Hold the Pickles (Rugrats, 1991)

This article was copied (instead of imported) from the now-deleted Terrible Shows & Episodes Wiki from the Wayback Machine.

Hold the Pickles
The babies panicking for no reason because they thought their babysitter hated Dil.
Part of Season: 9 Episode Number: 2b Air Date: September 28, 2002 Writer: Cynthia Riddle Director: Jeff Scott Previous episode: Bestest of Show Next episode: Club Fred

"Hold the Pickles" is the second half of the 2nd episode from Season 9 of Rugrats.

Plot

Taffy takes the babies to their first fast food restaurant. When the babies hear that Taffy doesn’t like dil pickles, they thought she was referring to Tommy’s younger brother, Dil, not the pickles that were on the burger. So, they try to make Dil appear more likable to Taffy.

Why It Doesn't Hold the Pickles

1. Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Kimi are all at their absolute worst in this episode as their idiotic flanderizations have gone too far this time, as they misunderstood Taffy when she said she doesn’t like dill pickles, as they thought she meant Tommy’s brother, not the food, and they try to make Dil "sweeter", but they instead make things worse by causing trouble in the restaurant, causing unintentional torture for Dil, making things harder for Taffy’s working friend Britannica, and scared both Britannica and Taffy when they moved Dil away from their sight and caused them to worry about him and his safety.
   • This is especially out-of-character for Chuckie because he was never unlikeable, except for "Grandpa's Bad Bug".
2. This is a torture episode for Dil, as the babies try to make him appear more likable for Taffy but causes him to appear and be messy as a result; also, they put him in the ball pit to play with him, and he’s too young to play in the ball pit yet.
3. Some very painful slapstick comedy moments, like when Taffy threw one of the dill pickles from her burger on the ground which caused a person to slip on it and fall, and poor Britannica being pushed around by the manager.
4. The manager is also unlikeable as he is very rude to Britannica and pushes her to her limit, and he made her take focus off of Dil for a second, which made the babies move him while she wasn’t looking.
5. Like in most Rugrats episodes, the episode has some gross-out humor like Dil doing his usual diaper messes and Phil eating the paper wrap while eating his cheeseburger.
6. The main plot of the episode is not fun to watch, as the babies trying to sweet up Dil to make him more likable for Taffy, when we already know that she loves Dil just as much as she loves the rest of the babies, and that is only the food dill pickles she doesn’t like.
7. The Rugrats didn’t realize the truth about what was happening, and the things they did to try to help Dil only made it torture for him.
8. As mentioned in WIDHTP#1, Chuckie acted like he was completely out of character in this episode because he always thinks it's a bad idea; sadly, he decided to care less.
9. Some plot holes:
   • Why doesn't Britannica call the cops on the manager for pushing her around and making her take focus off of Dil?
   • Why doesn't Taffy outright call Didi, Stu, Chas, Kira, Betty, and Howard to not only take the Rugrats home, but also put Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil and Kimi in timeout for torturing Dil, causing trouble in Boingo Burger and making things harder for Britannica?
10. Half-bad ending: The Rugrats start to worry again when Taffy said she doesn’t like sweet pickles, once again misunderstanding her, referring to the sweet Dil, not the food.
11. Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Kimi never receive any comeuppances for their actions since they got away with torturing Dil, causing trouble in the restaurant and the babies got off scot-free. In other words, that makes them Karma Houdinis. Instead, it was Britannica who got punished all because she was doing her job, working hard and taking focus off of Dil, though the manager brought it upon himself.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The episode started off good, until we got to the part where Taffy said she doesn’t like dill pickles, the food, not Dil himself.
2. Good animation and voice acting as usual.
3. Dil is pretty much the only likeable Rugrat in this episode. He's not annoying like he usually is, and he actually didn't mind the unintentional torture his brother and his friends gave him.
   • Taffy and Britannica are also likable here. Britannica for being a nice girl, who we understand her poor position, working for a very unlikable manager and for caring about the babies and Dil’s safety, like when she cleaned up Dil and told Taffy about losing Dil so they can look for him together. Taffy, one of the only times she’s likable, because she let the babies explore the restaurant, and also shows that she cares about them, especially Dil, as she helps clean him up after his messes, and shows her extreme worry for Dil once informed that he was missing, and was relived and very happy when she found him and he was safe and sound.
4. Some funny moments here and there, like when Lil was struggling with the toy she got, and when the babies made Dil look like an ice cream.
5. Even though they are not excused for their actions, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Kimi at least showed that they love Dil deeply.
6. Half-decent ending: Taffy brought Dil safely back to his stroller, and showed her care for him, which relieved and satisfied the babies, and Taffy said that she likes the food dill pickles after all.
7. Good moral: Don't believe in everything you hear.

Reception

Along with its sister episode "Bestest of Show", the episode has a rating of 6.2/10 on IMDb.

Trivia

• This is one of two episodes to star Richard Horvitz, who is best known for his roles as Daggett on The Angry Beavers and the titular character on Invader Zim. This happened again in "Bug Off".

Comments

Loading comments...