A is for Angry

	"A is for Angry"
	Main image; Title card;
Season/Series:	9
Number in season:	7b
Original Airdate:	April 5, 2005; May 24, 2005; January 7, 2008;
	Credits
Written by:	Dietrich Smith
Storyboard by:	Robert Yap
	Episodes
Previous; "Three's a Crowd"	Next; "The "A" Team"

"A is for Angry" is the second half of the seventh episode in the ninth season of Arthur.

Summary[]

Arthur takes on Brain at a checkers competition, and everyone rallies behind him — until he lets out a "yowl" that alienates his fans.

Plot[]

There is a checkers contest, and everyone wants Arthur to challenge Brain, so he does. They have a pep rally for the contest, and only George wants Brain to win. Muffy starts a website for "the benefit of all the average kids." In the first pep rally, Brain wins. Francine makes Arthur attend a post-game pep rally, giving him instructions on how to win back his fans. However, Arthur soon becomes frustrated in the middle of his pep talk and literally screams at the crowd.

Back at home, Arthur is lying on the living room couch when he gets a call from Buster to check out Muffy's website. He finds out that Muffy has posted a video of his scream. Then she plays it again and again, making Arthur embarrassed.

The next day, Muffy and Francine are passing out flyers. When Arthur attempts to grab the flyers away from Francine, she pulls all but one of them away, saying, "Don't worry, Mr. Hyde. It's not for you." Arthur looks at the flyer in his hands; much to his surprise and puzzlement, it is shown to support Brain: "Huh? 'A is for Angry, B is for Brains. Pep rally for Brain before the game'?" Arthur points out Francine and Muffy said Brain was conceited, and Muffy replies, "Wow — angry and mean. I think you need to chill out." When Arthur asks why they are doing this, wondering if it was because he asked them to leave him alone yesterday, Francine replies with, "If you call what you did 'asking'. Brain may be conceited, but at least he's nice." Muffy then adds that they "just care about the integrity of checkers." Arthur finally crumples a flyer while screaming, causing the other students to run off. Binky then congratulates him, stating, "It took me years to get scary. You did it overnight."

At the next play-off match, everyone but Buster supports Brain. Finally, Arthur forfeits when the match starts.

Back home, Jane tells Arthur that people can get a little crazy sometimes when it comes to competition, and not to take it to heart. Arthur admits that maybe he deserved it: "It's not like I tried all that hard to stop them from putting down Brain when they were on my side." Jane remarks, "Well, I don't think you should quit something you love, just because of what other people think." Arthur says that he did not love it; it's checkers: "I just wanted it to be fun. It's not fun anymore."

The doorbell rings, and Arthur answers it to find Francine who realized that she and Muffy went too far, who asks if he wants to go to the Inter-Scholastic for them. Seeing Arthur's puzzlement, she explains that Brain forfeited as well because of the pep rallies. Francine apologizes to Arthur for how she and Muffy got carried away with their campaign: "I guess it's just 'cause you hurt our feelings. We were kind of forgetting that maybe we'd hurt yours... and Brain's." Arthur accepts her apology, but declines the offer to attend the Inter-Scholastic. Francine then asks, “But who are we going to get, then? I mean, I’m terrible at board games.”

Muffy is chosen for the Inter-Scholastic, but is disqualified because, as Mr. Ratburn puts it, "Checkers is a quiet game" and Muffy's supporters are too loud. Muffy, in turn, gives an interview, blaming the judges for being uptight.

The episode finishes with Arthur and Brain playing checkers at Arthur's house.

Characters[]

Major[]

Minor[]

Cameo[]

Trivia[]

This is Alex Hood's last episode as Brain until "Breezy Listening Blues."

Episode Connections[]

Arthur says he has beaten Brain at checkers before. This may be a callback to The Ballad of Buster Baxter, where Arthur reveals that he and Brain are finishing a best-of-5,000 checkers tournament while Buster was away. Arthur and Brain each won 2,165 games at that point.

Cultural references[]

Francine calls Arthur "Mr. Hyde," the evil alter ego of noble Dr. Jekyll from Robert Louis Stevenson's novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
This episode can be seen as a reference to a 2004 incident involving former politician Howard Dean, who let out a similar-sounding yell during a caucus speech that was the subject of much mockery.

Errors[]

Throughout the second checkers scene with Brain and Arthur, the board constantly changes, sometimes displaying a played out game or no checkers at all.
In the first playoff match, Sue Ellen's skin color turns burnt brown when Muffy says, "...to determine Lakewood Elementary's representative..."
Alex's pants are blue when the crowd exclaims, "No!" after Francine asks, "Do we want some conceited know-it-all representing us in checkers?"
Brain's winning move in the first playoff game includes jumping his own pieces twice and moving multiple squares in one jump.
When Arthur angrily screams, he has his eyes open. But in Muffy's report, Arthur is shown to have his eyes closed when he screamed. Also, the audio of Arthur saying "And then... then..." before the scream is different. Binky holds the sign down a little after Arthur screams but in Muffy's report, Binky puts the sign down before Arthur screams.
There are a few scenes in which Muffy's socks are colored a light lavender.

Gallery[]

Screenshots

References[]

↑ http://www.ket.org/episode/ARUR%20%20000907
↑ Arthur. TVO. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013.
↑ https://www.fernsehserien.de/erdferkel-arthur-und-seine-freunde/episodenguide/staffel-9/3906

[1] ttp://www.ket.org/episode/ARUR%20%20000907

[2] Arthur. TVO. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013.

[3] ttps://www.fernsehserien.de/erdferkel-arthur-und-seine-freunde/episodenguide/staffel-9/3906

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