Episode of Hey Arnold!
April Fool's Day
Season 5, Episode 98
Air date: April 1, 2002
IMDb • TV.com Don Del Grande's

April Fool's Day is a special half-hour episode in the Hey Arnold! TV Series.

SummaryEdit

It's April Fool's Day at P.S. 118 and everyone, including Helga, plays pranks on one other. However,  Helga mainly targets Arnold, humilating him for most of the day. Then after she sets a tray of puding on his seat, he gets back at her with a gift box that glares a bright light. Unfortunately, he isn't aware that the box temporarily blinds someone. Helga decides to use this to her advantage by acting like she's permanently blind. She occassionally messes up by proving that she's not blind, but she manages to cover it up.

After he walks her home, he follows his grandfather's advice and asks her if she'd like to the April Fool's Dance held at the school. She accidentally reveals to Phoebe that she's pretending to be blind only to reveal to Arnold that it's another prank, but Gerald overhears this and tells Arnold. They come up with a plan to finally get back at Helga without hurting her this time. Arnold and Helga dance while Gerald opens up the pool that's in the gym. When the dance ends, Arnold spins Helga right into the pool.

TriviaEdit

• Arnold says Helga's birthday was last week, meaning that Helga was born roughly around March 24th.
• The YMAA's gym floor can be opened up to get access to the pool. This is a reference to the dance scene in the movie It's a Wonderful Life.
• This was the first episode to feature Alex D. Linz as the voice of Arnold. The other episode where he voiced him was "The Journal".
• This is the only episode not to feature Sam Gifaldi as the voice of Sid. In this episode, he was voiced by Sam's younger brother, Taylor Gifaldi.
• Unlike the episodes "Arnold's Christmas", "Arnold's Valentine", "Arnold's Halloween" and "Veterans Day", this episode actually aired on the day of April Fool's Day.
• Canonically, this episode takes place after the "Hey Arnold!: The Movie", which means Arnold already knows about Helga's feelings.
• Gerald states that Arnold is too "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind" for April Fool's Day. Those characteristics are 6 of the 12 laws, in order, of Boy Scouts of America's 'Scout Law'.
• Harold and Patty are seen dancing together in one scene, either implying that they went to the dance as friends or as a couple.

See alsoEdit

• Quotes from this episode
• Transcript of this episode