The Lousy Week

Summary
An army of lice has descended on the heads of Lakewood Elementary. Who or what is strong enough to defeat them? Principal Haney? Nurse Flynn? Mayonnaise?

Plot
Muffy imagines the lice on her head talk and act like soldiers.

--Title Card--

All day in school, Muffy has been scratching her head, in art, music and gym class with her friends. After Francine scolds her, she explains how itchy she is and Francine suggests it may be head lice. However, Muffy doesn’t think it's possible. She explains how her French nanny Suzette always washes and does her hair to maintain it, but she soon finds out she does indeed have lice!

She begs the nurse not to tell anyone and exits the room to find everybody waiting for the results. She claims it was only because she was thinking too hard while walking away. Francine notices her hat and picks it up, she tries to tell Muffy, but she doesn’t hear her. So Francine tries on the hat, commenting how soft it is.

Meanwhile, at home, Muffy’s French nanny is washing her hair and putting the Nit Hit medicated lice shampoo into her hair. She claims that is the worst thing that's ever happened to her and life is so unfair. Her mother tries to calm her down, saying that she had head lice as a child too, and claims it’s not a big deal... though apparently as a child it was; as shown in a flashback, she said the same thing that Muffy said. Her mother then explains they’ll need to really clean her room to rid of all the lice, though Muffy cheers up, hearing the chance of getting to redecorate her room!

At a school assembly, everyone is playing with Muffy's hat, trying it on, nuzzling and snuggling it. The nurse then announces they’ll be holding a lice check in her office since they had caught Muffy’s the other day. She warns them not to try on others’ clothing, as it’s easier to spread lice that way; George looks uncomfortable at hearing that.

Mr. Ratburn is checked, and unfortunately had gotten head lice while at home; he remarks that he knew he should’ve gone to business school.

Arthur’s dad is putting mayonnaise on Arthur’s head. D.W. notices, and mocks Arthur, claiming how funny it is, but not wanting to take risk, they plan to put some on her head (much to her surprise), and rid of her stuffed animals for a week or so to make sure they have no lice in the home.

At Binky’s house, his mother is brushing his head and she notices he has plenty of nits in his hair. He loves it though, considering the lack of homework he’ll have to do...

At school, Francine angrily states how they can’t get rid of her lice and she blames Muffy for starting to begin with. Muffy is just happy she no longer has it, but to her shock, she finds them at home on her head again!

Meanwhile, Binky is beginning to grow tired of mindless television and begs to go to bed, but his mom tells him he can’t just yet. Arthur now is trying to use olive oil; he even remarks to Buster that it seems to work, and Pal doesn’t like to eat it. The lice don't like Buster's head as it's dirty.

Later at the diner, Muffy and Francine are fighting over who gives who lice, until Brain stops them. He then tells them it’s impossible to tell exactly who gave it to who, and to stop blaming each other. Of course, Brain also warns them, lice can be difficult to get rid of if you have long hair. So both girls cut their hair very short, and boyish; although they dislike it at first, they eventually change their minds, finding it to be beneficial (as short hair is said to be easier to wash) and even funny. So, they use their new short haircut to go into the boys bathroom and freaked out Binky, who thought he was in the girls bathroom when he saw Francine and Muffy.

Meanwhile, the single head louse is on the very top of George’s antler. He tries to jump onto Buster as he walks by so that he can hatch a new army. Fortunately, he misses and falls to the ground. He's heard shouting for help before a squish sound cuts him off as Fern steps on him with a "SPLAT!" ending the episode.

Main

 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Lice army

Minor

 * Binky Barnes
 * The Brain
 * David Read
 * Jane Read
 * Mrs. Barnes
 * Millicent Crosswire
 * Jessica
 * D.W. Read
 * Mary

Cameo

 * George Lundgren
 * Fern Walters
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Francis Haney
 * 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
 * Pal
 * Alex
 * Maria Pappas
 * Kenny
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat
 * 4th Grade Male Dog
 * Billy
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * Jenna Morgan
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * Ms. Krasny
 * Mary
 * Jessica

Mentioned

 * Catherine Frensky
 * Thora Read

Trivia

 * Francine and Muffy had their hair buzzed off for purposes of lice elimination, but in all later shows, they still have their long hair.
 * D.W. said that she did not have "mice", which rhymes with lice.
 * There was a toy marketed for Insight Pharmaceuticals based on this episode which was released in 2006. It resembles Arthur with mayo on his head with a string on his back, a 8-inch hole in his head, and many things that remove lice from someone's hair that can be put into the hole. When the string is pulled, an odor will appear and get rid of the lice on that person's head. It was discontinued in 2007.
 * Both Muffy's mother and Catherine had lice when they were younger.
 * Mr. Ratburn's first name is changed from Emil to Nigel starting with this episode. Later, in "Bitzi's Beau" in the same season, his middle name Charles is revealed.
 * The lice army are all in the kids' imagination.
 * There is a theory that Francine is black, and she gets head lice in this episode. This debunks the myth black people rarely/don't get head lice.
 * Muffy is the only character shown itching with head lice, even though the main symptom of head lice is itchiness.

Cultural references

 * The General of the Louse Army greatly resembles United States General Douglas MacArthur.
 * The Louse General's line "I love the smell of hair gel in the morning. It smells like a-" is a reference to the movie Apocalypse Now, in which the character Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore says "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory."

Episode connections

 * The Salon de Beauté that previously appeared in "Francine's Bad Hair Day" is briefly seen where Muffy and Francine get their hairs buzzed off to eliminate the lice. However, Flossie did not appear in this episode.
 * A clip of that episode played in the season 16 episode "The Best Day Ever".

Errors

 * When the general lice says that the comb took off its fifth leg, it was mistaken as its fourth leg.

Home video
DVD VHS
 * Arthur Goes to the Doctor (DVD)
 * Arthur Goes to the Doctor (VHS)