The Magic School Bus / YMMV

Accidental Innuendo:
- The episode covering plants features a scene where Wanda gets hit by "white stuff" ejected from a chloroplast that's "gooey and sticky"^noteit's sugar, thankfully and is subsequently grossed out by the fact that it lands in her mouth before she finds out that she likes the way it tastes. Children's educational television, everybody!
- "At my old school, we never got baked."^note
Adaptation Displacement: The TV show is better known to some than the original books; in fact, a new series of paperbacks went into print based on the TV episodes.
Adorkable: Arnold has a bunch of dorky hobbies like collecting rocks and minerals but is also a neurotic Nice Guy.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Is Ms. Frizzle something like a Willy Wonka who is teaching the class to find a successor to the Magic School Bus?
- Is Ms Frizzle a normal human or not? She's implied to be older than her roughly 30-to-mid-40s look, and she is into magic.
- Is the school bus really magic or is it Sufficiently Advanced Technology? Or perhaps both? It's an oddity that a science teacher would be involved with magic. Clarke's Third Law comes into effect.
- It's commonly interpreted that the producers (Malcolm and Susan) are a grown-up Tim and Wanda. "Hops Home" seems to heavily imply this as Bella and Herman's kids are shown after the episode's end.
Aluminum Christmas Trees: There is an episode in which the plot is about solving the mystery of why Arnold's skin has turned orange, which turns out to be because he ate too much of a snack food containing carrots. While this may sound silly and improbable, this actually can happen and is called carotenosis, but it is rare as it requires a person to consume a lot of beta carotene over a long period of time. It's harmless and eventually reverses with a change in diet. Many people affected are either vegan/vegetarian or babies fed an excess of some baby foods with a high carotene content (usually meaning a lot of carrots, though sweet-potato-based baby food can do the same thing).
Awesome Art:
- Nelvana does an excellent job streamlining the characters in Bruce Degan's illustrations for animation. The animation itself, while not Disney-quality, is surprisingly fluid and expressive for a public-funded edutainment show.
- The scene where the bus takes the kids back in time in "The Busasaurus". Ralphie points out that they just went "rewind!" as people and animals move backwards, complete with volcanos refilling with lava. It ends with the asteroid returning to the sky in reverse.
Awesome Music: The show's intro song is peppy, funky, and catchy. And who better to sing it than the late great Little Richard?
Broken Aesop: Despite Explores the Age of Dinosaurs pointing out the theory that birds are dinosaurs, the Mini-Game Dino Madness has a turkey and an ostrich as correct answers for the "That's Not a Dinosaur" questions. Made especially jarring when those questions have Archaeopteryx as a wrong answer.
Cargo Ship: Who's the fandom's number one Frizzle-related ship? Arnold or one of her other students? Someone's OC? Mr. Ruhle? One or more of the producers? Lizzie? No, don't be ridiculous - it's the bus, obviously.
Crack Ship:
- Some of the fandom likes involving Ms. Frizzle in crossover lesbian relationships with Mary Poppins (both are Time Lords, apparently) or Carmen Sandiego. Others just ship her with the bus.
- According to Tumblr, Carlos apparently grows up to be the perfect, wonderful scientist who moves into Night Vale and falls in love with the host, Cecil.
Epileptic Trees: The popular theory that Ms. Frizzle's students grew up to be the Planeteers in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, which originated from this image macro noticing the uncanny resemblance◊
Fanon: Her traveling through time, space, and dimensions with a group of students in a shape-changing vehicle has led to the nigh-unanimous fandom consensus that Ms. Frizzle is a Time Lord.
- The 2nd most popular theory is that she is an immortal witch which is kind of ironic since she's into science.
Genius Bonus: Judging from the visible C drive on the screen, the computer in "Gets Programmed" is obviously running MS-DOS.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In "Out of This World," aired years before Pluto's demotion, the class is rehearsing a play about the solar system where they each play a different planet, but Dorothy Ann is late, so they had to start without her planet... Pluto. Given that the episode is one big Shout-Out to Star Trek, it's almost eerily prescient that the transformed bus vaguely resembles the NX-01 Enterprise.
- In "Gets Programmed," Carlos' brother Mikey, a child genius, tells the class, "I heard your yelp for help." In fact, an earlier episode had the kids being assigned to take care of their African-American authority figure's pet chicken, who of course gets into trouble...
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Arnold. He's been shipped with everyone.
Memetic Mutation:
- "CARLOS!" as a response to his terrible puns. It's even used as a reaction to a bad pun or two on TV Tropes.
- Footage from the show seems to be popular for YouTube Poop (although, given the Nostalgia Filter protection the show has garnered in North America, it's probably affectionate more than anything).
- "I knew I should have stayed home today..."
- In Israel, the show was just called 'The Magic Bus' (because school buses are not as ubiquitous there). Unfortunately, 'magic' (or, more accurately, 'acts of magic') sounds a lot like 'drugs' in Hebrew (קסמים ksamím vs. סמים samím, respectively). Cue many jabs from kids who've outgrown the series about the bus adventures being a case of Mushroom Samba.
- "Girl that's a booty hole."
- Captioning any picture of a school bus in a strange situation with "Dammit, Ms. Frizzle!"
- "At my old school, we never got baked."
- Comparisons between Carlos and Sans, as both of them are Pungeon Masters who wear blue hoodies.
- YouTube has videos playing the animated show's opening theme over any real-life or fictional footage of bus accidents or stunts.
- "Arnold dies." The first episode has Arnold instantly freezing due to taking off his helmet on Pluto, and though of course he doesn't die, it's not clear until the next scene that he hasn't. Given that this is supposed to be a kids show, the internet has had a field day regarding this moment.
  "YOOOOOOOOOOO! YO, HOLY SHIT, HE DEAD!!!"
No Problem with Licensed Games: The series had many video game spinoffs, and most of them were well received.
Older Than They Think:
- With how enduring the series is as a staple of elementary school classrooms, it can be jarring to learn that the animated series started in 1994 and that the book series started even earlier, in 1986.
- The premise of the series is also similar to Filmation's Mission: Magic! Except this time, the teacher, Miss Tickle, is explicitly a witch.
Paranoia Fuel: If you're sick, a science class might enter your body in a shrunken bus to find out why.
Periphery Demographic:
- The series has gained a large amount of older fans, many of whom grew up with it. It helps that both the facts (for the most part) are still relevant and the characters are interesting. Older fans have been known to revisit the show because of how much they forgot that they had learned in elementary.
- Conversely, unlike most shows of its age, the series continues to draw in fans from newer generations, thanks to how a good amount of its factual content is still true today (the only majorly flawed episodes by modern standards being "Lost in Space", largely due to Pluto no longer being a planet as of 2006, and "The Busasaurus" due to new discoveries about dinosaurs), leading it to still be commonly read/shown in elementary school classrooms year after year.
- It's also popular among adults who work in or teach science, who are relieved to see a science-education show that actually gets things right most of the time, and clarifies when it doesn't.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Keesha's voice is Erica Luttrell, who had been one of the kids from Shining Time Station, and would later voice Princess Candy, Sapphire, and Emily Kaldwin.
- Wanda's voice is Lisa Yamanaka (now Lisa Jai), who would later voice Yoko in another Nelvana/PBS series, Timothy Goes to School. She would also voice Sherry Birkin.
  - Speaking of Resident Evil 2, the tow truck driver in one episode is voiced by Gary Krawford, who would later voice Chief Irons.
- Arnold's second voice is Danny Tamberelli- at the time, he was on The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and would later move onto All That, and still later voiced/mocapped Jimmy in Grand Theft Auto V, the latter leading to jokes that the years were unkind to Arnold.
- Series director Yvette Kaplan would later become a regular collaborator with Mike Judge, directing episodes of Beavis and Butt-Head (including co-directing the movie) and King of the Hill. She didn't leave children's animation altogether, of course, as she later co-created Zack and Quack for Nick Jr..
Self-Fanservice: Ms. Frizzle is rather plain looking and dresses conservatively, but that hasn't stopped now adult fans of the show who may have had crushes on her when they were kids to make very sexual fan art of her.
Squick:
- Some of the Fantastic Voyage moments:
  - When the kids go inside Janet's nose in "Makes a Stink"...and inside Ralphie's nose in "Inside Ralphie"...and inside Ms. Frizzle's nose in "Works Out". Of these three, "Makes a Stink" is the worst, since Ralphie and Ms. Frizzle's noses are dry (aside from a splash of mucus made when the Bus drives further into Ms. Frizzle's nasal passage), but Janet's is just as snotty as her personality.
  - When they go inside Ralphie's cut in "Inside Ralphie", with both scab and blood in close-up view.
  - Or when the class was inside Arnold's large intestine in "For Lunch", getting up close and personal with piles of feces.
- The episode about fungi and molds.
- Or when the class got laid by a chicken.
- Or when the class got ejaculated on by a salmon. Yes, that actually happened.
Strawman Has a Point: Wanda has this when telling the class she needs to take Bella her bullfrog back home to keep her safe. While Wanda is portrayed sympathetically for her pet having gone missing, the class reiterates that Bella seems happier in a natural habitat where she can lay eggs rather than staying with Wanda. Wanda retorts that there are natural predators everywhere, so Bella wouldn't be safe. She's not wrong; Bella is completely domesticated, and that tends to put a crimp on survival instincts. Wanda only concedes when she sees that Bella can defend herself, or at least flee from predators.
Stress-Relieving Gameplay: For those who thought Janet was annoying, the "Explores the Solar System" game lets you throw her into Neptune's atmosphere. It's also That One Level as well - so it'll probably happen by accident.
Surprise Difficulty: Some of the minigames (such as the platformers in Explores the Solar System, the Protoceratops game in Explores the World of Dinosaurs and the Mahjong game in Explores the World of Animals) can prove challenging even for older players.
Sweet Dreams Fuel: It's an uplifting series with a Cool Teacher.
That One Level: The platforming minigames in the Explores the Solar System computer game all can be fairly difficult, but the Saturn level with Tim is generally agreed by people who have played the game to be the most frustrating one. The level takes place on tiny slick platforms in Saturn's rings that you will almost constantly be sliding off of into a level-wide Bottomless Pit (causing you to start over) until you get a jetpack that's just one screen away. While the jetpack can keep you from falling into the bottomless pit, it also uses up air. Running out of air will also start you over, without the jetpack, meaning you have to navigate Saturn's icy platforms to get it all over again.
- To say nothing about Neptune - the level is three screens where you have to get a jetpack or jump to balloons (precariously) to reach the token.
- From Explores Inside The Earth, many people refer to the Drill for Oil; Dig for Coal game as the most frustrating Minigame where a lot of players have a difficult time successfully defeating Liz in collecting the hidden resources on their side, thanks in part due to Liz being able to seemingly find the resources with near perfect accuracy.
- The Marathon mini-game from Explores in the Age of Dinosaurs, in which you help a Troodon flee a hungry T-Rex, can also become this. Not only do you have to jump over obstacles in your path, but you also have to avoid pterosaurs that swoop down at you. Plus, the speed for the oncoming obstacles gradually increases over the course of the mini-game, making it completely impossible to beat the tenth level.
Trans Audience Interpretation:
- A popular theory among the series' LGBT Fanbase is that Arnold is a closeted trans girl and that Ms. Frizzle is Arnold post-transition, having traveled back in time with the Magic School Bus to help her younger self. This interpretation cites the two's similar hair, Ms. Frizzle's flamboyant demeanor and unflappability, and her self-described "private and powerful passion for pickles." Spironolactone, an androgen blocker commonly taken by trans women in the US, is also a potassium-sparing diuretic that frequently causes dehydration and hyponatremia, resulting in increased thirst and cravings for salt. Pickles solve both of these problems and are a meme in trans communities as a result.
- Likewise Liz goes by female pronouns, but only biologically male Jackson Chameleons have horns like Liz.
Values Resonance: This show may have the single best depiction of diversity in any children's series, in that it only depicts it, but rarely if ever addresses it: apart from the multi-ethnic class, we have two canonically disabled characters with Carlos's paraplegic brother Mikey and Phoebe's blind father, but never treats them as Flawless Tokens (indeed, the Day in the Limelight episodes for each kid often has them overcoming one of their character flaws, and every student has realistically-depicted ones), treating everyone's differences as 100% normal.

YMMV / The Magic School Bus

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