Recap / Sponge Bob Square Pants S 4 E 9 Krusty Towers Mrs Puff Youre Fired

This is a hotel?

Krusty Towers

Original air date: 4/1/2006 (produced in 2005)

After an expensive stay at a high-end hotel, Mr. Krabs gets the idea to turn the Krusty Krab into a luxurious hotel. After some poor employee treatment at the expense of Squidward, he decides to turn the tables by booking a room and have Mr. Krabs at his beck and call. What could possibly go wrong?

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"Krusty Towers" contains examples of:

• An Aesop:
  • Making a customer happy is always a priority, but if they start behaving rudely and selfishly, you do need to draw the line eventually.
  • If you treat your employees poorly, it makes them very likely to quit.
  • No matter how absurd you think a guest's requests are, it's your job as a hotel employee to provide them (within reason).
  • Converting one type of business into another is not an instantaneous process. Learn the differences and be prepared to spend a lot of time transitioning into the new business type.
• Ambiguous Syntax: Played with. When Patrick signs into the hotel, he tells Squidward, "One Krabby Patty and one room! With cheese. Oh! And, can I get cheese on the Krabby Patty, too?"
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Mr. Krabs is shocked of the high bills he has to pay for the hotel, but is mostly shocked of paying $25 for a hamburger.
  • Inverted when Squidward orders a Krabby Patty with cheese, toenail clippings and nose hair.
• Artistic License – Law: Mr. Krabs adopts the motto of the hotel he previously stayed at as the one for his own hotel. In reality, such an act would be considered copyright infringement as he presumably did this without the knowledge of the previous hotel, and this would almost certainly get him sued.
• Awesome, but Impractical: There's no way you can fit a huge staircase in an employee elevator.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • After fulfilling many ridiculous demands for Patrick, Squidward is asked one more favor. Foreseeing another annoying task, he pawns off the responsibility to SpongeBob. Patrick then asks SpongeBob if he can help him eat the fifty Krabby Patties he just ordered.
  • At first, it looks like Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob kidnapped Squidward's mother, threw her in a bag and tried to shove her into the trunk of Mr. Krabs' boat. Then it's revealed that the bag is full of Mr. Krabs' laundry which they were trying to shove into the trunk in order to make room for Mrs. Tentacles in Mr. Krabs' boat.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Patrick's check-in request.
  Patrick: One Krabby Patty and one room! With cheese. Oh! And, can I get cheese on the Krabby Patty, too?
• Brick Joke:
  • One of Patrick's requests is to fill his room with cheese. Later, when Squidward is a guest, he asks for a Krabby Patty and finds that it has no cheese. SpongeBob explains that they are all out of cheese, and then we cut to Patrick in a room covered in cheese.
  • After being told about the hotel, Patrick's response is "This is a hotel?". Cut to the end of the episode where Mr. Krabs is complaining about hospital bills. Patrick's response to that is "This is a hospital?".
• Bridal Carry: Squidward asks Mr. Krabs to take him upstairs in this manner, much to the latter's displeasure.
• Butt-Monkey: Squidward, before he foists this role upon Mr. Krabs.
• Continuity Nod: Squidward peeling off the crust of the Krabby Patty.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Mr. Krabs just expected anyone to just start treating his business as a hotel and everyone wanting service needed to rent a room, when people would still expect the restaurant to be still there, so a guy who only went there for lunch didn't have time for getting a room, and just left. Basically, if customers weren't required to rent rooms to order food, the Krusty Towers would've received better business.
  • The indoor pool proved to be one demand too many on Squidward's part and when Patrick performs a cannonball while using it, it collapses through the floor, causing a chain reaction that destroys the entire hotel until only the original Krusty Krab remains.
• The Dog Bites Back: After being abused by Mr. Krabs, Squidward turns the tables on him by quitting his job and coming back as a customer. Squidward then uses the hotel's policy to torture and abuse Mr. Krabs.
• Downer Ending: Played for Laughs. The Krusty Towers collapses after Patrick does a cannonball jump into the indoor pool, leaving SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs injured and shown with full body casts in the hospital. Somewhat subverted when Mr. Krabs tells the boys they're going to medical school after he receives a bill to pay worth $15,000, which SpongeBob and Patrick are excited for.
• Exact Words: One of Squidward's requests is a Krabby Patty with cheese, toenail clippings, and nose hair, just so he can force Mr. Krabs to eat it. SpongeBob tells Mr. Krabs that it's not actually a patty with cheese, toenails, and nose hair, and Krabs eats it... only to find out that it's just toenails and nose hair.
  SpongeBob: Sorry, Mr. Krabs! We were all out of cheese.
  (Cut to Patrick in his cheese covered room)
  Patrick: Hooray!
• Facepalm: Done by Squidward when Patrick asks, "This is a hotel?"
• Gross-Up Close-Up: Of Mr. Krabs' tongue covered in chewed-up patty meat, toenails and nose hair.
• Here We Go Again!: After receiving their hospital bill, Mr. Krabs decides to jump on the hospital bandwagon and enrolls SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward into medical school.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Mr. Krabs makes "We shall never deny a guest, even the most ridiculous request" the Krusty Towers' policy, shooting down Squidward's complaints about Patrick's ridiculous and unreasonable requests by reminding him of it and stating that Pat, and by extension any guest they have, can be as unreasonable as they want. This bites him in the ass when Squidward quits, only to immediately return as a guest so he can use Krabs' own policy to torment and spite him. On a lesser note, when Squidward first returns as a guest, Mr. Krabs states he doesn't need to rent Squidward a room, which would have saved him all the pain of dealing with Squidward, but Squidward immediately offers cash and Mr. Krabs is too greedy to say no to it.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Mr. Krabs makes Squidward fulfill ridiculous requests from Patrick. This causes Squidward to quit and use Krabs' own hotel policy to torture him. For bonus points, Krabs forces Squidward to carry Patrick's heavy bags up the stairs with a rule that employees aren't allowed to use the elevator. Squidward makes Krabs carry him to his room on the top floor, using Krab's own rule to force him to carry him up the stairs.
• Lazy Bum: Squidward, as per usual. His immediate response to Patrick asking for a Krabby Patty and help carrying his luggage is to try to dump both on SpongeBob... only for Krabs to step in and tell him to carry the bags and tend to Patrick. Squidward is quick to object, and Krabs responds with mockery that gets him to concede.
  Mr. Krabs: What's the matter? Afraid of a little manual labor? [mock crying] "I'm Squidward, and I have to work for a living! Boo-hoo-hoo!"
  • In Squidward's defense, this is after Krabs changes their entire business model overnight and forces him to essentially become a butler to an Unsatisfiable Patrick. He's even forced to carry heavy bags (revealed after to be full of rocks) up a flight of stairs, Krabs forbidding him from using the elevator just because. Knowing Krabs, he's probably still paying him below minimum wage too.
• Loophole Abuse: Squidward makes the most ridiculous requests possible, and when Mr. Krabs refuses to fulfill them, Squidward reminds him that the hotel’s motto is "We shall never deny a guest even the most ridiculous request".
• Mean Boss: Mr. Krabs. Along with forcing Squidward to fulfill stupid requests from Patrick, he sets a rule that employees can't use the elevator, while Squidward is struggling to carry Patrick's heavy bags, for no apparent reason other than to be a jerk to him. However, his abusive attitude towards Squidward comes back to bite him shortly.
• Mood Whiplash: The indoor pool scene suddenly shatters the mood when Patrick's weight causes the pool to crash through the floors and the Krusty Towers collapses back into the Krusty Krab it was originally.
• Only One Finds It Fun: SpongeBob is the only one who actually likes his bellhop job, while Squidward can't stand it.
• Pet the Dog: Squidward invites SpongeBob to swim with him in the pool added to his hotel room. As SpongeBob didn't cause Squidward any misery this episode, not to mention fulfilled all of Squidward's requests that helped him get back at Mr. Krabs, it makes sense he's friendlier than usual.
• Rhymes on a Dime:
  Mr. Krabs: Now that me laundry's in the trunk...
  SpongeBob: There's room for you to sit up front.
• Running Gag:
  • Patrick forgetting that he is in a hotel (and later, the hospital).
  • Squidward making ridiculous requests and reciting the hotel's motto, much to Mr. Krabs' annoyance.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Squidward, after being fed up with Patrick's ridiculous requests.
• Series Continuity Error: At the beginning when SpongeBob and Squidward head for the Krusty Krab, they walk to the right, when the Krusty Krab is usually on the left.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: The reason Mr. Krabs built the hotel.
  Mr. Krabs: 25 dollars for a hamburger?!
  • At the end, Mr. Krabs is handed a bill for his hospital stay coming in at $15,000. He decides to open up a hospital afterwards.
• Shout-Out: The title is a parody of Fawlty Towers.
• Status Quo Is God: Patrick diving into Squidward's indoor pool destroys the hotel and the Krusty Krab is reverted back to its original state.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: After quitting over having to deal with Patrick's requests, Squidward comes back as a guest so that Mr. Krabs has to fulfill his ridiculous requests. However, this is a rare instance where the one on the receiving end becomes victorious as Squidward’s actions end up going too far and destroy the hotel, completely injuring him and the rest, and Mr. Krabs ends up sending them to medical school after receiving an expensive medical bill, which gives him the idea to turn his restaurant into a hospital. Squidward’s Oh, Crap! line makes him realize that he’s going to be tortured again.
• Take This Job and Shove It: When Squidward has enough of dealing with Patrick's unreasonable demands and Mr. Krabs forcing abusive rules on him, he quits his job right away, riding the regular elevator down and throwing his uniform into Mr. Krabs' face as he tries to protest.
• Toilet Teleportation: After Squidward unclogs the toilet, SpongeBob is revealed to have been stuck in the toilet. Squidward then sticks the plunger (to which SpongeBob is attached) back into the toilet, which Patrick flushes.
• Truth in Television: It really is a bad architectural idea to put the pool on the top floor of a hotel. Granted, it is very unrealistic for the entire hotel to collapse in such a way, but it’s still not a good idea.
• Unsatisfiable Customer: Krusty Towers' policy— "We shall never deny a guest even the most ridiculous request"— outright ensures that hotel patrons can be as unreasonable and unsatisfiable as they want until their satisfactions are met.
  • Patrick is this towards Squidward when he makes numerous ridiculous requests, such as covering his entire room in cheese, making Squidward peel the crust off of his Krabby Patty, carry bags full of rocks to his room, call to unclog his toilet mere seconds after Squidward left his room and walked all the way back down to the lobby, and finally give him a bubble bath. It's at the final part that Squidward quits.
  • After quitting, Squidward immediately returns as a guest and deliberately puts this trope into play with many of his demands to Mr. Krabs, such as when he tells his boss to make cookies "just like mother used to make" or when he orders him to completely redo his hotel room several times over; he's only satisfied when they return to the original decor, purely to spite him further. Then there's the part with him ordering a Krabby Patty with cheese, toenail clippings, and nose hair just so he can force Krabs to eat it for a cheap laugh. It finally goes too far when the indoor swimming pool in his room makes the hotel collapse due to his, Patrick's and SpongeBob's combined weight.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The customer who comes in expecting to order from the Krusty Krab as if it's still a restaurant takes no time to acknowledge that it's been turned into a hotel. When Mr. Krabs brings him up to speed, he leaves disappointed as he only has an hour for lunch.

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"I can't see! I can't see! ...Heeey. I can't see!"

Mrs. Puff, You're Fired

Original air date: 4/1/2006 (produced in 2005)

After yet another failed driving test, Mrs. Puff's superior fires her and hires a new boating instructor, Sergeant Roderick, who proceeds to turn the place into a boot camp for SpongeBob. Can he prove to Roderick that he isn't "unteachable"?

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"Mrs. Puff, You're Fired" contains examples of:

• Adults Are Useless: Mr. Fitz does not do the sensible thing and ban SpongeBob from ever having a license even after he still managed to level half the city while under Roderick's watch.
• An Aesop:
  • Different teachers have different styles.
  • Don't write off a student's unusual methods for successfully learning. While driving with a blindfold was illegal, it was clear that SpongeBob drove competently with his eyes covered.
  • Taking someone who is bad at using method X to solve a problem and teaching them method Y will not make them any better at method X.
• All There in the Script:
  • The shark drill sergeant that replaces Mrs. Puff is named Sergeant Roderick, according to the end credits.
  • The credits also reveal Mr. Fitz's first name as Gunther.
• Autopilot Artistry: SpongeBob gets a new, Drill Sergeant Nasty boating school teacher, who forces him to drive through a death course blindfolded. It turns out he's a natural at driving when he can't see... but as soon as he's expected to take the course without the blindfold, he stops knowing what to do.
• Blind Driving: SpongeBob learns the driving course blindfolded. The problem is he can only drive blindfolded.
• Bring It: Sergeant Roderick's only response to jumping in front of an out-of-control boat driven by SpongeBob? "COME GET SOME!!!"
• Cassandra Truth: Mrs. Puff's superior refuses to believe her claims that SpongeBob is unteachable, believing that Mrs. Puff is simply an incompetent teacher, despite that SpongeBob is the only student who ever failed her class. It isn't until he fails the test even after being put through Training from Hell under Sergeant Roderick that he realizes that SpongeBob truly is unteachable.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: Patrick gets deprived of his pants during SpongeBob's rampage through Bikini Bottom; he's clearly not appreciative about this when he finally catches up and takes them back.
  The nerve of some people.
• Didn't Think This Through: Roderick successfully taught SpongeBob how to drive while blindfolded. However, he failed to teach him how to drive without a blindfold after the fact.
• Downer Ending: Mrs. Puff is given her job back, meaning she must deal with SpongeBob's clueless recklessness all over again.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Sergeant Roderick. Two former students learned it the hard way!
• Epic Fail: Roderick teaching SpongeBob how to drive blindfolded ultimately ends up being this, as now SpongeBob cannot drive unless he wears one.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Summed up best by Mrs. Puff, who explains that SpongeBob is simply unteachable. By the end of the episode, Mr. Fitz seems to have come to the same conclusion. Unfortunately, he does not simply break the bad news to SpongeBob, instead opting to reinstate Mrs. Puff on the spot and forcing her to put up with his antics all over again.
• Fired Teacher: Due to SpongeBob failing her class so many times, Mrs. Puff is viewed as an incompetent teacher and consequently fired. Not that she's upset for it.
• Gasp!: The whole class (even SpongeBob) lets out a rather shocked gasp when one student in the back falls for Sergeant Roderick's bon bon trick, leading him to be kicked out because of the "no eating" rule.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sergeant Roderick tries to jump in front of the out-of-control boat, to no avail.
• Idiot Houdini: Even with all the evidence placed squarely before him on why SpongeBob should never be allowed within five hundred yards of any moving vehicle, Mr. Fitz doesn't ban him from the roads and instead things go right back to where they were before he fired Mrs. Puff.
• Ignored Aesop: SpongeBob remains just as blissfully determined as ever that he'll get his driver's license, even though he's been deemed "unteachable".
• If I Do Not Return: Before attempting to make a Heroic Sacrifice, Sergeant Roderick says, "Tell my wife I love her!"
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: After going through the sergeant's course, SpongeBob can now drive while blindfolded. And only while blindfolded.
• Literal-Minded: SpongeBob, of course.
• Loophole Abuse: SpongeBob's dossier containing a record of his failed driving tests, in excess of a million, was completely destroyed when he demolished the school, so it's as if he never failed in the first place, according to a despondent Mrs. Puff.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": After Sergeant Roderick says there's no eating allowed in class and then immediately afterwards offers a bon-bon, a student takes the offer. Everyone else in the class (including SpongeBob) look at the student in shock.
• My God, What Have I Done?: SpongeBob has this reaction when he realizes it was his actions that got his teacher fired. He doesn't have time to dwell on it though as Sergeant Roderick quickly takes charge.
• "Open!" Says Me: Sergeant Rodrick is introduced punching the front door of the boating school to bits.
• Overly Long Gag: SpongeBob screaming "OWWWWW! WOOOOOW!" repeatedly after a pebble gets stuck in his hand.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mr. Fitz seems to genuinely care about SpongeBob's standing in the class and genuinely thinks Mrs. Puff has let him down. It's only after Roderick fails to instill any lasting change in his driving tendencies that he hires Mrs. Puff back.
• Run the Gauntlet: SpongeBob does this crawling, walking, running, and blindfolded.
• Schmuck Bait: Sergeant Roderick tells his class that there's no eating allowed in his classroom... then offers them a bon-bon. The others (SpongeBob included) keep shut, but one student takes the bait.
  Sergeant Roderick: Pick your favorite. How's it taste?
  Student: It's a delightful taste sensation...
  Sergeant Roderick: NO EATING IN MY CLASSROOM!!! (tosses student through another door next to the previous broken one)
• Skewed Priorities: Mrs. Puff sees the out-of-control boat but paints it onto her landscape instead of getting out of the way.
• Special Guest: Robin Sachs as Sergeant Roderick.
• Status Quo Is God: SpongeBob has proven himself to be truly unteachable, but is allowed to keep working towards his license and Mrs. Puff is soon restored to her position as a result, much to her dismay.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • SpongeBob performs flawlessly driving while blindfolded, but Roderick and Mr. Fitz obviously do not allow him to do so on the actual test, as doing so is illegal and extremely dangerous.
  • Sergeant Rodrick jumps out in front of a speeding boat in an attempt to stop it with his bare hands. This predictably just causes him to get run over and severely injured. No matter how tough you are, it's still an extremely bad idea to put yourself in front of a two-ton vehicle going at high speeds.
• Threatening Shark: Sergeant Roderick is a stern, militaristic shark who steps in as Mrs. Puff's replacement after her first departure.
• Training from Hell: What Sergeant Roderick puts SpongeBob through, complete with a brief Training Montage.
• Unishment: Mrs. Puff treats getting fired like a blessing since she doesn't want to deal with SpongeBob any longer.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • Mrs. Puff not only gets reinstated as a teacher at the episode's end, but all evidence of SpongeBob ever failing her class was conveniently destroyed in the explosion, leaving him with a squeaky clean record.
  • Roderick's training actually works and SpongeBob finds himself capable of actually boat driving. Unfortunately because Roderick only taught him how to drive when blindfolded, SpongeBob can only drive when blindfolded, which is illegal.
• Your Eyes Can Deceive You: SpongeBob spends most of Roderick's training learning how to drive and do things blindfolded; this ultimately bites right back as this SpongeBob is still a horrendous and dangerous driver unless he has a blindfold on.

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