Arnold Betrays Iggy is an episode in the Hey Arnold! TV Series.
Synopsis
Iggy in his bunny pajamas
Arnold goes to Iggy's house, and finds out he wears bunny pajamas. Arnold finds it funny that a boy of Iggy's age wears bunny pajamas - risking social embarrassment and humiliation from peers at school. Iggy makes Arnold promise that he won't tell anybody. The next day on the bus, Arnold is chuckling to himself, thinking about Iggy wearing the bunny pajamas. When Sid and Stinky ask what's funny, Arnold makes the mistake of saying " it was just something Iggy was wearing." When Sid correctly guesses, Arnold's cheeks turn red, and within ten minutes the whole school knows Iggy's humiliating secret. Iggy is convinced that Arnold told all the kids about his secret, and refuses to forgive him. Arnold witnesses Iggy being ridiculed and humiliated by boys and girls all day at school — so he thinks of some ways he could make it up to Iggy. He buys him chocolates and even offers to do his chores for a whole week. However, Iggy still refuses to forgive Arnold. When Arnold asks Iggy what he has to do to prove he is sorry, Iggy gets an idea. He takes Arnold to his closet and shows him that he must humiliate himself in front of the whole city.
The next day we see Iggy has gathered near fifty people to stand outside Arnold's house. There is a long, red carpet stretched down the steps of his house, that goes all the way across the street. Iggy is sitting in a lounge chair at the end of it smiling, with a sign put out that reads: "Grovel Here." Even Arnold's own grandfather is looking forward to see his grandson humiliated, and tells him he'll be "taking pictures for the album" and laughs at him. He says "You're gonna look great." However, Iggy finds out it was really Stinky and Sid who blabbed his secret while overhearing them talking about him taking things too far with Arnold's punishment and how it was really them who spread his secret, not Arnold. Iggy tries to stop Arnold, but it's too late - Arnold's door creaks open, and we get a close up shot of bunny slippers slowly walking onto the carpet. It is Arnold in the bunny pajamas, not noticing that Iggy was trying to stop the dilemma. The scene is shot in slow motion of Arnold walking past dozens of boys and girls, pointing and laughing at him, and taking pictures. A young boy takes a water gun and squirts the fluffy bunny tail on the butt of the pajamas, and laughs as Arnold becomes increasingly embarrassed and humiliated. A man with a news camera is laughing, and broadcasts Arnold's humiliation on TV while kids point and laugh and say "Look, the bunny boy's on TV!".
Arnold's humiliation
Arnold looks around and takes a long glance at everyone pointing, laughing, taking pictures, and enjoying the humiliation before he slowly walks back toward the house, in which Iggy yells out to him. Arnold turns to look at him then walks away.
The next day, the now (very) bitter Arnold finds Iggy on his front doorstep, begging for forgiveness for his embarrassing punishment, trying to tell Arnold he regrets doing it, and not knowing that it was really Stinky and Sid who found out. However, Arnold simply glares at Iggy and walks away as Iggy yells out after him in regret.
Reception
Thousands of fans and critics, and even Craig Bartlett himself hate this episode and call it one of the worst episodes in the series (if not, the worst) because of Sid & Stinky being portrayed negatively while getting no consequences for their actions, Arnold putting himself through embarrassment just for wanting Iggy's forgiveness, Iggy being an unforgiving jerk, and many of Arnold's friends/acquaintances laughing at him in the end. As a result of this episode's poor reception, Iggy never had another major role on the show, and was relegated to background appearances in later episodes (despite Stinky & Sid being the true antagonists of the episode). This episode was also pulled off the show's airing rotation on Bartlett's request when the show still aired on Nickelodeon.
Trivia
- Gerald wasn't watching Arnold's horrible humiliation, even though, he was seen laughing at Iggy with Rhonda. This proves that Gerald is a true friend to Arnold and would never laugh at his demise and sadness.
- Other characters who were absent during Arnold's humiliation include Grandma, Mr. Hyunh, Mrs. Vitello, Ms. Slovak, Mr. Simmons, Principal Wartz, Coach Wittenberg, Dino Spumoni, Mayor Dixie, Torvald, Big Patty, Ruth, Lila, Chocolate Boy, Peapod Kid, Timberly, Jamie O, and Olga.
- Stinky tells his friends every morning why he likes lemon pudding.
- As of this episode, Arnold and Iggy are no longer friends.
Goofs
- In the cafeteria scene, when the camera faces the top view, we see Harold eating beside Iggy. But when it faces Arnold, we see Iggy eating alone. In the same scene, Arnold's food tray overlaps Iggy's.