Buster's Breathless
Tropes for this episode include:
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: During the Cold Open, Arthur and Buster tell the audience about the creature they're hunting. When they have to do it again, Buster starts describing the creature again, but Arthur tells him the audience already knows that.
- Comically Missing the Point: To bring some humor into what is otherwise a relatively serious scene, Binky mistakes the inhaler the school nurse gives Buster for a kazoo.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Downplayed in Buster's report; as he tells the class, asthma is not contagious, and he hasn't changed. He's still Buster, who likes jokes and hockey. Arthur doesn't have to wipe the dust off his books and Francine doesn't have to be scared of him.
- "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: During his report on asthma, Buster has an Imagine Spot where he and his class (minus Ratburn, who is somehow absent for the whole thing) travel inside his lungs. It is also implied that the trip may somehow not have been imaginary, since after the supposed fantasy ends, George's pants are still shown to be covered in custard pie from when he fell into Buster's stomach.
- Framing Device: Buster and Arthur tell D.W. about how the former had developed bad asthma the previous fall.
- Imagine Spot: Buster has one during his report on asthma where he and his classmates travel inside his lungs so he can teach them about his condition up close and personal. Subverted when it's shown that George's pants are still covered in custard pie from falling into Buster's stomach after the Imagine Spot is over, implying the trip inside Buster's lungs somehow really happened.
- Innocently Insensitive: Binky really does believe Buster's inhaler is a kazoo.
- It's All My Fault: A guilt-ridden Arthur blames himself that if only he hadn't gotten out those dusty joke books, Buster wouldn't have had his first-ever asthma attack. Buster snaps him out of it with his report, showing that asthma is a natural condition and just refers to having dust in the lungs.
- Jerkass Has a Point: D.W. believes that everyone will run away from her because of the poison ivy rashes. Arthur tries to reassure her that it won't happen; D.W. retorts that he and Buster did.
- Know Your Vines: In the Cold Open, Arthur and Buster tell D.W. to camouflage herself when playing the snig. She covers herself in leaves quite well, almost too well. Turns out they were poison ivy!
- Magic Realism: After Buster's Imagine Spot of bringing his classmates, and somehow himself, inside his lungs ends, George's pants are shown to still be covered in custard pie from when he fell into Buster's stomach, implying that the trip inside Buster's lungs somehow actually happened!
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Buster is not known for being the best student. He actually gives a detailed report on asthma to explain to his classmates that it's just a condition and not scary.
- Playing Sick: Discussed by Binky, who assumes Buster is faking his asthma so he can go home from school early. Even when he sees Buster using an inhaler, he just mistakes it for a kazoo.
- Serious Work, Comedic Scene: While the premise of Buster developing asthma is relatively serious, there are also a few comedic scenes: the "snig hunt" game in the Cold Open where D.W. unknowingly covers herself in poison ivy and gets blemishes as a result, Binky mistaking Buster's inhaler for a kazoo, and the Tibble twins running away from the poison ivy-afflicted D.W. as she tries to teach them about poison ivy at the end of the episode.
- Snipe Hunt: In the Cold Open, Arthur and Buster are playing a game where they're hunting a dangerous creature called a "snig", which is played by D.W. wearing a headband with two sticks attached to it to make it look like she has horns. When Arthur and Buster tell her she has to camouflage herself, she decides to cover herself in leaves... which turn out to be poison ivy leaves, giving her a bad case of blemishes.
- Tempting Fate: In the Cold Opening, D.W. is initially confused as to why the boys are "scared" and running away from her for being covered in poison ivy. This is apparently her first ever experience with it, as one title card later, we cut to D.W. scratching her blemishes like crazy as she shrieks, "It itches, Mommy, it itches!!"
- Very Special Episode: The episode is about Buster finding out he has asthma and learning how to deal with it.
The Fright Stuff
Ducks in a World of Mammals!? How scary!
Halloween is coming up, and with it, Muffy's latest book bash for the release of a new Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club installment. The author is coming to read, but so are the pranks. Muffy is mad at the boys for an April Fools' joke that got her in trouble with Ms. Turner, so she has personalized invitations for them, in the form of pranks and scary props. She "invites" them to come to the party and see her revenge on them, unless they're too scared. The boys reluctantly agree to come and decide they'll proactively prank the girls. They just need the perfect scare...Tropes for this episode include:
- Aliens Speaking English: The aliens in Buster's Imagine Spot inspired by The War of the Worlds are capable of speaking English, although in a broken manner.Blue alien: Darned please to meet you.
- Bait-and-Switch: In the Cold Open, Buster pulls off Arthur's mask, revealing him to actually be Francine in disguise... but then Binky grabs Francine's head, seemingly decapitating her, after which Arthur's head pops out of "Francine"'s torso, revealing that it really was Arthur all along, who was wearing a mask of himself over a Francine one!
- Bat Out of Hell: Last April Fools' Day, the other kids scared Muffy at the library with a fake bat, which is what makes her want to pay them back in kind at the upcoming Halloween party.
- Bittersweet Ending: While nobody gets hurt by the prank war, nobody wins it either, as the kids have encountered real ghosts that scared them all and nobody believes them about it; and they've been scolded by Mr. Crosswire enough that one of their favorite pastimes, pranking, has been ruined for them.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the Cold Open, Arthur tries to scare the audience with a pair of fake monster hands.
- Cartesian Karma: Muffy got in trouble with Ms. Turner for screaming in the library, even though Arthur and friends made her scream by scaring her with a fake bat. Justified since Ms. Turner never saw the fake bat.
- Cassandra Truth: The kids tell Mr. Crosswire that the house is haunted for real, and they did see a ghost. He dismisses it as being another of their pranks and tells them to enjoy the party.
- Continuity Nod: E.A. Da Poe, aka Ms. McWorth, the author of the Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club series, returns to do a reading at Muffy's Halloween party.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Mr. Crosswire gets rather stern with the kids by pointing out that they didn't have to spend the party trying to prank each other. They could have enjoyed Ms. Mcword's reading and the rest of the party without any dramatics.
- Death of a Child: Implied, given that the ghost girl who scares the kids is clearly a child.
- Dem Bones: Fern and Prunella are dressed up as skeletons at the Halloween party.
- Escalating Prank War: Technically, Arthur, Brain, Binky, and Buster started the prank war by startling Muffy with a plastic bat in the library. Muffy vows revenge and asks Francine to help her. They start by sending personalized prank invitations to the boys and scaring them with a fake tentacle. Worried about what the girls will do, the boys decide to bring a prank to the party in question by having Binky dress as a pumpkin monster. Their plan backfires when Binky's late, owing to breaking the pumpkin, and Arthur mistakes someone else wearing a similar outfit.
- Faux Horrific: In Brain's Imagine Spot inspired by The Tell-Tale Heart, Francine and Muffy scream in horror when they see that Brain's heart-shaped box doesn't contain any candy.
- Flashback: One that shows Arthur and friends making Muffy scream at the library with a fake bat, landing her in trouble with Ms. Turner.
- Frankenstein's Monster: A rat boy at the Halloween party appears to be dressed up as him.
- Friendly Ghost: The ghost family that lives in Castle Manor isn't evil. While the ghost girl does scare Arthur and his friends, it's only because Arthur asked her for help thinking she was Binky, and she couldn't say no without revealing herself. Her parents also do not approve of her scaring people.
- Girls vs. Boys Plot: Subverted. The conflict originally started thanks to Arthur, Buster, Binky, and the Brain pranking Muffy on April Fool's Day. She recruits Francine to help her get some payback.
- Glamour Failure: Near the end of the episode, the ghost father accidentally floats off the ground in the main hall full of party guests. Fortunately for him, his daughter points this out to him, allowing him to float back down before any of the guests catch onto him.
- Good All Along: The ghost that scares the collective kids isn't a malicious spirit, it turns out to be the innocent spirit of a girl who lived in the mansion Mr. Crosswire hosted his party in, whom Arthur mistook for Binky. As she explains to her father, Arthur asked her for help and she couldn't say no without blowing her cover. The same goes for her family, who have a talking to with the girl about how it isn't right to scare others.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: The male alien in Buster's Imagine Spot uses the word "darned" when greeting Francine and Muffy.
- Halloween Episode: The episode focuses on a Halloween party Muffy is throwing, although for some reason, the holiday is never mentioned by name. The episode was bundled with the episodes "Night Fright" and "What Scared Sue Ellen?" as part of the Arthur's Scary Stories collection that was sold for Halloween.
- Haunted House: Muffy’s party is held at one. At first the kids think it’s just an Urban Legend, but they soon find out that it may really be haunted after all.
- Headless Horseman: He appears in an Imagine Spot Binky has, where he chases after Francine and Muffy. At the end of the Imagine Spot, it's revealed that Arthur was in costume as the horse and Binky was in costume as the Horseman.
- Hidden Depths: It turns out that Brain loves Edgar Allan Poe, Buster has read The War of the Worlds and Binky knows about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
- Imagine Spot: Three of them.
- The first, had by Brain, has Francine and Muffy meet Brain wearing a cape and top hat and holding a heart-shaped box, screaming in horror when they see that it contains no candy.
- The second one, had by Buster, has Francine and Muffy discover a UFO on a mountainside and encounter aliens. After they run away, Buster shakes hands with the female alien and winks at her.
- The third and final one, had by Binky, has Francine and Muffy being chased by the Headless Horseman, who is actually played by Binky and Arthur.
- Killed Offscreen: We are never shown how the ghost family of Castle Manor died.
- Latex Perfection: In the Cold Open, Arthur and Binky are able to convincingly wear masks of Francine and Buster, the latter under a mask of his own face.
- Losing Your Head: Subverted in the Cold Open, where Binky pulls of "Francine"'s head, only for it to be revealed that it was actually a mask worn by Arthur, who somehow pushed his real head into his torso.
- Mad Scientist: George's costume at the Halloween party.
- Magic Realism: For a show mostly grounded in reality, it's rather surprising when it's revealed that there is a family of real ghosts living in Castle Manor.
- Mistaken Identity: The ghost girl is initially mistaken for Binky by Arthur since she first appeared to him wearing a pumpkin on her head like he was.
- My Brain Is Big: A boy at the Halloween party is shown wearing a costume with a massively bulging head.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: At the Halloween party, Binky dresses up as a Pumpkin Person with crab claws.
- No Name Given: The names of the ghost girl and her parents are never revealed.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: No points for guessing what colors the male and female aliens in Buster's Imagine Spot are.
- Pirate: What Buster and Brain dress up as for the Halloween party.
- Pointy Ears: A boy at the Halloween party is shown wearing a costume with these and a bulging head.
- Pumpkin Person: Binky and the ghost girl both dress up as one at the Halloween party.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mr. Crosswire, while Ed does scold his daughter and her friends for pulling pranks on each other, he does let them off easy once they understand what they were doing to each other wasn't right and allows them to continue to enjoy the party. The same goes for the ghost father, like Mr. Crosswire, he does scold his daughter for pulling pranks, but once the ghost girl explains to her father she just wanted to have fun and go to the party, he still lets her attend it but with her parents with her.
- Revenge: Muffy wants to pay back Arthur and his friends for pulling a prank on her that got her in trouble with Ms. Turner last April Fools' Day by scaring them at the upcoming Halloween party.
- Rewatch Bonus: "Binky" at the party is wearing a bedsheet and a pumpkin, while the real Binky's costume had crab claws and a farmer's outfit. She also doesn't speak to Arthur when he mistakes her.
- Riddle for the Ages: How did the ghost girl and her parents die?
- Samus Is a Girl: The ghost hiding under the pumpkin costume is revealed to be a cute ghost girl. She's also not evil.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Played for Laughs in the Cold Open, where Arthur briefly scares the audience with a pair of fake monster hands, but shortly reveals himself.
- Screaming Woman:
- In a flashback, Muffy screams when the other kids scare her with a fake bat.
- Francine and Muffy scream in all three of the episode's Imagine Spots when they see an empty heart-shaped candy box, aliens, and the Headless Horseman, in that order.
- Shout-Out:
- The Tell-Tale Heart, The War of the Worlds, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are directly mentioned by Brain, Buster, and Binky, respectively.
- A boy at the Halloween party appears to be dressed up as Indiana Jones.
- Shrinking Violet: The ghost girl wanted to go to the party, but she was too shy to speak up when Arthur mistook her for Binky with her pumpkin costume. She also didn't want to refuse a new friend. Her dad tells her there's other ways to have fun.
- Spiders Are Scary: Muffy pranks Arthur with a toy spider that comes flying out of his locker.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Or in this case, fatherly minds think alike. While Mr. Crosswire is scolding Muffy and her friends for engaging in scare pranks, we cut to a ghost father who has the same talk with his daughter. Apparently, both fathers had told their daughters that such pranks are "mean-spirited".
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The female alien in Buster's Imagine Spot is pink and has prominent eyelashes.
- Voice Changeling: In the Cold Open, when Arthur and Binky wear masks of Francine and Buster respectively, their voices somehow sound like theirs. They immediately sound like themselves again when the masks are removed.
- Wham Shot: The kids get confused when the boys' prank seems to go off without a hitch, but Buster and Brain found themselves in a spare room, with the balloons and music that Francine and Muffy planned to use. Muffy confirms she didn't move their props, and neither did Francine. Arthur asks who he thinks is Binky for an explanation, only for the real Binky to show up in another costume. They turn around... and see the figure is floating off the ground. It's a real ghost!
