As Patrick wakes up one morning, a mailfish gives him a package. Curious, he opens it and finds a large, shiny trophy inside. Excited, he starts showing everyone his new award, including the jellyfish and even the Bikini Atoll Island. He shows it off to SpongeBob, who then realizes that the trophy is actually for him after spotting his name on it.
Patrick crying because he wanted a reward like SpongeBob
Patrick is disappointed as he hands the award to SpongeBob, but his feelings get worse when he discovers the contents of SpongeBob's special award closet. SpongeBob tries to help him find a way to win an award, and eventually, Patrick decides to get a job working alongside SpongeBob at the Krusty Krab. When Patrick gets the job, Squidward comes and tells them, "Guess who just quit?," handing Patrick his hat before walking out the doors.
First, Patrick is assigned to take some food to a customer. However, every time he brings it to the customer, he eats it, even as SpongeBob breaks down the process for him. A simpler task SpongeBob gives Patrick is to answer the phone, but he ends up getting angry when he thinks people are calling the wrong number when they are calling the Krusty Krab which SpongeBob then tells him is the actual name of the restaurant. At this point, Patrick is almost completely demoralized, but SpongeBob urges him on. Patrick follows up with sweeping dust from under the floor near table 3, but uses the wrong end of the broom. Suddenly, a delivery man comes in with a load of awards for SpongeBob. This surprises and enrages Patrick so much that he whacks the floor with the broom eight times, making dust fly everywhere and all the customers cough. Patrick loses control and laments that he will not win a trophy yet.
After rushing the upset and disheartened Patrick off into the kitchen, SpongeBob presents him with the extremely simple and basic task of opening a jar. When even this proves to be difficult at first, SpongeBob instructs him to do it exactly as he does. This mantra prompts Patrick to open the jar successfully. However, for a second, Patrick thinks he broke it. SpongeBob tells him he did it right, and he and SpongeBob begin celebrating, Patrick now feeling more confident and poised and he controls his temper by telling SpongeBob how he opened the jar. SpongeBob tells Patrick to do what he does and he'll have an award someday.
The next day, Patrick starts taking even more cues from SpongeBob. He ends up wearing the same exact outfit as him and copying every single one of SpongeBob's actions and mannerisms in the hope of achieving the same success as his friend, much to the surprise of the Bikini Bottom citizens who think they're seeing double of SpongeBob. An annoyed SpongeBob attempts to put his "hand" on the stove to prove Patrick was copying him and he succeeds when Patrick's hand starts burning and SpongeBob reveals that Patrick is mimicking him when he reveals a decoy hand. He and Patrick run back to their neighborhood (Patrick's hat flies off as he runs, and Squidward picks it up as he returns to work). SpongeBob tries multiple antics to convince Patrick to stop copying him, all of which are unsuccessful (SpongeBob even notices that Patrick has made his rock home look almost exactly like his pineapple).
He has a plan and resorts to dressing up as Patrick, but it only makes Patrick more certain of the fact that his old self was nothing but a "big pink loser." As it turns out, however, the next award to arrive, which Patrick initially thinks is for SpongeBob again, is actually for a person who won it for "doing absolutely nothing longer than anyone else." This award turns out to be for Patrick and SpongeBob is proud of him. Overjoyed, Patrick decides to protect his new title by going back under his rock and falling fast asleep, returning to his old self.
Production
Art
Music
( ‣ ) Production music
( • ) Original music
( ◦ ) SpongeBob music
‣Cream Pie - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Title card]
‣Aloha - Dick Stephen Walter [opening] ‣Orchestral Effect (f) - Dick Stephen Walter ["An award?"] ‣Announcing the Top - Gregor F. Narholz ["Look, rock, I got an award!"/"Jellyfish, I got an award."/"Island, I got an awar..."] ‣Dancing the Hula - Kapono Beamer [the award's really SpongeBob's] ‣Stack of Leis - Kapono Beamer [Patrick cries] ‣Heroes Win - Gregor F. Narholz ["I want to defeat the giant monkey man and save the ninth dimension!"/"I wanna defeat the little monkeyman and save the 8th dimension!"/"Doctor?"/"Fireman?"] ‣Dapper Don - Frank Chacksfield [Patrick working at the Krusty Krab as a phone answerer] ‣Hawaiian Link (a) - Richard Myhill ["Fish paste!"] ‣Dreamy Hawaii - Terry Day [sweeping] ‣Killer Birds [#36.02] - Gregor F. Narholz [Patrick getting angry] ‣SpongeBob Closing Theme - Steve Belfer, Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob showing Patrick how to open a jar] ‣Caesar's Entry - Gregor F. Narholz [they celebrate] ‣Hilo March - The Hawaiian Serenaders ["That was great, Patrick!"] ‣Gator - Steve Belfer [Patrick dressed like SpongeBob] ‣Furtive Footsteps - Paddy Kingsland [Patrick copying SpongeBob] ‣Hen Pecker - The Surfdusters [they scream and run] ‣Rocket Sled to Oahu - The Mel-Tones [SpongeBob closes Pineapple door] ‣Vibe Link (b) - Richard Myhill [SpongeBob gets an idea] ‣You're Nice - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [SpongeBob dressed like Patrick] ‣Moloka'i Nui (a) - Kapono Beamer [ending]
"Big Pink Loser" was ranked #13 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.
Trivia
General
This is the second episode where the Krusty Krab appears without Mr. Krabs. The first was "SB-129."
However, Mr. Krabs is mentioned in this episode, unlike "SB-129."
This is the second episode where Patrick gets a job at the Krusty Krab and is later fired or just quits. The first is "Arrgh!"; although, in that episode, it was only for a few seconds.
This episode premiered in Canada on March 23, 2001.
In some versions, at the beginning of the episode, the audio sound of the parcel being shoved into Patrick's mouth is heard before the mailman actually shoves it into his mouth.
Although this is a season 2 episode, Patrick has his M-shaped eyebrows from season 1 instead of his new and recognizable Z-shaped eyebrows.
On the Complete 2nd Season Audio Commentary for this episode, it's mentioned by one of the people in the commentary that this episode was made around the time when Patrick's eyebrows were not fully colored in yet.
There are rumors that this episode's title card music was abusively low pitched, but that might not be true.
The scene where SpongeBob helps Patrick open the jar was used on Nicktoons as a "Rockin' Nicktoon Moment."
The subtitles for this episode are incorrect at times, such as "And make sure the food gets to the customer" being shown as "and be sure the tray gets to the customer.", and when SpongeBob says to Patrick, "No, you have to bring the tray to the customer.", the subtitles say "custom."
Another example is that at some point, in the Krusty Krab kitchen, closed-captions say "hold" instead of "cold."
When Patrick comes into SpongeBob's house and ruins his Gary house of cards, door opening and closing sounds can be heard, but the door in the background isn't animated.
When Patrick throws the broom on the ground in the kitchen, it disappears after he opens the jar.
When Patrick copies SpongeBob in the kitchen, they "drop" their spatulas. Afterward, SpongeBob and Patrick point to each other, but the spatulas are nowhere to be seen.
When SpongeBob says "No, don't, That's my--" For a split second, he has no buck teeth. They appear for a split second again.
The table appears by itself.
When Patrick goes to Jellyfish Fields to show the jellyfish his award, while he's being shocked there is a visible pink star at the upper right corner of the screen.
When SpongeBob becomes smaller, there's nothing behind them, but when Patrick takes him, there's a table behind him.
When SpongeBob's nose pops back out when he is pretending to be Patrick, his buck teeth aren't shown when he is frowning. However, in the next scene, he still has the same frown and his teeth are now visible.
When SpongeBob and Patrick enter the kitchen so Patrick can open a jar, a small table is seen to the left of the stove, when there is usually nothing there.
When SpongeBob sees the trophy is really for him, his right buck tooth is missing.
When Patrick is answering the phone in the Krusty Krab, the third caller asks "Is this the Krusty Krab?" and Patrick shouts "No!," the symbol on the Krusty Krab employee hat disappears for a few frames and then reappears.
When Patrick says "And then I took the lid off, and I thought I broke it?," his eyebrows appear Z-shaped.
