Miss Mush (cartoon)

*For information on this character in the books, see Miss Mush.*

 — Miss Mush in "Miss Fortune"

## Miss Mush

**Miss Mush** is a character in the cartoon *Wayside*. She is the lunch teacher at Wayside School, and serves food in the cafeteria on the fifteenth story. She hails from the distant Mamaland, and carries many eccentricities from the land's culture.

## Appearance

Miss Mush is an older woman with an elliptical head with green hair tied back in a bun, a chef hat, and a large, round nose. She has two eyes with visible eyelashes, and a mouth, with visible wrinkles and a visible chin. She wears a large eggplant-colored coat with a white collar and white cuffs around her hands, alongside a white apron with a pouch on the front. She wears brown shoes with pointed toes. Her cartoon appearance largely matches her description in the books, though her fingernails and toenails are not seen, due to the show's art style.

## Personality

Miss Mush's character is for the most part very similar to her book counterpart, though she does have a much more major role. In "Miss Fortune," she is shown to be excited by what the students have to say, listening to them when they note what they want their future careers to be, and preparing bowls of Mushroom Surprise that help predict their futures. While a little disappointed that people don't like her food, she doesn't mind too much, as shown in "French Fried," when she opens the *www.missmush.mush* mail order business, she notes that it doesn't matter that people aren't buying her food to eat, because she's making "millions of money" either way. While apprehensive to stay when Maurecia struggles to eat her food, she decides to stay to help the kids when Maurecia and Myron note that they'd rather have a terrible chef that is friendly than a great chef that is mean like Le Chef. In "Wayside Christmas," she is excited to prepare broccoli gingerbread men for the students in Mrs. Jewls's class.

Miss Mush is from Mamaland, and often still partakes in the various traditions of her homeland. Even in competitions between Wayside School and Mamaland, in episodes like "Mascot Madness" and "Mad Hot," she typically roots for Mamaland, and in "Mamaland Blues," she expresses excitement when Dana wants to learn about her culture. It is implied that her cooking skills are simply part of Mamalandic culture, as she frequently is shown preparing near inedible meals, such as crayon casserole in "Mrs. Gorf," and pizza with cardboard in "Principles of Principals." Miss Mush seems to have little knowledge about cooking, though she's used to the way she does cook, as in "French Fried," she is surprised to see the kitchen cleaned up.

Miss Mush is revealed not to be entirely brilliant in "Honors Class," where it is revealed she teaches an honors class on the twenty-ninth story. Whenever Maurecia tries to stupid her way out of smart class, Miss Mush mistakens it for untold brilliance, and by the end of the episode, is so satisfied with her spelling of the word "potato," that she sends her to double honors class, which is revealed to just be Mrs. Jewls's classroom. However, Miss Mush still often has a better grip of reality than Mr. Kidswatter, as shown in "Joe n' Fro," where she questions if he knows what a gazebo is when he gets overly excited about adding one to the schoolyard. Miss Mush's sole companion is Sammy, who rarely does anything because he's dead. Miss Mush is shown to care for Sammy a lot, going on a quest to find the Golden Bowl of Mamaland in "The Rat Truth" when he falls sick.

## Relationships

### Sammy

In the cartoon, Miss Mush is best friends with sammy, who is a dead rat. Miss Mush and Sammy are seen together in numerous episodes, and she appears to appreciate him, as she advertises his exercise DVD in "Channel Kidswatter," she plays cards with him in "Todd Falls in Love," and he's the sole other member in her honors class in "Honors Class." Miss Mush seems to always be willing to give Sammy a helping hand, as she gives him a fancy costume so he can mingle with the students in "Rat in Shining Armor," and in "The Rat Truth," the goes on a voyage to find the Golden Bowl of Mamaland to cure him of his sickness. It is unknown if Sammy thinks anything of Miss Mush, because he is dead.

### Le Chef

In his two appearances, Le Chef is shown to be a rival of Miss Mush, contrasting his brilliant cooking and uptight personality with Miss Mush's disgusting cooking, yet amiable personality. In "French Fried," she quits her job after discovering the students like his cooking better, and when invited back, is horrified by how nice the kitchen looks when he cleans it up. At the end of the episode, she and Le Chef battle in a cooking contest, and while she *technically* has the worse food, she wins because of her nicer personality. In "Le Race," Le Chef encounters Miss Mush again, and Miss Mush quickly pulls ahead of him in the parkour match, though he ends up sabotaging her with chocolate mousse splattered against the wall. Miss Mush thinks little of Le Chef, bragging that it's easy to climb a building without a donkey on her back, and scoffing when he brags about his chances of winning. The feeling is mutual, as Le Chef believes Miss Mush's three-time thumb wrestling victories can not beat out his four-time parkour victories, and he also criticizes her non-French accent.

### Students

Miss Mush remains amiable with the students of Wayside School in the cartoon, and much like in the books, regularly helps with their problems. In "Miss Fortune," for instance, she prepares bowls of Mushroom Surprise that predict the future of the students when she hears them talking about their future careers, and in "Le Race," she joins the race against Le Chef to save the school. However, when Wayside School competes against students from Mamaland, she still roots for her home country, as seen in "Mascot Madness" and "Mad Hot," and she seems to be upset at Maurecia in particular when she insults her food in "French Fried."

### Mr. Kidswatter

Miss Mush and Mr. Kidswatter do not interact often, though their few interactions are hardly ever shown to be positive. In "Dr. Dana," when Myron suggests that Mr. Kidswatter try marrying Miss Mush, he immediately realizes he has nothing in common with her, and Miss Mush readily accepts the rejection, saying she doesn't want to marry Kidswatter either. In "Joe n' Fro," Miss Mush criticizes Mr. Kidswatter for attacking a gopher that isn't hurting him, and snarks at him when he doesn't seem to realize what a gazebo is. However, in "French Fried," she at least is willing to hand him her online business when she sees no more use for it.

## Appearances

See a list of every episode Miss Mush appears in here.

## Trivia

* Miss Mush's foreign accent may be inspired by Mrs. Waloosh from the books, who is absent from the show, though Mrs. Waloosh spoke with a German accent, as opposed to Miss Mush's Eastern European accent.