A Day Without Tears

Characters

• Template:Data:Links
• Radio DJ ^{(heard only)}
• Eely Dan ^(mentioned)
• Lionel Fishie ^(mentioned)
• Squidward Tentacles
• Eugene H. Krabs
• French Narrator
• Patrick Star
• Scallops
• Template:Data:Links
  • Dale
  • Tuck Tucker (Ripped Pants)
  • Incidental 102
  • Bikini Bottom Men's Choir
    • Steve
    • Stretch
    • Incidental 42
    • Troutenheimer
    • Incidental 27
  • Snail 13 Template:Debut
  • Jill
• Gary the Snail
• Margaret SquarePants ^(mentioned)
• Harold SquarePants ^(mentioned)
• Anchor fish Template:Debut
• Manatee ^(mentioned)
• Mermaid Man ^(mentioned)
• Barnacle Boy ^(mentioned)
• Kid fish Template:Debut
• Dad fish
• Little Angler ^(mentioned)
• Jack Template:Debut

Synopsis

File:A Day Without Tears 042.png

SpongeBob cried 43 times.

The episode starts with SpongeBob waking up, excited to start his day. While walking, he stubs his toe and starts crying. Later while getting dressed, SpongeBob accidentally rips his favorite outfit with a hanger and cries again. While eating breakfast and listening to the radio, SpongeBob hears a sad song, and this makes him cry yet again. Next door, Squidward is becoming annoyed by SpongeBob's crying.

At the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob is cooking a Krabby Patty when he is startled by Mr. Krabs, causing the patty to fall on the floor. SpongeBob cries as he throws the patty in the trash, lamenting how it isn't fair. Squidward becomes irritated by SpongeBob's wailing and yells, "Krabby Patty nothing!" when SpongeBob tries to explain what happened. SpongeBob begins crying again because Squidward yells at him, at which point Squidward gives up.

Later that day, Squidward confronts SpongeBob over how he has cried 43 times today before 2:00 pm. SpongeBob is doubtful he has "that many tears in his brain" but Squidward pulls up a TV and plays a video montage he edited which shows the number of different times SpongeBob has cried over the years over very minor things. After watching thousands of instances of his crying, SpongeBob realizes Squidward is right. He promises to stop, but Squidward rebukes his words and makes a bet with SpongeBob that he couldn't last until midnight without crying. After a call with Patrick over the phone over his opinion of not crying the rest of the day, SpongeBob agrees with Squidward and they set the wager: If SpongeBob cries even one tear before midnight, he has to do various chores for Squidward for a year; If he does not, Squidward has to sleep over at SpongeBob's house for a night. Squidward is bothered by SpongeBob's end of the bet and thinks to himself that SpongeBob could cry any minute now.

File:A Day Without Tears 090.png

Squidward tries to get SpongeBob to cry.

After the bet is made, Squidward follows SpongeBob home; to ensure he does not sleep over with him, Squidward tries to cheat and make SpongeBob cry over things like a beautiful sunset, sad news stories, a sad song on the clarinet, and a saddening bedtime story.

Amazingly, SpongeBob manages to hold in his tears until midnight, despite all of Squidward's best attempts, and after midnight, SpongeBob cries all over Bikini Bottom like crazy. With SpongeBob winning the bet over him, Squidward is forced to come over to SpongeBob's house for a sleepover, and the episode ends with Squidward crying hysterically and SpongeBob comforting him while watching TV.

Production

This episode was added to the US Copyright Office on January 15, 2010, alongside its sister, "The Play's the Thing," and "Rodeo Daze."

Release

Broadcast

• This episode was paired up with "Rodeo Daze" during its first airing in the SpongeBob KCA 2010 premiere week, but has since been re-airing with "Summer Job."

Distribution

• This episode is available on the Heroes of Bikini Bottom, Complete Seventh Season, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, Kids Double Pack: Volume 2, Kids Double Pack: Volume 3, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, Easter with SpongeBob, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, Easter with SpongeBob, The Best of Bikini Bottom, Let's Play, Big Hits: Volume 2, Triple Pack 3, 3 DVD Value Pack, High Tides and Wild Rides, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 11, The Best 300 Episodes Ever, and Next 100 Episodes DVDs.

Trivia

General

• This episode marks the second appearance of the Bikini Bottom Men's Choir, the first being "Choir Boys." The choir makes two brief cameo appearances in this episode: first half-way in the episode when Squidward gets SpongeBob to cry over the sight of the sunset, and then later at the end when Bikini Bottom is flooded with SpongeBob's tears.
• In this episode, SpongeBob has curtains on his window, but in most episodes, he does not.
• This is the first episode to use the tracks "Coconut Cream Pie" and "Aloha Bikini Bottom."
• The sad song that Squidward plays is called "Hearts and Flowers (Or Some Such Sad Song)." There is an actual song called "Hearts and Flowers" composed by Theodore Moses-Tobani, but the melody sounds different than the one that Squidward plays.
• This episode reveals that Squidward likes croissants.
• It is revealed that Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy airs eight times a day, but it is brought down to seven in this episode, according to the news anchor.
• Apparently, until the events of this episode, SpongeBob was unaware that he cried so much. However, he showed some awareness in "No Weenies Allowed" when he revealed one time that he only cried for 20 minutes after stubbing his toe. But in that episode, SpongeBob breaks his fingers and runs away crying. Ironically, SpongeBob stubbing his toe is the first thing that made him cry in this episode.
• The outcomes resulting in SpongeBob crying in the beginning are:
  • Stubbing his toe.
  • Ripping his favorite shirt (which doesn't make sense because all of his shirts look the same).
  • Hearing a sad song on the radio.
  • Dropping a Krabby Patty and throwing it away.
  • Being yelled at by Squidward.
  • 37 other unknown outcomes.
• The videos of SpongeBob crying show that he:
  • Dropped a Krabby Patty on the floor.
  • Didn't find what he needed at the Barg'N-Mart.
  • Failed his boating test (as usual).
  • Broke his jellyfishing net.
  • Couldn't find an unoccupied bathroom stall.
  • Missed the bus.
  • Other various reasons not shown.
    • The boating school memory is one of very few times that SpongeBob cries over failing his driving test, along with "Boating School," "Driven to Tears," and "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired". In most other episodes, he doesn't care when he fails. However, it's possible that SpongeBob can sometimes get upset when he fails more than once. Also, the former episode, "Boating School", shows him crying when he realizes that he has cheated.
• Squidward's attempts to get SpongeBob to cry and how SpongeBob resists:
  • Watch the sunset; It ends, snapping him out.
  • Watch Gary sleeping; He manages to immediately control himself.
  • Read a letter from his parents saying that they miss him; He abruptly reads another letter saying that his subscription to Jellyfishing Monthly has expired.
  • Watch sad stories on TV and hear bad news reports; The stories end with good outcomes and he repeatedly changes the channel, before finally throwing the TV out the window for Patrick to take.
  • Play a sad song; Again, he controls himself.
  • Read a made-up sad story; Once again, he controls himself, but holds back so many tears, that once midnight comes, he finally cries and releases a flood of tears throughout Bikini Bottom.
• The title card looks similar to "Pickles," except zoomed in a bit and it has a black aura.
• When Squidward is reading a sad story, SpongeBob holds in his tears by using his body to absorb them. In real life, sea sponges use their bodies to absorb water.
• This is the second episode in which SpongeBob and Squidward watch the sunset together. The first is "Dying for Pie."
• This is the last episode to date where "O Makalapua" plays in the main series. It has, however, returned in The Patrick Star Show episode, "Shrinking Stars."
• This episode is similar to the plot of "Funny Pants," where in that episode, Squidward gets annoyed with SpongeBob laughing nonstop, and tries to prevent him from exhibiting it further, or else consequences will follow. In this episode, the plot is exactly the same, except it replaces laughing with crying. Alongside that, Steven Banks was credited as a writer on this episode and "Funny Pants."

Cultural references

• On the radio, the announcer says the song is by Eely Dan, referencing the jazz rock band Steely Dan.
  • The next song is by Lionel Fishy, referencing Lionel Richie.
• The radio announcer also states that the song's name before "Sad Songs" was "Asia" a play on Aja, a song by Steely Dan on the album of the same name.
• When Squidward reads a sad story to SpongeBob called "The Little Angler Who Got Lost" near the end of the episode, the page he's actually reading is "Jack and Jill," which is a popular children's nursery rhyme.

Errors

• Plot hole: When SpongeBob rips one of his shirts, he says, "Oh, that was my favorite shirt!" But since all of his shirts look the same, having a favorite shirt doesn't make sense.
• When SpongeBob cries during "Sad Song," his tears come out his upstairs bedroom's window. This shouldn't be possible because he's in the kitchen, which is completely opposite and downstairs from his bedroom.
• When SpongeBob is shown crying over the dropped patty at the Krusty Krab kitchen, a tear patch on the wall next to the window can be seen. When Squidward turns to SpongeBob, the patch disappears.
• When Squidward tells SpongeBob to stop crying and begins to yell at him, his mouth briefly clips through his left eye.

File:SpongeBob wearing his hat when some of them, he isn't at the Krusty Krab.png

SpongeBob wearing his Krusty Krab employee hat when some of the clips aren't set at the Krusty Krab.

• During the slideshow that Squidward made of SpongeBob's breakdowns over the years that were seen, SpongeBob wears his Krusty Krab employee hat in all of the clips that were seen, even though some of them aren't set at the Krusty Krab.

File:Vlcsnap-2020-07-22-13h10m26s616.png

Squidward's missing mouth.

• When Squidward says, "Clean out my rain gutters," his mouth disappears for one frame.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
French	Sans pleurer...	Without Crying...
German	Ein Tag ohne Tränen	A Day Without Tears
Italian	Un giorno senza lacrime	A Day Without Tears
Polish	Dzień bez łez	A Day Without Tears
Russian	День без слёз Den' bez slyoz	A Day Without Tears
Spanish	Un día sin lágrimas	A Day Without Tears