Funny / The Magic School Bus

Original Books

• Usually at the end of each book, Ms. Frizzle's dress foreshadows what kind of subject (And field trip) will be the focus of the next book. When the kids see a dinosaur pattern...
  Student: Uh oh, look at her dress...
  Other student: Don't worry, dinosaurs aren't around anymore.
• Some books have a set of notes "for serious students only" at the end that point out some of the story's more fantastical elements and claim that in addition to helping you tell fact from fiction, they will also tell you when to laugh.
• At the Waterworks:
  • Amanda Jane and Arnold's bread mold-growing project is starting to make gurgling noises.
    Amanda Jane: Listen, Arnold. It's learning to talk!
    Arnold: Does that mean we'll get an 'A'?
  • Gregory's "Parts of a Plant" diagram notes that "roots get food and drink from the soil", which is represented by a subterranean burger, fries, and soda.
  • As preparation for the class field trip to the waterworks, Ms. Frizzle tells her class to find ten interesting facts about water. The kids doubt there's that many interesting facts, with Molly saying there's "maybe four and a half."
  • Arnold says "I Want My Mommy!" after everyone in the bus is suddenly in scuba gear and the bus gains an octopus pattern. Once the bus ascends into the clouds...
    Arnold: I want my mommy!
    Other Student: You said that already.
  • After explaining how evaporation is a constant process, Ms. Frizzle asks Arnold if he's paying attention.
  • Ms. Frizzle tells the class to get out on the cloud, threatening to give extra homework if they don't. John says he'll take the homework.
  • As the class shrinks to the size of water droplets, Arnold pouts that he was already small for his age.
  • While the class swims in the reservoir, an amoeba and Dorothy Ann are equally confused about what the other is. Meanwhile, Ms. Frizzle announces they're about to enter the city's water purification system and asks Arnold if he's listening again; Arnold thinks "Not really."
  • Dorothy Ann's explanation of what water impurities are is accompanied by an illustration of her telling another student in a water glass that she'd hate to find them in a glass of water; the other student responds with "Ditto to you!"
  • The illustration of the city's underground water pipes includes a burrow containing a mouse in a dress and rocking chair who's knitting.
  • The class returns to normal size in their school when a seventh grader turns on the bathroom faucet, scaring her.
  • After returning to class, Ms. Frizzle acts as if nothing unusual happened and questions where Arnold got the idea to draw a kid in a raindrop from. Meanwhile, the school bus (the absence of which Arnold had questioned back at the water storage tank) can be seen falling from the sky outside.
  • From the notes at the end:
    • The debunking of the school bus entering the cloud notes that gravity keeps it on the ground, thus it can't rise off the ground "no matter how much you want to miss school that day."
    • After a long bit of debunking how children can't participate in the various aspects of the water systems, the end of the note says that boys and girls can't come out of the girls' bathroom faucet... because boys aren't allowed in there.
    • The last note points out that the school bus can't reappear in a parking lot by itself after being left in a cloud. "Obviously, someone has to go back to the cloud and drive it home."
• Explores the Solar System:
  • When Ms. Frizzle gets separated from the class, the kids go through her teacher's notes in hopes of finding a way to control the Bus. One note says, "Arnold, are you listening?"
    Arnold: (Thinking) Boy, Ms. Frizzle thinks of everything!
  • At the end of the book, Arnold is telling his parents about his field trip. A headline in his dad's newspaper mentions a pilot spotting a "Schoolbus-shaped UFO".
• Inside a Hurricane:
  • Keesha gets in on Phoebe's Mad Libs Catchphrase by saying that at her old school, her teacher didn't dress like the Frizz.
  • Arnold attempts to get out of the field trip by claiming he needs to sharpen his pencil. When Ms. Frizzle says they might have "a real adventure", he thinks to himself that in that case, he needs to sharpen several pencils.
  • This book has a Running Gag where Ms. Frizzle's radio talks to Arnold.
    • While the bus-balloon is ascending, the radio asks Arnold if he's afraid of high places. After being astonished that it spoke to him, Arnold wonders how the radio knew his name before thinking "I knew I should have stayed home today."
    • Shortly later, the radio asks Arnold if he brought his raincoat; Arnold thinks "Tell me this isn't happening..."
    • When the weather forecasters mention there being a hurricane watch in effect, the radio attempts to get Arnold to look at its literal hurricane (wrist)watch. Arnold has decided to pretend he can't hear the radio.
    • The radio encourages Arnold to jump out of the bus-balloon into the hurricane after it springs a leak, all while Arnold is clinging to the ballon's ropes and thinking that he can't look.
    • When the radio says it'll be telling listeners about the whole hurricane, Arnold privately hopes the radio's batteries will run out soon.
    • Most of the class reboards the bus-turned-weatherplane except for Arnold. As the bus flies away, the radio reassures Arnold that although they're experiencing the hurricane close-up, it's sure they'll both be fine. Arnold wonders why everything always happens to him. Back in the bus, Ms. Frizzle says that while Arnold's experiencing the hurricane close-up, she's sure he'll be fine.
    • When the two land in the ocean, the radio tells Arnold that they're seeing stormy seas today. Arnold thinks that this is an understatement, as he's currently touching, smelling, and tasting said stormy seas.
    • When the class finally arrives at the weather station, the radio addresses a forecaster called Al by name, who then goes through the exact same thought process Arnold did when the radio started talking to him.
      (thinking) That radio spoke to me! How did it know my name? I knew I should have stayed home today.
• Electric Field Trip:
  • Ms. Frizzle's niece Dottie visits for the day and proves to be just as enthusiastic about science as her aunt, causing Arnold to pout that two Frizzles just isn't fair.
  • Dottie says she wants to be just like her aunt when she grows up. Arnold thinks to himself that she already is.
  • Ms. Frizzle gives the class heatproof suits and dumps them into the power plant's coal intake.
    Ms. Frizzle: Class, fuel is anything we burn to make energy.
    Phoebe: At my old school, we never got burned up to make energy.
  • Upon being told they're going to a lightbulb by Ms. Frizzle, Wanda asks why.
    Carlos: Because she doesn't want to go to a heavy bulb. Get it?
  • The lightbulb the class enters is in a library's lamp, where Arnold's mother happens to be checking out books for him. She panics when she hears voices coming from the lamp, only for the librarian to reassure her because it's "just making light conversation."
  • A man at Jo's Diner is sitting in a booth opposite a dog, which is happily chowing down on some treats.
  • The class pays a quick stop to Phoebe's house, where her grandmother is using an electric saw to make a bookcase. Cue comment from Phoebe that at her old school, she never went home in the middle of the day.
• Explores the Senses:
  • The class practices a song about the senses for a parent-teacher meaning, but struggles to keep the lyrics straight due to Ms. Frizzle's outfit and "wacky personality".
  • Ms. Frizzle forgets that the meeting is actually the day that the book takes place and starts driving home, which results in new assistant principal Mr. Wilde taking the wheel of the school bus to catch up to and tell her. The class panics and follows him onto the bus, as they're concerned about his ability to keep up with what it can do because "he's not Ms. Frizzle".
  • Mr. Wilde flips a little green switch on the bus' dashboard in hopes of making it go faster, reasoning that "green means go", despite the class telling him not to. This causes the bus and its occupants to start shrinking (and the bus' destination sign to display "shakey-quaky shrinky dinky itsy bitsy teeny weenie").
    Mr. Wilde: All I did was flip one tiny switch!
    Arnold: (thinking) Little is right!
  • Mr. Wilde once again ignores the class and pulls a rainbow-colored lever, which causes the bus to phase into the eye of a police officer. His reaction is to comment that he never knew driving a bus could be so much fun.
    Mr. Wilde: I'm driving into an eye? I can't believe it, Phoebe!
    Phoebe: At my old school, pupils never went into a pupil!
  • Mr. Wilde gets fully engrossed by the bus entering the eye and excitedly decides to go further into it. Arnold wonders what it is about people who drive the bus that makes them so enthusiastic about this kind of thing.
    Sudent: I guess Mr. Wilde isn't so quiet after all.
    Other Student: Our bus is having a weird effect on him.
  • The bus exits the eye and falls into the ear of a little kid.
    Keesha: We have to get out of here!
    Amanda Jane: We have to get closer to the Friz!
    Carlos: We have to get accident insurance!
    Mr. Wilde: LOOK AT ME! NO HANDS!
  • The toy store's operating hours are listed as playtime, naptime, bathtime, and mealtime.
  • A kid says that the ossicles (ear bones) are the smallest bones in the human body. Arnold thinks that right now, the students and Mr. Wilde are the smallest human bodies in the bones.
  • Mr. Wilde follows the auditory nerve signals out of the ear, happily exclaiming he gets to drive into the brain twice. A student thinks "Once was not enough?"
  • Ms. Frizzle says she's going to "have pizza with M", causing the students to hypothesize what the M stands for. Someone says that it could mean anything, only for somebody else to refute them because "anything" starts with an A.
  • The class ends up landing on Ms. Frizzle's slice of pizza and subsequently eaten. The narration notes that "(w)e'd been chewed out by teachers before, but this was ridiculous!"
  • At the parent-teacher conference, Ms. Frizzle's mother pulls out some childhood photos of her daughter. They show that by age four, Valerie Frizzle was already interested in science and playing with a miniature drivable school bus.
• Climate Challenge:
  • The class is trying to paint a mural of the Arctic for a school play, but can't find the white paint. Said jar of paint is tipped over on the floor, which just so happens to not actually be colored in on that page.
  • The class is hosting a foreign exchange student from South Korea named Joon. When the class starts sliding on sunbeams, Joon says that in his school there aren't any teachers like Ms. Frizzle; Arnold asks if he can switch to Joon's school.
  • The bus crash-lands in a solar-heated swimming pool. Ms. Frizzle asks the children if they've noticed the various solar panel-powered devices around them; Ralphie asks Ms. Frizzle if she's noticed that the bus is currently a giant pool toy.
    Lenny the Lifeguard: HEY! No splashing!
  • A side note says that the amount of carbon dioxide kept out of the air per year if even one person carpools is equivalent to "more than three Arnolds". This is accompanied by a picture of three Arnolds in the air, with the rightmost one saying "Why is it always me? Er... I mean.. us."
  • Dorothy Ann says she's conserving paper by writing on both sides of the paper she does use for homework. Ralphie says he's conserving paper by not doing his homework at all.

Animated Series

• Pretty much any time Carlos ^note  or anyone who takes the opportunity. makes a bad pun, followed by everybody else yelling "CARLOS!".
• Ralphie's robot misinterpreting the term "Cool it" in "Flexes Its Muscles".
  • When Ralphie tells his first build of the robot to "Make me a sandwich!"
• Arnold dinging in "Makes a Rainbow". It Makes Sense in Context, we promise.^note The rest of the class went inside of Ms. Frizzle's Rainbow Pinball Machine, what sounds do you expect from it?
• From "Inside Ralphie", Liz tries the standard shake him, and "use an alarm clock" tactics to wake up Ralphie to no avail. Her next method: using a GONG!
• "Plays Ball":
  • Carlos and Tim poking fun at D.A. for interrupting their game to give a physics lesson.
    Carlos: If you're going to force us to listen to this...
    Tim: You're being kinda pushy, don't you think?
    (High five)
  • Arnold has an Imagine Spot involving a giant sled being pushed when Dorothy Ann describes forces, pushes and pulls. Then he suggests that Napoleon be the person who pushes the sled in the example, because somebody has to push it in order to complete his mental picture. Dorothy Ann exasperatedly complies.
    Dorothy Ann: Fine. If Napoleon comes along and gives it a push...
  • The Brick Joke of Carlos saying that the only force that'll stop the sled is the entire British army.
  • The class trying to play baseball without friction. After swinging his bat, Ralphie spins on his feet around the bases.
    Keesha: Is this baseball—(hits a wall) Oof! Or bash-ball?
• "The Busasaurus":
  • The class' plan to get clear the pack of Parasaurolophus out of the waters to rescue Arnold and Phoebe works well...until the last one ends up catapulting the class on a tree branch into some dinosaur egg nests.
  • The T.Rex tries to tip the bus (which looks like a dinosaur) over to eat it. The kids panic, but Ms. Frizzle just casually looks over her insurance manual without a care in the world.
    Ms. Frizzle: Hmm. I wonder if this insurance covers dino damage...
  • And after the T.Rex has the bus in its mouth:
    Ms. Frizzle: You know, this would be the perfect opportunity to study the digestive system of a T. Rex!
    Class: Ms. Frizzle! Do something!
• Arnold Stating the Simple Solution to Dorothy Ann losing her books in "Blows Its Top".
  Arnold: Wouldn't it be easier to go to a bookstore?
• "Gets Ready, Set, Dough."
  • Pretty much any time the baker (voiced by Dom De Luise) appears onscreen.
    Baker: NO!! NO, I'M NOT CRAZY!! Perhaps my establishment just happens to attract a higher breed of moth, that's all.
  • Ralphie and Phoebe taking on the role of a baker and a chemist, respectively, to explain the similarities between cooks and chemists.
    Ralphie: Cooks and chemists are a lot alike. Both measure out ingredients...
    Phoebe: ...and mix them together to make something new.
    Ralphie: The only difference is I get to taste mine! (laughs)
  • When the Baker finds the cake batter and notes that he didn't make it, he briefly ponders if it was the "moth" that made it, then laughs at himself and comments that he is going crazy.
  • When the kids are whispering about how the bakery doesn't have chocolate cake (somehow), Carlos states they could make one. When Ralphie responds with "Are you serious?!, we see the front of the bus and Ms. Frizzle is seen looking back at the kids before looking forward, indicating she knew about the kids secretly baking her a chocolate cake the whole time!
• Want to sum up the show in one exchange?
  Arnold: Just as long as we don't get blasted, roasted, toasted, or eaten, I'm happy.
  Ms. Frizzle: Oh don't worry Arnold. That's not until next week.
• When the class think the monster in Walker Lake ate Wanda.
  Phoebe: But I wanted to feed it.
  Class: PHOEBE!
• While Arnold is in disbelief over the fact that he just went on a completely, normal, mundane, commonplace field trip to the zoo, Tim agrees and theorizes that seeing wild animals would have been much weirder if they, oh, saw them wandering around the city or something...
  Tim: Can you picture that?
  Ms. Frizzle: Absolutely, Tim! We can all feature wild creatures!
  Arnold: What?! Tim, quick — take it back!
  • The animal transformations that follow lead to some great gags. When fox-transformed Arnold, Tim and Phoebe end up in a shed and Arnold is hissed away from the earthworms that suddenly smell FANTASTIC by a normal raccoon, he locks up so thoroughly Phoebe has to take him by the tail and drag him out. Meanwhile, in the city skyline, Carlos, equally hungry and equally deep in his falcon nature decides to catch himself a night hawk; when DA interferes and scolds him, he outright whines at her about how hungry he is.
• In "Cracks a Yolk":
  Arnold: Why oh why do we always wind up in long, dark, slippery tubes?
  Ms. Frizzle: Oh, we're just lucky I guess, Arnold.
• "Goes to Seed":
  • The class goes to Phoebe's old school to fetch her plant for the magazine photo. The building is actually called Phoebe's Old School!
  • How Phoebe, fearing embarrassment, is desperate to keep the class hidden from her old teacher Mr. Seedplot.
    Arnold: Maybe you should've stayed home today, Phoebe.
  • During a tense moment when Phoebe is debating whether or not Ms. Frizzle will embarrass her in front of her old teacher, she glances over at the Friz at the front of the bus, happily playing cards with Liz without a care in the world.
• "In the Haunted House": Carlos's instrument keeps making "ploopy" sounds. The class eventually gets fed up with his attempts to get the instrument to work and tell him to forget it.
• "Gets Lost in Space" gives us a funny little Funny Background Event with the skeleton covering his 'ears' from Janet's bragging. Clearly he finds her annoying like the rest of us...
• "Gets Ants in Its Pants": Keesha leads an ant into the classroom, which Liz naturally tries to eat. While the ant is climbing around on the camera, towards Liz, Liz holds her mouth open and her tongue out, to try and get the ant to crawl inside. The ant just crawls onto her tongue, up her cheek, and over her head.
• "All Dried Up":
  • Phoebe realises she's wrong about the tortoise in the desert.
    Phoebe: I might have made a mistake about that lizard. And I might have made a mistake about that jackrabbit. And I might have even made a mistake about that tortoise, but there's one thing I know I'm not wrong about.
    Arnold: How much you wish you'd stayed home today?
  • When the entire class returns to school, Phoebe starts "S.A.S.H."
    Phoebe: Students Assisting Sleepy Heads. (shows Carlos still fast asleep on The Magic School Bus)
    Class: CARLOS!
• "Getting Energized":
  • While the rest of the class goes to try to work out a way to power their Ferris wheel, Carlos stays behind with Liz to deal with the impatient crowd of carnival-goers. As the kids work on their solution, Keesha remarks that they had better hurry - not because they might not raise any money for their charity, but because "Carlos is probably doing his impressions by now!" Cut immediately to Carlos wearing a muscle suit and addressing the crowd in a Schwarzenegger accent.
    Carlos: Listen up, people! You will ride de Wheel of Wonder when I say it is time!
    Crowd: (throwing produce) We wanna ride! We wanna ride! We wanna ride!
    Carlos: Ah'll be back! (flees)
  • Later, when Carlos tells the crowd to stay back or else he'll do said Schwarzenegger impression again, they throw ice cream cones at him.
• During the trial in "In a Pickle", DA finally gets fed up with Arnold's constant objections when he objects to Keisha saying a cucumber is a cucumber and grouses "What now, Arnold? You know that's a cucumber.", to which Arnold meekly responds "Okay; I take it back."
• It takes just a couple of lines for DA's classmates to press her Berserk Button at the very start of "Butterfly and the Bog Beast"; while she's dressed as a piece of broccoli, they ask her, "Whoever heard of a broccoli mascot?" She snaps back with her Mad Libs Catchphrase as she removes her broccoli helmet, looking quite visibly cross as she does so.
  DA: According to my research, broccoli is a very healthy vegetable!
• Pretty much any time the titular bus reminds the audience that it is a Sentient Vehicle and does something rather...not bus-like. Be it panting after an exhaustive effort, showing annoyance at Janet's insufferability, or just grinning like an idiot at Ms. Frizzle's latest stunt.
• In "Cold Feet," Phoebe is the only member of the class who stays human (excluding Arnold and Dorothy Ann, who remain in the bus turned alligator) while the others transform into reptiles to explore the mysterious building where Liz is staying. She later has to rescue them from a cold storage room (since they're all cold-blooded themselves now, they're put into a stupor from the temperature), and as she's running, she encounters the scientist who runs the place:
  Harry Herpst: And where do you think you're going with those reptiles, young lady?
  Phoebe: Um...Not this way!
  (She scampers off in the other direction)
• "Goes Cellular":
  • The premise of this episode is that Arnold's skin has suddenly tuned orange right before he's due to accept an award. The culprit? Eating too many snacks called Sea Weedies, which are baby carrots wrapped in a thin layer of seaweed.
  • Ms. Frizzle owns a cell phone. That is, a phone in the shape of a red blood cell.
  • Several characters point out that this is the second time the class has been inside Arnold's stomach.
    Phoebe: You just ate our class!
    Arnold: Oh, No... Not Again!
  • Arnold rants to Phoebe about the absurdity of the predicament he's in.
    "I'm about to accept the most important award in my life, and what happens? I'm completely orange, AND HALF THE CLASS IS ON MY FOREHEAD!"

Video Games

• Explores the Rainforest:
  • One of the in-game cartoons shows a pair of three-toed sloths playing Go Fish. As anyone would expect from sloths, it takes a whole day for one of them to speak, and the cartoon ends with a To Be Continued.
    Sloth 1: Any threes?
    (day-night cycle)
    Sloth 2: Nope. Go fish.
    (another day-night cycle)
    Sloth 1: Don't rush me.
    (yet another day-night cycle)
  • In another in-game cartoon showing an interview revolving a fallen tree, there is a sloth that spends the whole interview sleeping.
  • The "Correctamundo" cartoon. It's a game show parody hosted by a jaguar, who eats the contestants anytime they get a question (all jaguar-related) wrong. Or if they get it right, simply because he's hungry. Apparently, the jaguar hosts the show just so he can get an easy meal.
  • One of Topeka the Frog's clips shows a stink bug scaring off a bird with its stench, leading to Topeka putting on a clothespin on his nose and an unseen person complaining about the smell.
    Voice: Aw, man! Who cut the cheese?! P.U.!!!! That's nasty.

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