The bizarre Arthur episode that spoofed South Park, Beavis & Butt-Head, and WWE

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I think of the PBS Children series Arthur a lot, however I’m haunted by one specific episode: season 4’s “The Contest” Initially aired on Oct. 8, 1999, the episode counted on a handful of late ’90 s cultural referrals that I, put simply, did not understood as the show’s target group of little kid.

In “The Contest,” Arthur and his friends find out about a contest hosted by their preferred show (an in-universe riff of Arthur itself), asking audiences to send out in story concepts that would be made into anepisode Each main character takes a stab at composing a story, and the team gets together to share their concepts. Each series unfolds in a various animation design, dealt with by the developers of Arthur as a tribute to a various show.

To this day, Arthur handle subtle cultural referrals and star visitors. Yo-Yo Ma, Mr. Rogers, and Neil Gaiman have all appeared on the show as themselves. It’s spoofed Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Tintin, and even Alfred Hitch*’sThe Birds Unlike many of the other pop culture referrals in Arthur, “The Contest” dealt in adult-themed, nearly salacious tributes. Just years later on, after I captured an episode of Dexter’s Laboratory on Animation Network, did I start comprehending what was truly going on. that was the suggestion of the iceberg.

Now, equipped with 20 years more understanding than I had as a kid, I have actually lastly determined which show each series referenced. For anybody else who didn’t comprehend, here’s a breakdown of Arthur’s weirdest episode.

Image: PBS.

Buster: “The Day The Earth Was Saved”

Arthur’s alien-crazed friend Buster develops a story about aliens crash-landing on Earth and kidnappingArthur The UFO squashes Buster, however the aliens choose not to consume Arthur due to the fact that his cholesterol is expensive. The paper-cutout design and the big heads on small bodies stimulate the animation-style of South Park. The characters likewise speak in the exact same high-pitched, somewhat accelerated tone as the show’s characters. And on top of that, the alien idea is a nod to South Park’s own series best, which saw Cartman get an alien probe.

At the time the episode aired, South Park had actually been on Funny Central for about 2 years– a year less than Arthur itself. These 2 ’90 s staples continued into the 2000 s and 2010 s. One deals with big problems in kid-friendly methods and the other goals to upset practically everyone. The media landscape may alter, however Arthur and South Park, obviously, are permanently.

Image: PBS.

Muffy: “My Life as A TV Show”

Ruined, abundant woman Muffy thinks up a story where she’s a runway design. Elegant like Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head, total with overstated foreheads and jaws, Arthur and Buster mock her and call her the “fifth Teletubby.” The MTV show premiered a couple of years prior to Arthur in 1992, and went through the ’90 s. Beavis and Butt-Head likewise generated a spinoff in Daria (which has actually unfortunately not been spoofed on Arthur) and returned for one last season in2011 The show’s salacious humor affected South Park and is potentially the outermost thing from Arthur’s family friendly technique out there.

Enjoyable reality: this isn’t the only time Arthur parodied the Mike Judge animated comedy. An earlier episode features a comic and animation calledPeabrain and Nuthead

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Image: PBS.

Brain: “Hair Growth Formula”

With strong lines and overstated percentages– together with Brain sporting an unclear Eastern European accent– this series commemorates Animation Network show Dexter’s Lab. It’s the only one of these sectors that particularly parodies a fellow kids show rather of one targeted at grownups, and fitting, as Brain, the most intelligent kid in class, would create a story where his creations are foiled by the incompetence of his good friends.

Genndy Tartakovsky’s debut series premiered on Animation Network in 1995 and went through2003 Unlike Arthur, it wasn’t an instructional show and simply concentrated on laboratory hijinks and humor. The series is significant for introducing the professions of Seth MacFarlane (Family Man) and Butch Hartman (Relatively Odd Parents), whose shows would’ve likely remained in this episode had it come out 10 years later on. That puts the weirdness of this episode in point of view– think of Arthur parodying Family Man in2020

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Image: PBS.

Francine and Binky: “The Amazing Fight”

This series does not parody an animated show, however rather theWWE (Due to the fact that this episode came out in 1999, the WWE was the WWF, World Wrestling Foundation, which altered its name in 2003 to prevent confusion with the World Wildlife Foundation.) Sporty Francine and goon Binky spin up a story where Arthur goes in person with an animated Hulk Hogan. Simply by stomping his foot, he quickly beats Hulk Hogan and then takes on John L. Sullivan, Floyd Patterson, Barney Rose, and the United Press International (which Binky confesses he simply copied from the caption of a photo he discovered).

Image: PBS.

Arthur: “The Troubled Sister”

The episode’s final series is likewise the recommendation that avoided me the longest. Rendered in a primarily monochromatic world with unstable describes, an 18- year-old Arthur talks to his therapist about his irritating sibling. The sluggish, rambling speech, the setup of a psychiatrist, and the black and white background are all a sign of Funny Central’s Dr. Katz, Expert Therapist. The psychiatrist that Arthur sees is Dr. Katz himself– simply with Arthur- verse animal ears. Dr. Katz, Expert Therapist premiered in 1995 and at first, all of Dr. Katz’s clients were comics who recited sets that were then animated. A great deal of the dialogue for the show was ad-libbed, making the show a predecessor to much better understood series like Home Films and Bob’s Burgers.

All 22 seasons of Arthur are readily available to buy on Amazon.

Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K is an all-in-one streaming device with apps for most major streaming services, 4K streaming and a voice remote powered by Amazon’s Alexa.

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Neela
Neela
I work as the Content Writer for Gaming Ideology. I play Quake like professionally. I love to write about games and have been writing about them for two years.

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