George ends up agreeing to represent the school in a county-wide art show. He forgets about it, and when it comes time to finally craft his sculpture, he has no ideas. His friends all offer suggestions of their own, but in the end, nothing he makes seems to work. Special Guest Kevin Sampson arrives to help him salvage his concept.
George Scraps His Sculpture contains examples of:
- As Himself: Kevin Sampson plays an animated version of his character. He introduces himself by name to George.
- Be Yourself: Kevin Sampson reassures George that even if he can't perfectly imitate Sampson's style, that's fine. What's important is that George makes what he's proud of.
- Got Volunteered: The episode begins with Mr. Ratburn showing off a poster for the county art show. When he asks if anyone's willing to join, George yawns and raises his hand — Mr. Ratburn interprets this as a "yes" from him.George: What just happened?
Buster: I think you just volunteered to make a piece of art.
George: I did? - Medium Blending: This episode features a lot of live-action imagery. All of Sampson's art pieces are realistic photos edited into the episode, while Francine shows George a live-action clip of one of Arthur Ganson's kinetic sculptures.
- Opinion Myopia: In-universe. Binky claims that his opinion, that George should sculpt The Little Dancer, is the only one that matters.George: Everyone has a different opinion. How do I know which one is right?
Arthur: Is there a right opinion?
Binky: Sure there is! Mine. - Tempting Fate: Buster assures George that a month is a lot of time to create a piece of art. One Time Skip later, George has completely forgotten about it and is out of ideas.
- Time Skip: At the start of the episode, Mr. Ratburn's class orders a telescope, while George mistakenly agrees to create a piece of art. One month later, the telescope's arrival is what reminds George about his art.
- Too Many Cooks Spoil the Soup: Brain, Buster, Binky, Muffy, and Francine all give George ideas to base his sculpture on. When George is finished crafting it, it ends up looking like none of them.
- Quality by Popular Vote: In-universe. Muffy thinks that The Thinker is an amazing piece of art because it's popular.
Arthur's new sneakers get ruined when Brain and Buster indirectly spill a smoothie on them. He goes into a destructive rage... but then calms down and realizes he shouldn't have gotten so angry. However, by this point, word has gotten out about the incident, and nobody wants to be near him.
Arthur's Big Meltdown contains examples of:
- Angrish: What ultimately helps Arthur get over his anger. Rather than focusing on what made him mad, he shouts a silly, nonsensical phrase, then takes a deep breath. He thinks it sounds stupid at first, but it actually works for him.
- Book Ends: The incident that starts the plot is Arthur having a smoothie spilled on his sneakers, leading him to get upset. At the end, he gets mustard spilled on these same shoes... but only has a brief moment of frustration and then is able to keep his cool.
- Continuity Nod: Arthur gets angry and makes a fist twice, with close-ups to the fist both times. This is referencing an earlier scene from the episode "Arthur's Big Hit", where the same thing happens shortly before Arthur punches D.W. for destroying his model airplane.
- I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Arthur reflects upon his anger in his bedroom. D.W. enters, begins taking stuff out of his room, and tells him that getting mad isn't a big deal. Arthur asks her, "I can't believe I'm asking you, but what do you do when you're angry?"
- Jerkass Realization: Arthur initially shrugs off making a mess in Muffy's game room as no big deal. When Muffy shows him security camera footage of the event, he realizes that he behaved more extremely than he initially remembered. He begins to wonder if his friends were right to shun him, and decides that he needs to take action and learn how to control his anger so it doesn't happen again.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Arthur tells Buster not to let D.W. know that her advice helped him.
