"SB-129" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 1. In this episode, Squidward accidentally freezes himself and travels time.
Characters Present:
- Squidward Tentacles
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- Patrick Star
- SpongeTron (debut)
- SpongeTrons X, Y, and Z (debut)
- Patron (debut)
- Primitive Star (debut)
- Primitive Sponge (debut)
- Chrome Spray-Painter (debut)
- Ammonite (debut)
- Primitive Tapeworm (debut)
- Trilobites (debut)
- The Alone Group
- French Narrator
Synopsis
The day starts off quite well for Squidward. He is about to practice his clarinet when SpongeBob's alarm clock (facing out the window) knocks the clarinet inside Squidward's mouth, and SpongeBob asks Squidward if he wants to go jellyfishing. Squidward tries to reply, but because his clarinet is in his mouth, anything he says is incomprehensible, and SpongeBob thinks he said yes. After Squidward takes his clarinet out of his mouth, Squidward is constantly bothered in his house by SpongeBob and Patrick who want to go jellyfishing with him. Squidward, in an attempt to stop SpongeBob and Patrick bothering him, tells SpongeBob that he should be at work, but SpongeBob tells him that it's a Sunday, and the Krusty Krab is closed on Sundays. Squidward tells SpongeBob and Patrick to stay where they are, and goes out the back door of his house and goes into the Krusty Krab. He sees SpongeBob and Patrick looking for him, and goes into the kitchen. SpongeBob and Patrick are still looking for him, so he goes into the freezer. After SpongeBob and Patrick go away, Squidward is frightened to find that the handle is jammed, and that he is stuck inside the freezer. He assures himself that someone will find him, but he becomes frozen and is stuck there for 2,000 years.
SpongeTron, a descendant of SpongeBob finally discovers Squidward after a hinge snaps off and the door breaks down. After being defrosted by SpongeTron, Squidward finds out that everything in the future (except for people) is made entirely of chrome, and all organic life forms that aren't people (such as seaweed or kelp) are simply spray-painted chrome. SpongeTron introduces Squidward to his clones, SpongeTrons X, Y, and Z. He also informs Squidward that there are 486 SpongeTrons in response to his question "Are the other letters of the alphabet involved here?" meaning that the English alphabet has been expanded, merged with another character set, or (most likely) it was hyperbole by the writers to make the future more complex. Squidward decides that he hates the future, so SpongeTron directs him to a time machine, which is actually a small room with a control panel. Shortly after meeting Patron, a two-headed descendant of Patrick, Squidward goes into the can opener, and then goes into the time machine to travel to the past, ripping the entire room out of the building in the process. Squidward winds up in early prehistoric times, where he meets the primitive ancestors of SpongeBob and Patrick, who are torturing themselves with a jellyfish. Squidward introduces jellyfishing to them, and they seem to be interested until Squidward starts playing his clarinet, which drives them crazy, causing them to chase after him.
He goes into the time machine, but he accidentally malfunctions it by pulling the lever so hard that it breaks, causing the time machine to go all around the dimensions. The time machine got flatter and flatter and it disappeared, and Squidward ends up in a surreal realm of nothingness, with a strange atmosphere (A strange bass tone, very weird echoing voices in the background and large 2D rectangles which disappear when Squidward touches one of them). At first glance of the realm, Squidward is relieved to finally be away from SpongeBob alone with his clarinet (and is later echoed by the surreal echoing voices). Suddenly realizing his loneliness, he attempts to escape the realm by running (which takes him where he already was) and stomping the ground in frustration. He breaks through the floor, landing in the time machine room. He begs it to return to the present, which it does, but Squidward finds out that in his travels, he invented jellyfishing. Squidward says; "I'm going back." Which causes the episode to end.
Trivia/Goofs
Template:Trivia
- Third episode where Squidward's rear end is noticable.
- According to Tom Kenny, this is one of the weirdest and most surreal episodes of the series.
- Along with Karate Choppers , this episode aired on December 31, 1999, the final day of the 20th century, probably to celebrate the new millenium/year/century.
- The Serbian name for this episode is SB-192.
- This is the second time a Time card was used, and the first time the French Narrator narrates it.
- This was the first episode to focus (entirely) on Squidward.
- The episode, which arises from Squidward time-traveling and inventing the game of jellyfishing while seeking to avoid SpongeBob and Patrick as they want him to jellyfish with them, is a time paradox known as a causality loop. Thus, a person is inspired or driven by an event to time travel and, whether or not intentionally, causes the event which will facilitate their initial time travelling trip.
- This is the first (and currently only) episode in which the title card is spoken out loud.
- The background of this episode's title card is also seen in Can You Spare a Dime? when Squidward pictures himself as an astronaut.
- Squidward is later stuck in the freezer with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs, in Truth or Square.
- This is also the 1st title card to have an animation. It's repeated in "Prehibernation Week," "One Krabs Trash," "Idiot Box," "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler," "Skill Crane," "Ghost Host," "Karate Island," "All That Glitters," "The Donut of Shame," "The Krabby Kronicle" and "Barnacle Face".
- The date of the first airing of the episode (12/31/1999) was intended to coincide New Years Eve
- The episode "Ugh" (also marketed as SpongeBob Goes Prehistoric or SpongeBob B.C.) seems to be set after the time prehistoric time period shown in this episode, as the cavepeople characters in that episode are more civilized and have developed a simple language. Three scenes of this episode can be seen during the song "When Worlds Collide."
- The title, SB-129, is production code for the episode - SpongeBob - Season 1 Episode 29.
- The ALONE voices are voiced by the entire crew of the show.
- This is the first (and only) time SpongeBob's alarm clock faces the window toward Squidward.
- In the PC version of the game for the SpongeBob SquarePants movie, SpongeBob can look into his future with the Pool of Perception. The third time he looks in, he sees the 41st century, which resembles the future seen in this episode.
- This is the first time Squidward swallows his clarinet. Squidward swallows his clarinet again in "Squidtastic Voyage", and once again in his nightmare in "Squidward in Clarinetland".
- This is the first episode to involve time travel. The second was "Back to the Past".
- The future version of Patrick is Patron. In Spanish dubbing, the name is the same. Ironically, "patron" is another Spanish word for "jefe" ("boss").
- When Squidward travels 2,000 years into the future Krusty Krab, there is a tear-off calendar behind Squidward and the future SpongeBob. On it, the date reads March 6, 4017. This means that the episode takes place on March 6, 2017, however, 2,000 years could simply be an approximation of how much time Squidward spent in the freezer. Both dates are on a Monday.
- In The Nickelodeon South East Asia Squidward's big holiday contest, this episode was known as SpongeBob 3000.
- None of Squidward's descendants are seen in the future due to the fact that Squidward was locked in the freezer and he couldn't leave offspring.
- 1st time SpongeBob only has a cameo appearance.
- 1st time the Krusty Krab is seen without Mr. Krabs.
- This is the first episode to have everything chrome. Second was "Procrastination".
- When Squidward went back in time before the birth of the universe when he broke the time machine is simular to the Family Guy episode "The Big Bang Therory" when Stewie and Brian go back in time before the birth of the universe when they broke their time machine and caused the Big Bang.
- According to this episode, Squidward is the one who invented Jellyfishing.
- Oddly, even though the Krusty Krab was closed in this episode, the doors were still unlocked.
- It could've been possible that Squidward has time traveled into the Big Bang.
- The Jellyfish are smaller than usual in this episode.
- When Squidward is "nowhere", his footsteps make different sounds than usual.
- SpongeTron mentions that he has 486 clones, one for each letter of the alphabet. This means over the course of 2,000 years, 460 letters have been added to the current 26, assuming the English alphabet is the one being used. It's most likely hybrebole by the writers wanted to make the future more complex.
- In the future, everything is chrome in Bikini Bottom. (EXCEPT for the hinges on the freezer door. They had been rusted over the last 2,000 years. The freezer interior and the time machine interior and people are not chrome, as well.)
- After SpongeBob snores at the beginning, captions say "(Gary meows)" when this is SpongeBob exhaling.
- The future year is given as 4017, therefore the episode's current time is set 2,000 years in the past, in 2017, although the episode premiered in 1999, but some viewers think it premiered in 2000.
- When Squidward first arrives in the Nowhere Zone, his clarinet is in his hands. But when he begins running frantically, the clarinet is missing. And when he stomps on the floor and falls through the roof of the time machine, the clarinet reappears. When he got out of the time machine again, it disappeared again.
- Before SpongeBob's alarm clock goes off during the start on the episode, it is facing the bed, but when it goes off, it is facing Squidward. SpongeBob's bed could be facing the window however, in which case this would just be a change in perspective.
- When Squidward enters the time machine, the door knob changes sides.
- The first time Squidward enters the Time machine, the switch reads future on the top and past on the bottom. The next time he enters, the two are reversed
- The controls for the time machine say different things every time the machine's interior is shown.
- At the beginning, SpongeBob's pineapple has one window instead of two.
- When Squidward exits the time machine in the past, there are two red lights at the top. But when he entered the time machine in the future, there was one red light and one blue light.
- Through those years, Squidward's face is clearly seen, yet no one noticed him. This may be due to his blue-ish color, or Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob just ignored Squidward.
- This episode is most likely considered non-canon for several reasons:
- Although if you consider the end of the episode, Squidward returns to the same day. Which means that although he froze himself earlier that day, he would have returned to work.
- Squidward had his clarinet when he was in the Krusty Krab. When he went in the freezer, it was gone. It reappears after the time card is shown.
- It is weird that over the course of 2,000 years no one entered the freezer to get supplies needed to supply the Krusty Krab with its products, as the freezer contains frozen Krabby Patty's.
- How did Spongebob and Patrick knew that Squidward created jellyfishing since he only taught Primitive Sponge and Primitive Star? (The activity of jellyfishing was possibly passed down for generations.)
APM music identification
- Hawaiian Blues - The morning time
- Cierre Bob Esponja - "Rrrrready to go?" A Moog synthesizer /electronic version of the cue can be heard while SpongeTron thaws Squidward; a primitive version of the cue is heard when Squidward "invents" jellyfishing in the past.
- The Rake Hornpipe - Squidward hides in the freezer from SpongeBob and Patrick.
- Death Trap - Squidward tries to open the freezer door.
- Abject Terror - Squidward got frozen.
- Hawaiian Link B - "Well, someone will realize I'm gone and come looking for me. I'll be outta here in no time."
- Lonely Violin - "I don't belong here! This is all a horrible mistake! Please, we've got to do something!"
- Aloha Oe - SpongeTron directs Squidward to the time machine.
- Dorothy - "Well, I wouldn't of chosen this interior."
- Hilo, March - Squidward is happy to see SpongeBob and Patrick again.
- Unidentified electro-acoustic music from the 1930s - Title.