Driven to Tears

Characters

• French Narrator
• Template:Data:Links
• Patrick Star
• Mrs. Puff
• Abigail (light blue fish)
• Gus
• Clay
• Dale
• Dave
• Gale Rechid
• Dennis (citizen)
• Frankie Billy
• Jimmy Gus
• Wobbles
• Miss Shell
• Monroe Timmy
• Nat Peterson
• Ivy (gray)
• Sylvester
• DMV award giver Template:Debut
• Norma Rechid
• Fred
• Tom
• Gary the Snail
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Harold SquarePants
• Margaret SquarePants
• Officer John Slugfish
• Charlie
• Harold Bill Reginald Scott
• Harold (red fish)
• Nancy Suzy Fish ^(green)
• Evelyn
• Mother and child on poster
• Judge Sardine Template:Debut
• Bikini Bottom prison guard

Synopsis

The episode starts off with the narrator stating "It is a very special day in Bikini Bottom." The camera then shows SpongeBob and Patrick heading down to Mrs. Puff's Boating School. Once, they arrive at the entrance, Patrick says he brought SpongeBob's special learning cards that has everything he needs to pass the boating school test. However, Patrick then eats the cards and claims learning tastes good. Even though SpongeBob needed those learning cards, Patrick convinces SpongeBob that he is a winner and does not need them. SpongeBob then claims he is a winner and takes his boating school driving test.

File:Driven to Tears 13.jpg

The New Bass Blaster 3000

Unfortunately after one minute and thirty-seven seconds, SpongeBob fails the driving test for the 58th time. Patrick decides to take the test himself and passes with a perfect score, much to SpongeBob's surprise and jealousy.

They go to receive Patrick's license, but while his picture is being taken, an announcer comes out to reveal that he is the one millionth person to pass the test and that he has won a brand new hot red boatmobile, the new Bass Blaster 3000.

SpongeBob and Patrick drive home in Patrick's new boatmobile while he talks about how fun driving is, much to SpongeBob's disappointment. That night, Patrick is heard working on his boatmobile and comes to SpongeBob's door at 4 AM. SpongeBob tries to get some sleep, but is woken up the next minute by his alarm clock.

SpongeBob, now very tired, tries to walk to work, but eventually gets a ride from Patrick, who rubs his license in SpongeBob's face and brags even more. When SpongeBob gets to work, he finds out that Mr. Krabs has chosen him to run the Krusty Krab's drive-thru and meets Patrick and his boat again.

File:Driven to Tears 35.jpg

Patrick in a racing outfit.

At closing time, Patrick drives up, now wearing a racing outfit, claiming that he must keep up his image as an "expert driver." While driving around, Patrick rubs his license in SpongeBob's face even more, even stopping to talk to SpongeBob's parents about it and embarrass SpongeBob. Patrick then starts driving above the speed limit and runs 3 red lights.

SpongeBob finally snaps after Patrick calls himself a "driving genius" and literally rubs his license in his face and he tears up the license and throws it out the window. This gets the attention of the police and causes the police to chase after SpongeBob and Patrick, who eventually drive off of a cliff into the Bikini Bottom Jail yard.

Patrick is trialed and found guilty of littering. However, SpongeBob admits the truth and gets put in prison for 90 days. When SpongeBob is released, he gives Patrick a new license plate for his boatmobile, but Patrick reveals that he threw out the boatmobile because it stopped working when it got to "e" which he thought meant "end," which really meant "empty" as in out of gas. The episode ends with SpongeBob and Patrick pretending to play boats with SpongeBob riding on Patrick.

Production

Release

• This episode is available on the Season 4 Volume 2, First 100 Episodes, Complete Fourth Season, SpongeBob and Friends: Patrick SquarePants, The Third & Fourth Seasons, and The Best 200 Episodes Ever DVDs.

Trivia

General

• Although this episode aired on February 19, 2007, it was made in 2006 according to the credits.
• This episode aired in Germany on Saturday, November 4, 2006, before it aired in the USA.
• This episode was released on the Season 4 Volume 2 DVD box set, before it aired on TV in the USA.
• This is one of the episodes that aired during the "Patrick for President" marathon, along with "Rule of Dumb," "The Pink Purloiner," "The Gift of Gum," "Rise and Shine," "Waiting," and "Sing a Song of Patrick."
• This episode proves once again that Patrick knows the rules of the road. The other being "Boating School."
• The Bass Blaster 3000 boat Patrick won in this episode is also a driveable boat in the SpongeBob video game SpongeBob's Boating Bash.
• According to Patrick's driver license, he weighs two ounces.
• Patrick's driver's license would have expired exactly the same day as his identification card from "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III." (The card can be seen clearly in The SpongeBob SquarePants Experience: A Deep Dive into the World of Bikini Bottom.)
• This episode confirms that Patrick is great at driving, unlike SpongeBob. However, in several episodes SpongeBob is driving other vehicles and isn't as terrible as he is with Mrs. Puff. Plus, SpongeBob is only bad at driving due to his boundless determination.
• This episode shows that SpongeBob's parents are frustrated with him not getting his driver's license.
• When the guard takes Patrick away, he says to SpongeBob, "Don't forget to feed Gary. Sometimes you forget to feed him," which could be referencing "Have You Seen This Snail?"

File:No Free Rides 40a.jpg

• The "PALS 4 EVER" license plate looks similar to the "IM-RDY" license plate in "No Free Rides."
• Patrick is later seen driving in "Slide Whistle Stooges" while SpongeBob warns Squidward to stop driving a truck over a cliff. This suggests he got his license renewed after this episode.
  • He is also later seen driving in Fish Happens!, SpongeBob's Boating Bash, "FarmerBob" and "Pineapple RV."
• Both this episode and "Rule of Dumb" have Patrick as the main antagonist.
  • Ironically, they are both sister episodes.
• This episode marks the first time a drive-thru is open in the Krusty Krab.
• This is the second episode to show Patrick is in Mrs. Puff's class. The first is "New Student Starfish."
• This is the second episode where the police call SpongeBob a "tattletale." The first is "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler."
• This is the second time SpongeBob fights with someone in a boatmobile. The first is "No Free Rides."
• This is the second episode where SpongeBob says that Patrick is innocent. The first is "The Smoking Peanut."
• This is the third episode where SpongeBob gets arrested, only this time as a convicted felon. The first is "Life of Crime" (but only for three seconds) and the second is "Party Pooper Pants."
• In Brazil, the title for this episode is called "License for Patrick."
• The German title of this episode is "Eine Träne im Schlagloch," which translates to "A Tear in the Pothole," a pun on a German saying.
• In the Russian dub of this episode, Harold (SpongeBob's dad) sounds a lot like SpongeBob's Russian voice actor.
• In the Greek dub, the episode is called "Το δίπλωμα," which means "the diploma," another Greek word.

Cultural references

• The name of this episode is a reference of a The Police music of the same name of the album Zenyatta Mondatta
• When the announcer said that Bass Blaster 3000 is the ultimate boating machine, it's the allusion to BMW when it's called an ultimate driving machine.
• The announcer for Patrick's new car says, "Women will want you. And men will want to be you." This is a quote from Austin Powers.
• Patrick's horn plays the song La Cucaracha.

Errors

• Patrick could not have been the one millionth person to pass the test, because the Bikini Bottom population is 538, as shown in "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?" But the population has been disputed since in "Patty Hype" 46,853 people bought Pretty Patties and in "Nautical Novice," Mrs. Puff says this: "We're gonna flatten millions of innocent lives." Plus, Stephen Hillenburg confirmed that Bikini Bottom is a large city. With all the information mixed in together the population of Bikini Bottom is approximately 500,000.
• When Patrick blows his horn the second time (when SpongeBob comes out of his house tired), the horn sounds completely different.
• When a second close-up of Patrick's license is shown after he tells Mr. and Mrs. SquarePants about it, his red glove isn't on him anymore.
• The traffic light turned red after green, which skipped the yellow light.
• When Patrick blinks right before he and SpongeBob say, "It's the police!," his eyelids are pink instead of purple.
• SpongeBob said he threw Patrick's license out the window. However, the vehicle didn't have any windows.
• When Patrick tells SpongeBob his boat's needle was on "E," SpongeBob's pants had a darker shade of brown.
• Throughout the episode, the car slopes forward more and more.
• In real life, it is very rare to be thrown in jail for littering; instead, the punishment is mostly a fine.