in his card being confiscated and him being forced to re-alphabatize the library's card file, balance their budget and revise their Dewey Decimal system to get it back.
- Library Episode: The episode focuses on the babies going to the library and searching for Chuckie's lost library card, while Kimi accidentally ruins a book Chas is about to check out.
- Malaproper: The babies mispronounce library as "lieberry", believing it to be either a berry that makes you tell lies, or a giant berry you lie on like a bed.
- Noodle Incident: After Lil believes that a "lieberry" is a berry that you're supposed to lie on, Chuckie tells her about how one time he sat on a blueberry and he still has the stain on his pants to prove it.
- Trouser Space: When Chuckie explains to his friends the rule that no food is allowed in the library, he makes Phil and Lil hand over whatever food they have, and the twins pull large amounts of food from their diapers.
- Vocal Evolution: This is the first episode where Chuckie is voiced by Nancy Cartwright, following the retirement (and death twelve years later) of his original voice actress, Christine Cavanaugh. Cartwright gives Chuckie a more nasal voice.
"Early Retirement" provides examples of:
- Affirmative Action Girl: In the Cynthia P.I. special, Cynthia is a world-renowned circus performer and supermodel who solves crimes in her spare time. This should come as no surprise, as she's the show's equivalent to Barbie.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: At multiple points, the babies playing covers up the clues pointing to the diamond thief's identity in Cynthia P.I.
- When Cynthia finds a note from the diamond thief and goes to read it, she's covered up by noises from Tommy's farm animal tape, causing the engrossed Angelica to briefly think the thief was a cow.
- Then, Cynthia is being chased by a big, black truck and goes to read the car's Vanity License Plate, only to get cut off by Tommy's malfunctioning Randy Panda walking through repeating "I'm Randy Panda".
- Finally, Cynthia is just about to reveal the identity of the thief, Tommy accidentally steps on the remote, changing the channel to a weatherman introducing himself.
- Bland-Name Product: When the babies want to read books, only to find out none of them know how to read, they get Tommy's Randy Panda storytelling bear to tell them a story. Randy Panda is a spoof of the Teddy Ruxpin toy, and his name is likely a play on Andy Panda.
- Broken Record: Phil and Lil fight over Randy Panda when they try to change his station, resulting in Randy saying, "I'm Randy Panda!" on a continuous loop.
- Closest Thing We Got: The babies want to dance the "litterbug", but they don't have any music to dance to. The only tape cassette they have is of farm animal noises, so Tommy decides to improvise by dancing like his grandparents would if they were cows and pigs.
- Downer Ending: On Angelica's end, she misses the sweepstakes and the ending of her show thanks to the babies' antics.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Despite Angelica's efforts to ensure the babies stay quiet so she can watch her show, this does not stop them from making noise and disturbing her no matter what.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When the babies are jumping on the couch, alert viewers will notice the remote under Tommy's feet.
- His Name Is...: A non-fatal example. At the end of the Cynthia P.I. sweepstakes special Cynthia is about to reveal who stole the diamond ("And the thief is..."), but the TV switches to the weather channel right before she says the name, thanks to Tommy stepping on the remote while jumping on the couch.
- Hypocritical Humor: Stu walks through the living room while Angelica is watching her show and dismissively states that kids get hooked on the most mindless drivel... before realizing there's a car chase happening and getting so invested in a few short seconds that he asks Angelica to tell him how it ends when Didi calls him away.
- Loophole Abuse: When Angelica makes the babies retire by turning their playpen into a retirement home, she refuses to let them leave it. Tommy points out that Lou leaves his retirement home, and Angelica tells him he only does that to visit the babies. When the babies want to leave the playpen to play golf, they decide to visit Dil first.
- Malaproper: The babies mispronounce "jitterbug" as "litterbug".
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Tommy briefly gives this along with an "Oops?" after he accidentally stepped on the remote and changed the channel before Cynthia could say who the thief was, just before Angelica's Skyward Scream.
- Show Within a Show: Cynthia P.I., the show Angelica watches.
- Skyward Scream: Angelica screams a very loud and frustrated one when she misses the end of the special, which is apparently so loud it reaches the whole universe.
- Too Dumb to Live: Despite Angelica's objections, the babies continue to make noise when "retired" until she cannot take it anymore.
- Trouser Space: Dil chews up Angelica's ticket and Angelica needs the babies' help to find the missing pieces. Tommy finds the last piece in Dil's diaper, and manages to get it out before Dil poops in it.
- The Unreveal: We never find out a) who won the sweepstakes, and b) the name of the thief who stole the diamond at the end of the special.
