Have You Seen This Snail?
Original air date: 11/11/2005 (produced in 2004)
When SpongeBob forgets to feed Gary after becoming obsessed with his new paddleball, Gary runs away and is adopted by a kindly old lady. Once SpongeBob realizes that Gary's gone, he and Patrick search Bikini Bottom high and low to make amends.
"Have You Seen This Snail?" contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Granny calls Gary "Miss Tuffsy". While this seems like an Adoptive Name Change at first, she's apparently mistaking him for a previous snail of hers, since she later calls another snail by the same name.
- An Aesop:
- Take care of your family (including your pets) first before creating free time for yourself.
- Don't get so obsessed with something that you neglect to care for yourself, your family, and your pets.
- Even if your usually loving parents are busy with something, they still love you.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- It's unclear whether Granny is fattening up her snails to eat them or if she accidentally overfeeds them until they die due to her senility.
- What happened to the real Miss Tuffsy? Did she successfully escape like Granny implied, was she overfed to death and Granny was too senile to realize, or does Granny purposefully call all snails "Miss Tuffsy" before she eats them?
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:SpongeBob: So, let's get this straight, Gary. You don't want me to defeat the Dirty Bubble! You know, Dirty Bubble, terror of the Seven Seas, archnemesis of my favorite TV superheroes, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy... and apparently, uh... renowned paddleball champion.
- Bait-and-Switch: Gary spots a plate of nachos in the alley and is about to eat them when he sees some scary-looking alley snails, one of whom hisses, "Look who came to dinner!" Gary runs off thinking the alley snails are going to eat him, but then another one says, "I guess he didn't like nachos," and the three alley snails groan in disappointment.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment:
- First, when Gary prepares to run away, but stops short when SpongeBob realizes something. Or so he thinks...SpongeBob: Hey... I got one! Dirty Bubble, say your prayers!
- Then when Patrick goes to check on SpongeBob:Patrick: (knocks on SpongeBob's door; seems to notice the bag of snail food at his feet) That's strange... Usually, I knock on the door with this hand.
- Then when he finds SpongeBob in a Troubled Fetal Position:Patrick: SpongeBob, what happened?! ...This picture is crooked!
- After SpongeBob tells him that he took the Dirty Bubble Challenge:Patrick: YOU WHAT?! (bursts into tears)
SpongeBob: Why are you crying, Patrick?
Patrick: Because... many years ago, I took that challenge!
SpongeBob: Really?
Patrick: Uh-huh!
SpongeBob: Well, what happened?
Patrick: I won. But then, I lost the trophy they sent me. - Then later:Patrick: Did you say "Gary"? SpongeBob, I just remembered! Earlier today at the craft store, I saw... THESE HUGE CHUNKS OF BALSA WOOD! They were AWESOME!
SpongeBob: Gary LOVED BALSA WOOD...!!!
- First, when Gary prepares to run away, but stops short when SpongeBob realizes something. Or so he thinks...
- Bait-and-Switch Compassion: Patrick sees the disheveled SpongeBob lying down on the ground because he's exhausted from having spent a long time playing paddle ball. Patrick exclaims SpongeBob's name in supposed concern before running over to a framed picture, saying that the picture isn't straight.
- Bathtub Scene: Squidward is taking a bath in one scene, with SpongeBob and Patrick barging in to look for Gary.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Gary plans to find a new master who'll remember to feed him every now and then. He gets taken in by Granny, who feeds him and takes good care of him, only to later find a closet full of cracked, empty snail shells inside her house, revealing that Granny overfeeds her pets until it ultimately kills them, either accidentally due to her own senility, or deliberately in order to fatten them up and then eat them.
- Bindle Stick: Gary takes one when he runs away from home.
- Breaking Old Trends: This is the first double-length episode to not include a Framing Device hosted by Patchy the Pirate.
- Brick Joke: On his way home, Gary runs into one of the alley snails he encountered earlier, who says, "Hey! You're that guy that doesn't like nachos!"
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Even when Gary opens the closet and finds dozens of cracked, empty snail shells, Granny doesn't raise her voice over Gary finding something he shouldn't have, instead sounding more sinister in her inflection.
- Chronic Pet Killer: Granny has had many snails before Gary, their busted shells gathered in an empty room in her house.
- Clapper Gag: Granny turns off her lights at one point in this way.
- Cobweb of Disuse:
- Gary has gone so long without being fed that his food dish contains cobwebs and even a spider's egg sac.
- When SpongeBob forgets to feed Gary, the bag of snail food on his doorstep gets dusty and covered with cobwebs over time.
- Comically Missing the Point: Patrick does this quite a few times.
- He notices Gary's food bag at the door but just thinks he knocked with the wrong hand
- He gets to SpongeBob being a nervous wreck, but is only concerned about a crooked picture.
- When SpongeBob has his My God, What Have I Done? moment, Patrick takes it literally.
- He notices Gary with Granny but doesn't pick him up or inform SpongeBob.
- And when SpongeBob mentions Gary, Patrick is reminded of when he saw... these huge chunks of balsa wood.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Granny is the underwater equivalent.
- Death by Gluttony: One interpretation of Granny's closet full of busted snail shells is that she accidentally overfed her pets until it killed them due to her senility.
- Dramatic Irony: SpongeBob remembers to feed Gary right when Gary is in the middle of an empty desert foraging for food.
- Eating Pet Food: Patrick eats Gary's favorite treats, and shakes his tummy to try and get him to come back.
- Either/Or Title: Nickelodeon promoted this special as "Where's Gary?".
- Exploding Closet: When Gary tries to escape, he opens a door that turns out to be Granny's closet, and the shells of all of her previously-owned pet snails come exploding out.
- Face of a Thug: The three snails in the alleyway seem like punks who were ready to rough Gary up for touching their nachos, but based on what they say after Gary flees, they were likely willing to share their nachos with him.Thug Snail: Look who came to dinner!
(Gary runs away)
Green Snail: Guess he didn't like nachos... - Fattening the Victim: Another interpretation of Granny's closet full of busted snail shells is that Granny fattens up her pet snails before eating them and Gary is just her latest victim.
- Faux Affably Evil: Granny at first appears to be a sweet old lady who gives Gary the food he needs, but is later revealed to be a Chronic Pet Killer.
- Foreshadowing:
- After finding Gary, Granny notes that he's "lighter than she remembers". She proceeds to continuously feed him until he's well overweight and literally bursting out of his shell.
- At one point, Gary is looking around Granny's living room and a photo of her surrounded by multiple snails can be seen. Noticeably, those snails are all nowhere to be seen in the present day...
- Gave Up Too Soon: The alley snails which corner Gary actually wanted to have nachos with him, but Gary understandably runs away. Gary could have had food there and not had to go through Granny's trials.
- He Knows Too Much: Upon seeing that Gary discovered her closet of empty snail shells, Granny turns hostile and threatens to do to him what she did to her other snails.
- Hypocritical Humor: SpongeBob complains that Gary (or pets in general) doesn't understand what he's saying about beating the Dirty Bubble Challenge. But he himself doesn't interpret Gary's meows as a plea for food.
- Ludicrous Precision: The Dirty Bubble Challenge requires one to hit a paddleball 29,998,559,671,349 times in a row.
- Madness Mantra: "Darn it... darn it... darn it..."
- Missed Him by That Much: SpongeBob and Gary keep missing each other, usually because SpongeBob is preoccupied with putting up posters. Perhaps the most frustrating time is at the craft store where Patrick notices there is a sale on scented pine cones and goes inside to get some. He sees Gary and Granny are there and asks where the pine cones are, but she tells him she bought the last of the pine cones. Patrick then leaves, oblivious to the fact that he found Gary (despite casually greeting the snail) and not mentioning it to SpongeBob.Patrick: Hey, Gary.
- Mistaken for Cheating: A random female fish spies the accidental "Lisa, Will You Marry Me?" message and for some reason, thinks her boyfriend/husband was responsible for it and slaps him.
- Mood Whiplash: The heartbreaking "Gary, Come Home" musical number ends with Patrick screwing up the skywriting, changing the message to "Lisa, Will You Marry Me?".
- My God, What Have I Done?: SpongeBob realizes that he messed up big time after he reads Gary's "Dear John" Letter. "Dear Neptune, what have I done?", indeed.
- Never Trust a Trailer: A YTV promo
has an edited clip from the episode where Squidward is screaming as SpongeBob is digging in his bathtub. In the episode proper, Squidward only screams when SpongeBob and Patrick barge into his bathroom. - Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Focusing so much on the "Dirty Bubble Challenge" causes SpongeBob to forget feeding Gary, who runs away.
- No Sympathy: Doubling as a Jerkass Ball, Mr. Krabs is completely ignorant of SpongeBob's depression over losing Gary, instead focusing on the tears SpongeBob is dripping onto the Krabby Patties, and completely uninterested in SpongeBob explaining his problem.
- Nothing Is Scarier: It's never made clear if Granny overfeeds her snails with the intent of eating them, or if she accidentally does so until it ultimately kills them due to her senility. Both possibilities are equally harrowing.
- Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: SpongeBob's initial reaction once Gary rejoins him.SpongeBob: Gary, your purring is making it hard to forget you... Gary! Oh, Gary!
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: SpongeBob normally takes his job at the Krusty Krab very seriously, but because he's so depressed over losing Gary, he shows up fifteen minutes late and leaves in the middle of his shift.
- Oh, Crap!:
- SpongeBob can't find Gary and begins to feel dread when he asks Patrick just how long he had been taking the Dirty Bubble Challenge. He goes into full panic mode when he gets his answer: about a week, maybe ten days.
- Gary gets a massive one when he finds a closet full of empty snail shells... presumably the same snails seen in the photograph with Granny, who is menacing Gary from down the hall with yet another batch of desserts.Snails in photograph: RUUUUUUN!!!
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: The green alley snail which Gary hides with.Green Snail: Hey! You're that guy that doesn't like nachos!
- Overly Long Scream: SpongeBob and Patrick barge into Squidward's house while he is taking a bath, making him scream continuously.
- Parental Neglect: SpongeBob forgets to take care of Gary because he's been obsessed with his new paddleball.
- Pushed at the Monster: When Gary hides from Granny in an alleyway and reencounters the green snail from earlier, he uses him as a Sacrificial Lamb and pushes him to Granny, getting her off of Gary's tail for good.
- The Runaway: Out of hunger, Gary runs away when he gets the feeling SpongeBob doesn't want to feed him anymore.
- Sad-Times Montage: SpongeBob has one set to "Gary's Song".
- Scatterbrained Senior: Granny doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference between snails, and takes in Gary in the first place because she mistakes him for her snail, Miss Tuffsy. When Gary finds an alley snail that looks nothing like him as a replacement, Granny doesn't notice and mistakes the alley snail for Miss Tuffsy as well.
- Shout-Out:
- The old lady (via one interpretation) is only feeding Gary so he can get overstuffed just so he can be eaten himself... doesn't this sound very much like the witch from "Hansel and Gretel"?
- The painting of the old lady surrounded by numerous snails (which are nowhere to be seen in the house throughout the whole episode) and a scene where Gary discovers a room filled with broken snail shells are a clear shout-out to the Bluebeard fairy tale.
- "Set phasers on fun, Miss Tuffsy."
- Special Guest: Amy Poehler as Granny.
- Storefront Television Display: During the song "Gary Come Home", SpongeBob appears on multiple televisions in a storefront and calls for Gary.
- Sudden Anatomy:
- Gary grows arms when he prepares to eat, only to realize that his bowl is empty.
- Gary has eyelashes in a few shots. Most notably when Grandma is taking care of him.
- Tropey, Come Home: SpongeBob goes all out in his attempts to find Gary. By the episode's end, practically all of Bikini Bottom is covered with SpongeBob's apology posters.
- Troubled Fetal Position: Patrick finds SpongeBob in this position after the latter takes the Dirty Bubble Challenge.
- Unable to Cry: Near the end of the episode, Patrick tries to get SpongeBob to let it out some more, after days of failed searches, but he laments that he can't cry anymore and that he's out of tears. It's subverted a second later when Patrick tells him that he saw some huge chunks of balsa wood at the arts and crafts store, prompting SpongeBob to turn on the Ocular Gushers again because Gary really loved balsa wood.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Granny is one of the darkest antagonists in an otherwise light-hearted comedy. Depending on your interpretation, she either accidentally fattens her snails up until they die due to her own senility, or she is deliberately doing it to eat them.
- Waking Non Sequitur: When SpongeBob wakes up Patrick by throwing art supplies at his feet.Patrick: Aah, it's the Apocalypse! Office products falling from the sky!
- Wham Shot: The scene of Gary opening the closet and discovering the broken shells of Granny's past (now-deceased) snails, revealing that she overfeeds her snails, either accidentally due to her own senility or purposefully to fatten them up and eat them.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: SpongeBob completely forgets about the Dirty Bubble Challenge after he realizes Gary left home. Justified in this case, as a pet going missing would definitely be more important than a game.
- You Are Number 6: Based on how she refers to the green snail from the alleyway as Miss Tuffsy as she does with Gary, it appears that Granny refers to all of the snails she raises as Miss Tuffsy as an indicator in her head that she's going to later eat them or because she's too senile to notice any difference between multiple snails.
