Little Dude

Season 1 Episode 4b
Little Dude
Original Airdate	September 8, 1991
DVD release	Season 1
Previous Episode	Baby Commercial
Next Episode	Beauty Contest

Little Dude is the second segment of the fourth episode of season 1, and the fourth Rugrats segment overall.

Characters 

• Tommy
• Spike
• Didi
• Stu
• Lou
• Ramon
• High school students (includes Larry and Steve)

Summary

Didi brings Tommy to her work place - the local high school, for use as a visual aid. But when Tommy gets free and roams around campus, he becomes friends with a rebllious biker.

- Description from Klasky Csupo.

Plot

The episode starts with Lou playing golf with Tommy. Didi is looking for Tommy and asks Lou where he is but Lou just ignores her. She finds him and tells Grandpa Lou that she is taking Tommy to school as a learning aid for her home economics class. Lou reponds by claiming he is nothing but a monkey to her, and asks who he can play golf with. Didi then suggests that maybe Spike would like to play.

The episode then cuts to the school where Didi teaches at, and all the students coming in. Didi presents Tommy to them and asks if there are any questions. One of the students responds by asking what the smell in the room is. Didi explains Tommy's diaper is dirty and asks if any of the students want to change it. No one volunteers until Didi mentions that it's extra credit. Many students volunteer but none have the courage to change the dirty diaper. Then enters Ramon who demonstrates how to change a diaper for the class, explaining he has a younger brother roughly Tommy's age, and so he's used to changing diapers. After this Tommy grabs Ramon's sunglasses much to the shock of the class. Rather than being angry, Ramon thinks that Tommy is a cool little baby and gives him the nickname little dude.

After class three girls (One in a red dress wirth dirty blonde hair, named Kirsten, one in a purple dress with black hair, named Pamela, and one with green pants and a BH sweater, named Stephanie) ask Didi if they can babysit Tommy for awhile. Didi says yes and tells them to bring him back if he gets fussy. The girls wander around campus gossiping, and notice the football player they were gossiping about. When he asks if Tommy is one of the girls new boyfriend, she places Tommy on a truck behind them before responding.

As they continue to talk the truck drives away. When the football player points out Tommy isn't there anymore the girls become horrified. The truck stops elsewhere on campus giving Tommy the chance to get off. Back at the girls they decide to split up to look for Tommy, one of them asking if Tommy can walk yet, which her friends are unable to answer. Just as they are splitting up Tommy crawls behind them and waves goodbye.

At the gym there is a student practicing basketball. The girl in the purple dress walks by looking for Tommy. Tommy walks into the gym looking at the kid playing basketball, who is constantly missing. Tommy exits the gym, dropping a banana peel in the process. As the basketball player is preparing for his next shot he slips on the banana peel and actually makes a basket.

In the library we see Tommy walking on one of the bookshelves. He accidentally steps onto someone's pile of books, but quickly jumps back to the shelf. But the student with the book slips, knocking down several shelves and almost hitting the librarian.

Tommy then finds his way to the shop class where Ramon studies car repair. Ramon asks if the lunch bell rang yet to which his teacher says that it rang twenty minutes ago, and that Ramon ought to take a break and enjoy lunch. As Ramon is leaving he drops his comb and Tommy picks it up. He is about to return it to Ramon but he throws a towel on to Tommy without noticing him. The girls are then seen meeting up again after failing to find Tommy. One of them suggests thinking like a baby, and one of her friends start crawling on the floor. Her other two friends are less than pleased by this bout of idiocy.

Inside the cafeteria Tommy is under one of the tables eating a cup of pudding. He accidentally hits the football player from earlier ("Number 12") with a spoonful of chocolate pudding. "Number 12" thinks that Ramon did it because he is seen eating pudding, in addition to ignoring "Number 12" when he demands to know who threw the pudding. He responds by throwing mashed potatoes at Ramon. Silently, furiously, Ramon and "Number 12" take turns smearing each other with food until everyone in the cafeteria is involved in a massive food fight. "Number 12" notices Tommy and grabs him from under a table. Ramon briefly halts the fight and takes Tommy from the football player and leaves the cafeteria with him (food flies again as soon as Ramon and Tommy are outside the cafeteria). He then meets the three girls who are gracious that Ramon found Tommy (who has taken Ramon's sunglasses again). One of the girls and Ramon seem to have a crush on each other. Didi then finds them all and the three girls say they have a much better understanding of raising children.

Later in the evening Didi and Tommy are at home, and Tommy is eating dinner (while wearing Ramon's sunglasses). Didi says the trip to school was very educational for her students, and Lou asks Tommy what he learned at school. Tommy responds by throwing mashed potatoes at Lou who says that Tommy has quite an arm.

Transcript

The transcript can be found here

Trivia

• It is revealed that Didi works as a part-time school teacher in this episode.
• 4th time Chuckie and Angelica are absent.
• 3rd time Phil and Lil are absent.
• Didi's home economics class is in A113. A113 is often seen in animated movies, placed there by graduates of a private university named California Institue of the Arts (CalArts) located in Valencia, California . A113 is a real classroom number at the campus.
• Steve and Larry cameo as students in Didi's class (who attempt and fail to change Tommy's diaper). Steve and Larry appeared occasionally in some of the earlier episodes, though this episode revealed them to be of high school age (between 15 and 18).

Gallery

The gallery for this episode can be found here