The Magic School Bus: Difference between revisions

{{tropelist}}

* [[Adult Child]]: Ms. Frizzle, in a good way.

* [[All Deserts Have Cacti]]: Justified in that they're in an American desert.

* [[Alternative Foreign Theme Song]]: The Japanese version has two ending themes. One of the ending themes is called [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlagyE7f-20 "Dream On"] by [[Junko Iwao]]. The other is called "Let's Ride" by Dreaming.

** Phoebe: The naive romantic

* [[A Bloody Mess]]: One episode had Ms. Frizzle, in a vampire phase, present the kids' parents with glasses of "blood." Keesha pointed out that it was ''obviously'' really tomato juice, but no one listened to her.

* [[Body Horror]]: The kids tend to change into the animal of the day, even if it's for scientific purposes. There was also more than one episode where they physically entered someone's body.

* [[Bound and Gagged]]: Played for laughs in one episode where the kids are inside a black-and-white horror film. Phoebe tries to use a spiderweb to catch a military general who's commandeered their school bus, but he leans back in his chair and bumps into her, causing the web to wrap around her pinning her arms and legs together. When everyone gets out of the bus, Phoebe has to hop after them.

"Bus, do your stuff!"

"To the bus!"

"Arnold are you paying attention?" ([[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the books where the kids are in space, Mrs. Frizzle isn't there, and the line is in her notes). }}

** How about Arnold's infamous "I KNEW I should've stayed home today!"

* [[Collective Groan]]: ''"Carlos!"''

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: In "The Holiday Special", the un-recycling ray is red and the re-recycling ray is blue.

* [[Conspicuously Light Patch]]

* [[Context Sensitive Button]]: Pulling the big red lever in the center of the dashboard apparently causes the bus to turn into whatever the plot requires.

* [[Drive-In Theater]] ("Spins a Web")

* [[Editorial Synaesthesia]]: In one episode they had goggles that let the kids see sound with "The Producer" later explaining that seeing sound is impossible and was just done for the episode.

* [[Edutainment Show]]

* [["Everybody Laughs" Ending]]: Normally played straight. However, it was lightly spoofed in the bat episode. At the end, Ms. Frizzle and Ralphie burst out laughing over his ending joke while Ralphie's mother looks back and forth between them with a deadpan expression.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Originally, each book ended with Ms. Fizzle setting up classroom decorations and donning an outfit relating to the subject of the next book.

** [[Series Fauxnale|Series Fauxnales]] ended with Ms. Frizzle wearing a dress covered in question marks.

** The boys: Carlos is the Cynic, Tim is the Optimist, Arnold is the Realist, and Ralphie is the Apathetic.

** The girls: Keesha is the Cynic, Phoebe is the Optimist, Dorothy Ann is the Realist, and Wanda is the Apathetic.

{{quote|"It's natural. It's normal. But do you really think they'd let us show it on daytime TV?"}}

* [[No Name Given]]: The last names of Dorothy Ann and Tim were never mentioned.

* [[Off-Model]]: In "The Magic School Bus Spins A Web", when Keisha lifts the lid of a vacant spider's nest on the ground under which she and the others retreat, she's in her usual purple outfit with the thick, teal stripe on it. But when the scene cuts to a far away shot, her outfit is gray instead, but the color of the stripe stays the same.

* [[Once a Season]]: Arnold's [[Alpha Bitch]] cousin, Janet, shows up to make life worse for Ms. Frizzle's class.

* [[Out-of-Character Moment]]: In a book about deserts, Carlos, of all people, is the only member of the class to have heard of the "rain shadow effect," which is cited as one primary cause of the classical desert (basically, differences in pressure mean mountains get a lot of rain which then fails to go on to the area which is now desert due to lack of rain). Even the book hangs a lampshade on how unlikely it is that ''Carlos'' is the one in the know. (And you'd think out of ''all'' the class...It'd be ''Dorothy Ann''.)

* [[Parental Bonus]]: Many of the show's numerous [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] do this; for example, at one point the bus turns into the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Enterprise]]''.

** Not to mention the Friz herself. As many a disgruntled cosplayer has noted, Ms Frizzle is ''stacked''.

* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]: [[Downplayed Trope|Bearing in mind that this a third grade class]], Arnold and Ralphie.

** [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Wanda and Phoebe.

* [[Shout-Out]]: ''Out of this World'' is basically one long [[Shout-Out]] to [[Star Trek]], complete with Liz as [[The Spock|Spock]].

** Ms. Frizzle's prisoner number when she's put on trial for taking Keesha's cucumber is [[Les Misérables|#24601]].

* [[Sick Episode]]: "Inside Ralphie".

* [[Soft Water]]: Played straight, but lampshaded in the book - during a trip to study the weather, Arnold manages to get sucked out of the bus during a hurricane and falls into the ocean several hundred feet below and only gets soaked for his troubles. A sticky note points out that, in reality, this would have gotten him ''severely'' hurt.

* [[Stock Foreign Name]]: Carlos. Averted with Wanda and with Carlos' brother Mikey.

* [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: Janet, the kids' parents, etc.

{{quote|'''Arnold:''' That's not a parachute! That's a ''pair of shoes!''}}

* [[Xenophone]]: Carlos tries to create one in one episode, but it initially fails due to his misunderstanding of the principles of sound (and he understands this trope only too well).

'''Wanda:''' It's a kitten Carlos. }}

 

[[Category:The Magic School Bus]]

[[Category:Literature]]