A is for Angry

Summary
Arthur takes on Brain at a checkers competition, and everyone rallies behind him — until he lets out a "yowl" that alienates his fans.

Plot
There is a checkers contest, and everyone wants Arthur to challenge the Brain, so he does. They have a pep rally for the contest, and only George wants the Brain to win. Muffy starts a web site for "the benefit of all the average kids". In the first pep rally, Brain wins. Francine makes Arthur attend a post-game pep rally, giving him instructions on how to win back his fans. However, Arthur soon becomes frustrated in the middle of his pep talk and screams at the crowd.

Back at home, he is lying on the living room couch when he gets a call from Buster to check out Muffy's website. He finds out that Muffy has posted a video of his scream.

The next day, Muffy and Francine are passing out flyers. When Arthur attempts to grab the flyers away from Francine while telling her "Stop passing these out; I told you, I don't want any more pep rallies," Francine pulls all but one of the flyers away, saying, "Don't worry, Mr. Hyde. It's not for you." Arthur looks at the flyer in his hands; much to his surprise and puzzlement, it's shown to support Brain: "Huh? 'A is for Angry, B is for Brains. Pep rally for Brain before the game'?" Arthur then says he thought Francine and Muffy said Brain was conceited, and Muffy replies, "Wow — angry and mean. I think you need to chill out." When Arthur asks why they're doing this, wondering if it was because he asked them to leave him alone yesterday, Francine replies with "If you call what you did 'asking'. Brain may be conceited, but at least he's nice." Muffy then adds that they "just care about the integrity of checkers". Arthur finally crumples a flyer while screaming, causing the other students to run off. Then Binky appears and tells him, "Hey, man, I want to congratulate you. It took me years to get scary. You did it overnight."

At the next play-off match, everyone but Buster supports Brain. Finally, Arthur forfeits when the match starts.

Back home, Jane tells Arthur that people can get a little crazy sometimes when it comes to competition, and not to take it to heart. Arthur admits that maybe he deserved it: "It's not like I tried all that hard to stop them from putting down Brain when they were on my side." Jane remarks, "Well, I don't think you should quit something you love, just because of what other people think." Arthur says that he didn't love it; it's checkers: "I just wanted it to be fun. It's not fun anymore."

The doorbell rings, and Arthur answers it to find Francine standing there. She asks Arthur if he wants to go to the Inter-Scholastic for them. Seeing Arthur's puzzlement, she explains that Brain forfeited as well because of the pep rallies. Francine then apologizes to Arthur for how she and Muffy got carried away with their campaign: "I think it was just because you hurt our feelings. But we'd kind of forgotten that maybe we hurt yours... and Brain's." Arthur accepts her apology, but declines the offer to attend the Inter-Scholastic.

Muffy is chosen for the Inter-Scholastic, but is disqualified because, as Mr. Ratburn puts it, "Checkers is a quiet game."

The episode finishes with Arthur and Brain playing checkers inside of Arthur's house.

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * The Brain
 * Buster Baxter
 * Binky Barnes

Minor

 * Jane Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * George Lundgren

Cameo

 * Fern Walters
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Alex
 * Maria Pappas
 * Brian
 * Helen
 * Nancy
 * Mary
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * John
 * Luke
 * Jessica
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog
 * Kenny
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * Prunella Deegan

Trivia

 * This is Alex Hood's last episode as Brain until Breezy Listening Blues.
 * Moral:
 * Dont spread rumors for your own benefits.
 * Dont overreact for your own benefits.
 * Be greateful for someone trying to support you.
 * Dont prevent others from supporting you for your own benefits.
 * Timeline: Arthur says he's beaten Brain at checkers before. This may be a callback to The Ballad of Buster Baxter, where Arthur reveals that he and Brain are finishing a best-of-5,000 checkers tournament while Buster was away. Arthur and Brain each won 2,165 games at that point.

Cultural References

 * Francine calls Arthur “Mr. Hyde”, the evil alter ego of noble Dr. Jekyll from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
 * This episode can be seen as a reference to a 2004 incident involving former politician, who let out a similar-sounding yell during a caucus speech that was the subject of much mockery.

Errors

 * Throughout the second Checkers scene with Brain and Arthur the board constantly changes sometimes displaying a played out game or no checkers at all.
 * In the first playoff match, Sue Ellen's skin color turns burnt brown when Muffy says "...to determine Lakewood Elementary's representative...".
 * Alex's pants were blue when the crowd said "No!" after Francine says "Do we want some conceited know it all representing us in checkers?"
 * Brain's winning move in the first playoff game includes jumping his own pieces twice and moving multiple squares in one jump.