Arthur Megathread - A thread for all fans of the critically acclaimed PBS children's show

[Mrs Paul]

I'm not really that familiar with Arthur, but it seems like it's just, "teacher's getting married, and his spouse happens to be another dude." That's it. Kids will probably just take it in stride, as long as adults do. They'll forget about it and go back to whatever they were doing. Adults ALWAYS make things worse when they fuss over everything. (Think the whole big deal over "violent video games", or "heavy metal music" for example)

You know, you can't shelter kids forever. They're going to encounter gay people. Some of them probably already have gay teachers, gay relatives, or honestly, are gay themselves. (No, you don't "turn gay".) Better to just treat it like, "some people are straight, and then sometimes you meet people who are gay. They're basically just like everyone else."

Plus, Arthur's for what, six-year-olds? Most of them at that age don't give a shit about sex, unless they want to know how babies are made.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Nothing controversial about it and it's not like they were advertising it. It was kind of just "oh hey guess what he is marrying a guy lol"

 

[Truthspeaker]

I don’t care about Ratdick being gay, but the way they announced it definitely gives the impression that they did it for woke points, not because they thought it suited the character.

That was just thinkpiece writers, you sperg.

The episode itself neither advertized Ratburn was marrying a dude in advanced, nor did the episode itself bring up he was marrying a dude 'til the last act, nor was it treated in the very-special fashion once it was revealed. Which you could've found out if you read an actual synopsis of the episode, like in the second paragraph of this article.

There are times when this has been done in a damaging and gratuitous way, like when Smithers came out of the closet in The Simpsons. I didn't even like Willow turning into a lesbian in Season 4 of Buffy, since it was so obvious Xander was intended to be the gay one and I didn't really like Tara for at least a season after she was introduced. But this doesn't compare to those in any way, and you're only committed to acting otherwise because you decided in advanced what the story was really about the moment you read the headline rather than spending even thirty seconds clicking a link and reading what went on.

There's no faster path to becoming a right-wing equivalent of an SJW.

Nothing controversial about it and it's not like they were advertising it. It was kind of just "oh hey guess what he is marrying a guy lol"

It actually reminded me of the Captain Underpants book revealing Harold (the white one who drew the comics) was married to a man when they did a time travel segment. Nobody made a big deal about that. It was just something that happened as a detail in a part of a larger story.

The only reason we haven't seen more incidental gayness in big-budget movies is because of the Chinese Market, which has been the worst artistic infliction to happen to Hollywoid since the Hays Code.

 

[UE 558]

That was just thinkpiece writers, you sperg.

The episode itself neither advertized Ratburn was marrying a dude in advanced, nor did the episode itself bring up he was marrying a dude 'til the last act, nor was it treated in the very-special fashion once it was revealed. Which you could've found out if you read an actual synopsis of the episode, like in the second paragraph of this article.

There are times when this has been done in a damaging and gratuitous way, like when Smithers came out of the closet in The Simpsons. I didn't even like Willow turning into a lesbian in Season 4 of Buffy, since it was so obvious Xander was intended to be the gay one and I didn't really like Tara for at least a season after she was introduced. But this doesn't compare to those in any way, and you're only committed to acting otherwise because you decided in advanced what the story was really about the moment you read the headline rather than spending even thirty seconds clicking a link and reading what went on.

There's no faster path to becoming a right-wing equivalent of an SJW.


It actually reminded me of the Captain Underpants book revealing Harold (the white one who drew the comics) was married to a man when they did a time travel segment. Nobody made a big deal about that. It was just something that happened as a detail in a part of a larger story.

The only reason we haven't seen more incidental gayness in big-budget movies is because of the Chinese Market, which has been the worst artistic infliction to happen to Hollywoid since the Hays Code.

I’m sorry I didn’t think long, hard, and veiny about a gay rat from an educational cartoon while writing a brief, admittedly shitty post in the walmart checkout line okay, calm down nigger.

 

[Truthspeaker]

I’m sorry I didn’t think long, hard, and veiny about a gay rat from an educational cartoon while writing a brief, admittedly shitty post in the walmart checkout line okay, calm down nigger.

I didn't think long or hard about this either. It didn't even take a minute for me to read the synopsis.

 

[UE 558]

I didn't think long or hard about this either. It didn't even take a minute for me to read the synopsis.

Fair, I was just being lazy

 

[Truthspeaker]

Fair, I was just being lazy

It's nothing personal from my end, neither. I expect to be treated the same way myself.

 

[UE 558]

It's nothing personal from my end, neither. I expect to be treated the same way myself.

Fair.

Wanna know what’s way more detrimental to Arthur than gay rats? The shit-ass flash animation they’ve been using for the last 7 years. This shit looks like a fan animation done by a fucking high schooler

 

[UF 404]

That was just thinkpiece writers, you sperg.

The episode itself neither advertized Ratburn was marrying a dude in advanced, nor did the episode itself bring up he was marrying a dude 'til the last act, nor was it treated in the very-special fashion once it was revealed. Which you could've found out if you read an actual synopsis of the episode, like in the second paragraph of this article.

Revealing a character from such a popular and long running series to be gay in the current climate is going to be blown out of proportion by both sides regardless of what the reveal was like or the intent of the creators.

As I said earlier, I don't really like what they did with him or the series in general, but I will agree that this scene could've been way worse. It's not like Mr Ratburn pranced around with a pride flag and his students said "I'm glad we moved out of the dark ages where this used to be shunned" and then Francine made out with Sue Ellen. However, I don't think it's possible today to reveal a character as iconic as Mr Ratburn to be gay without resulting in people losing their minds and treating it like it's a bigger deal than the creators intended it to be.

 

[Mrs Paul]

What sucked about Smithers coming out of the closet is that the whole "he's gay, but we don't come out and say it" made it a hell of a lot funnier. You know? Granted, the Simpsons itself has sucked for a while now, but c'mon, that just totally screwed one of the best parts of the character. Everyone KNEW Smithers was gay (well, except Mr. Burns)

They should've just cancelled the damned show a long time ago.

 

[Travoltron]

I agree, closeted gays make for great character comedy.
I never thought "look, it's a fag!" humor was funny, like you'd see in 70s and 80s movies sometimes.

 

[Slap47]

This show literally had a 9-11 episode. I'm surprised the creator didn't do this sooner.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

The show was never the same when the janitor left tbh.

Also relevant:

 

[Super-Chevy454]

What sucked about Smithers coming out of the closet is that the whole "he's gay, but we don't come out and say it" made it a hell of a lot funnier. You know? Granted, the Simpsons itself has sucked for a while now, but c'mon, that just totally screwed one of the best parts of the character. Everyone KNEW Smithers was gay (well, except Mr. Burns)

They should've just cancelled the damned show a long time ago.

It reminds me of these classics Simpsons moments.

 

[nostalgiaisadrug]

US TV station bans gay wedding cartoon

Alabama Public Television refuses to air a cartoon featuring a male rat and aardvark getting married.

www.bbc.com

The first episode of the 22nd series of children's programme Arthur features the character Mr Ratburn marrying his aardvark partner, Patrick.
But APT instead ran an old episode, and announced it had no plans to show the premiere.
Programming director Mike McKenzie said broadcasting it would break parents' trust in the network.
In a statement, Mr McKenzie said "parents trust that their children can watch APT without their supervision", and that children "younger than the 'target' audience" might watch without parental knowledge.

Show creator WGBH and broadcaster PBS reportedly alerted local stations in April about the episode, and Mr McKenzie said this was when they decided not to air the show.

 

[drtoboggan]

Alabama: the anus of America.

 

[MuuMuu Bunnylips]

Alabama: the anus of America.

To be fair, it's Arthur.

 

[Billy_Mays_SixPack]

TIL that Arthur is still on the air and making new episodes.

 

[Rand /pol/]

Southerners have all got to be downright autistic, they vote against more social programs and taxation, both of which disproportionately help poor white southerners, yet they throw a shit fit over faggots on TV.

 

[Ghostapplesause]

Imagine being afraid of a gay rat.