Revenge of the Chip

Summary
People are hearing about the green potato chip incident, and D.W. is quick to blame Arthur for telling them.

Plot
Arthur, Buster, and Francine are watching a new episode of You Do the Most Embarrassing Things. On the show, the host asks a young boy about a time he ate a sandwich, only to find half a worm left in it.

When asked what he did, the kids panic and insist that he should've spit it out or been hospitalized, but the boy admits to eating the rest of the sandwich. They then show a live reenactment of the event, prompting Francine to try to turn off the show out of disgust. Buster then queues the episode to begin, as there are "ten more embarrassing minutes to come".

---Revenge of the Chip---

During lunch, Arthur and his family are discussing getting Arthur tickets to go to "You Do the Most Embarrassing Things Live" at Wonder World, and D.W. wants to go too. Arthur insists that she doesn't, as she would only embarrass him in front of his friends, but she says otherwise, and tries to prove she's grown up enough to attend the show.

At the library, D.W. comes in wheeling a squeaky wagon that disrupts the patrons, but the two carry on to find some "grown-up" books for D.W. She rents the largest book in the entire library---a book that's about Macro Economics---only she does not know what that means.

At the ice cream parlor, D.W. declines to buy her favorite ice cream and instead gets "something vegetarian". While there, Mrs. Powers remarks that she heard the cutest thing about D.W., and is hoping that she is well. Confused, D.W. asks Arthur what that meant.

At the park, Mrs. Deegan and Mrs. Barnes call to D.W. hoping that she is feeling better, as they "wouldn't want to lose her". The Tibble twins then show up laughing at D.W., mocking her for thinking green potato chips would kill her.



Angered, D.W. accuses Arthur of telling everybody the story to make her look like a little kid so she couldn't go to the show. Arthur denies this and tells her to talk to his friends to see that they don't know about it. Unfortunately, Francine and Muffy tease D.W. too, and D.W. promises to expose Arthur for his prank.

D.W. spends the week trying to eavesdrop on Arthur every time he's hanging with Buster, hoping to catch him in the act of telling the green chip story to his friend. However, Buster foils her every time with a jolly "Hello, D.W.!", catching her off guard.

Later in the week, Arthur shows D.W. an article in the newspaper's "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella" column, telling the story of how D.W. ate the green chip after Arthur tricked her into thinking that it was in fact poisonous.

D.W. then has a fantasy of herself as the President of the United States, and is mocked in front of the press by a reporter (who happens to be Francine) for her fear of green potato chips. Desperate, D.W. begs Arthur to help her stop the word from getting out, and he agrees to, but only to avoid her torturing him with her nagging and wailing.

The two go around town collecting every newspaper with the story in it, and send them to the recycling center. Unfortunately, everybody calls for a re-delivery due to the missing papers, ruining D.W.'s plan.

Back at home, she says that she's doomed and that she can never show her face again. Suddenly, D.W. hears her mom on the phone, telling D.W's story to a friend while cutting out coupons from the newspaper, remarking that the green chip story was so funny she had to share it with the town, and was going to forward it to the rest of the family.

Horrified, D.W. bursts in and realizes it was her mom the whole time, and breaks down in tears. Jane sees her mistake and apologizes for letting it get out, and promises never to repeat the story again.

D.W. apologizes to Arthur for accusing him, and Arthur gives her a ticket to the show to make her feel better so they both could go to the show. Jane then asks Arthur to send the papers to the recycling center, much to his dismay.

At the lineup for the show, D.W. continues to lie low to avoid embarrassment, as the story is still fresh in everyone's minds. Arthur's friends encourage her, saying that parents can sometimes be embarrassing. D.W. then overhears her mom telling somebody about the story again.

Distraught, she runs away, not realizing that her mother was telling her friend Mrs. MacGrady that it's best not to mention the story to her again. At the pier, D.W begins crying, and runs into Binky practicing for a ballet, and she asks him what he does when someone does something he doesn't like. He explains that he stares at them intently and that usually gets them to stop. Jane runs in to explain to D.W. that Mrs. MacGrady had asked about the story and that she was merely explaining to her not to bring it up. When D.W. suggests "'The newspaper lied'?" as an idea for what to say, Jane replies with "How about, 'I don't want to talk about this because I want to respect my daughter's feelings'?"

D.W. feels better, and she and her mom hug. D.W. then says that now she can relax and enjoy the show.

At the show, the host calls out a kid "who ate a green potato chip and thought it was deadly!" Thinking that meant her, D.W. ducks for cover, but it turns out to be Binky, who stares at the audience dead in the eye when they laugh at his experience, shutting them up.

Binky then displays his new ballet rendition, "Don't Eat the Green Ones!" Binky dances with his friends, dressed as potato chips until his friend Molly enters in her green chip outfit. Binky then takes a bite out of the chip, much to Molly's confusion.

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * D.W. Read

Minor

 * Jane Read
 * David Read
 * Mrs. Powers
 * Mrs. Barnes
 * Mrs. Deegan
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Binky Barnes
 * Francis Haney

Cameo

 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Art Garfunkel
 * Billy
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * Mrs. Tingley
 * Kate Read
 * Fern Walters
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * Jenna Morgan
 * George Lundgren
 * Alex
 * Maria Pappas
 * Leah MacGrady
 * Miss Sweetwater
 * Unknown Male Adult Rabbit (Number 3)
 * Unknown Female Adult Rabbit (Number 4)
 * Unknown Male Rabbit
 * Maria lookalike
 * Kenny
 * 4th Grade Male Dog
 * 4th Grade Male Rabbit
 * Jessica
 * Kiefer
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat
 * Mr. Marco
 * Mary
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
 * Brian
 * Nancy
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * Helen
 * Steve
 * Mike
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
 * Catherine Frensky
 * Coach Bumpus
 * Ethel
 * Ms. Krasny
 * Molly MacDonald
 * Fletcher
 * Wilbur Rabbit
 * Bailey
 * Unknown Male Adult Poodle

Mentioned

 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Thora Read
 * Lucy
 * Jessica

Trivia

 * At lunch, Arthur is seen inspecting his food for any worms, referring to the episode's intro where he saw a kid eat a worm on T.V.
 * Binky was stretching in an area with a sign that said "Bullies Only".
 * This is one of the few episodes to feature a gun onscreen (however, it was a laser gun), as Arthur's flashback to the movie theater involved an astronaut preparing to fight alien space invaders.

Cultural references

 * The movie that Arthur took D.W. to see last winter at the beginning of the episode is a parody of Star Wars.
 * You Do the Most Embarrassing Things is a spoof of .