Karate Choppers

"Karate Choppers" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season one. In this episode, SpongeBob and Sandy get obsessed with karate.

Characters

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Sandy Cheeks
• Squidward Tentacles
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Gary the Snail ^{(in a picture)}
• Fish on SpongeBob's TV
• Dave ^(debut)
• Jennifer Millie
• Volcano Sauce drop ^(debut)
  • Tom Kenny
• Fred ^{(2 cameos)}
• Wobbles
• Peterson Nat Tucker
• Gus
• Fish fishing in the park ^(debut)
• Unnamed worm ^(debut)
• Nathiel Waters ^(cameo)
• Sylvester
• Evelyn
• Abigail Marge
• Anchovy
• John
• Nancy
• Tina Fran
• Clay
• Old Man Walker
• Nazz-Mimi
• Jimmy Gus
• Lonnie ^(cameo)
• Archie

Synopsis

SpongeBob and Sandy are practicing karate against each other. After fighting in SpongeBob's house and at Barg'N-Mart, Sandy threatens SpongeBob with a drop of Volcano Sauce, and tells him that she will sneak up on him and fight him tomorrow. At the Krusty Krab the next day, SpongeBob thinks anyone or anything can be Sandy, so he is cautious and does not work much. When he strikes one of the customers, Mr. Krabs demands to know what is going on, so SpongeBob explains to him that he is doing karate.

Therefore, Mr. Krabs tells him to stop doing karate or he will have no choice but to fire him. Later, Sandy attacks him, and though SpongeBob attempts to explain Mr. Krabs' warning, Sandy does not believe or listen to him. At that moment, Mr. Krabs sees this and thinks he is doing karate with Sandy, so he ultimately tells SpongeBob that he is fired. This upsets SpongeBob and he starts throwing a big tantrum. Sandy quickly explains to him that SpongeBob tried to warn her, but she would not listen. Mr. Krabs gives SpongeBob his job back and tells him not to do any more karate, as he feels that it is poisoning his mind.

The two try to forget about karate and go to Seashell Park for a picnic. However, while slicing sandwiches, they begin doing karate against each other again.

After they destroy the park, Mr. Krabs catches them once more. SpongeBob admits the truth and explains that he cannot help himself. However, instead of firing SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs decides to have SpongeBob and Sandy slice the Krabby Patties with karate chops which makes twice as much money as before.

Production

Art

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Music

 ‣ Panther Prowl - David Farnon [opening]
 ‣ Cieszyn Polka - Wladyslaw Rakowski [TV show]
 ‣ Police Car - Sam Spence [SpongeBob screams]
 ‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [SpongeBob and Sandy doing karate]
 ‣ Police Car - Sam Spence [SpongeBob throws Sandy through the door]
 ‣ Hawaiian Link (a) - Richard Myhill [SpongeBob does a karate dance]
 ‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [karate over the phone]
 ‣ Bossa Cubana - Gerhard Narholz [Sandy shopping]
 ‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [tin cans]
 ‣ Police Car - Sam Spence [SpongeBob laughs]
 ‣ Dancing the Hula - Kapono Beamer ["What a beautiful day!"]
 ‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [more karate]
 ‣ House of Horror - W. Merrick Farran [volcano sauce]
 ‣ Death Trap - Gregor F. Narholz ["By the powers of naughtiness..."]
 ‣ Panther Prowl - David Farnon [Sandy drinking volcano sauce.]
 ‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [novelty toy]
 ‣ The Rake Hornpipe - Robert Alexander White [at the Krusty Krab]
 ‣ Keep Cool - Jean Christophe Thomas, Laurence Peter Cottle [customer swatting a fly/"I'm fast, I'm mean, and I can do this!"]
 ‣ Blow the Man Down (b) - Tim Laycock, Robert Alexander White [Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to get back to work]
 ‣ Keep Cool - Jean Christophe Thomas, Laurence Peter Cottle [SpongeBob enters the bathroom]
 ‣ Sailor's Waltz - Heinz Matschurat [Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to stop doing karate or he is fired]
 ‣ Hawaiian Link (b) - Richard Myhill ["Fired?"]
 ‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [Sandy starts karate chopping SpongeBob/Sandy continues karate chopping SpongeBob/Sandy karate chopping SpongeBob again]
 ‣ Stack of Leis - Kapono Beamer [SpongeBob crying/"Aww, shoot, SpongeBob. I guess you ain't fibbing."]
 ‣ Vibe Link (b) - Richard Myhill ["We can?"]
 ‣ Nostalgic Hawaii - George de Fretes, Jan Rap [SpongeBob squeezes a rock]
 ‣ On the Beach - Kapono Beamer [SpongeBob and Sandy on a picnic]
 ‣ Mavericks - The Woodies [making sandwiches]
 ‣ Police Car - Sam Spence [sting]
 ‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [they fight]
 ‣ Hawaiian Link (a) - Richard Myhill [everything cut in half]
 ‣ Dramatic Cue (d) - Ronald Hanmer [SpongeBob screams]
 ‣ O Makalapua (b) - Kapono Beamer ["Oh, all right, Mr. Krabs, you caught me."]
 ‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [ending]

*On The Complete 1st Season and The First 100 Episodes DVDs, Mavericks is replaced with "El Dementia" by The Surfdusters.

Release

• This episode is available on the Fear of a Krabby Patty, Absorbing Favorites, 10 Happiest Moments, The First & Second Seasons, Movies & TV Collection, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, Complete 1st Season, First 100 Episodes, Deep-Sea Games, and Karate Choppers DVDs.

Reception

• "Karate Choppers" was ranked #44 during the Best Day Ever event on November 9–10, 2006.

Trivia

General

• This and "SB-129" are the only episodes to premiere on New Year's Eve.
• There is an online game based on this episode called Kah Rah Tay Contest.
• On The Complete 1st Season DVD, this episode, along with "Plankton!," has an audio commentary.
• This was the last episode to premiere in 1999, last to air during the 1990s decade and the last to air in the 20th century.
• This was Merriwether Williams' first episode as a writer. Her final episode was "Pranks a Lot."
• A fish is seen fishing for fish with a fishing pole at the park, even though this is an act of cannibalism.
• This is the first time that "Dancing the Hula" plays normally instead of in reverse.
• The face on the hot sauce drop is Tom Kenny's face. In the season 1 DVD commentary, he stated that he had to wear red makeup all over his face in order to make the scene better.
  • Kenny also stated that the scene was shot in the Nickelodeon restroom, since he had an audition later that same day the scene was shot, and the red makeup would not come off fully.
• This is the first of four episodes transcribed as a comic into the SpongeBob SquarePants/Tokyopop book Gone Nutty!. The other three were "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm," "Pressure" and "Sandy's Rocket."
• Two clips of this episode were featured in the 2010 film Date Night. Coincidentally, Ray Liotta, who voices the leader of the Bubble Poppin' Boys in season 5's "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?", also appeared in the movie as crime boss Joe Miletto.
• In this episode, SpongeBob is a karate master like Sandy. However, in other episodes, SpongeBob is much less skilled.
  • This episode includes a rare instance in which SpongeBob defeats Sandy in a karate fight.
• The mask that Sandy says is her "worst disguise yet" looks similar to the one that SpongeBob wears when he pretends to be Sandy's "pappy" in "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm." The only difference between them is the colors.
• The Volcano Sauce drop has become an internet meme.
• The fish shown on SpongeBob's TV is a royal gramma (Gramma loreto), a tropical aquarium fish.
• In the Japanese dub, this episode is called "空手大好き," which translates to "I Love Karate."
  • The volcano sauce drop is dubbed over by Keijin Okuda. He's the Japanese voice of Mr. Krabs, Patchy, Larry, and the French Narrator.
• In the Croatian dub, the episode's name is "Karate udarci," which translates to "Karate Chops."
• A short clip of SpongeBob crying from this episode was featured in the music video for "Hallelujah Money," a 2017 single by British virtual band Gorillaz.
• In the scene of the Treedome at night, Sandy hums "The Yellow Rose of Texas."
• In the beginning, SpongeBob's shoes appear to make "quacking" sounds, only to reveal he has stepped on three ducks. "Stepping on ducks" is a euphemism for flatulence.
  • Later in the episode, SpongeBob suggests he "cut the cheese", another euphemism for flatulence, although, in this case, it is literally slicing cheese.

Cultural references

• When SpongeBob is caught off guard by Squidward's orders, he calls him "ma'am", "sir", "boss", then "Pooh-Bah". Grand Poohbah is a character from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Mikado, later made famous as a title given to the head of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes on The Flintstones.

Errors

• When Sandy is at SpongeBob's door, she has an extra stripe on her sleeve.
• SpongeBob leaves the kitchen with a tray of six Krabby Patties. When he tosses the Krabby Patties onto Squidward's head, all six stick to it. In the next shot, there are eight Krabby Patties. In the final zoom shot of Squidward's head after SpongeBob says "Nice hairpiece, Squidward," ten Krabby Patties can be seen.
• When SpongeBob is cutting the food, on his first cut, the mustard seems to disappear.
• SpongeBob's arm disappears when Sandy hangs up on him after his attempt at phone karate.
• During the fight between SpongeBob and Sandy, a brick can be seen in their dust cloud.
• After the bubble transition cuts to the Krusty Krab, some bubbles freeze in mid-air.

• When Squidward lets out the frustrated yell at SpongeBob, the closed-captions say "d'oh."
• When SpongeBob slices the first slice of salami, the mustard bottle is missing.
• A second window is added to SpongeBob's pineapple house near the lower-right corner. Before, there was only one window on the upper left corner.
• Mr. Krabs tells Squidward that he was in his office. However, Mr. Krabs' office is the first door on the left, and when he comes in, he is on the right, but when SpongeBob talks to him, Mr. Krabs is on his office side, next to Squidward.
• When SpongeBob rolls Sandy into a ball, her helmet disappears.
• When SpongeBob goes into the restroom, there is the "Please wash your fins" sign on it. Later, when SpongeBob is walking, it disappears.
• In the scene with SpongeBob holding the rock together to hide it from Mr. Krabs, a tree can be seen in the background chopped in half. The "leaves" of the tree are also chopped in half, even though they would not be touched just from chopping the tree in half.
• In the scene where SpongeBob captures Sandy with the Novelty toy tongue, she has her left arm inside her suit while she guzzles down hot sauce. Once SpongeBob loops the tongue around her, her arm immediately appears outside of the suit.
• When SpongeBob gets fired, his face wrinkles up. In this shot, one of his holes goes above his head.