| Angelica Breaks a Leg | Gallery | Transcript |
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| Season 3 Episode 7b | |
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| Angelica Breaks a Leg | |
| Original Airdate | November 7, 1993 |
| DVD release | Season 3 Complete Series |
| Previous Episode | When Wishes Come True |
| Next Episode | The Last Babysitter |
"Angelica Breaks a Leg" is a Season 3 episode of Rugrats.
Characters Present[]
Characters Introduced[]
Synopsis[]
Craving attention while staying over at Tommy's for the weekend, Angelica feigns a broken leg. Her ruse works perfectly when Stu and Didi are at her beck and call... until she is taken to the doctors for an x-ray.
- Description from Klasky Csupo
Plot[]
Angelica is dropped off at Didi and Stu's while Charlotte and Drew go off on a week-long rafting trip; it's called "power rafting", and according to Charlotte, it helps with networking. Angelica quickly realizes that Didi, Stu, and Grandpa Lou all have things to do and Tommy takes a nap; thus, they don't give her nearly the amount of attention she feels she deserves. After seeing part of a soap opera of a woman making her boyfriend wait on her hand and foot because of her broken leg, Angelica pretends to fall down the stairs and break her leg so the family will give her more attention.
Despite Angelica's horrible acting abilities, Didi and Stu rush her to the emergency room. Although she should have been found fine, Angelica's extremely young doctor, Hoagie Dooser, can't keep track of her surname and mixes up her X-ray with that of Antonio Peaches. Because the other person does have a broken leg, Dr. Dooser believes Angelica's leg is truly broken and recommends a leg cast, despite Didi's insistence that she and Stu get a second opinion from a different doctor (preferably a veteran).
That evening at the Pickles' residence, Angelica is made comfortable in bed with her new cast. Stu has kindly set up a buzzer for Angelica to press whenever she wants something. She is briefly left alone with Tommy, who asks her if her leg is really broken. She admits it isn't and doesn't know why it ended up being put in a cast. She shows her buzzer to Tommy. When he asks what is does, she demonstrates by pressing the button and telling Aunt Didi she's tired of Tommy's company.
Day 1: Angelica eagerly abuses the buzzer and her supposed condition (as well as the potential guilt of the grownups) to have Didi and Stu wait on her hand and foot; they do minor tasks for her whenever she wants, such as getting a tissue and having her window adjusted. A major one is bringing the only TV in the house--"the big 27'' console downstairs", according to Stu--to Angelica's room.
Day 2: Stu is stressed and considers disconnecting the call buzzer, but Didi stops him, saying that Angelica needs their care. The buzzer rings again, and it's Didi's turn. Angelica has Didi tell her a story about an angel named Angelica.
Late at night, Angelica wakes Stu up to demand chocolate pudding. Stu refuses at first because it's 3:00am and there's none in the house. However, he soon finds himself at the nearest open convenience store for pudding. The clerk tells Stu they don't have any more of the pre-made pudding, but they do have pudding mix. Didi walks into the kitchen to see Stu making the pudding at 4:00 AM. When she asks why he's doing this, he tells her that it is because he's lost control of his life. Stu takes a bowl of freshly made chocolate pudding up to Angelica, who instantly states she's not hungry anymore. Stu finally snaps and screams in anguish.
Day 3: Didi and Stu are shaking, wondering when the buzzer will ring. Dr. Dooser calls Didi, explaining to her that he mixed up Angelica's X-ray with somebody else's, and that her leg is fine, and the cast can be removed immediately. He hangs up the phone and apologizes to Mr. Peaches, a football player who has a broken leg that couldn't be any more obvious.
Didi gives Stu the happy news, and he breaks down in tears of joy. Moments later, Drew greets Didi at the doorstep. Didi's surprised to see her brother-in-law back from the trip so early, and Drew explains that Charlotte had a rafting accident with a kayak and broke her leg, forcing them to come home early.
Back home at the other Pickles' residence, Charlotte now has a buzzer of her own as she's bedridden, and doesn't hesitate to abuse it, just like her daughter did. Angelica receives her comeuppance for abusing Stu and Didi's kindness as she and Drew now have to wait on Charlotte hand and foot in the same way. As Drew hands her food for Charlotte's lunch, Angelica is miserable and complains about wanting to do "something fun". However, Drew tells her that until Charlotte gets better, they're going to have to make her as comfortable as possible. Drew turns his attention back to the fridge and asks Angelica if she knows how to make chocolate pudding. Angelica stands there frozen and nervous as the camera zooms into her eye while the buzzer continues to buzz urgently, ending the episode.
Trivia[]
- The part where Stu is making chocolate pudding at four o'clock in the morning became a popular meme and has appeared in many YouTube videos.
- There is a bit of a fourth wall break in this episode in which Angelica takes a quick glimpse at the viewers when saying (of Tommy, who falls asleep), "He's gone".
- When Angelica is showing Didi her "impressions", she imitates Popeye and his famous saying: "I yam what I yam and that's all wot I yam" and Arnold Schwarzenegger and his famous quote from Terminator 2: Judgment Day: "Hasta la vista, baby."
- Dr. Hoagie Dooser is a parody of Doogie Howser, M.D..
- When Dr. Dooser says "Angelica has sustained a massive fracture of the left fibula," Angelica exclaims, "Oww!" but holds her right leg because she's unable to keep her own story straight.
- Stu and Didi apparently didn't hear Dr. Dooser muttering "Peaches...Peaches..." to himself while looking for the X-ray, otherwise they surely would've again corrected him and said "Pickles". When Dr. Dooser held up the X-ray, they also apparently didn't notice the name "Antonio Peaches" on it.
- Day 3 wasn't shown in this episode.
- This episode shows that Didi has more patience with Angelica than Drew, Stu, and Charlotte do.
- Although this episode is set almost entirely in the Pickles' house, Tommy only appears briefly in two scenes, with the story focusing on Angelica, Stu, and Didi.
- After Lou is sleeping on a chair in the living room, he does not appear for the rest of the episode.
- In this episode, we actually see what Angelica's toenails look like up close, and they're drawn in separate ways.
- A similar plot from this episode would later be used in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Can You Spare a Dime?", where Squidward, while staying at SpongeBob's home, abuses his hospitality.
- This is the last episode Scott Menville portrayed in.
- This is one of Cheryl Chase's favorite episodes.
- In this episode, after it zooms into Angelica's eye and the screen goes black with one long buzz and a dramatic music stinger, after a brief moment of silence, a happy music note concludes the episode, and the credits begin. On Paramount+'s print of the episode, the ending goes right from the final long buzz to the credits.
- Despite Charlotte giving the reason for taking the rafting trip as "Networking" (getting to know more people that could generate more business for her and/or otherwise help her build her career), she appears to spend most, if not all, of the rafting trip on her cell phone, (indicated by Didi being unable to get in touch with her, after Angelica breaks her leg, as it was busy the whole time), talking business with people she already knows back home, and is almost completely unaware of what is going on around her-- even as she goes over rapids.
- Charlotte owns an Acme Auto-Fax.
- Notice how Cynthia is also given a cast on her leg.
- Morals:
- It is wrong to abuse people's kindness.
- NEVER fake an injury, especially a serious one, to get attention or profit, because it can be a crime (if it involves money) and/or have serious natural consequences to the people who didn't fake it.
- If you're a doctor, be sure to keep track of your patients' names and medical records.
- When you're being shown a piece of information, be on the alert for mistakes. You might catch something that the presenter didn't.
- Communication is important, and if you have a guest, be sure to make time for her/him. It's possible that when Drew and Charlotte informed Stu and Didi that they had to leave Angelica with them for a week, they didn't make any plans for things that Stu, Didi, and Angelica could do together.
Quotes[]
•Angelica: Uncle Stu, I wanna watch TV.
Stu: Ah, but Angelica, the only television in the house is the big 27'' console downstairs.
Angelica: I know...
(Cut to Stu heaving said TV upstairs)
•Angelica: Uncle Stu, I want some chocolate pudding.
Stu: It's 3:00 in the morning, I'm tired, and we don't have any chocolate pudding.
Angelica: Oh! Oh, the pain!
Stu: Angelica, we don't have any chocolate pudding!
Angelica: There must be a store open somewhere.
Stu: Angelica...I'm not going out at 3 in the morning to buy you chocolate pudding and that's final.
(Cut to Stu entering the Nite Owl Market)
Stu (to the cashier): Where's the chocolate pudding?
Cashier: We're out of the ready-made stuff, but we got puddin' mix.
(Places a box of Duffy's Pudding Mix on the counter; cut to Stu making the pudding at home)
Didi: Stu? What are you doing?
Stu: Making chocolate pudding.
Didi: It's 4:00 in the morning. Why on Earth are you making chocolate pudding?
Stu: Because I've lost control of my life.
(Cut to Stu bringing Angelica the pudding)
Stu: Here's your pudding, Angelica.
Angelica: Oh, that's okay, Uncle Stu. I'm not hungry anymore.
(cut to outside the house)
Stu (offscreen): AAARRRRGH!!
Goofs[]
- When Angelica enters Lou's bedroom, her left arm passes through the door frame.
