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 D.W. does something annoying. There was one time when she beat him at checkers and spent the whole year telling everyone. But nothing ever in the entire history of Arthur's whole life has ever been as bad as D.W. playing "Crazy Bus" over and over again.

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 the song and playing with its merchandise.

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 elephant trunk disguise under the alias "Steve" to avoid being seen. He then finds Buster enjoying the show, much to his horror. Arthur later imagines that he is trapped in the Crazy Bus with all of his friends and family who are happily singing the song nonstop.

One night while Arthur is doing his homework, D.W. plays the song yet again and at full volume. Arthur is so annoyed and frustrated that he threatens to wreck D.W.'s "Crazy Bus" CD, scaring D.W. and prompting her to tell on Arthur while their parents are searching for music to listen to at a high school reunion.

Arthur gets in trouble for threatening to wreck D.W.'s CD and is banned from watching TV. But then, a little later, D.W. screams bloody murder when she discovers that her CD is missing. She accuses Arthur of taking it. Arthur tells D.W. and his parents that he didn't take D.W.'s Crazy Bus CD.

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. The squid people who live at the bottom wonder if they have the CD and are singing 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. D.W. spies on Arthur, trying to catch him with the CD. She even goes so far as to destroy Arthur's room in an attempt to find it. Arthur loses his patience, forcing Catherine to improvise. She puts a line of 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 they end up arguing over it. 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 the Crazy Bus CD. Their mom calls the house and tells the kids that they took the CD by accident, not Arthur.

D.W. stops fighting and takes off the tape, but does not apologize to Arthur for accusing him of stealing the disc. Arthur is furious that D.W. is not giving him the apology she clearly owes him, but D.W. only smiles sheepishly at her mistake.

Later that night, they give the CD back to her, and tell her that it's okay to listen to her song, but not to the point that it annoys everyone. Surprisingly, D.W. says she doesn't want to listen to it anymore.

Instead, she watches a Crazy Bus videotape that she received from Grandma Thora. Arthur then realizes that he spoke too soon. He runs off in annoyance and frustration once again, shouting "Mom!"

Major

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

Minor

 * Kate Read
 * Pal
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Buster Baxter
 * Catherine Frensky
 * Francine Frensky

Cameo

 * Muffy Crosswire (fantasy)
 * Binky Barnes (fantasy)
 * The Brain (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, where Muffy Crosswire says that quote also while crying.
 * Vexation does not mean "trouble," it actually means "something that causes annoyance" or "the state of being annoyed."
 * Arthur's "Steve" disguise and D.W.'s comment on the fake trunk being "a big improvement" is likely a reference to Arthur's original design in Arthur's Nose.
 * Arthur's screaming sound clip in the prologue is reused from "Arthur's Chicken Pox."

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 from "D.W.'s Snow Mystery."
 * 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 they had broken.
 * D.W. brings up when Arthur took the family to see "Bionic Bunny on Ice," where Arthur and Buster had a souvenir poster signed by Bionic Bunny after the show in "Buster's New Friend" (although the poster appeared differently in both episodes, but still retained Bionic Bunny's autograph.)
 * Catherine babysits D.W. and Arthur again in "D.W.'s Name Game."
 * D.W. mentions her "Crazy Bus" CD missing, along with her snowball, in "Revenge of the Chip."
 * D.W.'s Crazy Bus CD is also mentioned in Arthur vs. the Piano, but Arthur mentions it got thrown out, but it didn't.
 * D.W. losing Crazy Bus can be seen as a clip from this episode in the intro of Buster's Growing Grudge.

Errors

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

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 2