Grandmaaa's cookiiieees...
Grandma's Kisses
Original air date: 4/28/2001 (produced in 2000)
A visit to SpongeBob's grandmother goes awry when she drops him off at the Krusty Krab and kisses him on the forehead, which causes Squidward and the other Krusty Krab patrons to mock him. Distressed, he goes to Patrick so he can learn to act mature. But how long will it last before they enjoy Grandma SquarePants's hospitality?
"Grandma's Kisses" contains examples of:
- An Aesop:
- While there's a time and a place for it, there's nothing wrong with being affectionate, even juvenile, around your loved ones.
- Once you're grown and your grandma (or any relative) stops babying you, it doesn't mean their love for you has stopped or become less meaningful.
- Don't grow up too fast.
- Don't be embarrassed if people mock you for being too close to your relatives.
- Answer Cut: Patrick asking "Have I ever not been right?'' Followed by a montage of paintings depicting Patrick feeding SpongeBob a huge pumpkin through a funnel whole, revolutionizing travel by strapping an enormous firework to a bike, and the two of them wearing black thongs to the beach.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Not the exact words, but the patron who insults SpongeBob for being childish proceeded to list more insults for SpongeBob until the other customers shout "Alright, already!"
- Break the Cutie: Twice: first when SpongeBob gets picked on for having a kissy mark on his forehead, and again when he can't keep up his "adult" façade any longer.
- Covered in Kisses: Everyone makes fun of SpongeBob for the big kissy mark on his forehead. His attempt to get it off with a mop doesn't work.
- Doorstopper: Grandma gives SpongeBob the technical manual on routine active maintenance, which is as tall as he is, so he won't have to listen to the fairy tale she's reading to Patrick.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Patrick isn't wrong about how much more fun it is being a kid than being an adult (well, at least sometimes). SpongeBob proves him right when SpongeBob cries about not wanting to grow up.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: A mean-spirited variant. The episode ends with SpongeBob hugging his grandma while Squidward and the other Bikini Bottomites watch from outside, laughing at him.
- The Freelance Shame Squad: Squidward and the Krusty Krab customers laugh at SpongeBob's kissy mark on his forehead, then follow him all the way to Grandma's house just to peep through the window and keep laughing at him.
- Growing Up Sucks: Patrick and SpongeBob come to this conclusion from spending time with Grandma SquarePants.
- Hot Blooded Sideburns: SpongeBob gives himself sideburns to make himself look more grown-up.
- Inelegant Blubbering: SpongeBob does not hold back during his "Growing Up Sucks" rant.
- Jerkass Ball: Squidward's treatment of SpongeBob goes from annoyance to outright malicious teasing.
- Karma Houdini: Squidward, of all people, and the other customers get no punishment for bullying SpongeBob.
- Kick the Dog: Squidward and the Krusty Krab customers all point and laugh at SpongeBob's kissy mark, then corner him to point and laugh even harder until he runs out in tears. Later, they follow him to Grandma's house and spy on him through the window just to keep laughing at him.
- Kneel, Push, Trip: While reviewing what SpongeBob is going to tell Grandma, Patrick adds "and then you get behind her and I'll push", which SpongeBob, shocked, says they didn't discuss.
- Little "No": SpongeBob's reaction to Grandma giving Patrick his sweater with love in every stitch.
- Manchild: Once Patrick and SpongeBob are swayed by Grandma's coddling, they each have their respective moments of giving up their manly façade and acting like babies. Patrick doesn't last a second after he learns that Grandma has cookies and SpongeBob throws a tantrum about wanting to stay a baby forever when he can't keep the act up any more. However, Grandma assures him that he doesn't have to be a baby to have fun.
- Not Growing Up Sucks: It's this mentality that kicks off the episode.
- Ocular Gushers: SpongeBob does this when he breaks down in his Grandma's house. Soon, his tears flood the whole house, leading Grandma to pull out a plug in the floor to drain the tears away.
- Overly Long Gag:
- The first Krusty Krab patron to shame SpongeBob calls him a big baby who wears diapers, then proceeds to list more and more "baby things" he could do, like suck his thumb and carry a blankie, until the other patrons tell him to give it a rest.
- SpongeBob crying about wanting to stay a baby forever has him reenact multiple childlike activities for a long time.
- Real Men Hate Sugar: Subverted. When acting like an adult, SpongeBob tells his Grandma that adults don't eat sweets. Unfortunately for him, the temptation of cookies causes Patrick to ditch the adult lifestyle entirely, and SpongeBob sneakily tries to go back on his word by trying to sneak a cookie, before Grandma snatches it away.
- Special Guest: Mrs. Cunningham herself Marion Ross as Grandma SquarePants.
- Trrrilling Rrrs: SpongeBob rolls his R's while telling Patrick that being a grown-up comes with "rrrich rrrewards".
- Vacuum Mouth: Patrick eats an entire plate of cookies this way, his mouth even becoming an elongated, accordion folded tube that sweeps over the surface of the table to suck up any crumbs.
- Wearing It All Wrong: SpongeBob's grandmother gives Patrick a sweater as a present. When Patrick opens it, he thinks it's a hat and wears it on his head until she tells him it's a sweater.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Patrick suddenly disappears from the episode after Grandma puts him down for a nap.
- Wingding Eyes: When SpongeBob eats one of Grandma's cookies, his eyes turn into cookies.
"It just gets better and better!"
Squidville
Original air date: 4/28/2001 (produced in 2000)
Squidward finally has enough with SpongeBob and Patrick and decides to move away to the octopus-populated Tentacle Acres. He enjoys it at first, but will the duo's absence cause him to snap from boredom?
"Squidville" contains examples of:
- An Aesop:
- Life can be very dull when you have everything your own way. A life full of new and unique experiences is a blessing.
- It's better to live in a diverse, changing world than one that is homogenous and repetitive.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Inverted. Squidward ends up becoming hated by everyone in Tentacle Acres due to gleefully causing trouble for them with a reef blower. Although a few of the residents do mock him for playing with said reef blower.
- Apology Gift: When SpongeBob and Patrick go to Tentacle Acres to beg Squidward to come back, they bring a cake with the word "Sorry" written on it in icing. We don't see them give it to him, but considering where Patrick was keeping it, that's probably for the best.
- Bait-and-Switch: When SpongeBob calls Squidward in Tentacle Acres, his voice on Squidward's end is rendered as Spongebob-sounding gibberish. At first, it just sounds like typical Hollywood shorthand for how telephone calls sound, but after Squidward hangs up, we cut back to Spongebob's house, where it turns out he and Patrick are just randomly speaking gibberish.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Squidward realizes Tentacle Acres is boring and repetitive and wishes for his old neighbors back, and their antics.
- Boredom Montage: Squidward's first few days in Tentacle Acres are joyous and shown in detail, but as the days continue on, his smile slowly morphs into a large tired frown as Squidward realizes that nobody in Tentacle Acres stands out and that being able to live his life free of interruptions from SpongeBob and Patrick is actually pretty boring. Currently provides the page image.
- Bowdlerise: When SpongeBob and Patrick were trying to enter Tentacle Acres, the guard tells them that their kind isn't allowed. The Hungarian dub makes it a bit less racial with the guard responding "Sorry, but only squids are allowed to enter!".
- Breath Weapon: Patrick's stink breath knocks the guards unconscious.Patrick: I love fried oyster skins!
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Squidward realizes this as he gets bored of Tentacle Acres.Squidward: (glumly) Yep, this is great. They might as well rename this town "Squidward's Paradise." Or perhaps "too much paradise."Squidward: (hears a reef blower) SpongeBob?"
- Coincidental Broadcast: A TV commercial for Tentacle Acres plays after Squidward's very specific description of how much he's had it with SpongeBob's antics after his house gets destroyed, copying it nearly word for word.Squidward: SpongeBob, this is the final straw. I am going to move so far away, that I will be able to brag about it! I would rather tear out my brain stem, carry it into the middle of the nearest four-way intersection, and skip rope with it, than continue living where I do now!
(Television falls in front of them and turns on)
TV Spokesman: Hi there! Is this the final straw? Do you want to move so far away that you can brag about it? Would you rather tear out your brain stem, walk out into the middle of the nearest three-way—
Squidward: Four-way!
TV Spokesman: ...four-way intersection, and skip rope with it, than continue living where you do now? - Continuity Nod: The opening sees SpongeBob using his reef blower from "Reef Blower" in season 1. The idea of SpongeBob and Patrick wanting to clean Squidward's house with their reef blowers is present in the show's pitch bible, making it one of the earliest known ideas for the show. It got re-used here as a way to start the incident that leads Squidward to move away.
- Cut-and-Paste Suburb: Taken to its logical extreme. Not only are all the houses in Tentacle Acres identical to Squidward's Easter Island Head home, albeit with big numbers on the doors to help distinguish them, but the residents are all carbon copies of Squidward as well, to the point where SpongeBob and Patrick can't tell them apart despite having known Squidward for years.
- Drive-Thru Antics: At the Tentacle Acres gate, Patrick orders food through the intercom thinking it's a drive-thru.Patrick: [after the doors open] I guess we gotta order inside.
- Exact Words: The TV commercial for Tentacle Acres airs right when Squidward declares he is done with his neighbors and the announcer says every single thing he said, out loud and word for word.
- Fantastic Racism: Tentacle Acres only allows Octopuses to live and to be inside their community, and especially discriminates against Sponges and Starfish like SpongeBob and Patrick. When they try to get into Tentacle Acres, a guard tells them "your kind isn't allowed here" and intends to chase them with a nightstick. Earlier, Squidward was asked to confirm he is, and always was an Octopus.
- Foreshadowing: While Squidward is enjoying his time in Tentacle Acres, most of the other octopi are frowning or don't look happy. Eventually, the same thing happens with Squidward, as he becomes tired of the repetitive and boring lifestyle and environment.
- Hate at First Sight: As Squidward enters Tentacle Acres, he bumps into another octopus and the two get into a brief argument. Squidward takes it as a sign that this is where he truly belongs.
- High-Pressure Emotion: SpongeBob's observation of Squidward steaming with anger provides the page quote.
- Insult Backfire: "FYI, you don't have to live here, you know!" "Hey, you're right! And I'm leaving ASAP!!"
- Ironic Echo: Squidward's argument with SpongeBob is spoken again between Squidward and another octopus, including the line "How could you possibly have fun with one of those oversized hairdryers?"
- Jerkass Has a Point: The cop who confronts Squidward during his boredom-induced meltdown comes off as rude and snide, but he's absolutely correct when he points out that nobody's forcing Squidward to live in Tentacle Acres and he can move out any time he wants. Squidward himself acknowledges this and takes the opportunity to leave.Cop: FYI, you don't have to live here, you know.
Squidward: (dawning realization) You're right... and I'm leaving ASAP! - Laser-Guided Karma: The guards who are racist towards sponges and starfish like SpongeBob and Patrick get knocked out by Patrick’s bad breath right when they get ready to go nightstick-happy on them. Bonus points for SpongeBob and Patrick cause they get in when they were initially refused.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: The music that plays during the montage slows down as Squidward becomes more and more bored.
- Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Living between SpongeBob and Patrick long enough has given Squidward a rebellious streak.
- Mistaken from Behind: When SpongeBob and Patrick are trying to find Squidward in the Tentacle Acres mob, SpongeBob (and the audience) sees an octopus who looks like Squidward from behind, since he's wearing the same brown shirt that Squidward usually wears. But when SpongeBob embraces him, we see his face and he has heavy eyebrows and a big black mustache.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Combined with Mundane Object Amazement. One of the things that Squidward is awed about in Tentacle Acres is canned bread, a food that is not commonly seen or known since loaves of bread usually come in bags.
- Never Trust a Title: The episode is titled "Squidville," but the main location of the episode is actually called Tentacle Acres.
- No Social Skills: Evidently every octopus in Tentacle Acres is like this. One of them even hostilely berates Squidward just because they accidentally bumped into one another.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Done by Squidward after he walks over to the abandoned reef blower.
- Not Used to Freedom: Even after being freed from SpongeBob and Patrick's lunatics, Squidward is unable to spur any ideas of his own of having fun and entertainment other than playing his clarinet, dancing, riding his bike, and buying canned bread and grows incredibly bored.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Squidward becomes so bored with Tentacle Acres that he outright says he doesn't feel like playing the clarinet, one of his regular pastimes. The next day, Squidward hopefully calls for SpongeBob when he hears a reef blower, and then he ends up having fun with said reef blower just as SpongeBob and Patrick did in the beginning (which is the reason why he decided to move away in the first place). By the end, SpongeBob and Patrick fail to recognize him as they watch him fly out of the town using said blower, mainly because he was laughing and shouting maniacally while doing so.
- Palette Swap: All of the octopi in Tentacle Acres are just Squidward’s model with different clothes and hairstyles.
- Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: The female octopi either wear dresses or jeans, but most of the males are half-dressed (apart from one who wears a baseball cap, a t-shirt and shorts).
- Parental Bonus: The guard asks Squidward, "Are you now or have you ever been a sponge?" This is a reference to Joseph McCarthy's common opening question, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"
- Planet of Hats: Tentacle Acres is a town inhabited by octopi who are exactly like Squidward.
- Police Brutality: One of the guards of the gate to Tentacle Acres asks the other guard if they have their nightstick ready, implying they intend on beating up SpongeBob and Patrick if they don’t leave. But Patrick knocks them out with his bad breath before they can do anything.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The guards/police officers of Tentacles Acres. Even though are racist toward creatures that are not octopi, they are really just doing their job.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: After Squidward is cornered by an angry mob and a police officer for vandalism and destruction of property with the reef blower, Squidward complains he wants the town to stop being so boring and monotonous. The police officer tells him to just move if he's not too happy with where he is. Squidward gleefully heeds his advice and fires himself into the sky without hesitation.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- The plot's genesis - after Squidward's house is destroyed by SpongeBob and Patrick, he finally declares it the "final straw" and announces his intent to "move so far away that [he] can brag about it."
- The last one is the other way around, Squidward flies out of Tentacle Acres after all the trouble he caused to go live in his old life again, having become fed up with how boring Tentacle Acres is.
- Shout-Out: When Squidward arrives at the front gate at Tentacle Acres, the guard asks him "Are you now or have you ever been a sponge?" The wording and tone are eerily reminiscent of US senator Joseph McCarthy's infamous "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"
- Smell Phone: As shown in the trope's page image, SpongeBob and Patrick are at the Tentacle Acres gate, asking to be let in. Patrick's bad fried oyster skin breath goes through the intercom, knocking out the guards, one of whom falls on the button that opens the gate.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: As Squidward enters Tentacle Acres, he and another octopus engage in this after bumping into each other:Other Octopus: I've seen more alert people in a retirement home.
Squidward: Oh, which way to the Living-without-a-brain seminar? Don't be late.
Other Octopus: I've heard better comebacks from a turkey sandwich, get a life! - Status Quo Is God: An episode where Squidward tries to get away from SpongeBob and Patrick, but at the end of the episode everything goes back to normal, with Tentacle Acres never appearing again in the series proper (although it does appear, only as a coffee shop in the video game SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! as Tentacle Acres Cocoa Shop).
- Suburbia: Tentacle Acres is an idyllic gated community located far away from the rest of Bikini Bottom. True to more critical portrayals of suburbs, the place is cartoonishly cookie-cutter to the point of being utterly boring after Squidward spends a few days there, and the paradisical advertising masks thinly-veiled Fantastic Racism towards sea sponges and starfish, referencing how the growth of suburbs was partly driven by white flight
. - Toon Physics: This is how SpongeBob and Patrick manage to suck up Squidward's door and windows with their reef blowers.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: Squidward realizes this as he finds out everyone in Tentacle Acres does the same thing every day and becomes bored with his new life days after moving in.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The security guards tell SpongeBob and Patrick that "their kind" isn't allowed inside Tentacle Acres. However, this isn't brought up again, as when they get in, none of the other octopi comment on SpongeBob's and Patrick's species when they interact.
- Would Rather Suffer: "I would rather tear out my brain stem, carry it out into the middle of the nearest four-way intersection, and skip rope with it than go on living where I do now!"
- Wrong Restaurant: At the Tentacle Acres gate, Patrick mistakes the intercom for a restaurant take-out and makes an order.
- You Need a Breath Mint: Patrick accidentally incapicitates the mean Tentacle Acres guards with an asphyxiating stench of fried oyster skins:Guard: FRIED OYSTER SKINS?! Ohhhhhh... (Faints in Shock)
Squidward: This wiki needs to be destroyed!...or at least painted a different color.
Troper: FYI, you don't have to browse here, you know!
Troper: FYI, you don't have to browse here, you know!
