The seventeenth episode of the third season of Hey Arnold!.
Girl Trouble
When Helga tries his patience one too often, Arnold snaps and spills paint on her after she does the same to him. He ends up learning from Phil that he had a female bully at his age who was much like Helga.
School Dance
When Arnold is in charge of finding entertainment for the school dance, he chooses Dino Spumoni to play at P.S. 118. The other students think Arnold made a mistake until Dino plays some of his old hits.
"Girl Trouble" provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Mr. Simmons doesn't do anything when Helga is harassing Arnold, yet he only punishes Arnold when he throws paint back at her in retaliation and doesn't even punish Helga.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Helga gets away with her bullying of Arnold, with only Arnold getting detention for throwing paint.
- Book Safe: Helga is revealed to keep a doll of Arnold made from school supplies in her math book.
- Cool Old Lady: Gertie is able to slice a watermelon with karate chops despite her old age.
- Fighting Back Is Wrong: Helga and Arnold fight over some paint to use in their art project. Helga spills the paint on Arnold and Arnold (uncharacteristically, but understandably) spills it back on her. The classroom gasps collectively and Arnold gets in trouble from Mr. Simmons, while Helga gets off scot-free.
- Hard Truth Aesop: The episode acknowledges the unfairness of Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male, but at the same time has no straight answer for it since chivalry is embedded that way. Even Phil, despite empathising with Arnold's situation, is ultimately a hypocrite who can't really give Arnold a proper solution to it.
- Karma Houdini: Helga gets no consequences for her actions and never has to apologize for it.
- Loving Bully: It's revealed that in their childhood, Gertie had a crush on Phil but only expressed it by bullying and pranking him at school, just like Helga currently does with Arnold and Phil even points that Helga bullies him because she might like him. But Arnold doesn't believe it.
- Jerkass Ball:
- Helga is much nastier to Arnold than usual here.
- Mr. Simmons is usually reasonable, but he harshly punishes Arnold for dumping paint on Helga while ignoring everything Helga did beforehand.
- Pet the Dog: Gerald and Phoebe don't laugh at Arnold unlike the other students.
- Selective Enforcement: Mr. Simmons does nothing about Helga's bullying, but punishes Arnold for dumping paint, vocally expressing his disappointment in him.
- Sticky Situation:
- Helga pours glue on the seat of Arnold's desk so that she can glue feathers to his butt as a practical joke.
- Later, Arnold steps in a wad of chewed bubble gum, prompting Helga to laugh at him again.
- Thumbtack on the Chair: In a flashback, a young Gertie put thumbtacks on a young Phil's chair as a practical joke.
- Truth in Television: Unfortunately, there have been plenty of teachers in real-life who have ignored or overlooked instances of bullying and only punish the victim if they retaliate.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In a flashback, a young Gertie dips her ponytail in ink and blames a young Phil for it to get him in trouble.
"School Dance" provides examples of:
- Bandage Mummy: Eugene is in a full-body cast at the beginning of this episode as a result of a collision with a float in the Easter parade.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Arnold goes through one to find out who gets to play at P.S. 118's school dance. His first candidate is Sheena, who shoots the hat off his head with her bow when she attempts to play the cello. His second is Mr. Green, who sings off-key, and his third and final candidate is Oskar Kokoshka, who plays his saxophone terribly (and is also implied to have only volunteered so Arnold would pay him).
