Original air date: 11/23/2007
The Inmates of Summer
SpongeBob and Patrick accidentally board a ship full of prisoners heading to a prison camp, but they are oblivious to the fact that it's a prison.
The Inmates of Summer contains examples of:
- Book Ends: The episode starts and ends with SpongeBob and Patrick bursting into tears.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: At the end of the episode, the warden punishes the would-be prison escapees by sending them to Sun Fun Island with SpongeBob and Patrick to do macaroni arts and crafts, to the dismay of both the prisoners and SpongeBob and Patrick.
- Dramatic Irony: SpongeBob and Patrick are completely oblivious they got on the wrong ship and are at a prison camp instead of the intended Camp Sun and Fun.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: The prison warden. Complete with being voiced by R. Lee Ermey.
- Failed a Spot Check: SpongeBob and Patrick end up on a prison island, and have no idea it's a prison. And when SpongeBob saw the Sun & Fun Island ship sailing away, he sees it as a "boring, old ship", not noticing the banner on the front.
- For Want Of A Nail: SpongeBob and Patrick wouldn’t have experienced the plot in the first place if they didn’t cry the entire time and miss the ship setting off.
- Idiot Ball: SpongeBob and Patrick are dumber than usual here.
- Manly Tears: The warden's reaction to the play.
- Mistaken for Badass: The fact that SpongeBob and Patrick enjoy all the treatment the prison warden gives causes the other inmates to think "These guys are tough."
- Ocular Gushers: Both SpongeBob and Patrick burst into sprinkles of tears when they admit they will miss each other; the tears last so long that they miss the Sun and Fun boat take off and the boat to Inferno Island takes its place.
- Overly Long Gag: SpongeBob and Patrick bursting into Ocular Gushers for so long that they miss the Sun and Fun boat take off and the boat to Inferno Island takes its place; they don't stop crying until after the prisoners have gotten on board.
- Prison Episode: Thanks to SpongeBob and Patrick getting on the wrong boat.
- Prisoner Performance: SpongeBob and Patrick accidentally board a Prison Ship and believe it to be a summer camp. To lift the other prisoners' morale, SpongeBob writes a musical play for them to perform for "amusement and inspiration." The prisoners are initially apathetic but agree to perform once they notice the giant boat prop, which they try to use during the musical number to escape... except it quickly sinks in the water because it's just a prop.
- Quivering Lip: Both Patrick and SpongeBob's lips quiver after the former shows up at the dockyard and tells the latter he forgot to tell him he's leaving, which leads to the two crying and missing the ship.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode's title is a reference to Don Henley's song "The Boys of Summer".
- Inferno Island is based off Alcatraz Island.
- Special Guest: R. Lee Ermey as the warden.
- Too Dumb to Live: The inmates try to use the boat for the play as an escape craft. Naturally, it sinks before they get too far, and the warden is none too happy.
- Too Kinky to Torture: SpongeBob and Patrick actually enjoy all the horrible treatment and punishments the prison warden gives them because they mistake them as group activities. Ironically it's when they are brought to the summer camp to make real arts and crafts that the two suffer and complain that they like the other island better.
- Unishment: SpongeBob and Patrick are completely oblivious to the fact that they are being punished, and think that they are taking part in fun group activities.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Patrick showing up at the dockyard and telling SpongeBob he will miss him at summer camp is what causes the two to bawl so much that he misses the Sun and Fun boat take off and the two end up heading for Inferno Island.
- Working on the Chain Gang: SpongeBob and Patrick are forced to do this, mistaking it for a fun group activity.
To Save a Squirrel
SpongeBob and Patrick follow Sandy get lost while trying to join Sandy on her camping trip. They wind up in a dark cave with no food, trying to eat each other to survive.
To Save a Squirrel contains examples of:
- Arc Words: Eat or be eaten.
- Artifact Title: The episode's title is misleading, since the episode isn't about saving Sandy from anything. In the original draft
◊, SpongeBob and Patrick don't fall out of the jeep. When they get out, they wind up in a tropical wilderness, where they see Sandy get carried off by a pterodactyl. They team up with the old geezer (who seems to still be Sandy in disguise, as this idea was present in even earlier drafts) to tackle extreme challenges and rescue her. - Bait-and-Switch Comment: While talking with Patrick, SpongeBob becomes paranoid that Patrick is planning to eat him.SpongeBob: Sounds like you're hungry.Patrick: Oh, boy, am I! I'm soooooo hungry, I could eat anything! I could eat an entire sponge...SpongeBob: (screams and runs away)Patrick: ...cake. (pulls out a yellow sponge cake) I was just going to share my golden sponge cake with him. It has delicious cream filling too!
- Cast as a Mask: Sandy disguises herself as an old hermit who's been living in a cave for ages, and even manages to imitate his voice perfectly!
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: SpongeBob tries to make a Krabby Patty out of mud, but realizes that it just won't do and decides he needs some real food.
- Foreshadowing:
- While the gang is still at the treedome, Sandy says it’s “eat or be eaten” out in the wild. The caveman says the same exact thing to SpongeBob and Patrick in the cave.
- The caveman’s accent is similar to Sandy’s Texan accent.
- Full-Body Disguise/Latex Perfection: In the end, the old hermit turns out to be Sandy in disguise, and it turns out that she set the whole thing up to test SpongeBob and Patrick's survival skills.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Squidward tries to torture SpongeBob and Patrick with two voodoo dolls in their likenesses, then gets frustrated when they don't work.
- Horrible Camping Trip: After falling out of Sandy's truck, SpongeBob and Patrick are left to fend for themselves. Patrick immediately ruins things by burning their food and tent and wasting their water.
- Insult Backfire: A flashback shows Squidward telling SpongeBob and Patrick that they're harder to get rid of than cockroaches. They insist to Sandy that Squidward was complimenting them on their survival skills.
- Jeopardy! Thinking Music: A
Suspiciously Similar Song plays during the Time-Passes Montage. - Never Trust a Title: Despite the title, Sandy is never actually saved from anything.
- No Party Like a Donner Party: Parodied. Realizing that they are starving without food, SpongeBob and Patrick resort to trying to eat each other.
- Shout-Out: Sandy uses the phrase "Eat or be eaten" to describe what survival training camp is like.
- SpongeBob sitting in a kettle of hot water and thinking it is a bath while Patrick cuts up and adds carrots is a nod to a number of classic Bugs Bunny shorts.
- Stewed Alive: Patrick puts SpongeBob into a big black pot and cuts vegetables in an effort to consume him.
- Time-Passage Beard: SpongeBob and Patrick each sport one after the Time-Passes Montage, although SpongeBob's is just stubble.
- Time-Passes Montage: One occurs when SpongeBob and Patrick are left alone without food and water, and become driven to insanity.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Seen on SpongeBob when he starts to go insane from the lack of food and water.
