The Thing

Template:Episode/76a

Characters

• Squidward Tentacles/Smelly
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Patrick Star 
• SWAT team ^(debut)
• Gary the Snail
• Smellies
• Kelpy G ^(debut)
• Nat Peterson ^(cameo)
• Sadie ^(cameo)
• Isabelle ^(cameo)

Synopsis

The episode starts off when Squidward looks outside and it's silent. He thinks that for once he'll have some peace and quiet, that is until SpongeBob & Patrick turn up looking to spend time with him.

He slams the door in their face when they decide to invite themselves in. Of course it'll take a little more than having a door painfully slammed in their faces to make them think that Squidward doesn't like them and just as he turns on a public television program, SpongeBob & Patrick appear and come inside to watch TV with him. Squidward leaves the two in his house and gets on his bike.

While he's riding, Squidward collides into a cement truck and the truck spills cement on him. He goes through a dumpster, hill and on the ground. Covered in cement and unrecognizable, Squidward finds himself in Jellyfish Fields. Immediately after, SpongeBob & Patrick come across Squidward and, thinking he's an unknown species of animal, name him Smelly and take him to SpongeBob's house. Next, SpongeBob gives Smelly a tour of his house.

Gary doesn't take too well to Smelly and so Patrick decides to keep the latter at his house (because he's "always wanted a pet"). Once there, Smelly acts up and a frantic Patrick calls Animal Control. The police soon arrive and surround the area, and so Smelly is taken to the zoo. The next night, SpongeBob & Patrick break into Smelly's cage and try to hide from the Zoo Guards. They hide in a sewer which leads to a place where a type of species that resemble the cement-covered Squidward live.

The creatures carry Squidward away and to his surprise, the musician that was on the TV that SpongeBob, Squidward and Patrick were watching is there playing the clarinet. As he's watching the musician, the cement covering Squidward cracks open, and all the creatures start to stare at him.

Production

Music

( ‣ ) Production music

( • ) Original music

( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

 • Clownfish Capers - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [title card]
 ‣ Footsteps of Horror - W. Merrick Farran ["It's too quiet."]
 ‣ Dingle's Regatta - Brian Peters ["Could it be?"]
 • SpongeBob Closing Theme - Steve Belfer, Nicolas Carr [Squidward yells at SpongeBob and Patrick]
 ‣ Squiddy G - Nicolas Carr, Barry Anthony [smooth jazz]
 ‣ Seaweed - Steve Belfer [SpongeBob, Patrick at the door]
 ‣ Squiddy G - Nicolas Carr, Barry Anthony [smooth jazz]
 ‣ Drama Link (b) - Hubert Clifford [Squidward screams]
 ‣ Baby Elephant - Dick Stephen Walter ["All I wanted to do was watch some smooth jazz on public television."]
 ‣ The Bachelor Life (c) - Laurie Johnson ["I think I've seen this before."]
 ‣ Comic Walk - Sidney Torch [Squidward riding bike]
 ‣ Drama Link (d) - Hubert Clifford [Squidward gets covered with cement]
 ‣ Cartoon Capers (c) - Dick Stephen Walter [Squidward falls through a sewage pipe]
 ‣ Cartoon Capers (r) - Dick Stephen Walter [Squidward falls through a sewage pipe]
 ‣ House of Horror - W. Merrick Farran [Squidward stung by jellyfish]
 ‣ Steel Licks (b) - Jeremy Wakefield [cement dries]
 ‣ Hawaiian Cocktail - Richard Myhill ["Day five, I think."]
 • Vibe Sting - Nicolas Carr ["What is that thing, Patrick?"]
 ‣ Lonely Heart's Club (a) - David Bell, Otto Sieben ["Hi, stranger. I am SpongeBob."]
 ‣ Drama Link (d) - Hubert Clifford [SpongeBob and Patrick scream]
 ‣ Lonely Heart's Club (a) - David Bell, Otto Sieben ["Wait a minute, maybe he's not a monster."]
 ‣ Happy Holiday - Anthony Spurgin [back at home]
 ‣ Wooden Bear - Gil Flat, Tony Tape, Florian Voelxen [playing catch]
 ‣ Dramatic Cue (c) - Ronald Hanmer [Patrick calls Animal Control]
 ‣ Toys for Boys - Boris Schoska ["Sure, I'll hold."]
 ‣ Dramatic Cue (b) - Ronald Hanmer [Squidward tries to go home]
 ‣ Towerstreet 17 [#10] - Gerhard Narholz [SWAT team arrives]
 ‣ Dramatic Cue (e) - Ronald Hanmer [Squidward taken to zoo]
 ‣ Steel Licks (a) - Jeremy Wakefield ["Mommy, what is that thing?"]
 • Steel Licks - Jeremy Wakefield [people laughing]
 ‣ Drowsy Reef - Jeremy Wakefield, Sage Guyton ["This isn't good."]
 ‣ Creepy Sting 3 - W. Merrick Farran, Gerhard Trade [SpongeBob and Patrick try to break Squidward out]
 ‣ West Side Rumble - Sam Spence [SWAT team chases them]
 ‣ Comic Walk - Sidney Torch ["Let's see where this dark sewer tunnel leads."]
 ‣ ? [jungle]
 ‣ Hawaiian Link (b) - Richard Myhill ["I'm gonna miss him, SpongeBob."]
 ‣ Squiddy G - Nicolas Carr, Barry Anthony [ending]

Release

• This episode is available on the Season 4 Volume 2, Complete 4th Season, and First 100 Episodes DVDs.

Trivia

Template:Trivia

• This is the first episode of SpongeBob SquarePants to air in 2007.
• The squid on TV looks similar to Squidward from in dream in "SquidBob TentaclePants."
• This is the 2nd episode in which Squidward has an accident while riding a bicycle in attempt to get away from SpongeBob and Patrick. The 1st was "Jellyfishing."
• SpongeBob's grape juice box background is yellow and Patrick's is purple, but later they are both purple.
• The clarinetist is a parody of Kenny G, and the credits list his character name as "Kelpy G."
• This is the 3rd of 4 episodes transcribed into a comic in the SpongeBob/Tokyopop book "Mistaken Identity." The other 3 were "Once Bitten," "That's No Lady," and "Rule of Dumb."
• Patrick says that Squidward hates pets. In "The Great Snail Race," Squidward shows great care for his snail.
• This is the 1st appearance of Kelpy G. The 2nd was "Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom."
• The Unknown Creatures (Smellies) are known to resemble Pikmin, who are creatures from a Nintendo GameCube game.
• "Cool Jazz" will be heard once again in "Enchanted Tiki Dreams."
• Patrick never said where his house was, but somehow, the cops showed up right where they needed to.
• In this episode, Kelpy G's name wasn't revealed. However, in "Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom," his name was revealed.
  • However, his name was revealed in the closing credits to this and the sister episode.
• When SpongeBob & Patrick were watching TV, the show played the same music in "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" and Patrick said, "Oh wait! I think I've seen this before. This part's funny." It could be the same show Patrick watched in "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve."

Cultural references

• When Squidward is taken in by the other animals at the end, SpongeBob said to Patrick, "But he's with his own kind now, where he belongs, and with that, let us go back to where we belong." This was a reference to the Disney's The Jungle Book.

• The title is a reference to Marvel's Fantastic 4's, The Thing, the John Carpenter film, The Thing or Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s 2011 remake.

Errors

• At the beginning of the episode, the path to Patrick's rock is missing.
• The clarinetist's clarinet sounds more like a saxophone.
• The info on TV says that Squidward gets in a bicycling accident and gets covered in mud and leaves. He actually gets covered in cement.
• Squidward asks no one in particular if a hard-working squid could get a break. However, Squidward is an octopus, not a squid, and he doesn't even care about his job.