Chuckie vs. the Potty

Season 2 Episode 2a
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Chuckie vs. the Potty
Original Airdate	September 13, 1992
VHS release	Chuckie the Brave Decade in Diapers: Volume 2
DVD release	Decade in Diapers The Best of Season 2 Season 2
Previous Episode	Sand Ho!
Next Episode	Together at Last

Chuckie vs. the Potty is the first segment of the second episode of Season 2, and the fifteenth episode overall of Rugrats.

Characters Present

• Tommy
• Chuckie
• Lil
• Phil
• Angelica
• Chas
• Didi
• Stu
• Lou

Synopsis

When Chuckie spends a weekend over at the Pickles’ house, he tells Tommy that his dad is trying to potty train him. Overhearing this, Angelica begins to tease Chuckie and tries to get him to wet himself by turning the water on and off. Will Chuckie have the last laugh and conquer his fear of the potty?

- Description from Klasky Csupo.

Plot

The episode begins with Tommy pulling toilet paper off the roll, creating a large pile on the bathroom floor. Didi catches Tommy and scolds him as she brings him back to the play pen. Almost immediately after setting him down the doorbell rings, and Didi goes to answer it. It's Chas, with Chuckie in one arm, and a training potty in the other. Chaz is agonized as he walks into the house, explaining that Chuckie is resisting potty training to the point where Chaz is worried it'll never happen. Didi reassures Chaz that Chuckie will be potty trained eventually, and promises to take good care of him while Chaz is away as Chuckie and the potty are set down in the play pen. Chaz says goodbye to Chuckie, asks him to be good and to use the potty (as well as telling him not to eat earthworms, breathe toxic fumes, or drink radioactive waste.)

Tommy, Phil, and Lil are curious about the potty, and wonder what it is. Chuckie, just as agonized as his father, explains that he's supposed to use the potty "instead of my diaper." The other babies come up with suggestions of how to avoid using the potty, but Chuckie has already tried everything they say. Angelica walks over and makes fun of Chuckie due to his refusal to be potty trained, saying that it's because he's to afraid to go without diapers. Angelica then says the babies don't know anything, because "Everybody who's anybody is potty trained." Chuckie insists that he just doesn't want to use the potty, and declares "Nobody is gonna stop me! Not my mom, not my dad, not the present of Beenited Stakes!" However, Chuckie stops mid-sentence and starts to cry, saying that he has to go.

Didi hears Chuckie crying and, guessing correctly that he must feel the need to go right now, grabs Chuckie and rushes him to the bathroom while yelling for Stu to hurry after her. Stu grabs the potty and brings it to the bathroom (after a nervous mix-up in which he sets the potty down in the hallway). Curious about what is going to happen next, the babies follow Chuckie and the adults to the bathroom while Didi and Stu rush to get everything ready. When everything is set up and Chuckie is seated on the potty, Didi and Stu consult the potty training book to find out what to do next. They find that they are to wait patiently for Chuckie to go, and then give him enough praise so he'll continue to use the potty. Hours pass as they watch Chuckie, play cards, read, and finally fall asleep from boredom while Chuckie continues to sit on the potty.

Finally, Tommy, Phil, and Lil enter the bathroom and ask Chuckie if everything is OK. Chuckie replies that he wishes everything could stay the same forever. Phil and Lil tell Chuckie that since the grown-ups are so insistent about potty training, he ought to just go along with it. Chuckie tells the twins that they can go ahead and do that themselves when it's their turn to be potty trained, but they deny that could happen. After that, Chuckie hops off the potty and says that he must not have to go after all...and then immediately pees on the bathroom floor.

The scene changes to Didi cleaning the bathroom floor and talking to Stu. She doesn't understand how this accident could have happened, as Chuckie was standing right next to the potty. Stu says it's not a big deal, saying that a lot of kids weren't potty trained at two. When Didi asks who, Stu admits himself, much to Didi's astonishment. At that moment Lou shows up and says that Stu wasn't potty trained until well after two, much to Stu's embarrassment.

Cutting back to the babies, Tommy admits potty training is a lot harder than it sounds. Phil and Lil ask Chuckie how he knows when he needs to go, and what does it feel like. Chuckie responds that that's the hardest part, explaining that when he thinks he has to go, he actually doesn't need to. But when he doesn't think he needs to go, he really does need to go.

Angelica, eavesdropping, decides that Chuckie needs a little "help". She starts to turn the kitchen faucet on and off. Chuckie hears the water running, and feels that he needs to go, but as soon as the water stops, his urge vanishes. Angelica continues to play with the faucet, causing Chuckie to run back and forth in confusion until he cries. Angelica laughs at Chuckie, then tells him that potty training is what everybody has to do when they get old, or that "you won't never go to school, or drive a car, or join the Army, or none of that fun stuff!" Still Chuckie refuses, declaring that he's never going to use the potty.

That night, Chuckie has a nightmare in which he is locked up in a prison. Phil and Lil appear as guards, telling Chuckie that it's "time to go," and that "the chair is waitin' for ya's." Chuckie tells them that he's too young to go, but they ignore Chuckie and remove him from his cell. As they walk along, they pass numerous cells filled with grown-up men wearing nothing but diapers who leer at Chuckie as he passes. Eventually they reach Tommy, an Irish Priest, who asks Chuckie if he has any lasts requests. Chuckie begs to not be made to go, but Tommy tells him to be brave for the little people, cutting to a shot of very tiny Stu, Chaz, and Didi on their knees like babies, silently watching. Chuckie reluctantly says he'll try, but as soon as they bring him to the "the chair", a giant toilet at the top of some steps, Chuckie changes his mind and tries to run. Phil and Lil force Chuckie on to the toilet, and when he begs for mercy, Angelica laughs at him and says that "everybody's gotta go someday" before flushing Chuckie down the toilet.

Chuckie wakes up, and feels a very urgent need to go. On his own, Chuckie gets out of the crib, rushes to the bathroom, and sits on the potty just in time to successfully pee into the potty! Stu is awakened by the noise, and sleepily walks to the bathroom, where he witnesses Chuckie going and calls for Didi. Didi rushes to the bathroom, where Stu explains what Chuckie just did. Didi and Stu praise Chuckie, but it's short lived, as a crying Angelica shows up on the scene, telling them that she's had an accident. Didi and Stu carry Angelica off to clean her up, allowing for Tommy to walk over into the bathroom and congratulate Chuckie for using the potty. Chuckie happily declares that he's an "anybody" now, and the episode ends.

Trivia

• After Chuckie uses the potty in this episode, he is capable of using the toilet bowl in further episodes. Thus, in the future, he became the second of band, after Angelica, who is able to use the adult toilet.
• This is the first instance in which Angelica is wearing her pajamas.
• In Nick's episode guide, it mistakenly says that Chas tried potty training.
• This is the only time Angelica wets herself.
• Chuckie mentioned that going on the potty is worse than his mom putting him on the bottle. This is one of several times Melinda Finster is mentioned in the "original era" episodes.
• On the Decade in Diapers: Volume 2 VHS and Decade in Diapers DVD, the director's credit is inexplicably edited out. This is fixed on the Season 2 DVD set.

Quotes

[Didi walks into the bathroom and notices Tommy covered in toilet paper]

• Didi: Tommy! Oh no, snookums, that's for cleaning up messes, not making them.