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?"

One morning, SpongeBob walks outside to breathe in the neighborhood's peacefulness, then loudly builds 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 an opportunity to blow a bubble for twenty-five cents. Patrick comes by and asks to try it out. Though he does not have any money, he "borrows" a quarter from SpongeBob to pay for it. Unfortunately, Patrick's strained 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, which produces a variety of bubble shapes, including a massive elephant-shaped bubble that gets stuck in Template:Data:Links and pops.

The fuming Squidward comes out and approaches the now ostensibly 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 a sad mood. 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, suggesting that it is a very simple feat.

File:Bubblestand 185.png

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 and annoyed, Squidward furiously and mockingly copies their technique then screams into the wand in anger, which produces a giant bubble that impresses SpongeBob and Patrick.

Squidward, claiming credit for the bubble he blew, heads back inside his house and plays his clarinet once more, with SpongeBob and Patrick chanting his name while dancing. However, the giant bubble descends and encapsulates Squidward's house, unearthing it and floating with it up in the air as SpongeBob and Patrick watch in horror and try to call Squidward's name to get his attention.

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 Squidward's house floats back down to the ground, Squidward lets out a few final feeble notes from his clarinet.

Production

This episode was in production in 1999. It was shipped to Nickelodeon Animation Studio on May 23, 1999.

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Sketches

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Cels

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• File:Wowabscel.PNG
• Patrick owns the bubblestand.
  Patrick owns the bubblestand.
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• File:BubblestandCel.webp
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Storyboards

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• File:BubblestandStoryboard2.jpg
• File:SquidTechniqueStoryboard.png

Paintings

• Title card background.
  Title card background.
• Title card background (alt variant).
  Title card background (alt variant).
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Model sheets

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Release

• This episode is available on the SpongeBob Schwammkopf Folge 1, SpongeBob on DVD Volume 1, Complete 1st Season, Seascape Capers, Nicktoons TV Favourites Volume 1, The 1st Season: Volume 1, Tea Under The Tree, The Best of SpongeBob SquarePants, Tea at the Treedome, Jellyfishing, First 100 Episodes, SpongeBob SquarePants, iSponge Offer Pack, Lost at Sea (Polish only), The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 1, The SpongeBob Super Square Collection, The Complete First Season, From the Beginning, Part 1, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, Splash from the Past!, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, The First & Second Seasons, Movies & TV Collection, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, and The Best 300 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."
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Trivia

General

• According to Stephen Hillenburg's pitch bible, this episode was originally titled "Bubbles."

File:SpongeBob SquarePants 2001 Burger King commercial

• 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.

File:Nickelodeon Fruit Snacks Commercial

• A clip of SpongeBob's "bring it around town" scene was used in a Nickelodeon fruit snacks commercial.
• A clip of the scene where SpongeBob shapeshifts into an "O" during the bubble-blowing technique demonstration was used in a 2017 Honey Nut Cheerios commercial to represent the cereal's shape.
• A clip of SpongeBob doing the bubble-blowing technique was used in a 2012 Yosicle commercial.
• 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 - Music from the Movie and More... soundtrack album (though not the first movie itself).
• SpongeBob's technique for blowing bubbles:
  • Lifting the left foot up off the ground.
  • Spinning around a couple of times and stopping.
  • "Double-take" (dart the head to the side) three times.
  • Pelvic thrust (Thrusting the entire body left and right, pelvis first) and stop on your right foot. "DON'T FORGET IT."
  • Spinning the upper body and "bring-it-a-round-town."
  • Bouncing on the back twice.
  • Shape-shifting into various surreal shapes and forms.
  • Proceeding to blow the bubble.
• SpongeBob's quote "Now it's time to bring it around town. Bring-it-a-round-town," became an internet meme.
  • It is also used in the online games Hooked on You! and 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.
  • It is also used as an idle animation in Legend of the Lost Spatula.
  • It is also used in the Pixter game SpongeBob SquarePants: Aqua Adventure.
• The ship bubble has the same foghorn as SpongeBob's alarm clock.
• In later episodes, SpongeBob has blown bubbles in different shapes without using the bubble blowing technique.
• The bubble that enters Squidward's house was originally going to be a tugboat and not an elephant.

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SpongeBob clip in Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005 film).

• The "It's a giraffe!" scene is shown in the 2005 movie Zathura: A Space Adventure (also simply known as Zathura) before Walter switches it to SportsCenter.
• Patrick's line "It's a giraffe!" was recycled in the video games Battle for Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob's Game Frenzy, and Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated. It has also become a popular internet meme.
• 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.
  • In addition in "Tea at the Treedome," a butterfly is shown just as SpongeBob enters Sandy's treedome for the first time and in "Your Shoe's Untied," the Flying Dutchman shows him the butterfly knot; in all three occurrences however, he is not afraid.
• Four of the poses SpongeBob and Patrick make when cheering Squidward after he blows a giant bubble were eventually redrawn to be used as various stock artwork.
• When Squidward's house is in the air, an upright glass bottle the size of other buildings in Bikini Bottom is visible. The only other building seen throughout the series that uses a glass bottle as part of the structure is the Fancy! restaurant, which is on its side.
• SpongeBob collects quarters in this episode, but the amount continues changing throughout the episode.
• At the end of this episode, when Squidward plays his clarinet weakly, a portion of the scene is cut on all Nickelodeon USA broadcasts ever since the original airing on July 17, 1999. This is due to the screen cutting to black when this happens. Despite this unusual edit, all Nicktoons USA and Nick@Nite broadcasts, international non-US airings, all digital and streaming releases on Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, and iTunes, the VideoNow versions, The Seascape Capers VHS tape release, and all DVD releases retain this scene.

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• When Squidward is trying to restore SpongeBob's memories, this episode is referenced in "Friendiversary."
• This is the first episode for several things:
  • The first episode to have a title that is only one word.
  • The first episode to introduce the tracks "Maui Beach" and "Old Hilo March."
  • The first episode that Ennio Torresan, Jr. and Erik Wiese worked on together.
  • The first episode (and only standard-length episode) to have five writers.
    • This episode is currently tied with "Friend or Foe," "The Clash of Triton," and "Frozen Face-Off" for having the most writers of an episode.
  • The first episode where Patrick plays a major role.
  • The first episode to play "The Rake Hornpipe" outside of a scene involving the Krusty Krab or Mr. Krabs.
  • The first episode to show the inside of Squidward's house.
  • The first episode in the series without any known deleted scenes.
  • The first episode in which Squidward is seen playing the clarinet, and playing it well.
  • The first episode to not introduce any new characters, not counting the bubbles shaped like animals.
  • The first episode to play the "boo-womp" sound effect, which is a sound effect that plays whenever a character is sad or frowns.
• This is the last episode written by Stephen Hillenburg before the episode "Mermaid Pants."
  • However, he is not credited in the latter episode, making this episode the last episode when Hillenburg is credited as a writer.
• There is an online game based on this episode called SpongeBob's Bubblegram Game.
• This episode was paired up with different episodes in different marathons:
  • During the Best Day Ever marathon, this episode was paired up with "Rock Bottom."
  • This episode was paired up with "Sing a Song of Patrick" during the Best Buddies Week.

Cultural references

• The bubble-blowing technique includes references to "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• SpongeBob biting the quarters is a reference to a common trope in older films, especially Westerns, where people would bite on coins as a means to test their authenticity.

Errors

File:Bubblestand 001.png

SpongeBob's walkway is missing the rocks.

• At the very beginning, on the long shot, SpongeBob's walkway is a concrete road instead of a rocky walkway.

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Squidward's house does not have glass on its windows.

• 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 no glass in his windows.

File:SpongeBob's missing door in Bubblestand.png

SpongeBob's door is missing.

• When Patrick's rock opens, SpongeBob's pineapple is missing its front door.
• When Squidward leaves his house, the wall visible from the doorway on the first floor has a similar appearance to the red wall found on the second floor. Later, when he enters his house, the wall on the first floor has its normal green wall appearance.

File:Wierd 0.1 second scene from Bubblestand.png

• After SpongeBob spins while Squidward tries to blow a bubble, right before it cuts back to Squidward, there is a transparent picture of a person's hand holding a clapperboard, which only appears for about a frame.

File:Bubblestand 096.jpg

SpongeBob's house is missing.

• When SpongeBob and Patrick chant Squidward's name, SpongeBob's house is nowhere to be seen.
• Squidward disappears after SpongeBob and Patrick shout out his name one more time near the end. His clarinet was still heard, however.

File:SpongeBob's missing holes on top of his head error in Bubblestand.png

SpongeBob's missing pores.

• After SpongeBob and Patrick say, "Wow!," the two of them slowly walk back to their homes. As SpongeBob turns around while doing this, he briefly moves his head down and the pores on the top of his head are missing.

Videos

File:Nickelodeon Commercials (May 3, 1999)

File:Nickelodeon Commercial Breaks (July 12, 1999)