Sid and Germs is an episode in the Hey Arnold! TV Series.
Synopsis
Sid was the champion frog-catcher of P.S. 118 and was going to be in the Annual Frog-Catching Contest until he becomes obsessively clean after watching a hygiene film.
Plot
The episode opens with Stinky, Gerald, and Arnold watching Sid catch frogs. They are preparing for the upcoming Frog Catching competition. Stinky is worried that they will lose the competition because Wolfgang is entering a team. Arnold tells Stinky that there's nothing to worry about because Sid is the best frog catcher. Sid is able to catch frogs in his mouth, a practice which disgusts the others. He tells them that it's not gross and shows them Sidney, who is the first frog he ever caught.
The next day at school, they watch a hygiene video about germs. Sid is freaked out by the video becoming a germaphobe. He starts with a can of disinfectant and gloves, then he throws away Harold's lunch and then returning home to obsessively clean his room and covering everything in plastic bags. He goes to school the next day in a diving suit and gives Arnold Sidney, telling Arnold that Sidney is too germy to keep. Helga claps some erasers in Harold's face who then sneezes on Sid's helmet. Sid freaks out and returns home.
Arnold goes to Sid's after school to give him his homework. Sid is still obsessively cleaning his room at this point. Arnold tells Sid that there are germs everywhere and he just has to accept it which results in Sid panicking. Sid has a nightmare where he is controlled by the germs like a puppet and being swarmed and eventually eaten by giant cockroaches (the man from the hygeine film also appears and becomes one of the roaches as well). He wakes up the next morning and hears Sidney croaking outside the door. Sid opens the door and sees Sidney looking up at him. Sid cries, and picks up Sidney exclaiming that he's back.
At the competition, Gerald has given up all hope of winning the competition saying that Sid was their only hope. Sid then shows up beating on his chest. With Sid's help, the fourth graders of P.S. 118 win the competition. Afterwards, Stinky comments about Sid's drastic change. Sid says that it's all a part of life. It's just nature and he wouldn't want to give up something as big apart of his life as Sidney is. After Sid kisses Sidney, he jumps on Helga's head who screams in panic and then jumps in a body of water. Sid says, "What's bugging her?"
Gallery
Trivia
- Everybody but Sheena moaned when they realized it was a hygiene film.
- When Sid uses his disinfectant, it has a squeeze trigger, but it sprays a constant spray like an aerosol.
- This is the second time that Sid is seen in his underwear, the first time was in World Records.
- Sid was the only one wearing shoes in the contest.
- In the credits it says NO FROGS OR PIGS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS FILM. This is a reference to the "no animals were harmed in the making of this film" message in the credits of every movie that uses animals.
- Craig Bartlett was credited as both Abner the pig and Sidney the frog.
- Stinky says "no bout a-doubt it."
- Gerald says "I don't think we have a snowball's chance in..." but is cut off before he can say "hell."
- The film's narrator is modeled after Rod Serling, most famous as the creator and original host of The Twilight Zone.
Goofs
- When Sid is spraying his paint brush and Helga asks what he's doing, Arnold is not in the seat behind Helga.
- How did Sid's hat fit inside his diving helmet?
- Sid is wearing no gloves as he watches Harold pick up his sausage.
- Sid was seen scrubbing his drawer chest with his right hand but then it's his left hand and then right hand again.
- Sid wouldn't have been able to breathe in his "clean suit" because it's a diving suit, which needs air continuously pumped into it.
- When Sheena was telling it's time to begin, Harold's tooth was supposed to be on the other side.
- Craig Bartlett is credited as voicing Brainy, but he didn't have a speaking role in the episode.
- Sid's screams from Sid the Vampire Slayer are reused when Sid's devoured by the insects in his nightmare, however he isn't screaming in the nightmare when he is eaten.
- Sid is seen in his underwear when he first catches some frogs, even though he is wearing his pants throughout the contest.