Whale of a Birthday

If you were looking for the article about the DVD, then see Whale of a Birthday (DVD).

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Characters

• Boys Who Cry ^(debut)
  • Dream Boys Who Cry
• Pearl Krabs
  • Dream and Daydream Pearl
• Pearl's friends
  • Judy
    • Dream Judy
  • Orchid ^{(debut) (green)}
    • Dream Orchid
• Bryan Flounder
  • Dream Bryan Flounder
• Dave
  • Dream Dave
• Dream Nat Peterson
• Abigail Marge
  • Dream Abigail Marge
• Scooter
  • Dream Scooter
• Dream Wobbles
• Billy Fishkins
  • Dream Billy Fishkins
• Eugene H. Krabs
• King Neptune ^(mentioned)
• Naval officer ^{(in a picture)}
• Frank (red shirt)
• Frank (citizen)
• Frankie Billy
• Tina Fran
• Billy (brown fish)
• Monroe Timmy
• Nathiel Waters
• Miss Rechid
• Taylor Fishbowl
• Shelly Fishbowl
• Susie Rechid
• Tyler
• Evelyn Annette
• Jimmy Gus
• SpongeBob SquarePants
  • Dog fish
• Squidward Tentacles
• Harold (red fish)
• Medley Fishbowl
• Nazz-Mimi
• Marcy ^(mentioned)
• Angela ^(mentioned)
• Brad ^(mentioned)
• Cashier ^(debut)
• Mary
• Sea pony ^(debut)
  • Daydream Sea pony
• Mrs. Poecilia ^(debut)
• Checkout woman ^(debut)

Synopsis

Pearl has had fifteen horrible birthday parties and her sixteenth birthday is just one day away. Mr. Krabs is forced to give her the best birthday ever or else Pearl's high school reputation will collapse and Mr. Krabs will have to "support Pearl for the rest of her life." While Mr. Krabs works on the party, SpongeBob is assigned the task of figuring out what Pearl would like for a birthday present. Mr. Krabs gives him his credit card, so that if something Pearl wants should be bought, it can be bought with the credit card. So SpongeBob trails Pearl and her friends through the Bikini Bottom Mall and takes note of everything she desires. However, he uses Mr. Krabs' credit card to buy everything Pearl admires.

File:Whale of a birthday.jpg

Once Pearl arrives at her birthday party with her friends, everyone is horrified to find that her dad broke his promise and his miserly ways have won out again. The popcorn is stale, the drinks are dishwater, Pearl's ice sculpture is made out of four-hundred pounds of raw Krabby Patties, the cake is made out of cardboard and frosting, and even Squidward sings a song called "Four-Ply" instead of the group Boys Who Cry, which disgusts everyone. Pearl is also extremely hurt that her father couldn't even stop being cheap for her. Krabs feels bad and tells Pearl that he will try to make it up to her, somehow.

Just then, a delivery truck arrives with all of the gifts that SpongeBob bought for her, including a Boys Who Cry concert. SpongeBob hands Mr. Krabs the bill, which is excessively large. Before Krabs can do anything about it, Pearl thanks her father for making it up to her, although SpongeBob is still in hot water with his boss.

Production

Music

( ‣ ) Production music

( • ) Original music

( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

 • Happy Sponge Chase Vibes - Nicolas Carr [Title card]
 ◦ It's All About You - Tom King, Andy Paley [plays on the radio]
 ‣ What's This Sting - Nicolas Carr [Pearl wakes up]
 ‣ The Achterhoek Dances - Jan Rap ["Morning, Daddy!"/"Very special! Very, very special, indeed!"/"I'm going to be 16!"]
 ‣ Lap Steel - Nicolas Carr [Hawaiian sting]
 ‣ Surfer Baby (d) - Jerry Burnham [Pearl at high school]
 ‣ Jenny's Music Box - Peter Dennis [flashback to earlier birthday party]
 ‣ Hawaiian Cocktail - Richard Myhill [Pearl crying]
 • Steel Sting - Jeremy Wakefield ["Bubble wrap!"]
 • Steel Licks 6 - Jeremy Wakefield [Pearl's list of things she wants at the party]
 ‣ The Tip Top Polka/The Cliff Polka - Chelmsford Folk Band [Mr. Krabs assigns SpongeBob to buy Pearl's gift]
 ‣ Vibe Q Sting - Nicolas Carr ["I can buy stuff with this piece of plastic?"]
 ‣ Credit Card Heaven - Nicolas Carr [choir]
 ‣ The Tip Top Polka/The Cliff Polka - Chelmsford Folk Band ["Remember, nothing's too good for me little Pearl."]
 ‣ Spongeburglar - Nicolas Carr ["Do some detective work."]
 ‣ Poppin' Around - Bruce Campbell [Pearl at the mall]
 ‣ The Dreadnought Tea Clipper (b) - Tim Laycock, Robert Alexander White ["I've had that since the day she was born."]
 ‣ Holiday Magic - Malcom Lockyer, Bert Weedon [sea pony]
 • Steel Licks 10 - Jeremy Wakefield [Pearl riding pony]
 ‣ Lovely Scenery (c) - Mladen Franko [pony crushed]
 ‣ Holiday Magic - Malcom Lockyer, Bert Weedon [SpongeBob disguised as dog fish]
 ‣ The King's Codpiece - Paddy Kingsland [Krabby Patty sculpture of Pearl]
 ‣ Keel Row - Brian Peters ["Well, we've got the decor covered."]
 ‣ Four & Three - Harold Geller [SpongeBob getting Pearl's gifts]
 • Steel Licks 8 - Jeremy Wakefield ["I'm back, Mr. Krabs!"]
 ‣ Nude Sting - Nicolas Carr ["It's a boy?!"]
 ‣ The Achterhoek Dances - Jan Rap [stale popcorn]
 ◦ 4-Ply - Vincent Waller, Andy Paley [Squidward sings this]
 • Steel Licks 1 - Jeremy Wakefield [Pearl crying]
 • Cream Pie - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [delivery truck arrives]
 ◦ It's All About You - Tom King, Andy Paley [ending]

Release

• This episode is available on the Whale of a Birthday, Season 4 Volume 2, Complete Fourth Season, Triple Pack 1, Big Hits: Volume 1, Tales of a Teenage Whale, From the Beginning, Pt.2, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 6, The Third & Fourth Seasons, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, and First 100 Episodes DVDs.

Reception

• "Whale of a Birthday" was ranked #60 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.

Trivia

General

• The title card background was previously used in "Wormy" during the song That's What Friends Do, albeit more pink.
• In "Mid-Life Crustacean," Pearl states that the term "coral" is outdated. However, it is used in this episode.
• While Boys Who Cry sing, Pearl's friends have copies of themselves:
  • Three of her friends with the blue hair and two yellow-haired.
• This episode marks the first appearance of Bikini Bottom High School.
• This is the second episode to have hearts on the title card. The first is "Valentine's Day."
• In the Croatian dub, the episode's title is "Koraljkin Rođendan," which translates to "Pearl's Birthday."
• This episode premiered five years after "Pressure" and "The Smoking Peanut" premiered.

Cultural references

• The credit card company "Master-Carp" is a spoof of the real-life credit card company MasterCard.

Errors

• At the beginning of the episode, when Pearl wakes up, her lipstick is stuck to the upper lip of her mouth. After one scene, it returns to its normal position.

  

  Pearl's overlapping lipstick

• When Pearl smashes her bedroom floor, the mat does not fall through the floor, as it is indestructible. Also, the mat disappears. Furthermore, when Pearl says, "Morning, daddy," the wooden pieces are gone.
• At the beginning of the episode, Pearl mentions that her birthday is "the next day," but it seems to be the same day throughout the rest of the episode.
• When Pearl runs out of her school, right directly across from her school is the Krusty Krab. In most episodes, right directly across from the Krusty Krab is the Chum Bucket.
• When Pearl runs into the citizens in the Krusty Krab, crying, the tables are plain beige instead of their normal designs.

File:071a - Whale of a Birthday 200.jpg

Pearl's gray eyelid

• After Pearl says, “Now promise me, you won’t be cheap," the color of her eyelid is gray instead of purple.
• When Pearl gives a long list to Mr. Krabs, one can see that the bubble wrap is gone after he rolls up the list.

One of the reflection spots on Mr. Krabs' claws is missing in this frame.

• When Mr. Krabs says, "I wanted to give her nothing...," the bottom reflection on his right claw disappears for a couple of frames.
• Pearl puts on the Glitter Gloss lipstick on her lips. After several scenes, however, when one certain scene is either the flashback of Pearl riding the sea pony or when Judy tells Pearl to come here about something coral, the Glitter Gloss lipstick is gone.
• When Pearl and her friends are at the mall and she looks at the sea pony, the first shot shows the dog fish tank right next to it, with a clear separation of the two tanks. A few seconds later (when the sea pony is huffing and puffing after dreaming what it would be like to be a pet to Pearl), the sea pony shares a tank with the dog fish.
• When Pearl and her friends meet Billy Fishkins, when facing in front, her lipstick disappears by one frame.
• When Judy and her friends laugh after looking at the banner that reads "It's a boy," Pearl's skin is dark gray instead of a normal gray.
• When Pearl is angry, looking at Mr. Krabs saying, "...and frosting," she is holding a fork with cardboard and frosting. However, when Pearl looks at Judy, the fork is gone.
• When Squidward says the last word, "Huh!," while performing "4-Ply," he throws a tissue on the right side of himself. However, after a couple of scenes, the tissue was gone.
• Near the end, when Boys Who Cry sing, the red fish sings the line "You get your very own spotlight tonight" while the blue and green fish do the "oohs." If one were to look closely, they can see them mouthing the line.
• In Prime Video, the subtitles will say the symbol: "()" or "[]". But the symbol was replaced with a exclamation mark at the end of the word. Those subtitles are "crash" 2x, "chomp", "beep", "cha-ching", "smack", and "smooch."

Video

SpongeBob SquarePants - 4 Ply

Running Gags

• SpongeBob spying on Pearl and her friends to decide what presents to get.