Rock Bottom

This is the page about the episode. For other uses, see Rock Bottom (disambiguation).

Rock Bottom
General
Production code:	2515-138
Season №:	1
Episode №:	17b
Airdate:	March 15, 2000 September 12, 2000 September 30, 2000 February 3, 2001 See more... March 14, 2001 March 28, 2001 April 7, 2001 April 28, 2001 (TV Globo) July 24, 2001 (Novyi Kanal) August 25, 2001 August 30, 2001 (EBS) September 28, 2001 (Télétoon) November 10, 2001 December 25, 2001 June 9, 2002 July 9, 2002 July 23, 2002 (Canal 5) September 17, 2002 (Super RTL) October 29, 2002 (SRF ZWEI) November 5, 2002 (JEI TV) July 23, 2003 October 18, 2003 November 15, 2003 (CNBC-e) December 11, 2003 February 3, 2004 (Orf 1) February 27, 2004 (Asia Television) March 2, 2004 (Lativi) September 14, 2004 October 14, 2004 January 23, 2005 (MTV) March 15, 2005 (ICTV) October 4, 2005 (Nickelodeon) November 11, 2005 November 16, 2005 (Nickelodeon) February 7, 2006 (Global TV) February 14, 2006 April 29, 2006 (Nickelodeon) October 10, 2006 December 9, 2006 September 8, 2007 September 25, 2007 July 21, 2008 August 16, 2009 August 31, 2010 (QTV) April 7, 2014 February 17, 2017 February 17, 2018 (PLUS PLUS) March 12, 2018 (TET) May 17, 2019 July 22, 2020 (ViuTVsix) June 23, 2021 January 28, 2025 (Amediateka)
U.S. premiere time (ET):	8:15 pm
Copyright year:	2000
U.S. viewers (millions):	3.08
Running time:	11 minutes
Sister episode(s):	"Arrgh!"
Credits
Writer(s):	Paul Tibbitt Ennio Torresan David Fain
Storyboard:	Paul Tibbitt Ennio Torresan
Animation:	Tom Yasumi
Creative:	Derek Drymon
Chronology
Previous	"Arrgh!"
Next	"Texas"

"Rock Bottom" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 1. In this episode, SpongeBob gets stuck in Rock Bottom after taking the wrong bus home.

Characters

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Patrick Star
• Incidentals
  • Incidental 34
  • Bus driver
  • Incidental 64
  • Incidental 200 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 201 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 202 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 204 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 205 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 206 ^(debut)
  • Bert (Inc 211) ^(debut)
  • Jojo ^(debut)
  • Incidental 214 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 220 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 221 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 222 ^(debut)
• Soil ^(debut)
• Three baby fish ^{(single appearance)}
• Sea urchins
• Grandpa SquarePants ^{(mentioned and depicted by SpongeBob)}
• Gary the Snail ^(mentioned)

Synopsis

SpongeBob and Patrick board a bus to get home from Glove World!, a glove-themed amusement park that they enjoy. They accidentally board the wrong bus, which takes them down a cliff. The cliff leads to a sort of aphotic zone called Rock Bottom, inhabited by multiple unusual and strange deep-sea animals. SpongeBob tells Patrick to wait while he goes to try and find a bus schedule. While SpongeBob is gone searching, Patrick gets on the bus to go home but accidentally leaves SpongeBob behind. SpongeBob tries to find a bus that will take him home but nothing happens.

Rock Bottom.

After various unsuccessful attempts to get on a bus, SpongeBob heads to the bus station and waits in a very long line. By the time he gets to the front, after finding they blow raspberries in between words and must talk that way, he finds out that the last bus to Bikini Bottom will leave in a few seconds, but before he has time to react, it pulls away from the station.

"This is advanced darkness."

The Ticketmaster tells SpongeBob that it was the last bus until morning and leaves for the night, shutting off the lights in the process. SpongeBob, who is starting to show fear and anxiety, takes out his glove flashlight, but the battery shorts out, leaving him in "advanced darkness." As he stands alone in the station giving himself a pep-talk, he hears the familiar raspberry sound echoing and makes a mad dash back to the cliff. The raspberry sound is getting closer, and SpongeBob cowers in fear, yelling out a weak threat. As the creature closes in, a bright light engulfs SpongeBob, and he lets out a scream. He is relieved when he noticed the light is coming from a friendly-looking anglerfish creature who found SpongeBob's lost glove balloon. SpongeBob sarcastically thanks him for solving the balloon problem but begins rambling about his other problem: trying to get home. The anglerfish blows up the balloon and ties it to SpongeBob's wrist. SpongeBob makes another sarcastic comment about how the balloon already has enough air while closing his eyes and blowing raspberries. He opens his eyes to see he is floating in the air and understands the anglerfish was helping him using the unorthodox method of balloon travel. He thanks the anglerfish for his help, who replies with a polite "you're welcome" and waves goodbye.

SpongeBob travels back to Bikini Bottom using the balloon and lands in front of his house before the balloon pops. Patrick rides on a bus back to Rock Bottom, thinking that SpongeBob is still stuck there.

Production

Promotional art

Promotional art for the episode.

Script

• On November 14, 2016, recording scripts for every episode from season 1 were publicly released, found on one of the asset discs for the PlayStation video game, SuperSponge. This included the recording script for "Rock Bottom."

Storyboards

Animatics

Art

Background from Pickles, but SpongeBob is from this episode.

An exposure sheet for this episode.

Model sheets

Music

( ‣ ) Production music

( • ) Original music

( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

 ‣ Moon Walk - John Fox [Title card]
 ‣ Roll Up Waltz [#11.05] - Andrew J J Hall [opening at Glove World!]
 • Closing Theme 2 - Steve Belfer [SpongeBob and Patrick on the bus]
 ‣ Missile Disaster - John Fox [Bikini Bottom City Limits]
 ‣ On Fire - Gregor F. Narholz [Bus drives down a cliff]
 ‣ Moon Walk - John Fox [SpongeBob and Patrick in Rock Bottom]
 ‣ Mavericks - The Woodies [SpongeBob chasing the bus]
 ‣ Hawaiian Link (B) - Richard Myhill [Waiting for next bus]
 ‣ Vibe Link (B) - Richard Myhill ["Uh-oh, shoe's untied."]
 ‣ Hawaiian Link (A) - Richard Myhill [SpongeBob still waiting]
 • Grass Skirt Chase - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [The wind blows SpongeBob's balloon away]
 • Hawaiian Adventures aka SpongeBob Theme - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Someone chases SpongeBob's balloon.]
 ‣ Kamakani B - Kapono Beamer ["Well, there goes another one."]
 ‣ Orchestral Effect (f) - Dick Stephen Walter [Glove candy dispenser]
 • Gator - Steve Belfer [SpongeBob sees a candy machine]
 ‣ Pell-Mell - Sam Spence [Pushing buttons on machine]
 • Tension Bit - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob reaches toward the candy bar]
 ‣ Deadline - Sam Spence [SpongeBob goes to the bus station]
 ‣ Hawaiian Cocktail - Richard Myhill [329th in line]
 ‣ On The Beach - Kapono Beamer [Clock ticking]
 ‣ Menace from the Deep - Robert Cornford [Lights turned off]
 ‣ Death Trap [#25] - Gregor F. Narholz [Someone approaching]
 ‣ Royal Hawaiian Hula - Kapono Beamer [SpongeBob's balloon travel home]
 ‣ Honolulu March - Hans Haider [Ending]

*On The Complete 1st Season and The First 100 Episodes DVDs, "Mavericks" is replaced with "El Dementia" by The Surfdusters while on the Amazon Prime Video, iTunes and Paramount+ versions of this episode has the "Mavericks."

Release

Distribution

• This episode is available on The Complete 1st Season, Fools in April, Rock Bottom, Aaarg!, First 100 Episodes, SpongeBob on DVD, The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 2, The Complete First Season, SpongeBob SquarePants Has Hit Rock Bottom, From the Beginning, Part 1, On the Road Again, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, Glove World Forever, The First & Second Seasons, Movies & TV Collection, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, and The Best 300 Episodes Ever DVDs.

Reception

• This episode and "Arrgh!" won a Golden Reel award in 2000 for Best Sound Editing in Television: Animation - Sound Editing.
• "Rock Bottom" was ranked #79 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.
• "Rock Bottom" was ranked #41 during the SpongeBob's Top 100 event in the UK and Ireland from June 4-8, 2012.

Trivia

General

• This episode's alternate titles were "The Wrong Bus," "The Bus," and "It's Lonely at the Bottom."
• The title card background for this episode is similar to that of "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost," except it is recolored and backwards.
  • Coincidentally, both episodes are in season 1.
• This is the first episode for a few things:
  • The first appearance of Glove World!
  • The first episode where the storyboard artists are not credited.
  • The first mentioning of Grandpa SquarePants when SpongeBob imitates him. However, his first actual appearance is in "The Sponge Who Could Fly," albeit in a thought bubble.
  • This and its sister episode make the first half-hour episode to not feature Squidward, though his house is briefly seen in both episodes.
  • The first episode to use the production music track "Missile Disaster."
• Residents of Rock Bottom all speak by blowing a raspberry in between words. When SpongeBob tries to speak normal to the fish at the bus station, the fish could not understand his "accent" until SpongeBob starts to blow his tongue to speak.
• Rock Bottom's other areas are never shown in this episode. SpongeBob only stays near the bus stop, the bus station, and the entrance road, not going any further. However, in some video games, such as Employee of the Month and SpongeBob's Boating Bash, Rock Bottom's other locations and sights are shown.
• In the console version of the Lights, Camera, Pants! video game, there is an art gallery with a painting that is based on this episode.
• This is the last episode written by Ennio Torresan before he left for Disney and later DreamWorks Animation.
• Mr. Lawrence stated that the idea for this episode came from his own moment of getting on the wrong bus as a kid and the bus driver going the entire route before he would let him and his friend off in the right place, which frightened them both.
• The opening credits for this episode are in light blue instead of the regular navy blue.
  • This is also the case for its sister episode, "Arrgh!"
• This is one of the seven episodes in which the 1986 Paramount logo is plastered with the 2002 Paramount logo. The others are "Help Wanted," "Squeaky Boots," "F.U.N.," "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost," "Employee of the Month," and "Karate Choppers."
• The fish who works at the Rock Bottom bus station and gives schedules of when the buses are coming is the same fish who stole SpongeBob's Kelp Nougat Crunch candy bar from the vending machine.
• The gag where SpongeBob and Patrick hit something and peel off together would later be repeated in the episode "Roller Cowards."
  • Coincidentally, both episodes feature Glove World!
• The Rock Bottom area was later shown in the later episodes "Out of the Picture" and "Food PBFFT! Truck."
• In the level "Rock Bottom" from Battle for Bikini Bottom and Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated, when the player first starts this level and runs toward the Kandy Machine near the bus stop, a bus will drive up, stop at the bus stop for a second, and then continue driving. This is a reference to the incident in this episode; there was also a familiar reference in the video game The Cosmic Shake.
• The Dutch title of this episode is "Wachten op de Bus," which translates to "Waiting for the Bus."
• Certain signs have been misspelled, possibly deliberately. The bus stop sign reads "BUZ" with a "Z" at the end instead of an "S" at the end (or maybe a backwards "S"). The vending machine sign has a "K" replacing the "C," and the "N" is backwards.
• The buttons that SpongeBob presses for a Kelp Nougat Crunch are A-B-E-F-A-C-F-E-C.
• The citizens of Rock Bottom are based on deep-sea animals, and Rock Bottom is apparently a deep-sea trench.
• There is an online game based on this episode called Bikini Bottom or Bust.
• This episode inspired the roller coaster SpongeBob SquarePants: Rock Bottom Plunge, at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN which opened on March 15, 2008, exactly 8 years after the episode premiered.
• SpongeBob saying, "advanced darkness" has become an internet meme.
• This is the first and, so far, only episode to end with a bubble transition.
• The audio of SpongeBob saying, "Hey!" after the bus passes the first time he goes to the vending machine is rather similar to the bus driver's line in "Help Wanted."
• This episode was previously paired up with:
  • "SB-129" on September 29, 2001, during the Nicktoon Weekend Getaway event on October 13, 2001, on December 29, 2001, March 23, 2002, and October 12, 2002.
  • "Scaredy Pants" during the Spine-Tingling, Teeth-Chattering, Hair-Raising, Spooktastic Nicktoon Boo-Fest marathon.
  • "Bubblestand" during the Best Day Ever marathon on November 10, 2006.
  • "Nature Pants" on October 13, 2008.
  • "Krusty Krab Training Video" on February 16, 2018.
  • "Sleepy Time" on September 18, 2019.
  • "Frankendoodle" on January 2, 2020.
• One "Scan Your Happy Meal Box" game on the McDonald's Happy Meal app in the UK included footage from this episode.
• Even though the window attendant says the last bus to Bikini Bottom will leave in five seconds, it actually leaves in only one second.

Squidina Pulls Pranks with Rock Bottom Locals! 😈 - Full Scene - @SpongeBobOfficial

• Squidina travels back to this episode during the time-travel special, "SpongeBob and Patrick's Timeline Twist-Up."
  • The SpongeBob SquarePants Official YouTube channel uploaded the partial clip of this episode on June 3, 2025, 24 days before the premiere of "SpongeBob and Patrick's Timeline Twist-Up" in the United States.

Dub facts

• In the Spanish (Latin American) dub, after SpongeBob shouts 'Tartar sauce' (Salsa tartara), instead of speaking gibberish afterward, he shouts "...las percebes, tentaculos, medusas" ([the] barnacles, tentacles, jellyfish) then speaks gibberish.

Cultural references

• Rock bottom is a figure of speech that means at the lowest possible level, fitting the city's location.

Errors

• At the beginning of this episode, when SpongeBob says, "Another fun-tastic day at Glove World!," his lips do not move when he says the "Glove World" part.
  • This error was fixed on The Complete 1st Season and The First 100 Episodes DVDs.
• If the scene when SpongeBob and Patrick are boarding the bus is played frame-by-frame, SpongeBob's right arm is missing but appears for a brief moment.

SpongeBob's right arm is missing.

The belt portion of SpongeBob's pocket is brown.

• The second time when SpongeBob checks for money in his pants, the pocket is fully brown.
• When SpongeBob looks at the vending machine, it is facing him, but when he is choosing the candy he wants, it is facing the opposite side of the road at a 90-degree angle.
• When Patrick asks SpongeBob where "Leaving Bikini Bottom" is, SpongeBob has one of the gloves that Patrick got for his glove action figure on his nose. When he looks out of the bus window to see where they are going and then gets out of said window, the glove on his nose is gone.
• When SpongeBob yells at the man at the bus station, a sign that reads "Information" can be seen above the window, but when the lights shut off, the sign disappears.
• When SpongeBob and Patrick arrive at Rock Bottom, there is no candy machine.
• When SpongeBob and Patrick get on the bus, there is a fish sleeping on one of the seats, but when they arrive at Rock Bottom, he is gone.
• When SpongeBob looks for a bus schedule, he has his balloon, but when he chases after the bus, the balloon is not in his hands. Then, in the next scene, he has his balloon again.
• When SpongeBob is first seen dialing the letters on the candy machine, the sign titled "BUZ" disappears. It reappears in the next scene.
• When SpongeBob chases the bus, his running animation shows him running forward. However, he actually runs to the side.
• When the cardboard SpongeBob is at the candy machine, it does not smile, but it smiles when it falls.

The cardboard cutout on the left is not smiling, but the one on the right is smiling when the cardboard cut out begins to fall.

• When the bus stops in Rock Bottom, the bubbles behind it freeze in mid-air.
• The distance between the bus stop and when the road goes up varies between scenes.
• The storyboard artists are not credited in this episode. Only the storyboard directors are credited.
  • This error also occurs in "The Fry Cook Games."
• When SpongeBob chases after the bus Patrick is in, the exit in Rock Bottom is a greater distance away than it was in the prior scenes.
• In one scene when SpongeBob is sneaking up on the bus, his holes are missing.

  

  His holes are missing.

• In the bus station, when the lights turn off, the !ИFθRNNA|-'iθИَ sign disappears, but a few scenes later, it reappears.

His house is next to Bikini Bottom, Squidward's and Patrick's house are missing, and the pineapple is poorly edited.

• There are a few errors during the scene in which SpongeBob flies above Bikini Bottom.
  • SpongeBob's house is shown in downtown Bikini Bottom, next to many townspeople's houses. When he gets to his house, his house is no longer surrounded by the townspeople's houses.
  • Patrick's and Squidward's houses are missing, but in the next scene, they reappear.
  • SpongeBob's pineapple is colored differently than the surrounding area, showing that the image was digitally inserted onto a pre-existing background.

Videos

Nickelodeon March Toon Mania 2000 Screen Bug (Rock Bottom)

Welcome to Rock Bottom! TBT SpongeBob

SpongeBob SquarePants - "Rock Bottom" Animatic

"Rock Bottom" IRL with...Real Rocks! 👅 SpongeBob

'Rock Bottom' In 30 SECONDS 🧽 SpongeBob - Nickelodeon Cartoon Universe -shorts

If SpongeBob was a Gothic Claymation Cartoon 🪨 - "Rock Bottom" - SpongeBob- Reimagined

This episode was a fever dream!! 😤 - -spongebob -doodlebob -shorts

Rock Bottom is WAY freakier with DoodleBob 😭 - SpongeBob -shorts

SpongeBob and Patrick Hit Rock Bottom 😨😱 - Full Scene - @SpongeBobOfficial

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
French	Les bus farceurs	Prank Buses
German	Bus verpasst	Missed the Bus
Italian	Rock Bottom	-
Polish	Skalisko Dolne	Rock Bottom
Russian	Каменная бездна Kamennaya bezdna	Rocky Abyss
Spanish (Latin America)	El abismo	The Abyss
Spanish (Spain)	Fondo de Roca	Rock Bottom