Big Pink Loser

If you were looking for the article about the VHS, then see Big Pink Loser (VHS).

Characters

• French Narrator
• Sea urchins
• Patrick Star
• Jellyfish
• Template:Data:Links
• Gary the Snail Template:Cameo
• Giant monkey man ^{(single appearance; mentioned)}
• Little monkey man ^{(single appearance; mentioned)}
• Eugene H. Krabs ^(mentioned)
• Squidward Tentacles Template:Cameos
• Customers on the phone Template:Single appearance
• Template:Data:Links
  • Fred
  • Incidental 6
  • Incidental 8
  • Incidental 37B
  • Incidental 41
  • Incidental 42
  • Incidental 47 ^{(deleted scene)}
  • Incidental 48
  • Incidental 60
  • Mabel (Inc 82)
  • Incidental 85
  • Incidental 100
  • Incidental 119
  • Mr. Mailman (Inc 154)
• Scallop
• Mary and her lamb ^{(single appearance; mentioned)}
• Sea weevil ^{(single appearance; mentioned)}

Synopsis

As Patrick wakes up one morning, a parcel is shoved into his mouth. Curious, he opens it and finds a large, shiny trophy inside. Excited, he starts showing everyone his new award, including the jellyfish and even the Bikini Atoll Island. He shows it off to SpongeBob, who then realizes that the trophy is actually for him after spotting his name on it.

File:Big Pink Loser 032.png

Patrick crying, because he wanted an award like SpongeBob.

Patrick is disappointed as he hands the award to SpongeBob, feeling even more disappointed when he unwittingly opens a closet filled to the brim with SpongeBob's awards. SpongeBob tries to help him find a way to win an award, and eventually, Patrick decides to get a job working alongside SpongeBob at the Krusty Krab. Squidward discovers that Patrick is hired and quits as a result.

First, Patrick is assigned to take some food to a customer. However, every time he brings it to the customer, he eats it, even as SpongeBob breaks down the process for him. A simpler task SpongeBob gives Patrick is to answer the phone, but he ends up getting angry when he thinks people are calling him the "Krusty Krab" when they are actually calling the place itself, leading SpongeBob to tell him that the Krusty Krab is the name of the restaurant. At this point, Patrick is almost completely demoralized, but SpongeBob urges him on. Patrick follows up with sweeping dust from under the floor near table 3, but uses the wrong end of the broom and while sweeping, a customer approaches him to ask him if came in from "Stupidtown," which saddens Patrick further. Suddenly, a delivery man comes in with a load of awards for SpongeBob. This greatly infuriates Patrick to the point where he whacks the floor with the broom eight times, making dust fly everywhere and all the customers cough. Patrick loses control and laments that he will never win a trophy.

After rushing the frustrated and disheartened Patrick off into the kitchen, SpongeBob presents him with the simple and basic task of opening a jar. When even this proves to be difficult at first, SpongeBob instructs him to do it exactly as he does. This mantra prompts Patrick to open the jar successfully. However, for a second, Patrick thinks he broke it. SpongeBob tells him he did it right, and he and SpongeBob begin celebrating. Patrick now feels more confident and poised, and he controls his temper by telling SpongeBob how he opened the jar. SpongeBob tells Patrick to do what he does, and he will have an award someday.

File:Big Pink Loser 129.png

Patrick copies SpongeBob.

The next day, Patrick starts taking even more cues from SpongeBob. He ends up wearing the same outfit as him and copying every single one of SpongeBob's actions and mannerisms in the hope of achieving the same success as his friend, much to the surprise of the Bikini Bottom citizens, who think they are seeing double of SpongeBob. In annoyance towards Patrick's imitation, SpongeBob seemingly places his hand on a hot grill to prove Patrick was copying him. Patrick takes the bait, and once he cries out in pain, SpongeBob reveals that he was using a decoy hand. As he and Patrick run back to their neighborhood, Patrick's hat flies off, and Squidward picks it up while returning to work. SpongeBob tries multiple antics to convince Patrick to stop copying him, all of which are unsuccessful. SpongeBob even notices that Patrick has painted his rock to look almost exactly like SpongeBob's pineapple.

SpongeBob resorts to dressing up as Patrick, but it only makes Patrick more certain of the fact that his old self was nothing but a "big pink loser." As it turns out, however, the next award to arrive, which Patrick initially thinks is for SpongeBob again, is actually for a person who won it for "doing absolutely nothing longer than anyone else." This award turns out to be for Patrick, and SpongeBob is proud of him. Overjoyed, Patrick decides to protect his new title by going back under his rock and falling fast asleep, returning to his old, lazy self after he realizes that it was the reason why he got an award in the first place.

Production

This episode's storyboard was completed on November 22, 1999.

Model sheets

• File:Big Pink Loser production art.jpg
• File:100C Pieces of SpongeBob.JPG

Art

Character design

• Art of the fishes from the deleted scene.
  Art of the fishes from the deleted scene.
• File:Patcutup.jpg

Background design

• Sourced from the Internet Archive, done by the crew in-house at Nickelodeon.

• Title card background.
  Title card background.
• Title card background (alt variant).
  Title card background (alt variant).
• File:SB144-SC.001.png
• File:SB144-SC.002.png
• File:SB144-SC.005.png
• File:SB144-SC.008.png
• File:SB144-SC.009.png
• File:SB144-SC.010B.png
• File:SB144-SC.019.png
• File:SB144-SC.036.png
• File:SB144-SC.059.png
• File:SB144-SC.060.png
• File:SB144-SC.060C.png
• File:SB144-SC.082A.png
• File:SB144-SC.104.png
• File:SB144-SC.110.png
• File:SB144-SC.110A.png

Storyboards

• The original name for the episode.
  The original name for the episode.
• File:BPL-storyboard 1.jpg
• Art from a deleted scene.
  Art from a deleted scene.
• File:Image2-1.jpg
• File:Sweep sb bpl.png
• File:Shock sb bpl.png

Release

Distribution

• This episode is available on the Tide and Seek, Complete 2nd Season, First 100 Episodes, The Complete Second Season, Laugh Your Pants Off, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, SpongeBob on DVD, Sponge Crazy, The Best 300 Episodes Ever, The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, Your Shoes are Loose, Imitation Krabs, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, Friend Is The Best, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 2, From the Beginning, Part 1, Simply Patrick, SpongeBob and Friends: Patrick SquarePants, The First & Second Seasons, and The Best 200 Episodes Ever DVDs.
• This episode is also available on the Tide and Seek, Big Pink Loser, and Laugh Your Pants Off VHS tapes.

Reception

• Template:Rank
• One scene of this episode was ranked #8 in the "100 Greatest Nicktoon Episodes."
• Template:Rank2

Trivia

General

File:1f9.png

No! This is Patrick!

File:RobloxScreenShot20230318 143634961.png

A reference to the meme in Nickverse.

• Three parts of the episode have become internet memes:
  • The scene where Patrick says, "No! This is Patrick!" on the phone in response to people asking if they are calling the Krusty Krab has become a popular internet meme.
    • Additionally, this meme was also referenced in Nickverse as a title of a quest.
  • SpongeBob's line "Patrick, that's a pickle." has become a popular meme on YouTube, usually replacing both the pickle itself and SpongeBob's mention of it with something else but every "You need a jar." is replaced with the exterior of the Krusty Krab either getting blown up or being shot at and with several screams and "Steel Sting" playing. SpongeBob's screams comes from "Graveyard Shift", Patrick's screams comes from "I Had an Accident", and Squidward's screams comes from "Have You Seen This Snail."
  • Incidental 41 saying "Hey, pal, you just blow in from Stupidtown?"
• This is the only season 2 episode to use the track "Cream Pie."
  • This is also the first episode to use that track as title card music.
• This is the first episode for a few things:
  • The first episode to reveal Patrick Star's last name.
  • Jay Lender's first episode as a storyboard director instead of a storyboard artist.
  • The first episode to be written by William Reiss.
• This is the second episode for two things:
  • The second episode where SpongeBob shrinks. The first is "Nature Pants."
    • This time, however, he seems to be able to shrink and grow at will.
  • The second episode where the arrow on top of Patrick's rock falls off, after "Home Sweet Pineapple."
• This is one of eight season 2 episodes to use the season 1 character model for SpongeBob, the others being "Your Shoe's Untied," "Squid's Day Off," "Bossy Boots," "Imitation Krabs," "Life of Crime," "Dumped," and "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic."
  • SpongeBob's season 1 model appears again in the Season 15 episode, "A Fish Called Sandy."
• In some versions, at the beginning of the episode, the audio sound of the parcel being shoved into Patrick's mouth is heard before the mailman shoves it into his mouth. This version can be seen in the UK for example.
• There is a book based on this episode titled And the Winner Is...
• Although this episode, "Your Shoe's Untied," and "Squid's Day Off" are season 2 episodes, Patrick had his original sideways "M" shaped eyebrows from season 1, instead of his new "Z" shaped ones.
  • On the Complete 2nd Season Audio Commentary for this episode, it is mentioned by one of the people in the commentary that this episode was made around the time when Patrick's eyebrows were not fully colored in yet. That meant this episode was made before "Something Smells." His new "Z" shaped eyebrows first appeared in "Your Shoe's Untied" during the "Loop de Loop" musical number, when he got a shoe as a scoop of ice cream. His "Z" shaped eyebrows appear again in this episode when he is reminiscing how he finally was able to open the jar, suggesting that these scenes were the last from their respective episodes to be animated.
    • This is the last episode to feature Patrick's sideways "M" shaped eyebrows. However, they still appear in some episodes through errors only, like "Patty Hype" and "Mid-Life Crustacean" for example and they would also make a return in "SpongeBob and Patrick's Timeline Twist-Up" for the "Rock Bottom" and "Neptune's Spatula" segments.
• This is the first episode of season 2 to feature the Krusty Krab without Mr. Krabs, although he is mentioned by Patrick and SpongeBob when they enter the restaurant.
• The scene where SpongeBob helps Patrick open the jar was used on Nicktoons as a "Rockin' Nicktoon Moment."
• This episode and its sister episode "Bubble Buddy," were the only episodes to have their PAL speed-up audio pitch noticeably affected when airing in countries that used the PAL system until the season 4 episode "Fear of a Krabby Patty"/"Shell of a Man."
  • However, in some countries (such as Australia), the audio of "Party Pooper Pants" was affected.
• When Patrick jumps out of the water to show his award to Bikini Atoll, he quickly begins suffocating. However, in "Pressure" and "Rodeo Daze," he breathes on dry land without any issue.
• When SpongeBob fully shrinks, he has a high-pitched, nasally voice. But when he says "Yeah" just before he returns to his normal size, his voice has already gone back to normal.
• Patrick mentions the episode's title when he says, "What's so great about being a Big Pink Loser?"
  • The title is also mentioned by Squidward in the season 12 episode "Shell Games" when he says, "So long, you big pink loser!"
• This episode's working title was "Single Pink Starfish."
• On the November 10, 2006 airing, this episode was paired with "All That Glitters."
• The tactic of imitating the imitator to restore them to their old self is later used in "Mimic Madness." In that episode, Patrick (alongside Template:Data:Links, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and Template:Data:Links) all imitate SpongeBob.

Dub facts

• In the Dutch dub. Patrick says "Tartar sauce!" instead of "Fish paste!" when realizing "Krusty Krab" is the name of the restaurant.
• In the Latin American Spanish dub, the part where the delivery man says "Trophy Delivery!," is undubbed.
• In the same dub, the title is known as "Perdedor rosado", which is translated as "Pink Loser" without the word "Big".

Cultural references

• The song SpongeBob and Patrick whistle while frying Template:Data:Links is "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
• This episode's working title, "Single Pink Starfish" is a reference to the film series' title Single White Female.

Errors

• When Patrick comes into SpongeBob's house and ruins his Gary-shaped house of cards, the sounds of a door opening and closing can be heard, but the door in the background is not animated; Patrick "pops" into the screen behind the house of cards.
• After Patrick throws the broom on the ground in the kitchen, it disappears after he opens the jar.
• When Patrick copies SpongeBob in the kitchen, they "drop" their spatulas. A few shots later, SpongeBob and Patrick point at each other, but the spatulas are nowhere to be seen.

File:Notooth.png

SpongeBob without teeth

• When SpongeBob tries to tell Patrick not to open his award closet, he has no buck teeth. They reappear a few frames before Patrick opens the door.
• When SpongeBob and Patrick are running down the road to the Krusty Krab shouting "I'm ready" together, specifically, when SpongeBob looks suspiciously at Patrick, his buck teeth disappear for one frame. His bottom lip is also duplicated in the frame prior to this.

• File:Mouthandline.webp

  SpongeBob with a white mouth interior, and Patrick with a pink outline on his clothes.

  In another frame while they are running to the Krusty Krab, the interior of SpongeBob's mouth is colored white while part of Patrick's brown pants have a pink outline instead of a black one.
• While Patrick is being shocked after showing the award to a herd of jellyfish, a visible pink star flashes in and out of view in the top-right corner.

File:BigPinkLosserErrorTable.png

The table appears by itself.

• When SpongeBob becomes smaller, there is nothing behind them, but when Patrick picks him up, there is a table behind him.
• When SpongeBob's nose pops back out when he is pretending to be Patrick, his buck teeth are not shown when he is frowning. However, in the next scene, he still has the same frown and his teeth are now visible.

File:Big Pink Loser 173.png

SpongeBob's pores are reversed.

• After SpongeBob challenges and bests Patrick at jump rope, his pores are reversed.
• When SpongeBob sees the trophy is really for him, his right buck tooth is missing.

File:Eyebpl.webp

SpongeBob with a yellow eye.

• After Patrick eats the customer's food while delivering the tray, one of SpongeBob's eyes is briefly colored yellow.
• When Patrick answers the third caller asking if they've called the Krusty Krab, the symbol on the Krusty Krab employee hat disappears for a few frames and then reappears.

File:Big Pink Loser error.png

The right side of SpongeBob's shirt is yellow.

• For a split second, while Patrick is running with SpongeBob, the right side of SpongeBob's shirt turns yellow.
• The Chum Bucket is missing in this episode.

Videos

• File:What’s That Smell?!👃 ThrowbackThursdays SpongeBob
• File:Patrick Tries to Open a Jar ⭐️ "The Lid" Scene SpongeBob
• File:Patrick is an AWARD WINNING starfish (maybe) 🏆 - SpongeBob -short
• File:Can Patrick open... the LID?! 😱 - SpongeBob -shorts

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Finnish	Palkinto	Prize
French	La course au titre	The Title Race
German	Dick, rosa und dumm	Fat, Pink, and Stupid
Hungarian	A nagy rózsaszín balfék	The Big Pink Loser
Italian	Un trofeo per Patric	A Trophy for Patrick
Polish	Różowa oferma	Pink Loser
Russian	Большой розовый неудачник Bol'shoy rozovyy neudachnik	Big Pink Loser
Spanish (American)	Perdedor rosado	Pink Loser
Spanish (European)	El gran fracasado rosa	The Big Pink Loser