Nathaniel Bobelesky is spending the weekend with the Talbots, and he comes with a long list of allergies that his overprotective mother Belinda believes that he has. Partway through the first day, she pops in and announces that he's also allergic to dogs, even though he was just fine spending time with Wishbone prior to that. Wishbone is reminded of The Imaginary Invalid by Molière.
This episode is most famous (or infamous) for being the show's Banned Episode. It was pulled from reruns in the late '90s due to concerns that it might cause children with genuine medical issues to believe their parents were being overprotective. Admittedly, it couldn't have been easy for the show to find an applicable modern-day moral in a play that satirizes doctors as quacks, which they kind of were in Molière's time.
Tropes
- Adapted Out:
- Angélique is portrayed as Argan's only daughter, leaving out Louison.
- The one time that Wishbone as Argan mentions "Diafoirus," it's in reference to Thomas Diafoirus. The elder Diafoirus is thus never seen or mentioned.
- The bit where Toinette pretends to be a doctor is not included.
- Bowdlerize:
- The episode tries to tone down Molière's anti-doctor messaging. In this version, the play's voice of reason, Béralde, stops short of calling the entire medical profession a fraud. In the contemporary story, all of the medical nonsense is coming from a layperson, Belinda, which avoids portraying a modern-day medical professional as a charlatan. In a sense, the episode was banned for not bowdlerizing this aspect quite enough.
- The original play contains many references to Argan receiving enemas, which were a popular fad treatment back then. The closest the episode comes to including this is when Mr. Fleurant is shown preparing to treat Argan with a gigantic syringe, and let's just say that they don't mention where he was intending to insert it.
- Captain Obvious:Belinda: You have a dog.
Wishbone: How observant. - Demoted to Extra: Cléante only appears briefly at the end. Thomas Diafoirus is mentioned but never seen.
- Expy: Nathaniel's mom Belinda is presented as the modern-day counterpart to Argan's wife Béline. "Belinda" is even a kind of anglicized version of "Béline."
- Hypochondria: Well, it is an adaptation of The Imaginary Invalid. Argan's hypochondria is paralleled in the contemporary story by Nathaniel and his mother falsely believing him to be allergic to dogs.
- My Beloved Smother: Belinda is overprotective of Nathaniel, particularly where his health is concerned. Most notably, she is paranoid about him having allergies. Her stated Freudian Excuse is that this stems from Nathaniel having had a bad asthma attack when he was little.
- Nested Story: Wishbone plays Molière playing Argan. And yes, Argan really was played by Molière himself when The Imaginary Invalid first premiered. Ironically, Molière actually was sick and died after only four performances of the play.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Because it's Molière, the fantasy dialogue is written in rhyming couplets. For what it's worth, The Imaginary Invalid is actually one of the few plays that Molière wrote in prose rather than verse. Some of the rhymes used by the episode are a bit modern for the time period:Wishbone as Argan: Where is my daughter? I need her right now!
Toinette: She waits in the hall, so don't have a cow. - Sustained Misunderstanding:[Doorbell rings]
Wishbone: Ah, that's probably the pizza I ordered with my psychic powers. Don't move, I'll open the door from here.
Ellen: Nathaniel, your mom's here.
Nathaniel: My mother?
Wishbone: Your mother delivers pizza? We better give her a big tip. - Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Argan, as in the source material. This is a notable departure for this show, since Wishbone's character in the fantasy section is almost always sympathetic. The episode softens this blow by first introducing Wishbone playing Molière and then having Wishbone as Molière explain, "In real life, of course, I'm a nice guy, but tonight, I play the role of Argan. He's a little gruff, but don't worry, his bark is worse than his bite."
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The episode acts like everything is resolved once Nathaniel is convinced that he's not allergic to Wishbone. However, Belinda is the person who really needs to be convinced of that, and the episode just ends without this being addressed.
