The Stork

The Stork	Gallery	Transcript

"The Stork" is a Season 3 episode of Rugrats.

Characters Present[]

Synopsis[]

When Angelica's parents tell her that babies come from The Stork, she tells the news to the other Rugrats. So when Tommy discovers a bird's egg and thinks that it's his "brother" who has just been delivered, Angelica tries to convince the rest of the kids that the Stork has actually brought a sibling for her.

- Description from Klasky Csupo

Plot[]

At her house while eating spaghetti, Angelica asks her parents where babies come from. Drew and Charlotte excuse themselves from the table, not knowing what to tell her. They agree to tell her the truth because that's what they decided a long time ago, then get back to the table. Both parents have a conversation with Angelica, saying that it starts with a mommy and a daddy, and Drew says that babies come from eggs. Charlotte tells Drew he is making it sound complicated, then goes on, but gets at a loss for words. Drew suddenly blurts out that both parents call "the stork", which delivers an egg. Angelica now believes that babies come from stork eggs.

The next day, which happens to be Ultra Bowl Sunday, at Tommy's house, Angelica tells the babies what her parents told her (the stork delivers an egg to a mommy and daddy who take care of the egg until it hatches into a baby). The babies are unable to believe the story, but Chuckie's preconception on seeing if it's true convince them to go into the backyard. Meanwhile, Lou, Didi, Charlotte, Betty and Howard are busy watching the game, while Stu and Drew begin preparing an omelet for the occasion. Drew asks Stu if he bought enough eggs. Stu says he ordered one "gross" of eggs, to be on the safe side. Drew explains to Stu that a "gross" is 144 eggs, which is way too many.

In the backyard, the babies retrieve an egg from a bird's nest, thinking it's a stork's basket. The babies decide to call the baby in the egg "Milton." They make a nest for the egg inside, but Angelica takes the egg away after the babies tell her about it, proclaiming it as her baby sister. While Angelica is telling the egg about how it will grow up to be like her, the babies find her and demand she give back Milton, which she calls "Miltonia." Chuckie grabs Cynthia and threatens to take her away from Angelica if she doesn't return the egg to them. Tommy has an idea: give the items to their respective owners through the use of the twins. Chuckie hands Cynthia over to Lil, who then hands the doll to Angelica. Angelica hands the egg over to Phil, and he gives it to Chuckie, only to have Angelica reclaim the egg.

Back in the kitchen, Stu and Drew continue to prepare the omelette for everybody. Stu wants to put a particular kind of olive into the omelette, and Drew exclaims that those types of olives are still pitted.

After the egg gets thrown onto the floor without getting cracked, and getting taken by Spike, it goes into the hands of Stu, who gets ready to crack the 144 eggs ordered from the grocery store. Tommy tries to get the egg back, but Stu unknowingly takes the egg and attempts to crack it. After the other babies distract the dads from the egg-cracking job, Tommy reclaims the egg. The brothers put the babies back into the playpen and tell them to wait a little longer for snack time, thinking that they came into the kitchen looking for something to eat.

The egg hatches, and Milton the bird is born. After hearing Milton's first chirps, Didi comes into the room and puts Milton back into his nest where he belongs. Initially, the kids think that Tommy's parents didn't want a baby right now, but then they finally realize that Milton's a bird and not a human. Angelica, disappointed by this, asks where human babies come from. Susie, who had just come over with her family for the occasion, whispers into Angelica's ear on where babies really come from--but Angelica doesn't believe her and thinks it was a joke.

As the episode ends, Milton's parents fly to the nest and share a kiss next to their little chick while a couple of bees buzz by, subtly hinting the term "The Birds and the Bees".

Goofs[]

When Charlotte asks, "What did you say?" to Angelica, her eyebrows disappear; they reappear afterwards.

Angelica's white legs mistake in The Stork — Angelica's legs error.

When Tommy's explaining how Cynthia will be given back to Angelica while she relinquishes "Milton", there is a coloring error where Angelica seems to be not wearing her blue and green tights, but rather has flesh-colored legs.

Trivia[]

This is one of the few times Angelica falls for a lie instead of telling one.
Chuckie asks Tommy how he'll know which egg is Milton. This seems redundant, since "Milton" is the only egg that is green with blue spots.
Tommy says about Milton, "He ain't ugly, he's my brother!" This is a reference to the song "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother".
"The Birds and the Bees" is an idiom for telling children sexual facts. Just before the end of this episode, actual birds and bees are seen.
Tommy does eventually get a younger brother, Dylan Prescott "Dil" Pickles (named after Didi's cousin), who's born in The Rugrats Movie.
The truth about where babies come from is unclearly revealed in "No More Cookies" and revealed in "The Family Tree" and The Rugrats Movie.
While it would seem strange that someone as young as Susie would know where human babies really come from, if you take into consideration that Susie's mother, Lucy, is a doctor (who practices multiple fields of medicine, one of which is obstetrics), it can be assumed that Lucy felt her kids should know the truth and not just silly lies.
- For those who don't know what "obstetrics" is, it is the field of medicine that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. And for those who don't know what "postpartum" means, it's the period of time that begins right after a child is born and lasts for about six weeks.
- Human beings are primates, which are mammals, and mammals (except for the platypus and echidna, who lay eggs; they are monotremes) give live births.
- Birds lay eggs to have baby chicks; human beings are mammals, and female human beings give birth by going into several stages of pregnancy and then going into labor to give birth like other female mammals in the mammal family.
This is one of the only times where Angelica actually expresses a desire to have a sibling; nearly every other time where her status as an only child is mentioned, she normally expresses her thankfulness on not having any siblings, such as in "Angelica's Worst Nightmare." In fact, she only wants a sibling in three episodes: this one, "Sister Act" (and only then because she feels left out) and "Angelica's Twin" (in this one, she doesn't really want a sibling but pretends to have one as she wants twice as many toys and treats). Angelica's the only one of the Rugrats to stay an only child throughout the entire franchise.
- As mentioned above, Tommy eventually gets a younger brother (Dil), which also means that Angelica gains another cousin.
- Chuckie eventually gains a sibling as well -- in the second Rugrats movie, he gains a stepsister named Kimi through his dad, Chas's, marriage to Kira, Kimi's mom. Chuckie and Kimi ultimately become legal siblings when Chas and Kira legally adopt each other's child, which also makes Chas the legal father of Kimi and Kira the legal mother of Chuckie.
Angelica wants to name the expected baby Miltonia.
During the episode, the mothers (Didi, Betty, and Charlotte) are watching the football game, which is believed to be masculine, while the fathers are either cooking something (Stu and Drew) or knitting (Howard), both of which are believed to be feminine.
It is implied that Chuckie is claustrophobic.
Grandpa dresses like a 1920s college football fan, complete with a fur coat and a pennant.
Morals: Wait until your kids get a little older before you talk to them about childbirth. Be careful with making up anything about childbirth like silly lies to children when they aren't old enough to ask about it. Also, when talking about this topic, make it is as appropriate as possible. If a child is very young, talk about it in an appropriate and simple way. If a child had learned about puberty and is old enough to remember anything, talk about it with more details, but in an appropriate way.