FU DW is a web series hosted on YouTube by Matt Neff
, presented in a similar fashion to Funny or Die's Zack Morris is Trash series. It takes various episodes from Arthur and chronicles the bad behavior of D.W., who is presented as an Enfant Terrible with no discipline.
It currently has 6 seasons.
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: "DW GETS SUCKER PUNCHED" is more focused on the Tibble twins being awful than D.W.. Matt even lampshades this, saying he's confused about why the episode was so heavily requested when D.W. didn't do anything wrong (barring a brief scene of bothering Arthur).
- Big Sister Bully: Episode 2 (focused on "D.W.'s Baby") chronicles D.W.'s poor treatment of Baby Kate, including stalking her, failing to soothe her while not letting anyone else help, blaming her for things to try and get her in trouble, and trying to sell her.
- Blatant Lies: In the episode focused on "Go to Your Room, D.W.", Matt mentions that D.W.'s stories about having to serve Arthur while he's sick and being forced to stay home and cook/clean instead of going to Cousin Lucy's wedding never happened, and even Nadine calls her out on this.
- Book Dumb: In Episode 4, Matt quips that D.W. is "so illiterate, she should change her middle name from Winifred to Can't" (as in, Dora Can't Read).
- Call-Back: Episode 1 ends with Matt quipping that snitches get stitches. Episode 12 is given the title "DW SNITCHES AND GETS STITCHES".
- Call-Forward: The "Let's Review" segment of season 3's "DW GETS CANCELLED" has Matt point out that the episode being focused on wouldn't be the last time D.W. would use James as a pawn in her quest for romance, foreshadowing the season 4 episode focusing on "D.W. Unties the Knot," in which D.W. tricks James into almost marrying her.
- Censored for Comedy: In the episode concerning "Bleep", a Swear Word Plot, all of the curse words are indeed bleeped, safe for a Precision F-Strike at the end.
- Continuity Nod: In the "Let's Review" segment of the season 4 episode focusing on "D.W. Unties the Knot," one of the wrongs Matt brings up against D.W. is her "once again" using James as a pawn in her quest for romance, the "once again" referring to the events of "Kiss and Tell," the episode where D.W. tried to get James to kiss her, and which Matt focused on in the season 3 episode "DW GETS CANCELLED."
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot:
- The recap of "Arthur's Family Vacation" explains how the vacation would have been better had D.W. not come along, including no unnecessary bathroom breaks, avoiding traffic, making it to the hotel on time, having a lobster dinner without any tantrums, and not having to see a gory shark movie.
- The ending of "DW KILLS ARTHUR WITH TIME TRAVEL" notes that everything could have been avoided if the Reed parents didn't let their 8 year old and 4 year old children walk to the movies by themselves.
- Country Matters: In Season 2 Episode 1 (focused on "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood"), D.W. is said to always fill up on Vitamin C, U, N, and T.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title for "DW HAS A COW" (focused on "The Last of Mary Moo Cow") is this; not only does D.W. become agitated over her favorite show getting cancelled, but her favorite show is Mary Moo Cow.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Matt's more off-colour jokes are usually followed by a clip of a character from a different series calling him out on it.
- In "DW Calls Her Mom a *****", when Matt makes D.W.'s bleeped-out line even more dirty, Cleveland Brown responds with "That's nasty".
- In "DW BURNS DOWN HER SCHOOL", Matt quips that if the episode was made today, the drill would likely focus on school shooters rather than fire. Steven Universe tells him it's not funny, it's super sad.
- In "DW Ruins Halloween (And Eats a Person),'' Arthur tries to scare D.W.'s hiccups away by dressing up in a long coat and face mask, which Matt says makes him look like "a time traveller from 2020." It then cuts to Patrick Star booing him.
- Entitled to Have You: In the recap at the end of "DW GETS CANCELLED", Matt calls D.W. out for believing she is entitled to a kiss from James only because she was dumb enough to catch feelings for him simply because he was the first boy to ever show her kindness.
- Everyone Has Standards: Though Matt made the series for the specific purpose of hating on D.W., even he has to admit that she has good moments, such as:
- Her pulling a decent trick on Arthur in "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood".D.W.: It's because...because Arthur is a dodo brain!!
Matt: Got 'em! - Her saving another kid from getting hit by a car in "D.W. Blows the Whistle".
- He agrees that her calling the mayor of the city to discuss equal pay for everyone isn't a terrible idea.
- During his closing recap of "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles", he admits that D.W. did nothing wrong — aside from bugging her brother — and caps off the video by saying the series' title in a more confused tone.
- He acknowledges that D.W. is right to be upset at Arthur not taking her to see "the greatest animated movie ever made" like he was supposed to, in favour of seeing "stoner Doctor Who".
- Her pulling a decent trick on Arthur in "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood".
- Gasshole: Most bloopers involve Matt burping during a take.
- Godwin's Law:
- In the episode concerning "D.W. Blows the Whistle", Matt states that Arthur saying that D.W. sometimes gets carried away is like saying Hitler once got carried away in Poland.
- In "DW MEETS HER MATCH", Matt says that anyone who makes D.W. look heroic in comparison (like Cora) deserves a special place in Hell alongside Hitler… (and Barney the Dinosaur).
- I'm a Humanitarian: Episode 5 ("Hic or Treat") mentions D.W. fears gingerbread men because they make her feel like a cannibal for eating them, leading to Matt nicknaming her "Dahmer Winifred Read".
- If I Had a Nickel...: In "HOW DW RUINED CHRISTMAS", when Matt points out how in 2001, every African-American cartoon child character celebrated Kwanzaa, note he plays an AI-generated sound clip of Dr. Doofenshmirtz saying "If I had a nickel for every Christmas cartoon in 2001 that had at least one kid celebrating Kwanzaa, I'd have five nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird they all came out the same year."
- Non Sequitur: Matt sometimes makes snarky quips on random goings on in the episode that don't have to do with D.W.'s behaviour, such as the potato-heavy dinner from "D.W.'s Very Bad Mood" ("Are they hypoglycemic? What's with all the starch?"), and the Little Bo Peep Pot Pie from "D.W. the Picky Eater" oddly being a spinach-based dish when the name implies lamb.
- Obfuscating Disability: Downplayed in Episode 6, in which Matt rants about D.W. faking her dysarthria to force Arthur into her slavery in "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
- Oh, No... Not Again!: In the episode concerning "Arthur's Chicken Pox", D.W. has spinach for dinner and reacts with disgust, to which Matt says "Dear god, not again!".
- Precision F-Strike: After sticking to the gentler title for most of the series, the episode focusing on "Bleep" gives us a proper "Fuck you" after a realization that while Arthur can't swear on his show, Matt can on his.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: The series' title and the titles of episodes spell D.W. without the two periods.
- Running Gag:
- Mr. Read having an affair with Mr. Ratburn.
- One-off characters (Lisa, Sharky, Emily's nanny Marie-Hélène)note never appear again because D.W. murdered them.
- Shout-Out:
- Arthur builds a model airplane because it's 1999 and Minecraft doesn't exist yet.
- The episode focusing on "Flaw and Order" is titled "LAW & ORDER: FU DW", mimicking the title formatting of Law & Order's various sub-series.
- Take That!:
- In "DW GETS CANCELLED", Matt calls Romeo and Juliet "an overrated play about young love, not true love."
- In "DW MEETS HER MATCH", Matt says that anyone who makes D.W. look like a hero (like Cora) deserves a special place in Hell next to Hitler and Barney the Dinosaur.
- Several are delivered to the titular character of Caillou; in "DW MEETS HER MATCH", when Cousin Cora is introduced, a clip from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Wet Painters" is played, with the heads of D.W. and Cora over the two giant paint bubbles, which then merge to form the head of Caillou. In "LAW & ORDER: FU DW", Matt gives an FU to Ms. Perske for being the Caillou narrator, given that they're both voiced by the same actress; Merlee Shapiro.
