Oh, sorry, was that a spoiler? Well, whatever, I doubt anyone's going to watch ten minutes of Arthur just to find out what the big secret was.

Still... damn kids! Where's my walker!

No, it is not.

OR IS IT

NO IT'S NOT.

It's clearly a reference to Teletubbies and the late 90s rave scene. You can even check the peer-reviewed Arthur Wiki if you don't believe me.

http://arthur.wikia.com/wiki/That%27s_a_Baby_Show!#Cultural_re ferences

Also:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/Arthur< br />
under the trope heading "Show Within a Show".

If this were anticipating FiM, then Arthur would be in college, and he'd be watching Dark Bunny, or rather a less cis version of Dark Bunny; Rainbow Adventure Bunny or something.

Well of course that's what they were consciously referencing. But they were, of course, unaware of the oracular prediction caused by the ethylene gas floating up through the building from underground.

No, as both I and IZ have pointed out, the alleged connection does not stand up to scrutiny. Yes, in a very brooooaaaaad sense, you could say that the lessons presented here are applicable to MLP. But you could also relate the lesson to ANY age-dysmorphic phenomenon, as defined through any cultural lens - Adventure Time, Teletubbies, video games, higher education, non-marital living beyond one's mid-20s, etc. Cultural neoteny is one of the most pwerful and all-pervasive driving forces underlying post-industrial society; neither Arthur nor MLP invented it, and it's not going to end there either.

Fixed, for you.

Knew it.

If nothing else, this must've been a fun episode for the animators to work on, and if Love Ducks were a real show I'd get high and watch it too. I don't really see a MLP connection unless you really want to stretch the metaphor. The way I see it, MLPFiM is a show for "girls 12 and younger" where as Love Ducks is pretty asexual, just a show like Teletubbies or Sesame Street aimed at Kids 0-4. A better example of gender stereotypes would be two shows like GI Joe and Jem and not a Batman clone and Teletubbies parody.

(shoulda read EH's post first, but the Pony's out of the bag so to speak anyway..)