Angelica Breaks a Leg

"Angelica Breaks a Leg" is a season 3 episode of Rugrats.

Characters Present

 * Tommy
 * Angelica
 * Didi
 * Stu
 * Drew
 * Charlotte
 * Dr. Hoagie Dooser
 * Antonio Peaches
 * Soap Actor
 * Soap Actress

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

Summary
Drew and Charlotte are going away on a rafting trip, leaving Angelica with Stu and Didi. Since no one wants to do anything with her, she pretends to break her leg to get attention.

Plot
Angelica is dropped off at Didi and Stu's while Charlotte and Drew go off on a rafting trip for CEOs for one week. Angelica quickly realizes that Didi, Stu, and Grandpa Lou all have things to do and Tommy takes a nap and thus don't give her nearly the attention she feels she deserves. So, 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, and then is left alone with Tommy. When Tommy asks her about the buzzer, she demonstrates by pressing the button and telling Aunt Didi she's tired of Tommy's company.

Day 1: As the days pass 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, and have them do minor tasks for her whenever she wants, such as getting a tissue, having her windows adjusted, and bringing the only TV in the house to her 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 one night, Angelica wakes Stu up to demand chocolate pudding. Stu refuses at first due to it being 3:00am and there's none in the house. However he soon finds himself walking over to 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 in to see Stu making the pudding at 4:00 AM. When she asks why he's doing it, he tells her simply that 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 4: Didi and Stu are shaking wondering when the buzzer would 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, who 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, so Drew explains that Charlotte had a rafting collision 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 gets her comeuppance for abusing Stu and Didi's kindness as she and Drew now have to wait on her mother hand and foot in the same way. Angelica is miserable as Drew hands her food for Charlotte's lunch. However, Drew tells her that's tough because until Charlotte gets better, they're going to make her as comfortable as possible. Drew turns his attention back to the fridge and asks Angelica about chocolate pudding. Angelica stands there frozen and nervous as the camera zooms into her eye while the buzzer continues to buzz urgently and ends 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, “He’s gone”.
 * Dr. Hoagie Dooser is a parody of Doogie Howser, M.D. He also bears a resemblance to Melvin Sneedly from Captain Underpants.
 * 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.
 * 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 was 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?".
 * This is the last episode Scott Menville portrayed in.
 * This is one of Cheryl Chase's favorite episodes.
 * 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, Charlotte appears to spend most if not all on the rafting trip, as indicated by Didi being unable to get in touch with her, after Angelica breaks her leg, on her cell phone, as it was busy the whole time, talking business with people she already knows back home, almost completely unaware of what is going on around her even as she goes over rapids.
 * 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 or have serious natural consequences to the people who didn't fake it.

Goofs

 * When Angelica enters Lou's bedroom, her left arm passed through the door frame.