Rugrats Is The Original Bluey & Y'all Need To Give Stu & Didi Some Respect

If I mention the name Bluey in a group of parents and kids, more often than not, it’s an adult who will pipe up, “Oh my God, I LOVE Bluey” before a kid does. For many legitimate reasons, Bluey has become a cartoon beloved by both children and parents, and it’s incredibly easy to see why. The show is funny and smart; it holds a lot of emotions; it gets you right in the feels and makes you feel seen — it’s just good. But when people talk about Bluey, they always say something like, “It’s so much better than the shows we grew up with.”

And look, I get that you love the Heelers and their Australian home, but you’re wrong. Because before Bluey? There was Rugrats.

I know, I know. You remember Rugrats as the funny Nickelodeon cartoon with the babies always getting into mischief because their parents didn’t pay them any attention. Tommy had a little screwdriver in his diaper to break out of the baby gate, and his band of baby friends — the twins Phil and Lil, the scaredy-cat Chuckie, his big cousin Angelica — brought some pretty hilarious storylines into the mix.

But I’m telling you right now, you’re not giving it the credit it deserves.

If Reddit had been a thing in the ‘90s, maybe there wouldn’t be entire subreddits dedicated to Rugrats, and maybe people wouldn’t fight over articles trying to decipher how much money Stu made as a toy inventor or analyzing why Didi was so obsessed with Dr. Lipschitz... but that’s only because no adults were watching it.

This was the ‘90s. Kids were turning on the cartoons as soon as they woke up and eating a bowl of cereal, a Pop-Tart, or a Toaster Strudel that burned your tongue with its lava insides while the outside remained semi-frozen. There was no “family screentime” where we all gathered together to watch one (1) episode of Rugrats before moving on with our day. There was a kid, a bowl of store-brand cocoa puffs, and the remote.

So, before you start going on and on about how great Bluey is and how they just didn’t make shows like this when we were kids, let me present to you my argument for why Rugrats is the original Bluey — and why Stu and Didi deserve some respect.

You like Bluey because it’s relatable to parents.

My friend, I really need you to pay attention to Rugrats because it’s also relatable to parents. From Didi’s anxious parenting research to Stu’s undereye bags as he pours coffee every morning, there are a lot of fun parenting moments that I didn’t catch as a kid. In an episode where Stu and Didi have to take care of Angelica — who has broken her leg — Stu has a real “come to Jesus” moment in his own kitchen.

And don’t you remember Charlotte Pickles? The wife of Drew Pickles (Stu’s brother) and Angelica’s mother, she is a badass ‘90s mom who manages to juggle a full-time career while struggling to balance motherhood. In one episode, when she has Tommy for the day and tries to take both Tommy and Angelica to work with her, it’s a disaster. Drew comes home and asks Angelica where her mommy is, and she says (in a quote I say to my husband daily), “In the shower. She says she has to wash away the stench of failure.” #Relatable

But Bluey makes me cry.

Yeah, and unless your heart is made of stone, Rugrats makes you cry, too. Do we really need to discuss the “Mother’s Day” episode where the audience realizes that Chuckie’s dad, Chaz, is a single dad because Chuckie’s mother died? I can’t even think about the episode without getting a little teary-eyed.

It’s Mother’s Day, and Chuckie and his friends try to figure out why he doesn’t have a mom. He happens to come across a photo of his mother, and Chaz has a deeply emotional moment with his son where we also hear a poem Chuckie’s mom wrote for him before she died — which shows that she had been sick for a while and knew she wouldn’t be around to see her son grow up. I mean, how many episodes of Bluey do you have to watch to get this level of emotions?

Rugrats showcases having a village like Bluey, too.

One of the things I hear most about Bluey is how much people love the village the show created with its characters. From cousins and family always being around — like Muffin and Socks and Nana — to all of Bluey’s little friends and neighbors, it really brings the importance of having people around you and your kids to light. But y’all, Rugrats has that, too. Every day, the babies are all together, and it’s obvious they’re all relying on each other for babysitting and friendship. Often, the parents are all just hanging in the kitchen while the babies play, and I love what it symbolizes.

Rugrats even has its own version of “Sleepytime.”

Ask any Bluey-loving parent about the episodes that give them all the feels, and they’ll no doubt mention “Sleepytime” — a gorgeous episode that weaves in the true work of parents to make kids feel loved and safe through Bingo’s dreams. Well, Rugrats already did this episode. And it’ll make you even more emotional when you remember it. It’s from the very first season, and it’s titled “Slumber Party.” I remember it vividly, and I feel like I fully understood the sweetness of it even as a little kid.

Angelica spends the night with Tommy, but he catches a cold at some point. Through the night, his dreams get a little bizarre (like Bingo’s), with everyday things making an appearance. He ends up feeling sick and scared when Didi suddenly appears as the crescent moon in his dream — much like Chili as the sun in Bluey through Bingo’s dreams. Soon, all his family members are surrounding him, each looking like a piece of his mobile, as they check in on his fever and offer suggestions for what to do.

It gives you that same feeling that Bluey’s “Sleepytime” does: that the ordinary, mundane moments of parenthood — like checking their temperature and rocking their uncomfortable little selves to sleep — are so much bigger than we think.

Rugrats tackles fertility, too.

I know; you’re thinking of the deeply moving episodes of Bluey where Chili’s sister is going through fertility issues. (It makes me cry every time.) But please tell me you remember the episode where Angelica thinks she’s getting a baby sibling? Of course, the episode is meant to be themed around a kid worried about losing her parents’ love and attention as they prepare for a new baby. There is a lot of support from Drew to his daughter about how she’ll always be their baby, too, and the episode is both funny and wholesome.

But at the end, despite taking an at-home pregnancy test that gave her a positive result, Charlotte tells Angelica that she discovered she’s not pregnant after all after going to the doctor. Charlotte looks crestfallen and sounds so sad as she says she’s not pregnant. Did she have a chemical pregnancy? Did she miscarry? Have she and Drew been trying for a while to give Angelica a sibling, and that’s why they were so obsessed with the new baby news immediately? Much like Bluey, it feels like a very subtle reference to a big, adult moment — meant to go a little over kids’ heads — and I love it so much.

Listen, this isn’t a competition. Both Bluey and Rugrats are incredible shows. It’s just so obvious to me how many good, heartwarming, funny shows existed without parents ever having any idea. While my parents loved to have a movie night with all of us, and they definitely watched many Nickelodeon shows, I don’t ever remember them sitting with me in excitement for the newest episode of Rugrats like Bluey parents do now.

So, maybe instead of suggesting Bluey is the first show of its kind, the real story is that we should all be watching “kid shows” as long as we want. After all, how else would I know about Passover if not for Didi Pickles’ parents?