Deconstructing Arnold is an episode in the Hey Arnold! TV Series.
Summary
While the kids are on the bus on their way to school, Sid is prank calling on Lorenzo's phone, which he stole while Lorenzo is on vacation, and the others giggle. When Arnold calls him out on this, Helga tells him to mind his own business. Rhonda writes a fake secret admirer love letter to Curly, hoping it will get him off her back for good, and again Helga tells Arnold to mind his own business when he tries to talk Rhonda out of it. Finally, Stinky and Harold tamper with Eugene's bike, which Arnold suggests against as well, and yet again Helga tells Arnold to mind his own business with almost everyone agreeing with her. So Arnold decides to stop his reputation of giving advice.
Unfortunately, all of the kids' pranks backfire horribly: Eugene's bike doesn't fall apart as planned and he crashes through a fence across the street which causes a few of the neighborhood dogs to maul him, leaving him seriously injured and Harold and Stinky racked with agonizing guilt; Curly finds out that Rhonda wrote the love letter because Rhonda used the same pen on a history essay as she used for the letter, causing him to fall in love with her even more; furthermore, a kid throws a paper airplane at Sid, causing him to drop Lorenzo's phone and break it. When everyone wants advice, Arnold refuses to help, reminding them that they agreed with Helga that he should mind his own business, and that's what he's going to do. The other kids become angry with Helga for making Arnold stop giving advice, so Helga takes it upon herself to fix their problems.
However, her advice just makes their problems worse: when Sid arrives at Lorenzo's locker to put the phone back per Helga's instruction, Lorenzo, back early from vacation, appears right behind him, and becomes extremely angry to the point of wanting to kill Sid upon seeing his phone broken; what Helga tells Rhonda to say to Curly just makes him say "give daddy some sugar!" and kiss her; Helga tells Stinky and Harold to blame the bike on someone else, but Stinky and Harold blame it on each other and accidentally pushed Eugene's wheelchair down the stairs in the process, injuring him further. The kids are all then left furious at Helga for her horrible advice.
Helga then feels unbearably guilty for causing Arnold to stop giving advice. She then persuades Arnold to resume giving out advice, saying his friends are a complete mess without him, which he agrees to do. First, he tells Sid to start by apologizing to Lorenzo for stealing his phone in the first place; he tells Rhonda to explain her situation with Curly; and he tells Stinky and Harold to ask for forgiveness from Eugene (if he can still hear them at least, since he's now in a full body cast).
Gallery
.png "Sid talks to Arnold about a problem (Destructing Arnold).png (489 KB)")
.png "Harold, Stinky, Sid, and Rhonda (Deconstructing Arnold).png (503 KB)")
.png "Harold, Stinky and Sid (Deconstructing Arnold).png (493 KB)")
Trivia
- Curly is voiced by Haley Joel Osment (best known for his roles in The Sixth Sense and A.I. Artificial Intelligence), instead of Adam Wylie, for this episode only.
- In reality, tampering with someone's bike is a felony, yet Stinky and Harold merely got off by apologizing.
- In this episode, Harold says that "If she wasn't a girl I'd pound her." In the episode "Helga's Show" Harold threatened to pound Helga despite her gender.
- The title could be a reference to the Woody Allen comedy Deconstructing Harry.
- Kibitzer is a non-participant person, offering (often unwanted) advice or commentary.
- Nadine giggles when Arnold arrives at the classroom after hearing Rhonda reading Curly's fake letter she's writing.
Goofs
- When Eugene first walks to his bike, Sid has a full head of hair, but when Eugene gets on, Sid's hair is stringy.
- When Sid is first seen attempting to open Lorenzo's locker nobody else can be seen, and before Sid sees Lorenzo and accidentally destroying his phone, Lorenzo suddenly appears behind him.
- After the kids get angry about Helga's advice Eugene's mouth doesn't move when he says "Um guys?" and in the same scene Sid suddenly vanishes right after Rhonda tells Curly to go away.
See also
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