Cootie Catcher

Prunella with her cootie catcher.

Cootie Catcher is a fortune-telling game made from paper in tetrahedron folds that Prunella received from her sister Rubella for her 9 1/2 birthday. The exterior diamonds come in four colored-dots: red, yellow, green, and blue. The interior triangles are numbers 1-8. The objective was for the player to pick a color, and pick two numbers, and a Prunella would reveal a fortune such as "yes", "it is certain", etc. Rubella suggests that whoever doesn't listen to the cootie catcher would be cursed, much to everyone's annoyances. Muffy then makes her own cootie catcher that is blue with feathers and strings, and that powder would gush out once opened, and was referred to as the "Deluxe Crosswire Platinum Series Cootie Catcher". Prunella became embarrassed when Muffy made her own version. When Prunella accidentally left her cootie catcher in one of the pockets of the clothes she previously wore, the colors bled and it was ruined when it was washed in the washing machine. Arthur and his friends decided the cootie catcher was ruining their lives, and so Prunella finally discarded it. Prunella's cootie catcher first appeared in Misfortune Teller, but made some cameos in later seasons.

The cootie catcher transition sequence in Misfortune Teller.

Muffy's version of the cootie catcher.

Cootie Catcher can also be found on the cartoon's official website and can be either customized or random and can be printed out, cut, and folded in the following directions. Characters in the green are Muffy, Binky, and Pal; characters in the blue are Arthur, Fern, and D.W.; characters in the red are the Brain, Emily, and Tommy and Timmy Tibble; and characters in the yellow are Prunella, Buster, and Francine.