Firehouse Bob

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"Firehouse Bob" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 15. In this episode, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward feel the heat when they become volunteer firefighters.

Characters

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Patrick Star
• Squidward Tentacles
• Larry the Lobster
• Gary the Snail
• Sheldon J. Plankton
• Spot
• Incidentals
  • Incidental 6
  • Incidental 25
  • Incidental 41
  • Old Man Walker
• Eugene H. Krabs ^(mentioned)
• Stock footage characters
  • Devil women ^{(single appearance)}
  • Ben Turpin ^{(single appearance)}
  • Medusa ^{(single appearance)}
  • Skeletons ^{(single appearance)}
  • Santa Claus
  • Zebra ^{(single appearance)}
  • Vampire ^{(single appearance)}
  • Alien ^{(single appearance)}
  • Chemist ^{(single appearance)}
  • Beachgoers ^{(single appearance)}
  • Boss chimpanzee ^{(single appearance)}
  • Balancing man ^{(single appearance)}
• Giant man
  • Kaz ^(cameo)
• French Narrator
• Walkie-talkie
• Doll
• Seagull

Synopsis

File:Firehouse Bob 011.png

The firefighters appear to rescue Gary.

SpongeBob is looking for Gary around his house, then finds him stuck in a tall tree. He tries to get Gary to jump down, but to no avail. He pulls an emergency lever at the trunk of the tree, and Larry the Lobster immediately arrives in a fire truck. Larry's coworker, Old Man Walker slowly begins to climb a ladder, which Gary gets tired of and decides to come down himself, leaving a trail of slime behind. SpongeBob thanks Larry for "rescuing" Gary, and asks if he could be a firefighter, but Larry says there are no openings available.

Old Man Walker then slips on the slime Gary produced on the ladder and falls to the ground, shattering his skeleton and getting carried away by an ambulance. Seeing this, Larry reluctantly hires SpongeBob. The next day, SpongeBob arrives at the Bikini Bottom Fire Department with Gary, now with his shell painted as a "Snailmatian." Larry gives SpongeBob a tour of the building, showing him hoses and the bunkroom. As SpongeBob is bouncing on the beds, he finds Patrick in the last one, with Larry revealing that he is SpongeBob's volunteer coworker. Patrick is eager to start fires, but Larry quickly tells him that their job is to put out fires.

SpongeBob runs over and sees a flame under a dome which Larry reveals is the first fire they ever got called to. SpongeBob and Patrick try to slide down the firepoles, but Larry insists on telling them where each one leads. Patrick immediately uses the pole that leads to the bathroom, while SpongeBob goes down the "mystery pole," despite Larry's warning. SpongeBob goes through a series of bizarre and terrifying experiences while sliding down the pole, ending up mortified. Larry then has all the volunteer firefighters line up, which now includes Squidward. He tells SpongeBob that Mr. Krabs was court-mandated for this but sent him in his stead. Training begins with the firehose skills, but instead of hitting the targets, they end up soaking Larry with water. Next, Patrick takes on the role of a mother with a baby, and SpongeBob and Squidward must rescue them from a house, but they end up messing it up. However, despite all their mistakes, Larry says they passed their training and makes them volunteer firefighters.

File:Firehouse Bob 138.png

The volunteer firefighters on duty.

Larry then gets a call about a pet stuck in a tree, but since he wants to rest, he sends his newly recruited volunteers. The team arrives to find Spot stuck in a tree, with Plankton immediately withdrawing his request for help upon seeing that SpongeBob is a firefighter. Patrick attempts to go up the ladder and save Spot, but he regurgitates over Patrick, knocking him off. SpongeBob calls Larry to inform him of their troubles, making Larry laugh so hard while banging on the wall that he causes the first fire's container to shake. SpongeBob then tries unsuccessfully to get Spot to jump down, but he listens to Gary's bark instead.

SpongeBob hears a fire alarm go off somewhere and arrives to find the fire department up in flames. Larry screams for help and says the first fire escaped. They position a trampoline below Larry, but when he jumps, he only bounces to a higher place on the building. They then try to work the firehose, which they lose control of and land on the top of the building with Larry. They seem to have managed to put out the fire, but the roof they're standing on collapses, and the fire begins again. Gary calls in Old Man Walker for help, who gets out of the ambulance, crashes through the fire station's garage door, rescues SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Larry, and extinguishes the fire. SpongeBob comes back out of the building, having captured the first fire, but he drops it, releasing it once more. This time, the entire fire station explodes, making Larry wonder if he should volunteer for something safer like medical experiments, to which SpongeBob says he is also a volunteer doctor and chases Larry with a syringe as the episode ends.

Production

This episode was in production during March 2024, as that was when Brandon Warren temporarily joined the main series.

This episode was confirmed by Cartoonlounge.de on July 29, 2024.

Art

Background design

• Layouts designed by George Nachev, traditionally painted by Amy Lewis in gouache. Scanned in with lines drawn digitally on top.

• Gross-up of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward
  Gross-up of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward
• Process photo #1
  Process photo #1
• Process photo #2
  Process photo #2

Character design

• Character color styling by Teale Reon Wang.

• SpongeBob screaming (mouth open)
  SpongeBob screaming (mouth open)
• Firefighter SpongeBob (heroic face)
  Firefighter SpongeBob (heroic face)
• Firefighter SpongeBob (silly face)
  Firefighter SpongeBob (silly face)

Music

( ‣ ) Production music

( • ) Original music

( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

 ‣ Where's the Fire? - John Fiddy, Otto Sieben [Title card.]
 ‣ Kitsch Comedy - Peter Jeffries [Opening.]
 • Whats This Sting - Nicolas Carr [Emergency lever.]
 • ? - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob pulls the lever.]
 ‣ Super Hero - Tony Hymas [The firefighters appear.]
 ‣ Sex Kitten - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin [Gary escapes the tree.]
 ‣ Horror Strike [#44] - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin [Old Man Walker slips.]
 ‣ Horror Strike [#45] - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin ["I think I shattered my skeleton..."]
 ‣ Horror Strike [#46] - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin ["...Again."]
 ‣ Sex Kitten - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin [Larry offers SpongeBob a position.]
 • Lap Steel-spce_01 - Nicolas Carr ["The next day..."]
 ‣ Super Hero - Tony Hymas [Larry posing heroically.]
 ‣ Odyssey - Sam Spence [Gary as a "snailmatian."]
 ‣ Screw on the Loose - Tony Lowry [Tour of the firehouse.]
 ‣ Now Is The Time (a) - David Robidoux [The first fire.]
 ‣ Crepe Suzette - Cyril Watters [Fire poles.]
 ‣ Imminent Attack - Harry Lubin [The mystery pole.]
 • ? - Nicolas Carr ["Alright, line up!"]
 ‣ Happy As You Go [#65] - Harry Lubin [Squidward appears.]
 ‣ Eccentric March - Remastered - Peter Hope [At the training area.]
 ‣ Chicago Stomp - Keith Nichols [Training sequence.]
 • Hot Steel and Slide Licks 35 - Jeremy Wakefield ["The mother!"]
 ‣ Astronauts March - Sam Spence ["Congratulations, men. You passed your training."]
 • Hot Steel and Slide Licks 23A - Jeremy Wakefield [Larry gives Squidward party supplies.]
 ‣ Creeping Up [#63] - Harry Bluestone, Emil Cadkin [Larry receives a call.]
 ‣ Dignity - Peter Yorke ["Look alive, men!"]
 ‣ Dot And Dash - David Morse [Spot stuck in a tree.]
 ‣ Punctuations - Ralph Dollimore [SpongeBob hears a fire alarm.]
 ‣ Where's The Fire? - John Fiddy, Otto Sieben [Fire truck drives away.]
 ‣ On Fire - Gregor F. Narholz [Firehouse on fire.]
 ‣ Super Hero - Tony Hymas [Old Man Walker puts out the fire.]
 • Clownfish Capers - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Ending.]

Release

Broadcast

• This episode premiered as part of the 2025 event "Friday Night Hits."

Trivia

General

• This episode was originally titled "The Bikini Bottom Volunteer Fire Department."
• This is the final episode to have art direction by Peter Bennett before he passed away on May 17, 2024. Starting with "Pablum Plankton," Shane Richardson takes his place.
• This marks the 600th episode segment of the series in packaging order.
• This and its sister episode both involve a scene with the Bikini Bottom Fire Department people.
• This is one of two episodes from the main series that Brandon Warren, a former supervising director on Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, worked on, the other being "Delivery of Doom."
• This episode marks the return of the music track "Super Hero" in the main series after over 22 years. It was last played in season 3's "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V."
  • This is the first non-Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episode in the main series to feature this track.
• In this episode, Santa Claus is voiced by John Call instead of his usual English voice actor since season 11's "Goons on the Moon," Lewis Black, for unknown reasons.
  • This is also the first non-Christmas episode to feature the live-action Santa Claus.
• This episode marks the first appearance of the Giant man since season 12's "SpongeBob in RandomLand."
  • This also marks the first appearance of the Bikini Bottom Fire Department in the main series since season 12's "Patrick's Tantrum," as well as its first major role in the show and its biggest role in an episode so far.

Episode references

• The tree that Gary and Spot get stuck in is the same one from season 2's "Gary Takes a Bath."
• SpongeBob being a volunteer doctor may be a reference to season 10's "Code Yellow."
• SpongeBob's lucky tie clip from "Bad Luck Bob" appears on the close-up of the trio.
• When SpongeBob greets Patrick inside the firehouse, SpongeBob says, "Charmed, I'm sure". This may be a reference back in season 7's "Summer Job" when SpongeBob dressed up as Duke Thomas Féyêdêmuffin greets Mrs Puff saying that exact line as well.

Cultural references

• The stock footage of Medusa featured during the mystery pole scene is taken from the 1981 film Clash of the Titans.
  • The stock footage of Santa Claus featured in the same scene is from the 1964 film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
  • The live-action man in the furry hat in the same scene is a silent film star named Ben Turpin, who appears in a 1923 short film The Dare-Devil.

Errors

File:FirehouseBob BeltColoringError.png

Miscolored belt.

• When it cuts to the roller coaster while riding down the mystery pole, there is a brief moment where SpongeBob's black belt is the same color as his skin.

Videos

File:SpongeBob SquarePants Season 15 YTV Promo 1

File:SpongeBob SquarePants Season 15 YTV Promo 2

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Polish	Strażak Bob	Fireman Bob
Russian	Пожарный Боб Pozharnyy Bob	Fireman Bob
Spanish (Latin America)	Bob el bombero	Fireman Bob