Snowball Effect

Snowball Effect
General
Production code:	5572-189
Season №:	3
Episode №:	46a
Airdate:	February 22, 2002 October 9, 2002 November 3, 2002 December 28, 2002 See more... September 4, 2002 September 9, 2002 (EBS) September 11, 2002 October 7, 2002 November 6, 2002 April 21, 2003 August 24, 2003 September 8, 2003 (Super RTL) February 16, 2004 (JEI TV) February 22, 2004 October 17, 2004 October 22, 2004 January 7, 2005 April 15, 2005 (Orf 1) September 25, 2005 (Nickelodeon) March 15, 2006 March 31, 2006 May 1, 2006 (SRF ZWEI) December 16, 2007 January 24, 2009 December 6, 2009 October 15, 2010 (QTV) November 19, 2016 March 18, 2018 (PLUS PLUS) April 11, 2018 (TET) July 11, 2019 September 1, 2020 August 3, 2021
U.S. premiere time (ET):	8:00 pm
Copyright year:	2001
U.S. viewers (millions):	3.85
Running time:	11 minutes
Sister episode(s):	"One Krabs Trash"
Credits
Writer(s):	Paul Tibbitt Kent Osborne Merriwether Williams
Storyboard Artist(s):	Carson Kugler William Reiss Mike Roth
Storyboard:	Paul Tibbitt Kent Osborne
Animation:	Andrew Overtoom
Creative:	Derek Drymon
Chronology
Previous	"Doing Time"
Next	"One Krabs Trash"

"Snowball Effect" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 3. In this episode, SpongeBob and Patrick have a snowball fight and try to get Squidward to join in as well.

Characters

• French Narrator
• Realistic Fish Head
• Old Man Winter ^(mentioned)
• Jellyfish
• Gary the Snail
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Snow fish
• Snow whale
• Snow mermaid
• Eugene H. Krabs ^(cameo)
• Mrs. Puff ^(cameo)
• Sheldon J. Plankton
• Patrick Star
• Squidward Tentacles
• Meteorologist ^{(heard only)}
• Incidentals
  • Fred
  • Incidental 27
  • Incidental 158
  • Unknown incidental 16 ^(male)
  • Incidental 30A

Synopsis

SpongeBob teaches Patrick how to make a snowball.

In the beginning of the episode, an iceberg travels across the surface of the ocean and stops over Bikini Atoll, causing it to snow underwater in Bikini Bottom. The Realistic Fish Head reports on the scene to inform the Bikini Bottom citizens on the heavy snowfall across the city. Everyone notices and starts to have fun in the snow, while SpongeBob and Patrick decide to have a snowball fight. Meanwhile, Squidward is relaxing at his house, sitting near a fire and drinking a hot cup of tea. He hears the sounds of SpongeBob and Patrick building snow forts and tells them to quiet down. The duo tries to convince him to come out and play with them, both trying to get him on their own side, but Squidward turns down both their offers, dismissing snowball fights as childish, only for the two to (inadvertently) put out his fireplace twice.

Squidward decides that, as entertainment, he will watch them fight, hoping they will get hurt. However, SpongeBob and Patrick took Squidward's words to heart and signed a peace treaty. Squidward tries to convince them to continue for his entertainment, but repeatedly gets hit with a snowball by Patrick as a result (the last of which involving Patrick pausing before throwing it for kicks). He then decides to throw a snowball at SpongeBob and Patrick, but misses both of them, putting out his fireplace once more. SpongeBob and Patrick interpret the launching of snowballs as a declaration of "war," then proceed to duck behind their fort and mercilessly begin to pelt Squidward with snowballs (and a top hat after Squidward gets turned into a snowman). Fed up with their attack, Squidward (breaking free from his snowman-shaped prison) proceeds to throw a snowball in retaliation and hits SpongeBob right in the face. He quickly begins to enjoy himself and soon becomes exhilarated, before throwing another at Patrick. He starts to relentlessly pelt SpongeBob and Patrick with more snowballs, while the two take cover in response. After Patrick is hit by a snowball containing Squidward's clarinet, he and SpongeBob decide that Squidward is taking the snowball fight far too seriously and sneak off back to the pineapple.

Squidward throws snowballs from the top of his tower.

When Squidward notices that the snowballs have "stopped falling", he takes the opportunity to assess his defenses. Realizing his fort is too small, Squidward decides to make it bigger and eventually builds it to the size of a tower, later to be known as "Fort Squidward". When an overhead tree branch begins to drop snow on his head, Squidward believes snowballs are being thrown at him by SpongeBob and Patrick and repeatedly hurls out snowballs in random directions.

Meanwhile, SpongeBob and Patrick relax in the pineapple, watching TV while drinking hot chocolate and eating popcorn. SpongeBob faintly hears Squidward's yelling for a moment and asks Patrick if he also heard something. After Patrick replies, "Nope" (probably deciding to let Squidward have his fun), they continue to watch a news report about the snow, before the screen cuts to black, thus ending the episode.

Production

Deleted scene

There is a scene which shows Squidward inside a snowman dungeon which he made and yelling "I'll bring them to my snow dungeon and extract their valuable secrets." This scene never made it past the storyboard.

Art

Concept art

The Krabs house covered in snow

Snow Mermaid concept art

An unused shot of a snowman torture room.

Storyboard for the snowman torture room.

Music

( ‣ ) Production music

( • ) Original music

( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

 ‣ Wonderland of Snow - Terry Day [Title card]
 ‣ America A Dream Comes True - Gregor F. Narholz [opening]
 • Bell Jingles - Nicolas Carr [Sleigh bells]
 ‣ The Jolly Sleighride - Ib Glindemann [Bikini Bottom covered in snow]
 ‣ Danger Zone - Mike Sunderland ["This is serious, SpongeBob."]
 • Thats It ! - Nicolas Carr ["Snowball fight?"]
 • Vibe & Harp Hits - Nicolas Carr [Patrick makes a cube/Patrick makes a rectangular pyramid/Patrick makes DNA]
 • Battle Begins - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob and Patrick glare at each other]
 • Going Hit - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob and Patrick glare at each other]
 ‣ Romantic Waltz - Geoffrey Henman [Squidward relaxing]
 • Lemon Sting - Jeremy Wakefield [faintly plays]
 ‣ The Merry March (a) - Paddy Kingsland [SpongeBob and Patrick building forts]
 ‣ Tomfoolery - David Snell [Patrick choking on snow]
 ‣ Comic Walk - Sidney Torch ["Snowball fights are for immature children."]
 • Vibe & Harp Hits - Nicolas Carr ["Hmm..."]
 ‣ Comic Walk - Sidney Torch ["Now there's something I'd actually like to see!"]
 ‣ Tympup A - Sammy Burdson, John Charles Fiddy [SpongeBob and Patrick shake hands]
 ‣ Comic Walk - Sidney Torch [peace treaty]
 • 12th St Rag - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Squidward trying to start another snowball fight]
 ‣ Marshall Strength Link - David Snell [SpongeBob and Patrick throw snowballs at Squidward]
 • Thats It ! - Nicolas Carr ["That was actually kind of exciting."]
 ‣ I Saw Three Ships 29 (C) - Richard A. Harvey ["I've never felt so alive!"]
 • Earls Revenge - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Squidward throwing snowballs]
 • Idea Sting - Nicolas Carr ["What's going on?"]
 • Spongemonger - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [ending]

Release

• This episode is available on the Christmas, SpongeBob Goes Prehistoric (Russian only), SpongeBob vs. The Big One (Greek only), Complete 3rd Season, Nick For the Holidays!, Nick Picks Christmas, Nick X-Mas Special, Bundled Up in Bikini Bottom, First 100 Episodes, Glumly Squidward, Christmas Who? (South Korea version), Holidays with SpongeBob 3-DVD Gift Set, The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 4, Collection Triple, Christmas DVD Double Pack, Complete Third Season, From the Beginning, Part 1, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, 2-Season TV Pack, The Third & Fourth Seasons, and The Best 200 Episodes Ever DVDs.
• This episode is also available on the Christmas VHS tape.
• It is also a bonus feature on the Back at the Barnyard: Cowman: The Uddered Avenger DVD in the UK.

Reception

• "Snowball Effect" was ranked #20 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.
• "Snowball Effect" was ranked #31 during the SpongeBob's Top 100 event in the UK and Ireland from June 4-8, 2012.

Trivia

General

• This episode marks the fourth appearance of snow, with the first three being "Bubble Buddy," "Christmas Who?," and "Survival of the Idiots."
  • Both this episode and "Christmas Who?" have snow falling outside of Sandy's treedome whilst snow falls inside Sandy's treedome in "Bubble Buddy" and "Survival of the Idiots."
• This is the first episode to have aired in the Friday Night Party with the Nicktoons event.
• When Squidward is sitting next to his fireplace, a replica of his head with moose antlers is seen hanging on a plaque on his wall. It is seen again in the video game Battle for Bikini Bottom (Rehydrated) in Squidward's house.

LEGO SpongeBob SquarePants Commercial 2006

• A clip of this episode was shown in a 2006 LEGO SpongeBob commercial.
• There is an online game based on this episode called SpongeBob SnowPants!
• This is the first time tanks are seen in SpongeBob.
• This episode has been paired with different episodes for certain marathons:
  • On the November 10, 2006 airing, this episode was paired with "Just One Bite."
  • On the July 25, 2020 airing on Nicktoons, this episode was paired with "Survival of the Idiots."
• The scene of Patrick holding his crotch at Squidward's door was used for Nickelodeon's "Epic Dance Party" promo featuring a remix of "Watch Me (Whip / Nae Nae)" by Silentó. This was for Labor Day weekend of 2015.

• This episode was referenced in "Friendiversary" as Squidward's fireplace room reappears in that episode.

Dub facts

• The scene where SpongeBob batters Patrick with a barrage of snowballs was rarely shown in Indonesia airings for many years due to time constraints.
  • However, more recently, it and other similarly early episodes are aired in Indonesia uncut.

Cultural references

• Patrick's alias "Pink Menace" is a reference to the "Red Menace," a nickname for the Soviet Union that was popular in the United States and allied countries during the Cold War.
• The title is a reference to the phrase of the same name.

Errors

• When Squidward considers aloud the possibility of being attacked in the rear, there is already a wall there. All he does is turn around, laugh, and pat the wall, but he is never seen building it.
• When Mrs. Puff blows the snow off her boatmobile and onto Fred, he pops his head out and yells "Hey!" although his mouth does not move.
• When SpongeBob is first seen with his fort, it is spherical and shorter than him, but when the camera returns to SpongeBob, his fort has changed shape and is about as tall as him. Finally, when the camera returns to the wide angle including Squidward's house, his fort returns to its original shape.
• When the camera shows Patrick laughing after hitting SpongeBob with a snowball, his fort is smooth. Before, it was completely rugged. Also, when Patrick comes upon the barrage of snowballs SpongeBob serves at him, his fort is rugged again. Also, all the snow-cubes he was seen with are gone.
• In the Bengali dub, the credits for this episode and its sister episode "One Krabs Trash" were swapped by accident.

The background is light blue rather than gray.

• When a close-up of the DNA strand snowball Patrick made is shown, the sky is light blue, even though the sky is gray for almost the entire rest of the episode.
• When Squidward gets frustrated by Patrick continuously throwing snowballs at him right after he builds his small fort, he attempts to throw back a snowball forward at Patrick but misses his shot. Instead, the snowball goes inside Squidward's house and puts out his fireplace. This would not have been possible because his house is behind him at the moment he throws the snowball.

Patrick's rock is missing.

• When Squidward builds his fort near the end of the episode, Patrick's house is not seen.
• In one of the frames of the scene where Squidward rapidly fires snowballs at SpongeBob and Patrick while they go home, the bottom of his jaw is erroneously colored brown.

Squidward's brown jaw.

Videos

Snowball Fight IRL ❄️ SpongeBob

Scene Scramble ☃️ - SpongeBob

SpongeBob SquarePants - Squidward Joins The Snowball Fight (S3, E6) - Paramount+