Line #1 FurryConfusion/Arthur


1	There's probably no other TV show that has more FurryConfusion than ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', due to its inconsistency as to whether the characters are aware they aren't human or not.
2	----
3
4	* Buster and Arthur wear aardvark and bunny slippers, respectively.
5	* Furthermore, normal animals still exist in Arthur's town (for example Arthur has a dog named Pal, but the characters of Binky, Fern and Prunella are anthropomorphic dogs, while Francine has a non-anthropormophic cat named Nemo living in the same world as the anthropomorphic cats Sue Ellen and Jenna).
6	* In the episode "Jenna's Bedtime Blues", while trying to figure out why Jenna won't come to Muffy's slumber party, Prunella (who's a poodle), says her sister told her that she used to strangle cats. Jenna herself is a cat (albeit a rather weird looking one) which blows one's mind.
7	* This is even parodied in the series itself. In one episode Arthur and D.W. are sent to their grandma's house because it's raining too hard to play outside. When Grandma opens the door she hurries the two inside, noting that this is "only good weather for ducks." Cue a family of anthropomorphic ducks riding bikes across the street and commenting, "Beautiful weather, huh?" prompting a "Huh?" from D.W.
8	* Another episode had Arthur and several of his friends watching a parody of their own show, featuring an anthropomorphic character called "Andy." They snark at it, asking questions like, "If they're animals, does their school serve bugs and garbage for lunch?" and "I'd like to know how a mouse has a pet dog. Wouldn't the dog eat him?" Arthur: "Andy's not a mouse. He's a... something. I forget." (Arthur himself is [[InformedSpecies supposedly an aardvark, but looks as much like a mouse as anything else]].) Obviously, the producers love Lampshading.
9	** "D.W. and the Beastly Birthday" does something similar with figuring out what sort of animals are on Arthur's birthday card for D.W. (they're llamas, apparently). To make things even more confusing, they look to be somewhere between real animals and fully anthropomorphic characters like Arthur.
10	* In one episode ("Buster's Dino Dilemma"), Ratburn mentions that dinosaurs were around before upright mammals, which brings up a whole other mess of issues (namely the fact that not all of the anthropomorphic animals are mammals; although rare, there have been anthro crocodiles and birds seen).
11	* In "Arthur Goes to Camp," Arthur and his friends are all attending Camp Meadowcroak and take part in a scavenger hunt against rival camp Horsewater. To make the best of the rival camp and win the scavenger hunt, they have the Brain pretend to be a feral bear (using Muffy's fur coat) to scare the rival campers... yet the Brain already ''is'' a bear (albeit an anthropomorphic bear, not a feral one).
12	* In the season 16 episode "Sue Ellen Vegges Out", Sue Ellen says something that is so confusing it might make your head explode. It's made even weirder as Sue Ellen is [[CarnivoreConfusion a cat]]. The cat character being the vegetarian is... ''interesting'', to say the least. Not to mention technically [[ArtisticLicenseBiology biologically impossible...]]
13	-->'''Sue Ellen''': Neither one of you really cares about being a vegetarian. You're just using it as an excuse to fight with each other. You want to know why I gave up eating meat? Because there are some animals whom I consider friends, so I lost my taste for eating them. Frankly, they are a lot better friends than some of the people I know.
14	* In "Shelter from the Storm," Brain visits a [[TheShrink therapist]] to deal with anxiety issues after the hurricane. In the background you can see a cardboard cutout of a FunnyAnimal character who is [[AccessoryWearingCartoonAnimal nude except for his bow-tie and glasses]]. Those sorts of characters are normal for humans but wouldn't it seem weird in a world populated with {{Funny Animal}}s? At the end of the episode, one character tells a dog licking ice cream on the floor that ice cream is for "people."
15	* "Buster Bombs" has Buster, Muffy and Brain discussing about monkey bars and monkeys in general. Muffy then brings up that her dad once knew a guy who was bitten by a monkey. She and her family ''are'' monkeys. That had to be intentional or something...
16	* In "Francine and the Feline", Arthur claims he doesn't like cats, even though he had been friends with Sue Ellen and Jenna before changing his mind. If this is taken literally (and assuming the characters ''are'' aware they aren't human), the implications would be [[FantasticRacism pretty disturbing]]...
17	* Quite possibly the most confusing instance of this is in the in-universe TV show ''Bionic Bunny.'' The titular character is played by an actor named Wilbur Rabbit, but the show's intro explains that he was "created by a combination of super science and ''radical animal husbandry'' to fight crime," going so far as to show a non-anthropomorphic rabbit being raised in a laboratory. If the residents of the world Elwood City is in use both a regular rabbit and a humanoid rabbit to portray Bionic Bunny, they must know that they are animals, but are higher in intelligence than feral animals they use as pets. It's really logically hard to look at this from a human perspective.
18	* In “D.W.’s Deer Friend”, D.W. makes friends with a non-anthro deer named Walter. There are anthropomorphic moose (a species of deer), such as George.
19	* "Buster the Myth-Maker" has Arthur and Buster witness a dognapper... who is an anthropomorphic dog.
20	* In one episode, there is a comic about “flying sheep zombies”, which aren’t anthropomorphic. However, recurring background character Mary IS an anthropomorphic sheep. As is one of the substitute teachers in another episode, who asks the class to spell the word “leather”. FridgeHorror kicks in when you learn what leather is made of.
21	* Ladonna owns a pet rat, even though Mr. Ratburn is an anthropomorphic rat.
22	* The Deegans have curly hair because they’re poodles. However, Muffy is bitten by a non-anthro poodle in one episode.
23	* "Binky Can't Always Get What He Wants": Buster, an anthropomorphic rabbit, [[PullARabbitOutOfMyHat pulls a non-anthro rabbit out of a hat]].
24	* Dolls such as Polly Locket and the World Girls are shown as anthropomorphic animals. However, a talking stuffed animal is shown that is clearly not anthro. Neither are Arthur’s teddy bear and D.W.’s Net Kitten (though her Net Kitten [[TalkingAnimal is heard saying, "I'm bored" at one point]]).
25	* In “So Funny I Forgot To Laugh”, Arthur says Sue Ellen looks like a sheepdog, which is shown by pasting her head onto a non-anthro sheepdog’s body.
26	* In the series finale episode, "All Grown Up", Buster remarked that he never knew aardvarks had long snouts. [[spoiler: The episode heavily supports the FurryLens idea, with a side of LiteraryAgentHypothesis. Arthur is shown as an adult, and has become a comic book writer, having written a comic book based on his life. When his friends ask him about it, he says "I just like drawing animals". The episode ends with the comic book opening. . . and taking us back to the first episode of the series. The implication, then, is that the whole series exists within its own universe in the form of Arthur's comic. If so, the various instances of FurryConfusion in the show could simply be the result of Arthur portraying himself and his friends as animals in the comic.]]

Context FurryConfusion / Arthur