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| "Buster's Growing Grudge" | |
| Season/Series: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 8b |
| Original Airdate: |  November 25, 1998[1] September 15, 1999[2] November 25, 1998 December 1, 2003 March 9, 2006 June 23, 2007 March 4, 2002[3] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Joe Fallon |
| Storyboard by: | Robert Yap Daniel Decelles |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "Popular Girls" |
Next "Arthur's Treasure Hunt" |
| Read transcript |
"Buster's Growing Grudge" is the second half of the eighth episode in the third season of Arthur.
Summary
Buster's convinced that his great joke will be the difference between a successful oral report and failure. But when Binky steals his material, will Buster stay mad forever?[4]
Plot
The show opener for this episode has Arthur talking about how everybody, ranging from D.W. to Brain, gets upset at least once. Then the show opener ends when Arthur introduces Buster as "one person who's always happy", but when he opens a curtain, Buster is shown upset, turning his back on Arthur, and unwilling to talk.
Buster's Growing Grudge
The episode begins as Buster watches a Bionic Bunny episode. Buster misses the rest of the episode while his mother reminds him of writing his history report before watching TV. On the way to school the next day, Buster tells Arthur that he did a weak report since it was done quickly after Bionic Bunny, and hopes that starting with a relevant joke that he wrote himself will make his report "a guaranteed 'A'". He tries his joke out on Binky, and Binky, Buster and Arthur all laugh at it. In Mr. Ratburn's class, Binky does a lackluster report on Christopher Columbus. Anxious to give his report, Buster then gets shocked when Binky tells Buster's joke in front of the class. Except for Buster, the entire class (even Mr. Ratburn) laughs.
Miserable, Buster starts his report on King Tut with a cliché joke, to which the class uninterestedly responds. Later that day, Buster is still upset with Binky telling his joke and he complains about it everywhere, from the soccer field to The Sugar Bowl, and even during a Talent Show at school.
Arthur tries to convince Buster to forget about Binky telling the joke, but Buster refuses. When Arthur says that it was Buster's fault for doing a report on eggnog rather than Egypt, Buster says that it is the encyclopedia's fault for putting those two words next to each other. Buster soon realizes his mistake, finds Binky and apologizes, but Binky is confused as to why. When Buster tells him, Binky pays Buster for telling the joke. Buster then realizes that he can get paid for telling jokes and wants Binky to do a comedy act with him.
Characters
Major
Minor
- D.W. Read
- Brain
- Rattles
- Bitzi Baxter
- Mr. Ratburn
- 3rd Grade Male Rat
- George Lundgren (does not speak)
Cameo
- Alex Davidson
- Muffy Crosswire
- Fern Walters
- Sue Ellen Armstrong
- David Read
- Paul Jacobs
- Kenny
- 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
- Luke
- Brian
- Steve Pappas
- Maria Pappas
- Jenna Morgan
- Toby
- 4th Grade Male Dog
- Slink
- Laverne Frensky
Trivia
- As the episode finishes, Binky thinks that Buster and he could have their own TV show, but not Arthur, as people wouldn't want to watch him on TV. This is a fourth wall break.
- This is one of the earliest instances of George winning a contest, which becomes a running gag throughout the series.
- D.W. is absent from this episode herself, she can only be seen from other episodes Arthur talks about in the intro.
Cultural references
- In the introduction Brain mentions the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft which was launched in 1997 and reached Saturn in 2004.
- Buster suggests that he can go back in time by flying a rocket faster than the speed of light around the sun. This is a reference to Star Trek, where such a method has been employed for time travel on several occasions.
Episode connections
- Buster's banana peel joke was first told in "Arthur's Lost Library Book", but it has since fallen out of favor with the kids.
- In the show opener, involving D.W.'s worst moments from past Arthur episodes, clips of D.W. are shown and losing her stuff which is mentioned such as her Blankie from D.W.'s Blankie, her Crazy Bus CD from Play it Again, D.W., her Snowball from D.W.'s Snow Mystery, D.W. being scared of octopuses from D.W. All Wet, D.W.'s Imaginary Friend, and D.W. missing Spanky from So Long, Spanky.
Errors
- When everyone in the class (excluding Buster) laughs at the King Tut joke when Binky tells it, Arthur is seen laughing even though he already was seen laughing when Buster told the joke to him and Binky outside of Lakewood Elementary School.
- Arthur may simply have found the joke very funny.
- When Brain tells Buster that time travel isn't possible, before we see close-ups of both characters, Buster is seen in his regular outfit. Before and after that scene, Buster is wearing a traditional outfit.
Home Video
DVD
Free on-demand episode courtesy of
PBS (Thirteen)
Gallery
Screenshots
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/19991012151151/http://www.pbs.org/whatson/1998/11/N/19981125.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130719100407/http://ww3.tvo.org/program/157024/arthur/#1997
- ↑ https://www.fernsehserien.de/erdferkel-arthur-und-seine-freunde/episodenguide/staffel-3/3906/2
- ↑ http://www.klru.org/schedule/episode/189198/
