It’s hard to believe how long ago Rugrats actually aired. It’s amazing how a show that was about nothing more than babies playing or creating adventures in their own backyard ran for so long. Alongside the nine seasons, Rugrats also spawned three movies: The Rugrats Movie, Rugrats in Paris, and Rugrats Go Wild. Let's not forget the two spin-offs, Preschool Daze and All Grown Up! It was a very sweet little show that still holds up today, fourteen years after the series ended.

But as wonderful as the show was, and how ready it was to end when it did, there are still plenty of unanswered questions that the show left. With a show set in the minds of young children, you might think that any plot holes are simply the errors of the ever-growing minds of babies. You’d think after a thirteen-year run, plus spin-offs, the creators would have closed all the doors and answered all the questions fans had about their favorite rats! But as this list proves, this is not the case.

Lately, Nickelodeon has shown their willingness for reboots and sequels, with Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie and the long-awaited Invader Zim sequel. Perhaps are going to see more of the Rugrats too!

25 What Happened To Lulu?

Lulu Johnston-Pickles, voiced by the late and great Debby Reynolds, was Grandpa Lou’s second wife, who he married at the beginning of Rugrats in Paris. She works as a nurse and met Lou in hospital after he broke his leg, although they had met decades earlier in 1943. They soon fell in love and married. However, after this, she is never seen again!

She is mentioned twice in the All Grown Up spin-off, with Lou telling us that she is on a trip around the world.

Why she didn’t take her husband with her on these travels isn’t explained, nor why she would make such a trip in her eighties. It’s likely that the creators could not bring back Lulu’s voice actress and thought it cruel to widow Lou a second time.

24 Kimi’s Backstory

Rugrats was a very progressive cartoon, with plenty of feminist messages and a wide variety of families. This included a divorced couple, Kira and Hiro, parents of Kimi. However, Hiro makes very few appearances on the show. Kimi’s biological father is never mentioned in Rugrats and it is assumed that he, like Chuckie’s mom, passed away. It’s not until All Grown Up that we learn more about Kimi’s backstory, learning that her father lives in Japan with his new wife and their baby. He then moves to the States to be closer to Kimi so she can get to know her sister, yet is never seen again for the rest of the series. It’s possible that had All Grown Up returned for a sixth season, we would have seen more of Hiro. But for most of the show's run, we knew nothing about him.

23 Goodbye, Mrs. Finster

Mother’s Day is one of the most emotional episodes of Rugrats. While the rest of the gang are celebrating Mother’s Day, Chuckie begins to wonder about his own mother. It’s revealed that Chas has hidden her existence from his son, hoping he will forget her, but has a change of heart when Chuckie recognizes her in a picture.

It’s an adorable ending and a great message for parents and children, but it did raise the question: when did Melinda pass away?

Well, it’s implied during this episode and future episode that she passed away from an illness when Chuckie was a few months old, but in the episode Real or Robots, Stu tells Chuckie that his Mom and Dad will pick him up in the morning. Did Stu forget?

22 One Long Vacation

In Rugrats in Paris, Stu is called to Paris after his Reptar robot malfunctions. Glossing aside the fact that he decides to take his entire family and all their close friends, maybe because they wanted to take advantage of an all-expenses-paid trip, how long were they in Paris for?

Stu fixing the robot should have only taken a few days, and even so, they stay around after the play which the robot was for. Stu is no longer needed right? But they all decided to stick around and have time to plan a wedding! Even when Didi asks if Chas is rushing into things, implying that the wedding was thrown together quickly, wouldn’t a better question be: when are we all going home and back to work?

21 You All Speak Very Good English

Speaking of Rugrats in Paris, did you ever wonder why they all speak English to each other, despite being based in France? I understand why Coco might speak English to her boss, since English might be a mutual second language between them. But she also speaks English to her assistants!

Jean-Claude is French, so why does he speak to Coco in English when it’s just the two of them?

Presumably, Kira speaks French since she and her daughter live in Paris, so why does Coco speak English to her? Even if she was hired for her knowledge of Japanese, surely Coco would want a French-speaking assistant. Yes, I know, it’s a film made for English speaking children who don’t speak French, but it’s still a plot-hole worth mentioning.

20 World's Worst Babysitter

The Pickles had the advantage of having a close network of family and friends to look after their kids, with Stu’s brother living close by and his father living with them. Grandpa Lou was often put in charge of the kids while their parents were working or otherwise occupied.

This is despite the fact that he was a terrible babysitter.

Pretty much every scenario where the babies wandered off unsupervised, Lou was supposed to be watching them and had fallen asleep. It’s his fault the babies go missing in The Rugrats Movie, and the kids often wait until after Lou is asleep to go on adventures. There is also the matter of him renting Space Vixens when he is supposed to be babysitting. The point of the matter is, after all the neglectful behavior, how come they kept trusting him to look after his kids?

19 A Well-Travelled Dog

Spike was the Pickles family’s beloved, loyal pet dog, who accompanied the babies on many of their adventures. Tommy adores his dog and is always showing him lots of love and affection. The two are rarely parted, even when his family goes on vacation!

Why on earth do the Pickles take their dog to Paris with them? Why do they take him on a cruise with them? Taking a dog abroad isn’t easy. They need more than a passport. They need signed papers from the vet and proof of their vaccinations. Not just on the way to Paris, but on the way back too! And did they really think a cruise ship was an appropriate place to bring a dog? Of course, people love their pets, but couldn’t the Carmichaels have pet-sat once in a while?

18 The Bank Robbery

This is a plot hole that has bothered me from a specific episode. During the episode The Bank Trick, Chuckie and Tommy are taken to the bank with Didi. Bored, they go on a search for candy after mishearing ATM as M&M and misunderstand the word “mint.” Coincidentally, the bank is also being “inspected” by some people how showed up with shiny badges.

After setting off a security alarm, police turn up and arrest the inspectors, who turn out to be bank robbers, before they make off with the money.

But that doesn’t make any sense. Were the bank staff really stupid enough to believe these guys were official inspectors? Even so, they would never have let them just take the money and carry it out to their car in bags with no security measures. This one was just not thought through.

17 One Year Olds Can’t Tell Time

Poor Tommy doesn’t take to his new brother Dil very well during The Rugrats Movie. Dil is a very spoiled baby, of whom Tommy soon becomes jealous of. The journey of bonding the two brothers go through during the film is very sweet and relatable for a lot of people.

Another sweet moment is when Stu, a younger brother, takes sympathy on his son and gives him a family heirloom, a golden watch and tell him that he has responsibility now. It’s a very sweet moment and all, but giving a golden watch to a one-year-old is really stupid! As proved throughout the film where Tommy doesn’t know what it’s for, gets it dirty and breaks it. I know he needed some time with Dad, but it probably would have been better to wait until he could at least tell time before giving him a watch.

16 Betty’s Backstory

Betty DeVille was the twins' loud and athletic mom. A self-proclaimed feminist, Betty wore a shirt with a female symbol on it and refused to let herself be pushed around. She became greatly admired by fans for her independence and outspoken nature.

But something that fans have wondered over the years is why Betty decided to take her husband’s name?

The main reason women give for taking their husband's name upon marriage is tradition or expectation. But Betty would unlikely do this for these reasons. Even in 1987, a woman did not have to take her husband's name or could hyphenate her name. Her maiden name “Giselle” is not embarrassing or rude enough to be the reason for taking Howard’s name. This has led to fans wondering if Betty has a poor relationship with her parents, as they are never seen on the show or mentioned.

15 The World's Worst Ninjas

Over the course of Rugrats, there are plenty of incompetent adults who fail in the jobs or duties, due to the antics of very small babies. In today's job market, it’s really depressing for unemployed, well-educated young people to see incompetent people employed, wondering why they can find a job and they can’t.

But nothing could be annoying than the bizarre, useless ninjas that are hired in Rugrats in Paris. When Coco sends her security ninjas after the babies, they make no attempt to hide when stalking after the babies. They get stuck on the floor with goo that Lil was able to throw perfectly without it getting stuck to her hands, and trip over constantly. That’s really annoying for any aspiring ninjas.

14 Babies Forever!

Every parent wishes that their little ones can stay babies forever. Well in the case of the Rugrats, these parents got there wish!

The kids age up in All Grown Up and celebrate birthdays on occasion, but they remain babies with no development as time passes.

Despite several anniversaries taking place throughout the series, weddings and marriages, THREE Christmas episodes and TWO thanksgiving episodes, Tommy and the twins remain one, Chuckie remains two, and Angelica remains three. Perhaps the most conflicting pause in time is when Dil comes along. Tommy is the same age when Didi discovers that she is pregnant with Dil as he is when his brother is born. While there are plenty of cartoons that ignore the passage of time (*cough* The Simpsons *cough*), we would have accepted the babies getting a little older.

13 Not For His Money

One of the most admirable thing about Rugrats was how it challenged gender roles by making the mothers the breadwinners of the family. Charlotte was a determined career woman and Didi worked as a school teacher to support her husbands inventing. Well, a part-time school teacher!

As determined as Stu is, let's face it, he wasn’t a great inventor. Even though his machines were often genius, they were never put together very well and rarely worked. While he might have received grants or loans to help fund his projects, the fact that he rarely reached a positive end result couldn’t have encouraged his benefactors. So how did he keep getting the money to fund his projects? There is an episode in season three, Stu Gets a Job, where Stu looks for work in between inventing projects.

12 Chuckie’s Slow Development

Despite time passing as we’ve already discussed, Chuckie remains two years old throughout the series. Despite this he is unable to communicate with adults, only the rest of the babies, not saying his first word (“no”) until Rugrats in Paris.

Babies develop at different speeds, and while it’s not unheard of for a two-year-old to be unable to speak, it is a little worrying that Chuckie makes no attempt at speech by the age of two. Most children say their first word before they are twelve months old and can say six words at eighteen months. But Chas doesn’t seem at all concerned that Chuckie has yet to speak and makes few attempts to encourage him to speak. This is strange, especially in comparison to three-year-old Angelica who can speak fluently.

11 Chuckie’s Super Strength

Despite not being able to talk properly, Chuckie is able to open huge church doors by himself. Next time you are at church or find yourself near a church, pull open the large front doors. They’re big, right? A little heavy to move by yourself.

Now imagine you are a two-year-old and both doors are shut completely.

Before saying his first word and stopping the wedding between Chas and Coco, Chuckie has to run into the church, bursting through two large, closed church doors. Despite being a small child, and unable to even reach the door handle, he manages this easily, throwing back the doors dramatically. That’s very impressive! Especially as Chuckie is implied to be a weak scaredy-cat with trouble in PE during All Grown Up. If only you were assigned that rope climb when you were two!

10 Where Is This Island, Exactly?

During Rugrats Go Wild, the families get shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, where the Thornberrys are filming for a nature documentary. The families think they are going on a luxury cruise, but end up on a tiny fishing boat. Trouble is, tiny fishing boats aren’t very strong and don’t sail very fast. This is probably why the boat gets destroyed, leaving the families shipwrecked. Luckily, they wash up on the island the next day!

So how long were they at sea for exactly? Where were they actually planning on going? The island that they wash up on is presumed to be in southeast Asia, so how did they sail all the way there from the states? Crossovers are often the result of extreme plot convenience, but this was a big stretch.

9 Angelica’s Issues

Angelica gets a lot of flak from fans of the show. It’s understandable, given how she bullies children a lot younger than her and is the annoying brat we all dread finding on an airplane or in the store. However, some fans wonder if she actually has far deeper issues.

We are never told why Angelica behaves the way she does.

There are theories saying that she is a chronic liar, due to lack of attention from her mother. Some say her behavior is the result of a lack of stimulation and boredom and is typical of a three-year-old in her position. The most worrying theory is that she shows traits of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This might be a bit heavy for a young child, but her self-obsession and vanity could very well have a deeper meaning. Perhaps one day we’ll get the answers.

8 They Only Wanted Children

Another aspect of the show that fans have wondered about is whether or not Stu and Didi had trouble conceiving. During the Mother’s Day episode, it’s revealed that Tommy was born prematurely and spent time in an incubator after being born. The length of time is not specified, but Didi is seen visiting him in her own clothes, implying that she was discharged before her son.

Fans have wondered due to this possibly difficult pregnancy, but mostly due to Didi and Stu’s reactions when they discovered they were having Dil, that that couple had difficulty conceiving. Since Dil is a surprise, it’s also possible that they were not using control, knowing that they had slim chances of having another child. Despite the reasons put forward, this has never been commented on by show's creators.

7 The Strangest Creepypasta

You’d think a show about some exploring babies would only bring joy in people’s hearts. Well, this famous Rugrats creepypasta begs to differ! This theory is that, due to Angelica’s issues, the babies are nothing but creations in Angelica’s demonic, imaginative mind. Chuckie passed with his mother, Tommy was stillborn, Betty never had the twins, and Kira lost custody of Kimi. The kids featured in All Grown Up are merely hallucinations from Angelica.

The only kid who isn’t imaginary is Dil, whom Angelica was mean to as he did not follow her commands.

This theory doesn’t carry a lot of weight, given that the characters exist without Angelica and act independently from her. Even so, it’s confused many and cast a different image on this colorful, funny cartoon.

Artwork by KayKay1006.

6 Where Is Their Home?

Despite the long run of Rugrats, it’s never really mentioned where they live! Presumably, they live in the USA, since they celebrate Thanksgiving and have American accents. They go on vacations to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. Stu implied that they live in the South-West of the states, given that he mentions driving through the desert home after a day trip.

But as mentioned, they managed to wreck their boat on a south-Asian island after only a few days. And they manage to get to Paris pretty smoothly, given how little notice they had. We’re never directly told the whereabouts of their hometown during the show, but state flags and license plates imply that they live somewhere in South California. As the show is mostly from the perspective of the babies, and babies don’t really know where they live, maybe this is understandable.