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"Jonathan Babysits" is a Season 5 episode of Rugrats.
Characters Present[]
Character Mentioned[]
Summary[]
Jonathan babysits the Rugrats at Charlotte's house while she's on an assignment, but uses this opportunity to "dig up dirt" on her for blackmailing purposes. Meanwhile, the Rugrats dig up dirt as well...(The kind used to make mudpies, that is). - Description from Klasky Csupo
Plot[]
The episode starts with Angelica playing "Little Miss Executive" with the babies. Aside from Chuckie, the babies aren't having any fun dealing with Angelica's demands. Charlotte enters the room, pausing in her tasks around the house to yell at Jonathan on the phone for being 15 minutes late bringing her important documents. A few seconds later, Jonathan shows up at the house with the confidential information that Charlotte demanded. But, Charlotte feels it is inadequate, saying that she told Johnathan to dig up dirt on the competition. Charlotte feels forced to do the job herself and leaves Jonathan in charge of the babies, the housework, and keeping Angelica entertained. Charlotte leaves before Jonathan can protest. Jonathan is fed up with the mistreatment and decides to dig up some dirt on his boss to get back at her. The other babies overhear him and assume that he wants to play in the dirt instead of deal with Angelica.
Angelica forces Jonathan to play "Little Miss Executive," and Jonathan agrees, figuring he'll be able to snoop around when he needs to get things for Angelica. Angelica "fires" the other babies and makes Jonathan sit at Chuckie's "desk," which makes Chuckie upset. Tommy sees Jonathan's unhappy face and feels bad that Jonathan can't go play in the dirt. Jonathan then says he will get Angelica a fresh cup of coffee, then heads off with the mug to snoop. While he's gone, the babies all gather the potted plants from around the house and dump the soil from them into the hallway, hoping Jonathan will play in the pile. But, Angelica yells for him to come back, and he slips on the pile of dirt before running off to see what Angelica wants.
Tommy wonders why Jonathan didn't play in the dirt. Phil thinks that Jonathan probably wanted dirt with worms in it instead of plain potted soil. Jonathan manages to get away from Angelica again and snoops through a desk. He thumbs through old pictures of Charlotte, looking for something embarrassing. But, the babies arrive with the dirt and worms, and dump them onto Jonathan's lap. He panics and runs to the bathroom to clean up, leaving a trail of dirt. Angelica follows Jonathan to the bathroom and scolds him for "going potty" instead of entertaining her. Charlotte then calls Jonathan's phone to check in, and Angelica answers it to complain. This earns Jonathan an earful from Charlotte. After he hangs up, Angelica declares she is still bored, and decides to have a "bored" meeting in the dining room. She "rehires" the babies and they follow her reluctantly (except Chuckie, as he is happy to get his desk back).
In the dining room, Angelica is talking at length about the pretend company. Jonathan tries once more to get away, but Angelica demands he stay put. Lil then whispers to the other babies that she saw a Reptar movie where the lizard dug a hole to the side of the world to escape the mole people. The babies figure Jonathan wants to do the same to get away from Angelica. Tommy makes another plan, and the babies put it into action. Phil and Lil get down from the chairs at the table and begin screaming and running around. Angelica chases them, trying to catch them. Tommy and Chuckie then go outside to start digging a big hole to the other side of the world. With all the kids distracted, Jonathan goes snooping again. He enters the den, and sees lots of VHS tapes of home movies, mostly of Angelica's firsts. He finds one labelled "Angelica & Charlotte," and watches it. Towards the end, the camera pans over to Charlotte wearing a bathrobe and mud mask with messy hair. Jonathan takes the tape, planning on showing it to all the employees at Mega Corp. At that point, Angelica enters, having caught the twins. She demands that Jonathan feed the babies vegetables as punishment, but Jonathan refuses. He declares he no longer cares what Angelica or Charlotte say, since he'll ruin Charlotte's reputation with the tape. But, he is interrupted by the sound of Charlotte arriving at the house. Angelica skips off to tell on Jonathan, while he tries sneaking out a window and over the back fence.
Jonathan runs towards Tommy and Chuckie and the hole they were digging. Jonathan trips on the hole and lands in the pile of loose dirt. Charlotte and Angelica enter the backyard to confront Jonathan. Charlotte demands to know why there is dirt all over the house. Jonathan snaps at Charlotte, saying that he plans on showing everyone at the company the "Angelica & Charlotte" tape, and taking Charlotte down a peg. To his and Angelica's surprise, Charlotte isn't angry; in fact, she is impressed by his initiative, offering him a promotion. Charlotte then turns to Angelica and blames her for dirt all over the house. Angelica tries insisting that the babies were the ones to bring the dirt into the house, but Charlotte doesn't believe her. She punishes Angelica with no dessert for a week before taking Jonathan with her to strategize getting more dirt on the competition. Tommy feels bad that they couldn't help Jonathan. But, Angelica angrily stomps towards them, ready to get back at them for getting her in trouble. Tommy and Chuckie dig into their hole faster, trying to get away from Angelica.
Trivia[]
- This is the second appearance of Jonathan; the first being "Mommy's Little Assets".
- Jonathan was voiced by René Auberjonois in his first appearance. From this episode onwards, he is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, who also voiced Arnold's Grandpa, Phil, in Hey Arnold! and is best known for voicing Homer Simpson.
- This is the first and only time Charlotte is shown as a child.
- This is one of the few episodes where Charlotte appears without Drew.
- At the end of the episode, Charlotte punishes Angelica with no dessert for one week for leaving dirt all over the house (which the babies actually did). This is the second time Angelica has received this type of punishment, first by Drew in "Chuckie's Wonderful Life" for stealing Chas' Latvian Folk Dances CD. However, the punishment in the episode may have been expired shortly during the events that happened after the end of the episode, so it could have been reversed if Charlotte knew that something fishy is going on at some point.
- The first time Angelica tells the truth, and nobody believes her until Jonathan told Charlotte the same truth Angelica told her.
- Beginning with this episode, Jonathan's skin tone has considerably become lighter than in "Mommy's Little Assets". It's unknown why this change was made.
- In the scene where Angelica picks up the phone that rings, you only hear high pitched nonsense at normal speed but if slowed down, Charlotte says "Ooh, what do you mean he's not paying attention to you? I specifically told him, to make sure you were completely entertained. Can't he follow a simple instruction? I mean it's not as if-" and then this line repeats and cuts of as if again.
- According to the poster up in her office, Charlotte was voted CEO of the Year during the early '90s.
- This episode reunites Christine Cavanaugh and Dan Castellaneta (Christine voiced Gosalyn while Dan voiced Megavolt in Disney's Darkwing Duck.
- Due to the content at the end of the episode, this is one of Charlotte's disliked moments by fans and viewers since she was punishing Angelica when Angelica was trying to show and tell her that Jonathan was being weird, and by later, that the babies were the ones that placed dirt all over the house (one of the times being when Jonathan had dirt on himself because of the babies) and on grass of its backyard.
- Third appearance of the "This coffee tastes like mud" gag after "What the Big People Do" and "Stu Gets a Job".
Video Clips[]
Charlotte Pickles is a Boss 😎 Rugrats 🍼 Nickelodeon Animation
Charlotte's Secret Message