# Jimmy Neutron episode with double-triple-quadruple negatives to confuse teacher **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** cartoons-animation\ **Created:** [February 25, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739 "2021-02-25T20:36:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739/1 "2021-02-25T20:36:44Z")
I once looked over my kids’ shoulders to see a Jimmy Neutron episode where his buddy said to the teacher something like, “Could I not never be unexcused from not taking this test?” And the teacher was baffled so the kid got off the hook. I was trying to find a video clip of this to illustrate double negatives. I found a lot Jimmy Neutron clips but not this. Anyone know anything that could help me narrow it down? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739/2 "2021-02-25T20:41:32Z")
Despite what some grammarians say, english is not math. Two negatives do not cancel each other out, in fact a double negative usually is meant to emphasize the negative. Mind you, that sentence _is_ confusing. But I would simply answer- “You may not be excused.” Nothing requires you to be held to a yes/no answer. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739/3 "2021-02-25T20:43:00Z")
This episode [https://jimmyneutron.fandom.com/wiki/Sheen's\_Brain/Transcript](https://jimmyneutron.fandom.com/wiki/Sheen%27s_Brain/Transcript) ? “Miss Fowl? Can I never ever not be dis-excused sometimes?” ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739/4 "2021-02-25T20:55:11Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Despite what some grammarians say, english is not math. Something like, “I don’t have none” doesn’t mathematically reduce to, “I have some” but it is non-standard English and widely considered to be an error. None of which helps me find the clip… ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739/5 "2021-02-25T20:58:03Z")
That’s the one. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739/6 "2021-02-25T21:01:19Z")
Glad to help - good luck finding the clip ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739/7 "2021-02-25T21:06:15Z")
My favorite example is from the Family Ties theme song: “There ain’t no nothing we can’t love each other through”. It’s a quadruple negative, and it simplifies to the positive “We can love each other through anything”, but it doesn’t get there by the four negatives multiplying: Instead, the first three negatives are additive, producing an emphatic negative, which the fourth then reverses. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2021, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jimmy-neutron-episode-with-double-triple-quadruple-negatives-to-confuse-teacher/933739/8 "2021-02-26T00:52:11Z")
As shown in the linked transcript, it’s apparently two questions that only used double negatives, both of which fooled the teacher, along with the one you remember, which is a triple/quadruple negative (depending on how you count the word “sometimes”), to which the teacher does as @DrDeth says and avoids answering the question with yes or no. So I hope the answer wasn’t important. Anyways, I found the clip in a best scenes compilation for Carl: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VKO8MT2OZr4/maxresdefault.jpg "Jimmy Neutron | The Best of Carl Wheezer (Part 2)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKO8MT2OZr4) Go back a few seconds earlier to hear Jimmy’s double negative. Unfortunately, Sheen’s original question isn’t in the clip.