Big Top Flop

Characters

• Template:Data:Links
• Squidward Tentacles
• Patrick Star
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Template:Data:Links
  • Incidental 34
  • Incidental 64
  • Incidental 151
  • Incidental 152
  • Incidental 153
  • Trick-or-treat inc
  • Mom inc
  • Dad inc
  • Audience inc 2
  • Audience inc 3
  • Audience inc 5
  • Vendor inc
  • Incidental C17
• Ringmaster Mudkrab Template:Single appearance
• Ms. Mayor ^(mentioned)
• Big fish four-eyes
• Motorcyclist
• Fish cowboy
• Showgirl fish
• Ringmaster's assistant
• Canonball Jenkins
• Sea bears
• Giraffes
• Sea urchins
• Football player
• Pearl's cyan friend

Synopsis

File:Big Top Flop 020.png

Mr. Krabs sees Mudkrab.

Mr. Krabs notices that the Krusty Krab is empty, and is unable to figure out why. He suddenly hears calliope music and realizes that the circus is in town. The leader, Ringmaster Mudkrab, shows up and tells Krabs that he has legal permission to build his circus in front of the Krusty Krab. He offers Krabs a free ticket to the circus and brags about stealing his business. Krabs takes SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick to the circus in order to sabotage it.

Mudkrab talks to his circus crew inside a trailer, but Krabs barricades it shut. He decides to put on intentionally bad circus acts to ruin its reputation. He announces the show and insults the audience, but they actually enjoy it. For the first act, he has SpongeBob use a unicycle on a tightrope. SpongeBob is surprisingly able to keep his balance, and when Krabs tries to sabotage it by throwing urchins on him, he bounces off the net and into the audience. Meanwhile, back in the trailer, the circus magician summons a small saw from his hat, which Mudkrab uses to saw open the trailer doors.

File:Big Top Flop 119.png

Squidward the sad clown's act.

Krabs' next act is Squidward as a sad clown, which unexpectedly manages to win the audience over with its emotion. For the last performance, Krabs lets the sea bears loose and has Patrick act as a circus animal instead. Krabs wants Patrick to balance on a ball, but gets impatient and tries to shove him over it. The audience gets mad at Krabs, and Patrick and the audience threaten Krabs into doing the ball performance instead, which they end up enjoying.

Mudkrab finally escapes the trailer and storms into the circus tent. Krabs uses the circus equipment to try to avoid him, but Mudkrab keeps chasing after him. When Krabs gets stuck on the tightrope, he throws urchins at Mudkrab, and he gets knocked off. The urchins then gnaw the rope and knock Krabs off. Krabs escapes on a unicycle, with Mudkrab riding a motorcycle. The two eventually hop into cannons and fire at each other. The resulting collision is unseen, but results in applause from the audience and circus staff.

A week later, SpongeBob and Squidward stand in the middle of a deserted Krusty Krab. SpongeBob asks if Mr. Krabs will ever want to come back from the circus. Squidward suspects he will not because of how much money he is making. A pan back to the circus shows Krabs and Mudkrab fused together as a new freak show attraction, with a cheering crowd around them.

Production

This episode was confirmed on January 13, 2023.

On October 8, 2023, "Mr. Fox" confirmed he was present for this episode's ADR records: "ADR means Automated Dialogue Replacement. So when they didn't get everything they needed in the original records made before the animation, they bring the actors back in after the episode is animated to fix timings or get efforts or other little things." He told viewers to go watch and support the episode.

Release

• This episode is set to be available for the upcoming The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD.

Trivia

General

• This is the third episode to have a circus play a major role in its plot after "Don't Feed the Clowns" and "Under the Small Top."
  • Coincidentally, "Under the Small Top" is another season 13 episode.
• This will be the first episode in the franchise to premiere on Halloween in the United States.
  • Ironically, this episode has nothing to do with the holiday.
• This is the first episode for the opening credits to credit Ian Vazquez as a supervising director instead of a storyboard supervisor.
• This is also the fourteenth episode to be directed by Ian Vazquez.
• The track "Broken Ride" returns after not being used for 11 years.
• The ending of characters being conjoined is similar to "SquidBob TentaclePants" and "Teacher's Pests," although Mr. Krabs and Mudkrab take advantage of their position, racking up money at the circus.
• This episode was originally going to premiere at 5:00pm, but it was moved to 4:00pm.
• This episode's premiere, alongside the other three in its premiere week, have been simulcast on Nicktoons. It aired early on Nicktoons compared to Nickelodeon, which aired the episode after a 5-minute commercial break. This is due to Nicktoons positioning commercial breaks after the show ends, rather than before it.

File:NickVsNicktoonsBTF.png

Simulcasting. At 4:06PM, "Big Top Flop" had just started airing on Nickelodeon, while the episode was five minutes in on Nicktoons at the time.

• A similar occurrence happened during the season 4 premiere of Big City Greens, in which the episode "Truck Stop" began 4 minutes before on Disney XD rather than its home network, Disney Channel.

Cultural references

• The pose Patrick makes after his first time falling from the sky bears resemblance to the infamous "Family Guy Death Pose", in which a character lays facing away from the viewer with an arm laid behind their back after getting injured. This also occurs in "Slappy Daze" and happens again when Patrick is called by Mr. Krabs to get into the Sea Bear cage.
• During the sad clown performance, Squidward does an impression of Jimmy Durante while even mimicking his famous catchphrase, "Ha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Chaaaaa!"

Episode references

File:Big Top Flop 150.png

File:Big Top Flop 158.png

• One of Mr. Krabs' dances on the ball that Patrick is supposed to be on references his robot dance from "Krab Borg" and his Birthday dance from "Squeaky Boots."

Errors

File:Big Top Flop 055.png

The tag on Patrick's costume is brown like his fins

• When Squidward in his clown outfit is revealed, the white tag on Patrick's sea bear costume is colored the same brown as his fins.

Video

File:SpongeBob SquarePants - Season 13 and 14 Official Promo (Starting October 30, 2023)