"Showdown at Teeter Totter Gulch" is the first segment of the fourth episode of Season 2, and the seventeenth Rugrats episode overall.
Characters Present[]
- Tommy
- Chuckie
- Lou
- Spike (cameo)
Characters Introduced[]
- Belinda
- Prudence (a.k.a "The Junk Food Kid")
- Prudence's Mom
Synopsis[]
Tommy and Chuckie match wits with Prudence, a.k.a "The Junk Food Kid", the local playground bully, in an imaginary wild west showdown.
- - Description from Klasky Csupo.
Plot[]
Grandpa Lou takes Tommy and Chuckie to a southwest-themed playground one day. There they meet Belinda, a cute baby with long, curly blond hair. Belinda happily gives Tommy and Chuckie apple juice, but when they notice she has a band-aid on her elbow and ask her what happened, Belinda becomes upset and quietly says she doesn't want to talk about it. However, she smiles and invites them to play with her. Tommy and Chuckie quickly befriend Belinda, and they play all morning, until the clock strikes noon. All around them, babies and toddlers stop playing to run and hide.
Belinda says she has to go home now. When Tommy and Chuckie ask why, Belinda explains that it's "no shadow time", and that's when "The Junk Food Kid" comes to the playground: "the meanest toddler in town."
Moments later, The Junk Food Kid, a tall, slightly chubby girl, arrives at the playground and proceeds to bully Belinda. Tommy and Chuckie try to stop her from picking on their new friend, but she manages to smack Chuckie in the face with a chocolate bar and stick a popsicle down Tommy's diaper. While the two of them are distracted, The Junk Food Kid blows a big bubblegum bubble, and pops it on Belinda, ruining her hair.
That night, in bed, Tommy ponders the day's events. He figures he could run and hide like the other kids during "no shadow time" from now on, but he remembers Grandpa Lou saying to always do the right thing.
The next day, at the playground, Tommy and Chuckie find a broken-hearted Belinda, whose mom had to cut off most of her hair because of what The Junk Food Kid did. Tommy promises to stop The Junk Food Kid the next time she shows up.
"No shadow time comes", and so does The Junk Food Kid. Tommy takes on The Junk Food Kid like he promised. She tries to use bubblegum on him the same way she used it on Belinda (despite Tommy's lack of hair). Tommy tries to pop the bubble before it's too late using the popsicle stick from yesterday's events, but The Junk Food Kid knocks it out of his hand. However, Chuckie tosses Tommy a candy cane The Junk Food Kid was eating moments ago, and Tommy successfully uses it against her. The bubblegum backfires on The Junk Food Kid, thoroughly covering her face and hair.
The Junk Food Kid bursts into tears, and her mother appears on the scene. As her mother carries her away, she is heard saying "I could kick myself for letting you have that gum, Prudence!" Tommy repeats the real name of The Junk Food Kid curiously, but it's quickly forgotten as the kids of the playground surround Tommy and cheer him for standing up to the bully. As everybody cheers, Belinda and Tommy share a smile with each other.
Either later that day, or the next day, everybody is playing happily at the playground when, suddenly, The Junk Food Kid arrives. Everybody freezes in fright at her appearance, but Tommy, Chuckie, and Belinda stand their ground. The Junk Food Kid had most of her hair cut off just like Belinda's, because of the gum.
Tommy asks her what she's (shyly and nervously) eating. It's revealed to be carrot sticks that her mother gave her, and she offers to share with him. Tommy politely declines due to him having only one tooth. Belinda asks Prudence if she wants to play with them. Prudence accepts, and the kids of the playground relax and play again, because The Junk Food Kid is no more.
Trivia[]
- This episode is a parody of the western film genre. Some of the clichés used include:
- The hero getting a drink at the local saloon.
- "No shadow time" is a parody of High Noon.
- After the Junk Food Kid attacks Chuckie, he gets words imprinted on his cheek, saying he's been "branded".
- Spike howls out Tommy's window like a coyote.
- Prudence's walk is accompanied by the sound of spurs, and she slings her candy cane like a pistol.
- Tommy's declaration that he has to leave is a parody of similar speeches made by Gary Cooper and John Wayne in similar movies. This trope was notably parodied in Blazing Saddles, where after Sheriff Bart (played by Cleavon Little) makes such a speech, the rest of the town calls him out on it, and he admits he was getting bored.
- This is the first appearance of Belinda and Prudence. They will later appear in "Angelica's Birthday".
- This episode marks Nancy Cartwright's first involvement with the Rugrats series, as she voices Prudence.
- Chuckie states that he met Tommy when Tommy was eight days old. However, in a later episode, where the gang remembers how they all met, they weren't much younger than they are now. It's most likely that a friendship origin episode wasn't planned at the time, and when they did decide on doing one, they either forgot or disregarded this episode.
- Since this episode is more likely to be canon than the flashback in "Moving Away," it's almost certain that, considering that Tommy is Jewish on his mother's side, Chuckie first met Tommy when the latter was being circumcised, since Jewish babies are traditionally circumcised when they are eight days old.
- When Belinda first mentions Prudence A.K.A "The Junk food Kid", she says, "The meanest toddler around", but when Tommy is in his crib thinking back to what happened, Belinda's voice in Tommy's head says, "The meanest toddler in town".
- Spike is seen outside Tommy's window, which is obviously a goof, since Tommy's room is on the second floor.
- The voice of Prudence is played by Nancy Cartwright, who plays Bart Simpson on The Simpsons (as Prudence, she sounds like another character in the show that she plays, Ralph Wiggum). In 2001, Cartwright would take over as the voice of Chuckie, following Christine Cavanaugh's retirement.
- As of this episode, all of Chuckie's teeth aside from his buck teeth disappear.
- In the scene where Prudence shoves her popsicle down Tommy's diaper, Tommy's diaper is blue, and his shirt is white.
- The playground fantasy sequence is a stage in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, with a sleeping Grandpa Lou in the background.
- Lou is the only Rugrats parent to appear in this episode.
- Morals:
- Bullying is wrong.
- Don't be afraid to defend yourself and your friends.