Regarding Stuie

"Regarding Stuie" is the first segment of the sixth episode of season 2, and the nineteenth Rugrats episode overall.

Characters Present

 * Tommy
 * Chuckie
 * Phil
 * Lil
 * Spike
 * Stu
 * Didi
 * Lou

Synopsis
''Stu falls down from the roof while attempting to install his new "Quack-O-Matic" weathervane. Suffering from amnesia, Stu reverts to his childhood and becomes one of the Rugrats.''


 * - Description from Klasky Csupo

Plot
Lou and his grandson, Tommy (in his grandfather’s arms) are in the kitchen, and Lou is about to sneak one of Didi’s freshly baked clusters for himself; Didi however comes in and catches her father-in-law in the act and tells him that the clusters are for after dinner. Lou protests: “After dinner? Why in my day, we were lucky if we had dinner!” Lou then brings Tommy out in the backyard and puts him in his sandbox, where his friends Chuckie, Phil and Lil are already playing. We also see Didi walk out the front door and walk to her car (as she’s leaving).

As Lou sits down in a backyard recliner and read a newspaper, his son Stu comes out carrying a large contraption shaped like an oversized duck. Lou asks his son what it is, and he explains that it’s his latest invention, “The Patented Stu Pickles Quack-O-Matic”; Stu further explains that it’s the first fully automated weather vane, and that it tells the temperature in 10 cities, gives a 6 month weather forecast and predicts earthquakes, floods and meteor showers. Lou then asks his son if it tells which way the wind is blowing, and Stu replies “I’m working on it, I’m working on it.” Stu then walks over to a ladder he has up against the house, and Lou goes inside through the back door.

Meanwhile, in the sandbox, as Phil and Lil are burying Chuckie in the sand, Tommy (having overheard his father) remarks: “Wow! A duck that can tell you everything!” Lil notices Tommy’s Dad climbing the ladder with his invention and nearly falling off backwards as he struggles up to the garage roof and loses his balance, and she remarks: “Looks like your Dad’s fighting with the duck.” Her brother Phil remarks: “Looks like the duck’s winning.” Chuckie wonders why Stu and “the duck” are “fighting”, and Phil figures that “the duck” refuses to tell Stu stuff. As the babies walk over and Stu continues to dangerously struggle with his balance and almost fall off the ladder, Lil figures that perhaps Stu has to fight “the duck” before it can tell him stuff. As Stu regains his balance and slams his Quack-O-Matic into its place on the roof, Lou comes out and tells his son that his friend Louise invited him over and asks him son to look after the babies for the afternoon; Stu, who is now attaching his invention to the roof, replies “Sure pop, whatever you say.” Lou then bids his son goodbye and excitingly dances away.

As soon as Lou is gone, Stu (who is now home alone with the babies and standing very dangerously on the edge of the roof) finishes and eagerly activates his Quack-O-Matic by pressing a button on it’s base. It seems to work ok (and Stu is satisfied), and the babies look onward with curiosity; but just as Stu turns his back to get back to his ladder, his invention spins around and it’s wing knocks Stu clean off the roof!!! Stu (who is literally frightened out of his shoes) screams sheer bloody murder as he plummets straight toward the babies, who run out of the way (themselves screaming in fright) just in time as Stu hits the cold hard ground head first!!! Luckily, in a god blessed miracle, Stu isn’t seriously injured; but he is knocked unconscious! The babies, who don’t understand that Stu has just had an extremely serious accident, walk over to Tommy’s motionless father and Chuckie wonders what happened to him; Phil figures that he’s taking a nap.

Just then, Stu regains consciousness and sits up; but in a slightly higher pitched voice, he says “Goo-goo.” Tommy and his friends step back away from Stu, and then Stu suspiciously gets on all fours and begins to crawl back and forth; Chuckie wonders what he’s doing, and Tommy replies that he doesn’t know. Stu the sits down, opens his mouth, and blows a big bubble with his saliva; Lil remarks that she never blew one so big. Stu then begins to suck on his thumb, and Tommy figures that his father “growed down”; and it’s now apparent that Stu’s severe head injury mentally brought him back to his infancy, or, in Tommy’s words, “turned [him] into a baby.” Lil suggests that she and her friends play with the new “baby” Stu, but Tommy remarks that he isn’t sure and that it’s weird having his Dad being a baby. Stu then turns around and faces his son and his friends, and he introduces himself (since he’s his baby self, he’s now able to talk to his infant son and his friends, and vice versa): “Hi. I’m Stuie, who are you?” Tommy replies, “Hi Stuie. Um… I’m Tommy”; Stuie replies, “Hi Tommy. Wanna play?” Tommy pauses for a moment and accept Stuie’s invitation to play, and Tommy then “introduces” Stuie to his 3 friends. Chuckie greets him: “Hi Mister Stuie”; Chuckie’s greeting makes Stuie giggle and he remarks “You’re funny Chuckie.”

Chuckie remarks that Stu talks like a baby, but doesn’t look like one, and Lil sympathizes and states that Stuie needs a diaper; Phil wonders where they’ll find a big enough diaper for Stuie to wear, and Tommy then points out white sheets that are hanging on a clothesline. The babies grab one of these sheets and bring to over to Stuie and surround him (telling him to hold still); the babies then pounce on Stuie with the sheets (knocking him on his back), wrap it around the shorts that he’s wearing and tie it up. Phil, Lil and Stu then remark: “Yeah, that’s better.” Tommy then decides to take Stuie inside to show him his toys; they all walk over to the back door, and Phil and Lil get in position so that Tommy can climb on them and reach the doorknob, but Stuie (since he’s much taller) is of course able to reach the doorknob and open the door with no problem (Chuckie remarks: “Wow! That was pretty neat”). Tommy, as he gets down off of Phil and Lil, remarks that Stuie (whom he nearly refers to as “my dad”) could also do “lots of other neat stuff”. Phil asks what Tommy means, and Tommy explains that, because Stuie is so tall, he can reach all the things that he and his friends want but can’t ever get ‘cause they’re too small.

Tommy first takes his friends and Stuie over to a closet so that they can get down Christmas presents he believes his mom is keeping high on a shelf inside; Stuie, standing on a chest, grabs a box (remarking: “Wow! Sure is a lot of neat toys.”) and takes it out. Stuie loses his balance, falls on his behind and drops the box. Stuie however isn’t hurt, and box lands neatly on the floor; the box however doesn’t contain any Christmas presents (nor toys for that matter), but the babies are mesmerized by its contents (which among other things consist of clothing, makeup, jewelry and stationary) anyway and take them out to play with them (making a big mess in the process). Tommy then wonders if Stuie can reach the cookies, and the babies are eager to have him try (“Cookies!?”). We fade to later on and find the babies and Stuie sitting down on the floor with full stomachs and messy faces; Stuie apparently found lots of cookies and he and the babies ate them like never before. As they’re sitting, Chuckie remarks that “it doesn’t get any better than this”, and the others agree. Chuckie then asks what they should do next, and Tommy suggest that Stuie could look for more cookies; but Chuckie replies that he’s much too full for any more (and he also belches). Phil remarks that there must be something else high up that only Stuie can reach, and then Tommy gets another idea.

They all go into the bathroom and into the bathtub (which also doubles as a shower), and Stuie turns on the shower nozzle. The water starts flowing out and Stuie and the babies (who all still have their clothes on) start to get drenched and dance around. Meanwhile however, Didi arrives back at the house and goes inside (unaware of what’s been happening)! Back in the bathroom, Chuckie remarks to Tommy that he’s getting wet and questions why they’re doing what they’re doing, and Tommy replies “‘cause it’s fun Chuckie.” Didi walks up to the closed bathroom door, but (not knowing any better) only assumes her husband is taking a shower after all his hard work. Didi remarks to Stu (not knowing what’s really happening) that his invention looks great. Meanwhile, Stuie puts a rubber duckie into his mouth and begins to make noises (which Didi hears and assumes is her husband responding to her remarks and questions). Didi asks if the babies are still in the backyard with Lou (unaware that Lou had left earlier), and she takes the noises her husband is making as a yes. As Didi continues talking (she mentions that she came home to get a checkbook so she can buy a crystal vase), Phil helps Stuie out by pulling the rubber duckie out of his mouth; as soon as the rubber duckie is out, Stu begins to whine hysterically and Didi assumes that it’s because her husband doesn’t want her to spend their money on the vase. Didi mentions that it’s too good of a bargain to pass up, and Stuie says “Goo-goo” as Phil gives him the rubber duckie back, and Didi assumes that Stu decided to agree with her and mentions: “Oh, you’re such doll, and I just know you won’t regret this. Gotta run.” Didi then leaves the house again (still not suspecting as thing), and the group opens the door and emerges from the bathroom soaking wet; Tommy remarks that his mother is gone and that it’s time to play.

We fade to later on and find the group (now dried off) playing in the living room with Tommy’s toys. As Stuie is shaking Tommy’s rattle, Lil asks Stuie if he’d like to play with the doll she’s holding. Stu grabs the doll by the head, but doesn’t give Lil a chance to let go and accidentally pulls the doll’s head off and knocks Lil to the ground; this upsets Lil and she begins to cry, and seeing Lil cry upsets Stuie and he begins to cry (quite loudly and quite hysterically with a wide open mouth; sounding something like this: “BWAAAH-HAA-HAA-HAA-HAA! AAHHHH! AAHHHH!”). Chuckie remarks to Tommy that it sounds like trouble, and they begin to make their way over; as Stuie continues to cry loudly and hysterically, Lil (who stopped crying in awe of Stu’s crying) remarks (accompanied with one of the series’ trademark camera angles from inside Stu’s mouth) “Wow! He can really cry!” Tommy asks Stuie what’s wrong, and Stuie calms down and says “Toy broke.” Tommy optimistically is then about to suggest they get his father to fix it (“Don’t worry, when Daddy gets home he’ll fi--”), but Tommy then stops mid sentence when he immediately realizes with sorrow that Stuie is his Dad turned into a baby, and he thus can’t see his real Dad whom he still loves while he’s Stuie. Phil and Lil try to cheer Tommy up by mentioning that he now has Stuie to play with and they can both get Christmas Presents, eat cookies and get in trouble. But Tommy, getting sadder, says it isn’t the same as having his real Daddy; he then turns to Stuie and goes on: “When you were my Daddy you’d build toys especially for me, and read me stories, and tuck me in at night, and... I miss my Daddy!” And Tommy begins to cry sorrowfully (accompanied by yet another one of the series’ trademark camera views from inside Tommy’s mouth). Chuckie, Phil and Lil walk up to Stuie and they tell him that he’s going to have to go back to being a big person so he can be Tommy’s daddy again. Stuie however protests that he doesn’t want to, and Tommy remarks “Can you blame him? Who’d wanna be grown up if you could stay little forever”; Chuckie agrees: “Not me.”

Tommy is seen in his parents’ bedroom sitting on their bed and looks at the pictures on a dresser of the good times he and his Dad had together (sobbing quietly). Stuie walks in and sits on the bed next to Tommy, he says to him “You miss your Daddy, huh Tommy?” Tommy replies: “Yup.” Stuie then remarks that Chuckie said that he should be his Daddy; Tommy replies that he couldn’t ask Stuie to do that. But Stuie says that he’s willing to try, and Tommy hugs Stuie (feeling happy again). They all go back into the living room and Chuckie drags a telephone by its receiver over to Stuie; he asks Stuie if he’s ready to be grown up before handing the phone’s receiver to Stuie and explains that “you use it to talk to yourself” (since Chuckie doesn’t quite yet understand how a telephone is used). Stuie briefly examines the receiver and then puts it on his head. Phil and Lil then drag over a briefcase and open it, and they explain to Stuie that “you carry your ‘grown up’ toys in it.” Stuie then takes the telephone’s receiver off his head, puts it in the briefcase, and closes it on the receiver’s cord. As Stuie picks up the briefcase, Tommy brings over a newspaper, and Tommy instructs Stuie to “take it in the bathroom and don’t come out ’til practically forever”. Stuie however soon realizes that taking these things aren’t making him grown up again, and in frustration, he begins to cry in the same way he did earlier. The babies then brainstorm on what they should do now, and after 2 other suggestions, Tommy remembers “the duck”. Stuie stops crying and wonders what “the duck” is, and the babies explain that “the duck” “lives” on top of the garage and that since “‘the duck’ knows all“, he can explain to Stuie how to be a grown up.

They all go outside and walk over to where “the duck” is (the ladder Stu was using to put it on the roof in still where it was before). Stuie then shouts up to it “Hello Mr. Duck!” But Tommy then explains that Stuie needs to climb up and fight “the duck” or it won’t tell him anything. Stuie admits that he’s scared; but Tommy states that everyone gets scared sometimes but he can’t be scared all the time. Stuie then replies that he’ll try to fight the duck, and he walks over to the ladder and begins to climb it (although using his legs on the rungs instead of his feet). Chuckie remarks that “He’s the bravest baby I ever saw.” Stuie than reaches “the duck” and grabs onto it; but as he begins to wrap his legs around the base, he accidentally hits the same button he pressed earlier as his regular self and this activates “the duck” and starts it flapping and spinning again. Stu tries to hang on and fight as the babies cheer him on, but he loses his balance and is once again knocked clean off the roof!!! Once again, Stu screams sheer bloody murder as he once again plummets straight toward the babies, who once again run out of the way just in time as Stu once again hits the ground head first!!! Like last time, again in a god blessed miracle, Stu isn’t seriously injured; but he is once again knocked unconscious! Tommy walks over and asks “Are you ok Stuie?” Stu immediately regains consciousness; but this time, he’s no longer a “baby” and he’s back to his normal, grown up self again. Stu sits up and remarks that his invention looks nice and then notices he’s holding his son’s rattle and tosses it aside next to Tommy’s feet. He then gets up and directs the babies into the house, and he also picks up his son and gives him a ride (Tommy giggles in loving delight as he’s picked up).

As they all go in though the back, we also see Didi arriving back home again and going in though the front. As Stu puts the babies in the playpen (unaware that he’s still wearing the white sheet as a diaper), he hears his wife state that she’s back, and he replies “be right there.” Tommy states that it’s great to have things back to normal, but then Didi asks that her husband is doing wearing the white sheet and yells at him. The episode then ends as we get one last view of Stu’s “Quack-O-Matic”, which quacks twice.

Trivia

 * This episode marks the first appearance of Stu Pickles' trademark scream, a stock sound effect consisting of Stu emitting a very loud, girlish-sounding shriek. It is heard both times Stu falls from the roof, and can also be heard in its sister episode, "Garage Sale", when Stu screams among seeing that the babies sold all of their possessions. This scream sound would continue to be used until after 1998.
 * In both instances where Stu falls off of the house's roof, his scream is in his normal adult voice.
 * This is one of many episodes where Angelica isn't present.
 * This is one of the first episodes in which Stu expresses his talent for inventing.
 * A similar plot from this episode took place for Nigel Thornberry in Rugrats Go Wild.
 * This is one of the few episodes in which an adult is seen wearing a diaper, another was "Party Animals".
 * This is the only episode prior to the seasons after Rugrats in Paris: The Movie in which an adult communicates with the babies instead of to them.
 * This is the second time Stu cries, the first being "Momma Trauma".
 * The title of this episode is a reference to the 1991 movie Regarding Henry starring Harrison Ford.
 * The duck quack sound that is heard when Stu gets very close to the Quack-O-Matic on top of the roof of Tommy's house was later incorporated into the 1998 Klasky Csupo logo (known to many as the infamous "Robot" and/or "Splat" logo), albeit heard twice instead of once.
 * This is the first and only time that one of the parents of the main characters can understand the babies when they talk.
 * Grandpa mentions his friend "Louise" invited him over for bocce ball. It could possibly be his wife Lulu, but he says in "Acorn Nuts &amp; Diapey Butts" that he has not seen her in over 50 years. It may be his memory, or he just knows another woman named Louise
 * Moral: Use caution and be careful with what you are doing.