Arthur's Dummy Disaster

Synopsis by Dave ,

and Comments by: Dave , Rogue , HFein , KorraIsBack , and Noatok . <span style="font-family:"Cambria","serif";mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin">



<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Place: Arts and crafts class.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Arthur's friends are showing each other what they've made.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">George the moose is next. George pulls out a ventriloquist's dummy. George admits that his dad helped a little with it. It's a giraffe, in a suit, with multiple bow ties. The dummy introduces itself as "Wally".
 * Muffy made a purse for small change. She notes how the top has a drawstring, and also how she included a pocket for credit cards.
 * Buster has a block of wood with two bent nails in it. He says that it started out as a napkin holder, but now it's a coatrack. He demonstrates by holding it up and hanging a coat on it. The coat pulls the nail out, and the coat falls to the ground.
 * Binky has made the same thing as Buster. Binky thinks for a second, as if he's trying to come up with a useful purpose for his wood block with nails in it, but then is forced to admit that it's just a block of wood with two nails in it.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">George has Wally introduce himself to everyone, and everyone loves Wally -- and they're surprised at George's talent. It's incredible.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Arthur: Whoa! I didn't see his mouth move.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Binky: Creepy -- I love it!

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Wally is a bit of a smart-alec, and starts doing a rapid fire stand-up routine that leaves the kids in stiches. Wally is SOOOOO funny.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">What did the banana say to the elephant?

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Nothing. Bananas can't talk!

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Which side of a cat has the most fur?

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">The outside!

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Wally continues his hilarious fast paced comedy routine.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Wally: This stiff neck is killing me.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">That is SOOOO funny, since Wally is a giraffe!

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Everyone loves Wally's antics.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">* * * Arthur's Dummy Disaster * * *

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Outside, Arthur's gang all have one thing on their mind. George and Wally. They wonder why they've never paid much attention to George in the past. After all, he's always been around -- it's just that they've never paid much attention to him.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Muffy recalls how in kindergarden, George gave Muffy a juice box when she couldn't open her flask of fresh mango juice that her Mom had made. She never got around to thanking him, in part because George dashed off after handing her the juice box.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Francine remembers hugging him! Yes. In a championship soccer game against Mighty Mountain, it was a close game -- George was playing goal, and he deflected the ball with his antlers. It ended up at the other end of the field. George saved the game!

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">George sounds like a good guy then, but he's always been shy. Not like Wally. Buster figures that George has had a reason to be quiet. Maybe George is...

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Buster: ...a spy from a hostile alien nation?

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Francine: Just because he's quiet doesn't mean he's an alien.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Buster ponders. Francine could be right -- there could be some loud aliens as well...

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">* * *

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Alien or not, Wally continues to delight Arthur's gang. The next time we encounter Wally, he's at the cafeteria. Brain is tucking into a mound of some undetermined slop.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Wally shows up, and does a hilarious routine dissing the cafeteria food.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">He looks at Brain's lunch and asks if he's got any wood polish in there... Then a great zinger...

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Wally: If that's home cooking, I'm checking into a hotel.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Everyone, including Brain, starts laughing. Wally is SOOOO funny.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Buster asks Wally/George if he can eat and talk at the same time.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Frantically, Wally starts mashing his face into a pile of food repeatedly.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Wally: I'm eating, I'm talking, I'm eating, I'm talking.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">This is freaky, but Arthur's gang all think it is hilarious. It's so funny that it makes Buster squirt milk out his nose.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">* * *

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">During a baseball game, the ball comes towards George. George has Wally catch the baseball in his mouth.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Hooray! They won the game. George and Wally are carried off the field by their team. George allows Wally to take all the credit. Wally never shuts up. He goes on and on including quipping about the taste of victory being like shoe leather.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">* * *

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Everyone gets ventriloquist's dummy mania, and soon everyone is trying to imitate George and Wally. One kid has a moose puppet. Wally tells him that he should change his puppet to something else, since "mooses are not funny".

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Anything and everything is thrust into service as a ventriloquist's dummy. Nearly every kid in school spends their recess time practicing ventriloquism outside. One kid appears to have neglected George's advice though, since he's got a moose puppet. (Perhaps it's a caribou?)

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Arthur is using his toy bear, whom we've seen before, including all the way back in #12701 - "D.W.'s Blankie". Arthur's bear is looking a little mangled -- it's beginning to lose his stuffing.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Binky has chosen to use a toy car. The hood/bonnet of the car is sort of like a mouth -- it can open and close at least.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Arthur uses Artie to tell Binky that "A car isn't a dummy, it's just dumb."

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Muffy walks over with a doll that looks like a princess. The doll's mouth opens and it comes out with:

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Doll: Pip Pip Cherrio!

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">"Wow!" says Arthur, Muffy's pretty good; almost as good as George. Muffy's doll is named "Princess Serena", and Muffy is forced to confess that she isn't actually doing ventriloquism -- the doll has a tape in the back to make it talk. <span style="color:rgb(100,149,237);font-family:arial,helvetica;">I could be wrong, but Princess Serena may be a reference to the English version of Sailor Moon! The dub version of Avatar:The Last Airbender was produced by a North American company called NICKELODEON. When Muffy mentioned Princess Serena, the dub Sailor Moon came to mind. In Japan, Princess Serena is known as Princess Serenity.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Buster has a sock with button eyes stitched to it. He's named this hideous creativity "Socko". What makes Socko even less appealing is that Buster's neglected to wash Socko before using him as a dummy. Socko smells BAD. Everyone runs off in a pack from Buster.

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">Muffy: Change his name to Stinko!

<p style="color:rgb(255,255,255);">



That night, Arthur tries out Artie's act on Pal before Arthur goes to bed. Pal's trying to get to sleep to, but Arthur bothers him with Artie. Using an annoying voice, Arthur makes Artie stroke Pal and in an annoying whiny voice, Artie yatters on about how nice Pal is. Pal looks annoyed, and even goes as far as putting his paws over his ears.



Pal is not the only one who gets cheesed off by Artie. Taking a page from George's book, Arthur decides it's a good idea to bring Artie to the dinner table and insults Dad's tuna casserole with Artie.

When Arthur has Artie tell Dad that having dessert first would be a good idea, Dad tells Arthur to put Artie away. Arthur doesn't know when to quit though; once Artie is put in a cupboard, Arthur doesn't stop; Artie starts complaining about it getting dark early, and asks if it's bedtime already.