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"Little Miss Meanie"
Season/Series: 19 (US)
Number in season: 8B[1]
Original Airdate: United States June 3, 2015[1]
Australia May 7, 2015[2]
Credits
Written by: Raye Lankford
Storyboard by: Rick Marshall
Episodes
Previous
"Francine's Cleats of Strength"
Next
"Mr. Ratburn's Secret Identity"
Read transcript

"Little Miss Meanie" is the second half of the eighth episode in the nineteenth season of Arthur.

Summary[]

Lydia and Muffy join forces to defeat a mean beauty queen in the "Little Miss Crocus" pageant.[3]

Plot[]

This episode commences with Muffy staring at the poster for the new "Little Miss Crocus" pageant. She is excited and amazed to learn that the winner will get a beautiful tiara, and she gets in line to sign up. Francine doesn't see the big deal with beauty pageants, since she finds them shallow and ridiculous. Muffy explains she competed in three previous beauty pageants, but never won. The first one was "Little Miss Daffodil"; she lost that one because it was during her gap tooth years. The second one was "Little Miss Strawberry"; she lost that one because she broke out into hives. The third one was "Little Miss Aloe"; Muffy doesn't know why she lost that one, but it's shown she had toilet paper stuck on the bottom of her shoe.

As Muffy is about to sign up, she sees Lydia doing so. This shocks and worries Muffy, and she tells Francine that she thinks Lydia will win easily due to being in a wheelchair; once the judges see Lydia in her wheelchair, they will feel sorry for her and automatically give her the tiara. Unknown to Muffy, Lydia sees her in line and tells Jenna that she thinks Muffy will win easily due to being rich and will bribe the judges with expensive objects. Jenna tells Lydia that just because Muffy has money, it is no guarantee she will win. Then Muffy sees Lydia; they wave and they wish good luck to each other, but then make angry faces.

While walking with Muffy, Francine tries to assure her that the judges will only care about the talents. But Muffy doesn't listen and believes that they will only care about looks and plans to tell Lydia to drop out of the pageant. That night, Muffy practices telling Lydia to drop out in the nicest possible way that she can. The next day at the stage tour for the pageant, however, Muffy sees a girl named Portia Demwiddy telling Lydia the same thing she was about to: to drop out of the contest because she would win easily for being in a wheelchair. As Muffy realizes how mean this sounded, Portia goes up to her and tells her to drop out as well because of her wealth. Both Muffy and Lydia are horrified and disgusted by what a snob and bully Portia really is and how she's trying to butter up the judges by acting polite. They choose to work together to make sure Portia does not win the tiara. They think about doing things to sabotage her during the contest, but realize that doing so would make them bullies like her, so they decide to beat her fair and square.

At the Crosswire house, Muffy decorates Lydia's wheelchair with shiny jewels and loans her one of her dresses, while Lydia helps Muffy practice how to spin the baton for her act. As they practice, Muffy's phone rings. Lydia answers it, finding that it's Francine calling. When Francine recognizes Lydia's voice, she quickly assumes Muffy is still trying to get her to quit and tells her not to listen because she doesn't have an "unfair advantage," which confuses and shocks Lydia. Muffy quickly hangs up the phone and when Lydia glares at her, she admits that she thought Lydia was going to win easily because she was in a wheelchair and was about to ask her to drop out, but once she saw Portia doing it, she heard how mean and nasty it sounded and feels terrible for even thinking it. However, Lydia admits that she thought that Muffy would win easily because she was rich and could bribe the judges and was going to ask her the same thing, but also backed off after Portia beat her to the punch. This makes the girls realize that they have a lot in common and continue to practice for the pageant.

On the day of the pageant, the first person up is Beulah McInnerny, who does a hula dance and a ukulele song. Later, Lydia does basketball tricks and shots, and Muffy sings, tap dances, and baton swings to Yankee Doodle Boy. The last one up is Portia, who does an amazing ballet routine, but during the dance, the machine for her spotlight malfunctions, which forces the lights to go back on. The host tells Portia she has to complete her dance without it, but she refuses, insisting she needs it. She declares the situation unacceptable, demands that someone should be fired and begins to throw a temper tantrum, which shocks everybody, including the judges; the host is forced to close the curtains on her. Later, the host calls the first runners-up. Lydia and Muffy are tied for one of them, and the winner of Little Miss Crocus is.....

...Beulah McInnerny! Lydia is glad that Beulah won because she is not the typical snobby beauty pageant contestant. Muffy agrees, while complimenting her ukulele playing and once again apologizes to Lydia for judging her. Lydia accepts Muffy's apology. As they are going home, they both express their belief of how most beauty pageants are shallow and ridiculous and how the name Little Miss Crocus is terrible. They come up with new names like Little Miss Rocket Science, Little Miss Algebra, etc as the episode concludes.

Characters[]

Major[]

Cameo[]

Trivia[]

Episode connection[]

Errors[]

  • In the Miss Daffodil flashback, a young Muffy stands between Maryann and Lucy, who should both be about four years younger than Muffy.
  • In the last shot, when the camera zooms out, and Muffy and Lydia talk about how there should be other "Little Miss" contests, their mouths do not move.

Gallery[]

Main article: Little Miss Meanie/Gallery

References[]


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