The Curse of Bikini Bottom
Original air date: 10/24/2009
After mowing over the Flying Dutchman's beard, SpongeBob and Patrick are turned into ghosts as punishment, but their new forms may be too good to be true.
"The Curse of Bikini Bottom" contains examples of:
- Compliment Backfire: When the Flying Dutchman complains about losing his beard, SpongeBob tries to assure him that he looks a thousand years younger. But the Dutchman responds that he doesn't want to look younger because he hates youth, worrying that he'll get pimples again.
- Cutaway Gag: SpongeBob and Patrick go on about how horrible it is moaning and groaning, being invisible to the world, and without a soul. It then cuts to Squidward sipping tea.
- Eye Scream: Poor Patrick's eyes become transparent when he's ghostified, making him unable to sleep.SpongeBob: Oh, hey, Patrick. I didn't sleep well last night.
Patrick: I didn't sleep at all. I could see through my eyelids. MY EYELIDS! My eyelids... - Halloween Episode: The episode is promoted as one, despite not actually happening on Halloween.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted, at first SpongeBob and Patrick are unfazed and excited over their ghostly punishment, however as the episode goes on it's clear that they do not enjoy the caveats that come with being a ghost.
- Makeover Montage: One occurs with SpongeBob and Patrick helping the Flying Dutchman get ready for his date.
- Retcon: The Flying Dutchman still has the shirt he was buried in, while in the season one episode Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost, it was stated that the Flying Dutchman had his body used as a window display after he died so he haunted the seven seas because he was never put to rest. He also claims to not be the marrying kind, but an earlier episode showed him with a wedding ring (albeit one he quickly removed whilst flirting with a female fish).
- Running Gag: Patrick and the Krusty Krab thinking that SpongeBob and Patrick are mermaids.
- Time Skip: The last minute of the episode takes place several months later.
- Traumatic Haircut: The plot is kicked off when SpongeBob and Patrick accidentally mow off the Flying Dutchman's beard, horrifying him.
- Visual Pun: The Flying Dutchman has a skeleton of Davy Jones in a coffin that he hangs his clothes in, meaning he literally has skeletons in the closet.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: SpongeBob and Patrick realize this upon learning their ghost forms prevent them from doing their everyday duties.
Squidward in Clarinetland
Original air date: 3/24/2010 (produced in 2009)
Squidward stores his clarinet in a locker shared between him and SpongeBob, then grows worried about it and enters the locker, discovering a world where clarinets are sacred.
"Squidward in Clarinetland" contains examples of:
- Acid-Trip Dimension: Clarinetland gets pretty trippy.
- All Just a Dream: Implied. When Squidward exits Clarinetland the locker seems mundane, which likely means it was all just a byproduct of his paranoia.
- Bigger on the Inside: The locker becomes the portal to a pocket dimension once Squidward enters it.
- Eldritch Location: Clarinetland is strange and unnatural.
- Nails on a Chalkboard: Mr. Krabs repeatedly runs his claws across a chalkboard to erase the list of specials, creating a horrible screeching sound for everyone in the Krusty Krab.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The Keeper of the Horned Forest, a giant bald eagle head, is more realistically drawn compared to the other characters. But in cartoon fashion, he has an Overly-Long Tongue that he uses to grab Squidward for insulting him.
- Shout-Out: The episode is a surreal take on the already surreal Alice in Wonderland.
- Squidward and SpongeBob tumbling through space to classical music is a reference to Film/2001ASpaceOdyssey.
- Swallowed Whole: Squidward gets swallowed by the large eagle.
- You Need a Breath Mint: A customer at the Krusty Krab. Despite his bad breath literally hitting Squidward in the face, Squidward isn't bothered by it due to his good mood.
