Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost

"Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 1. In this episode, Squidward pretends to be a ghost after SpongeBob and Patrick think he is dead.

Characters

SpongeBob SquarePants
Squidward Tentacles
Patrick Star
Sandy Cheeks (cameo)
Eugene Krabs (speaking cameo)
Clayton (cameo)
Lenny (cameo)
Jennifer (cameo)
Jimmy (cameo)

Synopsis

Squidward is proud of having just finished his wax sculpture of himself and declares he has "conquered all artistic

File:220px-Ariana Grande by David Shankbone.jpg

medium". But then, he is annoyed by SpongeBob and Patrick's unknown game Bubble chess. Squidward then tells them both to play frisbee. While he goes to take a bath, SpongeBob and Patrick throw a shell with which they are playing frisbee into Squidward's house, and it hits the sculpture. SpongeBob and Patrick think they've injured Squidward, and after several humorous attempts to "resuscitate" him, they believe that Squidward is dead.

Squidward, fresh from his pampered bath, dramatically emerges in a rush of steam from the warm bathroom, wearing talcum powder and a white bathrobe and towel. SpongeBob and Patrick believe they are seeing Squidward's ghost and, hoping to avoid any hauntings or punishments, place themselves as Squidward's willing servants. Squidward gleefully takes advantage of the situation, having them serve and pamper him, do chores, and simply entertain him.

Eventually, SpongeBob and Patrick, while entering a "messy" room, come across a comic book inspired by the story of the Flying Dutchman (who haunted the seas because his body was used as a window display in a clothing store and he died), and decide that since Squidward is a vengeful spirit, SpongeBob and Patrick think they need to have Squidward to be put to rest. SpongeBob and Patrick try with a shoe box casket. Squidward refused to go in. Thus, SpongeBob and Patrick try to give him a proper burial as well as a funeral. Squidward eventually admits his charade, but SpongeBob and Patrick believe that Squidward is simply in denial about his death. SpongeBob blows a giant bubble that engulfs Squidward and sends him floating up to "the great beyond".

Production

Music

( ‣ ) Production music
( • ) Original music
( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

‣ Tales from the Swamp (a) - Ron Goodwin [title card]
‣ Smoke and Dreams - Otto Sieben [opening]
‣ Hilo March - The Hawaiian Serenaders [SpongeBob and Patrick playing games]
‣ Bossa Cubana - Gerhard Narholz [Squidward takes a bath]
• Gator - Steve Belfer [tossing a shell back, forth]
‣ Lovely Scenery C - Mladen Franko [Squidward's statue melted]
‣ Bossa Cubana - Gerhard Narholz [Squidward putting on a towel]
‣ Dangerous A - Mladen Franko [putting the statue back together]
‣ Dramatic Cue (h) - Ronald Hanmer [eyes turn over]
‣ Deep Grief 1 - Otto Sieben ["He's pushing up daisies!"]
‣ Tales from the Swamp (a) - Ron Goodwin [Squidward comes out of the bathroom]
‣ Dramatic Cue (d) - Ronald Hanmer ["Look what you've done to me!"]
‣ In the Crypt - Dave Hewson ["Enough! Listen up!"]
‣ Tales from the Swamp (c) - Ron Goodwin [end of Squidward's speech]
• Seaweed - Steve Belfer [taking Squidward outside]
‣ The Rake Hornpipe - Robert Alexander White [feeding Squidward]
‣ Stack of Leis - Kapono Beamer [night passes]
‣ In the Crypt - Dave Hewson ["What's this? Napping on the job?"]
‣ The Achterhoek Dances - Jan Rap [cleaning the back room]
‣ In the Cradle (b) - Dick Stephen Walter [comic book about Flying Dutchman]
• Gator - Steve Belfer [putting Squidward to rest]
‣ Funeral Music - Alfred Kluten [the mourners]
‣ Hawaiian Happiness - Jon Jelmer [Squidward confesses]
‣ Vibe Link (b) - Richard Myhill ["Patrick, say that again."]
‣ Queen's Aloha Oe C - Kapono Beamer, Queen Lili'uokalani [ending]

Release

This episode is available on DVD on Home Sweet Pineapple, The Complete 1st Season, The First 100 Episodes, and Halloween.

Reception

"Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost" was ranked #95 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.

Trivia

This episode marks the first appearance of the Flying Dutchman, although he is seen only in pictures and does not physically appear. His first live appearance was in the Halloween episode "Scaredy Pants".
This is one of the seven episodes in which the 1986 Paramount logo is plastered with the 2002 Paramount logo. The others are "Help Wanted", "Squeaky Boots", "F.U.N.", "Employee of the Month", "Karate Choppers" and "Rock Bottom".
When SpongeBob says G7, the chord is played on a ukulele.
This is the only episode where Squidward's house is depicted with an elevator in it.
Squidward PRETENDS to be a ghost in this episode, but in the future episode, Greasy Buffoons , he can vanish into thin air.
When Squidward asks, "What are you invertebrates doing?" SpongeBob and Patrick seem to have made up a nonsensical game having to do with (presumably among other things) chess boards, bubbles and rocks. SpongeBob and Patrick say, "We don't know". This may be a reference to Calvinball, a game played in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.
When Squidward gives SpongeBob a piece of tissue paper and asks that he plays a song with it, SpongeBob refuses, saying he cannot. However, in the episode "The Paper", SpongeBob is shown to be able to replicate the notes of a clarinet perfectly with a gum wrapper. It is possible that SpongeBob was too afraid of Squidward's "ghost" to bring proper music to the paper when he actually attempted to play a song with it or because it was a piece of tissue instead of a candy wrapper.
When Squidward was in the bubble at the end of the episode, the cry he made sounded very similar to the cry he made while he was in the full body cast in "Jellyfishing." And on captions, they say "Mommy"

Cultural references

During the scene when Patrick and SpongeBob are carrying Squidward around in servitude to him, with Squidward complaining it is "too hot" or "too wet", they stumble onto an aquatic version of the painting La Troupe de Mlle. Eglantine. Squidward quips that it is "Too loose, Lautrec", a pun on the name of the painting's artist, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, with an accompanying rimshot.
The episode's name is a parody of "Casper the Friendly Ghost".

Errors

When Squidward is on the royal bed, SpongeBob's house is missing.
After Patrick says "I think they make a cream for that now", Squidward's face powder is missing.
Squidward was in a bubble, even though bubbles are filled with air and "air is not good" for sea creatures.
In real life, the bubble would have popped once it touched Squidward.
When Squidward leaves the bathroom, he is really transparent.