To Tibble the Truth

Summary
Fearing that they may one day end up in jail for lying, the Tibble twins swear to always tell the truth. However, it goes out of hand because the Tibbles are too honest, and alienate everyone else and each other.

Plot
In ancient Greece, Diogenes of Sinope arrives in a town, declaring that he is "looking for an honest man". He asks Arthur, who says he thinks he is an honest man. D.W., called Delta Omega, says that he is not, assuming that he has been lying for years about taking her snowball. She then gives Diogenes directions to where he can find what he is looking for. Diogenes arrives at a cave, where he finds the Tibble twins, who claim to be honest. The Tibbles fight over Diogenes' oil lamp, causing it to slip out of his hand, fall on the ground and shatter. Diogenes then regrets not looking for the meaning of life instead.

The episode starts with Buster was in the park eating ice cream until the Tibble twins come along and want his ice cream. They lie to Buster, saying that they had a friend named Kevin, but he was taken away from aliens and they never saw him again. Buster asks, "If you never saw Kevin again, how do you know all this?" The Tibbles lie again, saying the birds told them and some aliens can turn into animals, and something you can understand the birds saying. Buster quickly runs away in panic and leaves the ice cream. The Tibbles start to fight who gets to eat it first.

At the Molina residence, the Tibbles notice Vicita playing with a Mary Moo Cow doll, and her brother Alberto's Bionic Bunny action figure. The Tibbles want the action figure, since they saw the commercial that claims it can fly. They go to Vicita and lie to her that they got three ponies for Christmas and she will get a pony named Thumper if they give her the action figure. Vicita doesn't want to give Alberto's things away, until Timmy said that they will give Thumper to D.W. if Vicita refuses. She quickly gives them the action figure. They throw the toy out of the window, thinking it will fly. The toy breaks, and they see Alberto and Mrs. Tibble looking back up at them. In the living room, Tommy said that it was the TV's fault, because it lied to them. Alberto points out that they also lied to Vicita about promising her a pony. Mrs. Tibble asks them how they will pay Alberto back the money for the toy, which costs $17.95. Timmy attempts to give Alberto a plastic cow, but he declines. Alberto makes a deal with the Tibbles: If they promise not to lie anymore, they don't have to pay back for the toy right away. They agree to this deal.

The Tibbles are now in the yard with D.W., gathering rocks to play rockball. They tell D.W. what Alberto said to them; which was that "they were the smartest kids he ever met." D.W. doesn't believe that, but Timmy said he didn't exactly use those words, but he meant to say that. The Tibbles eventually have enough rocks to play rockball. To play the game, you have to hit the rock with a bat as far as you can. D.W. questions if this game is allowed, and the Tibbles respond that they're not allowed to play baseball, but rockball doesn't have bases and it's a different game. Timmy throws a rock at D.W. and she hits the rock, but it ends up hitting Alberto. The Tibbles run away, while D.W. gets scared and drops the bat.

Back in the living room, the Tibbles blame everything on D.W.. Alberto does not believe them, and says it was their idea to play baseball with rocks and that it can really hurt someone. He tells them to stop lying to everyone. Before she takes off, D.W. says that she wouldn't be surprised if the Tibbles ended up in jail someday. At night, Timmy wonders what jail is and Tommy explains that it’s a place that bad people go to since he saw it on TV. He said that sometimes the bad people would have to stay there for 10 years. This scares the twins, and then later at night, they have a nightmare where they are in jail, getting teased by other prisoners for lying. At the visiting booth, Mrs. Tibble comes to see them and has brought a cherry pie with her. Tommy and Timmy tell her how the food is awful, but she thinks that they are lying and give the pie to the guard, much to the twins horror.

After the nightmare, the Tibbles agree to start telling everyone the truth. However, they end up insulting everybody. Later, Timmy says he wishes he never had a twin, which hurts Tommy's feelings. As Tommy runs off sobbing, Timmy feels really ashamed of himself. Alberto passes by the Tibbles' house, wearing his bike helmet in case they were playing rockball again. He sees them playing on opposite ends of the porch, and Timmy tells him that he hurt people's feelings by telling the truth. Alberto says that they don't have to say whatever comes to their minds, and suggests that they be honest and nice at the same time.

Later at the park, they tell Buster that he is so nice and smart, he always shares his candy, and they hope to be just like him. Buster is excited at the thought of being a role model, and gives the Tibbles some candy, although they take more than Buster expected.

Major

 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * D.W. Read
 * Vicita Molina
 * Alberto Molina

Minor

 * Buster Baxter
 * Mrs. Tibble

Cameo

 * Arthur Read
 * The Brain
 * Jane Read
 * Amigo

Mentioned

 * Emily

Trivia

 * The truthful Tibbles tell Arthur that his nose is too small. That may be an allusion to the way Arthur was drawn in the first books by Marc Brown. Originally he had a long snout, like a real aardvark. In the later books and the series Arthur has nostrils, but hardly any nose at all.

Cultural references

 * Diogenes of Sinope was a real-world Greek philosopher. A popular story has him walking around with a lamp looking for an "honest man". He was one of the founders of cynic philosophy (from Greek kynikos = doglike), that taught people to be simple and honest like dogs. He is often depicted in the company of dogs.
 * The ancient Greek version of D.W. is called Delta Omega. The Greek letters Δ.Ω. correspond to D.O. Old Greek had no equivalent for "W".
 * Diogenes passes by the in Egypt.

Episode connections

 * D.W. once again mentions her snowball from "D.W.'s Snow Mystery."
 * Timmy and Tommy tell D.W. the truth about her listening to Crazy Bus so much, which she in fact does in Play it Again, D.W..

Home Video
VHS: DVD:
 * Arthur Gets Along
 * Arthur Gets Along
 * Arthur: Sleepovers, Sports and More

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