Original air date: 6/4/2009 (produced in 2008)
Care for some casserole?note
SpongeBob desperately wants Squidward to visit his house, so he takes Squidward's vacuum cleaner in order to lure him in. Squidward comes to retrieve his vacuum, but is shocked to discover that SpongeBob has redecorated his home to look identical to his own.
"Squid's Visit" contains examples of:
- Berserk Button: After Squidward's house is destroyed, SpongeBob invites him to stay at his house until it's repaired, leading to Squidward going mentally insane to the point of hallucinating a tea party with his vacuum cleaner.
- Bittersweet Ending: Squidward’s house gets destroyed from the casserole staying in the oven for too long, but SpongeBob allows Squidward to sleep at his house until Squidward’s house is repaired, while SpongeBob and Gary sleep on the spot where Squidward’s house was.
- Borrowed Without Permission: SpongeBob wants Squidward to visit his house, so he asks Patrick if Squidward ever visited his house. Patrick tells him that Squidward only visited his house once, to take back some things he borrowed. He then suggests to SpongeBob that he should borrow something of Squidward's, so Squidward will have to come over to get it back. Following Patrick's advice, SpongeBob borrows Squidward's vacuum cleaner, and when Squidward notices, he calls SpongeBob to ask why he stole his vacuum cleaner. SpongeBob tells Squidward that he didn't steal it, he borrowed it.
- Broken Record: SpongeBob yells "Please! Please! Please!" nonstop, as he is begging Squidward to come visit him.
- Brick Joke: Squidward puts the casserole in his oven before going to SpongeBob's house. When he comes out, it caused Squidward's entire house to burn to the ground.
- Chekhov's Gun: The casserole Squidward leaves in the oven.
- Everyone Has Standards: As clingy as SpongeBob is towards Squidward, he seems genuinely worried for him when he goes catatonic and faints when he has to stay with SpongeBob while his house is being rebuilt.
- Exploding Closet: When Squidward opens SpongeBob's closet and tries to pull the vacuum cleaner free, all of SpongeBob's stuff comes exploding out.
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: The episode ends with Squidward falling asleep in SpongeBob's house and SpongeBob falling asleep outside.
- Heroic BSoD: After his home burns down, Squidward enters a catatonic state when SpongeBob offers to let him stay at his house.
- Insistent Terminology: SpongeBob didn't steal Squidward's vacuum cleaner, he merely "borrowed" it.
- Ironic Echo: "SPOOOOONGEBOOOOOB!"/"SQUIIIIIDWAAAARD!!!"
- Jerkass Ball: SpongeBob seems to be annoying Squidward deliberately when he tries to get him to visit him. He steals his vacuum cleaner, replicates the interior of his house to look like Squidward's, and straight-up ignores his favor to have the vacuum back for the sake of wanting him to have a proper visit.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After SpongeBob puts Squidward in psychological paranoia, Squidward sleeps in the replica of his bedroom in SpongeBob's house, while SpongeBob and Gary are forced to sleep out in the open on the burnt out wreckage of Squidward's house. Not that he minds it, though.
- Leg Cling: SpongeBob clings to Squidward's legs, crying and begging him to come visit him. He doesn't let go of them even when Squidward is at various places.
- MacGuffin: Squidward's vacuum cleaner, which SpongeBob "borrows" from him so he can visit.
- Manchild: SpongeBob screams and cries like a baby while clinging to Squidward's leg, begging him to visit him.
- Mood Whiplash: SpongeBob screams and cries nonstop to Squidward, begging him visit him just once. Once Squidward goes home and slams the door, SpongeBob immediately returns to his normal happy self.
- Ominous Music Box Tune: Plays when Squidward imagines himself going crazy and having a tea party with his vacuum cleaner.
- Psychological Horror: While still comedic, this episode is probably the closest the show has gotten to tackling this genre. It has a chillingly unnerving atmosphere throughout and the plot is all about Squidward's growing paranoia.
- Say My Name: After Squidward gets his vacuum cleaner into his mouth, he begins to shout Spongebob's name while the hose begins to hiss. In the ending, Squidward furiously shouts SpongeBob's name for forcing him to stay so long his house burned down. SpongeBob, oblivious as usual, offers Squidward to stay at his pineapple house, which puts Squidward in so much shock that he faints, making SpongeBob loudly shout Squidward's name.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: SpongeBob tries to get Squidward to visit him and does whatever he can to ensure he stays, not even bothering to give his vacuum back. In the end, he ends up getting more than what he wished for when Squidward's house burns down from the casserole, allowing him to stay at his house for a longer time, but he is kicked out and forced to sleep on the wreckage.
- Series Continuity Error: Squidward claims he never visited SpongeBob's house once and never will and also that never called Spongebob on the phone, but he went there many times and has called Spongebob before.
- Stalker without a Crush: SpongeBob takes this to ridiculous levels. He screams and begs Squidward to come for a visit, ignores his insistent refusal, flat-out steals his belongings so Squidward has no choice but to go to SpongeBob's house, breathes heavily into the phone, and somehow manages to recreate the interior of Squidward's house down to the tiniest detail, such as the exact contents of his medicine cabinet and the stitching on his favourite throw pillow.
- Suddenly Shouting: This is how Squidward declines SpongeBob's invitation to his house.Squidward: SpongeBob, thank you so much for that lovely invitation, but I must respectfully tell you I will never visit you. EVER! (his yell blows SpongeBob away)
Original air date: 7/17/2009 (produced in 2008)
Every pair of SpongeBob's square pants shrink in the wash and he's forced to wear a pair of round pants in the meantime. Believing that nobody recognizes him thanks to his new pants, SpongeBob decides to get a new start on his life.
"To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants" contains examples of:
- Corrupt the Cutie: While training under Squidward at the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob becomes just as rude and lazy as he is, and Squidward happily takes credit for it.
- Fantastic Racism: While SpongeBob is at first worried that Sandy doesn't recognize him, he later brushes it off as "Neptune knows what goes on in a squirrel's head". He then imagines a live-action squirrel chattering and visibly cringes.
- Faux Horrific: The Narrator treats the day SpongeBob changed his pants with great dread. Stock Footage of natural disasters and a lady screaming in terror even play as he recounts it.
- Flashback: The events are told "three days ago" from the beginning of the narration.
- Gone Horribly Right: The round pants that SpongeBob buys cause him to be unrecognizable.
- Here We Go Again!: After Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to take off the round pants, he does so, leaving his underwear exposed. Sandy then comes over and calls him "SpongeBob UnderPants", causing SpongeBob to flip out over potentially starting his life over again.
- Human Notepad: Patrick has a note on his hand to remind him that SpongeBob wears square pants. So when SpongeBob starts wearing round pants, Patrick doesn't recognize him.
- Only Sane Man: Squidward and Mr. Krabs were the only ones who recognized SpongeBob without his square pants.
- Overly Long Gag: It actually becomes a plot point, as Patrick calls SpongeBob just so he can make noises with his tongue and spends so much time doing so that SpongeBob's pants shrink while they were in the washing machine.
- Plot Hole: The store attendant tells SpongeBob that they’re not getting another shipment of his square pants for months. However, three days later (at the time of the episode’s narration), he is wearing square pants again.
- Shrunk in the Wash: SpongeBob leaves his pairs of pants in the dryer and gets distracted by a phone conversation with Patrick. When he takes them out, they're all miniaturized, forcing him to buy a new pair.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The episode is told as a flashback to "three days ago" by the narrator as he recalls the day SpongeBob literally changed his pants.
