In dreams, one is not tethered by earthly limitations.
Sleepy Time
Original air date: 1/17/2000 (produced in 1999)
SpongeBob, via astral projection, visits the strange, surreal dreams of his friends.
"Sleepy Time" contains examples of:
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Plankton dreams of being a giant stomping through Bikini Bottom.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: While Plankton dreams of him being a giant, he taunts Gary, who's too slow to run away from him, and would have deliberately stomped on him if it weren't for SpongeBob intervening.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: In SpongeBob's dream when he begins crashing for paying too much attention to his license:SpongeBob: How could I have forgotten the most important rule of driving? ...Always wear your seatbelt!
- Big "NO!": SpongeBob screams one after Mrs. Puff rips up his license in his dream, just before flying out into the real world.
- Bond One-Liner: When SpongeBob transforms into a thumbtack and Plankton steps on him, SpongeBob delivers this witty one-liner: "I think he's got the point!"
- Brick Joke:
- The last line, "Does anyone have a quarter?"
- While in Gary's dream, he tells SpongeBob a limerick. Later SpongeBob recites the limerick to the king in Squidward's dream.
- Before SpongeBob goes to bed, he tells Gary to, "mind his wandering eye." When Dream!SpongeBob leaves Gary's dream, Gary tells him, "Beware of your wandering eye." They each follow it up with the proper phylum each character belongs to, as well ("mollusk" and "poriferan").
- When SpongeBob looks at his picture on his dream license, he comments that he should have grown a mustache. Later, in Mr. Krabs' dream, he sees that Mr. Krabs has a mustache in his license photo.
- Catapult Nightmare: Plankton wakes up at his desk like this after SpongeBob leaves his dream. Also, SpongeBob himself does this indirectly when Squidward pats him awake near the ending.
- Chekhov's Skill: SpongeBob remembers at the very last second he can morph into objects right from Squidward's dream just when giant Plankton attacks him.
- Covered in Gunge: Sandy falls into a pile of clam manure.
- Death Glare: Mr. Krabs gives one to SpongeBob for letting Moby Dollar get away before telling him he's fired.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After Squidward angrily breaks his clarinet during his dream, the king angrily declares that if he doesn't hear "beautiful music" he is going to have Squidward executed.
- The Dog Bites Back: Early in Plankton's dream, Fred shouts "My leg!" when the giant Plankton zaps him. After SpongeBob shrinks Plankton back to his normal size, Fred is revealed to have survived getting zapped, and steps on Plankton as retribution.
- Dream Episode: SpongeBob starts out by having a strange, driving-related dream, when a dream version of Mrs. Puff rips away his dream license. Now out of his own dream, he starts to explore the dreams of his friends and messes each and every one of them up- for example, in Plankton's dream of being a giant monster destroying the town, SpongeBob ends up defeating and shrinking him.
- Dream Walker: SpongeBob becomes one after his dream self falls out of his dream bubble and starts entering other people's dream bubbles.
- Enemy Mine: Krabs and Plankton put their differences aside and join forces to order SpongeBob to refrain from trespassing into their dreams.
- Even the Dog Is Ashamed: Gary is among the people calling out SpongeBob for intruding in their dreams.
- Eye Beams: Plankton has them in his dream.
- Fantasy Twist: Patrick's dream is just him riding a seahorse kiddy ride in a blank white universe. When the ride stops and Patrick loses his last quarter, he just sits there.
- Foreshadowing: This is the first episode to show Plankton's goals in life go to flat out megalomaniacal levels.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- A quick glance at the driver's license SpongeBob gets in his dream reveals his birthday as July 14, 1986.
- Mr. Krabs' license in his dream reveals his birthday as November 30, 1942.
- Funny Animal: Gary, in his own dream, is tall, can walk on two legs, has human hands, and speaks in a sophisticated manner with SpongeBob in his library.
- Giant Foot of Stomping: Dream Plankton as a giant stomps on SpongeBob, who at the last moment turns himself into a thumbtack. Plankton then deflates like a balloon back to his normal size, and one of his victims gets even by stomping on him.
- Giftedly Bad: SpongeBob pretending to be Squidward's clarinet, by morphing into the shape of the instrument and then shrieking "LA LA LA LA LA!!!" horribly. The audience is moved to tears by the "beautiful" music.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Pearl's dream is her having a tea party with her stuffed animals.Pearl: Boys don't understand the sophistication of tea parties. Right, Mr. Stuffy?
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: SpongeBob says to Gary, "curiosity salted the snail", which is the undersea version of, "curiosity killed the cat", as sea snails are this world's equivalent to cats.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Patrick's dream is just him in a white void, riding one of those coin-op kiddie rides you'd find outside the grocery store. Despite SpongeBob showing him the possibilities of being in a dream, Patrick's not interested. Then the ride stops, and Patrick drops his last quarter into a drain. Turns into a Brick Joke at the end, when a sleepy Patrick asks the others if anyone has a quarter.
- Inertial Impalement: Just as Giant Plankton is stomping him, SpongeBob turns into a pushpin, making Plankton stab himself in the foot and deflate back to normal.SpongeBob: I think he got the point.
Plankton: WAAAAH! (starts shrinking; as he screams his voice gets higher and higher until he goes back to his normal, puny size; three burnt fish walk up to Plankton looking mad) Well, I guess I've got some explaining to do, huh? (one of the burnt fish lowers his foot onto him) No! No! NO! NOT THE FACE! (gets squished. Plankton wakes up screaming and his dream cloud pops, making Dream!SpongeBob fall to the ground) - Ironic Echo: After Gary sticks his eyestalks in SpongeBob's socks, SpongeBob tells him, "Mind your wandering eye, you little mollusk." Later, as SpongeBob leaves Gary's dream, Dream Gary warns him, "Beware your wandering eye, you little poriferan."
- Jerkass Ball: Mrs. Puff grabs this when she rips up SpongeBob's license in his driving dream even though he cannot get hurt for real. Granted, she's not the real Mrs. Puff.
- Kaiju: What Plankton dreamt he was: rampaging through Bikini Bottom a la Godzilla.
- Karmic Death: When Plankton is reduced to normal size in his dream, one person decides to crush him under his foot the way he crushed Bikini Bottom.
- Last-Second Word Swap: "Not a parakeet! Para- [Splat!] -medic."
- Marshmallow Dream: Referenced when Gary reads a limerick about it to SpongeBob.There was a man from Peru / Who dreamed he was eating his shoe / He woke with a fright / In the middle of the night / To find that his dream had come true.
- Me's a Crowd: SpongeBob duplicates himself a million times in Patrick's dream to show him all the things he can do while dreaming.
- Moby Schtick: Mr. Krabs dreams of catching "The mighty Moby Dollar".
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Gary's voice in his dream is influenced by that of Richard Haydn, best-known as the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland.
- Not in the Face!: Plankton shouts it in his dream after he's Brought Down to Normal and one of his victims raises his foot to stomp on him.
- Not So Above It All:
- The king in Squidward's dream is amused by the man from Peru limerick.
- Both the king and the audience chase SpongeBob out of the theater like a bunch of fangirls after the performance.
- Off with His Head!: In Squidward's dream, the king threatens to behead Squidward if he doesn't play his clarinet well.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: SpongeBob does this in Mr. Krabs' dream after accidentally letting Moby Dollar get away and receiving a Death Glare from Krabs in doing so.
- Overworked Sleep: Plankton, apparently, seeing as the episode shows him sleeping at his desk.
- Ow, My Body Part!: When Plankton zaps someone offscreen, someone screams "My leg!"
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: When SpongeBob lets Moby Dollar get away, Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob he's fired, then proceeds to fire a plunger gun, hurling SpongeBob out of his dream.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Dream Plankton. He says "Zap!" when using his Eye Beams, "Crush!" when he crushes the Krusty Krab, and even "Lick, lick!" while licking the Krusty Krab sign.
- Shout-Out:
- As SpongeBob gets ready for bed, he tells Gary, "Mind your wandering eye, you little mollusk." A paraphrase of the title track of Ween's album The Mollusk, which Stephen Hillenburg was a huge fan of and considered to be a huge influence on the series.
- Gary quotes an Emily Dickinson poem in his dream. And while reading it, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Concerto 21 In C, 2nd Mvt." plays.
- Squidward is also called Wolfgang Amadeus Tentacles in his dream.
- In Mr. Krabs' dream, he hunts down the mighty Moby Dollar.
- Plankton's dream is a throwback to old kaiju films.
- Still Sucks Thumb: Patrick does it in his sleep.
- Suddenly Voiced: Gary is able to speak fluent English in his dream.
- Sugar Bowl: Pearl's dream takes place in a candy-colored Fluffy Cloud Heaven.
- This Billboard Needs Some Salt: Giant Plankton, after stomping on the Krusty Krab, picks up the sign and licks it like a lollipop.
- Visual Pun: When SpongeBob disguises himself as a thumbtack and Plankton steps on him, causing himself to shrink back to his normal size, SpongeBob delivers the following line: "I think he's got the point!"
- What the Hell, Hero?: Everyone except for Patrick tell SpongeBob off for appearing and annoying them in their dreams.
- White Void Room: Patrick’s dream is this, with only a coin-operated kid’s seahorse ride, which promptly stops working when he runs out of quarters.
- Wrong Parachute Gag: In Sandy's dream, she and SpongeBob are skydiving, and she tells him he needs a "big ol' parachute". SpongeBob misunderstands and inflates his shoes (big ol' pair of shoes), then pulls out a parakeet. Sandy spends so much time correcting SpongeBob she forgets to deploy her parachute and lands on a truck full of clam manure ("Not a parakeet, para— (CRASH!) —medic..."), while SpongeBob breaks through the ground and out of Sandy's dream cloud.
"You're not gonna make me read old magazines, are you?"note
Suds
Original air date: 1/17/2000 (produced in 1999)
After leaving the refrigerator door open when making a midnight snack, SpongeBob comes down with "the suds", the sponge equivalent of the flu. Afraid to go to the doctor, he lets Patrick help, but his "treatments" only make him worse.
"Suds" contains examples of:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: In the original episode, Patrick pretends that he has the suds so he can get a lollipop, only to get harmed from Hans as he gives him a "special" treatment. In the book adaptation, SpongeBob Goes to the Doctor, Patrick is instead forced to read old magazines, causing him to run out of the hospital screaming and leave an Impact Silhouette.
- Adapted Out: The book SpongeBob Goes to the Doctor skims a few parts out from the original episode:
- In the episode, SpongeBob got the suds due to him leaving the fridge open. The book omits that part out and simply states that SpongeBob just got them.
- Patrick scares SpongeBob about waiting at the doctor's office with old magazines and the stethoscope. The book omits the last part.
- Some of the tactics Patrick tried to cure SpongeBob were skimmed as well.
- In the episode, Hans was the person who helps cure SpongeBob's suds. The book omits him and instead the doctor gives SpongeBob some medicine.
- Afraid of Doctors: Patrick scares SpongeBob with scary stories about the doctor, terrifying him out of his wits. Said stories are hardly scary; reading old magazines in a waiting room and the coldness of a stethoscope are practically mundane.
- Artistic License – Physics: The premise of the entire episode would not have happened had it portrayed the open refrigerator more accurately. A refrigerator works by pumping warm air out of an insulated space, leaving only cold air. Leaving it open would actually have warmed up the surrounding environment rather than cooling it down as shown in the episode.
- Bad Liar: Patrick is so desperate to keep SpongeBob from going to see a real doctor, that he keeps up his act as one, even after it's clear he's in over his head and his 'treatments' are useless placebos at best and harmful to SpongeBob at worst. When Sandy clearly sees SpongeBob having a very bad case of halitosis due to his illness, Patrick feigns ignorance of it despite clearly pinning a clothespin on his face so he won't smell it. And as soon as he's proven wrong by SpongeBob's fast and pleasant treatment (and the giant lollipop he got for it) he goes two faced and tries to feign having the suds too (by blowing a tiny bubble from a bubble wand) so he'll get the reward SpongeBob did. That sure backfires spectacularly.
- Bait-and-Switch: SpongeBob rolls out of control down a hill, headed towards the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs panics at the sight and yells at SpongeBob to stop. He does so, a few inches from the building. Mr. Krabs sighs with relief. SpongeBob then does a massive sneeze which not only shoots out all the corks from his pores, but blows up the Krusty Krab.
- Blatant Lies:
- Despite being horribly pale, congested, and sneezing, SpongeBob insists several times that he’s okay. He later admits that he’s sick and asks Sandy to take him to the doctor.
- Patrick comes up with pathetic, weak lies to Sandy about when did he have two houses ("Since I ran out of my space to put my stuff!") even though most of the "stuff" in his home is just sand sculptures. And later on, he lies to Sandy about SpongeBob being fine after the breath examination — while plugging his nose with a clothespin.
- However, the story Patrick tells SpongeBob about doctors being harbingers of torture and obsolete magazines is an even bigger lie.
- Catch Your Death of Cold: SpongeBob catches the suds by leaving his freezer open overnight and making his room extremely cold.
- Clothespin Nose Plug: After Sandy confronts "Doctor" Patrick's "treatment" of SpongeBob's cold which leaves him stinking, Patrick denies his smelliness whilst wearing a clothespin on where his nose would be (in spite of not having one).
- Comically Inept Healing: Patrick's "treatments" for curing SpongeBob's suds don't even come close to having a positive effect on his health, and they hardly have anything to do with his actual condition.
- Creator Cameo: The showering man that SpongeBob gets rubbed on for his treatment is Tom Kenny.
- DIY Dentistry: Patrick tries to treat SpongeBob through several well-meaning, yet ineffective, methods. One of which is where Patrick pulls one of SpongeBob's teeth out using the doorknob method to cure his suds and asked SpongeBob if it worked. SpongeBob awkwardly replied with a missing tooth that it didn't.
- Eye Scream: SpongeBob gets so sick that his eyes actually start rolling down his face and he has to nudge them back up.
- Faux Horrific: Patrick's description of the doctor's office.Patrick: First, they make you sit in the... waiting room.
SpongeBob: Is that the horrible part?
Patrick: No, it gets worse. They make you read... OLD MAGAZINES!
SpongeBob: Eek!
Patrick: And then the doctor pulls out his STETHOSCOPE!
SpongeBob: No!
Patrick: Yes! It's a device so sinister, so icy cold when it touches your bare flesh, it... PSSS!
SpongeBob: No! No stethoscope! No doctor! No old magazines! No PSSS! No-o! Patrick, I don't wanna go to the doctor!
Patrick: Exactly. - Feigning Healthiness: SpongeBob does this a few times in the episode, first by denying having the suds so that he can go to work before Mr. Krabs is told by Gary that he's sick; then by trying to deny Sandy's insistence on taking him to the doctor per Patrick's demands.
- Freeze Sneeze: When SpongeBob is very cold, he starts sneezing, and ends up getting sick a bit later on.
- Green Around the Gills: As SpongeBob's illness progresses, he goes from being his regular healthy yellow, to icy blue, to deathly pale, and then to a light sickly green.
- Happy Ending: At least by this show's standards. SpongeBob is healed and is given a giant lollipop, making him no longer afraid of the doctor, while Patrick is punished for all of the terrible (albeit unintentional) things he did throughout the episode, especially impersonating a doctor.
- Honor Before Reason: Apparently the reason SpongeBob dragged himself to work despite being sick to the point of having trouble even standing up. Gary tries to talk him out of it (which angers him), to no avail. Luckily, Mr. Krabs does the logical thing, and sends him home so he can rest.
- Hypocrite: Patrick spends the whole episode trying to keep SpongeBob from seeing a real doctor on the whim of a rumor he heard, but as soon as he finds out the benefits of SpongeBob seeing the doctor (getting a giant lollipop for free) he tries to feign having an illness right there so he'll get the same reward, unwittingly setting himself up for a painful and karmic humiliation not a few seconds later.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Everyone panics when Mr. Krabs says, "I just can't have you sneezing all over my food!"
- Inflating Body Gag: SpongeBob filling up with bubbles after Patrick plugs his pores, causing him to swell up like a beach ball.
- Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: When SpongeBob leaves the fridge open all night, his entire house freezes. Even the guy on the TV is shivering and is all bundled up in winter gear.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Patrick when it comes to doctors and medicine.
- Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: How Patrick knows about the horrors of the doctor's office.Patrick: I know a guy who knows a guy who went to the doctor once, and the doctor's office is a horrible, horrible place.
- Lampshade Hanging: Sandy points out to Patrick that he should be arrested for impersonating a doctor.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After all the stuff he pulled on SpongeBob and Sandy throughout the episode, and then having the nerve to fake having the suds himself when he sees SpongeBob get a lollipop for his treatment, Patrick gets his comeuppance in the form of the special treatment.
- Love Bubbles: Averted. It is a very bad sign for a sponge to have pink bubbles coming out of their pores.
- Marshmallow Dream: At the beginning of the episode, a hungry SpongeBob is dreaming about the sky raining Krabby Patties, and wakes up to find himself munching on his pillow.
- Medium-Shift Gag: The "sponge treatment" is SpongeBob being scrubbed by a live-action hand.
- Midnight Snack: SpongeBob tries to eat a seanut butter and jelly sandwich as one. He never gets to eat it though since he fell asleep right after making it.
- Motor Mouth: Sandy as she keeps blabbering on and on about how fast she'll get to SpongeBob instead of actually getting ready and going to his house immediately.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Patrick and Sandy fight over SpongeBob, and their escalating argument ends with the patient rolling out of control down a hill.
- Nightmare Face: The sicker SpongeBob gets, the more hideous he starts to look.
- Nothing Personal: "Just can't have you sneezing all over my food!" (the customers react in horror upon hearing this and scramble out of the Krusty Krab) "No, wait! Wait!"
- Nurse with Good Intentions: Patrick, to SpongeBob. Made a bit more frightening than the usual example, however, as Patrick is legitimately impersonating a doctor and physically and unintentionally torturing SpongeBob. Sandy is so upset by the entire situation that she yells at him that he should be arrested on-the-spot for impersonating a doctor. (In Real Life, she would absolutely be correct in suggesting that)
- Painful Adhesive Removal: Patrick attempts to "treat" SpongeBob of his suds by placing a bandage on his back and asking if he's feeling better, and once SpongeBob says no, Patrick painfully rips the bandage off of him. He does this three times before transitioning to the next scene.
- Papa Wolf: Krabs has shades of this when he’s clearly worried about an increasingly sick SpongeBob. Then again, he's also worried that he might infect the customers.
- Pet the Dog: This is one of the rarest moments that Mr. Krabs showed concern about someone like SpongeBob, due to the latter’s illness. It’s probably more on the side of Krabs being concerned about losing business.
- Playing Sick: Patrick tries this after SpongeBob's treatment so he can get a huge lollipop. It backfires right in his face.Patrick: A lollipop?! (blows a bubble) Hey, Doc, I got the suds, too!
Physician Fish: (sarcastically) Oh, yes, Dr. Patrick, we have a special treatment for you!
(Hans takes the guffawing Patrick into the back for his treatment)
Patrick: (Hans washes him in the sink and painfully stretches out his limbs) Hey, wait! (then rubs him on a cactus) Ouch! Oh, that hurts! (then uses him to clean a toilet) WAIT! HEY, THIS DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT...! - Post-Treatment Lollipop: After the "Sponge Treatment", SpongeBob is rewarded with a huge lollipop. Patrick sees this and fakes having the suds to get one, too — it doesn't go as well for him.
- Punny Name: The giant hand that gives SpongeBob his treatment is named Hans.
- Rain of Something Unusual: SpongeBob has a dream that it's raining Krabby Patties.
- Sequential Symptom Syndrome: After feeling really shivery, SpongeBob tells Gary that he doesn't feel like himself. Gary's dialogue prompts SpongeBob to say, suddenly sounding very congested, "Don't be silly, Gary. I don't get colds, (sniffle) I get the suds." Gary responds again, and SpongeBob tells him that if he really had the suds, then bubbles would be coming out of him. He then sneezes loudly, causing dozens of pink bubbles to come out of his pores.
- Sick Episode: One of the very few instances of SpongeBob getting sick.
- Shout-Out: This isn't the first time a dimwitted best friend pretends to be a doctor and proclaims "Don't touch me, I'm sterile!"
- Sneeze of Doom: Thanks to Patrick's admirable wisdom, SpongeBob ends up an over-inflated beach ball. He comes hurtling towards the Krusty Krab, but stops short of crushing it. Then he sneezes loudly, blowing up the whole restaurant, much to Krabs' chagrin.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: When Patrick calls Sandy to tell her how SpongeBob is doing.
- Temporary Bulk Change: Patrick "cures" SpongeBob of the suds by plugging up his pores so bubbles don't come out. Only now the bubbles pile up inside him, making him grow larger with each sneeze like a giant beach ball, until he's as big as the Krusty Krab.
- The Tooth Hurts: One of Patrick's "treatments" for SpongeBob's illness is to do the classic "tie the tooth to the door knob and slam the door" act. Cut to SpongeBob, missing a tooth (though he's too tired to care).
- Truth in Television:
- As famous physician Doctor Mike
attests, some of Patrick's "treatments" have genuine merit to them. Plugging up all of SpongeBob's holes in order to stop the physical symptoms is standard practice for viral infections to allow the immune system to do the work, and bouncing on SpongeBob like a trampoline is a roundabout way of performing CPT (chest physiotherapy) for mucus cleansing, which is normally done with hospital beds. - Although Sandy lampshades this to Patrick, anyone in real life would have been arrested for impersonating a doctor.
- As famous physician Doctor Mike
- Warm Milk Helps You Sleep: SpongeBob goes to the kitchen to whip up some warm milk and a seanut butter sandwich to make him sleep again. One bite of the sandwich and he promptly goes to sleep on the table, spilling his milk, and leaving the fridge door open, thus kicking off the plot.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: After SpongeBob first cuts off Sandy's barefoot jackrabbit metaphor, Patrick cuts her off again when calling her, very clearly annoyed.Sandy: I'll be over there faster than a barefoot jackrabbit on a hot—
Patrick: (angrily) Oh, yeah, yeah, the rabbit! Look, don't bother Sandy! - Well-Intentioned Extremist: Yeah, Patrick shouldn't have played doctor, but he just wanted SpongeBob to get better.
- Wilting Odor: SpongeBob's illness gives him bad breath which causes the plants and scallops to die.
- Women Are Wiser: Between Sandy and Patrick, Sandy is obviously the wiser option for SpongeBob's health.
- Working Through the Cold: SpongeBob attempts this, but Krabs sees how sick he is and sends him home to take it easy.
- You Need a Breath Mint: Patrick's "treatments" for SpongeBob give him a nasty case of halitosis that comes in the form of a green poisonous gas which kills plants, clams, and everything else in its path the moment he exhales. Sandy points out SpongeBob's illness is much worse than she thought.
