#mrs. tibble

[quasiimodo]

ARTHUR (1996-2022)

15x02 “I Wanna Hold Your Hand/Whistling in the Wind”

[wont-take-a-backseat]

Arthur Recap Season 1 Episode 9 "Arthur Babysits"

Since I have tried and failed to get a proper summer job, you know the ones where they make you fill out W-2s and you have to wear a name tag and uniform to work, I have just been babysitting for my church. It's a pretty easy gig because the kids are generally well behaved but they downgraded my pay from $10 an hour to $8 and the gigs are kind of sporadic.

I didn't start baby sitting professionally until I was 14 and Arthur is 8 so wow, those small town kids grow up fast.

Arthur is taking care of D.W. and Kate but as usual, D.W. is screwing around. Arthur yells at her to sit down but D.W. says that "when Mom and Dad come back from the yard [or ER? or bar? I seriously don't know what she said]" she is going to tell them what a mean baby sitter he is.

Arthur:

Arthur tells D.W. that he has had way worse babysitters before: there was a lady who used to practice her golf swing, a lady who made good cookies but kind of clumsy because her antlers kept getting caught in things, and this one lady who just sat around watching soap operas and made him go to bed when there was still daylight.

Sounds like my babysitting strategy. I kid, I kid. I am great with the children.

Arthur is taking Kate out in her stroller when he bumps into D.W. who is coming home from pre school. Her entire dress is painted red, yellow, green, and blue. I thought it was a new dress and I have to admit that I liked it. Here it is:

That's hot.

D.W. tells him that they were finger painting at school but the Tibble twins were involved. They end up walking past their house and D.W. is hates them yet she still hangs out with them. They are her Francine. They see a babysitter running out of the house screaming her head off and the twins laughing manically. Then they spot D.W. and wave her over.

D.W.:

The twins' grandmother notices them and wonders where the babysitter went. "She had to leave...suddenly," says Tommy. Mrs. Tibble is upset now because she was planning to visit a friend but now she can't because the boys have no baby sitter. D.W. volunteers Arthur because she is jerk like that. Arthur takes the job anyway but after he punches her in the face.

At the Sugar Bowl, Arthur tells the kids about his gig. Prunella warns him about the Terrible Tibbles and mentions that her older sister babysat for them once...once.

The kids tells Arthur that he needs to be tough with the twins and he agrees. I don't really have this problem with my charges but if they get out of hand, I start yelling in Spanish. For some reason, they are really impressed by that.

When Arthur comes over, Mrs. Tibble tells him the boys should be taking their nap right about now but the boys are actually wide awake. Arthur tries to establish authority but fails.

They want to play hide and go seek and knock over some shit and then D.W. calls to check up on Arthur. She suggests he play a game with them so they'll calm down.

Arthur tries to get them to play cards but Tommy and Timmy throw them down, yelling about 52 pick up. That is how I learned about that game. Finally, Arthur agrees to play hide and go seek with them.

He starts to look for them and then notices an open window and worries that the twins left the house to wreak havoc on the world. He then fantasizes about the twins setting loose all the animals and all the people blame him for not keeping them in line. By people, I mean Francine and Prunella. Screw you two, I hope that bear in Arthur's fantasy mauls you.

D.W. calls again and Arthur starts to tell her about the possibility of the twins escaping him but then he notices them hiding behind the curtain. Man, those two suck at hide and go seek.

Arthur makes up a scary story about a swamp monster who likes to eat twins so of course, they come out running and calm down as Arthur tells them more about the hungry swamp monster. I don't know why they are so scared but whatever. Now the twins respect Arthur and do whatever he says.

Then Mrs. Tibble comes home and she is delighted to see that Arthur is still there because she didn't want to have another conversation with Child Services.

Arthur gets paid one measly dollar for taking care of those little devils and plus, he has offered to take care of them all week. Check it out:

Fuck you, Mrs. Tibble. I love you but when Arthur babysits, you butter pay him more than $1 an hour. 

Grade: B (Everything was resolved too quickly. Why were the kids so nice to Arthur after his story? Their fear lies with the swamp monster and Arthur showed no indication that he could protect them. Also, I know D.W.'s motive for volunteering Arthur for the job was probably to prove that he wasn't a great babysitter that he claimed to be but it was poorly written. Yet, the Tibbles' antics make up for it.)

Rating: 81% intense. Babysitting is intense.

[wont-take-a-backseat]

Arthur Recaps Season 1 Episode 8 Part 2 "Arthur Bounces Back"

Arthur talks about how when you're a kid and you want something really badly and you beg your parents for it but then you end up not using it. I am very grateful that I grew up without much money because looking back on my wishlist for things, I realize that I would not have played with them as much as I thought I would have. I just had fun cutting pictures out of catalogs and pasting them in my notebook. That was my brief flirtation with scrapbooking.

The Read family is going clothes shopping and like any typical boy, Arthur is bored as he watches his little sister model every jacket and narrate it as if she was in a fashion show. I have to say that I pity men's fashion because it is so limited whereas fashion for women is more fun and versatile.

Sucks to suck, losers.

Arthur models one jacket and then asks his mom if he can go to the toy store. She says yes.

Arthur:

Arthur plays around with the toys in the toy store. One of the toys is a transformer that turns into Mr. Haney. I loved going to the toy store too, but that was only because they closed the Waldenbooks. That was a sad day for me, when the Waldenbooks closed.

Arthur sees Muffy at the toy store getting everything she wants. He tells her it must be cool to get everything she wants. She goes, "Meh". I feel sorry for her dad. He is just carrying everything in his arms. Come on, that place doesn't even have baskets?

Arthur sees something that catches his eyes: Moon Boots. For him, it is like this:

He imagines jumping to the moon and finding out that it really is made out of cheese.

He begs his parents for them and even makes a pie chart of their usefulness. Dang, that's hardcore. His parents say okay but Arthur has to raise the ten dollars himself. 

Ach. There is always a catch.

Arthur, unfortunately, is more broke than Greece--HEY YO! He tries to look for some money in the laundry, in between the couch cushions and he even tries to borrow some money from Grandma Thora but even she won't touch him. Man, this mirrors the Greek economy so bad. Arthur writers are deep. D.W. offers to loan him some money...but he has to be her slave for a year.

Arthur:

Arthur tries to run a lemonade stand but a dog steals his lemons.

So he tries to run a kissing booth but all the other kids are too intimidated to kiss the HBIC of Lakewood.

Then he offers fortune telling except it rains on him. Poor baby.

Jane Read feels sorry for her son so she offers him two dollars to clean the garage. Jane Read, I have seen your garage and that is at least a five dollar job.

Still, Arthur does a good job and Mrs. Tibble comes by and thinks he is having a garage sale so she offers to buy a necklace that is laying around for ten dollars. Arthur  still doesn't know what a good deal is, so he takes it. 

Arthur is finally able to buy his moon boots--hey Elwood City has no sales tax! But the catch is, he can't wear them around his parents because they will ask where he got the money from. Arthur is no dummy yet he still charges $2 for cleaning the garage.

Arthur's dad takes him aside and asks him if he put back a necklace--you see, it's a birthday gift for Jane.

Arthur:

He goes over to Mrs. Tibble's house to ask for the necklace back and explains the situation. Arthur offers to return the moon boots and give Mrs. Tibble her money back. Mrs. Tibble agrees but first she has to do some yard work. Then Arthur gets an idea...

Buster passes by and sees Arthur has moon boots. He asks to try them on but Arthur is using them to do yard work around Mrs. Tibble's house. He is going to rake her leaves to buy her silence and the necklace back.

See, no matter what you do, Arthur bounces back.

Grade: A- (In regular sitcoms, the character would NOT get away with this kind of deception so props to the Arthur writers for being subversive. Can you imagine a children's show where a main character, who is established to be good, getting away with this type of shenanigans? Also in a much shoddier sitcom, Jane's birthday would be in the same episode and the character would try to steal the necklace back as opposed to Arthur's reasonable acceptance of his mistake and asking directly. I think Arthur might have gotten away with a perfect crime here but this episode was resolved too quickly even though I liked how it ended).

Rating: 70% intense. Moon boots are intense.