Play it Again, D.W.

Summary
D.W. suspects Arthur as the perpetrator when her favorite kid CD, which she plays relentlessly, disappears.

Plot
During the prologue, Arthur says it's no big surprise when her sister D.W. does something annoying, like one time, she beat him at checkers and spent all year telling everyone. But nothing ever in the entire history of Arthur's whole life has ever been as bad as this. D.W. arrives at his room and plays "Crazy Bus" and Arthur hides his face with the pillow while yelling.

Title Card

D.W. is still playing her "Crazy Bus" CD (since the previous episode) and Arthur is getting annoyed by it. She plays her CD constantly and brings the Radio with her, everywhere she goes, and when she's not listening to it she's humming it and playing with its merchandise.

At one point, Arthur recorded D.W. as having played the song a whopping 532 times in a single week! Unfortunately, neither his friends nor his parents seem to find it as being too much, annoying him even more. D.W. then surprises Arthur with four tickets to "Crazy Bus Live".

Which he has to attend against his will. Arthur is embarrassed to be there and wears a silly disguise under the alias "Steve" to avoid being seen. He then finds Buster enjoying the show, much to his horror. Arthur has imagines where all of his friends and family are riding and singing Crazy Bus, and he desperately tries to find a way off.

One night while Arthur is doing his homework, D.W. plays the song yet again and at full volume. Arthur was so frustrated, that he threatens to wreck

the "Crazy Bus" CD, scaring D.W. and prompting her to tell on Arthur while her parents are searching for music to listen to at a high school reunion.

Arthur was in trouble for threatening to smash D.W.'s CD and he got banned from watching TV until he finally got a break. But then, a little later, D.W. screams bloody murder and flips out when she discovers that her CD is missing. When their parents arrived in Arthur's room, they accused him, for taking it. Since they kept accusing him, Arthur did not take it. Suddenly, D.W brings up her snowball incdent, and Arthur told her not to bring that up again. D.W was sad, and they leave.

The next afternoon, Arthur goes on a rowboat with Buster and Francine at the Mill Creek River while his family is out on a picnic. Arthur discusses the "Crazy Bus" CD incident with his two friends, and says he doesn't have the CD, but Francine doesn't believe him.

Buster claims that an ancient race of squids took it to their hidden grotto beneath the sea. Arthur imagines squids (who actually live in the ocean) at the bottom of the river to whether or not they have the CD, and sing the "Crazy Bus" song.

Later that week, Francine's sister Catherine is asked to babysit for the kids while their parents go to their reunion, and all the while D.W. spies on Arthur, trying to catch him with the CD even accidentally mistaking a computer game that Arthur borrowed from the Brain for her CD.

She goes so far as to destroy Arthur's room in an attempt to find it. Arthur loses his patience, forcing Catherine to improvise. She ties tape down in the den and forces the two kids to opposite sides of the room.

When Arthur tries to retrieve his jacket from D.W.'s side, she says her CD is in the jacket and she tries to take it, and end up arguing over. After Arthur calls D.W.'s CD "Stupid Bus", D.W. retaliates by saying that "Stupid Bus" is a lame puppet show.

At the reunion, Mr. Read puts on the music for his friends, only to discover that he accidentally took Crazy Bus! Their mom calls the house and reveals that they took the CD by accident, not Arthur.

D.W. stops fighting and takes off the tape, but Arthur is furious that the CD was found the whole time, while D.W. can only smile sheepishly at her mistake. That night, they give the CD back to her, saying how it's okay to listen to her song, not to the point that it annoys everyone. D.W. realizes that, and she doesn't want to listen to it anymore, much to Arthur's surprise.

Instead, she watches a Crazy Bus tape Grandma Thora gave her! Arthur then realizes that he spoke too soon. He runs off in frustration once again, shouting "Mom!"

Major Roles

 * D.W. Read
 * Arthur Read
 * Jane Read
 * David Read

Minor Roles

 * Kate Read
 * Pal
 * The Tibbles
 * Buster Baxter
 * Catherine Frensky
 * Francine Frensky

Background

 * Muffy Crosswire (fantasy)
 * Binky Barnes (fantasy)
 * Alan Powers (fantasy)
 * Dr. Iris

Mentioned

 * Thora Read

Trivia

 * This is one of the episodes where the quote, "Life is so unfair" is used. D.W. says that quote while crying in this episode. It was used again in The Lousy Week, only this time, Muffy Crosswire says that quote also while crying.

Cultural References

 * At the dance party, everyone is dancing the macarena to Crazy Bus.
 * The title is a play on the quote "Play it again, Sam" from the film "Casablanca"

Episode Connections

 * The snowball incident is brought up again in this episode.
 * D.W. first played Crazy Bus during the previous episode, Buster Baxter, Cat Saver. Arthur gave her headphones so she could play the song without bothering him, but by this episode she ended up telling him that they broke.

Errors

 * While Catherine is doing homework, she was first seen writing with her left hand; but in the next few seconds, she switches to her right hand, although she is normally right-handed like her sister Francine. This could mean she's ambidextrous.