"Mugged" is about not using self-defense for revenge. There’s another lesson to be learned, though: since Arnold was wearing headphones and listening to a Walkman at the time, the aesop here could be seen as "Always be aware of your surroundings." It could also be "never let your kids out alone after dark" given that Arnold's age and the time of day also made him more vulnerable.
Episodes where Arnold tries to get through to jerks who take advantage of him, such as Helga, Oskar and Wolfgang: You can’t really change someone or reason with them unless they really do want to reform.
"Full Moon". While apparently it is an aesop about guilt, it instead comes off as "Snitches get Stitches". Being unfairly punished for something you didn't do? Suck it up and take it - because it's more important to not be a rat than to stand up for what's right. Justice will eventually be served because people will feel guilty for seeing someone else take the fall for them.
Accidental Innuendo: Harold's threats to "pound", as in beat up, people often come across as this.
Harold:(after discovering Helga tricked them about the Ghost Bride) I say we pound her!
Awesome Music: Pretty much the entire musical soundtrack, courtesy of Jim Lang.
In particular, the music tracks at the end of "Arnold's Christmas", "Parents Day" and "Pigeon Man" are all amazing.
The Rhythm and Blues end credits song in "Haunted Train", creepy? yes, but also catchy as hell
The iconic theme song also deserves a mention. Later in the series run, they used a newer rendition of the theme song, which, while different, is just as jamming and classic as the original.
Harold. You've got one half of the fanbase that will find him annoying and obnoxious. The other half will see him as the hilarious lovable loser.
Rhonda. Some find her to be an annoying Rich Bitch while others like her for her Pet the Dog moments she gives in "Rhonda's Glasses" and "Polishing Rhonda."
Mr. Simmons. Most seem to like him for being genuinely interested in the well-being of his students and more interesting than Miss Slovak was. Others criticize him for being the ultimate case of Adults Are Useless since, despite having the qualities that are desirable in a good teacher, he demonstrates a complete inability to control his students and while he does mean well, his actions and advice often hurt the children more than they help.
Brainy. Some fans think his interactions with Helga are amusing, while others find him weird and creepy, even for this show.
Oskar is one of the more controversial characters. His Lazy Bum and The Hedonist traits make him annoying or hilarious to watch.
Sid was often seen as one of the most unlikable characters early in the fandom's history, especially from Season 3 onward. During this time he became seen as a Jerkass and a Fair-Weather Friend who betrays everyone at the drop of a hat. Whenever he got A Day in the Limelight, it highlights how weird and off-kilter he is. In more recent years, while his negative tendencies are occasionally brought up, many fans nowadays are more likely to consider him one of the funniest and most interesting characters on the show. The one thing both fans can agree upon is that episodes like "Bag of Money" and "Arnold Betrays Iggy" are Sid's lowest points.
Seasons 4 and 5. Either they're considered a case of Growing the Beard for producing some more genuinely mature and heartfelt episodes while giving much needed Character Development to the supporting cast, or considered a case of Seasonal Rot for turning Arnold into an Out of FocusFlat Character, overexposing Helga and focusing too much on the Arnold/Helga/Lila Love Triangle.
For some, Arnold's Character Development. Some think it's him showing his maturity and becoming wise beyond his years - while others think he started becoming quite boring since in the later seasons he was never wrong and essentially became the city's adviser. It doesn't help that Spencer Klein's voicework is often monotonous (though he could pull off real emotion when necessary.) and Arnold's facial expressions tend to be limited to looking moody and deadpan. His Mr. Imagination characteristic, which was the defining element of the original shorts he appeared in, also disappeared.
In "Deconstructing Arnold," Rhonda, Sid, Stinky, and Harold suffering for their misdeeds can be seen as satisfying, especially after they joined Helga in bashing Arnold for trying to warn them of the consequences and even blamed Helga for making Arnold not give advice to anyone, never mind the fact that they agreed with Helga to begin with.
Suzie leaving Oskar in The Jungle Movie can be seen as satisfying to those who dislike Oskar's mooching ways.
Character Rerailment: The post-movie episodes are this for Arnold. He is once again the true focus and he's facing issues a real child would face the way a real child would react to them. However, there are only three post-movie episodes and they aired Out of Order, so it can be tough to tell at first.
Arnold wears a skirt or a kilt. It's so widespread a belief that the series itself mentioned it, with Rhonda mistaking Arnold for wearing a skirt. He's actually just wearing a long plaid shirt underneath his sweater.
Many swear that the series takes place in NYC. Hillwood is inspired by many places but it actually takes place in Washington.
A popular rumor is that "Pigeon Man" originally ended with Pigeon Man killing himself by jumping off the building, but that it was changed when Nickelodeon executives disapproved. Craig Bartlett has repeatedly debunked that myth.
Also Arnold himself at the end of the episode "24 Hours to Live".
Curly, with the emphasis on crazy (and not a "cool, kooky" crazy either. More like a "This kid needs serious mental help" crazy). To elaborate, he once broke some animals out of a zoo - alone. Just because he wanted to.
Chocolate Boy can be this, too. Apparently, he's spent so much time around chocolate that he can be used to literally sniff out Helga and Harold after they get separated following a tour at a chocolate tour (made all the more impressive, because this was several hours after the duo had been lost). Made funnier because he's literally put on a leash.
Then, Oskar keeps knocking down an old lady when trying to get Baby Oskar to the hospital. Then, he does it again when he makes it there.
A scene in “Field Trip” has a security guard mocking a great white shark and then falling into the tank.
"Oh look, a dead owl. Breakfast!"
Harold eating the egg that he and Rhonda were supposed to nurture as their own young.
The monitor lizard eating the parrot in front of whole class. Disturbing? Yes! But in the middle of a poem? Hilarious!
In "Racing Mule", Oskar suggests that they should send the donkey they bought to a glue factory. Mr. Hynuh says that’s downright cruel and then asks how much the factory would be willing to pay them.
In the Nicktoon Summer commercials, Arnold was shipped with Debbie from The Wild Thornberrys. An uncomfortable pairing if you know Arnold is 9, and Debbie 16 years old.
In the Nicktoon Summer commercial likewise had Plankton have a crush with Helga. Still uncomfortable since Plankton is written as an adult as old as Mr. Krabs, while Helga is a child.
Designated Hero: Arnold in the Lila episodes. We are supposed to feel bad for him because he never gets the girl, but he continues to pursue her romantically despite her constantly telling him that she doesn't reciprocate, and exploited Timberly's crush on him to get closer to Lila, making him come off as a bit of an entitled, manipulative jerk.
Helga. In the series she is a Jerkass Woobie who is horribly neglected by her parents, but who also can be mean, selfish, rude (and even cruel in some instances) does many things moved by jealousy and constantly bullies other kids (not only Arnold). However, despite that, many fanfics (especially romantic fanfics) portray her almost as a saint. This happens mostly because a lot of viewers see themselves in her, a sentiment amplified by her main character status.
Curly to an extent, is this to fans also.
Die for Our Ship: Lila gets this a lot from Arnold/Helga shippers.
In a way, Helga herself seems feel like this about her. She's mostly okay with Lila (she finds her ever-so-annoying, not much more) as long as Arnold's not around.
Arnold's parents, Miles and Stella, are much more popular than you'd think, considering that they only appeared in two episodes for the longest time.
One Shot Characters Stoop Kid, Pigeon Man and Dr. Bliss get mentioned very often, for having only one episode each.
Some of the other, less focused on kids such as Lorenzo, Nadine, Sheena, and Patty are fairly popular with the fans as well.
Epileptic Trees: There's a theory that has been thrown around that supposedly comes from someone with a psychiatric background who watched the series and felt that Lila had signs of having been sexually abused in the past. The reasons are cited as her speech patterns, way of dressing, and her politeness. It's usually assumed her Missing Mom did it. Most fans don't honestly believe it but it's still cited frequently, though no one knows the exact source of the theory.
Hillwood is not in New York City. The town does have elements of NYC but it's in Washington state.
Arnold doesn't wear a skirt. It's just a long plaid shirt that's un-tucked and hangs below his sweater. This was mentioned in an official comic and he even takes off his sweater in a few episodes to reveal this (as seen here in "Cool Party"), but most people, especially non-fans, still think he wears a skirt. Perhaps in response to this, Arnold's redesign for The Jungle Movie makes it more obvious that it's a shirt.
The Jungle Movie fanfics, write-ups, and speculatory scenes were very popular in the decade-plus period between the end of the original run and the film's final airing.
Fanfic writers are also particularly fond of the plot where a character leaves/runs away from town, stays away for years, and then comes back as an adult. This type of story usually stars Helga, who comes back hot and much nicer, and at the end finally manages to be with Arnold.
It's almost difficult to find an Arnold/Helga fanfic that doesn't feature Arnold seeing Helga with her hair down and realizing she was "Cecile".
Fanfic Fuel: Craig Bartlett revealed enough details about the Jungle Movie and The Patakis, that many fanfic writers have written their own versions. Now that the Jungle Movie itself finally happened in 2017, it's interesting to go back to older works in the fandom and see how much the fanfic authors got right.
The show has a large Latin American following, many comments, fanart, and more from these fans in the region.
It is one of the fondly remembered Nicktoons in Vietnam, mostly due to Mr. Hyunh being considered a positive and accurate representation of Vietnamese people.
For the first half of Season 1, the character designs weren't as detailed or consistent, and many characters such as Phoebe didn't have very defined personalities. By the second half of the season, almost all characters had their "permanent" designs, and the writing got better, with fan-favorite episodes like Pigeon Man and Arnold's Christmas. By the end of Season 2, the series had decided which characters to focus on, and seemed to have a better idea of what it wanted to do.
To an extent, the latter half of the series is an improvement over the first half, due to further improvements to the animation, and the production crew getting the green light to delve into some darker and more emotional stories, with episodes like Helga on the Couch, Parents Day, and Arnold's Thanksgiving.
In the episode "Full Moon", Arnold sees Stinky, Sid, and Harold moon the principal, and ends up getting a month detention because he doesn't want to be 'a rat' for telling.
Harold: You told him, didn't you?! Arnold: (deadpan) No. Harold: (in disbelief) Well, why not?!?! Arnold: Because it wouldn't be right.
At the end of "The Flood", as floodwaters surround PS 118, Principal Wartz stands on the roof of the school singing, "Way down yonder, in New Orleans..." This became a lot less funny after Hurricane Katrina caused extensive flooding and damage in New Orleans in 2005.
The theme of "Monkey Business" is Helga believing she has a fictitious disease called Monkey Nucleosis. After the 2022 global outbreak of Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), some viewers may find this episode unsettling.
In "Casa Paradiso", Suzie shows everyone a slideshow of all the good times she and Oskar had at the boarding house in an effort to convince Grandpa not to sell it. One of the pictures is the day they moved in which happened to be their wedding day. Suzie asks "See how happy we were?" prompting Ernie to quip "That didn't last, did it?" In The Jungle Movie, Suzie is not shown in any of the boarding house scenes. Word of God all but confirmed that the Kokoshkas are divorced and that Suzie moved out, unable to stand Oskar anymore.
"Olga Gets Engaged" revolves around Olga falling in love with and getting engaged to a guy Helga disapproves of and who happens to be a Jerkass. Frozen (2013) would do the exact same thing years later, only with the seniority of the sister reversed.
The end of "The List" has Grandma sing a pep-up song to Arnold after he spent the rest of the episode as The Chew Toy. Arnold's part has him say "I had a bad day, nothing went right, I hate my dumb life, I'm down," with the same melody as Daniel Powter's "Bad Day". The episode came out in 1996, while the song was recorded in 2002. Makes you wonder if the latter got it from the former, or if it's just an amazing coincidence.
Mr. Simmons bears a very uncanny resemblance to Kevin Sutherland, another character in a Slice of Life show who is implied to be gay.
In "Quantity Time", Helga and her dad go to see Rats, a parody of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, and they laugh at it, calling it the stupidest thing they ever saw. Then the film version came out, and everyone had the same reaction as them.
Oh, Helga. Where do we start? "Helga on the Couch" shows us that her ill-tempered nature has terribly saddening origins— her parents neglect her in favor of Olga, and have since she was 5 or 6 years old (possibly longer), the other kids in pre-school were mean to her for no reason, and pretty much no one except Arnold treats her nicely. As a result, she starts bullying the other kids to avoid being bullied herself and falls in love with Arnold, but bullies him also so no one will find out how she feels (this is because A) she doesn't think she's attractive enough for Arnold to return her feelings and B) because prepubescent children are often repulsed by love and mock people for it). Essentially, she treats people badly because that's how people have always treated her. Many episodes where she tries to antagonize other characters end with Helga humiliated and miserable; showing that while she doesn't deserve to get away with what she was trying to do, it's still easy to feel sorry for her.
While she's not much better than her husband, it's hard not to feel at least a little bit sorry for Miriam once you find out about her past. She's implied to have been The Ace when she was younger, a world-class swimmer, a mechanical bull-riding champion and knows enough about business that she can run the Beeper Emporium much better than Big Bob. However, somewhere along the line she flushed all her hopes and dreams down the drain and married Bob for whatever reason. Everyone treats her like dirt and not even her own daughter has any respect for her, so she becomes an alcoholic just to cope. She even tells Olga during her engagement episode not to make the same mistakes she did.
Jolly Olly Man, the ice cream vendor though some had a hard time understanding his frustration caused by only a boring job, and his problems keeping it which may have something to do with his jerkassery which delves into Nightmare Fuel. It's not good for the business if you act like a raging psychopath even with your customers. And he had no idea what's wrong with his behavior. Arnold had to teach him the basics of common courtesy. And there's also the fact he has a horrible father who constantly gives him crap for their business. Even the episode ends with the two not resolving their problems.
"Phil's Packard" shows that he clearly has some kind of genuine mental illness as he believes that his dog was laughing at him and that Phil deliberately ran him off the road. Yes, he's probably the biggest jerk in the series, but it's hard not to see that he's a man in real need of some kind of mental help.
Harold has his moments too in some episodes such as "Weighing Harold", where he's constantly ridiculed by everyone, including his own friends of all people, for being overweight. Not to mention Mr. Green being way too cruel to him in "Harold the Butcher" once he realized that Harold actually liked working in the butcher shop.
Sometimes, Oskar Kokoshka gets his moments, as he's often implied to be aware of his many, manyflaws and the negative impact they have on people he cares about (especially his wife), but just can't seem to improve himself, even when he wants to.
As widely divisive as Sid is, seeing him cry after his beatle boots were stolen in "Monkeyman!" really tugs at the heart strings.
Helga's detractors (and the internet in general) have a field day exaggerating her Stalker with a Crush tendencies.
Lila also has a tendency to be portrayed as this due to her over-the-top sweetness, unintentional manipulative behavior and the fact that Craig Bartlett confirmed that she has a repressed dark side due to her hard life.
Misaimed Fandom: Some fans' Die for Our Ship sentiments for Lila count as this. Lila tends to get hate for being Arnold's crush throughout the last part of the series and "getting in the way of Arnold/Helga". Which is odd, because Lila did nothing but gently and repeatedly turn Arnold down (and it was Arnold who kept trying to get close to her, and ended up disappointed as a result. Lila never tried to intentionally hurt his feelings), and is nothing but helpful to Helga, letting her kiss Arnold and keeping her secret safe.
My Real Daddy: A voice actor variation. The show's cast was great and extremely memorable, so this was bound to happen. And while some of the boys were voiced by multiple actors, in a few cases, one would last long enough or have a big enough impact in the role that they're remembered as the actor who voiced him, despite having only been one of several:
Ben Diskin is usually remembered as the Eugene, despite having been the third actor to voice him; he lasted three seasons in the part, and was the only one of the four boys who played him to have continued with voice acting after hitting puberty, thus establishing Eugene as one of the "breakthrough" roles of his career.
Adam Wylie was so memorable as Curly that he was brought back to the role after having been replaced - twice. In fact, of the four actors to voice Curly, two of the others only lasted for one episode each, and the third (Michael Welch) appeared in only two.
Arnold himself is unclear. There have been a total of seven Arnolds (counting the theatrical pilot and the Time-Shifted Actor). Out of those seven, two have a pretty good claim to being the "real" Arnold:
Lane Toran (then known and credited as Toran Caudell) was the first Arnold on the show propernote J.D. Daniels voiced him in the pilot, which was only shown in theaters and only lasted one season in the part (though he subbed in for Phillip Van Dyke in the Season 2 Musical Episode "What's Opera, Arnold?" because Van Dyke wasn't a confident singer). He is also as such often linked to the earlier more emotive and flawed characterisation of Arnold and contributing to a more distinctively spacey, quirky performance of the character as a result. Even after his voice broke, he remained with the show for its entirety as the bully Wolfgang, a role created specifically for him. Due to First Installment Wins, he's often remembered as "the" Arnold by the media - in 2015, a widely-reported story (with pictures!) noted how "the voice of Arnold" was all grown up. Toran is also frequently invited to fan conventions and panels reminiscing about his time on the show, alongside Francesca Marie Smith; he even appeared on the official Hey Arnold! panel at the 2017 SDCC alongside the current Arnold (Mason Vale Cotton), the only past Arnold to do so. He also returned to provide voice work for The Jungle Movienote as a new character, Che, who is part of Eduardo's men and a 2nd love interest for Olga and is, once again, the only past Arnold who made an appearance in the film even though both Phillip Van Dyke and Spencer Klein played the role longer than Toran did (though to be fair, those two, along with Alex Linz, have long since retired from show biz).
Spencer Klein, unlike both Toran and Van Dyke, appeared only as Arnold (he was replaced very late into the show's run, so Craig Bartlett didn't have time to recast him as somebody else, as he had done for the other two), and made the most appearances as the Football Headnote He's Arnold for 37 of the show's 100 episodes plus the first movie, as opposed to 34 episodes for Van Dyke, 26 episodes for Toran, 3 episodes for Alex D. Linz and the second movie for Mason Vale Cotton. Each of the four voice actors portrayed Arnold slightly differently, but Klein's overtly romantic, serious, sensitive, and somewhat exaggerated goody-goody take on the character is how he is usually depicted in fanfiction.
Narm Charm: Helga's dream in "Married", especially the hilariously corny love talk. But it's also rather sweet at the same time.
Good luck finding anyone who will forgive Harold for wrecking Pigeon Man's home, even after he got episodes showcasing his soft side.
Also, good luck finding someone that will forgive Big Bob for calling Arnold an orphan in "Parents Day", even though he's arguably done worse than that in other episodes.
Detractors of Helga frequently cite "Girl Trouble" and "Love and Cheese" as reasons why they dislike her.
Nightmare Retardant: The Emily Dickinson statuette in "Phoebe Cheats" makes an effectively bone-chilling conscience to the girl, repeatedly chiding her for stealing a work that isn't hers; passing it off as her own for praise. Until the very end when Phoebe leaves with the statue to the open house to admit what she did, to which it asks: "Where are we going? Will I need a sweater?" Which is oddly adorable for a manifestation of guilt.
Older Than They Think: "Helga vs. Big Patty" centers around Patty challenging Helga to a fight and Helga being scared shitless and trying to back out of it. Patty already beat her up twice in "Ms. Perfect" so while it would still be painful, she should at least know what to expect by now.
Popularity Polynomial: The show was quite popular among kids when it was airing, but due to a combination of the poor reception of the first Movie, and the cancellation of both The Jungle Movie (which was meant to serve as a Grand Finale for the series) and The Patakis spinoff show, the series quietly ended (with several shelved episodes being released sporadically for a few years) and its fanbase went dormant. But in 2009, around the time when the kids who grew up with the show became adults, a fan effort to save the never-produced Jungle Movie was started. The launch of NickRewind in 2011 further increased the interest in the series. By 2012, talk on social networks about the series had dramatically increased. Nowadays, the series is fondly remember as one of Nick's top 90s shows. Nickelodeon is very aware of the boost in popularity the series experienced in the early 2010s. This eventually led to them announcing that the long-awaited Jungle Movie would be finally made, in an attempt to Win Back the Crowd after some rough years, while also introducing the show to a new generation of kids.
Questionable Casting: Alex D. Linz, Arnold's last voice actor during the series, isn't well liked by the fanbase for two reasons. One, while Arnold had many actors during the series, Toran Caudell, Philip Van Dyke note Though he too started out a bit high before his voice eventually deepened to a pitch similar to Caudell's voice, so the same might have happened to Linz were he able to stay on longer, and Spencer Klein all had similar sounding voices while Linz's was noticeably higher-pitched than the others, making Arnold sound too young. Two, he replaced Spencer Klein, who, as noted above, is considered by many fans to betheArnold. It doesn't help that Linz's portrayal of Arnold seemed like almost a complete rejection of Klein's take by making Arnold more immature and Troll-ish when it came to Helga. Fortunately for them, Linz only voices Arnold in the last three episodes and when they recast the role for The Jungle Movie, the crew selected Mason Vale Cotton, whose voice is much more similar sounding to the first three actors.
Realism-Induced Horror: The episode "Mugged". At the beginning of the episode, Arnold is assaulted and robbed by a random hoodlum while walking home. And it's a frighteningly realistic depiction of what it's like to be in that situation. And worse, this happens all the time in real life.
Paranoia Fuel kicks in considering that Arnold was listening to his walkman with headphones when he was assaulted. In real life, people who wear headphones/earbuds are especially vulnerable to assaults or robberies since they can't hear someone sneaking up on them.
Likewise the climax of "Monkeyman!" has Sid get mugged and beaten up for his Beatle Boots. This all happens in plain view of the opera house Monkeyman is at, and yet nobody, not even him, can hear Sid screaming. or worse they heard him and chose not to help. It's a grim reminder that these sort of crimes happening in plain sight of an uncaring public do happen.
"Sid and Germs" has gained tons of relevance in recent years courtesy of things like the COVID-19 Pandemic. With the exception of Sid wearing an old-timey diving suit to school? Him being so Terrified of Germs is very accurate to how many people have let this phobia control and destroy their lives.
While Lila is portrayed in the series as a nice girl, many fanfics tend to demonize her, portraying her as a cruel, Manipulative Bitch (or in T-rated fics, as a slut) who deliberately gets in the way of Arnold and Helga. The fact that Craig Bartlett says that Lila had a repressed dark side only adds fuel to these types of fanfics, even though he also clarified that she's not a bad person, her trying too hard to repress her dark side is meant to parallel Helga who tries too hard to repress her good side.
While not to the extent of Lila, Rhonda often has her Rich Bitch qualities cranked up to eleven.
Many of the more grimdark fanfictions portray Big Bob as a physically abusive father, despite that in the series, he was horrified that he nearly hurt Helga in "Arnold's Halloween". Most of his redeeming moments, such as in "Arnold's Thanksgiving" and "Quantity Time" are also often ignored.
Much like how some of her fans portray her as nearly flawless, some of Helga's haters exaggerate her bad qualities and ignore her good ones, turning her into a full-blown, stereotypical Yandere who wants to seriously harm Arnold and his friends, rather than the Tsundere with some mild Yandere qualities that she's portrayed as in the show.
Lila toward the end of the series. While she's not universally hated by any means, you'd be hard-pressed to find people that are honestly fans at this time. Her being an irritating parody Purity Sue didn't stop her from having a fanbase in Seasons 2 and 3, (hell, she was actually The Woobie when she first debuted!) It was mainly due to the Romantic Plot Tumor love triangle of Seasons 4 and 5 (and the inevitable Die for Our Ship sentiments accompanying it) that pushed her into Scrappydom.
Similar to Lila is Olga, Helga's older sister. The show established some Hidden Depths with her, however it also made her a hypocrite who goes out of her way to get her parent's attention. Not to mention she doesn't seem to grasp the extent of Helga's Parental Neglect nor does she seem to follow through with promises she made to Helga. For example, in "Student Teacher", Helga pleaded with her to keep any embarrassing stories out. Olga either forgets, or deliberately tells an embarrassing story to the class after Stinky fails a test. And sends Helga to detention afterwards.
Gerald's little sister Timberly gets a lot of hate in fandom mainly for being really annoying and whiny and is usually hindering Arnold and Gerald's plans in any episode where she plays a key role. The best example of this is the "Chocolate Turtles" episode.
Principal Wartz also has quite a few haters for acting like a tyrannical douchebag and being far too cruel to both the students and the teachers when giving out punishments. (See: "Teacher's Strike", "Full Moon", "Principal Simmons" and "Suspended")
Similar but to a lesser extent is Coach Wittenburg, who seems to suffer from Aesop Amnesia regarding his hyper-competitive nature in every appearance he makes.
Whenever fans think of the episode "Pigeon Man", they think of Vincent's speech and take-off at the end.
The ending of "Parents Day".
"Helga on the Couch" is mostly remembered by the preschool flashback.
The last line of "The Journal" ("Grandma! Grandpa! I found a map!") is remembered for the... wrong reasons. Thankfully, with the release of The Jungle Movie in 2017, that wrong was finally righted.
Special Effect Failure: There are several scenes in the first several episodes where a character talks and their mouth doesn't move.
In "Arnold's Hat" after Grandpa finishes telling his story, Arnold can be seen with his hat in one frame, despite the fact that the episode is supposed to be about how he lost it.
In "Wheezin' Ed" and "Phoebe Skips", we get some egregious views under her sweater, she's not wearing anything and let's just say something's missing. Word of God says she doesn't wear anything under that sweater, but it was quite clear that these were mistakes.
Brainy making those wheezing noises isn't too much better.
It understandably never made it into the show, but an early idea by Craig Bartlett was that there was supposed to be an adult female boarder named Lana who was supposed to be constantly trying to seduce Arnold while Arnold is understandably uncomfortable with her advances. She can be seen in the background of early episodes and has a speaking role in "Heat".
The monitor lizard eating the parrot at the end of "Helga's Parrot" is incredibly disturbing, especially for younger viewers.
In "Gerald's Game", Iggy is put in stockades during the big card game, and actually gets a speaking part (same VA as in "Arnold Betrays Iggy", in fact) shouting at Arnold "No, Arnold! Don't do it! You'll become a dungeon pawn!", at which point Big Gino tells him to shut up and throws a cloth over the stocks, completely covering Iggy's face.
Anytime Big Bob is put through a Humiliation Conga: such as in "Roughin' It", "Parents Day" and "Summer Love."
Stinky being told by Arnold to shut up in "Weird Cousin."
The rare times we see Sid's house, it's shown to be unkempt and broken down, implying that his family struggles financially. This was never brought up or used as a plot point in any of the show's episodes. In fact, it would've done a good job of explaining Sid's attitude towards Arnold after losing the bag of money they found in the titular episode and making him seem like less of a Jerkass.
Toy Ship: Every shipping in the series. The most popular ones are Arnold/Helga and Gerald/Phoebe. Although they're canonically children in the show, fanfiction writers usually crank up their ages to make the story more appropriate. Averted in The Jungle Movie, where Arnold/Helga and Gerald/Phoebe both officially get together, but as they're entering the sixth grade at the end of the movie, they're just old enough to be at the age where a lot of kids have their first romantic relationships, albeit usually not ones with the intensity of the epic and passionate Arnold/Helga ship.
Ugly Cute: Helga to many. In fact, most of the characters could qualify due to the whacky art style.
While the show has managed to stay relatively timeless, there are spots where it does show that it is a product from The '90s. It's not too uncommon to see audio cassettes, VHS tapes, VCRs, boomboxes, and old TV sets (plus, the show's artists seems to have a weird obsession with old cars and rotary phones). One episode has Helga mentioning Court TV which was rebranded into truTV in 2008. The most telling sign that this show takes place in the late 90s is Big Bob's Beeper Emporium. Toward the end of the show's run, beepers — the very foundation of Bob's business empire — were already being supplanted by cellphones.note Though In-Universe, cellphones do exist. Helga and Lorenzo are seen with flip phones and it is mention in one episode that Bob also sells cellphones This is later lampshaded in one of the first scenes in The Jungle Movie where it's shown Bob is having trouble selling his beepers because, as Helga points out, everyone has cellphones now.
The episode "Arnold's Christmas" clearly happened before the internet became prevalent. Nowadays, with the power of social networks, finding lost relatives and people you haven't seen in decades is much easier (though there might be some added difficulty, as not everyone has an account on a social network for a variety of reasons: limited access to a computer, afraid of being bullied/stalked/harassed online, thinks social media is overrated, is a recluse, Has a different surname after marriage, etc).
Additionally, one episode has Gerald telling Arnold that he'll call him later, saying that he'll ring twice note (ring, hang up after one ring, immediately re-call, a Truth in Television technique for phones without caller IDs) to let Arnold know it's Gerald calling. Caller IDs are standard for phones nowadays.
The episode "Salley's Comet" features Arnold and Gerald collecting cereal box tops to send away for a telescope, that became dated once laws were passed in the early 2000s that prohibited forcing the consumer to buy a product to be eligible to participate in a contest.
The Running Gag of Brainy appearing behind Helga and breathing down her neck only to be punched is Played for Laughs - but "Helga on the Couch" has her called out for it being Troubling Unchildlike Behavior. And while it is indeed, Brainy is also pretty much stalking Helga - in fact Helga even asks how he tracked her down to that specific alleyway, and Brainy doesn't respond. Her punching Brainy may not so much be double standard violence, but her simply defending herself from a Stalker with a Crush is something she has every right to.
In "Rhonda Goes Broke" we are supposed to see Rhonda's reaction to having to live in the boarding house as Wangst, and while she is way too whiny about how she can't go on vacation and not having new clothes, she and her parents now had to share a tiny room with a single mattress that was in disrepair. Plus, despite the rest of the rooms in the house looking fine this was apparently the worst room in the house, was infested with mice and the food Arnold's Grandma cooked already was unclean and had bites taken out of it. Whether or not they could afford better, the fact is the room they were forced into because of their financial situation was not just not glamorous, but dangerous. Rhonda and her parents had every right to be upset that their spare room had no upkeep done on it.
In "Helga and the Nanny", Big Bob hires a new nanny to help around the house. Helga obviously finds this annoying since she's pretty much been taking care of herself since kindergarten, but the nanny goes down a hit with her parents, the kids at school like her and Helga is given the What the Hell, Hero? treatment for getting her fired. But the thing is, Inga constantly embarrasses Helga and treats her like a dumb kid, like forcing her into a dress that gets her teased by the other kids, overall trying to control all aspects of her life. Though it was wrong for Helga to go frame her for theft, it's understandable why she would want Inga out of her life.
Pretty much every kid in "Curly's Girl". Everyone immediately hates Rhonda after she dumps Curly in public (which, admittedly, was cruel on her part, though she had a good reason for wanting to do so — he blackmailed her into being his girlfriend in the first place) and makes him depressed. However, no one bothers to ask for her side of the story (not even Nice Guy Arnold or her best friend Nadine) and they take Curly's side instead, despite (or maybe evenbecauseof) the fact that Curly is clearly mentally unstable. Not to mention Curly pretty much TV-Y7 sexually harasses Rhonda by blackmailing her into kissing him, which she is clearly not comfortable with.
Gerald in "Gerald vs Jamie-O". While he's understandably annoyed at his Big Brother Bully Jamie-O constantly steals his stuff, when Chloe starts showing more interest in Jamie-O than him, he rants about how Jamie-O is "trying to steal Chloe, just like he stole my shirt!" as if Chloe is an object with no free will of her own. While it's true Chloe was leading him on, Chloe eventually has to step in and tell Gerald she was just hanging out with him to get close to Jamie-O and apologises, but nobody calls Gerald out on acting like he was Entitled to Have You where Chloe was concerned.
Suzie can come off as this to some. While the audience is supposed to sympathize with her having an immature, slacker husband in Oskar, it can be hard to feel sorry for her when she continuously forgives him ("at least until *The Jungle Movie*") in spite of it being abundantly clear that he regresses to his conman ways at the end of each episode. Additionally, she can be even crueler than Oscar, throwing dinnerware at him while he's never been shown or implied to reciprocate.
Helga and Brainy can come off as this way for their stalking behaviour. While it never goes into full on Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male territory, neither of them are truly called out for their Troubling Unchildlike Behavior save for one line in "Helga on the Couch". (Dr. Bliss hears about Helga's Stalker Shrine but then asks "Wait, did you say 'used gum'?")
In "Ernie in Love", Ernie is rejected by a tall woman named Lola because he's too short and she doesn't feel attracted by him, for which a heartbroken Ernie replies that he's "a big man in the heart and that should be what counts". The episode treats Ernie sympathetically and Lola as shallow for caring too much about appearances. For many viewers (specially when viewed today), however, Ernie's attitude comes across as part of a Entitled to Have You mentality.
Big Patty in "Helga vs. Big Patty". The episode presents her as having to maintain a "tough" reputation despite a soft center, and that shows through her willingness to fake the fight after learning of Helga's apology. However, she has beaten Helga up for real in the past(the running "broom closet" gag in "Miss Perfect"), putting her in a neck brace among other injuries, along with putting another girl, Mary, in a leg cast, head cast, neck brace and on crutches (doubling as Fridge Horror, given that no adult has done anything about this). Yet we're supposed to see her as a sympathetic character despite there being no justificationfor her assaults.
Eugene's peers (bar Arnold) ostracize him for being a jinx and being all around unlucky. However, he has a lot of fans for his charming personality.
Helga is widely disliked by the same peers for being a bully, but due to her character development she's arguably the most popular character in the show as well as the Breakout Character.
The whole "back of the bus" episode didn't make sense for some kids that didn't yet learn about Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement, since they lived in places where the back of the bus is where the cool kids sit and have the less popular ones sit up front.
In "The Pig War", Stinky dresses up as a Confederate soldier for the American team in the battle reenactment. Back in the 90s, this was just part of the gag of most of the team members were wearing inappropriate costumes — Harold is dressed as Rambo in the same scene, as part of the same gag. However, the increased scrutiny of positive and even neutral portrayals of the Confederacy in The New '10s and The New '20s means that it's unlikely he'd wear such attire in modern times without any comment by the other characters.
Grandpa Phil dating two sixth-grade girls in "Back to School". Harmless joke in the 90s, Squick today. If the episode aired today, Phil would probably not be allowed within 100 feet of a school.
Helga’s treatment of Arnold, at the time, was accepted as a way for Helga to hide her feelings; it was just how girls acted towards boys. Nowadays, with the awareness of child bullying on the rise, as well as the double standards around female-on-male abuse being viewed with more scrutiny, Helga would be looking at multiple days of detention for her behavior towards Arnold, bare minimum. More than likely, Helga getting suspensed or expelled is a possibility, given her history of prolonged abuse towards him.
The Loving Bully trope in general has just not aged well. As regardless of Helga's true feelings and intentions towards Arnold, there is no getting around the fact that she did still bullied and caused harm to him and others he cared about. To the show's credit, it does acknowledge that this is an unhealthy thing for Helga to do and there are certain lines that she would not cross, while also being given understandable sympathetic motives for said behavior. However, in reality, it's highly unlikely that any person on the receiving end of such a relationship, even after discovering their true feelings, would be willing to reciprocate such feelings after experiencing so much pain by the the hands of their bully.
Back in 1997 "Teacher's Strike" came off as incredibly ridiculous due to the nature of said strike being Principal Wartz being a stingy ass who among other things due to budgetary concerns, refuses to keep the school supplies stocked, to the point of Ms. Slovak being forced to use a small rock of chalk for the entire week. In the 2020s this sort of neglect towards school staff has sadly become more commonplace with teaching jobs at an all time low.
Arnold's friends mistreatment of Arnie, as they view him as weird. Today, this would be seen more negatively due to how Arnie may have a disorder, but back then, it wasn’t too uncommon for people to treat people like Arnie that way.
The show's depiction of Mr. Hyunh was very forward-thinking for the '90s, as the creators avoided using him for cheap ethnic stereotype jokes in favor of a positive portrayal of a Vietnamese immigrant. His voice actor, Baoan Coleman, even shared the same ethnic background to ensure accuracy. His backstory in "Arnold's Christmas" has also aged very well as it continues to be one of the few portrayals of The Vietnam War in Western media to show it from the perspective of a Vietnamese civilian rather than the American military.
"Helga's Show" has Helga doing impressions of classmates that they find offensive. She tries to make it up by being complimentary and as inoffensive as possible. The same people realized this routine is boring and that they overreacted and she just meant everything as a joke so she goes back to the old one and the same people laugh at the jokes they were once offended by. This topic is highly debated right now on whether comedians should soften their jokes to avoid offending people or if people shouldn't take these jokes so seriously.
Mr. Simmons alternates between this and Fair for Its Day. He is a fourth grade teacher, yet in-universe nobody questions this - and he's shown to be a very good teacher, too.
Olga is a master of this. In "Olga Comes Home", she spends days sobbing in her room about getting a low grade, with dramatic music in the background and a serious case of Your Makeup Is Running. Even Big Bob starts to get tired of her histrionics and whining — she only snaps out of it when Helga admits she changed her grades out of spite.
Invoked in "Rhonda Goes Broke" when she spends most of her time crying when she has to live in the boarding house after her family lose all their money. Arnold eventually talks some sense into her and Rhonda gets a She's Back moment.
What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The show features adult themes like an overkill (by Nickelodeon standards) of cursing and one of the darkest backstories of any main Nickelodeon character at the time (Helga, who is considered the unfavorite in her family in favor of her Stepford Smiler sister, has a verbally abusive father, and a mother who is clearly a depressed alcoholic).
Arnold is definitely this in "Parents Day" and "The Journal" when you see how much not having his parents around really bothers him.
Chocolate Boy in his self-titled episode. The reason why he became addicted to chocolate was because it was his favorite treat given to him by his nanny. After said nanny moved away, he ate more chocolate to cope with losing her. He clearly loved her a lot and breaks down crying about how much he misses her.
Lila in her debut episode. She's the new student, having just moved to town from the country. Despite being very polite and sweet, she unintentionally ends up pissing off the other girls because she is getting a lot of attention from the other students and teachers. So they bully her to the point that she runs away in tears. After agreeing to bring over her homework, they see that Lila is not as perfect as they thought. She lives in a run-down apartment with her single, unemployed father who is completely broke and whom she often has to emotionally support, and we see her crying about how she just wanted to have friends. The girls all realize the error of their ways and try to fix everything.
Poor Arnie. Everyone hates him and openly mocks and ridicules him, even genuinely nice kids like Arnold, to his face just because he happens to be a little peculiar. He never does anything to deserve that kind of treatment either, and he is likely suffering from some form of autism, meaning that he can't help his behavior. Perhaps Lila liking him isn't such a bad thing after all, since she's about the only one who shows him any genuine affection.
Phoebe, due to being taken advantage of not only by Helga but by everyone else around her.
Pigeon Man. Seen as a freak by others, and as some sort of monster by the kids, it's revealed that he's actually anything but. In reality, he's a gentle and nurturing man who lives to look after the pigeons who he lives with on the rooftop. His love for birds made his friends see him as "weird" and made him exile himself from society because he feels that the pigeons are the only ones who truly understand him. If there's ever been a character in this show that you just want to hug in the hopes that it would help them feel just a tiny bit better, it's him.
Mr. Hyunh, a Vietnam War survivor who reluctantly made the choice to stay behind and give his young daughter to the American soldiers, who were evacuating children away to safety on a helicopter. Seeing him reunited with his grown-up daughter on Christmas Eve has to be one of the best moments on the show.
on Sesame Street. There was also a series of comic strips
