Hey Arnold!/Headscratchers


 * I keep hearing about this alleged evidence that Arnold likes Helga back. Can anyone elaborate?
 * Whatever happened to the mysterious Mr. Smith after the earlier seasons?
 * Or Gerald's friend "fuzzy slippers"?
 * They ran off together.
 * Why is that the most memorable episodes are less about Arnold and more about the other kids with the possibility of Arnold helping them overcome something? Sure, the first couple seasons were all about our favorite football-head, but there are plenty of episodes, mostly in later seasons, that focus less on Arnold himself and more about how he helps the people around him. What's up with this?
 * Because the producers/creators wanted to show that Arnold was not the only kid living in the city of whatever-it-was, and they wanted to flesh out the people he hung out with.
 * In "Crush on Teacher", why did Arnold assume that Miss Felter had invited him over? I know Gerald had misunderstood what he overheard, but why would Arnold show up at someone's house when he wasn't told to?
 * Why did Arnold not find his parents? I thought there was a trailer for a movie about that.
 * The show got axed before the movie could be made.


 * What is Arnold's last name?
 * It's heavily hinted in the series, and if This Troper remembers correctly, confirmed in an interview.
 * Actually he said that it was almost confirmed, not fully confirmed.


 * In the episode Grand Prix, an episode about soapbox racing, Arnold's car (The Dark Avenger) and Eugene's car (The Mauve Storm) crash together badly breaking them. They later used the parts from both cars to make a new car, leading to arguements about what name to use from the old cars to give to the amalgamated car. Then someone, IIRC, Stinky suggests calling it The Mauve Avenger, which we get after a Gilligan Cut. Why the hell didn't they call it the Dark Storm?!?
 * Rule of Funny


 * Watching the show again ten years later, the show is cast in an entirely different light. Helga's obsession, which at one time seemed cute and a great setup for some slapstick, now just seems incredibly creepy. Helga's whole family is pretty messed-up, and looking back it's a bit disturbing that I thought it was rather normal at the time. There's also Lila and a couple of other scenes, but what really got me was Arnold's lack of parents and how about the only time he's not optimistic and cheerful and always helping everyone out and such is whenever he's reminded of it. I couldn't rewatch the episodes where Phil talks about them like they're Indiana Jones clones without thinking 'really, kid, you believe any of that?'
 * #1- Helga's just a child with a crush on Arnold. It's not like she wants to get into his pants. #2- Her family is messed up, and I don't know why you thought that was normal, because it wasn't. XD and #3- Arnold is sad because he misses his dead parents. Phil making them up to be Indiana Jones clones, making them larger than life would appeal to a kid like him (Who was probably in the fourth grade). They were awesome and he could be just as awesome.
 * I figured that his parents really WERE Indiana Jones clones. Why couldn't Phil's story be true?
 * Unless Phil faked the contents of Miles' journal, Arnold himself could confirm that his parents really did have many of the adventures that Phil had told him. Even though Phil admitted that many of the stories he had told Arnold as he grew up had been "embellished" - or even made up - so that he could satisfy Arnold's appetite for information about Miles and Stella, he did also say that they were based on the types of adventures that Arnold's parents really had together.
 * What is that at the bottom of Phoebe's sweater? Is it part of her sweater or is it the bottom of her skirt?
 * Part of her sweater, designed to match the collar. This sweatshirt-wearing troper has the same thing on most of his clothes.
 * What kind of kid says "criminy"?
 * A kid who hears it constantly from her dad.
 * I know we're supposed to feel sorry for Helga because of her neglectful parents, perfectionist sister, and her childhood. But does that justify her actions towards Arnold? I mean, he's got it pretty hard too. His parents went missing and are presumed to be dead, his grandparents, despite their love, don't always understand him, and he's often too nice to retaliate against Jerkasses. Shouldn't she at least be more empathetic?
 * She's also afraid of her crush revealed remember?
 * And despite the insight and depth all the characters show, they're still preteens, not sure of how to express their feelings.
 * It's because Helga doesn't exactly have an ideal home life that she acts the way she does; because she's never exactly received real affection, she doesn't know how to express it to others. She may not be acting the right way, but her actions themselves make sense. In a lot of ways her love for Arnold is selfish, so you can't expect her to put his feelings above hers.
 * Why did no one call CPS on Helga's parents? Sure, it's at best a benign neglect and they do occasionally show something resembling decent parenting, but no one looked into things? Mr. Simmons should have had an inkling, given her poetry on the things in her life, and she even went to a therapist on one occasion, yet no one ever seems to take the next step?
 * Big Bob and Miriam are certainly emotionally neglectful, but their behavior is extremely tame compared to the sorts of situations CPS exists to handle. I think you're missing the point of 'Helga on the Couch' and the show altogether, which is that 'normal' doesn't exist, trust in humanity is often betrayed but is still a good thing to have, and with enough perseverance things will likely turn out okay - Helga's therapist explicitly says that it's perfectly fine to build the statue of Arnold's head out of his used chewing gum, see the Christmas and Thanksgiving specials for more of this sort of theme.
 * Helga? Why didn't anyone call CPS on STOOP KID? I think someone who appears to have no parents, has never gone to school, and no apparent source of income or food is more important than Helga.


 * How old is Harold? He had a Bar Mitzvah even though he's in fourth grade. He was held back (once?), so he around ten at best.
 * Depending on when your birthday falls, you can be ten for the majority of your time in fourth grade. So instead of nine-ten, he could be ten-eleven. Still, he'd need to be held back more to be thirteen.
 * Well, he may have only been held back once for fourth grade, but perhaps he was held back in earlier grades as well?
 * Except in "Helga on the Couch" he's in preschool with all of the rest of the kids.


 * Why does Arnold have a clock that looks like him?
 * I always thought it was made by his grandparents, with Arnold helping out. Same thing with that unbelievably awesome room in the attic, complete with killer sound system, remote-controlled revolving couch, skylights and direct access to the roof.


 * Did the Thanksgiving special seem like a Broken Aesop to anyone else? The general message is a fairly ordinary sort of "The grass is always greener" situation combined with some "Be nice to your family" sort of thing. The problem to me seems to be that the message is delivered to both Arnold... and Helga. While Arnold's True Companions are genuinely likeable people, quirks aside (even Oscar isn't entirely the product of his own laziness), Helga's parents... really aren't good people. Although the special gives them a Pet the Dog moment, the fact still remains that, 99% of the time, Bob is a self-absorbed money-grubbing man with almost no regard for the rest of humanity--even his own daughter most of the time--and her mother is perpetually sloshed and hungover. Their concern almost seems... out-of-character, considering how little they care for her otherwise. And even if it's sincere, shouldn't they be treating her as nicely all the time? (Olga's fine, and her worries are almost certainly truthful--but, that's to be expected of Olga.) We're supposed to see Simmon's family as little better, but unlike Helga's family (of whom we have multiple instances of their negligence), we only see them once, and the implication (especially from Mr. Simmons himself) is that they're really very nice; they're just not party people.
 * In one episode, after Arnold complains about Helga being mean to him, Grandpa Phil tells him a story about a girl who looked and acted much like Helga in his own youth named Gurdy, and this girl was always tormenting Phil. At the end of the episode, Arnold leaves the room after Phil is done with his story, and his grandma comes in and Phil calls her Gurdy, showing that he ended up marrying the girl who was always picking on him. But presumably Arnold knows his own grandmother's name, so why didn't he make the connection that Gurdy was his grandma? I mean, Gurdy's not exactly a common name.
 * "Gurdy" is most likely just Phil's affectionate nickname for her, not her actual name.
 * I thought that it was "Gertie", short for Gertrude. Anyway, there's no reason that Arnold should know his grandmother's name. Phil always calls her "Pookie", the rest of the boarders call her "Grandma", and I doubt that she can remember her own name.
 * Sorry, you're right, it is Gertie. Though why wouldn't he know his grandma's name? Especially when she and his grandpa are the ones that are raising him. I guess no one really calls her Gertie that much, but you'd think he still know his own grandmother's name.
 * Could be a bit of Truth in Television. I remember being roughly in the third grade when my parents finally told me that Grandma had a first name, because everyone's either called her 'mom' or 'grandma' around me. Maybe that's the same with Arnold.
 * Phil's sister addresses her as Gertie in front of Arnold.
 * In "Freeze Frame", why would butchers throw a birthday party for their competition?
 * Butchering isn't some highly competitive field, and throwing birthday parties for each other doesn't really affect business. Also, they were actually close friends of Greene he hadn't seen in a long time.
 * Just because they're competitors doesn't mean they have to not do anything nice for them...you can be friends.
 * In the episode where Phoebe got her leg in a cast, why does no one object to Helga washing Phoebe's hair in the school water fountain?
 * Well, school water fountains are already disgusting, so what could her hair do to make it worse?
 * Probably so Phoebe can see Arnold. If Helga was doing it in somewhere more intuitive (The sink), then there's no way Arnold should have been able to walk by and get the point of that scene across. (Because why would Arnold be in the girl's room?)
 * So...Stinky's a vampire, according to the Twist Ending of "Sid the Vampire Slayer". After that episode, it's never addressed again. Am I the only one bothered by this?
 * I think pretty much every single "horror" episode ends like that, revealing that the The End - or Is It?...indeed was it. Don't give it much thought. Ernie should be dead according to one of those...
 * As should Curly.
 * So in The Movie, they start bulldozing at like eight AM...and there are still people inside the buildings that are slated for demolition. Didn't any of the bulldozer drivers find something wrong with this?
 * Arnold's bus pass: "Name: Arnold -- Born: Yes". Uhhhh...
 * Shouldn't Curly get help for his.. Behavior? Maybe a therapist, or a transfer to a new school?
 * Why has no one taken notice about Helga's parents neglect? When someone around 4 years old goes to preschool by themselves in the rain, doesn't that trigger a reaction?
 * Stoop Kid. Does he go to school? Why don't the police care? Does he really only live on the stoop?
 * Seeing as he seems to have trouble reading The Little Engine that Could, he likely doesn't go to school at all.
 * Social Services Does Not Exist.
 * I keep hearing about Lila's "dark side". What is this? Is she some sort of Stepford Smiler who has a deeply repressed side?
 * It's never really brought into light, but it's hinted she's not as innocent as she lets on. Lila has continuously lead Arnold on, making him think she may "like him, like him" only for her to let him down hard in the end. There was also a time where she damn near forced Helga to admit she was in love with Arnold. The look on her face was very coy and even out of character for her, like she was enjoying how difficult it was for Helga to spit it out.
 * Craig talks about it here. He says that, despite fan accusations, Lila's not a bad person, but she does act subconsciously negative string Arnold and Helga along. He says she and Helga would become friends later, so she probably finally started acting outwardly negative at some point (and that's something Helga relates to and respects.)
 * How does Helga keep her framed picture of Arnold in her shirt when she lacks a Victoria's Secret Compartment?
 * I always assumed it was hooked into the inside of her dress.
 * I thought she had a pocket on the inside of her dress.
 * She might wear a training bra.
 * What became of Bob after beepers fell out of fashion?
 * He became a depressed, raging alcoholic who abandoned Helga and her family. He later died of alcohol poisoning because he was just that far gone. Since no one in the new city he lived in cared about him, he was given an unmarked grave off in the corner of some forgotten graveyard. Meanwhile, Helga's mom, freed from his tyranny, gets help from friends (including Arnold and Gerald and their families) and other supporters to clean up her habits and build a new life for herself and her girls. She is now a healthy single-mom living in the suburbs with Helga and, while they still have dark shadows in the closet, they are generally much, much happier.
 * That, or he began selling CELL PHONES. That's what I always figured happened.
 * Miriam mentions selling someone a shipment of cell phones in "Beeper Queen", so I'm assuming his business just went with the times.