SpongeBob SquarePants/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • In the episode with the Toy Barrel, For some reason the Illuminati Logo- the All Seeing Eye appears twice, one in the pile of toys in Squidward's house, the other one in the Toy Barrel itself. Why are they there? Who would want to buy an Eye in a pyramid for a toy?
  • Why doesn't Plankton just sneak into the Krusty Krab at night to steal a Krabby Patty or the formula? No one's (usually) there at night, the security is nil, and the two times Plankton does it, the only reason for his failure was because he involved SpongeBob both times.
    • Hey, I'm guessing this is where Willing Suspension of Disbelief comes in. I thought so too, then I realized that evil might just have a bedtime too.
    • I think they showed that security wasn't that bad at the Krusty Krab. In one episode Squidward breaks in at night and gets lit on fire by a gasoline trap. He simply doesn't want to risk immolation for the recipe.
  • This is from Bubble Buddy; why are there vendors selling "Ice-cold drinks" to people waiting in line to use the restroom?
    • Captive audience. Also, just because you have to go doesn't mean you're not thirsty.
  • Where did everyone (excluding SpongeBob) sleep in Gone!? Outside?
    • At the episode's end, everybody returns on a bus, so it's implied that they went far away. They may have gone to another city that had enough hotels to hold them all.
      • With the burning SpongeBob effigy, it's likely to be a parody of Burning man so they probably went to the middle of nowhere and camped out.
  • Krabby Patties are fish burgers. All the customers are fish. Yeah, that's exactly what this show needs: cannibalism.
    • How'd you find out what the secret ingredient is? And how are you so sure you're right?
      • In the episode where Sandy wants to go back to Texas, at one part SpongeBob asks her if she wants to eat one final Krabby Patty, and she replies, "I don't wanna eat any more fish".
      • She said she was "tired of fish food, SpongeBob." Not that the food was actually made out of fish.
    • On the same vein, one of the *ahem* Season 6 episodes had a criminal being arrested for eating quasi-gummi fish (the policefish said that he was a monster for eating his own kind). Besides the weirdness of the blatant cannibalism joke, where would he get those? I mean, if he was smoking the Bikini Bottom equivalent of weed, that would make sense, but a cannibalistic candy? How would you advertise them?!
      • It's not that weird an idea. Sour Patch Kids, Jelly Babies, etc. sell in our world.
      • Maybe... you buy it in a back alley, like crack.
      • Moreso, when the audience accidentally got fried in "The Fry Cook Games", that guy sold them as fish sticks and nobody complained.
      • They cut to another scene soon after so we wouldn't see the mass riot that would ensue.
        • They had a sign to switch to. They suspected it would happen.
    • I can't believe nobody has pointed this out yet: CHUM IS A TYPE OF FISH. Y'know, chum, as in CHUM BUCKET? Yeah, I think I know why nobody eats there...
      • So in the episode where SpongeBob was putting lies into a newspaper, he was telling THE TRUTH about the Chum Bucket?! (Plankton's Chum made of your chums!)
      • And SpongeBob SquarePants has now reached the same level of Nightmare Fuel as Soylent Green. Conglaturations.
      • If this troper is right, a "chub" is a cut of fish. "Chum" is fish ground up into a paste-like substance to be tossed into water to attract sharks... Dang it.
        • Speaking of which, why don't we actually see any sharks in SpongeBob? The only one I can think of is the bodybuilder who appeared in the infomercial in "Musclebob Buffpants".
        • You're forgetting the family of sharks shown in "Spongeguard on Duty".
        • And the shark guy who taught SpongeBob how to drive blindfolded.
          • Speaking of sharks, wouldn't they like chum? And thus become customers of Plankton's Chum Bucket? Never mind, this troper hasn't seen SpongeBob in quite a while...
    • The buns are apparently made of seaweed (according to the episode in which Plankton hijacked SpongeBob's brain) so the meat could be just about anything.
      • Seaweed-seed. One would assume this is similar to how we use sesame seeds.
    • Ummm...fish eat other fish. I mean, look at sharks.
    • Yeah, it's only cannibalism if that species eats its own species.
    • Well, if you're going to call realism into this, then Plankton's a good meal for Pearl and Gary, and Patrick can be eaten by Mr. Krabs and jellyfish. Wait a minute, that's it! Krabby meat is made from starfish.
      • One post-movie episode actually played on this by having Plankton think that Pearl was out to eat him.
        • But... she's a sperm whale, which are carnivorous and prey primarily on squid... if anything, she should be trying to eat Squidward.
    • Does that mean Patrick's the cannibal?
    • Well, Sea Bears and Sea Rhinoceros (Rhinoceri?), nothing says they can't have (non-Manatee) Sea Cows for hamburgers.
    • I always thought the Krabby Patties were made from sea cows since Sandy drove a herd of them in one episode.
  • How do they have running water under the sea?
    • In a similar vein, how come that Bikini Bottom's got a beach when it's already underwater? And how come that, in that episode with SpongeBob's bubble friend, a fish drowns because the bubble friend didn't dig him out of the sand and the tide came? I mean, the guy's a fish and they're underwater anyway, for Christ's sake!
    • I recall one episode where they said it was mud ("Ripped Pants") but there was another ("Sponge Guard On Duty") that said it was in fact water. I'm assuming Rule of Funny.
    • They parodied this in the episode "Pressure", where Mr. Krabs gives SpongeBob something to drink before he goes up on dry land... an empty glass. Y'know, 'cause there's water everywhere.
    • And during the Party episode:

SpongeBob: I would go to this party, but I can't read the invitation! The ink's all running! Whoever sent these invitations clearly didn't understand the physical limitations of life underwater. Well! I guess we can just throw these on the fire!

    • And again in the "Life of Crime" episode:

Patrick: (sitting with SpongeBob around a campfire) Hey, if we're underwater, how can there be a- (fire goes out)

    • Well, this troper always assumed that the 'water' is brine, much like underwater brine lakes...
  • Why so many episodes make littering Serious Business. The first time littering was used as an offense was "Squid On Strike", but it was a minor gag. After the movie, it has shown up in several episodes. SpongeBob's Cousin Black Jack was in prison for it (wonder what he did?). In "Driven to Tears", the cop pursues Patrick and SpongeBob after SpongeBob tears up Patrick's license, claiming "This is why I joined the force!" (made even worse when SpongeBob tells him about Patrick's bad driving, and he calls him a tattletale). The worst offender would be "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful", where apparently having a melted statue counts as litter, even if the city erected it. Rule of Funny aside, it's becoming ridiculous. Of course, there are only so many offenses a kid-friendly show can show. (Heck, they tried with the "fish candy", and made the complaint above.)
    • I think it's because litter and pollution underwater would kill the fish by choking them to death. You've heard of all those dolphins who get caught in the plastic can holder things right?
      • But, their water has gravity, and their dumps aren't contained in a HAZMAT unit or anything, it's just left open exposed to the water like any other dump would.
      • It's a combination of Rule of Funny and a pun on the fact that underwater critters suffer because of human littering and waste. It doesn't have to make consistent sense in-universe.
    • This troper is reminded of the song Alice's Restaurant, which does involve getting arrested, by the FBI yet, for littering.
  • Is anybody else bugged by the fact that SpongeBob casually ruins the lives of all of his "friends?" I mean, it's not even crossing the line twice, he just creates genuinely horrible situations for people.
    • Pretty much only in the newer episodes.
  • In several places (most notably in The Movie), we see that SpongeBob & Co. are just a few inches tall. This makes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy even more confusing.
    • Well, Mermaid Man DOES have a Shrink Ray...
      • And if you recall they never did show if they managed to un-shrink themselves when SpongeBob got a hold of Mermaid Man's belt. Could be a Call Back to that.
    • So that means all Nicktoons are tiny and translated?
      • Either that, or David Hasselhoff is a robotic construct piloted by the real thing.
      • Maybe Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are sea-beings that happen to be small? Part sea monkeys, perhaps?
      • Or maybe they're beings that are to sea monkeys what humans are to chimps and other lower primates?
    • Wait, no one has realized how Pearl is smaller than most whale embryos?
      • If we're going by the whole "David Hasselhoff is HUGE" thing, you only saw David Hasselhoff up against SpongeBob and Patrick, not Pearl or Mermaid Man or anyone. Sea sponges and starfish aren't very big in real life.
  • Considering how many times SpongeBob has failed his boating test, can't they just ban him from boating due to some mental deficiency or something?
    • In one episode, "Doing Time", in a flashback, Mrs. Puff says that she promises that "As long as a student is willing to learn, I will NEVER give up on them!".

SpongeBob:: "Hi! I'm SpongeBob SquarePants!"

  • Why does this show keep "eversing"? Sugar Bowl one second, creepy show with realistic-like animation the next. Look, it looks cheerful but in the western animation Nightmare Fuel page, the show has its own page. Are the writers huge dicks to be doing this so much?
    • Maybe it's a misguided attempt to keep SpongeBob popular by making it the new Ren and Stimpy (the first big hit Nicktoon). As stated in Gross-Out Show: The grossness was not what made Ren And Stimpy successful! It's a shame not even Nickelodeon realizes that.
  • Which one of you flatfoots stole my lollipop?
    • Neither of them. Patrick ate it.
  • Has anybody else noticed the retcons concerning the whole 'under the sea' thing? In one episode, there's wind blowing through SpongeBob's holes. UNDERWATER. And in that episode with the submarine, how could chum be sucked into the submarine when the sub is filled with water? Don't even get me started with the underwater rivers and the fire in the surfing episode. Goo Lagoon is made of water now, not goo. And that bugs me. At least in the earlier episodes, they usually played it for humor or lampshaded it. Now...it's just ignorance.
    • Perhaps the wind is a water current?
    • ...You weren't at all surprised that during the surfing episode, they wash up on an island underwater?
    • Well, for that last one, there actually are undersea lakes. All it takes is water with much higher saline concentration. Search YouTube, if you may, "Blue Planet" has shown it at least once. For the rest... Bellisario's Maxim, too much?
    • While we're on the subject, does anybody else realize that the submarine shouldn't even work underwater? Or that all the episodes referenced to here are after the movie?
  • Why is SpongeBob shaped like a regular house sponge when his parents are shaped like sea sponges?
  • How would you ever get enough people willing to form a seven-mile spanking machine?
    • Internet, ads in the newspaper, signs saying "free donuts" with fine print...
    • Craigslist. Done.
  • Why does Pearl never have to surface for air?
    • She does and you don't see it?
    • She does have to surface for air. In the beginning of the episode where she starts working for the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs mentions "it seems just like yesterday I taught her how to breach" and shows a picture of them jumping out of the ocean's surface.
    • Nobody Poops
  • Similar to the Pearl question above; what about the seal guy (Craig Mammalton, I think) in the tanning episode? How does HE survive underwater for the whole episode?
    • Seals can hold their breath for a pretty long time, and the episode is only 11 minutes.
  • How does a Krab crab have a whale for a daughter?
    • That one's easy actually. Adoption. Considering we've never seen her mother, nor is she ever mentioned. It's likely Pearl knows this already.
      • In this SpongeBob trivia book I read in third grade, it had a page that said Pearl took after her mother. Meaning Mr. Krabs' wife was a whale.
        • Well, if I said that Pearl was much smaller than a normal whale, that would be massively understating it. Maybe she got the size from her father.
        • Improbable Species Compatibility?
          • More like Hot Krabby on Wailord Action.
    • Maybe Pearl's mother was already pregnant with Pearl when she married Mr. Krabs.
  • SpongeBob's favorite exclamation phrase is "Mother of Pearl!" Now let me ask, WHO THE HELL IS PEARL'S MOTHER?
    • What really gets me is when Mr. Krabs uses the same phrase ...
    • "Mother of Pearl" refers to Nacre, the organic material produced by mussels that makes pearls.. Still an odd choice for an Unusual Euphemism, but there ya go.
      • Not really. I've heard it used as a minced oath for "Mother of God" before.
        • I've always thought that when someone says "Mother of Pearl" they were exclaiming it in surprise, because this "Mother of Pearl" doesn't exist. Perhaps the same goes for SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs?
  • Yeah, it's a dream sequence, but say Krabs actually caught Moby Dollar. It's still just a one dollar bill, isn't it, no matter the physical size of the bill itself?
    • Maybe he could exchange it for a larger number of bills based on its size somewhere??
    • It's related to all those oversized novelty checks used for fundraisers?
    • It's Mr. Krabs you're talking about. He would gladly risk his life even for less amounts of money.
      • In fact, he spent one episode obsessing over a penny. Which SpongeBob found.
    • It exhales money. (For those that have not seen the episode, that is not a joke.)
  • I can understand SpongeBob having brown hair, but Patrick having black hair and Squidward having brown hair? Or maybe we've just become too accustomed to the fandom versions.
    • Why is that so unbelievable?
    • Patrick does have black hair. It's been shown in the show.
    • And Squidward has blonde hair, as shown in "The Original Fry Cook".
  • In the bully episode it was a plot point that SpongeBob didn't have bones or organs, but in many later episodes he does have them.
    • One, It's SpongeBob.
    • Now that I think about it, I can't remember seeing SpongeBob with bones until after the movie, so...
    • WRONG! He's shown to have bones in "I Had An Accident". Plus, his brain has been exposed in an episode whose title I had forgotten. And both episodes came before the movie.
    • His brain could be squishy enough to not be damaged by Flats's punching (Halloween Episode, btw), and "I Had An Accident" is both A Day at the Bizarro (even for SpongeBob) and very close to the end of season 3, which technically still means that SpongeBob tends to have bones more as the series progresses. The movie just accelerated things.
      • Indeed; that episode was the single least comprehensible episode of the original four seasons. Still funny as heck, though.
    • SpongeBob does have bones in "Squid on Strike."
  • If SpongeBob and Squidward have to pay to work at the Krusty Krab how are they not bankrupt and why is Squidward still working there?
    • On the same note; why doesn't Squidward quit his job if he hates it so much? I'm sure he can find a better one. I doubt he gets a good pay, and he has SpongeBob and Krabs to bother him, so him being lazy there isn't worth it.
      • Brother, Can You Spare A Dime. Squidward quit, and he became homeless.
      • According to the episode "The Original Fry Cook", the only reason he's working at the Krusty Krab is because he believed his clarinet career would take off from there. Also, Squidward has worked longer at the Krusty Krab, so you'd think he would begin to get paid soon after the series began.
    • SpongeBob said he had to pay when he first started. Presumably he's been promoted enough to actually get paid, rather than vice versa.
        • Actually, in the episode One Coarse Meal, it is revealed that Krabs pays his employees with fake money.
    • On Squid on Strike SpongeBob didn't accept his pay check because "grilling is his passion". I think he may have a "real" (higher paying) job on the side.
  • Why does SpongeBob keep forgiving the overly stupid Patrick Star when he screws up his life? Patrick is a trademark poisonous friend, as much as SpongeBob is to Squidward. So why in hell does SpongeBob have to learn to tolerate him?
    • Because SpongeBob is an idiot. Not as retarded and brainless as Patrick, but an idiot nonetheless.
      • SpongeBob is also a very kind, forgiving sponge. And look at all Pat has done for him!
    • I've often wondered this myself, as a good number of the stuff in earlier episodes that SpongeBob gets blamed for are really Patrick's fault.
      • It at least seems to be reversed the odd occasion, in "Porous Pockets" for example Patrick rather quickly forgives SpongeBob for acting like a snobbish Jerkass.
  • In the episode where Mr. Krabs "sheds" his shell and makes SpongeBob wear it to his army convention, are his army friends too dumb that they can't tell that there is a yellow sponge inside the red shell? Seriously, you would think that being in the navy/army would let you see obvious differences in your best friends, but yeah, maybe it's just me that's bugged.
    • Last I checked, the only thing that was really noticeable was the eyes; They probably just thought he had changed over time.
      • About the eyes—why was SpongeBob able to reshape his own eyes to resemble Mr. Krabs' eyes in Krusty Love, but didn't bother in that episode (Shell of a Man)?
  • In the episode where a dream version of SpongeBob invades the dreams of others, why, in response, do the people whose dreams were invaded break into the real SpongeBob's house, wake him up, then yell at him about it? It's like it's teaching kids to yell at someone for being in your dream.
    • To be fair, Sponge was purposely invading his friends' otherwise happy dreams and ruining them...
    • More importantly, why was Pearl there? All Bob did in her dream was unearth a flower.
      • Maybe Pearl was offended that SpongeBob was looking for Mr. Krabs' dream instead? She did seem disappointed.
        • But she was happy a few second later when she got back to her tea party, and also, Gary was angry at SpongeBob when he didn't ruin his dream either?
        • He was going into people's dreams, but he wasn't ruining them on purpose, it was all just his usually innocent clumsiness.
        • As for Gary being angry, it was because he felt SpongeBob was invading his privacy:

Dream Gary: SpongeBob? How dare you invade the sanctity of my dream?

  • How did SpongeBob and Patrick get into the Cephalopod Lodge? Did they chloroform the guard? Did they crawl in through a plothole? How!?
  • Similar to the water problem, it seems water acts the same as air in the SpongeBob Universe. In one episode, SpongeBob and Patrick fall down an abyss. I know they don't have fins, but they could have just crawled up like any Sea Star and Sea Sponge could. Same thing for the fish. Except for moments of funny, the fish never swim but just walk.
  • How can SpongeBob use the oven (and the lights, and the refrigerator for that matter) when they're under water? The electric appliances would have shortcircited from contact with the water.
  • Poseidon is pretty large, but he still isn't large enough to be a full-scaled person. Can he change his size at will?
    • Well, given the fact he's an ALL POWERFUL WATER GOD then yes, yes he could.
      • He also apparently grew taller before he transformed SpongeBob into a god near the end of Neptune's Spatula. He must be able to change size at will.
    • I thought it was Neptune?
  • If Sandy is a sapient talking squirrel, how do the humans on the surface treat her and her species?
    • I always thought the animal characters could talk English, but the humans (like the diver in The Movie) only speak gibberish.
      • But David Hasselhoff could talk to SpongeBob and Patrick in the same film...
        • He could also move like a speedboat without kicking or paddling; I think its safe to say that The Hoff is an exception to the general human rule.
          • Don't forget the artist at sea that dropped his magic pencil into the sea in "Frankendoodle"
  • Just how did a giant ape and his horse breathe under the water to beat up SpongeBob anyway?
  • If Squidward only has suction cups for hands, how can he play the clarinet? In fact, how can Mr. Krabs do anything involving hand manipulation when he only has claws?
    • Note that, aside from a few instances, Squidward doesn't play the clarinet particularly well. As for Mr. Krabs, it's been shown a few times that he can seemingly grow extra claws when they're needed for pointing. Maybe he did a deal with Neptune wherein he gained limited shapeshifting abilities in exchange for his soul?
  • How can SpongeBob have parents when his species can reproduce by budding?
    • Adoption?
    • They got married, then budded SpongeBob.
    • Budding isn't the only way sea sponges reproduce, they also spawn into the open water and hope everything works out.
  • If Plankton "WENT TO COLLEGE!" then how did he end up with a dead-end restaurant job? What did he major in that that's all he can do with his life?
    • Perhaps he flunked?
    • Seems unlikely. He is a master of creating robots, especially his sentient robot wife, Karen. There must be a degree for that. Perhaps if it wasn't for his shortsightedness he would have found a job that would have been more beneficial to society other than making chumwiches and flipping burgers. He even managed to take over the world in the movie.
      • Actually, he only took over Bikini Bottom. And according to the episode where he falls in love with Mr. Krab's mother, when Karen starts blabbing on, Planton asks "Why did I ever buy that computer wife?".
    • His rivalry with Krabs stems from before college. Presumably after he got his degree he opened a restaurant in hopes of beating Krabs at his own game.
    • Maybe he majored in Restaurant Management.
    • Villainous Breakdown perhaps. He used to be somewhat competent, around the same time Krabs started torturing him unprovoked he seemed to lose his mind.
    • More like a case of Reed Richards Is Useless. He could totally make a living off his inventions.
      • Unfortunately Truth in Television for some people. It's perfectly possible to spend four years in college and end up in a dead-end job if your major was something that there's not much call for outside of teaching, such as Medieval French Literature or somesuch, and since many employers hire strictly based on the possession of a college degree and not practical knowledge, Plankton may simply be unemployable. My local paper refuses to even consider hiring applicants who hold less than a bachelor's degree, for instance.
    • Dead-end? He owns his own restaurant. I mean, it could do better, sure, but it's not like he's just a cook.
  • Now I know they've covered this subject on the show, but if SpongeBob and Patrick cause Squidward so much misery why doesn't he just pack his stuff and leave Bikini Bottom? I mean, Bikini Bottom surely can't be the only city underwater.
    • Because Squidward tried in one episode (he moved to a city of other squids), and he just couldn't take the monotony. He NEEDS the chaos that SpongeBob brings to his life.
  • This has bugged this troper for a long time... In one episode, Karen brings Plankton a Krabby Meal, and he plays with the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy toys before seeing Mr. Krabs on the side of the Krabby Meal box and smashing it up. WHY DIDN'T PLANKTON JUST TAKE THE KRABBY PATTY OUT OF THE KRABBY MEAL?! It was stated earlier in the episode that a Krabby Meal comes with a Krabby Patty, so this is just inexcusable. Plankton even REACHED INSIDE the Krabby Meal to collect the toys. How could he have not found the Krabby Patty inside?!!
    • Again, Plot Induced Stupidity, to the point were it's an unutterable Wall Banger. Don't worry, we feel your pain.
      • Mr. Krabs probably knows who Karen is. This Troper assumed that Krabs only sold her the box and the toys without an actual Krabby Patty, and the reason Krabs didn't just throw her out was because she had money.
        • In the episode where Plankton needs to get Karen an anniversary present, she does the obvious thing and buys a Krabby Patty and analyzes it. But another headscratcher is that she is shown printing it out, and even shows it to Plankton in a bottle, but at the end of the episode, she has to load it up again. Then again, she was not about to give it to Plankton until he actually got her gift; so she might have deliberately shredded the first recipe.
  • Why didn't Squidward get any comeuppance for how much of a Jerkass he was in Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? It's just so weird how much he got away with in that episode considering his merciless status as the Butt Monkey.
    • Well, he did get better at the end.
  • Okay, in the slide-whistle episode, after Squidward ends up in the hospital, SpongeBob and Patrick run amuck in the hospital having fun with the slide whistles. Right at the end, they interrupt a doctor sewing up a belly by imitating his actions with slidewhistles while they stand on a skylight above. The doctor starts laughing, and pulls the sewed up skin while he laughs. My question is this: Why is there a skylight in what is quite likely an operating room?
  • Why doesn't Plankton ever try to pump SQUIDWARD for information on how to make a Krabby Patty? He's demonstrated on numerous occasions that he knows how to make them, and he'd probably be pretty easy to buy off, given his hatred of his job.
    • Because Plankton doesn't have the money, as a failing businessman, to bribe him.
    • Squidward doesn't make the patties anyway. When he DOES, they turn out horrible. And he's never shown he knows about the secret.
      • He can however be made to "provide excellent service" under pressure.
    • And now there is an episode ("Sweet and Sour Squid") where Plankton does try to get information from Squidward, not that it did him any good.
  • Did I hear wrong or was Sandy referred to as "Sandy Squirrel" in "The Last Stand"? Did SpongeBob forget her name or something?
    • Even worse: no one on the writing staff noticed? No one on the production team noticed? Tom Kenny didn't even notice?!
  • What the hell happened to Mr. Krabs's head-over-heels obsession with Mrs. Puff? They seemed to be dating at the end of that one episode, but now Krabs has been showing complete indifference, sometimes rudeness towards her. Did all of this never happen, or what?
    • Yeah, Mr. Krabs has generally become an awful character these days. He used to have redeeming qualities; now he's nothing but a greedy jerk who doesn't care for anyone, whether it be SpongeBob, Mrs. Puff, or his own daughter.
      • But that doesn't answer why when the police are asking her about who tried to raid her garden, she never identified him, despite previously dating him. Like other examples on this page, it's like the writers aren't even paying attention to continuity.
      • In "Summer Job" Krabs actually seems repulsed at the idea of dating Mrs. Puff and spends the rest of the episode blackmailing and torturing her. This is either a case of Canon Discontinuity or the writers are insistent this isn't the same Mr. Krabs of the early seasons.
  • Just who the dickens is running the Krusty Krab when SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs and Squidward are out having adventures? Many times it's obviously a mealtime (like when Mr. Krabs took Mrs. Puff out on a date), prime moneymaking time for any restaurant! I worked in fast food (Mc D's) for three years, and this point continues to perplex me.
    • In "The Bikini Bottom Triangle", it is revealed that Pearl minds the place when her father is gone. However, it is also revealed some strange Seacaptain or something takes care of the store and cooks if everyone else is gone, which begs the question, How can some random person be able to take full control of the Krusty Krab and know how to make Krabby Patties without permission, training, or any other necessary requirements?
      • Or perhaps it's just closed?
  • Is there a scene missing in "Fungus Among Us?" The Ick is cured whenever Gary eats it off of the other characters... But wasn't he trapped in a bubble earlier in the episode? Did he escape? Did SpongeBob and Patrick pop him out too?
  • Why did SpongeBob's voice get so annoyingly high? When they brought the show back after the movie, did they decide to add it to the growing pile of "Ways to make the show more annoying"?
    • The first appearance of his new higher voice was in the movie, technically.
  • What's with minor characters acting like they haven't met certain characters in the post-movie episodes? In "Pets Or Pests", Larry asks SpongeBob IF THEY'VE MET. And don't tell me Negative Continuity, either; Larry knows other characters in some episodes (he knows Sandy in "Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy"). Maybe it was a "joke" on how minor of a character Larry can be?
    • Word of God is that, since the movie was supposed to officially end the series, any episodes that are produced after the movie are meant to take place chronologically before the movie. If that makes any sense, which it probably doesn't.
      • To this troper, it doesn't. If that was true, it would still mean that every episode would still have taken place before the movie, so it's like saying that all the previous episodes with Larry didn't happen... maybe it's something like SpongeBob had never gone to that store they were by, and Larry was so surprised to see him there he wasn't sure if it really was SpongeBob?
    • Larry is presented as vain in most episodes with him in it; he probably just forgot about SpongeBob because he doesn't give a rat's hat about him.
  • The episode "A Day Without Tears"... was there any reason SpongeBob called Patrick, other than to ask if he thought he could make it a day without crying? They mentioned something about a package, but it didn't get anywhere. Orphaned Punchline?
  • Spongehenge: those statues he carves merits discussion. First off, why on earth do they have that expression? It's the least SpongeBob could have done to carve them with a more jovial expression, but instead, he goes ahead and gives them this fearful expression that comes off as really, really annoying. Second, if that stone is depicted to be heavy, how on earth would those spindly legs hold up the weight of the statues? Even assuming that the statues are somewhat hollow and that the fluid dynamics underwater prevents the statues from collapsing on their own weight immediately, wouldn't they still erode over 3000 years? And finally, why does SpongeBob need so many of them? We'd already seen that a single statue was enough to distract them; all he needed after was one good statue to solve the problem.
    • The reason he needed more than one was because the jellyfish didn't like the tune the statue made. All of the statues together were able to fix the tune, for some reason.
  • In "Summer Job," how did SpongeBob manage to become a driver's ed teacher if he doesn't have a license?
    • For the sake of sadism on Mrs. Puff's part. Seriously.
    • It has been said: "Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach."
    • Considering how many times SpongeBob's taken the driving course he's probably memorized the whole thing, even if he himself still can't drive.
  • It bugs me that the fish in some episodes will just throw their food away. If they can't eat it, or someone ruins it, fine. But in episodes like "No Hat For Pat" they throw their food and sodas on the ground simply because they were bored with Patrick. Um... Why aren't you eating it?
    • Perhaps they were so badly bored that they lost their appetites?
  • In Boating Buddies... When Squidward complains that SpongeBob is the one that ruins his life, Mrs. Puff says, "You too?", which is very accurate. But... why did she put them together to drive?! And don't say "Alphabetical by last name", you think she would help the guy she can relate to! What, did she think they would have to suffer together?
    • Taken further in "Summer Job" when Mrs. Puff is blackmailed into taking over Squidward's job for a week. She doesn't last one day of SpongeBob's idiocy and Krab's abuse before quitting, blasting that taking over the life Squidward lives isn't worth evading criminal charges.
  • Why doesn't Plankton simply get someone else to buy a Krabby Patty for him?
    • Lampshaded in the episode where his computer wife, Karen, goes over and buys one for him as an anniversary present.
  • In the Valentine's Day episode, SpongeBob blows Sandy a chocolate bubble. Sandy opens up a hatch in her helmet and eats it while they're underwater. What the?
  • Flats the Flounder enrolls in Mrs. Puff's boating school in one episode; later on in that same episode he's seen driving a garbage truck. Of course explanations can be easily thought up for this, like maybe he is driving the truck without a license, or he is such an awful driver that he couldn't get his license yet or it was revoked. But without thinking so hard...
  • At the end of the Bubble Buddy episode, Bubble Buddy is shown to have been sentient the whole time. That means he could have saved Scooter from drowning earlier, but chose to just stand there and watch.
    • That cold heartless bastard of a bubble.
    • Hey, Scooter sounded like he enjoyed High Tide. At least we know who's going to Bubble Hell.
  • At the end of Krabby Road, Plankton goes back to jail. I understand that. But why do SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward get thrown in with him? They had no idea that they were harboring an escaped fugitive.
    • ...They weren't. At least, I recall them standing outside the jail, unless I'm remembering the episode wrong.
    • I believe that they were inside the prison yard.
  • Why doesn't Plankton use his scientific genius for good instead of evil? His intelligence is amazing! His "Goo Goo Gas", with a little tweaking, could be used for eternal youth! He also invented a time machine! Surely he would make billions more money if he sold his inventions than running a greasy restaurant whose menu consists solely of Human Resources. He would even beat his competitor Krabs that way! (Plus, he could probably end up taking over the world from there, anyway.)
  • What I can't believe is how in "Squirrel Jokes," something that SpongeBob said in a comedy routine changed the way people treat Sandy so drastically?
    • Fantastic Racism.
    • The Bikini Bottomites tend to "follow the herd"—they go along with anything announced publicly (apparently even in a comedy routine). They believed everything in the tabloid Krabby Kronicle; and then there's the mass histeria over "Mad Snail Disease" in "Once Bitten", as a few examples.
  • Several episodes state (and one episode even emphasizes) that Mr. Krabs is old. If that's so, how is his grandfather still alive? It's enough of a stretch to believe that his mother is...
    • Likewise with Plankton. They're at least fifty.
  • At the end of "Grandma's Secret Recipe", how does Plankton's grandma know to look for him in the safe? Yeah, I know, Rule of Funny and all (I guess...)... They should have shown something like, "I sense my teeth in THERE!" rather than have her show up at random. It seemed like a cheap and quick way to end the episode.
  • Larry the Lobster is bright red. But only cooked lobsters are that color... zombie lobster?
    • Real lobsters are green before cooking. I'd think that making Larry green would make him look even more zombie-like, not less. If it helps, remember that Larry does spend a lot of time at the beach...in the sun.
      • I dunno if this would apply, but I have seen lobsters for sale at a pet shop that were the same orangey color as Larry. They were tiny, freshwater lobsters, but I know they were lobsters and not some other crustacean.
  • How can you burn a milkshake? ("Pickles")
    • Burn, not likely. Boiled? Maybe...
    • By the awesome power of Rule of Funny.
  • If Squidward plays the clarinet horribly, how does he get so many shows and rehearsals?
  • A few episodes show SpongeBob and Squidward having Sunday as their day off. So how can that episode where the K.K. is open 24 hours and forever work out? Squidward really wanted to go home, so why didn't he just go home on Sunday?
    • It wasn't their day off, they just forgot to switch the "closed" sign to "open".
    • I think he was referring to other episodes where they don't go to work and it's mentioned that it's Sunday. Anyway, it's possible that Krabs took away the day off. I wouldn't put it past him.
    • Then again, there's two episodes where Mr. Krabs seems to have learned the hard way that the 24-hour thing isn't a good idea.
  • If Squidward's rival is named Squilliam, does that mean that Squidward's name would be Widward if he were human? Also, why in earlier episodes does Mr. Krabs call him Mister Squidward when "Squidward" is clearly his first name?
    • It was a running gag in one of the episodes (can't remember which) when a lot of people tried and had trouble saying his last name, so maybe it's a really subtle running gag in the show, since really no one says his last name in the first place.
      • The episode you're talking about was "The Great Snail Race", wherein they pronounced it Tennisballs, Tentpoles, and Tortellini.
      • There's also the tree house episode. From their tree house, SpongeBob and Patrick are calling Squidward "Widward". I'm not sure if that hints at anything, though.
    • Squidward is a mix of "Squid" and "Edward". It's not much of a stretch to believe that if Squidward was human, he'd be named Edward.
  • Does Bikini Bottom have some sort of Labor Board? It's astounding how the Krusty Krab is able to stay open when Mr. Krabs does things like pay slightly below minimum wage, having 2 employees staff the entire resturant, and the insane amount of things he does to save a few cents...
    • My memory's a bit foggy but Bikini Bottom does seem to have some kind of union organization. There was an episode when SpongeBob was forced to take a vacation or Mr. Krabs would get fined. Also, in many real life cases of employee abuse it's up to the employees to complain to a higher authority to get better treatment at work. However, SpongeBob loves his job too much to realize he's being taken advantage of and Squidward only went on strike once with SpongeBob but nothing came out of it because SpongeBob destroyed the Krusty Krab. Otherwise, Squidward just complains but doesn't actually do anything.
    • I think it was specifically a Fry Cook Union, which makes no sense considering The Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket seem to be the only fast food restaurants in Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob's the only fry cook at The Krusty Krab and all the food at the Chum Bucket is produced by machines. So if there was a union, wouldn't it basically be SpongeBob? Even if there were multiple fast food places in the city, why would Krabs allow his restaurant to unionize? SpongeBob would work 24/7 for free and the other union members would likely kick SpongeBob out for being so annoying.
  • In "Dunces and Dragons," why didn't Medieval Sandy need an air helmet?
    • A Wizard Did It.
    • Ignoring the 'no air helmet' issue, what was Medieval Sandy even doing underwater in the first place? Sandy lives underwater in order to do scientific research, and she (along with her ancestors) was originally from Texas. Medieval Sandy isn't doing any sort of scientific research, and there's no real reason for her to be underwater at all. Long story short, we shouldn't have seen a Medieval Sandy at all.
    • Actually seeing Medieval Sandy isn't a mistake. First of all it never says it's actually her or anyone related to her. It could've just been a squirrel that happened to look like her. And really, she's one of the main characters and they put the main characters in. They probably knew she wouldn't actually be there but they put her in anyway because she's a main character and she fit the knight's character. As for the helmet, I have no idea. Maybe it wasn't a squirrel at all and instead was some kind of ancient, now extinct sea creature. Or, since she's working for Plankton who's a wizard, magic?
  • Where was Squidward in "Nasty Patty"?
    • He wasn't important to the story. He had a day off or something.
  • In the Krabby Kronicle, why is it wrong for the Chum Bucket to get shut down? Isn't chum made of fish anyway?
    • That's just the name of the restaurant. They don't actually serve chum. Maybe the misleading name is why Plankton doesn't get customers?
      • Actually several later episodes have shown that he DOES serve chum. In fact the episode that described why Plankton and Krabs have a rivalry they both got part of the recipe, Plankton's part just said chum, so it stands to reason that's all he cooks.
    • That, and the fact that Plankton's cooking is apparently terrible.
  • Why would Mr. Krabs deliberately frame SpongeBob for stealing the Krabby Patty formula just to get $1.25?! Doesn't Krabs need him to cook the patties? And another thing, who cooks the patties if SpongeBob isn't, if Squidward isn't (since he is terrible at cooking patties), and if the old fry cook Jim isn't (retired)?
    • That was a post-movie episode. Mr. Krabs has been Flanderized into an unlikeable Designated Hero Jerkass who would go through so much hell to get money that he'll abuse his employees and leave his own business in jeopardy. Not to mention that episode was written by Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas, two of the most disliked writers of SpongeBob by many fans of the show.
  • How is it some snails speak English ("Where's Gary?", "Gary In Love")? Notably, they were all strays, so maybe being under ownership gives them the "meow"?
    • Viewer Translator Convention. Seriously.
    • Perhaps the snails speak English when they're amongst themselves, but only meow around other creatures?
  • Why are the titles of some of the episodes changed? ie: "WhoBob WhatPants" became "What Ever Happened To SpongeBob"?
    • Easy marketing to raise awareness. Why bother post a long name like "Have You Seen This Snail?" instead of something sweet and to the point, like "Where's Gary"? It makes the plot somewhat understandable at the beginning so people can expect what's happening.
  • The Krusty Krab has had several close shaves with going out of business, but not its far less successful rival company, The Chum Bucket.
    • Add to that, how has the Chum Bucket kept open with literally ZERO customers and no profit for the near half a decade it has been running? The only woes Plankton seems to suffer from this are boredom and depression.
    • I don't think there's any possible explanation for the characters' financial situations. I mean, look at SpongeBob. Krabs pays him fake money (stated in the episode where it's discovered Plankton has a fear of whales) and yet he has a huge house, huge wads of money in his pocket, a whole bunch of full piggy banks, and a diamond under Gary's shell (from the episode where his spatula breaks)!
  • This is something that has been bugging me for a while. Why does SpongeBob have to outshine everybody? For example, in the episode "The Two Faces of Squidward", Squidward becomes nice and kind after being electrocuted and as the episode goes on, SpongeBob becomes jealous because Squidward becomes employee of the month and is (possibly) a better fry cook. SpongeBob has been Employee of the Month EVERY month since he's been working there. He's the best fry cook in the whole city and, in this troper's opinion, Mr. Krabs was probably just being nice when he said Squidward might be a better fry cook than him (and didn't mean to upset SpongeBob). Seriously, why does SpongeBob feel he has to be the best at everything?
    • I have two possible reasons: 1) to give SpongeBob the flaws of pride and competitiveness, and 2) to provide conflict for the episode in question.
  • Why do SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward not have hair that is of their color? Whenever they grow hair it's brown or black.
    • SpongeBob did have yellow hair in one episode.
      • Why should their hair be the same colour as the rest of them? Do caucasian humans have beige hair?
  • The subtle romance. What happened to it?
  • In the episode Sandy's Rocket, if Sandy was perfectly capable of going to the moon without a rocket (she used a jetpack), then why didn't she just go there?
    • Keep in mind her rocket was stacked with an enormous amount of equipment and supplies that likely couldn't be held with a jetpack. On the other hand, the fact she neglected that she could instantly travel to the moon and back (while complaining about how stupid SpongeBob is) was probably part of the gag.
    • Well, didn't she say she wanted to bring back moon rocks? She may need the rocket to hold them.
  • Why is there a different Neptune in the movie? It isn't like they couldn't get John O'Hurley, and even if they couldn't, it still doesn't explain the design change. And in the later episode The Clash of Triton, you see Neptune's entire family, and Princess Mindy is never shown. If the movie takes place after the series, you'd at least expect them to try to fix the discrepancies between the two.
    • Well, the movie will take place after the series, no matter how long the show runs, which means that there could be a dynasty of gods. Also, in "Krusty Towers", when Squidward wants to redecorate this room, he mentions something along the lines of a potrait of King Neptune VII, meaning there's multiple Neptunes.
      • King Neptune XIV, actually. But still.
    • Wasn't the one in the movie a king and the one in the series a god? Then again, there is the one episode (I forget the name; "SpongeBob Vs. The Patty Gadget" or something) where it says "the blast was so loud it woke King Neptune" and you see the one from the series.
  • How the heck did Mr. Krabs chase a penny for six and a half hours?
    • He's the Terminator of cheapskates.
  • In "Home Sweet Pineapple", just as the nematodes eat SpongeBob's house, SpongeBob exclaims, "Hooray Gary, we're finally huge!"... since when, better yet, WHY, did SpongeBob (and Gary?) dream of being huge?
    • That's the joke.
  • In the episode "20,000 Patties Under the Sea", SpongeBob says, "Bye Squidward, bye Mr. Krabs. ...Bye Squidward..." the second one at Squidward being in a slightly more suggestive tone. Patrick lampshades it only for SpongeBob to say "I like Squidward!". What bugs me is that it just seems so blatant now, were they even trying? Was it perhaps a subtle parody of all the accusations of SpongeBob's sexuality?
    • I took it as the more Squidward hates SpongeBob, the more SpongeBob likes Squidward. But what bugged me about the episode was that the submarine couldn't float over the trench. It's a submarine!
  • Pearl's disdain for her father. In the episode where Krabs retires, on his first day off, he asks Pearl if she wants to do something with him. Before he even finishes his sentence, Pearl kicks him out and whines about how she can't take it anymore. WTF?
    • That's how the show portrays all teenage girls. They all use Totally Radical slang, hate their parents, and want to go to the mall.
  • Why didn't Squidward notice that there is a gorilla just sitting around his house in I Had An Accident? Instead he was watering his plants nonchalantly.
    • Since he saw Patrick (and maybe Sandy) involved, he probably thought some variation of, "Oh, what an idiot. Just ignore them Squidward..." Or maybe he felt the gorilla was somebody else.
  • Why is it only the main drain would drain the ocean when any drain would?
  • Squidward has never had problems with people touching the glass so why did he in Sponge-cano?
  • Why was Pearl working at the Krusty Krab in The Bikini Bottom Triangle when she never wanted to?
    • If no one is working there, the restaurant is not making money. So there would be less mall money her dad can give her.
  • How come Pearl now hates SpongeBob? They interacted pretty well in "Bossy Boots" but in "Slumber Party" and "Tunnel of Glove" she just plain hates him?
    • It was a girls-only sleepover in "Slumber Party", IIRC, which explains (but doesn't totally excuse) her behavior there...as for "Tunnel of Glove", I haven't seen that one, but I'm going to say she was going through a fit of teenage angst at the time.
  • Why was SpongeBob smiling when Squidward was getting beaten into a pulp in "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful"?
    • I'm guessing that was in one of the later seasons? The later the season, the creepier and stupider SpongeBob is. For some reason, they think weird is funny, so they make SpongeBob super weird, to the point that he's disturbing. They don't understand that weird isn't funny by itself, it needs to be done humorously.
  • In "Christmas Who?" we learn that no one underwater has heard of Christmas (probably due to Jesus being a human and so they never really heard about him or got the concept of Christianity), but in the earlier episode "Jellyfishing," Squidward comes home from the hospital and is welcomed by SpongeBob and Patrick, with Patrick mistakenly saying "Merry Christmas!"
    • The show doesn't really have canon. The Christmas episode could have happened before.
  • A few problems with "Big Sister Sam". First, HOW COULD PATRICK REUNITE WITH SOMEONE HE HASN'T HEARD FROM FOR YEARS? Did he just see Sam on the street with no words and both signaled that they should meet up? Second, since Squidward's house was thrown by Sam to the right, why didn't the house hit SpongeBob's as well? We clearly see his house also destroyed later in the episode and, if they wanted the plot to stay the same, the house could have been thrown towards the street. Finally, how is SpongeBob still happy and compassionate to Sam at the end of the episode even though she obliterated his house? Has the Negative Continuity of the show gotten to a point where things that happened a few seconds ago are forgotten?
    • I don't know about the first two but the last one's obvious. First, SpongeBob is an idiot. Look at basically any recent episode for proof of this. Second, SpongeBob is for whatever reason supposed to forgive Patrick for whatever stupid thing he, and by extension his relatives, does.
    • People reunite with estranged relatives and friends all the time. Maybe Patrick went on the underwater equivalent of the Jeremy Kyle Show or something, who knows.
  • In "Sentimental Sponge", the sanitation police show up when SpongeBob refuses to throw away his trash. You're telling me that a town of 528 people fish sea creatures has its own police squad for cleanliness? Rule of Funny may apply, but its a bit of a stretch.
    • Have you seen how seriously they take littering? A sanitation police seems right up their alley.
  • If the "Tunnel of Glove" is supposed to be a tunnel of love, why would people like Pearl and SpongeBob (who don't have dates) go on it? Furthermore, why did two of Pearl's friends go on it together?
    • Because they want to ride it to see what it's like but either don't have boyfriends, or have boyfriends who just aren't there.
  • How does Spongebob know about Leif Ericsson?
    • They all three wanted to go on it together (which is not uncommon for teenage girls to do), but they didn't know that it was only two per car, so Pearl was left behind. As for SpongeBob... maybe Patrick left him to go eat...
  • It has been bugging me for some time now about the ending of "Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy". She got arrested for public nudity. First of all, most fish you see on the show are naked. Squidward has been naked (wait, nevermind, he got a ticket for that once), Patrick and SpongeBob have been naked, and I mean completely naked. A lot of girl fish wear only their underwear. So how is it that Sandy gets arrested for public nudity if she was only in her underwear, while most fish and most main characters get complelety naked and don't get arrested?
    • Fur Is Clothing and she wasn't wearing her fur or her suit. Doesn't make much sense, but considering Krabs's embarrassment concerning being without his shell, that's likely what constitutes nudity. Until we see a filleted fish walking through town, we'll never know.
      • He may have been embarrased about molting the shell but he still appeared in front of people without it and no one seemed very shocked that he was naked. Personally, I think the Sandy thing is just a failed attempt at a joke.
    • Speaking of her suit, why wasn't she wearing it? Plankton only took her fur and went around without the suit.
  • The Movie takes place after the series, right? So that explains the absence of Mindy, and why SpongeBob has no maturity; he regains it later. But didn't they mention the Krusty Krab 2 later on?
    • Because it hasn't been built yet. It was built in the movie.
      • But they mentioned it as if it had been built, and I think we saw it once in an episode right after the movie.
      • It was built in the movie. It was never shown in any episodes. There was an episode about making a Krusty Krab commercial that had the Krusty Krab's "under study" but that was way before the movie and was really just a quick gag.
  • So are Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy actual superheroes, or are they fakes who starred in an old TV show?
    • Yes, they are superheroes. It has been shown that they possess highly advanced gadgets and machines, including a shrink ray, an invisible car, and a literal Idiot Ball. They also can summon fish to help them (think Aquaman, but with old fish) and can create balls of water to throw at evildoers.
  • At the beginning of the episode where SpongeBob breaks Gary's shell, SpongeBob wakes up in the middle of the night after hearing a noise. SpongeBob's phone line has been cut. No explanation is given for this. It's not necessary for the scene, and it isn't presented as a joke. Why was the line cut?
    • I think it was to build up suspense and make it seem like a horror movie. He was investigating a strange noise in his house, so it kind of fit. All in all, it was just there to make it creepy.
  • In the episode "The Krabby Kronicle", is it me or did everybody who read the Krusty Krab's newspaper believe every single word? And for that matter, why would scientists try to confiscate Sandy's science awards if she won them all fairly?
    • I'm pretty sure the citizens of Bikini Bottom are supposed to be complete morons. As for the second question, again, they're morons. Plus the article may have said something about her faking being smart or cheating when she won the awards. And it doesn't have much to do with your question, but I think if she had karate chopped the two "scientists" it would have been a crowning moment of awesome.
  • Same episode as above: Why did Sandy immediately assume that it was SpongeBob who wrote that stuff about her? I mean, she and SpongeBob were friends ever since the first season! She should trust him while knowing he'd never say such things against her!
  • At the beginning of the episode "20,000 Patties Under the Sea", why did they use old footage of jellyfish flying from season 1 and then immediately return to the modern animation?
    • Well, I'm guessing 1) They were too lazy to make new footage of jellyfish flying, 2) Season one used hand-paited cels, whereas afterwards, they use the more modern digital ink process.
  • This is more of a question than a headscratcher, but I just wanted to know: is 'Sweet Victory' a real song, or was it made up for SpongeBob? 'Coz that would be crazy if it was, in an awesome sort of way.
  • The episode where the jellyfish are attracted to SpongeBob's holes when the wind goes through them and it makes music he hides in a cave and decides to make a stone SpongeBob to talk to. After he realizes that the jellyfish are attracted to the stone SpongeBob, he tries to leave it there so the jellyfish swarm around it and he can leave. But the stone SpongeBob sounds awful. He decides to make another in a different size, but he's not sure what size would work so he decides he has to make a bunch of them. There's my problem. He makes a bunch of them, but they're all the same size which defeats the purpose of making a bunch.
    • He needed to figure out how to carve the rocks so it would produce the same noise he makes. Thus, he makes a bunch of them.
    • I know but he says he needs to make a bunch of them with different sizes. But they're all the same size when he makes them.
      • It's more the size of the holes that makes the difference; the wind's pitch changes with the holes' size.
  • What is the Krusty Krab considered? At times it's a popular and respected local place, or a restaurant well-known throughout the sea.. But at other times it's a poorly received place.
  • Anyone notice that the Post Movie episodes seem to give Squidward more Throw the Dog a Bone moments than in the Pre Movie episodes? Just look at the TTDAB page to see what I'm talking about.
  • Which one of those fellas is the real Dirty Dan?
    • Patrick.

Sandy:Which one of you is the real Dirty Dan?
Patrick:I am?

  • I don't understand a lot about the Black Jack episode. For those who don't know, the big Twist Ending at the end of the episode is that SpongeBob's violent cousin Black Jack is really about as tall as Plankton. Yet while SpongeBob was tiny (older episodes showed this), he got bigger, while Black Jack must have stayed the same... the EXACT same, personality, dress, voice, etc. And why is it none of SpongeBob's relatives tell him how small Black Jack is? Are they really THAT afraid of a guy who littered to not see him for as long as SpongeBob had?
    • I think they assumed he knew he was that small. Plus none of them had seen him (his grandma gets a call, and his uncle just calls him a dangerous criminal, the grandma doesn't sound afraid of him though) in a long time because he was in jail. I don't think Black Jack being small made much sense overall, though.
    • He probably got smaller during the time he spent in prison. It might not make much sense for him to shrink THAT much, but remember that SpongeBob was just a kid when he had the flashback about him, and he's over twenty, twenty-three IIRC, so Black Jack probably spent more than 15 years in prison, 19 at most.
  • If SpongeBob didn't eat the bomb pie, why was he sucking his fingers and going "mmmm"?
    • He probably ate his lunch, or something. Remember, he's in the Krusty Krab. And it was supposed to be a false lead-in to make you think he DID eat the pie.
    • Maybe he was doing that in anticipation of eating the pie?
    • Perhaps he only took a small piece and decided to save it for later?
  • "Slimy Dancing". So only one dancer is allowed to perform in the competition. Then how did SpongeBob AND Patrick get in, especially when their dance was a limbo?
    • They audition together but have to perform seperately? And we actually don't know if their dance was a limbo; it could have been something else.
  • So Krabs took the secret ingredient to the secret formula in "The Patty Caper". How? Did he just jump on the truck unnoticed? And how did the S.W.A.T. team or security team or whatever it was not notice that the suitcase was empty?!
    • Steal it when it wasn't being delivered (in a factory or where ever it's kept before they get orders) and had them deliver an empty case to SpongeBob to make it look like he stole it? And they probably wouldn't realize it's empty anyway, considering they wouldn't look inside it.
  • How old is Squidward? Older episodes made it seem like he was about 10 years older than SpongeBob. Newer episodes make it seem like he's almost an old man. "A Friendly Game" has him wearing dentures, his "late date" in "Love That Squid" looked like an old cartoon character, etc.
    • None of the characters really have a clear-cut age. Sure, SpongeBob is officially twenty-three, but numerous episodes point to him being much older (hundreds of 'Employee of the Month' awards, his countless failed driving tests etc.), and he also behaves much like a hyper five-year-old. But I'd guess that he's about late 30s/early 40s. As for dentures... maybe he played the clarinet in such a way that broke his teeth? Who knows...
  • Who was that fry cook in "Truth Or Square" that Squidward called "Not-SpongeBob?" He's some weird greasy guy that just has that one appearance.
  • Why did SpongeBob become such a failure in karate? In "Karate Choppers", he was just as good as Sandy. In "No Weenies Allowed" and other episodes, he sucks at it.
    • I don't remember him sucking at karate in "No Weenies Allowed". But anyway I don't think SpongeBob has ever really had a set level for how good he is at karate. Even in the older episodes it seemed to switch between Sandy beating him every time with little effort (the Ripped Pants episode), to him always beating Sandy (the episode where Mr. Krabs tries to get him to quit). So it seems to just be following the old tradition of using whatever fits the episode.
    • Many of SpongeBob's secondary attributes vary by episode. One day he's struggles to lift two marshmallows on a stick, and the next he can rip a mailbox off its hinges with ease.
  • How is it that they're celebrating the Krusty Krab's "eleventy-seventh" (I'm assuming that's 117th) anniversary? Mr. Krabs founded that restaurant and he definitely isn't 117 years old.
    • Did he start the business himself or just became the manager through promotions? Maybe the restaurant IS that old. It could also be that the Krusty Krab is a chain that is 117 years old and Mr. Krabs is a franchise owner celebrating the anniversary of the first Krusty Krab. Or it could be that eleventy seventh doesn't mean what you think.
    • No, the Krusty Krab was a retirement home before he bought it (it says so in the employee video episode) and it's pretty obvious it isn't a chain, especially consideriing in the movie he opens the second one. I'd say the third option, eleventy seventh doesn't mean 117, and they just used it to not technially get the number wrong.
  • I'm honestly shocked nobody has mentioned this yet. I honestly wonder something: what's the deal with Old Man Jenkins? In several episodes in which he makes an appearance, he looks COMPLETELY different. In the episode "Sailor Mouth" (the cursing episode), Jenkins is portrayed as a short old man, with a green-ish color, with rounded glasses and what appear to be liver spots on his head. This look stayed constant through many of his appearances. However, there are a few other looks Jenkins displays throughout the series. In the episode "My Pretty Seahorse", Jenkins is eaten by Sponge Bob's seahorse Mystery. He is spit out a few scenes later, and the result is a short, blue fish, with circular glasses not much unlike his first iteration. He is also wearing clothes akin to SpongeBob's, but rounded a bit to fit his body, unlike the white shirt from his first look. Later, in the 'Lost Episode', Jenkins is shown shaped akin to the many generic fish, but extremely old looking, almost wilted. He also doesn't have glasses with this look, and takes on a completely different personality: he is a farmer, who becomes Cannonball Jenkins after SpongeBob angers him by destroying his grain silo. He later appears similarly to this incarnation in the episode "The Main Drain", in which he gets shorter, becomes green, and has a grey beard. his attire is similar to his farmer Jenkins look, minus the straw hat. Not to mention the fact that in his speaking roles, his voice seems to change often. Is all of this ever explained? I know the show has a ridiculously convoluted continuity, but this might be pushing it. The only explanation I can come up with is multiple people named Old Man Jenkins.
    • Honestly there are probably only two possible explanations and you mentioned both. 1) Negative Continuity. 2) There are multiple people named Old Man Jenkins (or rather multiple old people named Jenkins). It honestly doesn't seem that far fetched considering how weird the show is.
  • In the first episode, "Help Wanted", how does SpongeBob make all those patties if Mr.Krabs never told him the formula?
    • Maybe he kept the formula back there during that time and SpongeBob found it?
  • HOW is it that SpongeBob showed he was boneless in Squirrel Jokes, but in other episodes he has bones, ( skull, spine, etc. )
  • I just finished watching the episode "Yours, Mine and Mine". Now, I know Patrick's intelligence (or lack thereof) has decreased over the series' course, but just how dumb is he supposed to be? Isn't there a set level of dumbness for Patrick or does his dumbness just rise/drop to whatever level the episode requires?
    • In "Tentacle Vision":

Squidward: Patrick, how stupid are you?
Patrick: It varies.

  • This may or may not have been discussed already, but i'm watching "Whatever Happened to Spongebob?" at the moment, and I wonder: Spongebob left a year's supply of snail food for Gary, right? If it was that long, wouldn't someone (most likely at the Krusty Krab) have known that Spongebob was missing and gone looking for him? Or did Gary just eat that huge supply incredibly quickly?
    • I'm thinking Gary ate it quickly, due to Rule of Funny.
    • He did eat it quickly. When Sandy and Patrick enter Spongebob's house, Gary is huge. That pretty much says he ate it all at once.
    • Probably a joke on binge eating, especially since Gary was implied to be depressed by Spongebob's departure.
  • Same episode as above: How did SpongeBob's friends get to call him "idiot boy"? And in a very mean manner when he messes them up by accident?
  • In the movie, when Spongebob and Patrick are about to drive the Patty Wagon, Patrick says "But Spongebob! You don't have a license!" Spongebob replies "You don't need a license, to drive a sandwich".... which for all intents and purposes is a car and functions exactly like one.
    • It's a joke.
    • (Original Poster) But don't you see all the potential Loophole Abuse here?
      • Yes, they're using Loophole Abuse. That's the joke.
  • In the episode where Spongebob and Patrick (and Squidward before we went down the "Fly of Dispair") become the Flying Dutchman's crew, after Spongebob tells Squidward that they get three wishes, and that Patrick used the first and he used the second (to get Squidward there) Squidward tells Spongebob to wish for something to make it so they don't get eaten. How does Squidward know they're about to get eaten? He got there after they talked about it and no one mentioned it to him.
  • How come the con artist in "Chocolate With Nuts" gets away all the things he did?
    • He really only conned Spongebob and Patrick. Plus, they both got rich enough to rent out an entire restaurant for an evening.
  • Can someone please explain to me WHY people come back to the Krusty Krab? They have been poisoned at least once, the place doesn't seem that clean, and the prices are a rip-off. Why would you come back?
    • The same reason people still watch the show despite its decline in quality...
    • With McDonald's, many people know that the food is crap, but they still buy it now and then because it tastes so damn good. Presumably, the same logic applies here.
  • Why hasn't Squidward learned by now that Spongebob and Patrick don't understand the concept of sarcasm? Every moment he's sarcastic about Spongebob's offers or ideas, it only encourages him which in turn makes things worse for himself [Squidward].
    • Rule of Funny. Well, what's classed as funny in later episodes, at least...
    • He's yelled at them. At the top of his lungs. Multiple, multiple, multiple times. They're really that thick-headed.
  • Why hasn't Squidward got a restraining order against Spongebob yet? Beforehand, Spongebob was only mildly annoying and overtly cheerful, being the Adult Child that he was. Nowadays, he's completely insane, and his obsession with Squidward has reached stalker levels of creepy. Squidward would have easily enough grounds to file a restraining order, so why hasn't he done it yet?
    • I'm not exactly sure how restraining orders work, but I don't see how one would help Squidward since he lives next door to Spongebob and works at the same job as him. Not to mention, Spongebob would probably just cry 24/7 over it until Squidward finally got fed up and annulled it. Either that or Patrick would come out of nowhere and eat it.
  • Exactly what are we seeing on the title card for "Squidtastic Voyage"? [dead link] I know it's Squidward's innards, but is it any specific part of him? It kind of looks like brain matter and a stem, but it's a tunnel. And the brain matter is the color of Squidward's skin (though that may be to further indicate that it's the inside of his body).
    • They look somewhat like blue curly villi, so his intestines?
  • In New Student Starfish, when Spongebob was freaking out about Mrs. Puff taking away his good noodle star, why didn't he just tell her that Patrick drew the picture, not him?
    • It's pretty hard to think rationally when you're having a freak-out. Plus, this is Spongebob we're talking about. He freaks out over the most minor of provocations.
  • Something that got me while I was overhearing an episode of Spongebob from my niece's room: Why doesn't Plankton use his other talents to acquire business? He's a robotic and engineering genius, and he has created AI so sophisticated that it could actually be considered sentient. Why doesn't he just sell his robots and all the products of his mad genius to the Bikini Bottom military and other top buyers, rather than using them to try and steal a secret formula for fast food in a run-down, middle-of-nowhere hellhole of a restaurant in increasingly-cartoonish plots? Hell, if it's just about beating Krabs, he could buy the Krabby Patty secret formula from the greedy bastard and then perfect it for his own restaurant, putting Krabs out of business for good. He could even humiliate Krabs further by hiring Squidward and maybe even Spongebob (who would undoubtedly lose respect for Krabs due to the latter's lack of integrity) at triple the wages they were normally getting working under Krabs, then he could maybe even hire Krabs in a false gesture of pity and put him to work cleaning toilets or something. Shit, man. It would be so easy. Why hasn't he done this?
    • Because he's not that smart at all, and certainly not as smart as he thinks he is. In the movie, Plankton forgot the last letter of the alphabet and didn't consider his theft of Neptune's crown would leave fingerprints until Karen pointed both out to him. He's described in his first appearance as being "99% hot gas". The guy's a Gadgeteer Genius who may have gone to college, but a lot of his misfortune can be chalked up to a complete lack of common sense or willingness to think ahead.
  • If the Flying Dutchman is several thousands of years old, why is he dressed like a medieval European pirate? If he's that old, he couldn't be a Dutchman, because the Dutch weren't really around thousands of years ago, and the word "Dutch" and "Dutchman" have only been in use for a handful of centuries. So...
    • He just liked the name and costume? No doubt he'd tried on more than a few hats over the centuries.
  • Why does Spongebob dress so formally to work as a cook at a fast food restaurant?
    • The clothes that he wears to work can be considered his street clothes, as he wears them all the time.
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