I know this Rugrats Theory is all over the internet, but I just heard it for the first time recently and I wanted to share it all with you because it was so shocking. 

This theory says that there is more behind Nickelodeon’s Rugrats besides being a cute show for little kids to watch.  In fact, some people are saying that the show has this whole psychological meaning behind it centering around Angelica having a psychotic break at the age of 3 after having too many traumatic accidents happen in her family at such a young age. 

This is by far the most random and depressing guess at the reason behind the characters of a kid’s show.  Here’s what the theory says:

  • All of the rugrats are a figment of Angelica’s imagination.  Now that’s not so horrible by itself, but then we learn why Angelica made them up.
  • Chuckie died with his mother in childbirth.  This is why his dad is always so worried about him in the show.
  • Tommy was stillborn, making his dad have some kind of break and sit in the basement to make toys for the son he was supposed to have. 
  • The DeVilles had an abortion.  Angelica never found out if the baby was supposed to be a boy or a girl so she decided to make it twins.  Then, she gave them matching names and personas because there probably would have been only one child if there was no abortion.
  • The reason behind these delusions have been blamed on Angelica’s nonexistent relationship with her mother and her manipulative one with her father.  Thus, Angelica had no one to turn to when she needed help dealing with the babies’ deaths and resorted to making up the lives they should have lived.

The theory even extends to the “All Grown Up” show that stemmed off of the 90s favorite. 

In All Grown Up, Angelica is a bipolar schizophrenic addicted to narcotics and heroin because they help her keep her delusions alive.  At this point, we learn that Angelica’s biological mom died from a heroin overdose and Angelica’s disease because she’s a crack baby.  Her real mom’s name was Cynthia, hence her doll’s name.  The woman from “Rugrats” who was Angelica’s mother is really her gold-digging step-mom who Angelica idolized. 

When “All Grown Up” was canceled, Angelica died of an overdose just like her mother.

Dil is the only baby who isn’t fictional.  However, Angelica never accepted him as being real and accidentally hit him too hard while trying to make him go away once, resulting in brain damage.  This is why he’s such an odd child in “All Grown Up.”

Suzie was actually Angelica’s friend.  The theory says that she grew up to become a psychologist and joined the Nickelodeon team to invent the “Rugrats” TV show, finally explaining the origin of the theory.

I was a huge fan of “Rugrats” when I was a kid and I just don’t see why a writer for a kid’s show would think of this when writing such a playful show.  Personally, I think someone was bored one day and somehow came up with this elaborate theory as part of their psych homework.

Do you believe the Rugrats Theory?