It's all in the technique.
Bubblestand
Original air date: 7/17/1999 (produced in 1998)
It's a beautiful day in Bikini Bottom and SpongeBob decides it's the perfect day to build a bubblestand, much to Squidward's annoyance. Now for only 25 cents, SpongeBob will teach anyone who's willing the proper technique to creating the perfect bubble. Just as Squidward wonders aloud who would be stupid enough to pay to blow bubbles, Patrick shows up and SpongeBob begins his show of amazing bubble creations, which bothers Squidward even further. When Squidward's attempts to blow bubbles for himself fail, he is forced to do his own take on SpongeBob's technique with unexpected results.
"Bubblestand" contains examples of:
- Achievements in Ignorance: Squidward somehow manages to blow a really big bubble by making a mocking demonstration of SpongeBob's bubble-blowing technique and then screaming loudly into the wand. He doesn't realize what he's accomplished until he stops screaming to catch his breath.
- Answer Cut: Patrick's introduction to the episode amounts to this.Squidward: Oh, puh-lease. I mean, who in the world would pay to blow bubbles?!
Patrick: (rock opens) Good morning! (falls into his house hole)
Squidward: Oh, boy... - Blowing a Raspberry: What Squidward's bubbles do when he blows them.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode is set at SpongeBob's home lane Conch Street.
- Brick Joke: When Patrick gives SpongeBob a quarter (the same one he gave him), SpongeBob bites it (to make sure it's not a fake/counterfeit coin). He does this again when Squidward gives him one later on, and it bends (meaning Squidward gave him a fake coin).
- Broken Record: After Squidward successfully did the technique, SpongeBob and Patrick chant his name until a giant bubble approaches Squidward's house. What's their reaction? Chant his name again!
- Correlation/Causation Gag: SpongeBob blows a tugboat bubble which sounds off a deep, loud horn when it pops. At the time, Squidward was playing his clarinet in his house, confusing him and causing him to shake the thing as if he made that sound.
- Counterfeit Cash: The quarter Squidward gives SpongeBob seems to be fake, as it bends when SpongeBob bites it.
- Double Take: SpongeBob's bubble blowing technique includes three in a row.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- SpongeBob makes a bubble of a caterpillar and a butterfly. The season 2 episode Wormy has him and Patrick being unfamiliar with them, so it's either this trope or Series Continuity Error.
- From the outside, the windows on Squidward's house appear as completely black. Past this episode, they're the usual light blue color.
- Patrick refers to SpongeBob as "Sponge" when he asks if he could borrow a quarter. This never happens again.
- Floating in a Bubble: Squidward's house towards the end.
- Gainax Ending: After the bubble that envelops Squidward's house pops, all that happens is... SpongeBob and Patrick give each other Aside Glances, run back to their houses, Squidward's house lands in its original spot, and Squidward plays a solemn song off-key. And that's it.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The giant bubble that Squidward makes then captures his house and sends it floating high above the ground, popping and sending the house crashing back down at his expense.
- Hypocritical Humor: Squidward gets mad at SpongeBob for making loud noise. He then proceeds to loudly play his clarinet out the window.
- I Am Not Weasel: Patrick calls SpongeBob's bubble elephant a giraffe.
- Lemonade Stand Plot: This episode sees SpongeBob set up a stand selling a chance to blow bubbles for 25 cents. Rather than focus on profits or loss, however, the episode revolves around SpongeBob teaching Patrick how to blow a bubble while Squidward is annoyed by the whole setup. Though the product is different, the other details are functionally identical.
- Minimalist Cast: Only SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward appear.
- Mundane Made Awesome: SpongeBob's bubble blowing technique.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Done by SpongeBob and Patrick when Squidward tries (and fails) to show them how simple it is to blow a bubble.
- Oh, Crap!: SpongeBob when his elephant bubble squeezes through Squidward's house, ready to pop. Then he and Patrick have one after the giant bubble begins to approach the house and engulf it.
- Overly Long Gag: SpongeBob hammering slowly and looking back at Squidward's house on the pause.
- Running Gag: Patrick going too long with his reactions long after SpongeBob stops with his.
- Surrounded by Idiots:Squidward: How did I ever get surrounded by such loser neighbors?
- Tasty Gold: SpongeBob bites into a quarter Patrick gave him to see if it's real... despite it being the exact same quarter he gave Patrick mere seconds before. He does the same thing to Squidward's quarter, which bends when he bites it.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Squidward briefly learns how to play the clarinet well after using SpongeBob's bubble technique until his house gets sucked inside a giant bubble, and it loudly pops, apparently destroying his clarinet skills.
"I didn't have to be a fool to get Sandy's attention!"
Ripped Pants
Original air date: 7/17/1999 (produced in 1998)
SpongeBob is spending the day at Goo Lagoon with Sandy and is having fun making her laugh, but finds the spotlight stolen by the buff and athletic Larry the Lobster. While trying to join them in lifting weights, SpongeBob rips his pants in front of everyone and is humiliated. He then discovers that everyone thought he did it on purpose and finds him hilarious. SpongeBob then proceeds to find creative ways to split his pants and send everyone in hysterics... until he does so after pretending to drown. Joining several other miscasts on the beach, he learns that if he wants to win over his friends, just be himself... in song!
"Ripped Pants" contains examples of:
- Attention Whore: As the episode goes on, SpongeBob keeps ripping his pants, not by accident or to merely get a laugh out of everyone, but because he keeps trying to get attention out of them. It eventually goes wrong, and all his attention gets stripped away from him.
- Bait-and-Switch: One character complains of sand in his buns, then pulls out his hamburger buns full of sand.
- Beach Bury: An elderly whale is buried in the sand.
- Beach Episode: The first one of the series.
- Be Yourself: What SpongeBob's song is about in the end.
- Big "WHY?!": The lifeguard when he finds the seemingly drowned SpongeBob and believes he arrived too late.
- Black Comedy: When SpongeBob fakes drowning to get a laugh.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode takes place at Goo Lagoon.
- Dude, Not Funny!: While the beachgoers were already getting sick of SpongeBob's "ripped pants" schtick, they desert him in disgust once he pretends to drown as a lead-in to yet another variation of it. Sandy spells it out for him.Sandy: That wasn't funny, SpongeBob! Y'all had me worried sick!
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- SpongeBob appears to dislike Larry in this episode. It's implied that Larry was initially meant to be a Jerk Jock and rival to SpongeBob for Sandy's attention, especially in the song that says he "came 'round just to put him down", when nothing of the sort happened. Later episodes would portray Larry as a Lovable Jock and an all around Nice Guy who SpongeBob is always friendly towards (except for one time).
- This episode also clearly displays the crush SpongeBob had on Sandy since when everyone deserts him, he's most hurt by her absence. His song also makes mention of how "no girl ever wants to dance with a fool who went and ripped his pants", clearly alluding to Sandy and the apparent rivalry with Larry. SpongeBob's crush on Sandy ultimately went away as the early seasons went on.
- Embarrassingly Painful Sunburn: One of the fish claiming to be the biggest loser on the beach has one.
- Epic Fail:
- SpongeBob tries and fails to lift a mere stick with marshmallows on the ends, with it being akin to lifting a super heavy weight.
- SpongeBob's faux-drowning gag.SpongeBob: Let's see... Lifting weights: Big laugh. Frisbee in face: Kills. Surfing: Knocks 'em dead. Pretending to drown: NO.
- Everyone Has Standards: Scooter the Surfer Dude fish is the most amused by SpongeBob's antics. But after SpongeBob's fake drowning stunt causes everyone to angrily storm off, Scooter sadly shakes his head in disappointment, quietly saying "Dude..."
- Faking the Dead: SpongeBob used this to try and make people laugh. It fails horribly, and everyone is mad at him as a result.
- Green-Eyed Monster: SpongeBob seems to hold some animosity towards Larry, mainly because he impresses Sandy more.SpongeBob: Oh, no. Everybody's gone. Even Sandy! She'd rather hang out with Larry! Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, nooo...
- Must Make Amends: SpongeBob does this with this song with the help of three other miscasts to win everyone back on his side, especially Sandy.
- Laser-Guided Karma: SpongeBob's attempt to make another ripped pants joke by pretending to drown doesn't earn him any laughs, and only causes everyone, including Sandy to leave in anger. Sandy, in particular spells it out to SpongeBob that what he did wasn't cool.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When SpongeBob realizes just how much his newest attempt at ripping his pants really hurt Sandy and he sees the consequences of his actions, he finally realizes that he went too far.
- Naked People Are Funny: SpongeBob leans in to sign Larry's pants, only for his underwear to rip off completely.
- Outclassed at the Gym: Larry and Sandy perform impressive weightlifting feats, while SpongeBob struggles to lift a stick with two marshmallows on its sides. The strain causes him to accidentally rip his pants, and although he is mortified at first, he comes to embrace the crowd's laughter. For the rest of the episode, SpongeBob keeps purposefully ripping his pants while failing to keep up with Larry and Sandy's athletic achievements, eventually alienating observers due to the sheer saturation of the joke.
- Overused Running Gag: SpongeBob ripping his pants becomes this in-story.
- Pathetically Weak: SpongeBob rips his pants trying and failing miserably to lift a stick with just two, count 'em, two, marshmallows attached to the ends like it's a dumbbell. Provides the trope image.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: After being left alone after his fake drowning stunt, SpongeBob lays there and shouts to no one in particular "Am I the biggest loser on the beach?!", and he's approached by three other beachgoers who claim that they're the biggest loser on the beach, with a woman fish who forgot her sunscreen and got heavy sunburn, a male fish who got sand in his (hamburger) buns, and a whale who got buried in the sand by his friends only to be left there forgotten.
- Rule of Three: Three more "losers" on the beach feel remorseful of SpongeBob.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: SpongeBob's own pants walked out on him after angering everyone with the ripped pants stunt:SpongeBob's pants: What do you mean "we"?
- Shout-Out: SpongeBob references the song "Sky High" by Jigsaw, fittingly enough in his own song, by saying, "But I went and blew it, all sky high."
- Singing Voice Dissonance: During the song at the end, the squeaky-voiced SpongeBob somehow sings with a soulful, deep male voice, which doesn't sound anything like him.
- Snarky Inanimate Object: SpongeBob's pants leave him after making a comment that only SpongeBob blew it.
- Splitting Pants: The whole premise of the episode. The first time it happens to SpongeBob, it is a genuine accident and it earns him a quick laugh from those who witnessed it, but then he keeps doing it on purpose to try and make people laugh again.
- Super-Strength: Sandy and Larry's strength is first shown in this episode.
- Title Drop: The episode's title is mentioned several times by SpongeBob.
- What the Hell, Hero?: The beachgoers were not happy when SpongeBob pretended to drown for the sake of a joke. Sandy even says that SpongeBob worried her sick with his "joke".
- Wormsign: SpongeBob burrowing underground to go to a fish who's set up a campfire results in the sand he travels underneath being pushed up in a line.
