GARY TAKES A BATH

Episode Title: "Gary Takes a Bath"

Episode Airing Number: 31

Episode Production Number: Unknown (wasn't produced until after "Shanghaied" aired; likely made in 2001 or '02)

Original Airdate: July 26, 2003 (on Nick; this actually first aired on Nicktoons TV sometime in 2002)

Season: 2

On DVD: "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Second Season," "Sea Stories," "Absorbing Favorites"

On VHS: "Sea Stories," "Absorbing Favorites"

Aired With Episode: "Shanghaied"

Running Time: 6:32

Storyboard Director: Aaron Springer

Storyboard Artist: C.H. Greenblatt

Writers: Aaron Springer, C.H. Greenblatt and Merriwether Williams

Animation Director: Frank Weiss

Creative Director: Derek Drymon

In Brief: SpongeBob tries to get Gary to take a bath, while Gary tries to avoid one.

Story: Once again, it's time for Gary's weekly bath, which is something he does not like. SpongeBob, however, will make sure Gary gets a bath without giving up on his tricky snail.

To get Gary in the bathtub, SpongeBob tries throwing a toy into it, but it turns out to be a boomerang ball that avoids the tub and comes right back to him. Next, he straps a bomb to his chest, telling Gary it will blow up in three seconds unless he takes a bath. Gary lets him explode. Then, SpongeBob tries putting subliminal messages relating to bath items into Gary's mind, but a wrong message gets through. Tattling on Gary to a worker at a French restaurant doesn't work, since SpongeBob can't understand what the guy on the phone is saying. Tossing Gary into the tub through a game of leapfrog, offering him money to take a bath and performing a dance doesn't work, either.

SpongeBob takes Gary on a treasure hunt, leading him to the bathtub painted like a treasure chest. Gary doesn't fall for it. SpongeBob tries throwing him into the tub, which ends up with Gary launching the two onto SpongeBob's bedroom ceiling. Up there, Gary sticks to it, but SpongeBob has to hold onto his snail's eyestalks to avoid falling. Gary lets him drop and he lands in the bathtub, where he sucks up all the water.

Using the water he sucked up, he walks around the house, firing water at Gary to bathe him. Trying to not get sprayed, Gary runs out the door, and SpongeBob thinks he sees him meowing in a tree across the street. He uses a ladder to climb up, where he discovers a record player shaped like him, with a record making the "meows." Gary is really on the ground and takes the ladder away so that SpongeBob's stuck in the tree. After arguing with him, SpongeBob falls from the tree and into a mud puddle. SpongeBob ends up being the one who takes a bath.

Song: (none)

Quotes:

SpongeBob: Now, Gary, we can do this the hard way or the easy way. Or the medium way. Or the semi-medium-easy-hard way. Or the sorta hard with a touch of awkward-easy-difficult-challenging way.

SpongeBob: *talking to someone at a fancy French restaurant* Slow down, it's like you're speaking some other language!

SpongeBob: I've got a crisp dollar bill for the next fella to take a bath in this house! *Mr. Krabs drives by in a bathtub with wheels and takes SpongeBob's dollar*

SpongeBob: *hunting for "treasure"* Okay Gary, now forty paces to the left. *stepping and counting* One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten... *cuts to the two upstairs* ...twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven... *SpongeBob sees that he's at the location he wanted* ...forty.

SpongeBob: *after discovering what he shot water at was a record player looking like Gary* Oh, no! I bathed Gary too hard and removed his skin!

Observations:

Snail Clock The snail clock on the wall has a snail shell that attaches to the wall and holds the clock section, eye stalks on top that slam together to make ringing sounds, and a snail "leg" that acts as a pendulum.

Bath Time Gary is planned to take a bath at 5:00.

Shell Phone Colors The same shell phone goes from being pink to purple.

Eye Cap Mr. Krabs wears a shower cap on his eye stalks.

Sound Change Originally in the scene where SpongeBob is singing and dancing for Gary, the sound of his feet going was his normal footsteps. Stephen Hillenburg (creator of SpongeBob), however, didn't think that the joke worked as well, so the sound was changed to tap dancing.

Sweat Puddles SpongeBob sweats a puddle on the floor after performing his dance and when trying to pull Gary up from the bathroom floor.

Joke Book In the chair, Gary reads a book called Snail Jokes.

No Bath Even though the episode's title is "Gary Takes a Bath," Gary never does take a bath.

One Voice Actor Tom Kenny is the only person who provides voices (Gary and SpongeBob) in this episode. The only other character seen, Mr. Krabs, does not speak.

Second Shortest This episode is the second shortest one in the series, after "Reef Blower."