Original air date: 11/6/2009 (produced in 2008)
SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs accidentally get locked in the freezer during the Krusty Krab's Eleventy-Seventh anniversary. While using the vents to escape, the gang shares flashbacks of various events.
"Truth Or Square" contains examples of:
- Accidental Marriage: Sandy and SpongeBob put on a play where they act out a "marriage," but the (supposedly real) priest says "I didn't know this was a play."
- Almost Kiss: The last part of SpongeBob and Sandy's "wedding" has them lean in for the affirming kiss; they are interrupted by Sandy's air helmet bumping SpongeBob in the forehead, so they just forget it and let it go on as usual.
- Anticipatory Breath Spray: SpongeBob does this right when he is about to kiss Sandy during the play.
- Art Shift: Many of these happen. The opening is redone in really trippy stop-motion (with a new theme by Cee-Lo), there's a sequence made to look like an old 1950's-esque TV commercial, and another Retraux sequence made to look like an old 1920's Mickey Mouse cartoon that shows SpongeBob going to work, and every single thing has a face.
- Big "WHAT?!": Done by Patchy when Potty tells him that SpongeBob isn't coming.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When Patchy shows a film of himself talking about how SpongeBob was created, he says that SpongeBob "went through many different changes, and phases, and phanges".
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: During the flashback to SpongeBob searching for a new house, the rejected houses shown are a giant shoe, a castle in a fishbowl, and a giant toilet, the last of which grosses SpongeBob out.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- When Mr. Krabs tells his employees to not fall asleep on the job, Squidward protests that he does no such thing. Mr. Krabs proves him wrong with a Fully Automatic Clip Show.Squidward: Point taken.
- Then Plankton interrupts a flashback to try to write down the Krabby Patty formula:Flashback Krabs: Plankton! You'll never get me secret formula, not even in a flashback! (reaches outside thought bubble, grabs Plankton, rolls him up into a ball and flings him away)
- When Mr. Krabs tells his employees to not fall asleep on the job, Squidward protests that he does no such thing. Mr. Krabs proves him wrong with a Fully Automatic Clip Show.
- Celebrity Paradox: Patchy (who's played by Tom Kenny) finds out that Tom Kenny plays SpongeBob.
- Continuity Nod: During the alternate opening where Patrick is the main character instead of SpongeBob, the sea star accidentally unsticks from his rock and falls to the ground after receiving his pants. Patrick falling off of his rock was a Running Gag in the first season that got abandoned from the second season onwards.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The old Krusty Krab commercial and the classic Disney-style cartoon.
- Eleventy Zillion: The Krusty Krab celebrates its "eleventy-seventh" anniversary.
- Failure Montage: Of Plankton getting flung back to the Chum Bucket by Mr. Krabs. Karen displays this on her screen to humiliate Plankton.
- Going in Circles: A flashback shows SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs going on a long journey before Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob the Krabby Patty formula. They eventually end up back at the Krusty Krab.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Angel and devil parrots appear above Patchy's shoulders when Patchy spots the Rolodex of celebrity phone numbers.
- Ill-Fated Flowerbed: A flashback shows that Squidward once had a flower garden next to his home. Then a giant pineapple falls from a boat and lands on the garden, crushing it, just as SpongeBob arrives looking for a new home.
- I'm Not a Doctor, but I Play One on TV: On the old Krusty Krab ad, Mr. Krabs appears dressed as a doctor, claiming that Krabby Patties are good for one's health. "I'm a doctor, as far as you know..."
- Informed Obscenity: When SpongeBob asks, "Can you believe it's been eleventy-seven years already?", Gary responds with some rather snarky meows, to which SpongeBob replies, "Watch the potty mouth, Gare!"
- It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: When SpongeBob and the others are trapped in the ventSpongeBob: Don't worry Squidward, we'll find a way out and then we'll have the best eleventy-seventh anniversary ever!
- Letting the Air out of the Band: Happens as SpongeBob and Sandy's wedding is ruined but is revealed to be just a play.
- Made-for-TV Movie: Played more straight than this episode's predecessor. It was once again advertised as a television film, but while the initial TV version is 50 minutes long (45 minutes on subsequent airings) padded to 60 minutes with commercials, the DVD version adds additional Patchy scenes to pad the episode to a full 60 minutes long.
- Malicious Misnaming: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog does this to Patchy a lot.
- Mouthscreen: Mr. Krabs as he begins to tell SpongeBob the Krabby Patty formula.
- Near-Villain Victory: After Plankton gets thrown away into the ventilation system by Mr. Krabs, he ends up getting out of it and into the empty Krusty Krab. He takes the chance to take the formula and run away, but just at that moment, SpongeBob leads the customers into the building, so Plankton ends up rolling around the place stuck to the bottle before rolling over to Mr. Krabs.
- Never Trust a Title: The episode is titled "Truth or Square", a pun on "truth or dare", a competitive game in which players teasingly dare each other either with telling a truth about themselves or doing a plain dare. An exchange happens in this episode, but it's actually a Flashback Episode where the main characters are stuck in the air vents in the Krusty Krab, and is completely unrelated to the game the title is based on.
- No Infantile Amnesia: SpongeBob remembers his first visit to the Krusty Krab, when his mother was pregnant with him.
- Nonverbal Miscommunication: Patchy can't understand the director's cues, which causes the director to facepalm in frustration. Patchy misinterprets this as meaning the director has a headache.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Mr. Krabs goes a different direction from SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward when they're trapped in the vents. However, one scene after SpongeBob's flashback to when Mr. Krabs told him the formula, he is inexplicably back with them with no explanation given.
- Opening Shout-Out: "Who lives like a barnacle under the sea? PATRICK SEASTAR!" Squidward and Mr. Krabs each get one as well.
- Pie-Eyed: Patchy shows a SpongeBob short in a 1920s style, where everything has this eye style.
- Pregnancy Does Not Work That Way:
- When Margaret was pregnant with SpongeBob, she is shown with her belly bloated with SpongeBob as a fetus like humans do; real sea sponges reproduce asexually by budding, something SpongeBob himself demonstrated back in Season 2's "Pressure".
- When being fed his first Krabby Patty, SpongeBob pulls out his umbilical cord from his belly button and drinks from it like a straw; in real life, this would've killed him because umbilical cords give the fetus oxygen and nutrients before it's time for them to be born.
- SpongeBob is able to talk in Margaret's womb, when fetuses cannot talk and babies normally begin talking within 4-6 weeks.
- Proscenium Reveal: SpongeBob and Sandy's wedding is eventually revealed to be a play called "The Marriage of SpongeBob". The guests weren't happy about this.
- Recursive Reality: When SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs are in the surveillance room, they see themselves on one of the screens, looking at themselves on the very same screen, and so on and so forth.
- Re-Cut: Three versions of this episode exist:
- The main version, shown during the original broadcast and on iTunes clocking in at 50 minutes.
- An edited version shown during subsequent reruns that cuts the runtime down to 45 minutes, which starts with Patchy's show, removes the prologue and epilogue, and some Patchy scenes were removed as well (mainly the ones where he calls up celebrities). Some new scenes are also found here.
- A 60 minute extended version, only seen on DVD, which combines the original and edited versions together, as well as having additional scenes exclusive to the DVD, such as a scene where Patchy calls Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
- Retraux: The episode had a brief throwback to old black & white rubberhose cartoons.
- Roger Rabbit Effect: A reverse case, with Patchy against the animated backdrop of Bikini Bottom, where he meets SpongeBob and faints. Then it turns out to be All Just a Dream...
- Series Continuity Error: Plankton claims to have attempted to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula 1003 times and have been launched just as many times. But not every attempt ended with him being launched. Sometimes they'd end with him getting stomped and/or simply walking back to the Chum Bucket.
- Shout-Out: Patchy showing the really old clip of SpongeBob is a reference to a lot of cartoons from the 1920’s and 1930’s, mainly Disney cartoons from that era, such as Mickey Mouse.
- "Flickering Funnies" is a spoof of Silly Symphonies.
- After getting introduced to Patchy the Pirate, Robin Williams asks "There isn't someone dressed up as Popeye is there?" Doubles as an Actor Allusion, as Robin Williams played the titular character in the 1980 live-action adaptation.
- At one point, Robin Williams says, "This is like a shot from the Raging Bull."
- Robin Williams also mentions the film Hook, in which he also starred.
- Song Parody: The song "Oh, Krusty Krab" is a parody of "Oh, Christmas Tree".
- Squidward’s flowers saying hello are a parody of the flowers on Pee-wee's Playhouse.
- Patchy ending up in the belly of a whale is a reference to Pinocchio.
- Smell Phone: When Patchy calls Rosario Dawson in hopes to recruit her for his TV special, she can smell his bad breath through the phone.
- Special Edition Title: The intro is done with a remixed version of the theme song and stop-motion animation.
- Special Guest: P!nk who performs the musical number "We Got Scurvy". There are even more Special Guests in the extended cut, which include cameos by Rosario Dawson, Eddie Deezen, Craig Ferguson, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, LeBron James, Robin Williams, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
- Take That, Audience!: The scene where SpongeBob and Sandy get married is a jab at people who ship them.
- Teeth Flying: Squidward loses a couple of teeth when Patrick slams him against the wall.
- Use Your Head: SpongeBob uses Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs as a battering ram to bust out of the vent.
- Vocal Dissonance: When SpongeBob jumps on the heads of the customers lined up outside the Krusty Krab, all the female fish speak in male voices. Some of the male fish speak in female voices, too.
- Whole Episode Flashback: The four characters reminisce as they celebrate the Krusty Krab's "eleventy-seventh" anniversary.
- Wingding Eyes:
- SpongeBob has hearts in his eyes after eating a Krabby Patty in the scene following the old Krusty Krab commercial.
- When Mr. Krabs mentions that it was a "dark and evil time" when Krabby Patties only cost a dime and he still has nightmares about it, dimes appear in his eyes.
- Patchy has stars in his eyes (one of which appears over his eye patch) when he hears that Craig Ferguson has hired Robin Williams as his special guest.
- Word, Schmord!: When Patchy calls LeBron James in hopes to recruit him for his TV special, LeBron replies that even though he does love SpongeBob, he can't make it because he has a big game that day and his contract says that he must attend the game. Patchy's response: "Oh, contract schmontract."
- You Need a Breath Mint: Rosario Dawson tells Patchy that "what [he needs] is a little mouthwash."
