The Lousy Week
An army of head lice invades Lakewood Elementary.
- An Arm and a Leg: The louse general had lost one of his six limbs to his near-death experience with a comb.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: At first, Binky is overjoyed that he'll get to stay home and watch all the TV he wants while his head gets de-loused. Later in the episode, he's so sick of having to sit and watch daytime TV all day that he actually wants to go back to school.
- Boyish Short Hair: Francine and Muffy get this after the Brain tells them that lice is harder to get rid of with long hair. They both then go into the boy's room to mess with Binky.
- The Determinator: After his entire army is wiped out, the louse general sees Buster and thinks he can hatch a new army if he can get to him. However, he just misses him and is then crushed by a student.
- Gilligan Cut: Buster wonders why he hasn't had any head lice. It's then shown that he does have some on his head, but they find it so disgusting that they decide to go back to Mr. Ratburn.
- Hidden Depths: When he's found to be infected, Mr. Ratburn laments that he should have gone to business school instead of teaching.
- Idiot Ball: Francine gets lice after she realizes that Muffy must have it, and she dropped her hat. So what does Francine do? Wear Muffy's hat and then pass it around to the other kids.
- Imagine Spot: Muffy frets that if word gets out she has head lice, she will be treated like a leper (or "leopard", as she puts it). She envisions living in a desert shack and wearing rags as if she really were a leper in exile, to the point where Arthur has to deliver her homework with a falcon from afar.
- Infection Scene: Francine putting on Muffy's hat spreads lice to her hair, and her passing it around the auditorium spreads it to more kids.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- DW laughs when her dad starts putting mayonnaise in Arthur's hair as a home remedy. Arthur tells her to laugh all she wants, but she's getting it next. In addition, Jane is putting her toys in the wash and storage in case they also are carrying lice.
- Upon recovering from the head lice, Muffy shows astoundingly little sympathy towards the school body when Francine accuses her of starting the infestation. While in the midst of redecorating her room to celebrate being louse-free, her nanny is the first to tell her, "The lice, they are back". Looks like that redecorating session will have to wait, all in thanks to the lice epidemic Muffy started.
- Lice Episode: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Like Mother, Like Daughter: While her nanny shampoos her hair of lice, Muffy bemoans how miserable she is with getting head lice and laments, "Life is so unfair". When her mother tries to comfort that everybody gets head lice (herself included), Muffy's nanny nostalgically looks back on a time when said-mother got head lice as a child. Comically enough, Mrs. Crosswire said Muffy's words verbatim when she got head lice, right down to "Life is so unfair".
- Malaproper: When the school nurse confirms that Muffy has head lice, Muffy panics and worries she'll be treated like a "leopard" (she means "leper") as well as "ostragized" ("ostracized").
- Never My Fault:
- Not once does Muffy ever apologize for having caused a lice infestation to the entire school body of Elwood Elementary. Even when she catches the lice again, she and Francine simply get into a squabble of whose fault it was.
- As turnabout goes, however, the spread wouldn't have been as bad if Francine hadn't worn and passed around Muffy's hat while suspecting she had head lice. Francine never acknowledges that this decision was rather stupid and thoughtless.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The louse general bears a striking resemblance to WWII General Douglas Macarthur.
- Only Sane Man: Brain tells Muffy and Francine to stop playing a Blame Game about lice. He explains studies show that it's hard to tell who passed it to who. Brain also reveals that long hair is a factor.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- When he gets head lice, Binky is pleased to hear that he'll be spending the duration of his de-lousing watching all the television he wants. Days later, Binky is fatigued by watching nothing but day-time television and is desperate to return to school. This indicates how the lice epidemic at school has taken such a toll, if even those who previously relished it no longer enjoy it.
- Buster's head was previously established as being a toxic wasteland by lice standards. Towards the end, the louse general, who is the last of his battalion, proves his situation to be very dire if Buster's head is his last hope.
- Patient Zero: Played with. Muffy was seemingly the first of Lakewood Elementary's students to be plagued by head lice, and her lice end up spreading when her lice-infested cap falls into Francine's hands. But as Brain later points out, there's no real way to know who had lice first.
- Shout-Out: The louse general remarks that he "loves the smell of hair gel in the morning".
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Buster's head is too dirty to support any lice. Not that it stops the general from trying.
You Are Arthur
Arthur gives the viewer a look at a day through his eyes.
- The Big Race: The episode has the library having a 3K fundraiser marathon to raise money for the new reading room.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: D.W. recruits the Tibble Twins to help her train Arthur. By the end of it, Arthur wonders why he agreed to it.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Arthur gets a chance to catch up to the Brain, but then Muffy falls while running. He immediately stops and helps her up instead, while lamenting that he lost his window. Later, however, he finds out that he made the front page because people praised him for his sportsmanship.
- Imagine Spot: Arthur worries that if he backs out of the 3K fundraiser marathon, the fundraiser will be poorer for it and the new library room will be lacking windows, a door, and even a roof.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Buster is notably the only person in the episode to suspect the audience is watching Arthur's life through his eyes when he wonders out loud if there's an audience watching everything he sees and does.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In a well-meaning gesture, D.W. tries to lift a nauseated Arthur's morale before he begins the race. Unfortunately, her idea of a pre-race snack is a lollipop she stowed inside the carseat, complete with lint and a fly on it. Naturally, this pushes Arthur's carsickness over the edge.
- P.O.V. Cam: The episode is shown entirely through Arthur's eyes. In the teaser, Arthur briefly imagines what it must be like to be Mr. Ratburn.
- Sadistic Teacher: Arthur's Imagine Spot as Mr. Ratburn in the teaser. He announces that they'll start the day with a small math quiz, but he's disappointed by the groans from the class. So instead, he says they're gonna have a big math test. Their reaction is much more satisfying to him.
- Stock Audio Clip: During Arthur's exercise training with D.W., his scream from "Arthur's Spelling Trubble" was reused. Makes it very jarring due to the fact this was when the actor was much younger.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Arthur gives up his opportunity to beat Brain in the race so as to help Muffy to her feet. The next day, he finds out that he made the front page because everyone was impressed how he forfeited a win in favor of assisting a friend. Arthur says that's even better than winning.
