"Pickles" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 1. In this episode, SpongeBob loses his confidence after forgetting to put the pickles on a Krabby Patty.

Characters

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Squidward Tentacles
• Bubble Bass ^(debut)
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Gary the Snail
• Incidentals
  • Incidental 1D ^(debut)
  • Incidental 2 ^{(alternate colors)}
  • Incidental 3
  • Incidental 4
  • Incidental 5
  • Tom ^{(normal and alternate colors)}
  • Suzy
  • Incidental 8
  • Incidental 9 ^{(alternate colors)}
  • Incidental 10
  • Incidental 12
  • Incidental 13 ^(42-Colored)
  • Incidental 14 ^{(alternate colors)}
  • Incidental 15
  • Incidental 17
  • Incidental 18
  • Incidental 20
  • Incidental 21
  • Incidental 22
  • Incidental 25
  • Incidental 27
  • Incidental 30
  • Incidental 31
  • Incidental 35
  • Incidental 36 ^(42-Colored)
  • Incidental 42
  • Judy
  • Incidental 47
  • Incidental 48
  • Incidental 49
  • Incidental 60 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 61 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 62 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 63 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 64 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 65 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 67 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 68 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 69 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 70 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 71 ^(debut)
  • Incidental 73 ^(debut)

Synopsis

At the Krusty Krab, an overweight fish named Bubble Bass arrives and makes a very long, complicated order. SpongeBob quickly assembles the patty Bubble Bass has on his mind and serves it to him, but Bubble Bass points out that he forgot to add pickles. SpongeBob is so horrified by this that he slowly begins to lose his mind and cannot remember how to create a proper Krabby Patty. Mr. Krabs tells him to go home and get some rest, but this does not help matters at all, as all of a sudden, his inability to make a Krabby Patty is also affecting everything else about him, which is confirmed due to him mistakingly believing that the Krusty Krab's front doors were missing and him losing his sense of direction.

Back home, as night fell, it worsens when he is unable to sleep on his bed properly and Gary has to keep correcting him. His struggle to sleep properly lasts through the whole night until the next morning. As his alarm clock goes off the next morning, his mental state worsens when he tries to think of a way to turn off the alarm clock despite the stop button being right in front of him; instead, he tries blocking the horn with Gary.

While SpongeBob is gone, Mr. Krabs has Squidward take over for him, but Squidward just burns all the food (including a shake) and drives away all the customers. Mr. Krabs worries about losing money because of this and decides to visit SpongeBob's house, where he finds everything in disarray. Worse still, SpongeBob is now unable to speak sentences properly, though Mr. Krabs quickly fixes that one problem. Mr. Krabs explains to SpongeBob that if he remembers how to make a Krabby Patty, he will regain his confidence and be able to return to work. It takes several days, but eventually, SpongeBob, despite ranting at first, remembers how to make a Krabby Patty properly from his frustrations.

SpongeBob returns to the Krusty Krab, where he cleans up Squidward's mess. As the citizens become happy to see SpongeBob, Bubble Bass interrupts the moment and confronts him again. At this point, SpongeBob serves him his meal confidently, knowing full well that he didn't forget the pickles, but Bubble Bass announces that he has forgotten the pickles again even after learning how to make one, much to SpongeBob's confusion and shock. However, when he looks closely at Bubble Bass' mouth, SpongeBob discovers that Bubble Bass has been tricking everyone by hiding the pickles under his tongue the whole time to avoid paying, as well as the pickles from last time along with a woman's car keys that weren't seen. As the crowd confronts him for his theft and gaslighting, Bubble Bass immediately flees the restaurant to avoid their punishment, though the crowd doesn't even go after him.

Instead, Mr. Krabs has everyone give three cheers for SpongeBob's return, which they gladly do so. SpongeBob then asks them to give three cheers for Squidward for taking his place while he was gone. However, the crowd boos him instead because of the awful job he did. Squidward's frown gets droopier with every jeer (they do it 4 times), but SpongeBob assumes they're cheering and continues to chant, much to their chagrin, until one fed-up customer just ends up yelling, on the last chant, "Boo, you stink!"

Production

This episode's recording script was completed on December 4, 1998, alongside "F.U.N."

The finished master was delivered to Nickelodeon Animation Studio on August 4, 1999.

Script

• On November 14, 2016, recording scripts for every episode from season 1 were publicly released, found on one of the asset discs for the PlayStation video game, SuperSponge. This included the recording script for "Pickles."^[3]

Art

Model sheets

Music

( ‣ ) Production music

( • ) Original music

( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

 ‣ The Gunfighter - Franco Micalizzi, Roberto Predagio [Title card.]
 ‣ The Achterhoek Dances - Jan Rap [Opening.]
 ‣ Fight and Chase - Sammy Burdson [Bubble Bass introduced.]
 ‣ The Gunfighter - Franco Micalizzi, Roberto Predagio ["I hear talk you make a mean Krabby Patty."]
 ‣ Bell Tree [#86.01] - David Arnold ["Here you go!"]
 ‣ The Eternal Wave - The Langhorns [Bubble Bass eats the Krabby Patty.]
 ‣ Phantom Train - The Surfdusters ["This is pretty good, only one thing..."]
 ‣ Action Cut A - Gregor F. Narholz ["You forgot the pickles!"]
 ‣ The Gypsy Violinist - Dick Stephen Walter [SpongeBob looks for the pickles.]
 ‣ Sailor's Waltz - Heinz Matschurat ["Money back guarantee."]
 ‣ Martial Links - Sam Fonteyn [SpongeBob forgets how to make Krabby Patties.]
 ‣ Dramatic Stabs - John Fox ["The front door is missing!"]
 ‣ Hawaiian Farewell - George Elliott [SpongeBob at home.]
 ‣ On The Beach - Kapono Beamer [SpongeBob forgets how to sleep.]
 ‣ The Tip Top Polka/The Cliff Polka - Chelmsford Folk Band [Squidward uses a fire extinguisher on the burnt Krabby Patties.]
 ‣ When Daylight Shines Captain Lenoe's - Michael Arthur, Colin Cater, Mick Graves, The Folk Players, Sarah Graves, Simon Ritchie ["I got to get SpongeBob back!"]
 ‣ Dancing The Hula - Kapono Beamer [Plays backwards when Mr. Krabs visits SpongeBob.]
 ‣ Chinese Past 2 - Yew Phoon [A gong is heard.]
 ‣ Nirvana - Yasotha Somasundram ["If you learn to make a Krabby Patty again..."]
 ‣ Troop Movement - Sam Fonteyn [Several days pass.]
 ‣ The Gunfighter - Franco Micalizzi, Roberto Predagio ["It's time."]
 ‣ The Stranger in Town - Tony Kinsey [SpongeBob returns to the Krusty Krab]
 ‣ Bandits - Andy Allan, Martyn Laight [Pickles under Bubble Bass' tongue.]
 ‣ When Daylight Shines Captain Lenoe's - Michael Arthur, Colin Cater, Mick Graves, The Folk Players, Sarah Graves, Simon Ritchie [Ending.]

Release

Distribution

• This episode is available on the Sea Stories VHS and DVD, as well as on the SpongeBob Schwammkopf Folge 3, Krusty Krab Adventures, Complete 1st Season, Home Sweet Pineapple (Italy), Hall Monitor, Holiday Cruise Collection, Home Sweet Pineapple (Greece), First 100 Episodes, SpongeBob SquarePants, iSponge Offer Pack, SpongeBob 1, The Underwater Stories, SpongeBob on DVD, The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 1, The Complete First Season, From the Beginning, Part 1, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, The First & Second Seasons, Movies & TV Collection, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, and The Best 300 Episodes Ever DVDs.
• This episode is also available on SpongeBob SquarePants Volume 2 on GBA Video and on VideoNow.

Reception

• This episode and "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" won a Golden Reel award in 1999 for Best Sound Editing in Television: Animation - Music.^[4]
• "Pickles" was ranked #27 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.

Trivia

General

• On August 21, 2020, in honor of the 21st anniversary of this episode, the SpongeBob Twitter page tweeted a picture from this episode with the caption "On this day in 1999: SpongeBob forgot the pickles."^[5]
• It is revealed that the Krusty Krab has a "money back guarantee" written on the Galley Grub, only with a literally microscopic font size.
• When SpongeBob inadvertently remembers how to make a Krabby Patty before Mr. Krabs, the order of the ingredients mentioned at the beginning is switched around. For example, when making the "Crying Johnny," the ketchup and mustard are added immediately following the patty, but when making it before Mr. Krabs, the ketchup and mustard are more toward the top.
• This episode marks the first appearance of Bubble Bass, who later becomes a recurring character in the series.
• This episode marks the first appearance of Incidental 60-73
• This is one of four episodes transcribed as a comic into the SpongeBob SquarePants/Tokyopop book Krusty Krab Adventures.
• A clip of the episode was used in the commercial for the Operation SpongeBob SquarePants edition game.
• This is the second episode where SpongeBob's bed is on the right side of his room and not the left. The first was "Help Wanted."
• Bubble Bass' order means:
  • "Double": Double the patties and cheese (1 × 2 = 2).
  • "triple": Triple the previous amount of patties and cheese (2 × 3 = 6).
  • "bossy": The patties must be all-beef patties.
  • "deluxe,": With "all the toppings".
  • "on a raft,": With Texas toast instead of burger buns.
  • "four by four,": Quadruple the previous amount of patties and cheese (6 × 4 = 24).
  • "animal style,": The patties are grilled in mustard.
  • "extra shingles": Extra toast (7 layers with 2 slices: 2 × 7 = 14).
  • "with a shimmy": The toast is spreaded with jam.
  • "and a squeeze,": Orange juice.
  • "llght axle grease,": The toast is lightly spreaded with butter.
  • "make it cry,": 24 extra onions.
  • "burn it," : The patties must be well done.
  • "and let it swim.": With special sauce, which many people confusing for "passing the order".
• Although SpongeBob lists off the condiments of a Krabby Patty, he does not mention the secret ingredient.
  • This also happens in the episode "Plankton!"
• The following scenes from this episode have become internet memes:
  • Bubble Bass' order and Squidward's response "We serve food here sir."
  • Incidental 70's line "Hey, SpongeBob's back!"
• The ways SpongeBob muddles up the order of ingredients are as follows:
  • Bun, ketchup, mustard.
  • Bun, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, mustard.
  • Bun, mustard, bun.
  • Bun, mustard, bun, ketchup.
  • Bun, mustard, bun, ketchup, shoe, mustard, pan, bun.
• The order for SpongeBob while trying to go to bed was that he said "Mattress, SpongeBob, mattress, sheet, and pillow," he was close, but the real order was "Mattress, mattress, pillow, SpongeBob, and sheet."
• The sentences SpongeBob mixes up after his confidence loss:
  • "Mr. Krabs, hello. Do you how do?" ("Hello, Mr. Krabs. How do you do?")
  • "I anything can't do right since because pickles." ("Because I can't do anything right since pickles.")
  • "I think don't ready I'm back to go to work, Mr. Krabs." ("I don't think I'm ready to go back to work, Mr. Krabs.")
  • "I do how do that?" ("How do I do that?")
• This is the first time "Dancing The Hula" plays. In this episode, it plays in reverse when Mr. Krabs is at SpongeBob's house. It would not play normally until "Karate Choppers."
• Despite SpongeBob saying three cheers for Squidward for taking over SpongeBob's duties, they do 4 cheers.
• The dialogues of Squidward guessing that Bubble Bass would order a small salad and Bubble Bass stating his order would later be featured as the opening line of the song "Krabby Step," which is one of the songs from the soundtrack of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
• In recent British and Irish airings, in the scene where SpongeBob is hammering a toast to his countertop using a nail and Mr. Krabs tells him that he needs to get his confidence back, the screen is zoomed in so that the toast being hammered in cannot be seen.^[6]
• When SpongeBob is panicking over the "missing" door, the side of the door binding is visible before the camera pans to show Mr. Krabs at it.
• When Mr. Krabs walks to SpongeBob's house, he does not use his normal walk cycle.
• SpongeBob repeats the quote "I can't do it, I can't do it!" from "Help Wanted."
• This episode introduces the alternate color palettes variants of Incidentals 1, 2, 6, 9, and 14.
  • Incidental 1's alternate color palette has been reassigned to be an alternate model of Incidental 1 that is now known as Incidental 1D instead of being an alternate palette while Incidentals 2, 6, 9, and 14's still remain as alternate palettes.

Dub facts

• In the Polish version of the episode, the customer says "Boo! Squidward stinks!" at the end instead of "Boo! You stink!"^[7]
  • In the French dub, he says "Boo! I got sick because of him!" instead^[8].
• The episode's German title, "Gedächtnisverlust", translates to not one, but two English words, these are "Memory Loss" and "Amnesia."
• In the Croatian dub, "Crying Johnny" is called "Krabby Patty for the poster."

Cultural references

• The stare-off between Bubble Bass and SpongeBob is a reference to the 1966 Italian film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
• Bubble Bass requests that his Double Triple Bossy Deluxe be served "4x4 animal style." This kind of burger can be ordered from In-n-Out Burger from the secret menu.

Errors

• When SpongeBob is going back to the Krusty Krab, he is seen wearing his hat. When he looks into the spatula, it is gone.
• When SpongeBob looks into the spatula, it has no slits. However, in the rest of the scene, it does.
• When SpongeBob says, "I'm right here, Bubble Bass," SpongeBob's footsteps can be heard, even though he does not take any steps at all.

• When Squidward gets thrown for the first time, he momentarily loses his hat.

• When SpongeBob opens the Krusty Krab kitchen door, his left eye is colored green.
• When Mr. Krabs first unrolls the blue mat of Krabby Patty ingredients, the ketchup bottle is significantly smaller than the mustard. After the passage of several days, it is equal to the mustard in size.
• When SpongeBob says, "I got it!" the onions are replaced with cheese, and in the next scene, the cheese is replaced with onions.

• The Crying Johnny and the Double Triple Bossy Deluxe have the same burger model, causing confusion.
  • In the next scene after SpongeBob makes the Crying Johnny, it changes its appearance.
• When Mr. Krabs says "SpongeBob" when he goes to his home, his white undershirt is missing.

• When Bubble Bass says, "You lose," Incidental 5 does not have a mouth.

• In this episode, on the Galley Grub menu, Krabby Patty is incorrectly spelled as "Krabby Pattie."
• When Bubble Bass runs from the Krusty Krab at the end of the episode, he is panting. However, his mouth is not open.
• SpongeBob says he cannot make a Double Krabby Patty with the works, but only one patty is used.

• When Squidward says "Twelve patties on wheat buns!" for a brief second, his neck is layered in front of his mouth.
• SpongeBob calls the twelve patties on wheat buns "One dozen crying cows on the farm," implying that Krabby Patties contain meat. However, Krabby Patties are meatless burgers.

• In the credits, Bubble Bass is misspelled as "BubbleBass." This error also occurs on the title card of "Bubble Bass's Tab."
• During the montage of SpongeBob trying to figure out how to sleep, the ship horn alarm somehow moves its position back and forth between shots on its barrel.
• When SpongeBob remembers how to make a Krabby Patty, the lighting in the living room repeatedly switches back and forth from day to night.
• Throughout the episode, whenever the front doors are shown inside the Krusty Krab, the Chum Bucket is missing across the street.
• One scene shows SpongeBob missing one pore. Also, the pores are reversed.

Video

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Czech	Správný postup	Correct procedure
Dutch	Augurken	Pickles
French	Le cornichon manquant	The Missing Pickle
German	Gedächtnisverlust	Memory Loss
Greek	Πίκλες Píkles	Pickles
Hebrew	חמוצים Hamuzim	Pickles
Hungarian	Uborka	Pickle
Italian	Tutta colpa dei sottaceti	All the Fault of Pickles
Kazakh	Тұздық Tuzdyq	Brine / Salted Water
Polish	Pikle	Pickles
Russian	Пикули Pikuli	Pickles / Pickled Vegetables
Spanish	Los pepinillos	Pickles

References

1. ^ Cable Guide (UK) January 2000 - pg. 70
2. ^ Juice! - 2000 - YouTube
3. ^ SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge Development Archives - Internet Archive
4. ^ 47th Anniversary (1999) Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award Winners - Motion Picture Sound Editors
5. ^ SpongeBob Twitter/X: "SpongeBob forgot the pickles?!"
6. ^ SpongeBob SquarePants UK edits - Pickles
7. ^ For Encyclopedia SpongeBobia
8. ^ SpongeBob - "Boo! You stink!" S01E06b - Pickles (FRENCH)