Cringeworthy Characters: Taffy, from Rugrats

I stopped watching Rugrats back when I was about six or seven. Before that point it was a regular cartoon that I had watching quite often, but I had lost a bit of interest in it that late into the show. Mostly anything after the second Rugrats movie. You'd think it would be from the addition of Kimi to the show, but I actually didn't mind her. I think I was just getting out of it.

During the last episodes I watched they introduced a new character to the cast, a teenage girl named Taffy. At the time I remember that I was confused at why she got so much screentime and was turned off. Recently I became curious and watched her introduction episode 'Happy Taffy'. Mostly out of some sort of sadistic reveling perhaps. 

Unlike the norm, when I look back at something and realize it wasn't that bad, Taffy was a lot worse once I re-watched the episode featuring her. 

Happy Taffy starts with Didi and Stu looking for a babysitter. When they can't find one, Grandpa and Lulu suggest that they hire her niece Taffy to babysit. They go listen to her at the bowling alley before she agrees to babysit, even when Didi is reluctant. The adults finally decide to test her by having her take the kids to the park. She also needs to practice singing for a gig her band got. Unfortunately, this spurs Angelica to keep singing horribly, and Taffy sings a song she suddenly makes on the spot, which is honestly pretty bad. 

Finally they get to the park and she loses Angelica while the babies play in the sand. The adults are meanwhile watching from the bushes. Taffy tries to make another song and the babies mistake her for being sad and try to cheer her with 'toys'. So they bring her trash, which she doesn't notice, and it inspires her to make a different song. The babies then play with the trash and the adults creepily stalk the scene instead of watching from a safe distance. It isn't as though she'll notice.

There's a Godfather parody, which isn't the first Godfather parody on Rugrats. They bring her ice, she sings again, and Stu takes the scene as Taffy doing something other than just sitting there. Angelica returns and sings until Dil throws a rattle at her. She yells at Dil, Taffy encourages the behavior, and then when Angelica continues Taffy stops and sends her away. After this Taffy does the first babysitter thing she's done this entire time and gives the babies juice boxes, then goes back to making another song.

When an old lady passes by the babies realize that they're cute... Or, well, they used to be. They come over and dance for her, Angelica too. When the adults see it they are relieved and Taffy is happy because her new song could be a 'hit'. She then walks off playing and the adults approach to announce her as the permanent babysitter. The babies are happy, Angelica keeps singing, Taffy is happy, and all is well.

...So where do I start? Firstly, Taffy screams of 'Cousin Oliver' syndrome, though without the breaking or ruining things. She's clearly being brought in to be 'cool with the hip kids'. What with her band and her guitar, and the fact that she's a teenage character period being brought into a show focusing on toddlers. The adults even refer to her as 'Teeny Rocker'. Rocker? Now that is a stretch. It's incredibly grating that they hammer it in so much. 

Especially with he slew of 'slang' words that I don't ever remember being popular; such as her calling the babies 'Minis' and her cry of 'Excel-licious!' It just feels a little too forced, especially considering that she doesn't do anything but sit around. She doesn't do anything for the babies or really for the adults, so it's not readily obvious why the show acts as though she is a great choice as a babysitter. We're supposed to like her singing and rocking (lacking) personality and forget her complete lack of actually being a babysitter. 

Also, I can't help but cringe whenever she sings. She actually doesn't sound good, regardless of how good she's supposed to be considering that she constantly gets jobs, and all of the lyrics in the episode are bad. I think that was the point, but 'Mini Shake', the last song in the episode, is just as poor as all of the other attempts. If Angelica's singing was a meta joke about the viewers feeling towards Taffy then well done, but I doubt it.

There's also a ton of Mary Sue traits hovering around her being. Not enough to stick her through the actual test. The entire music thing is clearly just leaking of trying to be cool, especially since she's: gifted with music, plays a guitar well, has a great singing voice, has a successful band, and creates (apparently) popular songs in only a matter of minutes. She's also practically loved by everyone as soon as she appears; the babies don't even care that their Grandpa is being replaced by some strange girl who doesn't do anything. 

Worst of all, the entire episode is basically about her. Instead of: the babies meet their new babysitter and learn how to adjust. The episode is: Taffy tries to write a song for her gig. The babies think she's sad and try to cheer her. Basically the babies are the main characters and yet don't do anything in the episode other than fetch items. 

So maybe it was a bad first episode. I decided to watch a second Taffy related episode to see if it was just a bad first impression. The second episode I watched was 'Who's Tammy?'

The episode starts with Didi and Stu getting ready. The babies cheer that Taffy is going to be coming to babysit and she appears. Tammy comes in depressed and the babies notice. Taffy sadly laments to Stu that her band might be breaking up. The other two members being named Tammy and Tabby- What? He sympathizes with her before getting his socks on to leave with Didi. 

Taffy sits on the couch and the babies notice she's upset. They leave the playpen and Kimi mentions that she might sing a song 'like she always does'... One of these writers was aware of the issue. Yet Taffy shocking decides not to. I also notice she now has a different guitar. The babies are worried and Angelica appears, still doing the guitar thing. They think she stole 'Taffy' from 'Taffy'. This is, remarkably, pretty slow for even the babies to assume. 

Taffy is flattered by Angelica dressing like her and even gives her a hair clip. This begs the question why she's been baically ignoring the babies until this point, as she's not depressed enough to keep from encouraging Angelica. Angelica agrees to be nice, and is nice to the babies which encourages their fear. They believe it's the hair clip and decide to get it back. Chuckie suggests they keep Angelica nice, which the others ignore even though it makes more logical sense. 

After a long feud they get it back and to Taffy, but they hear her yelling on the phone about not playing with 'dumb babies'. It's weird that she didn't use something more slang-filled or at least less childish. The babies cry, Angelica does stuff, and Taffy still isn't watching them. The babies decide to make Angelica mean again to reverse Taffy, who still is complaining on the phone. Angelica goes to give cookies to the babies, really intending to eat them herself.

The babies start asking a lot of questions and try to annoy her to death. Right as Angelica is about to slip, Taffy, who has a fish for some reason, gives her a look and she recovers the 'nice' persona. They then hide her little instrument and she searches until Tammy appears and she begs her to sing. Instead, Taffy has Angelica sing as she dances with the babies, having made up with her band.

So what can we now clarify about Taffy? Firstly, she's an awful babysitter. She spends most of her time ignoring the babies and instead either cooking or yelling on the phone. Her cooking dirties the kitchen and her sandwich dirties the floor. She calls Angelica out on her behavior, but won't even watch the kids for two seconds so it doesn't matter anyway.

This biggest problem is that whenever Taffy is in an episode she is the main focus of the episode. The babies always want to help her, she usually has troubles that the babies solve, everyone likes her (even Angelica), and the episode seems to cut away to her thoughts and comments as frequently as it can. This was the last season and why I don't think Taffy made it end I don't think it helped at all. With Dil and Kimi they both became parts of the show without changing the formula, but Taffy seems to clearly change things in a bothersome way.

Maybe I'm being too critical, but I know why the new character addition turned me away as a child, and this is why I consider Taffy a cringeworthy character.

Taffy: A.K.A. Teeny Rocker
Occupation: Another successful musician teenager in a band, she's even the lead.
Hobbies: Yelling on the phone, playing the guitar, writing poor songs, and ignoring 'minis'.
Native Language is 'Cool' gibberish.
Current state: Closed for business.