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"Prove It"
Season/Series: 4
Number in season: 4b
Original Airdate: United States October 8, 1999[1]
Canada January 20, 2000[2]
Credits
Written by: Joe Fallon
Storyboard by: Jeremy O'Neill
Episodes
Previous
"The Contest"
Next
"The Blizzard"
Read transcript

"Prove It" is the second half of the fourth episode in the fourth season of Arthur.

Summary[]

D.W. discovers a passion for science, but her explanations for questions like why the sky is blue don't sound right to Arthur.

Plot[]

In the introduction, Brain explains how the Earth's rotation causes night and day. Arthur thinks Brain is wasting his time, since he is talking to Kate and Pal, but Brain says "they're a lot smarter than you think."

Prove It

D.W. is frustrated because Arthur does not take her seriously. When Arthur and Buster watch a documentary for school, they will not let her watch, because they think she won't understand it, and will constantly ask questions. Arthur and Francine spell words, so that D.W. cannot understand them, and when the boys want to watch a movie, Arthur will not let her come either.

When Brain visits Arthur to do homework, he finishes early and D.W. talks him into watching a documentary with her and explaining how a compass works. He tells her that scientists come up with dramatic experiments to prove their theories are right. D.W. is fascinated, since she enjoys being right.

At dinner, D.W. impresses the family by knowing the chemical formula for water, but Arthur claims that she is simply parroting him.

When Arthur wants to visit the Exploratorium with Brain and Mrs. Powers, D.W. wants to come too. Arthur claims that she is too young and Mr. Read agrees. D.W., however, calmly announces that one day, Arthur will beg to take her to the Exploratorium in an ominous monotone to warn Arthur that she will make the best of him.

The next day, D.W. has set up a small Exploratorium sideshow in the backyard and shows it to Tibbles and Emily for money. She makes Arthur pay extra, but he is too curious to refuse. D.W. tells her friends a lot of pseudoscientific nonsense, like that the sky is blue because green went to grass, yellow to bananas, and red to apples, and that snakes don't have feet because their ancestors spent so much time escaping from dinosaurs that their feet fell off. When Arthur objects, she tells him to prove he is right, which he cannot do and is met with cries of fake news from her and indifference from kids who don't know.

Arthur fetches Brain to talk some sense into D.W. and stomp out the monster he created. When they arrive at the Read house, the yard is full of preschoolers. Buster is also there, and even he believes D.W.'s misinformation. Brain cannot prove that D.W. is wrong either, but he says that the correct explanations can be found at museums like the Exploratorium. Falling into D.W's trap, Arthur runs and begs his parents to let him take D.W. there.

On Sunday, Mrs. Powers takes Brain, Arthur and D.W. to the Exploratorium and she sees how things really are. As Arthur confronts D.W. and about her scientific fallacies, she does not mind, because she only intended to get herself to trick Arthur to take her to the Exploratorium and did so by purposefully spreading misinformation, thus proving she is smarter than him. Brain suggests that D.W. is a lot smarter than the boys think, which makes Arthur shiver and stare in awe at D.W., who tricked him, Buster, and dozens of preschoolers with her intentional use of pseudoscience and managed to profit off all this, even making no effort to undo the damage she did and stunted several of her peers' education.

Characters[]

Major[]

Minor[]

Cameo[]

Trivia[]

  • Running Gag: Kate gets a ball, she sucks on it.

Episode connections[]

  • This is the second time after “The Perfect Brother” that Arthur does not immediately know who people are referring to when they say the name "Alan" (Brain). Both episodes also feature Brain finishing his homework before Arthur does.
  • Buster believes everything D.W. talks about at her fake museum. He will later believe everything he sees on the internet in "Buster the Myth Maker".

Cultural references[]

Errors[]

  • When The Tibble twins raise their hands, Tommy has Timmy's blue scarf and Timmy has Tommy's red scarf then in the next shot of the Tibbles they have their regular scarves again.
  • When D.W. gets the second lot of people in line, the Tibble Twins are seen in the line but a couple of seconds later, they are seen coming out of D.W.'s Explainatorium.

Gallery[]

Main article: Prove It/Gallery

References[]


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