As long as money's involved, Eugene doesn't need the Krabby O'Mondays.
Selling Out
Original air date: 9/23/2005 (produced in 2004)
Mr. Krabs retires and sells the Krusty Krab to a big corporation, which converts the Krusty Krab into Krabby O'Monday's. However, when Mr. Krabs becomes bored with his retirement and decides to comes back as a dishwasher, he realizes that behind the kitschy and tacky exterior lies something much more corrupt.
"Selling Out" contains examples of:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Almost literally. Mr. Krabs is more than happy to sell the Krusty Krab to the Blandy corporation and retire with the money, but he quickly becomes bored with his new life and returns to the newly-renamed "Krabby O'Monday's" as a dishwasher.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: The Krabby O' Mondays motto: "Sincere Service with a Smile!".
- An Aesop:
- Sometimes, the best businesses are small ones, because more heart and honesty is put into running them.
- Fast food restaurants can be very shady and unethical in their practices.
- Find a constant hobby after retiring from your job.
- Bad Boss: Carl. He forces Squidward to smile by threatening him with being beaten up by "Human Resources".
- Big "NO!": Mr. Krabs' reaction to the automated cash register.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Carl the Krabby O'Monday's manager seems cheerful at first and smiles a lot, but is revealed to actually be quite sinister. He forces Squidward to smile, lest he get beaten up by Human Resources.
- Bittersweet Ending: Mr. Krabs does buy the Krusty Krab back, but his Roaring Rampage of Revenge has left it demolished with broken pieces and synthetic grey sludge everywhere and he returned ALL his contract money instead of just a small fraction needed to buy back the restaurant. Though seeing his cash register packed with money implies Krabs didn't lose everything.
- Boredom Montage: Mr. Krabs goes through one on his first morning of retirement. This leads to him getting a job at the Krabby O'Mondays.
- Broken Pedestal: Mr. Krabs comes to see Howard Blandy as one after he sees all the horrible things Blandy has done to the restaurant and his employees.Mr. Krabs: I used to kiss the ground you walked on, Blandy, but after seeing this, I wouldn't even spit in your direction!
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Howard Blandy, the head of Blandy Franchising Co., which buys out every small family restaurant they can get their hands (fins?) on at a hefty price. Krabs worships him... at first.
- Didn't Think This Through: Mr. Krabs didn't have to return 100% of the money he got from Howard Blandy, he could have returned just a fraction of that money to regain the rights, use another fraction of the money to repair the Krusty Krab and then enjoy the rest of the money while having at least something to do to keep him occupied after becoming the restaurant's owner again. Instead, he returned all the money to Blandy without any left for repairs.
- Dissonant Serenity:
- Carl, and a very creepy example at that. He never loses the smile on his face, even when he threatens to have poor Squidward beaten up by "Human Resources".
- Squidward likewise maintains a forced happy smile when he asks his former boss for help. It's the first sign that tips off Mr. Krabs that something is not right.
- Everyone Has Standards: Mr. Krabs may be a greedy tightwad of dubious ethics, but even he considers selling people bland, mass-produced sludge as food by disguising it as something better "obscene".
- The Evils of Free Will: Howard Blandy and Carl seem to believe that employees don't deserve free will.Carl: Mr. Blandy? Code red! Free thinker!
- Failed a Spot Check: Turns out, the customers can see the disgusting grey sludge that their "Krabby Patties" really are just by taking bites out of it and then taking a look at where they bit into their food, but they neglected to do so — possibly because the Krabby O'Monday's atmosphere and TVs were distracting them.
- First-Name Basis: When Mr. Krabs gets a dishwasher job at the Krabby O'Mondays, he tells SpongeBob he can just call him Eugene since he's no longer his boss.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: The synthetic Krabby Patty filled with grey sludge.
- Happiness Is Mandatory: At the Krabby O'Monday's, either you smile or you go to Human Resources. Who will then beat you up.
- Happy Birthday to You!: Squidward is forced to sing the "Krabby O'Monday's Birthday Song" to a little boy fish whose birthday was being celebrated.Squidward: Happy, happy birthday... happy, happy, birthday...
- I Ate WHAT?!: The customers are disgusted when realizing the food they've been eating is grey sludge.
- Inhuman Resources: The Krabby O'Monday's HR is a muscular goon who beats up employees for acting out of line.
- I Will Show You X!: "Automated cash register?! ...I'll show you automated!"
- Jerkass Ball: While Mr. Krabs is trying to find a new hobby in his retirement, he attempts to spend some fatherly bonding time with Pearl and show her affection as a father for once. However, Pearl immediately shuts his offers down and goes so far as to kick him out of the house.
- Job-Stealing Robot: SpongeBob gets replaced by a machine that prints out synthetic sludge processed and disguised as Krabby Patties. All his new job consists of is putting them on plates.SpongeBob: Where's the love?
- Kitschy Themed Restaurant: The Krabby O'Monday's.
- Lethal Eatery: The Krabby O'Monday's serves literal sludge on a plate to its customers.
- Ludd Was Right: Mr. Krabs makes some abrasive comments about Krabby O'Mondays using robots and computers to make the "food" on an assembly line, take the food orders and dispense change.
- Mean Boss:
- Mr. Krabs in the ending. At first, he admits to be glad to win back SpongeBob and Squidward. They seem to be endeared by his words until he denies this and demands they clean up the mess and repair the Krusty Krab.
- There's also Howard Blandy, who absolutely shuns freethinking.
- Meaningful Name: Howard Blandy. He turns the Krusty Krab into a drab, boring restaurant where the "food" is tasteless sludge prepared on a conveyor belt.
- Money Song: Mr. Krabs introduces us to "Cha-Ching".
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Howard Blandy is meant to be the Bikini Bottom version of Donald Trump, judging from his voice and Dodgy Toupee.
- Non-Idle Rich: Mr. Krabs becomes a dishwasher at his former restaurant because he was bored with retirement life.
- Rage Breaking Point: Mr. Krabs reaches this when he sees that the machines are producing inedible sludge instead of genuine Krabby Patties and this makes him go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge breaking the televisions, computers and sludge-squeezing machine before chewing out Blandy for modernizing his business in a way that destroyed its heart and soul.
- Rich Boredom: Mr. Krabs has this as a consequence for retiring with so much money he has no idea what to do with it.
- Shout-Out: To Office Space with the Krabby O'Monday's uniforms and Squidward's interaction with Carl.
- Stepford Smiler: Carl, who gets appointed as the Krabby O'Monday's manager by Blandy, acts like a cheerful guy but isn't quite what he seems to be. Squidward is also forced to smile, lest he get an unpleasant visit with "Human Resources" (a scary-looking goon).
- Take That!: This whole episode is one big criticism on chain restaurants like T.G.I. Fridays.
- Trumplica: Howard Blandy is a real-estate developer who buys the Krusty Krab and turns it into the Krabby O'Mondays. The design is basically Trump as a fish, complete with conspicuous combover and duo of fawning yes-men. Notably, Mr. Krabs even names Blandy as his personal idol, which explains a lot.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The customers only notice that their food is fake after Mr. Krabs has shown them the processed sludge they're made of, despite the meat, toppings and bun clearly being gray when a customer bites into it. Even more egregiously, some customers continue to eat in the restaurant even after this discovery has sent others running out in a panic.
- Vocal Dissonance: When one guy realizes that his patty is made of grey sludge, he's voiced by Pearl's voice actress.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: Howard Blandy gives Mr. Krabs all the money he wants and retires. He gets to do everything he ever wanted to do in the span of just one afternoon and quickly becomes unsatisfied and bored. So, he decides to rejoin the Krusty Krab (now rebranded as Krabby O'Mondays) as a dishwasher.
- Wingding Eyes: Mr. Krabs has little hearts in his eyes at one point during his musical number.
"Another day, another nickel!"
Funny Pants
Original air date: 9/30/2005 (produced in 2004)
Squidward, annoyed by SpongeBob's constant laughter, tricks SpongeBob into believing his laugh box could die if he laughs for the next 24 hours. But when SpongeBob goes one whole day without laughing and cannot laugh, he thinks he lost his laugh for good.
"Funny Pants" contains examples of:
- Accidental Truth: Squidward gets fed up with SpongeBob's nonstop laughing and tells him that if he doesn't stop, he'll burn out his "laugh box" and never be able to laugh again. Later in the episode, he confesses his lie and cracks up laughing over his own prank. As it turns out, the laugh box is real, and Squidward burns out his and has to get a partial transplant from SpongeBob at the end of the episode.
- Actually Pretty Funny: After Squidward admits that the laugh box was made up, SpongeBob laughs, thinking it has been a good joke and Squidward joins in the laughter. Then when Squidward told him he fell for the thermometer in the boiling oil routine, SpongeBob immediately stops laughing and goes inside his house.
- An Aesop:
- It's okay to laugh, and like with anything else, things are better when done in moderation.
- If you believe something is wrong with your body, see a professional about it instead of assuming there really is a problem.note
- If what someone else is doing bothering you, be honest rather than scaring them with a lie.
- Annoying Laugh: SpongeBob has the same bleating laugh that Squidward despises as always, only this time it's a plot point as its increased frequency leads to Squidward telling SpongeBob to stop laughing for 24 hours so he doesn't hurt himself (in reality, Squidward said this so he could stop being annoyed, at least for a while). Squidward later determines SpongeBob's crying to be even more annoying and at the end, Squidward ends up with SpongeBob's laugh as well.
- Banana Peel: Patrick keeps slipping on one, and SpongeBob tries not to laugh at this.
- Break the Cutie: When he thinks he can't laugh anymore, SpongeBob breaks down in tears.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: After being told not to laugh for 24 hours, SpongeBob keeps seeing things that almost made him laugh. Patrick isn't helping either.
- Crying a River: SpongeBob cries enough to flood both his and Squidward's house with tears when he broke his laugh box. Squidward opens the front door and the flood knocks him over.
- Everyone Has Standards: After Squidward realizes a laugh box is real and ends up breaking his, SpongeBob generously volunteers to have part of his laugh box transplanted to Squidward for the sake of not wanting to see him without a laugh.
- Expospeak Gag: Sandy describes laughter as being "caused by your epiglottis obstructing your larynx, causing irregular air intake and respiratory upset".SpongeBob: Sounds painful.
Sandy: Science makes anything sound painful, SpongeBob. - A Fate Worse Than Death:
- Instead of dying, Squidward's laugh gets replaced with SpongeBob's.
- SpongeBob's life without being able to laugh.
- HA HA HA—No: SpongeBob actually found Squidward's laugh box prank really amusing, but when Squidward mentions he fell for the thermometer dipped in the boiling oil, this causes SpongeBob to immediately stop laughing and chew him out.SpongeBob: It's really not that funny, Squidward.
Squidward: It's hilarious!
SpongeBob: ...See ya later, Squidward. (goes back into his house) - Impact Silhouette: At the end of the episode, Squidward makes one in the wall when he runs out of the hospital.SpongeBob: Ah, there he goes, off to share his laugh with the world. (laughs)
- Jerkass Realization: Squidward has a mild one when SpongeBob describes Squidward's plan to stop him from laughing as "a cruel lie that sent him into spiraling depression".Squidward: (taken aback) Well, it sounds pretty harsh when you put it that way, but... yes.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Squidward gets a proper comeuppance for tricking SpongeBob into thinking his laugh box is going to burn out when he burns out his laugh box and part of SpongeBob's laugh box is transplanted to him.
- Never My Fault: Squidward actually gets angry at SpongeBob for crying too much and complains to him about the crying, when really it was Squidward's fault for making SpongeBob cry.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Although SpongeBob was pretty amused by Squidward lying about his laugh box, he immediately stops laughing when Squidward brings up he put the thermometer in the boiling oil, and he bluntly chews him out for it before heading inside.
- Ocular Gushers: SpongeBob lets these out after thinking he broke his laugh box.
- Pie in the Face: When the pie truck crashes, a pie springs out from the steering wheel and hits the driver in the face.
- Real After All: Squidward finds out there is such a thing as a laugh box when he ends up breaking his.
- Snap Back: Squidward gets his own laugh back after this episode.
- Sudden Anatomy: Squidward's house grows a pair of hands to cover its ears, in order to block out SpongeBob's hysterical wailing and sobbing.
- What Have I Done: Squidward says this after SpongeBob cries hysterically due to thinking his laugh box is dead.
- Whoopee Cushion: SpongeBob keeps stepping on them, making it harder for him to keep from laughing.
