History WhatAnIdiot / TheBerenstainBears

'''Meanwhile:''' Brother has gone to the school intent on giving Tuffy what for only to find out Tuffy is a girl and [[WouldntHitAGirl sensibly walked out on her dare to fight]]. Brother, realizing that no adult can help his sister and he can't defend her without being a bully, borrows equipment from the gym teacher at school, and spends the weekend teaching Sister boxing moves for the next time she gets bullied. Brother ''does'' tell Sister that she shouldn't look for a fight and should only use the moves in self-defense.\\
'''So''': Sister goes two days without an encounter with Tuffy. During the next day at recess, she sees Tuffy [[KickTheDog throwing rocks at a baby bird that is unable to fly]]. This upsets her so much that she scolds Tuffy, resulting in a fight. Sister manages to dodge Tuffy but ''successfully lands a punch to her nose'', resulting in a nosebleed. The scuffle grabs the attention of a recess teacher.\\

'''Instead''': The first recess teacher drags them both into school and sits them outside the principal's office without a word. Just then, Tuffy [[JerkassWoobie tearfully confides in Sister her fear of]] [[AbusiveParents getting physically punished for the incident]], which gives Sister an epiphany that domestic abuse ''can'' turn someone into a bully.\\
'''On Top Of That''': Sister is let off with a slap on the wrist after a recess teacher vouches for Sister's attempt to protect the baby bird. Tuffy, however, has to spend a week of recess indoors and see the school psychologist as a result.

** Mama and Papa had regaled Brother and Sister with goodies enough times that they have become [[SpoiledBrat quite greedy]] as a result. One day at the supermarket, Mama is [[ThisIsGonnaSuck anticipating the worst]] when she sees the cubs eyeing the candy in the checkout line and they start begging for it.\\

'''Instead''': [[AesopAmnesia They scream "Whaja-bringme? Whaja-bring me? Whaja-bring me?"]]. This proves to be the final straw for Papa, who furiously [[GoToYourRoom sends them both to their room]] and [[YouAreGrounded grounds them]].\\

** During summer, Sister often jumps rope with her friends Lizzy, Anna, Millie, and Linda. They have been practicing Double Dutch, which involves "the jumper jumps over two ropes that are being turned in opposite directions", and therefore requires at least three participants. One day, however, a new cub named Queenie [=McBear=], who wears hoop earrings and has a fancy 10-speed bike, arrives and allows Anna, Millie, and Linda to take turns riding her bike (Sister and Lizzy aren't yet big enough for two-wheelers). Sister greets Queenie in her usual friendly manner, but Queenie's attitude towards Sister is condescending. She makes fun of Sister's name and clothes, and then treats Anna, Millie, and Linda to ice cream at the Dairy Bear.\\

** Brother Bear notices that Sister is overly friendly with the bears and animals they meet while going to the park. Instinct tells him that it could be dangerous due to her naivete if she gets lured away by a stranger.\\
'''You'd Expect''': He would just make sure that his little sister has some common sense. Tell her that saying "hello" is fine but don't walk off with someone.\\

'''Predictably''': Papa Bear to illustrate his point shows Sister a news clipping of a kidnapped child who was found, with a suspect being questioned. Then he reads her a bedtime story about Wily Fox tricking Silly Goose into entering his lair, and eating the Goose in a few bites; Sister spends the whole night lying awake in bed, thinking about the story and the headlines. Mama Bear has to step in the next day to explain to Sister about common sense; you shouldn't be afraid of everyone, but trust your instincts. It's found that you are more likely to be hurt by someone you know than by a stranger. As a visual aid, while Mama and Sister are making applesauce, Mama shows Sister an apple that looks strange on the outside but is fine on the inside. She then shows her an apple that looks fine on the outside but is full of worms on the inside.

'''Predictably''': Sister tells Brother on Mama and Papa, with Brother protesting that Sister was being a tattletale. Papa explains that "tattling is telling just to be mean".

** As stated at the beginning of the story, every room in the Bears' tree house is neat and clean ''except'' Brother and Sister's room. Brother and Sister barely even ''try'' to maintain cleanliness and instead waste much of their time arguing when it comes time to do the job, much to Mama's indignation.\\

'''You'd Expect''': Lizzy to check in with her parents and make sure it's okay if there are more guests. Furthermore, you'd expect that the parents of these cubs would check in with Lizzy's parents to make sure it's okay, and ask what they should expect. It's implied that a lot of Lizzy's friends are young enough to have never attended a sleepover before, and it requires a high level of trust to let your child, especially those Sister's age, sleep away at an acquaintance's house.\\

'''You'd Expect''': Queenie to realize that Too-Tall, being the neighborhood bully and more than reckless enough to stick his nose wherever he desires, is best not told about the sleepover. Queenie should especially know better considering she's older than most of Sister's friend group.\\
'''Instead''': She decides to mouth off about it, which of ''course'' gives Too-Tall the brilliant idea of wanting to crash the sleepover. This is especially idiotic in the TV adaptation where she's given a downward AgeLift and thus not flirty with Too-Tall.\\

''' On The Other Hand''': Since Mama realizes that she and Papa are partly to blame, she cancels the grounding the following day. As a new punishment, she brings Sister over to Lizzy's to help clean up the mess. Anna's, Millie's, and Queenie's mothers have the same idea. Lizzy suggests making this a "clean-up party", but Sister declines, stating that "I don't want to hear the word ''party'' again for a long time".

** The plot involves Sister having an exciting 6th birthday party, which doesn't go quite as expected. One of the disappointments she experiences involves her pinning the tail on the donkey exactly where it should go, but the runner-up is given the prize because "it wouldn't be polite" for Sister to get a prize at her own party.\\

''' Furthermore''': This and everything else that goes wrong for Sister causes her to break down during the singing of "Happy Birthday". When Mama asks her what the matter is, she wails out "It isn't fair!" And runs off a list of complaints, including not getting the donkey game prize. Her outburst is addressed with an invitation to open her presents. This does cheer her up, and the incidents that caused Sister to feel upset are not shown to affect anything else that happens during the rest of the story. But no one addresses Sister's actual complaints. She doesn't even get an "I'm sorry some things didn't work out for you". Thus, Sister is given no closure as to the matters that made her cry.

** The plot features Brother Bear getting ''pretty'' sick and having to miss school for a week. During this, his math class learns how to divide (a pretty major aspect of arithmetic). Brother Bear is given makeup homework, which he doesn't do. When he returns, Teacher Bob gives a division test.\\

'''In Addition''': Papa, of all bears, [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this]] [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot by pointing out that]] [[MundaneSolution all Hooper had to do was lower his supermarket prices in order to put Farmer Ben in the red]].

'''The Result''': At one point Queenie's sister sets her up with a guy she's met online, who ends up being Too-Tall fortunately, and they both laugh about it. Lizzie by some weird luck encounters extortionists on a chatroom that are planning to blow up Squire Grizzly's mansion, and Squire Grizzly happens to be Bonnie's uncle. The kids' grades also go down except for those who had computers at home, so Teacher Bob decides to confiscate the laptops and put them in a lab at the school.

** The school teachers are having a staff meeting about gun control. They are concerned since recently a cub in another school brought a loaded gun to his class and could have caused a lot of damage, while nice kids like Brother and Sister play cops and robbers and Milton has been caught trash-talking Too-Tall during wrestling. Miss Glitch suggests removing violent literature, but Principal Honeycomb vetoes that on the ground that it would lead to removing a lot of classics. Teacher Bob decides to take an approach in the classroom to proactively prevent an instance of violence.\\

'''The Result''': After a rocky start, Ferdy and Too-Tall find out the only invention they have a mutual interest in is guns, and Ferdy decides to make a safe rubberband gun that is absolutely harmless for their demonstration. Teacher Bob forgets that Too-Tall is a vengeful bully, and just as Too-Tall makes headway, he is humiliated when he loses his cool, and Ferdy stays calm on a run to his father's dump for inner tubes. Too-Tall brings a water pistol to school that looks like a real gun and squirts Ferdy, and Ferdy retaliates with the rubberband gun. The police come, confiscate the gun, and give Too-Tall a warning for his foolishness. Much afterward, Brother and Sister are still shaken by the events. So Teacher Bob accidentally created the situation by trying to prevent it.

'''Instead''': Well, okay, they do at ''first.'' But later on, barely only a little while later in the episode, they seem to suffer a case of fifteen-minute AesopAmnesia and "fool around" with the ball ''again'', leading to them breaking Mama's lamp and setting the episode's plot in motion.

'''You'd Expect''': For Queenie to realize that Too-Tall, being the neighborhood bully and more than reckless enough to stick his nose wherever he desires, is best not told about the sleepover. Queenie should especially know better considering she's older than most of Sister's friend group.\\

'''You'd Expect''': For Lizzy to check in with her parents and make sure it's okay if there are more guests. Furthermore, you'd expect that the parents of these cubs would check in with Lizzy's parents to make sure it's okay, and ask what they should expect. It's implied that a lot of Lizzy's friends are young enough to have never attended a sleepover before, and it requires a high level of trust to let your child, especially those Sister's age, sleep away at an acquaintance's house.\\

** Sister comes home disheveled and crying in pain, much to Mama and Papa's consternation while Brother speculates that she was beaten up which turns out to be correct. Inside the house, Sister calms down to the point where she explains she had been bullied by a cub named [[MeaningfulName Tuffy]]. Papa is justifiably outraged.\\

'''Instead''': They conclude that Sister should simply [[AdultsAreUseless avoid Tuffy]], which would be useful advice if Sister hadn't been attacked at the school playground ''[[ForTheEvulz for no reason]]''.\\

'''However''': Upon Mama and Papa's statement that the two have become very spoiled, Gramps points out that [[ParentalHypocrisy Papa acted the exact same way at the general store when he was a cub]]. Fortunately, they offer a method they had put in place to prevent future incidents... but it amounts to having the cub choose a single item they want for the next errand and taking them home with ''nothing'' if they act up. While the family approves and their next trip to the supermarket goes without a hitch, [[BrokenAesop it undermines what Mama and Papa intended to teach the cubs earlier by still allowing them to get what they want]]. [[note]]Fortunately, the TV adaptation [[AuthorsSavingThrow rectifies this]] by showing a young Papa giving his toy truck to a poor family after a moment of deliberation and the cubs decide to donate their toys in the end, thus making its message against greed and selfishness work.[[/note]]

'''You'd Expect''': Mama to warn Brother and Sister that there will be consequences unless they stop fighting and start cleaning their room as they're expected to do, or at the very least ''encourage'' them to work together somehow.\\

'''You'd Expect''': That since Brother Bear was expected to learn how to divide ''without a teacher's input'' and that he arrived back to school ''on the day of the test'' he ''didn't know was coming'', that his teacher would at least cut him some slack and instead make sure Brother Bear understands division.\\

* "The Great Bat Cave" is a particularly great example from Ralph. Ralph hoodwinks all the grownups (except for Gramps and Gran) into supporting an initiative to turn the titular bat cave into a tourist trap.\\

* "The Great Bat Cave" is a particularly great example from Ralph. Ralph hoodwinks all the grownups (except for Gramps and Gran) into supporting an initiative to turn the titular bat cave into a tourist trap.

'''Instead''': They all pick up the IdiotBall very hard and get wrapped up in how they can profit on the tourist trap, [[NotNowKiddo callously brushing off]] Brother and Sister's objections. It falls upon the cubs (with the support of Gramps and Gran) to help the bats defend their cave. \\

'''Instead''': They all pick up the IdiotBall very hard and get wrapped up in how they can profit on the tourist trap, [[NotNowKiddo callously brushing off]] Brother and Sister's objections. It falls upon the cubs (with the support of Gramps and Gran) to help the bats defend their cave.

'''Instead''': The cubs are the only ones who hold any sort of skepticism, while the adults seem oddly forgiving of him for any past misdeeds and/or willing to shrug him off whenever he's clearly attempting another blatant con scheme of his. Furthermore, [[PoliceAreUseless law enforcement apparently doesn't consider him a worthwhile issue.]]
* "The Great Bat Cave" is a particularly great example for Ralph. Ralph hoodwinks all the grownups (except for Gramps and Gran) into supporting an initiative to turn the titular bat cave into a tourist trap.

** Brother and Sister have had enough of their parents giving them a hard time about the simplest mistakes, from borrowing a newspaper to giving a late reminder about a parent-teacher conference. [[note]]Made worse when, unlike the TV adaptation, we're given no explanation for their grumpy attitudes.[[/note]]

'''Luckily''': They all have a good laugh about it and make amends.\\

** Brother and Sister have had enough of their parents giving them a hard time about the simplest mistakes, from borrowing a newspaper to giving a late reminder about a parent-teacher conference. [[note]]Made worse when, unlike the TV adaptation, we're given no explanation for their grumpy attitudes.[[/note]]\\

** Brother and Sister have had enough of their parents giving them a hard time about the simplest mistakes, from borrowing a newspaper to giving a late reminder about a parent-teacher conference. [[note]]Made worse when, unlike the TV adaptation, we're given no explanation for their grumpy attitudes.[[/note]]
'''You'd Expect''': Mama and Papa to realize they were being too hard on their children, especially when they admit later on that they were cubs once too.
'''Instead''': It takes their cubs putting on a small play mimicking their actions to come to their senses.
'''You'd Then Expect''': The parents to apologize to their kids and thank them for making them see how strict they were acting.
'''Instead''': They decide to dress up like Brother and Sister and show them what it's like being parents, in a completely exaggerated manner.
'''Luckily''': They all have a good laugh about it and make amends.

** Sister comes home disheveled and crying in pain, much to Mama and Papa's consternation while Brother speculates that she was beat up which turns out to be correct. Inside the house, Sister calms down to the point where she explains she had been bullied by a cub named [[MeaningfulName Tuffy]]. Papa is justifiably outraged.\\

'''So''': Sister goes two days without an encounter with Tuffy. During the next day at recess, she sees Tuffy [[KickTheDog throwing rocks at a baby bird which is unable to fly]]. This upsets her so much that she scolds Tuffy, resulting in a fight. Sister manages to dodge Tuffy but ''successfully lands a punch to her nose'', resulting in a nosebleed. The scuffle grabs the attention of a recess teacher.\\
'''You'd Then Expect''': The teacher to question the two in order to get a reliable account of what happened and deal with the situation accordingly. Another recess teacher is stated to have witnessed the entire fight, so they could explain this to the teacher about to discipline Sister and Tuffy.\\

'''Instead''': [[AesopAmnesia They scream "Whaja-bringme? Whaja-bringme? Whaja-bringme?"]]. This proves to be the final straw for Papa, who furiously [[GoToYourRoom sends them both to their room]] and [[YouAreGrounded grounds them]].\\

** During summer, Sister often jumps rope with her friends Lizzy, Anna, Millie, and Linda. They have been practicing Double Dutch, which involves "the jumper jumps over two ropes that are being turned in opposite directions", and therefore requires at least three participants. One day, however, a new cub named Queenie [=McBear=], who wears hoop earrings and has a fancy 10-speed bike, arrives and allows Anna, Millie, and Linda to take turns riding her bike (Sister and Lizzy aren't yet big enough for two-wheelers). Sister greets Queenie with her usual friendly manner, but Queenie's attitude towards Sister is condescending. She makes fun of Sister's name and clothes, and then treats Anna, Millie, and Linda to ice cream at the Dairy Bear.\\

** Brother Bear notices that Sister is being overly friendly with the bears and animals they meet while going to the park. Instinct tells him that it could be dangerous due to her naivete if she gets lured away by a stranger.\\

'''You'd Then Expect''': When Sister asks him why it's a bad thing, that he would say talk to their mother. He knows that Papa Bear is an overprotective dad who goes overboard. Mama Bear is more reasonable about these things.\\

'''Predictably''': Papa Bear to illustrate his point shows Sister a news clipping of a kidnapped child who was found, with a suspect being questioned. Then he reads her a bedtime story about Wily Fox tricking Silly Goose into entering his lair, and eating the Goose in a few bites; Sister spends the whole night lying awake in bed, thinking about the story and the headlines. Mama Bear has to step in the next day to explain to Sister about common sense; you shouldn't be afraid of everyone, but trust your instincts. It's found that you are more likely to be hurt by someone you know than a stranger. As a visual aid, while Mama and Sister are making applesauce, Mama shows Sister an apple that looks strange on the outside, but is fine on the inside. She then shows her an apple that looks fine on the outside, but is full of worms on the inside.

'''You'd Expect''': Brother to have remembered what he told to Sister about not talking to strangers.\\

** As stated in the beginning of the story, every room in the Bears' tree house is neat and clean ''except'' Brother and Sister's room. Brother and Sister barely even ''try'' to maintain cleanliness and instead waste much of their time arguing when it comes time to do the job, much to Mama's indignation.\\

'''Eventually''': The chore inevitably becomes too much for Mama and [[DisproportionateRetribution she barges into the cubs' room with a large box and proceeds to hoard their possessions into it with the intention of throwing it all away]].\\

'''Instead''': They go out for the evening, and leave her with nothing more than her ''teenage babysitter'' (whose name is Cindy in the TV adaptation), which is not only an ''extremely'' irresponsible thing to do at such a major social milestone in your child's life, it also means she has very little power if anything gets out of hand, not to mention she likely doesn't know any of Lizzy's friends at all.\\
'''The Result''': Instead of four guests, Lizzy has now has seven (Sister, Anna, Millie, Queenie, Stacey, Karen, and Linda, and Too-Tall and his gang crashing the party brings the total to eleven). What was intended to be a small sleepover descends to utter chaos in a matter of seconds. It gets so noisy in the house that the neighbors even call the police [[note]]AdaptedOut of the TV episode, but the party still turns out the same way[[/note]], and by the time Lizzy's parents get back home late at night, the house is in complete shambles. Sister is grounded quite severely (a day in her room and a week in the house) and presumably so are all of the other invited guests. Too-Tall and his gang sneak away undetected, [[KarmaHoudini seemingly getting away with their actions]]. However, it's likely that Lizzy's parents called Too-Tall's father, Two-Ton Grizzly, and told him what happened. He's made it clear that he doesn't approve of his son's mischief and that of his son's gang.\\
'''At the Very, Very Least''': Papa is rather quick to point out that both he and Mama share part of the blame; she and Papa should have checked in with Lizzy's folks first before sending Sister off, and admit they would have called it off if they had known Mr. and Mrs. Bruin weren't going to be home in the first place. But considering the ridiculous amount of house guests, that still doesn't address all of the other parents who didn't think to do the same.\\
'''On The Other Hand''': Since Mama realizes that she and Papa are partly to blame, the next morning, she cancels the grounding. As a new punishment, she brings Sister over to Lizzy's to help clean up the mess. Anna's, Millie's, and Queenie's mothers have the same idea. Lizzy suggests making this a "clean-up party", but Sister declines, stating that "I don't want to hear the word ''party'' again for a long time".

'''You'd Expect''': That if Mama and Papa thought that a birthday child accepting a game prize at her own party is bad form, they would have taken the time to prepare Sister for that outcome ''before'' the party, hopefully giving some explanation behind the principle (e.g. it's a way to show appreciation for your guests coming and for bringing you lots of presents). Alternatively, they could have run the game without a prize, or even allowed Sister to make the choice of whether "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" would be played prize-free or whether there would be a prize but she could not claim it if she won.\\

'''Furthermore''': This and everything else that goes wrong for Sister causes her to break down during the singing of "Happy Birthday". When Mama asks her what the matter is, she wails out "It isn't fair!" And runs off a list of complaints, including not getting the donkey game prize. Her outburst is addressed with an invitation to open her presents. This does cheer her up, and the incidents that caused Sister to feel upset are not shown to have an effect on anything else that happens during the rest of the story. But no one addresses Sister's actual complaints. She doesn't even get an "I'm sorry some things didn't work out for you". Thus, Sister is given no closure as to the matters that made her cry.

** The plot features Brother Bear getting ''pretty'' sick and having to miss school for a week. During which, his math class learns how to divide (a pretty major aspect of arithmetic). Brother Bear is given makeup homework, which he doesn't do. When he returns, Teacher Bob gives a test on division.\\

'''Furthermore''': His parents apparently didn't know that he had makeup homework -- either because Sister didn't tell him, or the school didn't call them first -- ergo, they could have just sat down and made sure Brother did his homework when he was starting to feel better.

'''You'd Expect''': Mama and Papa would notice [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness their normally well-behaved cubs are suddenly acting differently]], question why they're not amicable to one another and try to resolve the dispute peacefully.\\

** During a bout of changing fashion trends, Queenie comes to school wearing a mini-skirt and a leotard; she was inspired by what her mother wore as a cub. Miss Glitch, a strict teacher, sees her and takes offense, despite Quenie not being her student.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Miss Glitch would either talk to Queenie's teacher about the outfit, or send Queenie to Principal Honeycomb's office.\\
'''Instead''': Miss Glitch sends Queenie home to change, despite Queenie protesting that Miss Glitch isn't her teacher. Everyone in the school sees because this happens in a busy corridor full of lockers.\\
'''The Result''': Queenie's mother calls Principal Honeycomb in a fury, saying that Miss Glitch overstepped her bounds and that the outfit should be school appropriate. The kids mutiny by upping their "rad" clothing; even Sister Bear, who was a neutral party, gets involved. Principal Honeycomb unfortunately happens to be leaving for a work-related trip that day, but it's implied he would have told off Miss Glitch.

'''You'd Expect''': He and Miss Glitch would create a nondisruptive group so as to get the neutral students on their side.\\

'''The Result''': The last neutral party, Ferdy, finds this TheLastStraw. He convinces the kids that if they strike in numbers then Vice-Principal Grizzmeyer can't suspend all of them or arrest their parents. Had the strike gone through as planned, it would have looked embarrassing for Grizzmeyer to see how many students are standing up to him, Miss Glitch and Papa Bear. If not for Mama Bear interfering and insisting that both parties have a debate on a weekend, bad publicity would have ensued.

'''The Result''': The circus cons Dr. Grizzly by having her sign multiple contracts which donate most of the profits to them and leaving the hospital with pennies. While it turns out [[NotMeThisTime Ralph had no idea]] and [[EvenEvilHasStandards is angered on Dr. Grizzly's behalf, because he thinks stealing from a hospital is too low for him]], the circus people nearly drown him when he confronts him, and the cubs have to find the original contract to prove the circus committed fraud.

** Brother, Sister and their friends need money for between Halloween and Christmas in order to buy presents, so they consider finding work in order to pay it off. After enough deliberation, they eventually agree on assisting Farmer Ben, whose farm is on the verge of financial ruin as a result of Ed Hooper's supermarket putting farmers out of business by selling goods at inflated prices. At some point later on, while the cubs are working, Hooper himself drops by the farm and offers to buy the goods to be sold at his supermarket but Ben naturally distrusts him, asking if he could afford to pay farmers higher prices than he usually does.\\

'''You'd Then Expect''': Hooper, who has enough monetary clout as is, to try and concoct an advertising gimmick in order to draw his customers back to the supermarket.\\

'''The Result''': Farmer Ben suspects Hooper was behind it and calls the police, who also note that Big Bear University is missing numerous test tubes of blight. Eventually, at the Halloween Festival the cubs and Farmer Ben (after convincing from them) set up for yet another fundraiser, the police interrupt the titular attraction for everyone's safety as a cart wheel came loose. On top of that, they have connected the dots and have caught Hooper trying to sabotage Farmer Ben's market and the festival. [[LaserGuidedKarma He is then arrested]] and his supermarket ends up under the ownership of the farmers whose markets went under because of his business.\\

** As an experiment, Teacher Bob's students all receive laptops. Teacher Bob is interested to see if the students using the Internet will improve their grades. At this point, the Internet allows all the cubs to find chatrooms and search for information like about sports or the news.\\
'''You'd Expect''': Teacher Bob would have the local Internet connection installed with parental controls, and start the class by talking about basic Internet safety, like use a safe pseudonym and don't share personal information with a stranger.\\

'''The Result''': At one point Queenie's sister sets her up with a guy she's met online, who ends up being Too-Tall fortunately, and they both have a laugh about it. Lizzie by some weird luck encounters extortionists on a chatroom that are planning to blow up Squire Grizzly's mansion, and Squire Grizzly happens to be Bonnie's uncle. The kids' grades also go down except for those who had computers at home, so Teacher Bob decides to confiscate the laptops and put them in a lab at the school.

'''You'd Expect''': Teacher Bob would have a discussion with his students about guns, to get their viewpoints and to try and impress the nature that real guns aren't toys. They could discuss the recent case and why a cub would be so reckless to bring a loaded weapon. It could also lend some perspective about why some homeowners like Farmer Ben have guns -- to protect livestock from varmints, or Two-Ton shooting rats in the dump-- and how to avoid tragedy.\\

'''The Result''': After a rocky start, Ferdy and Too-Tall find out the only invention they have a mutual interest in is guns, and Ferdy decides to make a safe rubberband gun that is absolutely harmless for their demonstration. Teacher Bob forgets that Too-Tall is a vengeful bully, and just as Too-Tall makes headway, he is humiliated when he loses his cool and Ferdy stays calm on a run to his father's dump for inner tubes. Too-Tall brings a water pistol to school that looks like a real gun and squirts Ferdy, and Ferdy retaliates with the rubberband gun. The police come, confiscate the gun, and give Too-Tall a warning for his foolishness. Much afterward, Brother and Sister are still shaken by the events. So Teacher Bob accidentally created the situation by trying to prevent it.

* Exclusive to this adaptation of "The Truth", the episode opens with Brother and Sister "[[InsistentTerminology fooling around]]" with their soccer ball in the house, which Mama immediately reminds them is against the well-established house rules, and points out that the outdoors exist for a reason.\\

'''You'd Then Expect''': When Sister asks him why it's a bad thing, that he would say talk to their mother. He knows that Papa Bear is an OverprotectiveDad who goes overboard. Mama Bear is more reasonable about these things.\\

These books have plenty of "unbearably" stupid moments, do they not?