| "Fernkenstein's Monster" | |
| Season/Series: | 8 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 4A |
| Original Airdate: |  September 18, 2003[1] December 10, 2003[2] December 20, 2007[3] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Stephanie Simpson |
| Storyboard by: | Ivan Tankushev Patricia Atchison |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "Bugged" |
Next "D.W., Dancing Queen" |
| Read transcript |
"Fernkenstein's Monster" is the first half of the fourth episode in the eighth season of Arthur.
Summary[]
Fern's scary story is a little too scary — now the other kids are afraid of her. So she sets out to prove her skills as a writer by creating a story that is fun instead of frightening.
Plot[]
On a rainy day, Fern is telling the story of how Mary Shelley created Frankenstein. Shelley participated in a scary story contest with her friends and won by writing, and telling, Frankenstein. Fern says that she wants to "scare the world with [a] brilliant story" as well.
Arthur, Buster, Muffy, and Fern are bored while eating lunch at school. Fern suggests telling really scary stories. Buster starts with a story about a "giant radioactive vampire lizard" and ends his story due to getting scared. Muffy tells a story about a girl getting punch spilled on her dress, which Arthur doesn't think is scary. Arthur tells his own scary story, which is about a boy who receives an embarrassing pair of clown brief underwear for his birthday and throws them away, only to have his pants fall down the next day in front of his entire class and find that he is wearing the embarrassing clown briefs, despite never having put them on. However, Muffy tells him off, saying that he split his pants months ago and adds, “It’s over — move on!”
Fern describes her story as a true story that happened to her uncle, who is an entomologist and studies bugs with an old professor. While unpacking insects from the Congo, he notices a box that has already been opened. Meanwhile, the professor looks for an umbrella and finds "the Thing," a monstrous creature which looks like an umbrella and devours the professor before flying off into the night. Arthur, Buster and Muffy are horrified by this story.
On the playground, they recall being unable to sleep due to being scared of the story. Fern tells them that the story was made up, and that she does not even have an uncle, but Muffy is disturbed that Fern can even think of something that scary. Fern says that she can think of even scarier stories and starts telling one, but Arthur, Buster, and Muffy run off.
Fern's friends are now scared of her and run away when she approaches. She donates all her Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club books to the library for the book sale, having found them not scary after reading Frankenstein. Arthur, Buster, Muffy, and D.W. arrive and are initially scared by Fern until she changes the story to make the thing not scary. Muffy wants it to be a platinum dragon that knows the way to a cave of treasure, Buster wants it to be a nice alien, and Arthur wants it to give him superpowers.
D.W. tells Fern that she's "ruining" the story, having heard about how scary it is from Arthur, and gives her ideas to make the thing even scarier. Arthur and Buster cover their ears and shout that they cannot hear her as D.W. says that the thing should split up into spiders or scorpions.
Characters[]
Major[]
Minor[]
- D.W. Read
- Ms. Turner
- Mary Shelley (in Fern's report)
- Lord Byron (in Fern's report)
Cameo[]
- Mr. Ratburn
- Maria Pappas
- Brain
- Francine Frensky
- George Lundgren
- Binky Barnes
- Sue Ellen Armstrong
- Prunella Deegan
- John
- Jenna Morgan
- Mr. Haney
- Alex Davidson
- Percy Shelley (in Fern's report)
- John Polidori (in Fern's report)
- Fern's Uncle (in Fern's story)
- Old Professor (in Fern's story)
- The Thing (in Fern's story)
- Platinum Dragon (in fantasy)
- Alien (in fantasy)
- Bionic Bunny (in fantasy)
- Jane Read (in fantasy)
- David Read (in fantasy)
- Baby Kate (in fantasy)
Trivia[]
- When the title is read by Binky, Arthur can be heard faintly saying "Yeah!"
Cultural references[]
- Fern references Mary Shelley and Frankenstein multiple times.
- Fern begins her second story with "It was a dark and stormy night." That is how Snoopy (another cartoon dog with floppy ears and literary ambitions) begins most of his stories.
- The book titles that Paige Turner mentions to Fern are Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman and Old Yeller.
- In his imagination, Buster meets an alien in front of a sign saying "Roswell."
Episode connections[]
- Arthur's story references "Arthur's Underwear," which Muffy says happened months ago.
- The birthday party part of his same story references "Arthur's Birthday", but with only his family present and no guests at the party.
- Muffy mentions that Arthur splits his pants. D.W. has to keep a secret about James splitting his pants in "The Secret About Secrets."
Gallery[]
Screenshots
Home Video[]
DVD[]
References[]
- ↑ http://www.ket.org/episode/ARUR%20%20000804
- ↑ Arthur. TVO. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013.
- ↑ https://www.fernsehserien.de/erdferkel-arthur-und-seine-freunde/episodenguide/staffel-8/3906