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Encyclopedia SpongeBobia
If you were looking for the article about the character, then see Mr. Paper.

"The Paper" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 1. In this episode, SpongeBob plays with Squidward's bubble gum wrapper.

Characters[]

Synopsis[]

As the episode begins, Squidward comes outside to start his relaxing day. He begins it by chewing bubble gum while laying in his lawn chair, and tosses the wrapper into SpongeBob's front yard. SpongeBob comes outside of his house as well, only to realize that Squidward has dropped his wrapper on SpongeBob's yard. As Squidward is about to leave at the sight of SpongeBob, the latter catches him on time to ask if he wants it back. Squidward thinks it is only garbage, but SpongeBob states that in the right hands, it can be a goldmine of entertainment. Squidward does not believe SpongeBob and walks inside his house. SpongeBob asks him again if he wants it back, but he still refuses to keep it and tells SpongeBob he can have it.

With a sigh of relief, Squidward answers his ringing phone. When he answers it, it is actually SpongeBob asking if he is sure. Squidward angrily says that he is and that SpongeBob can keep it forever. Squidward hangs up the phone by slamming it, and starts panting from exhaustion. SpongeBob pops up from under the table the phone was on and asks Squidward if he is really sure. Squidward angrily tells him to get out of his house and finally pushes him out. SpongeBob says it is his last time to change his mind, and Squidward tells SpongeBob one last time that he can keep it no matter how much he begs, pleads, or cries to have it back, and slams the door, so SpongeBob decides to keep that promise. After Squidward is out of SpongeBob's sight, SpongeBob says to the paper that he is lucky to have a friend like Squidward.

Squidward is back inside his house to continue his planned, relaxing day. He hears SpongeBob's obnoxious laughter and begins to play his clarinet. He still hears SpongeBob's laughing and opens his window to ask SpongeBob what he is giggling about. SpongeBob apologizes and says that he is thinking about all the fun he is going to have with the paper. Squidward goes back to his clarinet, wondering how anyone can have fun with a piece of paper. He starts to play his clarinet again, but is interrupted by SpongeBob's laughing.

Squidward gets very angry and opens his window again to see SpongeBob frolicking with the paper and showing Gary what fun things he can do with it. He pretends he is SuperSponge and uses the paper as his cape. Then he pretends to be SpongeBob JunglePants and swings on vines while he does a Tarzan yell with the paper covering his crotch area. He lands on his house, starts grunting, and says he will call his animal friends by making different animal noises. Gary meows and SpongeBob says that Gary is right and that he is not a jungle boy. Afterwards, SpongeBob jumps off of the roof of his house, saying that he is a box of army supplies, and uses the paper as a parachute. Next, he pretends to be a bull fighter with the paper being the blanket and having Gary as the bull.

The Paper 078

SpongeBob made a paper bird.

SpongeBob then does impressions. He does a guy with a mustache, a pirate with an eye patch, and a regular guy with an eye patch. He then starts to suck the paper in through his holes and blow it back out repeatedly. Squidward wonders how he does this and SpongeBob is shown making origami by swishing the paper around in his mouth. He makes a bird, a snowflake, and paper dolls. Squidward says that the paper does look like fun, but then covers his mouth, asking himself what he is saying. He storms back inside and says that the paper is not fun, but reading Boring Science digest is, and starts to read it. He is interrupted by SpongeBob laughing again. Squidward, while taking a bath, talking about how it is fun, but the paper then comes around the tub as an airplane with SpongeBob making the engine and gun noises. Then, Squidward is painting fruit and thinks that nothing is more fun than painting fruit. Squidward paints vigorously until he realizes he just painted himself playing with the paper and destroys the painting in rage. Squidward says to himself that he will prove to SpongeBob that the paper is not fun.

Squidward walks fast outside of his house to play with a paddle ball. SpongeBob also uses the paper as a paddle ball, making Squidward feel dumb. He then gets SpongeBob's attention by playing with a Mini Squidward dummy. SpongeBob also does a dummy with the paper and everyone in Bikini Bottom laughs at the joke. Squidward rides in his shell car, saying that it's fun, and asks SpongeBob if the paper can do that. SpongeBob hovers above Squidward with the paper acting as a helicopter, replying "no." Squidward then asks SpongeBob if the paper can play music and starts to play his clarinet. He plays "Mary Had a Little Lamb," but with all of the wrong notes. SpongeBob says that he made it sound original, and corrects Squidward by playing a jazz version of it on the paper.

The Paper 183

SpongeBob wearing Squidward's shirt.

Finally having enough, Squidward demands SpongeBob to give him back his paper, but SpongeBob reminds Squidward that he told him to never give it back to him, no matter how much he begs, pleads, or cries, and sticks to his word. Squidward suggests that he could trade for something and offers a rubber band. SpongeBob almost trades, but says that Squidward is just testing him and that he will never give the paper to him. He then trades every possession he has, even his house, for the paper. SpongeBob still tries to keep his promise, until Squidward offers his shirt. He accepts the trade and gives Squidward the paper. Squidward is happy at first, but when he starts to try to do the other things that SpongeBob was doing with it, he has no fun whatsoever with it. Squidward realizes that the paper was not fun, SpongeBob just made it look fun because of how creative and optimistic he is. And since Squidward, who only wanted the paper to be better than SpongeBob, is not creative or optimistic, he cannot do all the things with the paper that SpongeBob could.

Now Squidward is lamenting that he gave away all his possessions for a useless piece of paper. Patrick, who is casually walking by, takes the paper from Squidward and uses it as a disposable wrapper for his gum, leaving Squidward with nothing as he asks for sunscreen.

Production[]

This episode was announced on January 17, 2000,[2] along with it's sister episode "Valentine's Day."

Art[]

Music[]

 ) Production music
 ) Original music
 ) SpongeBob music

  Grass Skirts Blowing (Hilo March) - The Hawaiian Serenaders [title card]
  Dancing The Hula - Kapono Beamer [opening]
  Squid Clarinet 6 - Brad Carow [Squidward playing clarinet]
  Hawaiian Link (A) - Richard Myhill ["How can anyone have fun with just a piece of paper?"]
  Squid Clarinet 7 - Brad Carow [Squidward playing clarinet]
  Marching to Honolulu - Kapono Beamer [Super Sponge]
  War Blower - The Blue Hawaiians [SpongeBob JunglePants]
  Big Ed's March - Sam Spence [box of army supplies]
  Latinia - The Langhorns [bullfight]
  12th St Rag Slo - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [impressions]
  Nick's SNR Roll - Nicolas Carr [oral-gami]
  Vibe Link (B) - Richard Myhill ["Hey, that little paper does seem like fun."]
  Honolulu March - George K, J Dounfrey, Hans Haider [Squidward taking a bath]
  Fault Line - The Mel-Tones [Squidward's shell cart]
  Squid Clarinet 7 - Brad Carow [Squidward playing clarinet]
  Squid Clarinet 8 - Brad Carow [Squidward plays off-key / SpongeBob plays off-key]
  Clarinet - Brad Carow [SpongeBob plays on-key]
  Squid Clarinet 9 - Brad Carow [SpongeBob plays in A minor]
  Dramatic Cue (D) - Ronald Hanmer [Squidward tries to take back the paper]
  Dancing The Hula - Kapono Beamer [flipbook]
  Orchestral Effect (f) - Dick Stephen Walter ["Pocket lint!"]
  Vibe Link (A) - Richard Myhill ["Do I dare?"]
  Shark Alert [#46] - David Farnon ["You are not going anywhere until we strike a deal!"]
  Hawaiian Cocktail - Richard Myhill [Squidward giving SpongeBob all his stuff]
  Whisper from the Past [#64.02] - Gregor F. Narholz ["Squidward's shirt!"]
  Grass Skirts Blowing (Hilo March) - The Hawaiian Serenaders [Squidward takes the paper]
  Nick's SNR Roll - Nicolas Carr [drum roll]
  Big Ed's March - Sam Spence ["Gentlemen, start your engines!"]
  Squid Clarinet11 - Brad Carow [Gary playing clarinet]
  Sailor's Waltz - Heinz Matschurat ["Wait! More impressions!"]
  Aloha - Dick Stephen Walter ["A worthless piece of paper"]

Release[]

Reception[]

Trivia[]

General[]

  • The scene where Squidward plays wrong notes on his clarinet and SpongeBob playing the correct notes on the paper and doing it in the key of A-minor has become a meme where the song that Squidward and SpongeBob were playing has changed into a different song.
  • According to the old Nickelodeon website and some production art, this episode was originally going to be called "Lemons Out of Lemonade."
  • The science-related things Squidward mentions are on the cover of Boring Science: Erosion on the back, mitosis on the front under the title. Erosion is when water or wind wears away rock and land, while mitosis is when one cell splits into two.
  • When SpongeBob plays the song Squidward played "the wrong notes" on, he claims to play in the key of "A Minor," when in fact, he actually plays in the key of C Major. Although technically, he could've been playing in A Minor, as it is parallel to the C Major scale.
  • List of impressions:
    • A guy with a mustache
    • A pirate with an eye patch
    • A regular guy with an eye patch
    • A guy with a piece of paper on his nose
    • A guy throwing a piece of paper on the ground
    • A guy stomping the piece of paper (follow up to the above)
  • The list of oral-gami that was made:
    • a swan
    • a snowflake
    • a paper doll
    • plus a failed one that turned out to appear as a crumbled ball of paper
  • Here were the other uses:
    • a flip book of Squidward
    • a musical instrument to correct Squidward's music
    • a loincloth
    • a paper airplane armed with imaginary machine guns
    • a puppet
    • a helicopter
    • a parachute
    • a bullfighting cloth
    • a cape
    • a suck in and out trick
    • paper paddle-ball
    • SpongeBob rolled it on his head
  • In the Croatian dub, the episode name is "Komadić Papira," which translates to "The Piece of Paper."
  • Clips of this episode were seen on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on November 25, 2006.
  • Carolyn Lawrence in several interviews, rates this episode as her favorite.[citation needed]
  • In prior past airings on Nickelodeon, this episode and "Valentine's Day" aired only in early February, making both episodes extremely rare to find on TV. By early 2020, the network has started to air both episodes in a regular airing rotation.
  • The piece Gary plays on Squidward's clarinet has also been used in the intro and outro of every Astrology with Squidward short.
  • Very early storyboards of this episode reveal that the episode was originally going to be about Squidward's belongings coming alive and SpongeBob having to fight back using the paper.
  • This is the first episode for two things:
  • This is the only episode in the series to play "Dancing The Hula" entirely.
  • During the Best Day Ever marathon, this episode was paired with "Chocolate with Nuts."[4]
  • When SpongeBob does origami with paper, the kid voices from the SpongeBob SquarePants Theme Song can be heard.

Cultural references[]

  • The magazine that Squidward reads while trying to clear his mind from SpongeBob's paper is a parody/spoof of Popular Science.
  • The tune that SpongeBob plays on the piece of paper is "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Errors[]

Real notes for original mary had little lamb

User-drawn correction of the first erroneous "Mary Had a Little Lamb" music notation.

  • Neither sheet music that appears in the episode matches their respective songs that SpongeBob plays when making music with the paper.
  • When Squidward is trying to take the paper from SpongeBob, Squidward's skin color is pale.
  • When Squidward first shuts the door, it has a handle. Later, it is a doorknob.
ThePaper07066

Yellow teeth error.

  • When Squidward trades his house for SpongeBob's paper, SpongeBob's teeth are yellow for a split second.
The Paper 126

His outline is gone and there's a small amount of green.

  • When Squidward tries to get the paper from SpongeBob a light amount of green is shown and his outline is gone.
  • When Squidward is painting and gets distracted by SpongeBob's paper, his picture has the mouth closed, but when he breaks it, one of the halves show the mouth is open with a smile.
The Paper 001

Patrick's and SpongeBob's houses are missing.

  • At the beginning of the episode, Patrick and SpongeBob's houses are missing.
  • When SpongeBob tries on Squidward's shirt, his house is missing its chimney. The same error also happened after Squidward sold his stuff to SpongeBob.


References[]

Wikipedia logo This page uses content from Wikipedia (originalauthors). Both Encyclopedia SpongeBobia and Wikipedia are licensed under the CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported license.


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