| "Draw!" | |
| Season/Series: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 1B |
| Original airdate: |  October 20, 1997[1] November 24, 1997[2] January 24, 2002[3] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Joe Fallon |
| Storyboard by: | Eric Bergeron Gerry Capelle |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers" |
Next "Binky Barnes, Art Expert" |
| Read transcript |
"Draw!" is the second half of the first episode in the second season of Arthur.
Summary
After Francine makes fun of Fern for liking Mr. Ratburn's puppet shows, the latter draws an unflattering comic strip making fun of the former and pretty soon, everyone else tries it too.
Plot
Arthur tells the viewers about Francine and how, even though she is his pal, she can still be hard to get along with. He also shares examples of this with the viewers, such as the fact that Francine whines even when she wins at basketball (she claims that she "could have won by more"). She also argues a lot, even about the fact that no one else will win an argument with her. Arthur then completes the opening with the message, "And this is what she [Francine] is like in a good mood."
One day at school, Mr. Ratburn's class is interrupted by the screeching boom of the school P.A. system. After adjusting his microphone, Mr. Haney announces the upcoming Teacher Charity Carnival, where the students can watch their teachers perform varied acts for the day on the school grounds.
During lunch, Francine commented on the silliness of Mr. Ratburn's puppet shows, mocking him by creating a sandwich puppet with olive eyes. Arthur and Buster laughed, but Fern expressed her enjoyment of the shows. Francine then teased her for liking "boring kid stuff." Humiliated, Fern ran off, while Francine, unconcerned, simply took Fern's cookie.
In the hallway, Arthur told Francine she needed to apologize to Fern for hurting her feelings. Francine showed no remorse, dismissing Fern as a "mouse" who should "just get over it." Fern overheard this, burst into tears, and became filled with anger, vowing revenge.
To get back at Francine, Fern shows her friends a comic she drew of a boastful and stuck-up cow named Frank who makes fun of everyone else. The kids find this hilarious, but when Francine discovers this, she is less than amused and asks if the cow represents her. The kids deny this as Frank is a boy, but Brain teases Francine by saying cows are females and bulls are males, so the comic might be about her. Francine is not amused and angrily storms off. Later, all the students draw their own depictions of Francine, all of them deciding to give her a taste of her own medicine.
Meanwhile, the teachers are preparing for the carnival, so Ms. Tingley comes into the lounge to learn what their plans are. Mr. Ratburn scares her with his "Many-Headed Hydra vs. Sinbad the Sailor" puppet show, and Miss Sweetwater plans on a sing-along. When she sees Ms. Tingley does not look happy, Miss Sweetwater tries to cheer her up with "I Like Fudge" on her guitar, scaring Ms. Tingley off. Ms. Tingley tries to take cover in Mr. Haney's office, only to find that he plans on a magic act where he will saw her in half in a box. His demonstration with a board or wood goes badly, scaring her off once again.
At lunch, the kids share their comics, which are all ambiguously about Francine, including "The Big Clumsy Moose with Big Feet Named Frannie", "Frannie Foghorn", "Frantic Frog", "Bully Bulldozer", and "Fran the Stinky Sneaker", and everyone laughs at what they have created. Arthur sees Francine sitting alone, apparently upset, and wonders if maybe they should stop. Fern insists that "she'll get over it". When Arthur tries to talk to Francine, she snaps at him to back off, denying that she is insulted. Arthur then reads Buster's comic, "The Giant Slime That Came to School".
In the comic, a huge lump of green slime (who probably characterizes Francine due to her hair and the fact that they were going through a phase of Francine-themed comics) proceeds to consume anyone who gets in her way, including Mr. Ratburn and Bionic Bunny. In the comic, a hungry boy (probably representing Buster as he has similar looks and personality) wanders in the dark looking for food, and comes across the Giant Slime, which he thinks is lime. He finds it delicious and tries to eat the blob, who runs off in fright. Buster chases it and eats it in one giant bite, saving Mr. Ratburn and Bionic Bunny in the process, who say that they are glad he eats like a pig.
At this point, Mr. Haney announces the carnival's beginning, so everyone goes outside, except Francine. Mrs. MacGrady finds the comics lying around and it gives her an idea.
At the carnival, all of the children are having fun watching their teachers and eating food. Fern is called into Mrs. MacGrady's fortune teller tent, where Mrs. MacGrady shows off the comics and says she has a plan to make Francine look ridiculous. Eager to see Francine humiliated, Fern gathers everyone who drew the comics. Mrs. MacGrady says she plans for the children to hide behind the drapes and dump a vat of green gloop all over Francine when given a signal (Mrs. MacGrady saying "green gloop").
Everyone hid as Francine entered, and Mrs. MacGrady pretended to "see" the comics in her crystal ball. Francine admitted that the comics were likely about her and, surprisingly, didn't laugh. Instead, she began to cry. At this point, Francine confessed to Mrs. MacGrady that her friends' teasing was genuinely hurting her feelings, and she acknowledged that she was wrong to humiliate Fern.
Everyone overheard this and was astonished. Francine actually did have feelings! Mrs. MacGrady then said "Green gloop," but the children realized they had pushed Francine too far and decided to abandon their plan to further humiliate her. Mrs. MacGrady comforted Francine, and she soon left. The children chose to apologize to Francine. After they left, Mrs. MacGrady opened a box; her "green gloop" was actually a large collection of streamers and balloons.
After a while, Francine and her friends finally make up, and they all enjoy the carnival and seem happy that things are back to normal. Meanwhile, Miss Sweetwater and Mr. Haney are still chasing Ms. Tingley as she desperately tries to avoid their feats, especially Mr. Haney's.
Characters
Major
- Francine Frensky
- Mrs. MacGrady
- Arthur Read
- Buster Baxter
- Muffy Crosswire
- Brain
- Fern Walters
- Sue Ellen Armstrong
- Mr. Haney
- Mr. Ratburn
- Binky Barnes
Minor
Cameo
- George Lundgren
- Otis
- Maria Pappas
- Alex Davidson
- Brian
- Steve Pappas
- Nancy
- Edwin
- Kenny
- Helen
- 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
- 3rd Grade Male Dog
- 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
- 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
- Luke
- Mr. Marco
- Patrick (4th grader)
- Mary (3rd grader)
- Mary Perchanok
Songs
Trivia
- Morals:
- Two wrongs do not make a right: Don't be mean to others who were mean to you. Retaliation doesn't justify their actions.
- Roughness is not the answer.
- Treat others the way you want to be treated.
- For unknown reasons, starting in the 2010s, the opening scene of the episode and the final scene where Miss Sweetwater and Mr. Haney are chasing Ms. Tingley were removed from UK airings.
- In Spanish, this episode is named "Arte cruel," which translates to "Cruel art."
- In April 2024, PBS Kids rereleased this episode and 18 other titles with the addition of an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter on screen, allowing individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing to fully immerse themselves in the program. For more information about all of the ASL-interpreted episodes, see American Sign Language.
Episode connections
- Arthur mentions the events of this episode later in "Francine Goes to War."
- In the cold open, Francine and Brain are shown arguing. A conflict between the two would become a storyline a few episodes later in "The Big Blow Up".
- Miss Sweetwater sings I Like Fudge, first sung in Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble by Rodentia Ratburn.
Cultural references
- Mr. Ratburn's plans to do a puppet show featuring Sinbad (Arabian Nights) and the Hydra (Greek Mythology).
- The answer to the math problem 3,630,279,148 divided by 7,681 (the math problem Mr. Ratburn asks in the comic) is 472,631.0568936336, which is not a whole number.
- Conversely in standard arithmetic, the division problem shown is not supposed to be written vertically like in addition, subtraction, and multiplication. It is done with a "long division" sign (⟌). Thus, the correct way to write this problem is: 7,681⟌3̅,̅6̅3̅0̅,̅2̅7̅9̅,̅1̅4̅8̅
- When Francine tells Arthur to "go eat an ant sandwich," it is a reference to how aardvarks eat ants in real life.
Errors
- When Francine storms off the basketball court after learning of the "Furious Frank" comic, Buster's mouth moves as if he is gasping or saying "Huh?", but he does not make any sound.
- Brain is there when Mrs. MacGrady tells them to pour the gloop on Francine, but he is not with his friends when they hide.
- When all the kids start drawing their comics, the shot of Francine reading is from "My Dad, the Garbage Man." This is out of place as it shows Fern sitting across from Francine when the shot before that shows Alex sitting across from her.
- In the scene where Arthur, Buster and Brain play carnival games, Arthur's cel is misplaced causing his feet not to touch the ground.
Home Video
DVD
Gallery
References