Bubblestand

If you were looking for the article about the location, then see Bubblestand (location).

Characters

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• Scallop Template:Cameo
• Squidward Tentacles
• Patrick Star
• Duck bubble Template:Debut
• Caterpillar bubble Template:Debut
• Elephant bubble Template:Debut
• Butterfly bubble Template:Debut

Synopsis

File:Bubblestand 017.png

"Hey, Squidward! Wanna blow some bubbles?"

SpongeBob walks outside to breathe in the peacefulness of the neighborhood in the morning. Suddenly, he loudly begins to build a bubble stand, much to the annoyance of Squidward, who demands SpongeBob to be quiet while he is practicing his clarinet-playing. SpongeBob stops for a time, takes a few tentative taps of his hammer, and then quickly finishes construction before Squidward has a chance to complain again.

At the newly built stand, SpongeBob offers customers to blow a bubble for twenty-five cents each. Patrick comes by and asks to try it out. However, he does not have any money, so he "borrows" a quarter from SpongeBob to pay for it. Unfortunately, Patrick's forceful blowing fails to produce a bubble. SpongeBob offers to teach him for an extra quarter, which he happily "loans" to Patrick. SpongeBob then demonstrates his somewhat peculiar, yet effective, bubble blowing technique.

The fuming Squidward comes out and approaches the now-closed bubble stand. He demands to know how they can cause so much disruption just by blowing bubbles. SpongeBob explains that he is creating art and utilizing his technique to its fullest potential. Squidward scoffs at SpongeBob's ideas of art and marketing, sending SpongeBob and Patrick back to their homes in shame. Still snickering, Squidward begins to examine the bubble wand out of growing curiosity. As he tries to blow a bubble himself, SpongeBob quickly comes out and tells Squidward to pay a quarter, shocking him. Squidward reluctantly lays down a quarter for the bubble.

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Squidward's house encapsulated by a giant bubble

Squidward attempts to impress the two with his skill, to no avail. All the while, SpongeBob and Patrick try to convince him to use the technique. Fed up, Squidward furiously and mockingly copies their technique, finally screaming into the wand in anger. His screams end up producing a giant bubble, thoroughly impressing SpongeBob and Patrick.

Squidward heads back inside his house and begins to play his clarinet once more, with SpongeBob and Patrick chanting his name. However, the giant bubble floats down and encapsulates Squidward's house, unearthing it and floating with it up in the air.

When at last Squidward looks outside to greet his "fans", he sees himself high above the ground with SpongeBob and Patrick little more than specks. The bubble then pops with explosive force, prompting SpongeBob and Patrick to look at each other nervously and retreat to their houses.

Once the moat floats back down to earth, Squidward lets out a few final feeble notes from his clarinet, thus ending the episode.

Production

Art

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Release

• This episode is available on the Complete 1st Season, Seascape Capers, The 1st Season: Volume 1, Tea at the Treedome, First 100 Episodes, SpongeBob SquarePants, iSponge Offer Pack, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 1, The Complete First Season, From the Beginning, Pt.1, The First & Second Seasons, Movies & TV Collection, and The Best 200 Episodes Ever DVDs along with SpongeBob SquarePants Volume 1 on GBA Video and on VideoNow.
• This episode is also available on The Seascape Capers VHS tape.

Reception

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• The episode was ranked 3rd place in the "Top 100 Moments in Nicktoons History."

Trivia

General

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• A clip from this episode was used in a 2001 Burger King commercial promoting SpongeBob toys at the time. The commercial even references the bubble-blowing technique.
• The Waikikis, Prince Paul, and Wordsworth made a song based on this episode called "Prince Paul's Bubble Party," which can be heard on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack, although the song was not used in the first movie itself.
• A scene of this episode is shown in the 2005 movie Zathura before Walter switches it to SportsCenter.
• SpongeBob's quote "Bring it around town" is used in the online game Delivery Dilemma.
  • It is also used as a celebration dance when SpongeBob completes a tile puzzle in the video game Revenge of the Flying Dutchman.
• SpongeBob's bubble-blowing technique part of this episode was used in a 2012 Yosicle commercial.
• The ship bubble has the same foghorn as SpongeBob's alarm clock.
• Patrick's line "It's a giraffe!" became a popular internet meme. It would later be used again in the video game Battle for Bikini Bottom.

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Hold it

• The scene when SpongeBob started doing the bubble blowing technique and pelvic thrust became an internet meme called "Hold it," in which the scene was slowed down for a few frames.
• In "Wormy," SpongeBob doesn't know what a butterfly is and thinks that Wormy (who transformed into a butterfly) is a monster, but in this episode, he blows a butterfly bubble.
• This is the first episode that Ennio Torresan, Jr. and Erik Wiese worked on together.
• This is the first episode to play "The Rake Hornpipe" outside of a scene involving the Krusty Krab or Mr. Krabs.
• This is the first episode to show the insides of Squidward's and Patrick's houses.
• This is the last episode ever written by Stephen Hillenburg before his death on November 26, 2018.
• There is an online game based on this episode called SpongeBob's Bubblegram Game.
• In the Polish dub, the episode's title is "Bańki mydlane," which translates to "Soap Bubbles."
• In the Croatian dub, this episode is called "Mjehurići," which means "Bubbles."

Cultural references

• The bubble-blowing technique includes references to "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• The song that Squidward plays on his clarinet at the end of the episode is "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Errors

• At the very beginning, on the long shot, SpongeBob's walkway looks like the road instead of a rocky walkway.
• When Squidward says, "Can we lower the volume, please? I can't work with all that racket going on!" to SpongeBob in the beginning, there is not any glass in his windows.

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SpongBob's door is missing

• When Patrick's rock opens, SpongeBob's pineapple is missing its door.
  • A similar thing happens. In a scene, Squidward's door is missing.
• When Patrick yells "It's a giraffe!," he is on the left side of SpongeBob, but when the bubble goes into Squidward's house, he is on the right side of him.
• When Squidward leaves his house, the interior of his doorway has a similar appearance to the red wall found on the second floor. Later, when he enters his house, the interior of the first floor has its normal green wall appearance.
• When SpongeBob repeats the bubble-blowing technique to Squidward again as he is trying to blow bubbles, he looks three times to the left instead of right.

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• After SpongeBob spins while Squidward tries to blow a bubble, right before it cuts back to Squidward, there is a transparent picture of a rough timing sheet, which only appears for about a frame. This occurs again right after SpongeBob says, "Don't forget the woo!," right before it cuts back to Squidward.
• When SpongeBob and Patrick chant Squidward's name, SpongeBob's house is nowhere to be seen.

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  SpongeBob's house is missing

• SpongeBob collects quarters in this episode, but the amount continues to change throughout the episode.

Running gags

• SpongeBob blowing bubble art.
• SpongeBob offering 25 cents for bubble lessons.
• SpongeBob bending the quarters with his teeth.
• Squidward constantly failing to blow bubbles without the technique.