A Pal for Gary

Characters

• Gary the Snail
• Template:Data:Links
• Cowboy fish Template:Cameo2
• Seahorse
• Fred
• Incidental 107 ^(blue)
• Incidental 107's worm Template:Cameo
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Sheriff
• Incidental 103
• Nudibranchs Template:Debut
  • Puffy Fluffy Template:Debut
• Fortune teller Template:Debut
• Jellyfish Template:Cameo2
• Grandma SquarePants ^(mentioned)
• Shelley
• T.S. Halibut Template:Debut ^(mentioned)

Synopsis

The episode starts at SpongeBob's house, where he is feeding Gary. Afterwards, he has to leave for work, but Gary wants to go on a walk. SpongeBob tells him that he does not have time to give him one and sadly walks away to work, feeling remorseful that he had no time to hang out with Gary. As he goes to the Krusty Krab, he notices that Mr. Krabs refuses to give one customer service on account of him bringing his pet worm into the restaurant. This reminds SpongeBob of the fact that Gary is home alone with nobody to keep him company, prompting him to make a remorseful phone call reminding Gary that he will be home soon.

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SpongeBob finding the perfect pet for Gary.

As SpongeBob gets off work at night, Mr. Krabs tells him that he needs help with loading coal out of the parking lot, but SpongeBob cannot help as he has to get back to Gary at home. Mr. Krabs lets him off the hook so long as he comes in work five hours earlier the following day to help with the parking lot. As SpongeBob is walking home, he notices a truck selling nudibranchs, which catch his attention due to their "cute" appearance. However, the lady selling them informs him of their danger (they are extremely vicious and hostile toward other pets, especially snails), but SpongeBob does not pay attention and simply runs off with a green nudibranch without paying for it. He buys this pet for Gary to have as his playmate while he is at work; he names it "Puffy Fluffy."

SpongeBob comes home and shows Gary his new playmate and places them next to one another to have them get along as he makes an enchiladas meal. Puffy makes blatant threats to Gary, but SpongeBob fails to notice the nudibranch's impending danger and instead accuses Gary of perpetrating violence against him or ignoring him. As punishment, Gary is put to sleep early tonight, next to Puffy Fluffy, then SpongeBob himself goes upstairs to sleep, berating Gary again when he disturbs him. Over the night, Puffy continues to threaten Gary as if he is going to kill him. Gary tries many defense mechanisms, but it turns out that Puffy Fluffy is stronger than him, making Gary more vulnerable to his abuse. They continue fighting throughout the night which eventually carries into the library, prompting a house fire made by Puffy Fluffy, who knocked over SpongeBob's fireplace.

File:A Pal for Gary 174.png

"You put Fluffy down right now!"

The next day, SpongeBob wakes up to find that his house is a mess, and assumes that Gary caused it out of jealousy of his new "friend." He then walks into his exercise room to find Puffy Fluffy about to eat Gary alive, but, oblivious to the nudibranch's blatant abuse, once again accuses Gary of harassing him.

Puffy eventually traps SpongeBob as well, which gives Gary the idea to save him by getting out his lasso and freeing SpongeBob and intimidating Puffy, who runs off after Gary presents his defense. Despite this, SpongeBob still believes that Gary was responsible for Puffy Fluffy's violent behavior.

The episode ends with SpongeBob at work again, this time bringing Gary after the policy has been updated to allow animals in the restaurant so he won't be lonely anymore to his dismay. Mr. Krabs ironically hires Gary as the restaurant's second fry cook, as the episode ends.

Running gags

• Puffy Fluffy attacking Gary when SpongeBob leaves the room.
• Whenever SpongeBob comes back, Puffy Fluffy reverts to his cute state, leaving Gary to take the blame.
• SpongeBob berating Gary for being mean to Puffy Fluffy or ignoring him.
• Gary using a lasso while wearing his cowboy hat.

Production

Art

• File:3626183387 1a5c98a1f6 k.jpg
• File:3626994388 c6560d6069 k.jpg
• File:7695145512 96f65c97c8 c.jpg
• This image is from "Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants"
  This image is from "Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants"

Release

• This episode is available on the Heroes of Bikini Bottom, Complete Seventh Season, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 11, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, 3 DVD Value Pack, Snail's Meow, Spužva Bob Skockani DVD 4, Triple Pack 3, The Best of Bikini Bottom, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, Easter with SpongeBob, Kids Double Pack: Volume 3, Kids Double Pack: Volume 2, Next 100 Episodes, Big Hits: Volume 2, and The Best 200 Episodes Ever DVDs.

Trivia

General

• The title card background for this episode is very similar to that of "Culture Shock." The only difference being that the title card for the latter is a lighter shade of red.
  • It is also similar to the one for "SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One," only that title card is blue and not red.
• This episode features a phone in SpongeBob's house that is not a shellphone. This phone was previously seen in "Procrastination."
• Incidental 41 is seen as a sheriff in the western crime movie or TV show that Gary is watching.
• Gary wears a soda drinking hat while watching TV. A soda drinking hat was previously seen as the main plot point of the episode "One Krabs Trash."
• In real life, nudibranchs (sea slugs) are worm-like creatures. However, in this episode, they are portrayed as fluffy fish until Puffy Fluffy turns into a vicious monster.
• Puffy Fluffy's species of nudibranchs is never referred to by name in this episode. It was only confirmed by source releases.
• It's revealed that Gary's first name is Garold.

File:A Pal for Gary 144.png

Shelley can be seen in SpongeBob's bedroom.

• SpongeBob technically didn't have to get Gary a partner because he already has another pet called Shelley. She even appears during one scene of this episode. Specifically, when SpongeBob is sleeping in his bedroom and the ceiling cracks are falling off.
• This episode reveals that SpongeBob's garage is located behind the living room.
• When Puffy Fluffy in his monstrous form is inside of the exercise room, SpongeBob comes in and mistakenly thinks that Puffy Fluffy is Gary.
• Puffy Fluffy tries to eat SpongeBob during the climax of this episode. This makes sense, as in real life, nudibranchs eat sea sponges.
• This is the second episode where Gary wears a Krusty Krab employee hat, the first being "Banned in Bikini Bottom."
• There is an online game based on this episode called Gary's Revenge.
• In the German dub, this episode is called "Spielkamerad des Grauens," which translates to "Playmate of Horror."
• In the Polish dub, SpongeBob tells Puffy Fluffy to put Gary down, unlike in the original version, where it is the opposite.
• This episode was paired up with "Don't Look Now" during the Massive Monster Mayhem Marathon.

Cultural references

• The container for the chips that Gary eats is similar to the Pringles cans.
  • The container appears again in the The Patrick Star Show episode "Gas Station Vacation" as one of the many items Squidina grabs at Gas Land.
• Puffy Fluffy in harmless form looks similar to a piranha.
• Puffy Fluffy's multiple tongues inside of his mouth is a reference to the films Aliens and Tremors.
• T.S. Halibut is a reference to British essayist T. S. Eliot.

Errors

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SpongeBob's white belt mistake.

• When SpongeBob is walking away from his house near the start of the episode, his belt turns white for a split second.
• Throughout most of the western crime movie or TV show that Gary is watching, the cowboy fish is in his normal olive green design, but in the last scene that is shown, he is instead purple with a blue fin.

File:A Pal for Gary 073.png

SpongeBob's yellow mouth mistake.

• When SpongeBob carries a food bowl into the living room, the inside of his mouth appears yellow instead of red for a split second.
• When Puffy Fluffy is rummaging through SpongeBob's fridge, there are only two frying pans on the rack near the stove. However, when Gary climbs onto the stove in an attempt to defend himself, there are now three frying pans that were not visible in the aforementioned shot.
• Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to come in five hours early at work, so he should have woken up at 4 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.
• In this episode, SpongeBob's exercise room is seen to be on the first floor below the library, when in most other appearances, it is on the second floor, with the library next to it.

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One of Puffy Fluffy's sarlacc-like tongues' teeth is miscolored.

• When SpongeBob says, "This is exactly what I was talking about--," some of Puffy Fluffy's teeth is colored red instead of white.

File:A Pal for Gary 193.png

Patrick's and Squidward's houses are missing.

• Squidward's and Patrick's houses are missing from the scene where Puffy Fluffy runs away from SpongeBob's house.
• In "Grooming Gary," SpongeBob says he understands snail language, but he does not use said skills when Puffy Fluffy is present.