My Club Rules
Mr. Ratburn announces that it's time for the annual Elwood parade, and the kids get to design their floats. As Arthur and his friends brainstorm ideas, D.W. becomes interested. The kids make up rules to their "new club" to keep her out, only to start bickering when realizing the rules apply to them as well.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Angrish: Arthur angrily grumbles under his breath at the end of the episode since D.W.'s parade float had her as an Egyptian queen that the others are carrying as their float.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Francine and Muffy agree at the end of the episode that if they had just let D.W. into their "club" at the beginning, none of the feuds would have ensued.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Mr. Ratburn announces his strawberry shortcake float will have real strawberries. The birds then start attacking him, forcing him to shoo them away.
- The kids try to have D.W. kick a bowling ball. She points out that it would break her foot. Then she asks them to do it since everyone in the club needs to be able to kick a ball per their own rules. The kids quickly cancel it on realizing they'd all have broken feet.
- Feud Episode: Thanks to the kids making up rules to exclude D.W. from their parade float idea, their friendship group breaks up as everyone forms their own clubs. D.W. ironically ends up uniting everyone by simply playing cards in the clubhouse with them, and saying that her new club only has one rule: go with her parade float design.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Arthur and his friends grab the Jerkass Ball when excluding D.W. from their parade float idea, even though she only asked if she could participate. They end up in a feud with Muffy and Francine pointing out that new rules may be a good idea with people paying dues to clean up their treehouse, and Buster gets kicked out for having a silly argument with the others and going to Muffy's club. To top it all off, D.W. convinces everyone to reconcile and join her club, where she simply asks that they do her parade float idea.
- Muffy kicks Francine out of her club for not showing up one day because Francine was sick. We then cut to her tiredly playing with her clubhouse remote, realizing she is in a one-member club.
- Brain kicks Binky out of his club for not having fun doing scientific experiments. Similarly to Muffy, we have a cut to him plugging lights in and looking miserable.
- Moving the Goalposts: Francine's attempts to keep D.W. out of the parade float meeting, courtesy of D.W. repeatedly finding holes in the rules. First, Francine says members have to kick a ball out of the yard, and provides a bowling ball. D.W. refuses, but then points out the third-graders haven't kicked it yet, either, so Francine quickly switches to requiring them to draw a funny picture of Mr. Ratburn. Buster thinks D.W.'s drawing is funny, so Arthur overrides Francine and tells D.W. that club members have to be third-graders.
- Sudden Contest Format Change: D.W. tries to horn in on Arthur and his classmates' meeting about their float for the town parade, and they come up with the idea of declaring themselves the "Parade Float Club" to exclude her. After D.W. demands to join the club, Francine comes up with the idea of kicking a ball out of the yard as a membership test—and supply a bowling ball. D.W. demands THEY try to kick it, too, so Francine changes the "rule" to drawing a funny picture of Mr. Ratburn. Buster thinks D.W.'s drawing is funny, so Arthur overrides Francine and tells D.W. that club members have to be third-graders.
Stolen Bike
Francine has outgrown her old bike, and her parents can't afford a new one. Oliver has a good idea: take his old bike out of storage and refurbish it for Francine to use. There's just one problem: everyone can tell it's virtually obsolete.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Bad Liar: Francine lies to Principal Haney that two people drove a "bike-eating truck" while giving an Evil Laugh and Francine barely escaped with her life as they took her bike. No one believes her except her dad; Principal Haney says he's never heard of such a vehicle. Buster takes a long time to realize it was Blatant Lies, but Muffy and Arthur conclude that Francine was lying for a reason. Mr. Frensky at least believes that thieves took the bike until he finds it in his dump. Catherine knows better and calls out Francine for being such a liar.
- Entertainingly Wrong: It's actually understandable that Buster and Muffy think that Binky must have stolen Francine's bike and intimidated her into not saying anything. A previous episode established that Binky is petty at times and will steal people's food. The hitch is that Francine was lying, and Binky says he doesn't take other kids' bikes.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- The kids get worried when Francine lies that her bike was stolen. Brain says they need to go tell Principal Haney, against Francine's wishes.
- When Binky is wrongfully accused of stealing Francine's bike, he gets angry at Muffy. Then his expression softens and says that's too low a theft for him. Likewise, Francine admits that she tossed away her bike and no one stole it, so please leave Binky alone.
- Heroic BSoD: When he locates the bike he gave to Francine in his own dumpster, Oliver can only sit there stunned at what he found. No doubt he can't tell which is sadder: that his bike is so decrepit that the alleged thieves threw it away or that his daughter hated the bike so much she threw it away and lied about it. With that said, he forgives her when Francine not only comes clean but also offers to help fix it up.
- Innocently Insensitive: Muffy defends Francine when Buster mocks her bike, but says that it's old and rundown and that Francine didn't have a choice. It's the truth, but it doesn't make Francine feel better.
- Irony: Francine hates riding her dad's old bike because it's falling apart and decrepit. It turns out that the bike only needed some repairs and a paint job. If Francine had suggested this at the beginning of the episode, she wouldn't have been mocked.
- It's All About Me: Nobody's apparently angry at Muffy for wrongfully accusing Binky of stealing the bike (especially once his name has been cleared), but she still calls out Francine on how her lie has made Muffy look like a fool in front of everyone else.
- Not Me This Time: Buster and Muffy incorrectly assume that the Tough Customers, namely Binky, must have stolen Francine's bike and she was intimidated into not saying anything. Binky then clarifies that he didn't do it, and Francine comes clean that she lied about the theft.
- The Scapegoat: When Francine claims her bike was stolen, everybody is quick to think Binky was the one who took the bike because he has a tendency to steal people's snacks and threaten them.
