Bleep

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Bleep!
Season	8
Episode no.	{{{episode}}}
Date aired	December 26, 2003
Episode Guide
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Bleep is a controversal episode of Arthur.

Plot

D.W. goes to the crystal shop with Grandma Thora. She overhears a teenage boy arguing with his mother, and when he calls his mother a bad name (censored with a "bleep"), his mother drops the vase she is holding. D.W. wants to ask Grandma Thora (who didn't hear the argument) what the word means, but is afraid she will cause her to drop the expensive bowl she just bought. So instead, she asks Arthur the meaning of the word; he reacts by gasping and dropping the model plane he was working on, confirming D.W.'s belief that the word has the power to make people drop things. Arthur tells D.W. never to say the word around their parents, and D.W., still not clear on the meaning of the word, asks the Tibbles about it the next day at school. To get her in trouble, they tell D.W. that the word turns adults into zombie servants and that that is the reason kids aren't supposed to say it near adults.

Skeptical, D.W. repeats the Tibbles' story to Vicita, but tells her she shouldn't say it to anyone. However, D.W. knows that Vicita will say it anyway because she does not know any better, and so she watched Vicita from her room with a pair of binoculars to see what happens when she says it. She is interrupted by her mother calling her down to dinner; when her mother persists, D.W. calls her the name the boy called his mother in the store. Mrs. Read is shocked and angry at this accidental remark, so when she comes up, D.W. tests the Tibbles' claims by asking for a soda. When her mom does not become a zombie, D.W. realizes she's been lied to again. She then sees Vicita blurt out the word to her family, and when they get angry, she says that D.W. told her the word. D.W. rushes downstairs to find the Molinas and her dad very angry with her, so she says a very unconvincing, "Arthur did it".

Mrs. Read tells D.W. she is "off the hook" because she didn't understand what she was saying. As her mother is leaving, D.W. asks what swear words mean, and she responds, "I guess they mean 'I want to hurt your feelings.'" The next day, D.W. finds her friends all saying the word without knowing what they are saying. Realizing what she must do, D.W. sits down to explain to her friends how hurtful swear words are.

Controversy

The Parents Television Council banned the episode from ever showing on TV, because this was without a doubt, the most controversal episode of Arthur, ever made. Due to the swearing (However it's luckily bleeped out), this episode was never shown as of today, only in the month it was aired. Despite that there was swearing on a TV-Y rated children's program, many online users found this episode to be funny. Although Arthur's Big Hit had a controversal scene in which Arthur punches D.W., which made the episode have a TV-Y7 rating, that episode still airs today.

Trivia

Goofs

• When Arthur is working on another model plane as a replacement for the one D.W. threw out of the window and broke in Arthur's Big Hit, he was first seen wearing socks, but after Jane opens the door, he can be seen wearing his shoes.
• Arthur breaks the fourth wall when he asks the viewer to "watch and listen how [the censor bleep] used".
• The Altos are a parody of The Sopranos.
• Running gag: A person says the curse and someone drops something.