Original air date: 11/28/2008
Dear Vikings
SpongeBob writes a letter asking about the Vikings, and the Vikings respond by coming to him.
Dear Vikings contains examples of:
- Horny Vikings: All the Vikings in the episode. Mr. Krabs also has a Viking hat with horns made from cardboard.
- No Ending: After SpongeBob saves the viking ship from sinking, the episode ends. How he and Squidward made it back home is left unresolved.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The Viking fish are more humanoid in shape than the fish who inhabit Bikini Bottom.
- One-Steve Limit: Inverted and parodied. All but the Viking Captain (Gordon) is named Olaf.
- Planet of Steves: All the Vikings are named "Olaf", except the captain.Squidward: Let me guess, your name must be.Captain: That's right, Gordon.
- Platonic Kissing: SpongeBob kisses Squidward on the nose at one point.
- Security Blanket: All the Vikings grab one when their ship crashes into an iceberg and starts sinking, even calling it by name.
- Shout-Out: All the Vikings having the name Olaf is likely a reference to the 2002 Robbie the Reindeer film "Legend of the Lost Tribe", in which a tribe of Vikings all shared the name Magnus.
- Title Drop: In the beginning of SpongeBob's letter to the vikings.
- Special Guest: Ian McShane as Gordon.
Ditchin'
SpongeBob ditches Boating School so he and Patrick can get their Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy books signed, but gets distracted when he tries to get back.
Ditchin contains examples of:
- Chekhov's Gun: The bathroom key. It saves SpongeBob from his Disney Death in the tar pits, remembering he never returned it.
- Deus ex Machina: Thinking of the bathroom key Mrs. Puff gave SpongeBob when trapped in the tar pits causes him to miraculously survive his Disney Death and escape.
- Disney Death: SpongeBob almost drowns in the tar, but the thought of Mrs. Puff's bathroom key which he never returned helps him survive and escape.
- Karma Houdini: SpongeBob gets away with skipping boating school for almost the entire day. However, he goes through some unfortunate events on the way back to school, such as almost drowning in the tar pit, but he shakes off the pain after that.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Mrs. Puff, on the other hand, gets arrested for skipping jury duty. Unlike other episodes, her arrest has nothing to do with SpongeBob.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: As she's getting arrested, Mrs. Puff tells SpongeBob about her stunt of ditching jury duty, but SpongeBob thinks she's referring to his stunt of ditching boating school.Mrs. Puff: Let this be a lesson to you, son... never ditch!
SpongeBob: Okay, Mrs. Puff. I'll never ditch again!
Mrs. Puff: That's a good boy, SpongeBob. Good... "Again"?! What do you mean, "again"?! - Potty Emergency: SpongeBob intentionally triggers one of these as an excuse to get out of boating school.
- Ship Tease: Sandy is one of the reasons that SpongeBob spends the entire day skipping school. He was just about to go back when she convinced him to stay.
- Shout-Out:
- The new Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy comic book includes a panel about their origin story, which has their parents launching them in a rocket.
- The plot is similar to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Skipping School: The main plot of the episode.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Patrick goads Spongebob to skip class to have fun in broad daylight.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Patrick disappears midway through the episode while having forced SpongeBob to skip class.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: SpongeBob and Patrick beat Sandy and Dale at badminton despite not knowing the rules or even realising that the match has started. They spend the whole time standing around discussing the rules with each other while Sandy's shots coincidentally bounce off their rackets and back over the net.
