I'm a PoetMr. Ratburn tells the class that only one kid has entered the local poetry contest: Fern. When Binky and Rattles start to mock Fern at lunch for entering, she says they couldn't write a poem if they tried. Eventually, Fern challenges everyone in her class to write a poem for the contest in several days.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Fern loves Binky's poem, which is pretty simple and rhymes "poem" with "poem" four times. She applauds and cheers him.
- Adam Westing: Jack Prelutsky appears as himself and the judge of the poetry contest.
- Adaptation Expansion: The 1999 book adaptation Arthur and the Poetry Contest, which came out three years after this episode, includes a few extra scenes. This includes Arthur and Buster talking to Ms. Turner and reading old poems at the library, and D.W. making a poem about Arthur's smelly feet. Additionally, Arthur comes up with "Jimmy Goes to the City" on his own in the episode. In the book, it's because D.W. tells him about a news report about an ape who got loose in the city.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: In the Cold Open, Arthur reads out "My Sister is A Sissy" and finishes it as D.W. comes to jump on his bed.
- Awkward Poetry Reading: Arthur and his friends write poems, but most are pretty bad: Arthur's awkwardly adds in "Oklahomoo" for the sake of rhyming, Buster's is just a Long List of gross things, and Binky's rhymes "poem" with itself four times.
- The Bet: Fern dares everyone to write a poem for the contest and if they fail, join the poetry club for a year. Everyone manages to write a poem, though Arthur comes close to missing the contest.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Arthur and Buster are impressed when Fern stands up to Binky, the local bully. She also cows them all later when they argue about who can and can't write poems.
- Big "SHUT UP!": When the kids start arguing, Fern shouts, "QUIET!!" This even sets off a car alarm.
- Cold Open: It features Arthur reading the Jack Prelutsky poem "My Sister Is A Sissy" and picturing D.W. as the "sister".
- Epiphora: Binky's submission for the poetry contest, "Binky's Poem", ends every line but the last with the word "poem." This being a cast of kids, who exclusively expect rhyming poems, Muffy calls out the fact that he tried to rhyme "poem" with itself four times.People think I can't write a poem,
But they are so wrong, I CAN write a poem.
I wrote this one, I wrote this poem,
And I gave it the title "Binky's Poem".
So SHUT UP! The end! - Establishing Character Moment: Fern is established as a quiet, bookish introvert, but in the next scene, she effortlessly stands up to Binky and Rattles when they tease her for liking poetry and challenges her classmates to write a poem. In this episode, we learn that Fern may be shy, but she is no pushover.
- Exact Words: No one has to write a great poem for the contest; they just have to write it. Fern applauds everyone for doing that and says Binky's poem is great.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: A variant; Arthur and Buster look at other poems to borrow their structure. Arthur tosses out his attempts, and Buster doesn't get farther than two lines. Fern encourages them to instead write about what they would like.
- Ridiculous Procrastinator: Both Arthur and Buster take until the last minute to write their poems and win the bet with Fern. Buster finishes with minutes to the contest, while Arthur nearly misses it thanks to writing and then getting stuck in sidewalk traffic.
- Rhyming with Itself: Binky's poem rhymes "poem" with "poem" for four out of its five lines.
- Spit Take: Arthur spits out his juice at lunch when Brain says he already finished his poem.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: Everyone wins the bet so no one has to join the poetry club. They decide to join anyway because they had so much fun.
- Visual Pun: One line in "My Sister is a Sissy" is "she positively cringes at the prospect of a worm". During this, we see a giant worm wearing a miner's hat come out of a mine, to which D.W. faints.
The Scare Your Pants off ClubArthur is rushing to the library to get the new Scare-Your-Pants-Off book. He and his friends find out that a group called P.A.W.S. has removed all the books from the shelves. They engage in a counter-campaign to get their books back, and get unlikely help.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Acid Reflux Nightmare: Muffy's father blames the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books for giving her nightmares and tries to have them banned. In the end, it turns out that Muffy's nightmares were really caused by eating Mr. Crosswire's specialty ice cream before bed. When Mr. Crosswire realizes what happened, he apologizes to the kids and Ms. Mcword.
- Actually, I Am Him: Arthur asks a woman who's gardening to sign the petition and tells her that it's to save the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books. She forgets to sign but stands up and says she'll help. It turns out she's the author and knows Muffy's father, the head of P.A.W.S., personally because she was his teacher.
- "Begone" Bribe: Muffy tries to get her friends to drop their petition drive by taking them to a party at Wonder World. After they learn what it is, no one takes her up on it.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: After Mrs. Mcword reads one of her stories and it turns out they didn't give Muffy nightmares, Mr. Crosswire admits that he overreacted and should have read the books first. He agrees to give the books back if Mrs. Mcword reads another story.
- Dare to Be Badass: When Arthur tells his parents about the bribe Muffy offered, his mother says you have to make sacrifices for what's right, and his dad says to never be afraid to look ridiculous.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In this episode, the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books in the series all have identical covers, featuring the series logo (a kid screaming). Other episodes, including "Arthur's Lost Library Book" in this season (which was presumably meant to air after this episode did but was aired
Out of Order), have each Scare-Your-Pants-Off book with its own unique cover relating to the story it contains. - Foreshadowing: When the other kids offer Muffy some ice cream, she refuses, saying they give her bad dreams. Later, it turns out this was the real culprit for Muffy's nightmares, not the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books.
- Fun with Acronyms: When Muffy's parents think the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books are giving Muffy nightmares, they form the organization P.A.W.S, which stands for "Parents Against Weird Stories".
- Hates Reading: Mrs. Mcword mentions that Mr. Crosswire never did like to read books when he was her student.
- Hippie Teacher: Ms. Mcword (a.k.a. E.A. DePoe), Mr. Crosswire's old English teacher, is also a hippie.
- Hypocrite: As evidenced towards the end, Muffy was willing to let the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books be banned from shelves, whilst she kept some of the books for herself in secret. Thankfully, the fact she still reads the books without nightmares acts as evidence that they don't cause nightmares in the first place.
- Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: Subverted, though with books instead of movies; Muffy's parents have this attitude towards the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books and try to ban them when she apparently has nightmares after reading one, but it turns out her nightmares were really because of eating ice cream before bed. Arthur and his friends love the books and spend the episode trying to save them from getting banned.
- Knight Templar Parent: Muffy's parents, who are set to ban books for being weird and scary enough to supposedly give her nightmares. They realize they overreacted when Muffy inadvertently reveals that her dad's ice-cream and not the books were causing her sleep troubles.
- Like Parent, Like Child: The book adaptation of the episode lampshades this. Towards the end, not only does Mrs. Crosswire call out Muffy on eating her father's specialty ice cream, but also turns on her husband for eating like that despite his diet. The story then narrates how both father and daughter share the same sheepish look.
- Pen Name: It turns out that E. A. DePoe, the author of the Scare-Your-Pants-Off books, is the pen name of Mrs. Mcword, Mr. Crosswire's old English teacher.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Muffy eating her dad's specialty ice cream caused her to get nightmares, which in turn led to her parents creating P.A.W.S.
- Wham Shot: The television shows Muffy's parents as the head of P.A.W.S. which reveals who is the real mastermind.
