| The Fish Stick | Gallery | Transcript |
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"The Fish Stick" is the first segment of the seventh episode of the first season of the 2021 series of Rugrats. It premiered on Paramount+ on October 7th, 2021.[1]
Characters Present
Summary
When the babies' favorite song gets 'stuck' in Chas's head, Tommy and the babies go on a quest to get it unstuck. - Description from Paramount+
Plot
On a tablet, Chuckie is watching a music video of a song with a catchy beat involving fish. From the kitchen, Chas sings along with the song. There is a knock at the door and he finds the parents with the other Rugrats babies, dropping them off for babysitting. Randy thanks him, saying it's a bummer he could only score five tickets to the Fondue Festival, but Chas tells him he's happy to skip it, that he already has a fraught relationship with cheese. They gather around Chuckie watching the tablet and Lucy laments that some days she wants to throw the tablet out the window. Didi comments that she and Stu are limiting Tommy's tablet time to educational content, leading Betty to comment that she should check in six months. The tablet stops playing and the babies whine in upset, so Betty starts it again. Lou talks about how great the fondue parties were back in his day and Betty offers her ticket to him. He says he couldn't, but she insists, claiming to be coming down with something. She fakes a sneeze and Chas comes in with cleaning spray and a tissue. She explains she was only faking, but he claims to know a real sneeze when he hears one.
Betty agrees she's kind of beat to placate him, laying down on the couch. Chas takes the babies to Chuckie's room, turning the tablet off in the process. As he takes him to Chuckie's room, he sings the song, saying it's going to be stuck in his head forever. As he walks off, Susie laments that if the song is stuck in Chas's head forever, it means they won't be able to hear it. The babies' despair at the idea, Tommy agreeing that he just heard it for the first time but can't remember life without it. He says if it's stuck in Chas's head, then they have to pull it out of there. Susie suggests they make it extra-cold so that it drips out of his nose-holes. They escape Chuckie's room and create a human-pyramid to reach the thermostat. Tommy holds down the button to lower the temperature, dropping it all the way down to 50 degrees. Lil laments that it's still warm inside, figuring that the button must be baby-proofed. Phil suggests another idea to get the song out: make Chas sneeze.
Chuckie counters that his father might like having the song stuck, but Lil says that nobody likes having things stuck. Phil points out the time that a lollipop got stuck in Chuckie's hair and Chuckie is forced to agree that they're right. Tommy suggests they use pepper and Chuckie says he knows where they can find it. Back in the living room, Chas and Betty watch a movie, Mission to the Middle. Betty says it's getting cold, and Chas tosses a blanket over her, saying she has chills. She lays down and takes a nap as he cleans the coffee table. In the kitchen, Lil finds the pepper while Chas plasters caution tape all over the living room, including over Betty. The babies arrive and Chas wonders what they're doing there, saying that he could have sworn he locked the baby gate. He escorts them back to Chuckie's room, where Chuckie sighs, saying that he's not a good sneaker and that the song is going to be stuck in his daddy's head forever. Tommy says that maybe they have to find a door on Chuckie's daddy, like the one seen on the movie that was playing. Susie brings out her mother's medical book and reads that "all the songs and sounds you hear get inside through your ear."
The babies go into a fantasy sequence in which they enter Chas's body through the eardrum. They find a train and take off, following the sound of the music. Chuckie doesn't find it scary at first, but then they start moving really fast. Back in the real world, Chas looks in on them and sees them riding around in their Reptar toy car. He sings some of the song and walks out, returning to the living room and watching the movie. Pointing at the sleeping Betty, he comments that she must be sick to fall asleep before the best part. He leaves for the kitchen to make her some soup as the babies burst out of Chuckie's room in the car. In the fantasy, they arrive at the singing fish and Phil knocks over the pepper, then sneezes, causing an opening to form and them to fall into Chas's stomach. Chuckie says they should just find the closest way out. Susie, however, reading her book, states that she's pretty sure they don't want to do that and that perhaps they could go back the way they came. They end up getting burped out and onto Chas's tongue. Chuckie declares that he's not giving up as Chas takes a bite of tuna sandwich, causing them all to get swallowed.
Back in the real world, the babies are under a blanket in the living room. In the fantasy, they have found themselves back in the brain. Hearing the song again, Tommy shouts for the babies to follow him. Chuckie, however, is distracted by a butterfly, which leads him to a section with photos and drawings of all of the nice things that he and Chas do together. Worried that the fish might come there too and never want to leave, he races out. He runs into the area with the fish, where he finds that the other babies have mounted them as rides. He tells them that they have to ride them right out of his daddy's brain. They ride the fish out of Chas's nose. Back in the living room, Chas watches the movie and Betty slurps on soup, telling Chas that she feels like a million bucks and that he cured her. He sneezes and the babies emerge from where they were hiding behind the blinds. They start crying and he tells them not to, but then trips over what's left of his caution tape. Betty puts on the song to distract the babies as Chas wonders how he forgot to latch the gate again. He says he doesn't know what goes on his brain sometimes and Betty asks what was up with the sneeze, suggesting he might be getting sick. They head off to the kitchen to get him some soup as the babies sit and enjoy the song.
Trivia
- This is the fourth episode of the reboot in which Angelica doesn't appear.
- The "Fishy Song" may be intended as a parody of "Baby Shark," a popular viral song about an aquatic animal with a catchy beat that is well-known for being popular among young audiences.