The Magic School Bus For Lunch
The class is currently studying the digestive system and what happens to food when it is eaten. They have to bring in an object that would help answer the question, though Wanda is more concerned with Arnold trying to break the school's record for chewing gum: 2 hours and 24 minutes down, and 6 hours and 46 minutes left to go, so Arnold's mouth has its work cut out for it.
The person who breaks the record gets tickets to an amusement park called "Action Mountain", which contains a wide and scary ride that is (coincidentally) based on the digestive system. Wanda has her heart set on going to the park, though Arnold doesn't really care much and is only doing it for Wanda's dream.
Ms. Frizzle enters the classroom, tugging on a rope that eventually flies into the class' model (and possibly-living) skeleton and arranges itself into the form of a digestive system, even with one portion inflating to resemble the stomach. How? Don't ask.
As a means of encouragement, Wanda slaps Arnold on the back, which causes him to swallow the gum. Wanda is greatly distressed—her chance of riding Action Mountain having (literally?) done down the pipe—and accuses Arnold of doing it on purpose. Arnold however stresses that it was an accident and that the stress of breaking the record got to him; furthermore, Arnold has never won anything in his life, to which Ms. Frizzle says "Never say 'never'". Wanda apologizes and dishearteningly removes the Action Mountain poster from the chalkboard, but Ms. Frizzle takes this opportunity to announce their next field trip, which brings Wanda's spirits back up. Arnold however is nervous, and is not feeling up for it out of fear of ruining the trip for everyone else just like how he ruined Wanda's dream of going to Action Mountain. Ms. Frizzle actually needs someone to stay behind, and Arnold jumps at this chance. However, he quickly becomes suspicious at how easy the Frizz let him stay behind, though she pacifies him with his "substitute teacher": Liz.
As Arnold turns away to eat a bag of "Cheezie Weezies", the bus targets him as Dorothy Ann and Tim are still wondering what became of their lesson plan on eaten food. At that moment, Ms. Frizzle shrinks the bus—class and all—and flies towards Arnold's food as he opens the bag. He grabs a handful of the "cheezie weezies"—unknowingly grabbing the bus as well—and throws the whole load into his mouth.
The class is pretty worried about their outside conditions, between the "pink pavement" and dripping walls; Phoebe even mentions that at her old school, they would have turned back in this kind of "weather". To their sides are huge white walls opening and closing, crushing whatever gets between them. Ms. Frizzle calls them "humongo food-crushers", which the class finally puts two-and-two together: they are in someone's mouth, which disgusts the entire class. Ms. Frizzle brings out the bus' monitor, and puts up a map of their present location, including an outline of the person whose mouth that they are inside: Arnold.
Having finished off his snack, Arnold mopes around a bit in the quiet and empty classroom, believing that they'll have much more fun without him slowing them down. He spots a jar of olives nearby and throws one of them into his mouth. Meanwhile, Dorothy Ann notes that the first part of the digestion system is the teeth crushing and grinding food into smaller pieces.
As the bus drives deeper into Arnold's mouth, Dorothy Ann notes that—according to her research—swallowing is the next step. Ms. Frizzle takes this in stride, even calling the whole thing "Action Arnold" in a parallel to the amusement park ride that Wanda wanted to go on, before the bus gets to the back of Arnold's mouth and drops down into the pit below.
The bus is now in the esophagus, being slowly worked down by the muscle corridor, so Ms. Frizzle takes this chance to take a little break. Keesha compares this to being squeezed out of a tube of toothpaste, though Tim reminds her that they are not headed for a toothbrush. Ms. Frizzle confirms this, and then asks the class what the esophagus connects the mouth to. Ralphie has gotten motion sickness at this point.
At this point, the bus reaches the end of the esophagus and falls into the stomach, which is littered with food and is surprisingly well-lit. Carlos makes a belly-flop pun, which the class laughs at (seems the class has not tired of his puns as of yet), as the bus sails along on the liquid sea inside of Arnold's stomach.
Meanwhile, Arnold has finished the jar of olives and daydreams about winning the record for olive-eating and impressing Wanda so much that she embraces him (in one of many, many ship-teasing moments to come in the series). However, he is brought back to reality by Liz bringing him a book of school records, in which he finds out that the record is for 978 olives. Arnold quickly abandons olives and looks for another record to break.
Back in Arnold's stomach, Wanda spots a blue "rock" floating in the sea, before the stomach walls start to move, which causes the bus to shake violently to the waves that are kicked up. The "rock" moves towards the bus and gets caught on its mirror. Parts of the "rock" caught on the mirror stretch like elastic, which the class then realizes that it's no rock at all; it's the gum that Arnold swallowed. The gum snaps off of the bus, while Carlos and Ralphie are worried that the liquid inside of the stomach has started to eat away at the bus. Ms. Frizzle however is none too concerned; after all, it's just stomach acid. The class, however, is concerned,note though Wanda quickly becomes impressed by the whole digestive process. Ralphie is still suffering motion sickness as Ms. Frizzle reminds the class that there is still more to see.
Back in the classroom, Arnold tries to break the record for stuffing the most pens into his shirt pocket. He has one more pen to go, and manages to get it in before the pocket bursts open from not being able to take any more. Arnold lets out a frustrated yell.
Inside of Arnold's stomach, the class notices a hole in the wall, which Ms. Frizzle calls a valve, which leads to their next destination: the small intestine. They watch as the gum flows right through it, and wonder why the gum has not been digested. The gum is made of material that is too tough for the stomach to break down. Phoebe hopes that school buses are also too tough to be digested, before Ms. Frizzle turns the bus into a submarine and follows the gum through the valve and into the small intestine.
Ralphie wonders what role the small intestine plays in the digestive process, before noticing that Ms. Frizzle has put on scuba gear. Surely Ms. Frizzle is not intending for the class to go swimming in Arnold's digestive juices, right? There is no way Phoebe is going out there, she says.
Phoebe winds up out there anyway, along with the rest of the class, because the scuba gear is digestive-proof. Wanda is having a lot of fun, before she spots the gum and swims after it. The class watch as the dissolved food is absorbed into the intestine's villi, as Tim wonders where the food goes.note Ralphie notes that the food becomes energy that is transferred to the rest of the body, but Carlos wonders that—speaking of energy—where is Wanda? They look just in time to see that Wanda has been caught on top of the wad of gum and is rolling deeper into the small intestine.
Back in the classroom, Arnold tries to break the school napping record, but is woken up after only two minutes by his hungry stomach. Meanwhile, the class swims off to search for Wanda, with Tim pulling out a map and stating that they searched the entire small intestine with no sign of Wanda. Right on cue, they spot her as the gum rolls through yet another valve; the valve that leads into the large intestine, which surprises Tim that there is more to the intestine than he thought. The leftover, unabsorbed food starts to flow towards the class, taking them and the bus through the valve and into the large intestine.
The class removes their protective helmets (despite the fact that there should not be any breathable air inside of the large intestine), and are immediately disgusted by the foul stench of the intestine. It is much drier here, however (though still a bit wet and filled with... you know), and Carlos uses this opportunity to call for Wanda with the bus' microphone. She responds with a shout, and the class boards the since-transformed bus (now with no roof and low walls) and rides in the direction of Wanda's voice.
As they ride along, the environment gets even drier, with the walls sucking up the water that remains in the leftover food. Carlos is determined to rescue Wanda before she is "dried into a raisin", which Ralphie imagines as being cool (complete with the image of a dried-out Wanda) before being berated by Keesha, Dorothy Ann, and Phoebe. Ralphie retracts his statements. The class finally reaches Wanda, the wad of gum teetering over the edge of a fleshy cliff. Wanda falls, but an elastic string of gum is stuck to the bottom of her foot, which pulls her back up and sends her flying over the bus, at which point Carlos grabs and pulls her to safety. Wait, "safety"? Not so for Wanda, because she found the whole ordeal to be extremely fun. She declares Arnold's digestive system to be the greatest ride in the world, and Ms. Frizzle states that it is not over yet. Ralphie lists off their previous destinations and wonders what's next, to which Ms. Frizzle replies that they have to join the rest of the waste products and "finish the trip".
The class is definitely not having that.
With that out the window, Wanda suggests that they go back to the mouth and do the whole thing over again, but at this point the rest of the class has had enough; they want out. Tim recaps their journey so far, and notes that since they don't want to go any deeper than they are, they need to go back up and escape through the mouth. "It won't be easy," he says, which Ms. Frizzle confirms, because the digestive system is meant to push food down, so the class will have to fight their way back up.
In the classroom, Arnold is looking for his own lunch, to break the record for eating lunch (at this point, you have to wonder if the writers of the record book weren't just including anything and everything and calling it a "record"), before he spots a classmate's lunch and takes out the chocolate Mallow-Blaster, relishing in the idea of eating it.
The class—now pedaling to give the bus extra power—heads back through the intestines and makes it back to the stomach. But that was the easy part, says Ms. Frizzle. Remember: the esophagus' muscles push down, while they need to go up. Not only that, but it's almost lunch time, which means that at any moment, there will be a ton of food raining down on the class.
Meanwhile, Arnold considers eating Ralphie's lunch to break the school record and impress Wanda, but reconsiders once he realizes that Ralphie would be extremely angry with him. Back in the stomach, the class ponders their next move.
However, watching the acid bubble gives Wanda an idea...
Arnold is still wondering what to eat, because otherwise he'll "wither away to nothing". As he goes ahead with the idea of eating Ralphie's lunch, a strange voice calls out to him. ...From his stomach. This weirds Arnold out, as the voice asks him if he is going to eat Ralphie's Mallow-Blaster. Arnold is flustered for a few seconds, before becoming suspicious and asks who the voice is. Turns out, it's Wanda, using the bus' microphone system to speak with him, though she calls herself his conscience.
Wanda tells him that he should not eat the Mallow-Blaster, because he is not hungry, but thirsty. She points him to her bottle of seltzer, but Arnold confronts his "conscience" over why it's okay to drink Wanda's seltzer but not Ralphie's Mallow-Blaster, to which Wanda replies that Wanda is far more kind and generous than Ralphie is when it comes to sharing (Ralphie gives her the stink eye in response). Arnold isn't buying it, because whenever Wanda has a Mallow-Blaster, she hogs it to herself. This presses Wanda's Berserk Button, who angrily yells at Arnold to drink the seltzer. Now.
Being timed by Liz, Arnold chugs down the seltzer as fast as he can, which begins to literally rain down on the bus inside of his stomach. The class then begins to rock the bus back and forth to create a giant gas bubble. Their efforts prove fruitful, as bubbles form around the bus and combine into a bigger bubble that engulfs the bus and floats it upwards.
Arnold feels the gas build-up and tries his best to contain it, until he can't hold it in any longer and lets out a huge belch, unknowingly freeing the class from his digestive system. However, he is disheartened to find that he didn't break the seltzer-chugging record, and whines that he'll never break a record, win anything, or even eat lunch. Right on cue, the class returns, with Ms. Frizzle holding a tray of food for her hungry student.
As Arnold enjoys his meal, Wanda awards him with a sandwich trophy because he broke the record for being the "best field trip ever". This bewilders Arnold and he asks where the class went. As his stomach growls, he realizes that they went inside of him and vows to Ms. Frizzle that he'll never miss a field trip. "Never, ever, ever, ever!" Ms. Frizzle is impressed with his new resolve, and begins to write up the lesson plan for their next subject: dinosaurs. Arnold quickly decides that he'll skip out on the next trip, as everyone else laughs.
- The class went through the digestive system pretty fast, when in reality it takes hours for food to digest. The female producer mentions that they pitched a digestion miniseries, but the network didn't buy it.
- Notes that despite what was shown on the show, the inside of the body is completely dark, which the producer notes that it would have been cheaper to do a radio show instead.
- Mentions how the small intestine was only shown absorbing food nutrients, when like the stomach, the small intestine breaks down food as well.
- Sometimes, the system does work in reverse, such as when you vomit. However, normally it works as portrayed in the show.
- The caller is disappointed that they did not complete the journey. Waste products that accumulate in the large intestine are expelled from the body through the anus, which the producer quickly explains.Producer: It's natural. It's normal. But did you really expect us to show that on daytime TV?Caller: Well...maybe not.
Finally, the caller does not believe that gum could be used for bungee-jumping. Throughout the segment, Liz has been trying to do just that. The caller tells them to stick to the facts, before Liz bounces down on her gum-made bungee cable.
Tropes
- Anuscape Plan: Mrs. Frizzle teaches her class about the human digestive system by shrinking the bus and using it to explore that of Arnold, top to bottom. When she nonchalantly proposes that they “join the rest of the waste products and finish the trip”, the class collectively responds with a Big "WHAT?!" and objects to the idea, in the end deciding to backtrack and exit through the mouth instead. Lampshaded in the "Producer Says" segment, where a caller brings it up and the producer rhetorically asks whether they really expected them to show that on daytime TV.
- Big "WHAT?!": When Ms. Frizzle suggests completing the large intestine trip, the class gives this reaction.
- …But He Sounds Handsome:Arnold: How come it's okay to drink Wanda's seltzer, but it's not okay to eat Ralphie's Mallow-Blaster?
Wanda as Arnold's conscience: Because Wanda's a far kinder and more generous human being than Ralphie when it comes to sharing.
Arnold: Then how come when she has a Mallow-Blaster, she hogs it all to herself?
[Losing Horns play] - Eaten Alive
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending
- "Fantastic Voyage" Plot
- Foreshadowing - At the end, it is hinted that their next field trip will be about dinosaurs. Said trip would not happen until the following season.
- Gilligan Cut - When Ms. Frizzle suggests that the class goes swimming in the small intestine, Phoebe insists that she is not going out there. Cut to her swimming with the rest of the class, because their scuba gear protects them from the digestive juices.
- Growling Gut: Inevitable, given the subject matter. Arnold is dogged throughout the episode by his hungry, growling stomach.
- Grossout Episode - At least, once the class hits the large intestine.
- Hollywood Darkness: Gee, it sure is well-lit inside people's bodies!
- Nobody Poops - Played straight, even given the episode's subject matter. It's discussed and Ms. Frizzle suggests it as an escape from Arnold's digestive system. Luckily, we are spared from having to see Arnold poop out the rest of his class. Additionally, the producer explains in detail what happens to the waste products that the body does not absorb, before adding:Producer: It's natural. It's normal. But did you really expect us to show that on daytime TV?
Caller: Well, maybe not. - Rule of Three: Never say "never"!
- First, Arnold admits to having never won anything in his life, and Ms. Frizzle uses these words to reassure him that if he keeps trying, he eventually will.
- When they're inside Arnold's mouth, Phoebe remarks, "At my old school, we were never allowed to be digested." Ms. Frizzle uses these words to remind Phoebe that she's not in her old school anymore.
- Just before the climax, even Ms. Frizzle has her doubts they'll be able to get out of Arnold's digestive system the way they came in. Phoebe uses these words to rally everyone to put their backs into it.
- Say My Name: The class calls Wanda's name several times when trying to find/rescue her.
- Ship Tease: Arnold's Imagine Spot implies that he has a crush on Wanda.
