Recap / SpongeBob SquarePants S 1 E 14 "SB-129" / "Karate Choppers"

"I miss Bikini Bottom, I miss my Easter Island head; I even miss SpongeBob!"

SB-129

Original air date: 12/31/1999

While trying to avoid SpongeBob and Patrick, Squidward accidentally locks himself in the Krusty Krab's walk-in freezer, only to be unthawed in the distant future. This leads to him using a time machine to try to get back to his own time.

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Everything is tropes in the future!

• All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: Squidward must have ended up in the the Cambrian Era when he time-traveled to the past, judging by the Trilobites and dark sky. However, the Primitive Sponge and Star exhibit behavior similar to Neanderthals such as wearing loin cloths which dates back to the Middle Paleolithic which occurred at least 500 million years after the Precambrian Era.
• Amusing Injuries: SpongeTron, one of SpongeBob's many futuristic descendants and exact genetic replicas tells Squidward that the Time Machine he needs to use is "Down the hall on the left." Squidward rushes into it, we hear a can opener and Squidward walks out cut to shreds with his body making a funny springing sound. SpongeTron apologizes and tells Squidward to try the room on the right.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Squidward having been trapped in the locker and frozen for 2,000 years.
  • There's also the Blank White Void that Squidward ends up in, where there's literally nothing but random colored tiles and ambient, creepy voices. Squidward thinks of this as paradise at first, until this trope sets in.
• Animation Bump:
  • This episode's animation looks slightly more polished and thick compared to earlier season 1 episodes. The rest of the season goes with this art-style.
  • The scene of Primitive Sponge and Starfish drooling was done with digital-inking.
• Ascetic Aesthetic: Everything in the future is chrome. When a flower pops up on the ground, someone comes and spray paints it chrome.
• Bait-and-Switch: When SpongeTron sees Squidward frozen in ice, he pulls out a hammer... but instead of using it to smash the ice, it shoots a laser beam which melts the ice and burns Squidward's butt.
• Been There, Shaped History: In-universe, Squidward introducing jellyfishing to the primitive sponge and starfish while he was in the past resulted in him getting credit for inventing it.
  Squidward: Who's the barnaclehead who invented that game, anyway?!
  SpongeBob and Patrick: (think about it) You are, Squidward!
• Berserk Button: When the Primitive SpongeBob and Patrick hear Squidward's awful clarinet playing they both go berserk and angrily chase after Squidward, with clear intent on attacking him.
• Blank White Void: Squidward ends up in an infinite featureless white dimension after the time machine goes haywire. Although he enjoys the peaceful solitude at first, the chorus of disembodied voices repeating the word "Alone" quickly makes him change his mind. He thankfully manages to escape, somehow, by breaking through the nonexistant floor, which leads him back to the time machine.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Squidward realizes this in the end.
• Choosy Beggar: Squidward gets his wish of going home when SpongeTron tells him about the time machine, but he's not all too fond of the kitschy elevator design.
  Squidward: Well, I wouldn't have chosen this interior.
• Constantly Curious: Seems to be the case with the prehistoric versions of SpongeBob and Patrick. Due to being unevolved they are curious by something brand new like Squidward, constantly touching and examining him, appearing friendly-ish to him, and are fascinated by his creation of jellyfishing nets and demonstration of the game to them. They only become violent when they hear his awful clarinet playing and chase him to attack him, now associating him as a threat due to the noise he was making.
• A Day in the Limelight: Squidward's first one. He's the main character of the episode, with SpongeBob in more of a supporting role.
• Description Cut: When Squidward is frozen in the meat locker.
  Squidward: Oh, well, someone will realize I'm gone and come looking for me. I'll be out of here in no time.
  (cut to the following time card)
  Narrator: 2,000 years later...
  (cut to Squidward frozen alive)
• Dreadful Musician:
  • The narrator lampshades Squidward's poor musical skills:
    Narrator: Ah, it is Sunday morning in Bikini Bottom, and it is about time for Squidward to practice his clarinet, so get your ear plugs ready...
  • Squidward's awful clarinet playing causes the Primitive Sponge and Star to attack him.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Patrick tells SpongeBob that Squidward isn't up to playing with them, but SpongeBob convinces Patrick that it isn't the case.
• Eternal English: Zig-zagged. SpongeTron claims that the alphabet has 486 letters in the future, but he still speaks contemporary English.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: More in the vein of “distorted voices of the void freak me out”, but still. Squidward is at first delighted to be alone in the void, but the voices echoing his "alone" freak him out and quickly change his mind and he begins to panic and becomes fearful.
• Failed Future Forecast: Based on the calendar post-timeskip, the episode takes place on March 6, 2017. However, the real-life date was on a Monday, whereas SpongeBob explicitly states that it's a Sunday.
• Frazetta Man: The prehistoric sponge and starfish definitely evoke this, having gorilla-like fangs and facial features and acting very animalistically, which is especially evident in their final scene where they go apeshit and try to kill Squidward after hearing his dreadful clarinet playing.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: A quick glimpse at a calendar in the future reveals that Squidward was thawed in the year 4017.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Squidward starts repeating "FUTUUUURE!" as a Madness Mantra, SpongeTron snaps him out of his Freak Out by pulling on his tie, causing a mechanical arm to pop out of his hat and drop a brick on Squidward's head. Squidward thanks SpongeTron for this.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: At first Squidward is relieved to be alone in the Blank White Void. Not long after that he desperately wants to get back.
• Good Samaritan: SpongeTron is considerably kinder and considerate to Squidward than the actual SpongeBob. He thaws Squidward out of his frozen stasis when coming across him, snaps Squidward out of his Heroic BSoD with a brick to the head, and when Squidward says he needs to get back to his own time period, SpongeTron immediately complies with his request and points him to the time machine, even waving goodbye to Squidward as the time machine kicks into gear.
• Haplessly Hiding: This is what kicks off the episode, when Squidward attempts to get away from SpongeBob and Patrick by hiding himself in the Krusty Krab freezer. This backfires on him spectacularly as he gets locked inside and frozen for 2000 years, ending up in the future. The plot then revolves around Squidward trying to get back to his own time period by using a time machine.
• Here We Go Again!: After it's revealed that Squidward is now the inventor of jellyfishing after teaching prehistoric SpongeBob and Patrick how to jellyfish, he claims he's "going back" to rectify this.
• Human Popsicle: Squidward gets shut in the Krusty Krab's freezer and isn't found for two thousand years.
• Inventional Wisdom: Who makes a room that is one giant can opener, let alone putting it parallel to a time machine?
  • For that matter, why attach the time machine to the building to the point that the structure becomes noticeably destroyed if you use the machine?
• Irony: Squidward orders (present-day) SpongeBob and Patrick to stop bugging him with favors to join them in jellyfishing. But then when he travels to the Precambrian Era, Squidward gets annoyed with the Primitive Sponge and Star being Too Dumb to Live playing with a jellyfish stinging themselves over and over that he forces them to take up jellyfishing instead. It's more civil and less cacophonous.
• iSophagus: Squidward gets startled by SpongeBob's foghorn alarm and swallows his clarinet. When he tries to yell at SpongeBob, it is muffled by the noises his clarinet makes.
• Locked in a Freezer: Squidward is trapped in the Krusty Krab's freezer, and he ends up being stuck there for 2000 years as a Human Popsicle.
• Madness Mantra: FUTURE! FUUUTURE! FUUUUTUUUURE! FUUUUUUTUUUUURRRRRE!
• Major Injury Underreaction: Squidward getting shredded to swirly pieces by the can opener only causes him to walk out mildly annoyed.
• Malicious Misnaming: "Well, at least there's no sign of SpongeBrat."
• Multiple Head Case: Pattron has two heads.
• Mundane Object Amazement: The prehistoric SpongeBob and Patrick watch in fascination as Squidward creates jellyfishing nets for them out of their loin cloths, and quickly take to jellyfishing after Squidward demonstrates.
• Overly Long Gag: Squidward opening the door revealing SpongeBob asking him if he's ready to go jellyfishing with him and Patrick.
• Painting the Fourth Wall: "SB-129" is actually the production code for the episode.
• Plot Hole: SpongeBob, for some reason never opens the freezer, even though there were frozen Krabby Patties in there. Maybe SpongeBob, being SpongeBob, somehow never noticed Squidward standing right behind the door.
• Scary Teeth: Patrick's Precambrian ancestor gives Squidward a big smile for no apparent reason, giving us a Gross-Up Close-Up of his jagged, filthy fangs.
• Time Skip: The episode skips 2,000 years into the future with Squidward frozen in the freezer.
• Time Travel Episode: Squidward is frozen in suspended animation and thaws out 2,000 years in the future. Then he discovers a time machine, and things get weird.
• Too Dumb to Live: SpongeBob and Patrick's Precambrian ancestors repeatedly attempt to play catch (or Hot Potato, or whatever it is) with a jellyfish, barehanded; Squidward intervenes to teach them how to jellyfish mostly because their agonized screams are disrupting his clarinet-playing. You COULD make the excuse that they were cavefish with undeveloped brains, so they don't know if it's wrong or right.
• Troubled Fetal Position: Squidward after realizing he's stuck in the future with SpongeTron.

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You go karate-crazy when you're hungry.

Karate Choppers

Original air date: 12/31/1999

SpongeBob loves practicing his karate with Sandy, but when Mr. Krabs forbids him from doing karate, he finds himself unable to resist.

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Karate Tropers:

• Bathos: While Sandy is begging Mr Krabs to give SpongeBob a second chance, SpongeBob is running around, wailing audibly.
• Big Ball of Violence: SpongeBob and Sandy get into one when they find that they can't stop doing karate.
• Blatant Lies: SpongeBob and Sandy claim that they're only preparing sandwiches using karate chops because they're hungry—it has nothing to do with indulging their habit...
  SpongeBob: Maybe just one more. (Sandy readies her hand) O-Or two?
  Sandy: Or three?
  SpongeBob: Or ten!
  Sandy: TEN! Yes, ten, because WE'RE REALLY HUNGRY!
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: Sandy threatens SpongeBob with a bottle of hot sauce, which she later downs like water.
  Hot Sauce Drop: By the powers of naughtiness, I command this particular drop of hot sauce to be really, really hot!
• Break the Cutie: SpongeBob does not handle getting fired with dignity.
• Broken Smile: SpongeBob does one when he gets fired.
• Carnivore Confusion: A fish is fishing for other fish?
• Cassandra Truth: When SpongeBob tells Sandy about Mr. Krabs telling him to quit karate lest he gets fired, she thinks it's just another one of his methods to try to deceive her and continues slashing around. It's not until Mr. Krabs comes out and fires him for real, having misinterpreted what he saw as SpongeBob disobeying him, that Sandy realizes SpongeBob was telling the truth.
• Characterisation Click Moment: Having been solely The Ace and Only Sane Man for most of Season One, this is the first episode to showcase Sandy's occasionally dangerous Competition Freak disposition.
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: SpongeBob was warned by Mr. Krabs not to do karate, and he and Sandy agree to find a new game to play. They go to have a picnic in the park, and the sound of someone fly-fishing reminds them of karate chops. The two then hurriedly start making sandwiches, but the chopping motion of preparing the food sets them off, and they can't resist starting up again. Mr. Krabs decides to let it slide, though, because he realizes that SpongeBob and Sandy can prepare Krabby Patties in record time using their skills.
• Compressed Vice: SpongeBob and Sandy were shown practicing karate in previous episodes and keep up the habit in later ones, but this is the first and only time that it becomes so bad that they literally can't function without doing it. Them being Competition Freaks in other sports does perk up a few more times however.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: The hot sauce.
• Did You Get a New Haircut?: Squidward getting Krabby Patties dumped onto his head is mistaken for having a new hairdo.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: It is no secret among older fans that Karate in this episode is treated as a G-rated metaphor for sex. During the first karate fight of the episode, SpongeBob interrupts the action so he can go get his protective equipment. A bit later, he gives her a phone call, sending his arm through the phone line to karate-chop her, representing phone sex but Sandy blows him off, more interested in sleeping than participating at the moment. The subsequent matches appear to imply that fetishes are getting involved in it as well, namely the hot sauce scene representing sadomasochism. He eventually gets so obsessed that he can't focus at work because all he can think about is doing karate with Sandy. When they're told to stop karate, they quickly find that everything else reminds them of the martial art. Once they give in and start karate chopping all over the park, SpongeBob, laying back, sarcastically wonders if Mr. Krabs ever does karate, but is shocked when he realizes that Mr. Krabs caught him in the act.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In this episode, SpongeBob and Sandy are about evenly matched in terms of their karate skills. Later episodes (and even the earlier "Tea at the Treedome") would generally depict Sandy as being clearly the better fighter, though by how much varied significantly.
• Evil Laugh: The drop of hot sauce has one, resembling that of Master Hand.
• Fantastic Racism: Mr. Krabs seems to think karate is a byproduct of mammals.
  Mr. Krabs: All right, me boy, I'll give you a second chance. But no more karate! It's poisoning your mind! (sniffs Sandy) Mmm, mammals...
• Friendly Rivalry: SpongeBob and Sandy in their karate sparring.
• Furry Confusion: While SpongeBob and Sandy are at the park, a fish can be seen fishing. Think about it.
• Hates Everyone Equally: Squidward admits this in the end.
  Squidward: I hate all of you.
• I Surrender, Suckers: Defied and played for laughs. SpongeBob feigns defeat and submission when Sandy threatened to pour hot sauce on his tongue. It was revealed as a toy which he tries to catch Sandy by surprise, but it's Sandy who gets the knockout blow instead of SpongeBob.
• Inspector Javert: Mr. Krabs orders SpongeBob to give up his obsession with karate for good, or he's fired. As SpongeBob is leaving the Krusty Krab, contemplating how to break the news to Sandy, Sandy herself comes in and starts attacking him, dismissing SpongeBob's attempts to explain what Krabs said. Mr. Krabs comes out at that exact moment and sees it, and despite the fact that SpongeBob was literally standing there doing absolutely nothing while Sandy was trying to instigate, automatically assumes that SpongeBob was disobeying his orders and fires him on the spot.
• It's All My Fault: When Sandy realizes that SpongeBob wasn't lying about being forbidden to play karate—and inadvertently gets him fired—she tearfully tells Mr. Krabs that she was the one who started the last battle and begs him to reconsider. Mr. Krabs, to his credit, accepts the apology and reinstates SpongeBob on the condition that he never do a single karate move again.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While banning SpongeBob from doing karate entirely is a bad move, and firing him on the spot for seeing Sandy trying to provoke him into fighting even more so, Mr. Krabs does have a valid point. SpongeBob's obsession with karate had begun to interfere with his business, considering that he'd attacked, Squidward, a random customer and Krabs himself while he was using the bathroom, thinking they were Sandy trying to provoke him into another match.
• Malicious Misnaming: Sandy tauntingly calls SpongeBob "SpongeBrain" after his failed attempt to attack her through the phone lines.
• Medium-Shift Gag:
  • The live-action fish in the TV show that SpongeBob watches.
  • The hot sauce drop has a superimposed live-action face (Tom Kenny) declaring itself to be "really, really hot!"
• My God, What Have I Done?: Sandy, when she realizes that she got SpongeBob fired from the Krusty Krab after Mr. Krabs saw her trying to provoke him into a karate match and mistook it for SpongeBob breaking his promise not to do it anymore.
• Negative Continuity: Sandy is never seen working at the Krusty Krab after this episode.
• Not What It Looks Like: Mr. Krabs comes out to see Sandy doing karate around SpongeBob and believes he disobeyed him, resulting in him getting fired.
• Ocular Gushers: When SpongeBob gets fired, he drinks his own tears and cries them back out.
• Ow, My Body Part!: Fred shouts "My leg!" after SpongeBob karate chops him, having mistaken him for Sandy.
• Poor Communication Kills: Mr. Krabs misunderstands the scene that happened outside of the Krusty Krab and fires SpongeBob. Sure, he does give him another chance and the firing is null after Sandy explains everything, but he really should have paid more attention to what was actually happening before jumping to the conclusion that SpongeBob disobeyed him.
• Pretentious Pronunciation: Mr. Krabs dismissing SpongeBob's practicing ka-ra-tay:
  Mr. Krabs: Ka-ra-tay? You should be making money-ay, with your spatu-lay.
• Reaching Between the Lines: SpongeBob tries to karate chop Sandy through the phone lines, but she ducks and redirects his hand back through the receiver so he karate chops himself.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mr. Krabs proves to be one—he only forbids SpongeBob from practicing karate when it starts interfering with his work at the Krusty Krab, and later rescinds firing the sponge after Sandy confesses that she was the one who tried provoking him into playing again.
• Searching the Stalls: At one point, SpongeBob is told by Squidward to clean the stalls. Since he and Sandy are obsessed with karate, SpongeBob searches each stall for Sandy. When he finds what he thinks is her, it is revealed to be Mr. Krabs, who has had enough of SpongeBob's karate, and tells him that if he catches him doing it again, he will be fired.
• So Much for Stealth: When SpongeBob attempts to sneak up on Sandy, ducks are heard quacking with every step he makes. It is then revealed that he was actually stepping on squeaky toy ducks.
• Take a Third Option: At first, it seems like SpongeBob is faced with the decision of indulging in his karate habit with Sandy or keeping his job. By the end of the episode, everyone works out a third solution: SpongeBob and Sandy use their karate skills to prepare Krabby Patties, allowing them to get their fix while Mr. Krabs makes a tidy sum.
• That Didn't Happen: After SpongeBob accidentally chops Squidward's face with karate gear, Squidward responds he's going to pretend that didn't happen. Somehow his head immediately goes back to normal afterwards.
• Unaffected by Spice: After taunting SpongeBob with the hot sauce, Sandy chugs down the whole bottle and suffers no ill effects.

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Squidward: Who's the barnaclehead who invented TV Tropes anyway?!
SpongeBob and Patrick: (points at him) You are, Squidward! (both laugh; Squidward makes an embarrassed face)
Squidward: I'm going back.

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