Germophobia

Summary
Buster has always had very poor hygiene. But when his friends tell him about what germs can do, he becomes scared of them and starts to imagine them everywhere. Will he be back to normal by the time of his pool party?

Plot
Buster has terrible hygiene. He is seen picking up a slice of pizza that fell onto the floor and subsequently eating it afterward much to the disgust of his friends. As shown by Arthur it was not the only time he has been disgusting.

Buster is seen leaving the school restroom without washing his hands. When out on the playground, the kids are playing hide-and-seek and Buster hides in a trash can. He avoids bathing by pretending to bathe, and finally; never covers his mouth when he sneezes.

The problem gets so terrible that one day in school while Arthur is looking at a poster to a pool party at Buster's house, Sue Ellen gives him a note that states that he needs to meet at the Sugar Bowl for a meeting and not to tell Buster.

After school, Arthur arrives late to the meeting and asks Sue Ellen (along with Francine, Muffy, and the Brain) why they didn't want him to tell Buster about the meeting, to which they reply that the meeting is about Buster.

Brain and the girls give various complaints about Buster and tell Arthur that he needs to tell Buster to stop being disgusting and change his ways. When Arthur asks why they don't tell Buster themselves, they reply that Arthur is Buster's best friend so Buster is more likely to listen to him.

Buster then walks by the Sugar Bowl and Arthur, Francine, The Brain, Muffy, and Sue Ellen duck underneath the table. Sue Ellen tells Arthur not to duck, so he sits back up. Buster then picks up a harmonica from the trash can and Arthur approaches Buster while the rest of the gang watches.

Arthur then comes back into the Sugar Bowl and tells them that Buster will do it, but unfortunately, they hear the harmonica being played and they subsequently move onto the next plan.

The next day at school in the lunchroom, Buster is playing with the same harmonica and Arthur tries talking with Buster and reminds him about how he had mentioned germs the previous day to which Buster replies that he doesn't understand how anyone could realize that germs exist because they are invisible. When Arthur insists that germs do exist, Buster replies, "Germs haven't hurt me yet." Arthur then asks Buster if he ever has been sick before and Buster remembers the time where he faked getting ill so he didn't have to go to school and replies that he has, but he doesn't seem to mind.

As Arthur continues talking to his best friend, Buster accidentally hits the harmonica, which lands into one of the bowls of chocolate pudding that was sitting on the table and after picking it up out of the pudding, Francine moans. Feeling like they won't be able to make Buster change his ways, Muffy suggests they don't go to his pool party, but the Brain says that would hurt Buster's feelings.

Then, Brain comes up with an idea to show Buster what germs look like. At the Powers' house, Brain explains that germs are capable of carrying many diseases and shows Buster some germs under a microscope, but the attempt to scare Buster seems to have failed because he seems unfazed and jokes that germs look like wild rice. That night, Buster says, "Goodnight, wild rice." Mrs. Baxter doesn't know what he is on about so he tells her about germs. Mrs. Baxter says that germs are not on Buster, because he is clean as a whistle. After she kisses him goodnight, she sniffs him, possibly suspecting that he hasn't been washing.

While sleeping, Buster has a dream in which he is at the pool with Muffy, Arthur, and Francine and as he dives into the water, he finds the harmonica at the bottom, grabs it, pulls it up to the surface and starts playing it. However, as soon as he starts playing the harmonica in the dream, a cloud of germs comes out of it, scaring his friends off and the cloud of germs then comes out of Buster's mouth. Then, Buster wakes up from his dream, takes the harmonica and washes it.

Then, as Buster gets back into bed, he imagines hearing the sound of the germs from his dream laughing. He throws the harmonica in the trash and takes a bath. The next morning, Mrs. Baxter is making breakfast and she drops an eggshell on the floor, picks it up and tosses it into the trash, making Buster nervous as he is afraid there might be germs from the trash getting onto his mother's hands.

At school, Arthur sees Buster and then sees that Buster is wearing hockey gloves and asks why he is wearing them. Buster tells Arthur that his hands get cold and walks into the school. He then imagines germs coming from the other kids. This scares him, so he runs into the restroom and tries to take off his gloves with his mouth, but ends up having to wash his mouth and then his hands soon afterwards.

Buster arrives at Mr. Ratburn's class late, still imagining that there are germs on everything. As Buster walks towards his seat, he cleans it with a spray and cloth and then sits down. Buster then asks Mr. Ratburn how many germs are at the school with Ratburn telling him that it is not a math question, but there might be thousands on the pencil that Buster has in his mouth, freaking Buster out.

Buster's friends then realize their attempt to change his ways worked. However, at lunch, Buster refrains from eating the lunch made in the cafeteria and has a sandwich wrapped in a lot of cling film. When The Brain tells Buster that some germs are good and that there are already some inside of him that help break down food, Buster doesn't get the concept that these germs are good and is instead scared at the idea of having germs in his body and says that he needs to wash his hands.

Later the gang agrees that Buster is going overboard on the germ thing and Francine tells Arthur that he made Buster very nervous. On the day of the pool party, Buster asks his mom if it is too late to cancel the pool party and his mom tells him they already sent out all the invitations and rented most of the stuff for the party. Buster then puts on a gas mask. Soon, the rest of the gang arrives and Buster tells them they need to shower first and everyone is wondering why.

Arthur was the last one to shower and asks Buster if he wants to come outside and Buster refuses. As everyone at the party is having a good time, the girls are discussing what to do about Buster and they then turn to Arthur who tells them, "Don't look at me." The girls plan to talk some sense into Buster, which unfortunately fails and Buster jumps into the pool, gets out and falls face-first onto the ground, but then realizes that he is okay.

Buster then gets up and walks back into his house to sulk and his friends realize they had offended their friend and so the next day Buster is at lunch and the pizza he had fell onto the ground. Buster throws the pizza into the garbage and prepares to eat when his friends approach him. They apologize and give him a new, clean harmonica. Then Buster accepts the apology and plays the harmonica.

Major

 * Buster Baxter
 * Arthur Read
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Francine Frensky
 * The Brain

Minor

 * Binky Barnes
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Ms. Krasny

Cameo

 * Brian
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * Nancy
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Maria Pappas
 * George Lundgren
 * Alex
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Fern Walters
 * Miss Sweetwater
 * Norman Hedgehog
 * Mary
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Molly MacDonald
 * Jessica
 * Kenny
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat

Trivia

 * This episode talks about a Foodborne Illness Botulism; Francine mentions it in "Vomitrocious."
 * The laughing germs in this episode are reminiscent of the scene in the Invader Zim episode "Germs" where Zim kills a baby germ while cleaning his house to rid it of germs.
 * Despite Everyone having the idea to tell Buster that he's gross, Arthur got blamed for no reason.

Errors

 * Right before Buster sneezes, Maria is replaced with Nancy.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: Season 11
 * Arthur's Germophobia