Brother, Can You Spare a Clarinet?

Summary
Tryouts for the Young Person's Orchestra are coming to town, and everyone thinks Binky is a shoo-in. So why is he suddenly refusing to play his clarinet in band practice?

Plot
Binky drops off a present at Arthur’s house–hand decorated wrapping paper and everything–just because Arthur has been such a good friend. When Binky leaves, Arthur tells the audience that he can’t figure Binky out. “It seems like there’s two Binkys: Bully Binky and…The Other Guy,” he says. One minute Binky is the guy who puts spiders in your hair and the next, he’s the guy freeing a fly from a spider web.

He’s like a strange Reverse Hulk. No, not that one. Binky’s just a guy who can’t seem to decide if he wants to be nice or an asshole so he’s both. At the same time, which is very confusing.

In music class, Ms. Krasny announces that the Young Person’s Orchestra will be having try outs and one lucky student will get a spot in the youth orchestra. After school, everyone discusses what piece they’re going to audition with: Francine will do a Sousa march and Buster will adapt 76 Trombones into 76 Tubas. The only person not interested (even though he totally should be) is Binky!

Ms. Krasny begins class with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto except Binky is refusing to play! “Binky, it’s not a clarinet concerto if there’s no one to play during the clarinet passages,” says Ms. Krasny. “Guess you better find someone else to do that then lady,” sasses Binky.

This kind of backtalk is not tolerated in Elwood City’s 1950s time warp so Binky is sent to the office. This is a very funny scene as Principal Haney tries to remember who Binky exactly is as Binky monologues that he’s lost his way and now it’s time to be bad again. “It’s time to say goodbye wimp and hello Binky,” says Binky ominously. “There you go! You’re Binky!” replies Mr. Haney obliviously.

Binky rejoins the Tough Customers, who are eager to cause mischief again. “Let’s just say ‘Silence is golden’,” says Binky.

The Tough Customers begin their campaign the next day. They confiscate the kids’ instruments and “refinish” them aka sabotaging them. The other kids are afraid to tattle on Binky so they keep quiet.

As they walk home from school, Buster tells Arthur and Brain about Binky’s evil plan to stop music all over the world. “It’s scientifically impossible for a nine year old to end music all over the world,” says Brain. “Yeah, but Binky’s got three other nine year olds with him!” counters Buster.

They’re lucky that’s all he has. Binky would have another nine year old if the animators didn’t get tired of drawing that yellow cat from season 1.

The boys hear someone playing clarinet music beautifully and realize it’s Binky! He is at the music shop with his parents, trying to convince them to buy him a new clarinet. Unfortunately, the shop is too expensive and Binky throws away his old instrument in disgust.

The kids realize Binky is acting out because his clarinet is in bad shape for the orchestra auditions. As Binky gets ideas from from a more two dimensional cartoon villain, the boys attempt to fix his clarinet. They bring it over but it’s stil in bad shape. Binky orders them to get out so he can focus on his evil scheme.

The day of the try outs arrive and Binky prepares to carry out his evil scheme: he will sabotage everyone’s tryouts by blasting his anti-music machine through the vents. Unfortunately for them, the places they picked to blast through the vents don’t work: the first one is closed on the outside by the judges, the second one is in the boy’s bathroom where Mr. Morris is blow drying his ears (don’t ask), and by the time they find an open vent in the gym, Muffy’s try out is going on and let’s just say she puts the anti-Music machine to shame.

Binky barges into the auditions and proclaims that Muffy’s music is not music. He takes out his own clarinet and plays a short piece on his faulty clarinet. The judges tell him that Binky can still make the piece sound good even on his warped clarinet which makes him a true musician!

Binky wins the coveted spot and the orchestra promises to pay for a new clarinet. The Tough Customers are confused why their leader has bucked the whole plan but Binky informs that “silence is golden is stupid”. “There goes a true musical hero,” says Buster. As Binky trips George before walking off into the sunset, Arthur corrects him. “There goes Binky.”

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * Binky Barnes
 * Francine Frensky
 * Buster Baxter
 * The Brain
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Ms. Krasny
 * Rattles
 * Molly MacDonald

Minor

 * Francis Haney
 * Slink (doesn't speak)
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong (doesn't speak)
 * Fern Walters (doesn't speak)
 * Mr. Barnes
 * Mrs. Barnes (doesn't speak)
 * George Lundgren

Cameo

 * Jenna Morgan
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
 * Maria Pappas
 * Alex
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)

Mentioned

 * Ed Crosswire

Cultural references

 * The episode's title is a reference to the Great Depression-era song ""
 * Bionic Bunny's weakness to special sound is similar to Superman's weakness to kryptonite in that they both lose their powers when exposed to it.
 * Francine mentioned.
 * Binky tries to play the aria "La donna è mobile" from the opera Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi in his room on his broken clarinet.

Episode connections

 * Bionic Bunny was watching The Love Ducks on the television in his apartment.

Errors

 * At the end when Binky walks into the "sunset," Slink is colored like Molly.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur's Music Jamboree
 * Arthur's Music Medley (DVD)