Curly's Girl (Hey Arnold!)
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 All this because Rhonda choose to wear her mom’s mink coat.
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Curly's Girl is an episode from the Nickelodeon show Hey Arnold!.
Plot
Curly gets Rhonda to act like his girlfriend after something happens to Rhonda's mother's fur coat and he fixes it.
Why It Got Away with committing Blackmail
- This is a torture episode for Rhonda, as after Curly helps fix and clean her mother’s birthday present, a mink coat, she has to put up with being his "girlfriend" for a week, in which she suffers through.
- Rhonda is unlikable in this episode, because she wears her mother’s mink coat to her school's art show, and then gets it dirty, albeit, on accident when Park accidentally bumped into her, causing her candy apple to stain it. Even after Curly helps her out and while she keeps her end of the deal, she is a complete jerk to him at one moment in front of everyone, which caused her friends to be ashamed in her.
- Curly himself is no better, as while he does help Rhonda fix and clean her mother’s mink coat, he’s very creepy when near his crush, and also uses helping Rhonda with her problem to his advantage by having her "date" him for a week, which then got to Rhonda’s nerves.
- This episode is also pretty mean spirited, as Rhonda uses her mother’s mink coat without her father’s permission, as well as her being mean to Curly.
- While Rhonda had a reason for being mean to Curly, as he was being creepy, after "dumping" him in front of her friends, they didn’t even bother to ask her what happened on her side of the story.
- This episode makes Curly look innocent and Rhonda like the bad guy. Sure, Rhonda is unlikable in this episode, but Curly isn’t innocent either.
- Bad Moral: It's ok to blackmail your crush, especially if they're desperate for something.
- Half-bad ending: Curly chases Rhonda at the end of the episode.
- Speaking of the moral about blackmail being okay, this moral got repeated again in two most infamously hated modern episodes of Family Guy.
- Not to mention forcing somebody to do what you say through blackmail is not only wrong but is also against the law to do so by pushing a bunch of other people around. Not to mention that in reality this kind of behavior continues to work with mean-spirited people so they can get the innocent person in trouble with the police or thier parents as an excuse for the culprit to get off the hook for it as a karma houdini.
Redeeming Qualities
- Curly at least helped Rhonda fix her problem by cleaning her mother’s coat.
- This could be Curly’s way of getting back at Rhonda for being mean to him.
- Rhonda had a reason to be mean because Curly was being creepy.
- Half-decent ending: Curly let’s Rhonda off the hook and "break-up" with her in the public, much to her relief.
Reception
The episode has been criticized by some fans for having a cruel overtone, along with being very uncomfortable. One of the criticisms of the episode is that after Rhonda dumps Curly in public, all the 4th graders (including her best friend Nadine) immediately take Curly's side and shun Rhonda while never bothering to ask for her side of the story, and despite them knowing about Curly's unstable behavior. The episode has also been accused of justifying sexual harassment, as the episode makes Curly appear to be the victim and that the episode also demonizes Rhonda.