Buster the Myth Maker

"Buster the Myth Maker"
Main image Title card
Season/Series:	9
Number in season:	9B
Original Airdate:	April 7, 2005 May 31, 2005 January 9, 2008
Credits
Written by:	Matt Steinglass
Storyboard by:	Stéphanie Gignac
Episodes
Previous "D.W. Beats All"	Next "Binky Goes Nuts"

Read transcript

"Buster the Myth Maker" is the second half of the ninth episode in the ninth season of Arthur.

Summary

Buster, who's known for his outrageous stories, claims that dogs are disappearing because there's a tiger living in the state forest. Doubtful, Arthur sets out to uncover things.

Plot

At the beginning of the episode, Arthur and Buster are The Sugar Bowl, buying candy. As Arthur is paying for his Crinkle Chaw Bubble gum, Buster informs him they are made of grasshopper eyeballs from Japan or France. Grossed out, Arthur grabs Red Rovers instead but Buster tells him yet another gross fact about what it is made of, frustrating Mr. Manino, as he will lose customers that way, but Buster claims it is public information. Arthur gets a grape drink instead, but again, Buster has a story to go with it.

Where does Buster get all this stuff from?

Buster the Myth Maker

The scene shows a recording studio where an "ex" member of the band Mütakrüde was secretly replaced by his identical twin brother months ago. It then cuts to the Lakewood Elementary playground, where Buster is telling his friends the juicy rumor. But Brain is quick to doubt it is true. Arthur claims he has a good story too, about a man who went fishing and lost his ring, but later found it in the fish he ordered at a restaurant. However, no one seems to care for the “rumor”, as it's not about a famous person or containing insider information.

Later that day, at his condo, Buster shows Arthur the websites he gets his information from, but when Arthur asks if the websites are true, Buster is appalled someone would lie on the Internet. So they set out to do some of their own research after Buster reads about the possibility of tigers in Turkey Hill Park. They visit news reporter Harry Mills, to ask him about the tiger rumor, but he says he has never heard evidence suggesting it is true. Than Arthur brings up the fact that many dogs have gone missing near or in the park. So, Harry calls the park's ranger to ask if she can meet with the boys. At the park, the ranger says she has never heard about tigers in the park but Buster thinks she is hiding something. 

As Arthur and Buster ride their bikes out of the park, they get startled by the sight of a man dressed in a camouflage suit up in a tree. They all scream, causing the man to fall to the ground. They quickly rush to Arthur's house, where they try to figure out what they saw. Buster is 100% sure it is a tiger hunter, and that the park has tigers in it. But Arthur is sure there is another explanation. The phone rings and a voice, Mr. Deep Float, tells the boys to meet him at the Ice Cream Shop because he has special information about the tigers. 

At the Ice Cream Shop, Arthur and Buster try to figure out who they are meeting, when they spot a person wearing a fedora, a ski mask and a long jacket, which happens to be Mr. Deep Float. He sits down and tells them all about the tigers. Arthur kind of know it is not true and tells Mr. Deep Float to tell Buster that. Mr. Deep Float then gives more details wowing Arthur and Buster. Mrs. Powers then appears with a free sample of her ice cream flavor Peaches and Crab. She then accidentally blows Mr. Deep Float's cover, calling him Alan. Arthur and Buster then realize that Mr. Deep Float is actually Brain. Brain takes off his fedora and ski mask, telling his mom he asked her not to blow his cover; Mrs. Powers admits she forgot, and walks away for a moment. When Buster asks Brain if he knew about the tigers, Mrs. Powers overhears and becomes suspicious; she asks her son what is going on. Brain admits he started the “tigers in the park” rumor online. Arthur says he "knew it" and gets annoyed and Buster questions even more. Brain tells them the rumor was an experiment, just to see who would believe a completely false story; Mrs. Powers tells Brain that lying online was not a very honest thing to do. Buster thinks Brain went so far as to hire an actor to play the tiger hunter, and is impressed. Brain became puzzled and questions Buster about the tiger hunter. Arthur then explains that there was a man in the park with a trap. It turns out Brain did not hire an actor at all; he was only responsible for the “tigers in the park” myth. As Brain looked baffled, Arthur and Buster exchange looks.

The scene goes to a headline of the man Arthur and Buster saw with the trap. This man is no tiger hunter but a serial dognapper, and is arrested for illegally possessing dozens of dogs for over a year. The ranger tells a TV news channel that the owners should pick up the rather noisy dogs, and denies the tiger story was ever true, finally putting the rumor to rest.

Characters

Major

• Buster Baxter
• Arthur Read
• Brain

Minor

• Johnny Crude (in fantasy)
• Jeanie Crude (in fantasy)
• Sound Technician (in fantasy)
• Angler (in fantasy)
• Farmer (in fantasy)
• Carl Manino
• Sue Ellen Armstrong
• Francine Frensky
• Harry Mills
• Mrs. Powers
• Clarice Vibert
• TV2 News Reporter

Cameo

• Prunella Deegan
• Maria Pappas
• George Lundgren
• Jenna Morgan
• Jane Read
• Fern Walters
• Kiefer
• Dognapper
• 4th Grade Male Dog
• 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
• Paul Jacobs
• 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
• Kieran Moody

Trivia

• This is the first appearance of Buster's laptop in the Arthur series. It appeared before in Postcards from Buster.
• Mr. Manino did not actually deny the weird ingredients being in the candy, but simply asked Buster to stop talking about it.
• The background music during "Snowboard Patrol" on TV is the same song that Muffy listens to in "Poor Muffy.” It also plays at Muffy's party in "The Fright Stuff" and on the radio in "Buster's Carpool Catastrophe.”
• The scene where Buster asks "You really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?" has become a popular reaction meme in the years since this episode aired.
• Had Siberian tigers really have been living in Turkey Hill Park, they would have more likely hunted the park's Rocky Mountain elks mentioned by Ranger Clarice rather than the dogs, since deer are natural prey for tigers.

Cultural references

• Brain calls himself "Mr. Deep Float," which is a parody of Deep Throat, a.k.a Mark Felt, the secret source in revealing the Watergate scandal. Brain also says, "Follow the monkeys," a parody of Deep Throat's instruction to "Follow the money" from the 1976 film on the scandal All the President's Men.
• Mütakrüde is a reference to Mötley Crüe, with its logo resembling that of Motörhead.
• The rumor of a band member being secretly replaced with a lookalike is possibly based on the "Paul is dead" conspiracy theory, that suggests Paul McCartney was replaced as a member of The Beatles with a lookalike.

Errors

• In the Ice Cream Shop, Mrs. Powers has a white complexion, but at one point, she has a brown complexion.
• Though the distribution range of Siberian tigers extends slightly into China, most are found in Russia.

Production notes

• This episode marks Sue Ellen's only speaking role in Season 9, but there is no voice credit provided. She speaks in a group, uttering only the word "cool", with the voice actor indiscernible. However, Sue Ellen's new voice actor, Jessica Kardos, did voice Sue Ellen for her appearances in the first season of the Arthur spin-off Postcards from Buster, which premiered around the same time as this episode.

Gallery

Screenshots

Maria with Fern.