Can You Spare a Dime?

Template:Episode/47b

Characters

• French narrator
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Squidward Tentacles
  • Daydream Squidward
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Dancer on Dance Quarterly ^(debut)
• Incidental 49 ^(cameo)
• Daydream football coach
• Daydream photographer
• Football crowd
• Fish who pass Squidward
  • Incidental 115 ^(cameo)
• Executive ^(debut)
• Flies
• Gary the Snail
• Jellyfish ^{(cameo as a lamp)}
• British narrator ^(debut)
• The Puppets
• Children ^(mentioned)

Synopsis

Squidward in his cardboard-box shelter

It is closing time at the Krusty Krab, but Mr. Krabs refuses to let anyone go home until he finishes counting up the day's profits. To his horror, he discovers that the first dime he earned has gone missing, and Squidward is accused of stealing it as he mans the register all day. Squidward angrily denies this and squeezes Mr. Krabs' eyes, and after a heated argument ensues between the two, Squidward quits his job. SpongeBob runs outside and attempts to convince Squidward to change his mind. But after hearing Squidward's great ambitions, SpongeBob leaves him be and insists that if Squidward needs anything, he can seek help from him.

After some time, SpongeBob encounters Squidward again. Unable to find a new job, Squidward has become homeless and is now living on the streets in a cardboard box begging passersby for spare change. Feeling bad for Squidward, SpongeBob lets him stay at his house until he can find a new job, pampering him with breakfast in bed and massages. One night, while SpongeBob attempts to get some sleep, Squidward repeatedly calls him for various minute reasons, which end with SpongeBob falling down the stairs. Gary tries to tell SpongeBob that Squidward is being a freeloader and taking advantage of him, but SpongeBob is in denial, giving several excuses as to why Squidward has not yet gotten a job.

"It's about time you got here!"

However, many months pass by and it becomes obvious that Squidward has no intention of finding new employment, instead becoming completely dependent on SpongeBob and turning him into a manservant of sorts. At this point, SpongeBob is beginning to lose his patience, so he tries conveying several less-than-subtle hints to Squidward in order to push him to look for work, such as serving Squidward a bowl of alphabet soup with the letters arranged to read "Get a job."

Mr. Krabs' first dime revealed

These hints prove to be useless as Squidward deliberately ignores them, so SpongeBob tries to make it as simple as he can by actually talking and not even using hints, but still to no avail. A fed up SpongeBob pushes the bed that Squidward is lying on through the upstairs wall and all the way to the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob gives Mr. Krabs a dime and angrily demands that he give Squidward his job back. Mr. Krabs says that the dime is not his first dime and refuses, even turning down the many other dimes that SpongeBob offers. Finally at his breaking point, SpongeBob grabs Mr. Krabs by the throat and scolds him for his cheapness, violently shaking him while doing so. Suddenly, the first dime falls out of his pants, a large coin-shaped rock; Mr. Krabs explains that he has been in the business "for a long time," revealing that it was in his pocket the whole time.

Squidward is rehired to his original position, and all seems well until Mr. Krabs accuses Squidward of placing the dime in his pocket. This starts a new dispute, and the episode ends with SpongeBob changing into his maid outfit as the two continue to argue, anticipating the inevitable.

Production

Art

Music

( ‣ ) Production music

( • ) Original music

( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

 • Puka A - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Title card]
 ‣ The Rake Hornpipe - Robert Alexander White [Closing time/"Teacher's pet."]
 ‣ Tympup A - Sammy Burdson, John Charles Fiddy ["Where is it?"]
 ‣ Dramatic Cue (e) - Ronald Hanmer [Mr. Krabs' first dime is missing]
 ‣ Torn Apart - Mike Sunderland [Mr. Krabs holds up Interpretive Dance Quarterlies]
 ‣ Dramatic Climax - Mike Sunderland [Mr. Krabs accuses Squidward of stealing the dime]
 ‣ Stepping into Danger - Mike Sunderland [Squidward quits]
 ‣ Harp Ding - Nicolas Carr ["Cookies!"]
 ‣ Space Critters (a) - Gregor F. Narholz [Conjoined heart]
 ‣ World of Sport - Don Harper ["I could be a football player, or a king, or a spaceman."]
 ‣ Drowsy Reef - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Squidward homeless]
 ‣ Lonely Violin - Dick Stephen Walter [Squidward crying]
 ‣ Hawaiian Breeze - Jon Jelmer [Squidward at SpongeBob's house]
 ‣ Break-Thru - Gary Mills [SpongeBob taking care of Squidward]
 ‣ On the Beach - Kapono Beamer [Three weeks later/Many months later/So much later that the old narrator got tired of waiting and they had to hire a new one]
 ‣ Hawaiian Link (b) - Richard Myhill ["It's about time you got here!"]
 ‣ Lonely Heart's Club (a) - David Bell, Otto Sieben ["That's two things in this house that won't work."/"Okay. Don't move."]
 ‣ Tomfoolery - David Snell [Puppet show]
 ‣ The Tip Top Polka/The Cliff Polka - Chelmsford Folk Band [Mr. Krabs on the phone]
 ‣ I'll Never Fall in Love Again B - Paul Lenart, Bill Novick [Mr. Krabs' first dime]
 ‣ On the Beach - Kapono Beamer [The ending]

Release

• This episode is available on the Sponge for Hire DVD and VHS, Complete 3rd Season, First 100 Episodes, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, Glumly Squidward, From the Beginning, Pt.1, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 4, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, The Third & Fourth Seasons, and Complete Third Season DVDs.

Trivia

General

• List of ways SpongeBob tries to make Squidward realize he needs a job include:
  • Reminding him that he and the lemonade are "two things in this house that won't work"
  • Giving him alphabet soup that spells out "Get a job"
  • Giving him a newspaper with the job listing section in front
  • Reminding him about something he did at his "job"
  • Giving him a fake TV and showing him a puppet who has a job
  • Yells in his face, quoting each time he yells "job"
• This is the first episode where the time card sequence breaks the fourth wall.
• This is the second episode where SpongeBob says "crustaceous cheapskate" to Mr. Krabs. The first one was "Pickles," though in a desperate sense rather than an angry one.
• The alphabet soup SpongeBob gives to Squidward has become a popular internet meme. Most memes change the letters to spell out other insults.
• This is one of the rare times when SpongeBob has expressed true anger at Mr. Krabs, as he does so by calling him a cheapskate and even grabbing him by the neck and choking him.
  • This is also one of the rare times SpongeBob has expressed true anger at Squidward. The first time was in "Employee of the Month."
• The new English narrator is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
• This title card background is similar to that of "Opposite Day."
• Mr. Krabs' first dime resembles "cavemen currency," as he states he has been in the business a long time. However, in the much later episode "Friend or Foe," Mr. Krabs sold his first Krabby Patty and received modern money.
• When SpongeBob is delivering lemonade to Squidward, there is a picture of his pineapple and what seems to be a portrait of Squidward. If one looks very closely, there is also a photo that looks like Patrick.
• When Mr. Krabs checks his register, he mentions "applesauce," which is not even kept in the register. This is a mnemonic device, in which words are used to help him remember how to count his money.
• This is episode marks the first time where Mr. Krabs willingly rejects money. This is shown when, instead of taking SpongeBob's dime, he throws it at his face when SpongeBob gives it to him to replace his "stolen" dime. He even rejects the other dimes SpongeBob angrily throws at his face.
• In the French dub, the French narrator's voice does not change when he gets replaced by the new one.
• In Indonesia, Mr. Krabs does not say, "One, you stole it; two, you stole it; or three, you stole it!" Instead, he says, "One, you stole it; two, we stole it; or three, you stole it!"
• In the Polish dub, the episode's title is "Grosz niezgody," which translates to "The Cent of Discord."
  • The title is very similar to the Polish title of "The Other Patty," "Ość niezgody," which translates to "The Fishbone of Discord."
• In the Croatian dub, the episode name is "Ima' Šta, Sitnog?," which translates to "Got Any Change?"
• During the montage of SpongeBob taking care of Squidward, the APM track "Break-Thru" plays, which SpongeBob then quotes later in the episode by saying "I'm sure he's close to a break-thru."
• The exterior shot of the Krusty Krab at the end of the episode was reused from "Imitation Krabs."
• When Squidward is crying his tears into SpongeBob's head then SpongeBob removes them, his eyes are a resemblance to those of SpongeBoy, a prototype of him from back in 1984.
• Mr. Krabs' first dime also appears in "Mutiny on the Krusty," but in that episode, it looks different and resembles more of a real dime.

Cultural references

• The episode's title comes from the 1930 song "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" by Bing Crosby.
• Mr. Krabs' dime is a real form of currency called a "Rai stone." They were used by Pacific Islanders and some weigh several tons, so the dime that Krabs had was realistic in scale. 
• When Mr. Krabs asks if Squidward is willing to swear "on a stack of Interpretive Dance Quarterlies," it is a pun on the saying "swearing on a stack of Bibles," which means to be completely honest and tell the whole truth.

Errors

The boat is gone.

• The boat disappears while Mr. Krabs and Squidward are shaking hands.
• After Squidward throws the soup, the blanket is pink.
• Squidward has no fingers, but when he squeezes Mr. Krabs' eyes, it leaves a pattern like a human hand had squeezed them.
• When SpongeBob has a cup of lemonade, that the straw is red, but in the close-up it is white then red again.
• SpongeBob is able to strangle Mr. Krabs and choke him out of rage, but Mr. Krabs has a shell, so SpongeBob should not have been able to choke him.
• When SpongeBob finishes polishing Squidward's bald head, the holes in it are missing, but they reappear when a back view of his head is shown.
• Squidward says that it is 4:00, but when SpongeBob pushes his bed outside of his house, it is already daytime.
• When SpongeBob's foghorn blows away at 4:00, it reads 11:40.
• When SpongeBob cracks from anger and grabs Mr. Krabs' neck right above his shirt so he can strangle him as revenge, it is shown that his two thumbs on each hand had penetrated right through Mr. Krabs' neck.
• When the first dime is revealed and SpongeBob drops Mr. Krabs, his mouth opens for one frame.

Running gags

• Mr. Krabs keeps accusing Squidward of something minor.
• SpongeBob doing what Squidward tells him to do.
• Squidward saying "What are you saying?"
• SpongeBob telling Squidward to get a job through various requests and Squidward ignoring them.