"Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 1. In this episode, SpongeBob and Patrick learn that their heroes are retired. Time/Date:
- 2:00 PM: SpongeBob and Patrick walk into Shady Shoals.
Characters:
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- Patrick Star
- Mermaid Man (debut)
- Barnacle Boy (debut)
- Squidward Tentacles
- Reception Man
- Old Man Jenkins (debut)
- Dennis (debut)
- Mary (debut)
- Mrs. Shell (debut)
- Lonnie (debut)
- Sylvester(debut)
- Richard (debut)
- Mable (old lady)(debut)
- Other Residents(debut)
- Man Ray (mentioned)
- Reflecto (cameo)
Locations
DVDS:
- Tales from the Deep
- The Complete First Season (disc 1)
- The First 100 Episodes (disc 1)
Plot
Whilst pestering Squidward, SpongeBob and Patrick learn that their heroes, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, are in fact living in the Shady Shoals underwater retirement home, and they try to bring the two (Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy)out of retirement, much to the annoyance of the geriatric Bikini Bottom superheroes who only want their TV fixed. SpongeBob and Patrick go through all kinds of hilarious antics to reunite their superhero pals and eventually succeed, thereby creating Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's new show: The New Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.
When Mermaid Man sits down, a comic book bubble appears and dramatizes the word "SIT!!". The phone gets broken, and when Mermaid Man hangs up the phone, the bubble appears again and says "HANG UP!". Will our heroes ever get their phone fixed? Tune in next week and find out. And when SpongeBob winks, a yellow bubble comes up and says "WINK!!!!" The ironic thing about this is that in most comic books, the dramatization of simple words usually comes in on action fighting scenes, but in this SpongeBob episode, it exaggerates the word dramatization.
Music
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‣ The Lineman - ?
- Sam Spence (title card)
‣ Arizona Fanfare - ?
- Jack Shaindlin (opening)
‣ The Adventure Begins - ?
- Jonathan Neal (SpongeBob and Patrick dressed as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy)
‣ Enter the Villain - ?
- Chris Payne, Paul Rogers ("Reflecto, up to no good!")
‣ Super Hero - ?
- Tony Hymas ("Donuts!")
‣ Call to Destiny (a) - ?
- Ron Goodwin ("Creatures of the deep, assemble!")
‣ Police Car - ?
- Sam Spence (a jellyfish appears)
‣ Death Trap - ?
- Gregor F. Narholz ("Reflecto has found our secret lab!")
‣ Super Hero - ?
- Tony Hymas ("Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy reunite!")
‣ Hawaiian Link (b) - ?
- Richard Myhill (rest home exterior)
‣ Seaweed - ?
[original music by Steve Belfer] (Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy watching TV)
‣ War Agitato - ?
- Jack Shaindlin (Mermaid Man panics)
‣ Hymn of Achievement - ?
- Gregor F. Narholz (SpongeBob's speech about old people)
‣ Queen's Aloha Oe B - ?
- Kapono Beamer, Queen Lili'uokalani (lunch)
‣ You're Nice - ?
[original music by Sage Guyton and Jeremy Wakefield] ("Do you remember when the food supply in Atlantis was running low?")
‣ Wedding Procession - ?
- Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Leslie Pearson (SpongeBob kicked out)
‣ Hawaiian Link (a) - ?
- Richard Myhill (later...)
‣ Sweet Annabelle - ?
- Sam Fonteyn (SpongeBob dressed as a lady)
‣ Blackbeard - ?
- Sam Fonteyn (Patrick dressed as a burglar)
‣ Blood in the Gutter - ?
- Laurie Johnson (Mermaid Man sleeping with eyes open)
‣ SpongeBob Closing Theme - ?
- Steve Belfer, Nicolas Carr (painting the Invisible Boatmobile)
‣ War Agitato - ?
- Jack Shaindlin ("Evil!")
‣ Arizona Fanfare - ?
- Jack Shaindlin (fanfare)
‣ The Lineman - ?
- Sam Spence (water balls)
‣ Moloka'i Nui A - ?
- Kapono Beamer ("I feel five years younger.")
‣ Arizona Fanfare - ?
- Jack Shaindlin (SpongeBob and Patrick watching the new show)
‣ Caped Crusader - ?
- David Farnon (Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy playing checkers)
‣ Police Car - ?
- Sam Spence (sting at end)
Trivia
- When SpongeBob and Patrick are first asking the man at the front desk to see Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, an article on the inside of his newspaper reads, "School Drop Out Rate Soars".
- Mermaid Man's belt is yellow in this episode.
- When the receptionist bursts into the cafeteria, you can see something drop from his arm.
- The old captain is played by the man who guards the gates at Nicktoons Studios in Burbank, CA.
- There are various closed captioning errors in this episode.
- When Mermaidman picks up the phone during the game of checkers. The ring tone is number 11 of the thirteen bad words in "Sailor Mouth".
- This episode holds the eighth time SpongeBob cries.
- 5th episode with its name in it.
- 9th time Mr. Krabs doesn't appear.
- This is the only episode in which the Mermalair is called the Sea Cave.
- This is the first of the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy Series.
- Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are parodies of both Aquaman and Aqualad and Batman and Robin.
- This is the first episode to use music from the NFL, "The Lineman," which is the theme for most of the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episodes.
- This is the first appearance of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.
- The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy is a parody of the Batman TV show from the 60s as well as that of Filmation's Aquaman animated series.
- Mermaid Man's outfit is similar to Aquaman's outfit.
- Barnacle Boy's outfit is similar to Aqualad's outfit.
- Before SpongeBob and Patrick are watching TV, when Mermaid Man talks with Barnacle Boy, there were two Old Man Jenkins, Green and Blue.
- This is the first episode where SpongeBob dresses up as a woman. The second time will be in Can You Spare a Dime? The third time in Rock-a-Bye Bivalve, and the fourth time in Love That Squid.
- This is the fourth episode to use live action sequences.
- This marks the first appearances of Mermaid Man, Old Men Jenkins, Dennis, Mary, Mrs. Shell, Lonnie, Sylvester, Richard, Mable, Other Residents and Shady Shoals Rest Home.
- This episode mentions Man Ray, Although Man Ray wasn't seen until Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III.
- During a tribute to Ernest Borginne, this episode was paired with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II.
- The title card pattern looks like Mermaid Man's pants.
Goofs
- When Patrick takes the doughnut from the box, it is orange, but when they "unite", it is replaced with the chocolate one which was left in the box. After that scene, it changes to the normal doughnut again.
- After Patrick takes Spongebob's purse and peers out from behind the building, the purse is seen floating beside him.
- Barnacle Boy puts the wrong ring on Mermaid Man's hand.
- After Mermaid Man says the oath, both his and Barnacle Boy's rings disappear.
- Mermaid Man illegally moves one of his checkers into a red space before the screen switches to "King Me!"
- When Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy say "Dogpaddle, away!" and start dog paddling, you can clearly see Mermaid Man's socks are missing. After, they return.
- When Mermaid Man says "Up, up and away" while rocking, Barnacle Boy appears to ? be saying it too, but without the voice
- In this episode, the superheroes are revealed to have come out of retirement but in later episodes they seem to be still staying in Shady Shoals, there is proof of this if you look at the episodes Night Light and Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture.