It’s no exaggeration to say that Rugrats was one of the best cartoons of the ‘90s. With its wonderful cast of characters, 🌱its iconic animation design, and its humorous dialogue, the show became a kids’ television staple for many years. Children everywhere got joy from watching the mad escapades of Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and even Angelica as they tackled some big life dilemmas such as finding worms to eat, and getting the cookie jar down from the cupboard.

However, unbeknownst to many lye some very dark secrets surrounding the popular cartoon – some of which are so dark and disturbing, that you’ll wish you never knew about them. Well, alꦗlow us to fill you in on them if you dare. This list features some of the🃏 most alarming secrets regarding the show’s development. Whether it’s Grandpa Lou’s X-rated nights alone, or Angelica’s allegedly damaged psyche – you’ll never look at the show the same way again once we’re done with you.

As a huge fan of the show when I was growing up, many of these shocked, stunned, and baffled me. Now it’s your turn. These are 20 dark secrets about Rugrats you really don’t want to know. Caution: your childhood may be affected by wh🥃at you’re about to see…

20 ﷺ Angelica’s Twist♎ed Mind

Seriously, Angelica Pickles is a pretty horrible kid in Rugrats – bullying, tormenting, and generally just putting the babies through hell. However, one lingeriܫng theory asserts that there’s a reason for her bullish attitude, and it’s certainly an eye-opening one.

It claims that Angelica is actually conjuring the whole thing up in her head and that the babies are, in fact, a figment of her imagination. Some of the more creative fans of the show have pi𝐆nned this down to a troubled chil𒈔dhood, asserting that she delves into the recesses of her psyche to torture the babies.

Pretty out there, huh? Well, this isn’t the last you’ve heard of this peculiar the🅰ory. We’ll get to the rest of it later with some truly disturbing assertions regarding your favorite characters from the show.

19 ꧃ No Laughing Matter ⭕

Here’s a dark moment from the show: Tommy being taken. Yes, in th🦋e show’s context, it’s your typical light-hearted affair. But the idea of a baby being t💃aken away from his family by two thugs is undoubtedly quite unsettling.

It happens during Season One in the episode Ruthless Tommy, an episode which finds the mi📖schievous baby up to no good agai🎐n after he’s been taken by some criminals. They grab him because they think he’s the son of millionaire Ronald Thump (yes, a parody of President Donald Trump), but they soon regret it once Tommy starts flushing their stolen goods down the toilet.

Of course, it’s Rugrats so the whole baby-snatching thing tends to get played down. On paper, however, it’s a surprise they got away with this risque c💦oncept.

18 Grandpa Lou Gets “Lonely” At Night🍰 🍨

It would seem Grandpa Lou likes some “alone” time at ni💯ght (when the babies are asleep), thanks to one quite explicit segment on the show. In it, he rents some movies to watch, with one of them being decidedly not for kids.

He brings home Reptar Come Home, Reptar Redux, and (wait for it) Lonely Space Vixens. Hmm, sounds suspicious to us, and old Lou confirms our fears when he says: “My personal favorite, Lonely Space Vixens! That's for after you go to bed.” Oh dear…

Clearly, gramps likes his videos of the more adult variety, as this pretty shocking joke 🌼in the much-loved kid’s program proves. Let’s just hope the video store didn’t get the discs mixed up!

17 The Sad Demise Of Chuck༒ie’s Mother

One of the most touching moments on the show is Chuckie and his dad Chaz reminiscing about Chuckie’s mother (and Chaz’s wife Melinda). Because despite th🍸e fact that she appears to be alive in earlier episodes (although never shown), it’s later revealed that she’s actually dead.

It happens in the episo🉐de Mother’s Day, where Chaz finally tells Chuckie about his deceased mother. The spectacle-wearing redhead then begins to have flashbacks of his mum telling him not to be sca🎃red, as well as her leaving him an emotional poem before passing away.

It turns out that she died from a terminal illness, making this tear-jerking episode all the more powe🥀rful. Who says cartoons can’t be emotionally effecti𝓡ve too?

16 Did Chuckie Join Her? ♏

Back to our bizarre🌳 Angelica theory, this time with regards to Chuckie’s story. Did Chuckie actually die? According to this terrifying theory, he did. It suggests that he died along with his mother in the ‘80s, with his appearance on the show simply being another figment of Angelica’s imagination.

But where’s the evidence for this? Well, those with dark imaginations claim that Chuckie’s dad Chaz is a nervo🥃us wreck all of the time because of ✤the tragic loss of both his wife and his son. Poor Chaz!

So is Chuckie alive? Or is he simply another made-up character in Angelica’s mind? We may never kno꧑w. We certainly hope Chuckie is alive and well. However, the theory gets even stranger when we get to Tommy…

15 ♒ Deeply Disturbing Origins Of Tommy ♈

We hit the No.15 spot with this deeply disturbing origins story concerning Tommy, the show’s main charaꦰcter. Sadly, the before mentioned theory suggests Tommy had the same fate as Chuckie – death.

Yes, Tommy was🦋 born, however, some fans have claimed that he was stillborn. It’s certainly a dark suggestion, but one they think they can back up with the behavior of Tommy’s dad Stu. They claim that the reason Stu is always making toys in the basement is because he’s in denial abouꦕt his son’s death.

In essence, he’s crafting toys for the son he ♉never had a chance to play with. It’s a heartbreakingly sad assertion, but one which some fans of the show swear by. Let's just hope this theory is all talk.

14 Supposed Da💝rk Reason For Dil’s Odd Be🃏havior

Surely youngest baby Dil is safe from the dark Creepypasta theory? Sadly, he’s not. It points to the baby’s very peculiar behavior in the Rugrats comeback series All Grown Up (behavior which they claim isn’t coincidental).

The story goes that Angelica (Dil’s cousin) hit the baby very hard after trying to get him away from her, resulting in Dil receiving brain damage from the blow. Talk about dark. This theory strand is so ඣdark that it will make you watch the show in a completely different way the next time.

The worst part is that, unlike the other characters on the show (which the theory claims are imaginary), Dil i💮s, in fact, real according to the creepy interpretation. Can you say bye-bye childhood?

13 ✤ Flippant Joke About The Death Penalty

Show writers are no strangers to including some very questionable jokes in their cartoons, and Rugrats is no different. As well as featuring a ve💎ry bizarre joke about circumcision, the show has also made light of the death penaltꦜy in the past.

Yes, particularly in the episode Chuckie vs. The Potty, which centers on Chuckie making the transition from potty to toilet. In it,𝔍 he dreams that h♛e’s in jail, being forced to use the toilet. After screaming “not the chair!,” Angelica flushes him down it while laughing sinisterly.

It’s certainly quite a dark joke for a kids’ TV show, and makin♐g light of the electric chair could definitely be seen as distasteful by some. It's pretty crazy how some stuff can slip ❀so easily past the censors.

12 ꦚ Did Phil And Lil Neve💙r Actually Make It?

Thought we were done with the Creepypasta theory? Think again. Because it wasn’t just Tommy, 🦂Chuckie, and Dil who were caught up in Angelica’s twisted role-playing game, but also twins Phil and Lil 🦩too.

Yes, it claims that the DeVille parents actually decided to have an abortion. However, Angelica couldn’t decide in her mind if she wanted the baby to be a boy or a girl, so she conjured them up as twins instead. Geez, we thought Angelica wไas evil before but this just takes the cake.

Legend has it that Angelica created them because she never had a tangible relationship with her own parenꦰts, thus Phil and Lil came into being. Now that’s one damaged little mind if I do say so myself.

11 Controversial Comic Strip ⛦

After the show’s success, one of the things that Nickelodeon came up with to keep the focus on Rugrats was a comic strip featuring Grandpa Lou that ran in The Washington Post (the week of the Jewish New Year in 1998).

However, the depiction of the character (with his long nose anꩲd recital of the Mourner’s Kaddish) drew scathing criticism from the Anti-Defamation League who accused it of being anti-Semitic. They called Boris’ likeness “reminiscent of Nazi-era depictions of Jews.”

It’s indeed not the kind of attention Nickelodeon wanted from the comic strip, leading to the cartoon network issuing an apology soon after, and vowing never to run the controversial piece again. We'd love to see some Rugrats comics, but maybe it's not such a good idea.