Buster and the Daredevils

Summary
Buster begins keeping bad company in his eagerness to learn his new "friends" skating tricks. Arthur realizes that they are just having Buster make a fool of himself for their own amusement.

Plot
Buster is in the park with his two new friends, Toby and Slink, who announce to the kids that "Buster the Brave" is about to do something amazing right in front of them. Arthur stops the episode (Apparently stopping everyone around him as if they were statues too) and says that this is all wrong.

He remarks that Buster is not brave, and recalls how on Halloween Buster couldn't distinguish costumes from real pirates, aliens, etc., and kept getting freaked out by them. Arthur then remarks how Buster looks nervous, and finds something terrible in the paper bag Slink is holding.

Buster and the Daredevils

Arthur and Buster are running around in the park, playing with their robot action figures. They soon notice two older boys, Toby and Slink, doing tricks on their roller skates and skateboard, respectively. Impressed by their moves, Arthur and Busters ask Toby and Slink to teach them some moves. Toby and Slink decline, saying that they're a bit too young to learn them.

Soon, Arthur and Buster get their own roller skates and skateboard and try to recreate Toby and Slink's moves, but to no avail. Later on, Arthur and Buster are at the comic book store and they want to read the latest Bionic Bunny comic. They run into Toby and Slink, who show them the latest "Peabrain and Nuthead" comic instead. Arthur and Buster don't get the comic, but pretend to like it.

Later, Arthur and Buster show up at Billy's Burger Barn, dressed in other outfits that make them look cool. Buster is still in his outfit and Arthur wears a red cap, black shirt, belt and his father's shorts, white socks and black sneakers with white laces. They ask Toby and Slink if they can hang out with them. Toby and Slink decline, and Arthur and Buster both leave dejectedly..

That is, until Toby and Slink seemingly have a change of heart. They agree to let Arthur and Buster hang out with them, in exchange for them doing one small dare.

Soon, Arthur and Buster are standing on a sidewalk, and it appears as if they are about to sing. However, Arthur spots his mother and D.W. heading their way, and he hurriedly leaves Buster by himself. Buster soon after starts singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb," much to Arthur's embarrassment.

Later on at the Sugar Bowl, Toby and Slink give Buster another dare. This time, he tells Binky that his mother eats gym shorts, which angers Binky, who responds by dumping his strawberry milkshake on him.

After seeing Buster getting dared once more at the baseball field (Slink dared him to kiss Francine, and when he does, she angrily chases him), Arthur decides to talk to Buster the next day, only to find out that Buster was dared once again---this time, he was dared not to talk for a day. Arthur tells Buster to not have Toby and Slink give him anymore dares because if they really wanted Buster to be their friend, they wouldn't make him do these stupid dares.

Buster takes Arthur's advice and tries to tell the older boys not to dare him, but this time, they offer to teach Buster some skateboarding moves if he does one more dare.

The next day at the park, a small crowd of kids form as Toby and Slink announce their latest dare: To make Buster eat a bug! After a few seconds, Buster refuses and dares Slink to eat the bug. Slink refuses and Buster soon leaves to hang out with his real friends, learning that he doesn't have to do something because he was dared to.

Characters

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Toby
 * Slink
 * Francine Frensky
 * Binky Barnes
 * The Brain
 * Jane Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Otis (cameo)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 2) (cameo)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (cameo)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3) (cameo)
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong (cameo)
 * Muffy Crosswire (cameo)
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat (cameo)
 * Alex (cameo)
 * George Lundgren (cameo)

Songs

 * "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

Trivia

 * The issue of accepting dares arises again in the later episode "Double Dare".
 * Running Gag: Buster doing dares.
 * Innunedo: One kid refers to Arthur's skates as "strap-ons."
 * Timeline: D.W. mentions that Arthur hates clothes shopping. This is seen in “Arthur Bounces Back”.
 * Moral:
 * Dont make other people look bad for your own personal benefit.
 * Just because someone dares you to do something doesn't mean you actually have to act on it.

Errors

 * Buster says he found Arthur's penny in the sand box, yet pennies are copper, not silver, like the one he is holding.
 * When Toby says Nuthead is a pecan, the background behind him is of the playground instead of comic mania.
 * At the baseball game Arthur's hat is tan but a few shots later when he says "I think I need to talk to Buster" it's red.

Cultural references

 * The Peabrain and Nuthead Comic is a parody of the MTV series Beavis and Butthead.
 * The action figures that Arthur, Buster and Brain are playing with in the sandbox resemble the Transformers toys.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Hooray for Health!
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 2