Squidward laments having to work at the Krusty Krab on a Sunday, a day with a dearth of customers. His nerves are further frayed by SpongeBob continually testing the service bell. Squidward reminds SpongeBob that he will ring the bell to call in orders, of which there will be none because there are no customers. His frustrated pounding of the cash register causes it to burst open and a number of coins spill out. Mr. Krabs hears the clatter and comes storming out of his office. Squidward attempts to pick the coins up, but Mr. Krabs shoves him out of the way and gingerly scoops them up to wash under the tap. SpongeBob surprises him, however, and a dime drops down the drain. Mr. Krabs quickly sticks his claw in the pipe to catch the dime and grabs hold of it, but his claw gets stuck. Refusing to relinquish the dime, he has SpongeBob assist him in pulling it out. After yanking too hard, Mr. Krabs is detached from his arms, flies backward, slams against the wall and causes all of the items on a shelf to fall onto his head.
As Mr. Krabs is being taken away to the hospital, he leaves Squidward in charge of the restaurant. Squidward seizes the opportunity to take the day off, with the excuse of running a few "very important boss-like errands," and leaves SpongeBob in charge of both the grill and the cash register. As he happily walks home, his mind turns to SpongeBob, imagining him foolishly giving Patrick enough cash to bankrupt the establishment as change for a quarter. This sudden fear coerces Squidward to hurry back the Krusty Krab. After witnessing SpongeBob's impeccable ability to make change, Squidward resumes his "errands."
Returning home with the intent to relax, Squidward next envisions SpongeBob setting the Krusty Krab on fire. Upon rushing back with fire extinguisher blazing, he finds things quite un-charred and SpongeBob eagerly awaiting the completion of Squidward's errands. Squidward goes home once more, vowing he will not return to the Krusty Krab, but visions of SpongeBob's increasingly destructive behavior send him back again and again, only to be asked each time by SpongeBob if he's completed his errands.
With his sanity stretched dangerously thin, Squidward finally resorts to barricading his door so he cannot get out. While attempting to relax with a bath, Squidward thinks he hears SpongeBob outside, but sees it is merely a branch of coral scratching against his house. He thinks that he sees SpongeBob behind the shower curtain, but it is just his toilet. Then he sees SpongeBob in the bath and escaping down the drain, which drives Squidward to burst out of the house wearing only bubbles, dashing toward the Krusty Krab.
Finding SpongeBob's already there, in fact having never left, Squidward slowly winds down and regains his sanity, relenting that his errands are finally complete, just in time for the last of his bubbles to pop. SpongeBob lends Squidward his pants, then notices that in all this time, they never switched the "Closed" sign to "Open" and that they very easily "could have taken the whole day off!" As SpongeBob laughs at this, Squidward's nose falls off and his head slowly deflates.
Production
Music
( ‣ ) Production music
( • ) Original music
( ◦ ) SpongeBob music
‣Surfin Summer Girls [#28] - Ian Henry Marsh, Phil Pickett [title card] ‣Enchanted [#68.02] - Gregor F. Narholz [opening] ‣Grass Skirt Chase - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield ["That sounds like me money dropping."] ‣Shock (f) - Dave Hewson [dime falls down drain] ‣Flight in Panic 1 - Gregor F. Narholz ["It's stuck!"] ‣Shock (u) - Dave Hewson ["Me arms!"] ‣Hawaiian Cocktail - Richard Myhill [Krabs puts Squidward in charge] ‣Hilo Rag - Guy Fletcher [Squidward gives SpongeBob a promotion] ‣Heavenly Voices (b) - David Farnon ["The cash register..."] ‣Orchestral Flourish 6 [#39.02] - Gregor F. Narholz ["I can't believe this is really happening."] ‣The Drunken Sailor - Brian Peters [played backwards during Squidward's daydream] ‣Lovely Scenery (c) - Mladen Franko ["I forgot to tell him how to make change!"] ‣The Rake Hornpipe - Robert Alexander White [change for a dollar] ‣Aloha - Dick Stephen Walter [Squidward sunbathing] ‣On Fire - Gregor F. Narholz [Squidward imagines SpongeBob setting the Krusty Krab on fire] ‣The Tip Top Polka/The Cliff Polka - Chelmsford Folk Band ["May I help you, sir?"] ‣Hawaiian Link (a) - Richard Myhill [exterior of Squidward's house] ‣Vibe Q Sting - Nicolas Carr ["I will destroy the Krusty Krab!"] ‣Tales from the Swamp (a) - Ron Goodwin [Squidward throws mirror against wall] ‣El Dementia - The Surfdusters [Squidward running back and forth] ‣Shock - Cornelus Joh Bolten [Squidward locking his front door] ‣Dangerous (a) - Mladen Franko [Squidward hears SpongeBob laughing] ‣Shock Horror (a) - Dick Stephen Walter ["Aha!"] ‣Death Trap - Gregor F. Narholz [SpongeBob swims down the drain] ‣Twelfth Street Rag - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Squidward running to the Krusty Krab] ‣Stack of Leis - Kapono Beamer [ending]
As of August 11, 2015, The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) gives this episode a rating of 8.8/10 based on 214 ratings by users.[1] TV.com users give this episode a rating of 8.9/10 based on 173 votes.[2]
"Squid's Day Off" was ranked #32 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.
The ways SpongeBob mentions to make change for a dollar are:
Four quarters
Ten dimes
Twenty nickels
One hundred pennies
One quarter, three dimes, seven nickels, and ten pennies
Including those five examples, there are a total of 242 ways to make change for a dollar out of a combination of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies. This increases to 292 ways if including half dollars, with a 293rd way if a dollar bill is simply exchanged for a dollar coin.
Squidward's skin takes on a grayish hue when he goes insane.
Near the end, there is a window in the Krusty Krab on the larger window near Mr. Krabs' office. This is somewhat impossible though because this is a hinged window within another window. This is quite similar to the drive-thru window the Krusty Krab briefly has in the Season 4 episode "Driven to Tears."
Squidward says "I will not go back to the Krusty Krab" to his mirror. The mirror then shows SpongeBob saying "I will destroy the Krusty Krab." It is possible, bar the comic effect, that this is the Alternate-Universe SpongeBob, also seen in "Something Smells," "Wet Painters," and "Chimps Ahoy."
Running Gags:
SpongeBob saying "Have you finished those errands?"
Squidward goes to the Krusty Krab in a phenomena.
SpongeBob asked Squidward if he finished his errands, around 20 times.
Squidward mentions the episode title when he says "Let Squid's Day Off begin."
This is the first time The Krusty Krab is seen on fire. The second time will be in "The Krusty Plate."
This was Andrew Overtoom's first episode as an animation director.
In the Polish dub, the episode's title is "Wolny dzień Skalmara" (Squidward's Day Off).
Cultural references
When Squidward says "You're in our thoughts.," this is an alternate version of the phrase, "You're in our prayers." They didn't use the original because kids cartoons are not supposed to talk about religion unless it is a religious show.
SpongeBob saying Mr. Krabs must let go of the dime is a reference to Where the Red Fern Grows where a raccoon gets his arm stuck after grabbing a piece of tin and all he had to do to escape was let go.
Errors
At the beginning of the episode, SpongeBob rings the bell. But when Squidward complains that there is no customers, the bell disappears. But when SpongeBob says "One Krabby Patty coming up," the bell reappears. But when the register drawer shoots open and hits Squidward, the bell disappears again.
When Mr. Krabs gets hit on the head repeatedly, the audio goes down.
In one shot while Squidward says "You get to run the cash register now" the door to Mr. Krabs' office is missing.
When Squidward says SpongeBob gets to run the cash register, the cash register boat seems way closer to the left side of the Krusty Krab; way past Mr. Krabs' office.
When Squidward is about to leave the Krusty Krab both the Chum Bucket and the road cannot be seen.
When SpongeBob said "I'm sure you are!" Squidward's neck was the same color as his shirt. And also, in another part, his neck was the same color as the Krusty Krab window.
When Squidward checked on SpongeBob for the first time, the tables and chairs are missing.
In some of the scenes where Squidward runs towards the Krusty Krab, the five flags on the Krusty Krab have disappeared.
When Squidward imagined SpongeBob burning the Krusty Krab, one of SpongeBob's legs was behind the seat, the other was in front.
When the scene shows the full area of the Krusty Krab on fire, SpongeBob is not seen at the cash register unlike the previous shot.
After the fire truck goes by, Squidward runs back, he has nothing in his hands, but when the Krusty Krab is shown he has a fire extinguisher.
When Squidward asks SpongeBob for change from the dollar, he reaches in his bottom pocket. This is impossible, as he does not wear pants.
When Squidward barricaded the door, he appeared to weld a metal cover over it. However, he was using a blowtorch, which isn't hot enough to wield and wouldn't even work underwater. He could have been soldering or brazing, but he wasn't adding any solder or brazing rod. The torch was flashing and making noise like an arc welder. Also, his door's metal cover was already riveted.
When Squidward finally cracked from running back and forth from the Krusty Krab to his house, while he was reinforcing the door, one of his eyeballs were big, from the right side, bigger than his left. When he ran back to the Krusty Krab because he thought that SpongeBob was in his house spying on him, as soon as he ran to the cash register where SpongeBob was standing, the bigger eyeball was swapped to the left side and the right side was smaller.
Squidward has eight tentacles when he dives in his bath, but he actually has six tentacles.
When Squidward is taking a bath and he looks out the window, neither SpongeBob's pineapple or Patrick's rock are nowhere to be seen out the window.
However, that could be because his window is at an angle where you can't see their houses.
When Squidward runs past Mr. Krabs at the hospital, his nose is smaller.
After the screen shows the bubbles popping that are on Squidward's body, the screen shows SpongeBob holding his clothes up above Squidward. The leg holes in the pants are missing.
When SpongeBob gave Squidward his pants, a zipping sound was heard. This is not possible, as SpongeBob's pants are slip-on and don't have a zipper.
