The premise of the Nickelodeon cartoon, Rugrats, follows a bunch of babies' interpretations of various parts of the world around them. Usually, their interpretations in the episodes would differ from what was happening, and sometimes their imaginations would make things more significant than they were.
In the process, the characters could have some legitimately frightening experiences. Given that most of them are infants, they cannot tell the adults, and the parents are usually none-the-wiser about the events their kids have gone through. Whether it was merely imagination or an actual event, many Rugrats episodes often had scary imagery or implications.
10 Tommy Almost Wound Up As Dead Mail
In the season one episode, "Special Delivery," Stu Pickles orders a female toy doll. His son, Tommy, thinks his parents are getting a new baby in the mail, and he journeys through the post office to find her.
Tommy's journey eventually leads him down the chute to the dead letter office. Only through his lucky lever pulling does he avoid winding up in the pit of junk mail, where the skeleton of a late postal worker lies. Unfortunately, nobody in the postal office notices Tommy throughout his entire journey, and his parents are completely oblivious that he went there in the first place.
9 Tommy Spent A Day Kidnapped
The episode, "Ruthless Tommy," follows Tommy as he gets abducted by two crooks. They hold him for ransom, mistaking him for the son of billionaire Ronald Thump.
Proving too much to handle, the crooks return Tommy to his father by the end of the episode. Tommy flushes the crooks' jewels down the toilet, vacuums their money, and causes the criminals serious injuries. Once again, none of Tommy's family members were aware of what he went through, let alone that he got kidnapped. Worsening matters is that this event would not be Tommy's last experience getting kidnapped.
8 Chuckie Dreamed Of Death Row
In the season 2 episode, "Chuckie vs. The Potty," Tommy's friend, Chuckie Finster, fears being potty-trained. Despite Tommy's parents' and his friends' efforts to help him, they fail in every attempt. Eventually, Chuckie gets so scared that he decides to give up trying.
Shortly afterward, Chuckie has a nightmare where he is on death row and forced to use the bathroom, like receiving the electric chair. The look and atmosphere of the scene, combined with Tommy as a comforting Irish priest and Tommy's cousin, Angelica, as the executioner, gradually build up the terror of the moment and culminate it with a bang.
7 Tommy Appropriately Calls Mr. Friend Mr. Fiend
In season 3, Stu creates a clown toy for the kids called Mr. Friend. Unfortunately, the toy's malfunctioning leads it to behave erratically, much to the babies' fear.
The look of Mr. Friend alone is frightening enough, but even its speech patterns are odd to the point that even Stu's wife, Didi, was unsettled by it. Nonetheless, Stu keeps creating more Mr. Friend dolls, and every time the babies try to get rid of one, it always returns. The toy almost seems alive in how it manages to amass itself into an army, and the babies have no idea how Mr. Friend keeps resurfacing.
6 Tommy Has Odd Withdrawal Symptoms
In the episode, "Weaning Tommy," Tommy's parents take him off the bottle and start drinking from a cup at his dentist's advice. This change does not sit well with Tommy, who longs for his bottle. However, his parents continue to push him to drink from his cup.
Over the next couple of days, Tommy goes through withdrawal symptoms. It eventually comes to the point where he has a horrifying fever dream. During the fantasy, a giant sippy cup chases Tommy to the edge of a cliff, ordering Tommy to drink him. When Didi wakes him up, Tommy's face is one of horror.
5 Chuckie's Dreams Got The Better Of Him
In the season 3 episode, "In the Dreamtime," Chuckie struggles to distinguish his dreams from reality. This occurrence nearly results in disaster when he sleepwalks into the neighbor's yard and angers their bulldog.
The imagery in Chuckie's dreams is surreal and unsettling. The episode's first dream sequence has Tommy's face revealed to be replaced with that of a creepy clown saying "I'm not Tommy" before laughing. The end of the episode shows Chuckie's father, Chas, seeing Stu at his house, only for Stu to have the same clown-like face. Even with it just being a dream, both events happen out of nowhere and catch viewers off guard.
4 The Show Captures An All-Too-Familiar Fear Of Shots
Tommy's mother informs him that he will be getting his booster shot in the season 2 episode titled "The Shot." He tells all his friends, including Chuckie, who recounts his frightening experience with the matter.
The scene starts in typical Rugrats fashion. However, the friendly-looking Dr. Lector quickly morphs into a terrifying monster reminiscent of Mr. Hyde. Viewers only hear the story from Chuckie's end, and, like the other babies, he has quite the imagination. Nevertheless, his perspective wasn't mere fantasy. Needles can be terrifying for kids and adults. Many kids have had a similar fear upon getting their first shot, and most adults remember that fear all too well.
3 Surreal Doesn't Begin To Describe Tommy's Hallucinations
An early episode of the series, "Slumber Party," has Tommy come down with a fever after Angelica opens a window in his room. While recovering, he has some bizarre hallucinations.
Firstly Tommy's clown lamp comes alive and laughs. Then his family members become the objects hanging from his baby mobile. His mom becomes a crescent moon, his grandpa becomes an airplane, and his dad becomes a cloud. Angelica becomes Cupid, and her dad becomes a star. Despite the surreal nature of the whole thing, it's very creative and is an example of the quality only Nickelodeon's older era can achieve.
2 Every Kid Has Dreamed Of A Monster Under Their Bed
In season 3, Chas decides to move Chuckie from his crib to a regular bed. Chuckie fears the change, particularly when he fears a monster may lie underneath the bed. Didi decides to have Tommy stay over to help Chuckie adjust, and the two babies attempt to find the beast.
While the monster in question is only Chas' sweater, its look and voice are legitimately frightening. Of course, by the time the revelation comes out, Chuckie is far less fearful of his bed, but the imagery showcased in the episode is seared into the audience's mind.
1 Nothing Tops Angelica's Baby Brother
The season 3 episode, Angelica's Worst Nightmare, involves Angelica's mother, Charlotte, possibly being pregnant. As a result, Angelica is frightened about no longer being the center of attention.
Angelica's fear leads to her having a nightmare where her parents fawn over their new baby boy and forget all about her. The new baby is revealed to be capable of talking and has a surprisingly deep voice. Angelica tries to flee, but her baby brother keeps finding her and grows bigger with every encounter. It all culminates with him devouring Angelica while she's in a car. Everything about the sequence is strange and remains unforgettable.