"Your true spatula is inside you."
Spatula of the HeavensOriginal air date: 7/20/2023 (produced in 2022)
After his beloved spatula breaks, SpongeBob embarks on an epic journey to have it reforged by the legendary Guru Greasetrap.
"Spatula of the Heavens" contains examples of:
- Anything but That!: SpongeBob shouts this after Mr. Krabs tells him that SpongeTom will take his job if he doesn't come back with a new spatula.
- Bait-and-Switch: When an ice-cream vendor notices how sweaty and exhausted SpongeBob is from his journey, he offers him two ice-cream cones. But rather than eating them, SpongeBob sticks them on the bottom of his feet and uses them as skates.
- Big "NO!": SpongeBob screams "Nooooooo!" after his spatula breaks.
- The Bus Came Back: SpongeTom from "Broken Alarm" returns and once again threatens to take SpongeBob's job.
- Brick Joke: After SpongeBob uses ice-cream cones to skate across the desert, the ice-cream vendor believes he's been "using them wrong". Later when SpongeBob rolls back to the Krusty Krab in a giant snowball, he passes the same ice-cream vendor who's trying to attach ice-cream cones to his own feet.
- Exact Words: Guru's only word of advice to SpongeBob after his hands are injured is: "Your true spatula is inside you." This turns out to be fully spot-on the end as Guru opens SpongeBob's body like a pantry to reveal a spare spatula amongst his organs.
- Human Snowball: SpongeBob rolls down the mountain as a giant snowball to return to the Krusty Krab.
- Literal Metaphor: Guru Greasetrap tells SpongeBob that the true spatula is inside him, which he thinks is a metaphor. His training ends up being All for Nothing because the spatula was literally inside his body.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Guru Greasetrap is about to reforge SpongeBob's spatula, SpongeBob tries to help by opening the closet for him, but causes a bunch of anvils to fall onto Guru Greasetrap's hands, crushing them.
- Rope Bridge: SpongeBob and Rube cross a bridge that is just a bunch of wooden boards nailed together.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: When SpongeBob fails to understand what Guru Greasetrap means when telling him that his true spatula is inside him, SpongeBob trains to forge his own spatula. But when it breaks right before doing his job, SpongeBob believes he understands the metaphor and shapes his own hands into spatulas that he uses to cook krabby patties, at the cost of burning his hands. However, when Guru Greasetrap shows up later, he tells SpongeBob that his true spatula was literally inside him, meaning he didn't have to go through all that training.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: SpongeBob sports these when he has to cross the very unstable rickety bridge.
Original air date: 8/7/2023 (produced in 2022)
SpongeBob builds a snail-house outside for Gary to play in while he is at work. Soon after, animal equivalents of SpongeBob's friends start coming to the neighborhood.
"Gary's Playhouse" contains examples of:
- Cutaway Gag: When Mr. Krabs claims to be unable to run his restaurant by himself, a cutaway shows his disastrous attempts at cooking and handling the customers at the same time.
- Cuteness Proximity: SpongeBob, Patrick, and even Squidward and Mr. Krabs are overwhelmingly delighted by Gary's recreation of the neighborhood, constantly raving about how "cute" the whole thing is throughout the episode.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: SpongeBob sings "Who lives in a playhouse under the sea?" to the tune of the theme song after asking Gary if he likes his new snail-house.
- Homage Derailment: "Help Wanted" ended with SpongeBob returning with the hydrodynamic spatula Mr. Krabs sent him to find and using it to feed all of the hungry anchovies, cementing his role as the Krusty Krab's fry cook. When "Gary's Playhouse" recreates the episode, however, there's some clear differences. Instead of shopping for the spatula, Mr. Krabs' bunny counterpart gives Gary the spatula and tells him to start cooking, but Gary is so overwhelmed by the responsibility of satisfying the nematodes' hunger that he decides to call it quits, bulldoze his entire neighborhood, and go back to his normal life.SpongeBob: I don't remember this part.
- Internal Homage: The climax features a loose recreation of the very first episode of the show, "Help Wanted", with a miniature replica of the Krusty Krab being invaded by nematodes, just like the anchovies did in the pilot. To drive the reference home, Gary is given the special spatula SpongeBob had to buy in that episode.
- Mondegreen Gag: SpongeBob tries to tell Squidward that Gary is building something, but Gary is making so much noise that Squidward thinks SpongeBob is saying "Larry [the Lobster]" and promptly dials Larry, thinking he's causing the ruckus.
- Musical Spoiler: The music
that played during the scene where the anchovies invade the Krusty Krab in "Help Wanted" can be heard when the tiny "buses" containing the nematodes are shown arriving at the miniature Krusty Krab, moments before the scene is revealed to be recreating that very episode. - Not So Above It All: Squidward, who usually can't stand his neighbors' antics, finds Gary's recreation of the neighborhood adorable once he finds out he has his own counterpart in the form of a sea urchin and is even the first to join SpongeBob in watching Gary's adventures. Mr. Krabs, who had to do all the work at the Krusty Krab because SpongeBob and Squidward were absent, also joins in after a counterpart of him (a sea bunny wearing red oven mitts) shows up.
- Nutritional Nightmare: Patrick eats a two-scoop ice cream cone that has sugar cookies between it, with lots of sugary sprinkles on top.
- Overly Long Gag: Gary and Patrick's slug counterpart repeatedly say good night to each other until Squidward's sea urchin counterpart yells at them to stop. This is then followed by a similar scene but with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward in their respective counterparts' place.
- Reaching Between the Lines: A miscommunication leads Squidward to believe that Larry (not Gary) was making noise outside. He gives the lobster an angry phone call, which results in Larry knocking him out with a punch through the phone.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the nematodes invade the miniature Krusty Krab and Gary is expected to cook for them with a hydrodynamic spatula, he gives up and destroys the spatula, bulldozes his entire neighborhood, and returns to his old life as SpongeBob's pet.
- Shout-Out: The episode title is a parody of Pee-wee's Playhouse.
- Similar Squad: Gary eventually forms a circle of friends modeled after SpongeBob and company, with Spot as Gary, Gary as SpongeBob, and a slug, sea urchin, and sea bunny as Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs respectively.
- Sweet Tooth: After SpongeBob tells Patrick to "lay off the sodas" and that he's probably had enough sugar for the day, Patrick leaves to order a sugar cone with two scoops of ice cream sandwiched with sugar cookies and topped with loads of sugar sprinkles.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: The slug and urchin settle in SpongeBob's house along with Gary at the end of the episode. As for Spot and the sea bunny...?
