Backpay Payback

Characters

• Patrick Star
• Granny Tentacles
• Squidward Tentacles
• Cecil Star
• GrandPat Star
• Sea giraffe
• Tinkle
• Bunny Star
• Sprat Morty
• Squidina Star
• Realistic Fish Head
• Tentacles family ancestors
  • Tentacles the Hun Template:Single appearance
  • Teddy Tentacles Template:Single appearance
  • Tentaclees the Serpent Slayer Template:Single appearance
  • Prehistoric Tentacles Template:Single appearance
  • Arabian Tentacles Template:Single appearance
  • Medieval Tentacles Template:Single appearance
  • Victorian Tentacles Template:Single appearance
  • 1950s Tentacles Template:Single appearance
  • 1980s Tentacles Template:Single appearance
• Star family ancestors
  • Prehistoric Star Template:Single appearance
  • Arabian Star Template:Single appearance
  • Princess Star Template:Single appearance
  • Victorian Star Template:Single appearance
  • 1950s Star Template:Single appearance
  • 1980s Star Template:Single appearance
• Template:Data:Links
  • Incidental 41
  • Incidental 42
  • Incidental 164
  • Bubba fish
  • Incidental CM20

Synopsis

The episode begins as Squidward happily hums to himself while gleefully tossing out newspapers to his customers. Everybody seems to love him, with even a neighborhood guard worm approaching him and surprisingly acting extremely friendly. All seems to be well, until he delivers to the Star house. Cecil takes his paper and refuses to pay, continuously foiling Squidward's attempts to get in. Suddenly, Granny Tentacles calls to Squidward from across the street. When Squidward goes in her house, she tells him to be persistent with getting his paper money. She shows him a history book of Tentacles family members who refused to be stiffed, including even Granny Tentacles herself.

File:Backpay Payback 124.png

Granny Tentacles sneaks up on Cecil.

Granny and Squidward go into Cecil's house and chase him down. Cecil hides behind the wall, but Granny tracks him down through some mustache shavings he left behind. Cecil flips the wall around, flinging Squidward and his grandmother into an open dryer. Bunny unknowingly turns the dryer on, spitting out the two of them as a fuzzy ball, which Patrick uses to play basketball.

Cecil goes to shower, and Granny and Squidward overhear him singing. Granny revs up Squidward's legs like a propeller to get them both up the stairs. They pull the shower curtains open to catch Cecil, but he escapes down the drain. As they try to leave, Tinkle stops Squidward, licking him affectionately. When Squidward calls Tinkle unsanitary and tries to leave, he bites his leg off.

Cecil escapes into GrandPat's room. GrandPat reveals that the Star family have never actually paid for a newspaper, which were delivered by Squidward's ancestors. He tells Cecil that Granny Tentacles won't give up until she gets the money she wants. While Squidward and his grandma are cracking open a safe (which, unbeknownst to them, contains the real money), Cecil calls them into the hallway. He smacks the letters off the newspaper and says there is no ink on it, so Granny squirts some through her nose to make a new article appear. She threatens Cecil, who fearfully points them to a stack of cash on a table, and runs away.

Squidward collects his money, and cries tears of joy. His tears melt the cash into a green puddle, revealing it was just made of paper-maché. Granny makes him cry on other pieces of furniture, only to melt the entire house. She sees GrandPat spraying the house with a hose outside, compliments his intelligence, and waves to him.

File:Backpay Payback 194.png

Mr. Star and the Paper Boy.

Granny and Squidward duck as the house starts collapsing, and it falls on a heap onto GrandPat and Cecil. They get paved into the road, and a new newspaper is left behind. Squidina excitedly picks it up and reads the comic: Mr. Star and the Paper Boy, a recreation of the episode. She enjoys it, then folds it into a paper hat and wears it. On the newsprint, Granny is chasing Squidward, insisting that she will still get the money back, although Squidward doesn't believe it.

Production

This episode was confirmed by Cartoonlounge.de on February 25, 2022.

Storyboards

• Boarded by Tobias Krebs.

• File:Fusf-FuaMAAYLRe.jpeg
• File:Fusf-FyaAAALrg1.jpeg
• File:Fusf-FwaEAAZonW.jpeg
• File:Fusf-FnaIAECsgY.jpeg
• File:FuxwaYHaUAcSoL4.jpeg

Art

Background design

• "Mr. Star and the Paper Boy" comic tidied up by, and other backgrounds designed by Sterling Ritcher.

• "Ziggarut of Ur" Pat & Squid
  "Ziggarut of Ur" Pat & Squid
• "Ptolemaic Egypt" Pat & Squid
  "Ptolemaic Egypt" Pat & Squid
• "Victorian London" Pat & Squid
  "Victorian London" Pat & Squid
• "Rockabilly / 50s Americana" Pat & Squid
  "Rockabilly / 50s Americana" Pat & Squid
• "Mr. Star and the Paper Boy" comic spread
  "Mr. Star and the Paper Boy" comic spread

Production notes

• Sterling Ritcher said that she had a lot of fun designing this episode's timeline set pieces.

Music

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Trivia

General

• This episode was originally going to be titled "Payback's a Squid."
  • Similar to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Moving Bubble Bass," the original title was most likely changed due to containing an innuendo.
• This episode was originally scheduled to premiere on Friday, November 11, 2022 in the United States at 7:00 PM, but it instead briefly got replaced with the premiere of the Monster High episode "Witch Hitch" before being replaced again with the premiere of the 2016 Illumination Studios movie The Secret Life of Pets. The episode was then postponed for a second time, originally being scheduled to premiere on Friday, February 17, 2023 in the United States at 7:00 PM, but it was replaced again with the premiere of "Host-a-Palooza."

File:The Patrick Star Show episodes Backpay Payback and House Hunting YTV listing for February 25, 2023.png

• In Canada, this episode was also originally going to air on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 9:00 AM, but was later postponed, and got replaced with a rerun of "The Yard Sale.
  • If said cancellation didn't happen, it would mean that this segment's Canadian airdate occurred exactly a year after the episode's confirmation.
• In Canada, this episode was once again originally scheduled to air on Sunday, March 19, 2023 at 3:30 PM, but was then postponed for a second time, and got replaced with a rerun of "Lost in Couch."
• This episode establishes that Granny Tentacles and GrandPat are in a relationship, quietly telling their relatives (Squidward and Cecil) that they are dating while planning warfare against each other.
• The newspaper comic strip that Squidina reads at the end of the episode is nearly identical to the opening of the segment, breaking the fourth wall.
  • The episode's writer, Doug Lawrence, is listed as the author of the comic strip Mr. Star and the Paper Boy under his Mr. Lawrence name.
• This episode marks the first time the Realistic Fish Head physically appears (as opposed to being on a TV screen) and directly interacts with characters.
• When GrandPat shows Cecil pictures of the Tentacles and Star families throughout history, the pages of the book are in live-action.
• According to background designer Sterling Ritcher and the boards that she has access to, these are the time periods shown in which the Stars and Tentacles display their rivalry:
  • The Ziggurat of Ur
  • Ptolemaic Egypt
  • A medieval / Hundred Years' War castle
  • Victorian London
  • Rockabilly / 50s Americana
  • 80s Bikini Bottom

Episode references

• Squidward singing, "Ya-ta-ta-ta" references the episodes "Who R Zoo?" and "Under the Small Top," where Squidward sings the exact same song while going waking up to go to his garden and making a bowl of cereal, respectively.

Cultural references

• Tentacles the Hun is a reference to Attila the Hun, a fearsome warrior and King of the Hunnic Empire.
• Tentaclees the Serpent Slayer is a reference to Hercules, the Roman God of strength with a history of slaying serpents. Tentaclees' comment of slaying a hydra specifically refers to Hercules' battle with the Lernaean Hydra, part of the God's Twelve Labors.

Errors

File:Squidward yellow nose error in Backpay Payback.png

Squidward's nose briefly turns yellow.

• Squidward's nose is yellow for a frame during the scene where he finds the fake money on the table.

Videos

• File:The Patrick Star Show - "Backpay Payback" Official Promo 1
• File:The Patrick Star Show - "Backpay Payback" + Transformers - EarthSpark Official Promo 2
• File:The Patrick Star Show - New Episodes YTV Canada Promo (April 2023)