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— SpongeBob SquarePants, "Graveyard Shift"
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Squidward's clarinet, often called "Clarry"[1] by Squidward, is a clarinet played by him as a hobby various times throughout the series, first appearing in the episode "Bubblestand."
Description[]
It is a black clarinet with a standard row of silver keys and has a straight, wooden reed coming from the top of the instrument where the player is able to blow into it.
Role in series[]
One of Squidward's most notable traits is his love for clarinet playing. It is his favorite hobby. Squidward loves it to the point where he often treats it as if it were alive, giving it the nickname "Clarey." Squidward even sleeps with it and has a small pillow for it to "rest" on, as shown in the episodes "Squidville" and "I Was a Teenage Gary." A common running gag is that the Bikini Bottomites are annoyed by the sound of it due to Squidward's lack of musical talent.
In "Christmas Who?," SpongeBob gives him a customized wooden clarinet as a present.
In "Sold!", Squidward makes an "electric clarinet" by sticking a speaker onto the end of his clarinet and playing it with a bunch of stereos and amplifiers.
In "Spin the Bottle," Plankton paints the clarinet golden in response to Squidward's wish for "a golden clarinet that plays beautifully."
In "Lost and Found," it is shown that Squidward played the kazoo as a kid before he got his clarinet. A box full of his clarinets are in the lost and found, and Squidward notices that they used to be in his locker, suggesting that Mr. Krabs confiscated them.
The plot of "Squid Noir" revolves around Squidward's clarinet going missing, and him trying to figure out who stole it.
In "Mind the Gap," Squidward plays the clarinet alongside SpongeBob's lounge singing. However, the Maitre D convinces him to use a mute beforehand, meaning none of his playing is audible.
Squidward gets a turbo clarinet in the mail in "Patrick the Mailman," resembling his usual clarinet but with a pull-back motor and engine on it. He plays a loud note that blasts SpongeBob and Patrick away.
In "Mandatory Music," Squidward's bad playing catches the attention of the music police, who sentence him to a music school until he improves. The teacher locks up Squidward's clarinet, until he forcibly takes it back.
"PL-1413" has Squidward's clarinet thrown into a time capsule by an angry citizen. In the future, it is revealed that Squidward's clarinet recordings are now considered great works of art, but they were not appreciated until after his death.
On Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, Squidward has the position of reveille, playing his clarinet loudly to wake everyone up in the morning.
In "Hot Pearl-tato," it is shown that Pearl likes the sound of Squidward's clarinet. He uses it to help find her when she is lost in the forest.
In "What About Meep?," as Chovy is trying to find his own identity, SpongeBob offers him Squidward's clarinet. Chovy performs an upbeat tune, but since he plays better than Squidward can, SpongeBob decides that he is too different to be like Squidward.
In "Camp SpongeBob," SpongeBob plays lullaby music on Squidward's clarinet to put rampaging animals to sleep.
When Squidward recounts his day in "Outhouse Outrage," he remembers the campers holding hands and singing as he played his clarinet. SpongeBob's story shows that they actually hated it and threw garbage at him.
In "Night of the Living Stench," Squidward hooks his clarinet up to a hose and bottle of soap and uses it to spray water at the filthy campers.
In "Squisery," when Patrick and Squidward are stuck in the forest, Patrick makes a replacement clarinet for Squidward out of kelp. It turns out to be made of toxic kelp, swelling Patrick's lips when he tries to play it.
"Kamp Kow" has a flashback showing Squidward playing the clarinet as a baby. His father confiscates it, making him cry, so his mother gives him a plush cow toy that calms him down.
At the end of "Helter Shelter," Squidward plays the clarinet alongside Sandy's violin and Nurse Helga's bagpipe-like instrument.
"Reveille Revolution" uses Squidward's bad clarinet playing as a major plot point, when he is upstaged by a group of anchovies who play better music.
In "A Finful of Sand Dollars," Squidward loads his clarinet with straws and peas and uses it similarly to a revolver during the stand-off.
Destroyed instances[]
- "Jellyfish Jam" - The jellyfish break it and light it on fire before dancing around it.
- "I Was a Teenage Gary" - SpongeBob scares Squidward, resulting in the clarinet getting stuck in one of his self-portraits.
- "Squidtastic Voyage" - Squidward swallows his reed.
- "Best Day Ever" - Squidward's reed breaks for an unknown reason.
- "The Two Faces of Squidward" - A fan steals Squidward's clarinet. Soon after, a mob of other fans who are gathered outside of his house destroy it.
- "Sweet and Sour Squid" - A policeman runs it over after arresting Plankton.
- "Restraining SpongeBob" - Patrick uses it as a toilet plunger for the toilets in the Krusty Krab restroom.
- "Food Con Castaways" - It is destroyed when he tries to soothe the beast but it grabs Squidward and the beast drops him, breaking his clarinet in half during the process.
- "Snooze You Lose" - Maestro Mackerel ties it around Squidward's head after making a terrible impression at the audition.
- "Lost and Found" - SpongeBob steps on all of them and breaks most of them in two.
- "Mandatory Music" - The music cops throw the clarinet into a wood chipper.
Annoyed instances[]
A running gag involving Squidward's clarinet is that when he plays it, the crowd gets annoyed due to his talentless nature. Squidward is hopelessly oblivious to this and believes that people do not have taste.
- "Dunces and Dragons" - Squidly plays at the parade toward the end of the episode, only for a rock to be thrown into his throat.
- "SquidBob TentaclePants" - Squidward plays his clarinet when the cloak disguising his and SpongeBob's conjoined body is pulled off by a nail. Soon after, he begins to "serenade" the audience.
- "No Hat for Pat" - The customers run out of the Krusty Krab because of the sound.
- "Sweet and Sour Squid" - Squidward plays his clarinet throughout the streets, only for food to be thrown at him. Plankton is later arrested for "noise disturbance" from it, as he was near the police and was the one holding it at that moment.
- "Salsa Imbecilicus" - Squidward plays his clarinet during the graduation ceremony. However, the graduates find it very annoying as he is playing sour notes.
- "Squid Noir" - Squidward plays his clarinet at the Krusty Krab, which deeply annoys the customers there and Mr. Krabs. He then plays it at a comic book store, which also annoys Bubble Bass. He later plays it at his own house, which annoys Patrick too.
- "Whale Watching" - The teens at the surface breaching party cringe in pain when Squidward plays his clarinet for them.
- "Pineapple RV" - Squidward's clarinet playing, after he gets the Warbling Water Lily, is so bad that it causes SpongeBob and Patrick to cringe in pain. They drive off in the RV, leaving him alone.
- "Arbor Day Disarray" - Squidward plays music for his saltwater tree, which gets annoyed and insults him. Squidward then kicks it out of the house.
- "Mandatory Music" - Squidward's clarinet playing at a public park and downtown is so horrible that it leads him to be arrested and his clarinet put under probation until he can learn to play better.
Trivia[]
- Squidward's clarinet is extremely less detailed than a clarinet is in real life. However, Sour Note, Squidward's superhero alter-ego, uses a realistic clarinet in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
- SpongeBob has played the clarinet many times, as well as Patrick[2] and Gary.[3]
- It is revealed in "Graveyard Shift" that SpongeBob uses Squidward's clarinet to unclog the former's toilet.
- This clarinet actually has a basset horn sound.
- In "Squidward in Clarinetland," it is shown that Squidward's clarinet is sentient. It reunites with Squidward before then being stolen by SpongeBob in the Horned Forest.
- In one frame in "Squid Plus One," the clarinet mistakenly appears to be golden.
- In "Sleepy Time," Squidward's dream has him play SpongeBob as a clarinet, who had the ability to shapeshift into it.
- Squidward has gotten his clarinet stuck in his throat many times, such as in "SB-129" and "Squidtastic Voyage."
- According to the series pitch bible from 1996, Squidward was originally going to play the oboe, and not the clarinet.[4]
- The music heard when Squidward plays the clarinet is performed by Brad Carow. Carow took on this role from the beginning of the series and continues to record clarinet for the show as needed.
References[]
- ^ Nick Ultimate Trivia - Nick.com
- ^ "Jellyfishing." SpongeBob SquarePants. Nickelodeon. July 31, 1999. Television.
- ^ "The Paper." SpongeBob SquarePants. Nickelodeon. February 14, 2000. Television.
- ^ https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EME592CX0AYMT_x.jpg
List of musical instruments (V • E) |
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Clarey • Bagpipes • Wooden clarinet • Slide whistle • Golden clarinet • Electric clarinet • Claire St. Claire's clarinet Bassinet • World's smallest violin • SpongeBob's ukulele • Nutsy • Goofy Goober guitar • Plankton's electric guitar |