Revenge of the Chip

Summary
People are hearing about the green potato chip incident, and D.W. is quick to blame Arthur for telling them.

Plot
Arthur, Buster, and Francine are watching a new episode of You Do the Most Embarrassing Things. On the show, the host asks a young boy about a time he ate a sandwich, only to find half a worm left in it.

When asked what he did, the kids panic and insist that he should've spit it out or been hospitalized, but the boy admits to eating the rest of the sandwich. They then show a live reenactment of the event, prompting Francine to try to turn off the show out of disgust. Buster then queues the episode to begin, as there are "ten more embarrassing minutes to come"..

Revenge of the Chip

During lunch, Arthur and his family are discussing getting Arthur tickets to go to "You Do the Most Embarrassing Things Live" at Wonder World, and D.W. wants to go too. Arthur doesn't want to take her, claiming that every time he does, D.W. does something to embarrass him. D.W., of course, denies that she does stuff like that, and makes Arthur "name just one time" she had done something like that. Arthur brings up a time he took her to a movie with him and his friends: D.W.'s noisily eating her popcorn and drinking her soda, but Arthur tells her to just be quiet and watch the movie, though D.W. can't see the movie because the person sitting in front of her is blocking her view of it--so to see the movie better, D.W. stands up on top of her seat, but quickly loses balance and her bucket of popcorn lands on Mr. Haney's head.

D.W. claims that had happened a long time (the previous winter) and makes Arthur come up with something that happened more recently--so Arthur notes how D.W. had thought that she was going to die from eating a green potato chip, which causes the rest of the family to laugh. D.W. tries insisting to her brother that she's mature enough to go to the show and wants to prove it to him, though Arthur's convinced that she won't be able to do so.

Arthur and D.W. go to the local library, where the latter noisily wheels in a squeaky wagon, disrupting the other library patrons. D.W. tries finding a "grown-up" book to check out, and soon finds a humongous book on macroeconomics. Arthur points out that D.W. doesn't know how to read, but she claims that their parents can read it to her as a bedtime story, though she needs Arthur to remind her on what the book itself is about. Later, they go to the ice cream shop that Brain's family runs, and D.W. declines getting her favorite ice cream and instead gets "something vegetarian." While there, Mrs. Powers remarks that she heard the cutest thing about D.W., and is hoping that she is well. Confused, D.W. asks Arthur what that meant as they're walking through the park. At the park, Mrs. Deegan and Mrs. Barnes call to D.W. hoping that she is feeling better, as they "wouldn't want to lose her". The Tibble twins then show up laughing at D.W., mocking her for thinking green potato chips would kill her.



Realizing what the others are talking, D.W. accuses Arthur of telling people about the potato chip thing to make everyone treat her like a baby and so that he wouldn't have to take her to the show. Arthur insists he had nothing to do it, but when it turns out that Francine and Muffy know about what happened, D.W. makes a promise to exposes for supposedly telling others about the green chip incident.

D.W. spends the week trying to eavesdrop on Arthur every time he's hanging with Buster, hoping to catch him in the act of telling the green chip story to his friend. However, Buster foils her every time with a jolly "Hello, D.W.!", catching her off guard. Later in the week, Arthur reveals to D.W. that Buster's mom, Bitzi, put the story of the green chip in her "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella" column in the local newspaper, exposing D.W.'s secret to the entire town. D.W. then has a fantasy of herself as the President of the United States, and is mocked in front of the press by a reporter (who happens to be Francine) for her fear of green potato chips. Desperate, D.W. begs Arthur to help her stop the word from getting out, and he agrees to, but only to avoid her torturing him with her nagging and wailing.

The two go around town collecting every newspaper with the story in it, and send them to the recycling center. Unfortunately, everybody calls for a re-delivery due to the missing papers, ruining D.W.'s plan. Back at home, she says that she's doomed and that she can never show her face again.So she grabs a football helmet from the closet and puts it on. Suddenly, Arthur and D.W. overhear their mom on the phone in the kitchen, telling D.W.'s story to a friend while cutting out copies of it from various newspapers, explaining how funny she found the story and how plans on sending it to other relatives. We see Jane's lips turn big and talk fast about sending it to their relatives. Horrified, D.W. bursts in and ultimately breaks down in tears at what their mom did. Jane, not realizing that D.W. found the green chip incident to be embarrassing, promises to never tell the story ever again.

D.W. apologizes to Arthur for accusing him, and Arthur (though obviously somewhat reluctant) gives her a ticket to show to make her feel better. Jane then asks Arthur to take all the newspapers she had to the recycling center, much to his dismay.

At the lineup for the show, D.W. continues to lie low to avoid embarrassment, as the story is still fresh in everyone's minds. Arthur's friends try helping D.W. feel better by explaining that parents can be embarrassing sometimes and that everyone will eventually forget about the whole green potato chip thing. However, despite Jane's promise, she ends up telling the story to Mrs. MacGrady--distraught, D.W. runs away, but it turns out that Jane was explaining to Mrs. MacGrady that D.W.'s really embarrassed about what happened and that it's best not to bring it up.

D.W. runs to the pier, where she runs into Binky, who's practicing ballet, and she asks him what he does to get people to stop doing something he doesn't like. Binky claims that he stares at them intently and that usually gets them to stop. Jane eventually finds D.W., who's mad at her for going back on her promise about not telling anyone about the potato chip incident. Jane points out that people are probably going to ask about the green chip incident, so she and D.W. ultimately come up with "[Jane] can't tell about it because [she] wants to respect her daughter's feelings." D.W. feels better and the two go back to watch the show.

At the show, the host calls out a kid "who ate a green potato chip and thought it was deadly!" Thinking that meant her, D.W. ducks for cover, but it turns out to be Binky, who stares at the audience dead in the eye when they laugh at his experience, shutting them up. Binky then displays his new ballet rendition, "Don't Eat the Green Ones!" Binky dances with his friends, dressed as potato chips until his friend Molly enters in her green chip outfit. Binky then takes a bite out of the chip, much to Molly's confusion.

Major

 * D.W. Read
 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter

Minor

 * Jane Read
 * David Read
 * Mrs. Powers
 * Mrs. Barnes
 * Mrs. Deegan
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Binky Barnes
 * Francis Haney

Cameo

 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Art Garfunkel
 * Billy
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * Mrs. Tingley
 * Kate Read
 * Fern Walters
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * Jenna Morgan
 * George Lundgren
 * Alex
 * Maria Pappas
 * Leah MacGrady
 * Miss Sweetwater
 * Unknown Male Adult Rabbit (Number 3)
 * Unknown Female Adult Rabbit (Number 4)
 * Unknown Male Rabbit
 * Maria lookalike
 * Kenny
 * 4th Grade Male Dog
 * 4th Grade Male Rabbit
 * Jessica
 * Kiefer
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat
 * Mr. Marco
 * Mary
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
 * Brian
 * Nancy
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * Helen
 * Steve
 * Mike
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
 * Catherine Frensky
 * Coach Bumpus
 * Ethel
 * Ms. Krasny
 * Molly MacDonald
 * Fletcher
 * Wilbur Rabbit
 * Bailey
 * Unknown Male Adult Poodle

Mentioned

 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Thora Read
 * Lucy
 * Jessica

Trivia

 * At lunch, Arthur is seen inspecting his food for any worms, referring to the episode's intro where he saw a kid eat a worm on T.V.
 * Binky stretches in an area with a sign that said "Bullies Only."
 * This is one of the few episodes to feature a gun onscreen (however, it was a laser gun), as Arthur's flashback to the movie theater involved an astronaut preparing to fight alien space invaders.
 * Moral:Don't make up stories that embarrass kids.

Episode connections

 * D.W. once again mentions her Snowball from "D.W.'s Snow Mystery," and she also mentions her Crazy Bus CD from "Play it Again, D.W.."
 * This episode serves as a sequel to "The Chips are Down."
 * The green chip D.W. eats is only mentioned from "The Chips are Down," however, it can technically be seen with Molly dressed like it, and Binky eating her green chip costume.

Cultural references

 * The movie that Arthur took D.W. to see last winter at the beginning of the episode is a parody of Star Wars.
 * You Do the Most Embarrassing Things is a spoof of .
 * The host of the show bears a resemblance to Howdy Doody from The Howdy Doody Show.
 * On the set of You Do The Most Embarrassing Things, there's a green smiling chair on the stage that looks similar to Chairry from Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 4

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