The Sponge Who Could Fly
Original air date: 3/21/2003 (produced in 2002; first aired in Korea on 10/29/02)note
SpongeBob wishes he could fly like a jellyfish, but later gets taken advantage of by the residents because of this. Presented as a Lost Episode, with Patchy the Pirate searching for it as a Framing Device.
"The Sponge Who Could Fly" contains examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The episode begins with SpongeBob walking in place while CG ground scrolls beneath him
, passing an occasional 2D rock or coral. - An Aesop:
- Don't let other people take advantage of your talent.
- Don't let other people put you down for what you want to do. Someday, it could come true.
- Don't jump to conclusions and assume the worst about something. The lost episode wasn't the initial walking cycle Patchy discovered, yet he almost destroyed his merchandise before finding the real lost episode.
- Animation Bump: The animation for the episode is far more expressive and vibrant than the rest of the season, serving as a transition to future animation bumps. This is prevalent during the walk cycles.
- Award-Bait Song: "All You Need is Friendship", a short but sweet Friendship Song.
- Balloonacy: SpongeBob is finally able to fly by filling his pants with hot air from his blow dryer.
- Being Good Sucks: SpongeBob regrets gaining the "ability" to fly cause now he's seen as nothing more than a babysitter for the entire city of Bikini Bottom.
- Billions of Buttons: When Patchy attempts to rewind the tape of the lost episode, he has trouble with the many buttons on his remote, which apparently include a light switch and a button that activates a mariachi band.Patchy: I hate technology!
- Big "NO!": Done by Mrs. Puff as her snail is about to fall out of the tree.
- Bittersweet Ending: SpongeBob loses his ability to fly due to Cannonball Jenkins, but the jellyfish give him a ride which helps lift SpongeBob's spirit.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When Patchy gets ready to watch the lost tape, he lists his snacks.Patchy: Popcorn, soda, PICKLED GARLIC!
- Brick Joke: SpongeBob had an Imagine Spot recalling what Grandpa SquarePants said about flying before deciding to build a flying machine. A few minutes later, after seeing SpongeBob's plan, Patrick mentions what his grandpa used to say... with his Imagine Spot being Grandpa SquarePants as well!Grandpa SquarePants: If we were meant to fly... Hey! (pokes Patrick with his cane) I'm not your grandfather!
- Butt-Monkey: Mr. Jenkins, both thanks to SpongeBob, has his grain silo sliced open and his sailboat wrecked on a boulder.
- Call of the Wild Blue Yonder: SpongeBob's attempt in this special.
- Can't Take Criticism: The Bikini Bottomites become viciously defensive after SpongeBob calls them out on their mockery.
- Cat Up a Tree: Mrs. Puff's snail gets up a tree, only for the branch it's on to break. Fortunately, SpongeBob catches it just in time.
- Comical Overreacting: Patchy's response towards the lost episode appearing to just be SpongeBob going through some walk cycles is to furiously accuse SpongeBob of betraying him before tearing down all of his SpongeBob merchandise and declaring that he will run away.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Patrick sees the "SquarePants Flyer Mk. III" (a lounge chair with balloons tied to it), he thinks it's a birthday party. SpongeBob explains what it really is, then removes the ballast... only for the lounge chair to float away. Patrick then asks, "Can we have the cake now? Happy, Happy Birthday to you!"
- Creator Cameo: Stephen Hillenburg is the miner holding the lost episode tape.
- Department of Redundancy Department: "He helps people... and he flies... and he helps people..."
- Didn't Think This Through: One of SpongeBob's attempts at flying is a lawn chair attached to balloons with a brick weighing it to the ground. He demonstrates the chair to Patrick by removing the brick... and promptly realizing that the chair has floated away before he could use it.
- The Dog Bites Back: After having two jobs of his in a row ruined, Cannonball Jenkins gets back at SpongeBob by firing himself into Jellyfish Fields and popping SpongeBob's inflatable pants.
- Egg-Laying Male: Patchy tells Potty to hit the remote, which he does by dropping an egg on it.
- Entitled Bastard: The townspeople insist that SpongeBob do more favors for them after he runs away from them. They ignore the fact they have been taking advantage of SpongeBob by making him do all their chores for them, none of which even required flight.
- Fake-Out Opening: The beginning of "The Lost Episode" is exactly what this is, it's even announced right after Patchy has a tantrum and storms out that the real episode will soon begin.Potty: Jeez, what a hothead.
TV Announcer: And now, the real Lost Episode!
Potty: Awk! Patchy! Come back! There's more!
Patchy: (peeks out the door) Really? (shuts the door, then re-enters again, quickly rewinding reversing the process of removing his SpongeBob merchandise, getting said merchandise back, sits back down) Hooray! Let's watch! - Fan Disillusionment: Patchy is let down when the lost episode appears to be a series of silly walks. He is so upset he swears off being a SpongeBob SquarePants fan forever and starts destroying his collection. Then Potty discovers that there's more to the episode and Patchy forgives SpongeBob and puts all his stuff back.
- Faux Horrific: One of the good deeds SpongeBob does is getting Patrick away from a mime doing pantomime.
- Flushing Toilet, Screaming Shower: While Patchy showers, Potty flushes the toilet to get his attention.
- Framing Device: The episode is framed by Patchy finding the episode and watching it.
- Gratuitous Mariachi Band: Patchy's remote has a button that activates one.
- High-Pressure Emotion: Patchy steams with anger when he yells, "SPONGEBOB BETRAYED US!!!"
- Hypocrites: The citizens of Bikini Bottom make fun of SpongeBob for being a dreamer but then tell him that they were dreamers after SpongeBob calls them out on their mocking, following up with chasing him away.SpongeBob: Go ahead and laugh! But it is a sad, sad day in Bikini Bottom when a guy is ridiculed for having dreams!
Fat fish wife: You think you're the only one with unfulfilled dreams?
Fish with a five o' clock shadow: I was going to be a concert pianist... until I realized I didn't have any fingers!
Male fish: We all had dreams!
Female fish: What makes you so special?
Mob: LET'S GET HIM!
SpongeBob: (runs until he falls down a cliff)
Male fish: Good riddance, dreamer! - Instantly Proven Wrong: Patchy laments having lost the VHS tape to The Lost Episode claiming he's never lost anything before. Then Potty points out his peg leg, his eyepatch and then his hook hand.Patchy: Oh, get out of here, you blasted bird!
- Irony: One of SpongeBob's good deeds for Bikini Bottom is helping Plankton spread the word of evil.
- "I Want" Song: SpongeBob sings one towards the beginning as he wishes to fly with the jellyfish.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The Citizens of Bikini Bottom in two instances. At first, they chase SpongeBob out of town for his dreams of flying, then have a change of heart after he gains the ability to do it, just until they start selfishly taking advantage of his generosity by having him do deeds that don't require flying. Then, Cannonball Jenkins blows up SpongeBob's pants, and the citizens are filled with remorse for what they've done to SpongeBob's pants and not with SpongeBob himself.
- Karma Houdini: The citizens of Bikini Bottom suffer zero comeuppance for being huge selfish jerks to SpongeBob, with them showing remorse for his pants and not SpongeBob himself.
- Kids Are Cruel: Patchy gets tormented by kids at a playground as part of the "7 Trials of the Monkey Lagoon" to find the missing lost tape.
- Kite Riding: One of SpongeBob's attempts to fly is to tie himself to a kite pulled by Patrick riding a bicycle. At first, this attempt works, but eventually, the kite breaks and makes SpongeBob the laughingstock of Bikini Bottom as a result.
- Lame Pun Reaction: As Patchy is digging for the lost episode tape:Patchy: Oh, I'm really gonna dig this lost episode! "Dig it", get it? (laughs)
Potty: You stink!
Patchy: And I just got out of the shower. - Lost Aesop: Lampshaded by SpongeBob, who admits he's not entirely sure what message to take from the events he just experienced.
- Lost Episode: The episode was promoted as one as well as referred to as one in the Framing Device.
- MacGuffin Location: Jellyfish Fields.
- Mood Whiplash: In the Fake-Out Opening, SpongeBob goes from being happy, to being goofy, to acting paranoid about being followed, to explosive shock, over and over again.
- Musical Episode: The first of several throughout the series.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- This is Patchy's reaction when he accidentally ruins the only copy of the lost episode.
- Cruelly subverted. When Cannonball Jenkins destroys SpongeBob's pants and sending him plummeting to the ground, the townspeople were guilt-ridden on what happened. It was found out they were only mourning for his pants.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Throughout the episode, Mr. Jenkins goes from being a farmer to a sailor and then finally a human cannonball. Justified actually as when he was a farmer, SpongeBob's plane propeller cut a hole in his grain silo and when he was a sailor, he ended up crashing into a rock.
- Off-Model: Patchy's SpongeBob merchandise depicts the character as Pie-Eyed and wearing a bow tie, as opposed to his iconic Innocent Blue Eyes and necktie. These alterations were presumably made to comply with FCC regulations around advertising products during children's programming, so as to not appear as if Patchy were endorsing any real merchandise.
- Older Than They Look: Dennis claims he and SpongeBob went to elementary school together, but Dennis looks old, wrinkly and has liver spots while SpongeBob is established as young.
- Overly Long Gag: Spongebob's walk cycle lasts over a minute.
- Pet the Dog: The jellyfish help SpongeBob finally fly without the hassle of inflatable pants and deliver him home.
- Product Placement: Averted with the SpongeBob plushies and bedspread in Patchy's house. Broadcasting law forbids children's shows from showcasing their merchandise in the show, so all of Patchy's merch consists of fake props with slight design differences to keep them from resembling any real world product.
- Rewind Gag: Patchy goes into a Heroic BSoD when he sees that the lost episode of SpongeBob consists of a bunch of cheap walk cycles, wherein he gets rid of all of his SpongeBob merchandise and runs away. When Potty finds out about the real lost episode on the tape, he tells Patchy to come back, and the footage of Patchy getting rid of his SpongeBob merchandise is played in reverse.
- Save the Villain: "Even Plankton needs some help when he gets tangled in the ke-ee-ee-ee-ee-elp!"Plankton: Please put me down.
- Shaming the Mob: SpongeBob does this to the Bikini Bottomites as they harass him for wanting to fly. Unfortunately, they don't take this very well.
- Silly Walk: The Teaser pulls a trolling moment on Patchy, in which SpongeBob walks in very silly ways down a CG street is passed off as a complete new episode, before telling him so and moving on to the proper episode.
- Shout-Out:
- The aforementioned walk cycle is a tribute to R. Crumb's famous "Keep On Truckin'" comic strip.
- SpongeBob's second attempt at a flying machine strongly resembles a Batman costume, particularly the ones from the films with all-black color schemes and sculpted glutes. His third is a reference to the Lawnchair Larry flight.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In one of his attempts to fly, Spongebob gets himself a rubber bat suit. This brings to mind certain coyote who also tried the same trick, but instead of being able to fly like the coyote did, he flaps for a few seconds and then plummets straight down.
- Taking Advantage of Generosity: After SpongeBob gains the ability to fly, the self-centered citizens ask him to do tasks for them, which are easy for them to do it themselves and it really has nothing to do with flying. This is where SpongeBob ditches them and heads to Jellyfish Fields.
- Tar and Feathers: Upon being chased off a cliff by an angry mob, SpongeBob ends up falling into a mud removal truck. When it makes a sharp turn, he tumbles out over another cliff...and lands in a feather delivery truck.
- They Called Me Mad!:SpongeBob: I'm a nutcase because I follow my dreams?! Well, they laughed at the guy who invented light bulbs too!
Random Fish: No, they didn't.
SpongeBob: ...You'll see. - Throw the Dog a Bone: Patrick and Gary are the only ones who actively encourage SpongeBob to follow his dreams, with Patrick only requesting a favor from SpongeBob one time, and even offering to fly with SpongeBob to the pizza shop at the end of the episode.
- Torches and Pitchforks: The Bikini Bottomites unreasonably pull this on SpongeBob for wanting to fly just after he called them out on ridiculing him for his dream to fly. They later pull this again when SpongeBob tries to escape from doing unnecessary favors for them.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: The citizens of Bikini Bottom mock SpongeBob for his dreams of flying, act like hypocrites when they tell SpongeBob they also had dreams after he calls them out on their mocking, and suddenly chase him off a cliff. After SpongeBob gains the ability to fly, they all make him do ridiculous tasks that would not even require flight and insist he owes them favors when he runs off.
- Visual Pun:
- The "forked tree" that Patchy passes by on his treasure hunt is a tree with forks hanging from its branches.
- When the French Narrator says that SpongeBob is "ready to spring into action", SpongeBob morphs into a spring.
- Your Mom: SpongeBob gets a prank call and demands to know who's calling. "Joe Mama? Well listen up, Joe..."
