The Magic School Bus/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Adaptation Displacement: The TV show is better known to some than the original books; in fact, a new series of paperbacks went into print based on the TV episodes.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Is this a special ed class? Is Ms. Frizzle something like a Willy Wonka who is teaching the class to find a successor to the Magic School Bus?
    • Unfortunately, the class size is about that of a special ed class.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: In "The Busasaurus", Arnold single-handedly drives away a T-Rex, saving the class and getting back the lost egg he'd been after throughout the whole episode.
  • Dark Fic: A more depressing than dark example as a Flash Animation, following Ms. Frizzles class the following school year. No longer being in Ms. Frizzles' class, Arnold is an abusive and foul-mouthed Jerkass, Tim and Ralphie are both potheads, Carlos continues to tell horrible jokes only to be beat up (by Arnold) for it, and none of them seem to carry any sort of social skills or even rudimentary math or general education (outside of science, of course).
  • Ear Worm: The theme song, and the Leitmotif of the start of each field trip that derives from it.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Carlos.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Arnold. He's been shipped with everyone- Wanda, Phoebe, Tim everyone in his class, Ms. Frizzle, Molly Cule, that guy from the hot cocoa episode (Harry Arm), that girl from the water cycle episode (Tiffany), Janet, Azula...
  • Memetic Mutation: "CARLOS!" as a response to his terrible puns.
    • Also, footage from the show seems to be popular for YouTube Poop (although, given the Nostalgia Filter protection the show has garnered in North America, it's probably affectionate more than anything).
  • Nightmare Fuel: While on Pluto, Arnold takes his helmet off and his head freezes.
  • Periphery Demographic: The series has gained a large amount of older fans, many of whom grew up with it.
  • Squick: Some of the Fantastic Voyage moments, most notably the episode where the kids go inside Janet's nose.
    • Or when the class was inside Arnold's large intestine, getting up close and personal with piles of poop.
    • Or when the class got laid by a chicken.
  • Toy Ship: Most of the kids tend to be teased with each other in all kinds of combinations. The most consistent pairings are Carlos with DA, Ralphie with Keesha, and Arnold with Wanda.
    • There were also hints at Arnold/Phoebe ("The Busasaurus"), Arnold/DA ("Cracks A Yolk"), Carlos/Phoebe ("All Dried Up", "Spins a Web"), Ralphie/DA ("Plays Ball"), Ralphie/Wanda ("Goes Upstream"), Carlos/Janet tension ("Gets Swamped"), and Arnold had a crush on a girl in another class in "Wet All Over". Basically, for a kids show, they made it easy to ship everyone with everyone.
    • And no, Tim was never teased with anyone on the show.
    • There are even slight, subtle hints of a Triang Relation type 4 between Arnold, Wanda, and Phoebe, with Phoebe being the Hopeless Suitor ("The Busasaurus" and "Goes Cellular" being examples)
    • Also slightly hinted is Phoebe being a Stalker with a Crush with Arnold (in "For Lunch," she knew he loved rocks, despite being brand new to the class, and in the human body game, she knew his weight).
  • The Scrappy: Janet
  • The Woobie: Everyone has their moments, but Arnold probably has the most.