Karate Choppers

If you were looking for the article about the Greek DVD, then see Karate Choppers (Greek DVD).

If you were looking for the article about the Russian DVD, then see Karate Choppers (Russian DVD).

"Karate Choppers" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 1. In this episode, SpongeBob and Sandy's karate disturbs the Krusty Krab.

Characters

Synopsis

File:Karate Choppers 057.png

SpongeBob and Sandy doing karate.

SpongeBob and Sandy are practicing karate against each other. After fighting in SpongeBob's house, Sandy tells him that she will sneak up on him and fight him tomorrow. At the Barg'N-Mart, their battle continues. Later, Sandy pulls out SpongeBob's tongue and grabs a bottle of Volcano Sauce to have him surrender. SpongeBob imagines a face on the drop of hot sauce and quickly gives up, only to reveal that he tricked Sandy with a fake tongue. He sabotages her, but it quickly backfires as she manages to karate-chop him into the horizon. At the Krusty Krab, the next day, SpongeBob thinks anyone or anything can be Sandy, so he is cautious and does not work much. When SpongeBob attacks one of the customers, Mr. Krabs demands to know what is going on, so SpongeBob explains to him that he is doing karate.

Eventually, Mr. Krabs warns SpongeBob to stop doing karate or he will be fired. Later, Sandy appears and attacks SpongeBob. Although he tries to explain Mr. Krabs' warning to her, she refuses to listen. Mr. Krabs witnesses, confronts and fires SpongeBob, who breaks down in tears and runs around the area hysterically. Feeling guilty and ashamed, Sandy explains that it was her fault and begs Mr. Krabs to give SpongeBob his job back. Mr. Krabs agrees on the condition that they try to swear off karate, saying it is poisoning SpongeBob's mind.

File:Karate Choppers 149.png

SpongeBob and Sandy at the park.

As a result, the two try to swear off karate and they try to do different things, like going to Seashell Park for a picnic. However, everything reminds them of karate, particularly when SpongeBob slices bologna using karate chops. They eventually can't resist the urge and slice up all kinds of ingredients and make several sandwiches in the process. At this point, they eventually take up karate again and have a great deal of fun.

Mr. Krabs, who is taking a walk in the park, catches them surrounded by sandwiches and the surroundings are really trashed, clearly having broken their promise. SpongeBob admits the truth, saying he cannot help himself and asks Mr. Krabs to simply fire him. Mr. Krabs instead replying that he has something else in mind.

Back at the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob and Sandy make Krabby Patties at an exceptional rate, using their karate skills to slice and assemble the Krabby Patties, bringing in lots of customers and making Mr. Krabs more money than before, all much to Squidward's disappointment.

Production

This episode was announced on December 29, 1999,^[2] along with its sister episode "SB-129."

Script

On November 14, 2016, recording scripts for every episode from season 1 were publicly released, found on one of the asset discs for the PlayStation video game, SuperSponge. This included the recording script for "Karate Choppers."^[3]

Art

Music

( ‣ ) Production music
( • ) Original music
( ◦ ) SpongeBob music

‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [Title card]
‣ Panther Prowl - David Farnon [Opening]
‣ Cieszyn Polka - Władyslaw Raczkowski [TV show]
‣ Police Car - Sam Spence [SpongeBob screams]
‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [SpongeBob and Sandy doing karate]
‣ Police Car - Sam Spence [SpongeBob throws Sandy through the door]
‣ Hawaiian Link (A) - Richard Myhill [SpongeBob does a karate dance]
‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [Karate over the phone]
‣ Bossa Cubana - Gerhard Narholz [Sandy shopping]
‣ Hit and Run - Sam Spence [Sandy bumps into SpongeBob]
‣ Bossa Cubana - Gerhard Narholz ["Hey Sandy, have you ever heard the one about the squirrel and the tin cans?"]
‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [Tin cans]
‣ Police Car - Sam Spence [SpongeBob laughs]
‣ Dancing The Hula - Kapono Beamer ["What a beautiful day!"]
‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [More karate]
‣ House Of Horror [#10.5] - W. Merrick Farran [Volcano sauce]
‣ Death Trap [#26.03] - Gregor F. Narholz ["By the powers of naughtiness..."]
‣ Panther Prowl - David Farnon [Sandy drinking volcano sauce.]
‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [Novelty toy]
‣ The Rake Hornpipe - Robert Alexander White [At the Krusty Krab]
‣ Keep Cool - Jean Christophe Thomas, Laurence Peter Cottle [Customer swatting a fly/"I'm fast, I'm mean, and I can do this!"]
‣ Blow the Man Down (B) - Tim Laycock, Robert Alexander White [Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to get back to work]
‣ Keep Cool - Jean Christophe Thomas, Laurence Peter Cottle [SpongeBob enters the bathroom]
‣ Sailor's Waltz - Heinz Matschurat [Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to stop doing karate or he is fired]
‣ Hawaiian Link (B) - Richard Myhill ["Fired?"]
‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [Sandy starts karate chopping SpongeBob/Sandy continues karate chopping SpongeBob/Sandy karate chopping SpongeBob again]
‣ Stack of Leis - Kapono Beamer [Fired and Broken/"Aww, shoot, SpongeBob. I guess you ain't fibbing."]
‣ Hit and Run - Sam Spence [Sandy chops SpongeBob's face]
‣ Vibe Link (B) - Richard Myhill ["We can?"]
‣ Nostalgic Hawaii - George de Fretes, Jan Rap [SpongeBob squeezes a rock]
‣ On The Beach - Kapono Beamer [SpongeBob and Sandy on a picnic]
‣ Hit and Run - Sam Spence [Sandy chops the barnacle loaf]
‣ Mavericks - The Woodies [Making sandwiches]
‣ Police Car - Sam Spence [Sting]
‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [They fight]
‣ Hawaiian Link (A) - Richard Myhill [Everything cut in half]
‣ Dramatic Cue (D) - Ronald Hanmer [SpongeBob shrieks]
‣ O Makalapua B - Kapono Beamer ["Oh, all right, Mr. Krabs, you caught me."]
‣ Take That! (a) - Helene Muddiman [Ending]

*On The Complete 1st Season, Absorbing Favorites DVD/VHS tape, and The First 100 Episodes DVDs "Mavericks" is replaced with "El Dementia" by The Surfdusters while the Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, and Paramount+ versions has the "Mavericks" music.

Release

Broadcast

As this episode premiered on December 31 at 8:15 PM, this episode holds the record for the latest into a calendar year for an episode to premiere.
- This episode was also the last episode to premiere before the start of the 2000s.

Distribution

This episode is available on The Complete 1st Season, Fear of a Krabby Patty, Absorbing Favorites, Karate Choppers, Karate Cutting, Sportingly Sandy, 10 Happiest Moments, First 100 Episodes, The Best of SpongeBob SquarePants, Really Big Box Set, Bob Esponja Cumple 10 Años, SpongeBob on DVD, The SpongeBob Birthday Box, The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, Treasure Chest: Double Pack, SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 2, The Complete First Season, Extreme Kah-Rah-Tay (digital version only), From the Beginning, Part 1, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, Deep-Sea Games, Triple Pack 3, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, The First & Second Seasons, Movies & TV Collection, Big Hits: Volume 2, The Best 200 Episodes Ever, and The Best 300 Episodes Ever DVDs.
This episode is also available on the Absorbing Favorites VHS tape and the UK version of the Fear of a Krabby Patty VHS tape.

Reception

This episode won a Golden Reel award in 1999 for Best Sound Editing in Television: Animation - Sound.^[4]
"Karate Choppers" was ranked #44 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.
"Karate Choppers" was ranked #29 during the SpongeBob's Top 100 event in the UK and Ireland from June 4-8, 2012.

Trivia

General

The title card is similar to those of Barg'N-Mart and "Naughty Nautical Neighbors," "Nature Pants," "MuscleBob BuffPants," and "Scaredy Pants," but it is red instead of yellow, there are no pineapples, and the bamboo is broken.
This episode uses "Giant Karate Chop Underlay," which is the first time it has appeared on the show. It is a reoccurring background for later episodes such as "Mid-Life Crustacean," as well as being used for the title card background to "The Endless Summer" short.
SpongeBob tip toes over to the couch, but makes duck sounds as he tip toes. It's revealed that he's been stepping on three squeaky toy ducks before he sits down to watch TV. "Stepping on ducks" is a euphemism for flatulence.
- Later in the episode, SpongeBob suggests he "cut the cheese," another euphemism for flatulence, although, in this case, it is literally slicing cheese.
The fish shown on SpongeBob's TV is a royal gramma (Gramma loreto), a tropical aquarium fish.
Tom Kenny portrays the Volcano Sauce drop.
- In the season 1 DVD commentary, Kenny explains that the scene was shot in the Nickelodeon restroom, and he had to wear red makeup all over his face to portray the character. He also had an audition on that same day the scene was shot, but the red makeup did not completely come off in time. As a result, he still had a little bit of red makeup on his face and it made him look like he was having high blood pressure.

File:Hot Sauce Drop in Karate Choppers credits.png

The Volcano Sauce drop is credited as "Hot Sauce Drop."

File:The Complete 1st Season Disc 2 Audio Commentary.png

Audio Commentary Menu.

This episode, along with "Plankton!," features audio commentary on The Complete 1st Season, The Complete First Season, The First & Second Seasons, and Movies & TV Collection DVDs.

File:704186 f.jpg

File:SpongeBob crying face in Nicktoons - Attack of the Toybots console version.png

File:Barnacles! My Face!.png

The face SpongeBob makes when he is crying from being fired is seen on the cover on the Thai release of Season 6 Volume 2.
- The face was also seen in the console version of the video game Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots when SpongeBob is at low health.
  - It was also seen on the title screen in the online game Barnacles! My Face!
A fish is seen fishing for fish with a fishing pole at the park.

File:Giant Karate Chop UL.png

Giant Karate Chop Underlay

File:Karate Choppers 200.png

"I hate all of you."

At the end of the episode, Mr. Krabs says, "I love money-ay!" and after that, he looks at the screen. The fourth wall is broken here.
In this episode, SpongeBob is a karate master like Sandy. However, in all other episodes, SpongeBob is much less skilled.
- This episode includes the only instance in which SpongeBob defeats Sandy in a karate fight.
There is an online game based on this episode called Kah Rah Tay Contest.
- There is a Russian DVD based on this episode called "Karate Choppers."
This is Dan Povenmire's favorite episode he didn't work on. He called it "one of the funniest things he'd ever seen."^[5]
This is the first episode for several things:
- Merriwether Williams' first episode as a writer. Her final episode was "Pranks a Lot."
- The first episode in which SpongeBob gets fired (albeit briefly) from the Krusty Krab.
- The first episode in which Sandy gets a job at the Krusty Krab.
- The first episode where "Dancing The Hula" plays normally instead of in reverse, like it did in its debut in "Pickles."
- The first episode to confirm that Fred is the character behind the "My leg!" running gag.
This is one of four episodes transcribed as a comic into the SpongeBob SquarePants/Tokyopop book Gone Nutty! The other three were "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm," "Pressure," and "Sandy's Rocket."
SpongeBob's reaction to getting fired has become a popular meme on YouTube.
- Squidward's line at the end "I hate all of you." has also become a popular meme.
Two clips of this episode were featured in the 2010 film Date Night. Also, Ray Liotta, who voices the leader of The Bubble Poppin' Boys in "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?," also appeared in the movie as crime boss Joe Miletto.
A short clip of SpongeBob crying from this episode was featured in the music video for "Hallelujah Money," a 2017 single by British virtual band Gorillaz.
This episode was previously paired up with:
- "MuscleBob BuffPants" on February 16, 2002.^[6]
- "Ripped Pants" during the Nicktoons Butt-Kicking Marathon.^[7]
- "Nature Pants" during the Best Day Ever marathon on November 10, 2006.^[8]
- "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm" during the IFight Week event on August 6, 2009.^[9]
- "Karate Island" during the Karate Pants marathon^[10] and the Ka-Ra-Tay Sunday marathon.^[11]
- "The Paper" during the SpongeBob's Best Day Off Ever marathon.^[12]
- "The Krabby Patty That Ate Bikini Bottom" on February 18, 2017.^[13]
- "Karate Star" on July 20, 2018.^[14]
- "Sandy's Rocket" during the Best Buddies Week event on July 31, 2020.^[15]
- "Pressure" during the NFL Nick Play Code-Collector event on January 10, 2021.^[16]
- "The Great Snail Race" during the SpongeBob Medal Mania event on July 27, 2021.^[17]
"Take That! (a)" bookends the episode, making this the first kind of occurrence to happen in the SpongeBob franchise.

Dub facts

In the Japanese dub, the Volcano Sauce drop is dubbed over by Keijin Okuda. He is the Japanese voice of Mr. Krabs, Patchy, Larry, and the French Narrator.
In the Croatian dub, instead of Sandy saying "Wanna go to the park?", she says "Are you out of your mind?"
In the Romanian dub, the barnacle loaf is simply referred to as "salami."

Cultural references

When SpongeBob is caught off guard by Squidward's orders, he calls him "ma'am," "sir," "boss," then "Pooh-Bah." Grand Poohbah is a character from the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Mikado, later made famous as a title given to the head of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes on The Flintstones.
During the scene of Sandy's treedome at night, Sandy hums "The Yellow Rose of Texas."
Barnacle loaf is a parody of meatloaf.

Errors

File:Karate Choppers 027.png

Sandy with an extra stripe on her sleeve.

When Sandy is at SpongeBob's door, she has an extra stripe on her sleeve. The colors of the stripes also change rapidly.
SpongeBob leaves the kitchen with a tray of six Krabby Patties. When he tosses the Krabby Patties onto Squidward's head, all six stick to it. In the next shot, there are eight Krabby Patties. In the final zoom shot of Squidward's head after SpongeBob says "Nice hairpiece, Squidward," 10 Krabby Patties can be seen.
When SpongeBob is cutting the food, on his first cut, the mustard dispenser seems to disappear.
SpongeBob's arm disappears when Sandy hangs up on him after his attempt at phone karate.
During the fight between SpongeBob and Sandy, a brick can be seen in their dust cloud.

File:Karate Choppers 078.png

Some of the bubbles in the bubble transition are frozen in mid-air.

After the bubble transition cuts to the Krusty Krab, some of the bubbles freeze in mid-air.

File:SpongeBob's eyelashes mistake in Karate Choppers.png

SpongeBob's visible eyelashes mistake.

When SpongeBob talks to Mr. Krabs and says, "No, sir," SpongeBob blinks his eyes, but his eyelashes are still seen for a split second.
When SpongeBob slices the first slice of salami, the mustard bottle is missing.
A second window is added to SpongeBob's pineapple house near the lower-right corner. Before, there was only one window on the upper left corner.
Mr. Krabs tells Squidward that he was in his office. However, Mr. Krabs' office is the first door on the left, and when he comes in, he is on the right, but when SpongeBob talks to him, Mr. Krabs is on his office side, next to Squidward.
When SpongeBob goes into the restroom at the Krusty Krab, there is the "Please wash your fins" sign on it. Later, when SpongeBob is walking, it disappears.
In the scene with SpongeBob holding the rock together to hide it from Mr. Krabs, a tree can be seen in the background chopped in half. The "leaves" of the tree are also chopped in half, even though they would not be touched just from chopping the tree in half.
In the scene where SpongeBob captures Sandy with the novelty toy tongue, she has her left arm inside her suit while she guzzles down hot sauce. Once SpongeBob loops the tongue around her, her arm immediately appears outside of the suit.
When SpongeBob gets fired, his face wrinkles up. In this shot, one of his holes goes above his head.
The Chum Bucket is missing from across the street when SpongeBob is caught and Sandy apologizes.

Videos

File:If SpongeBob was a TRANSFORMER! 🤖 - "Doodle Dimension" - SpongeBob- Reimagined

File:It's like a SpongeBob x Transformers crossover 🤖 - -shorts

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Finnish	Karatekat	Karate pals
French	Fous de karaté	Karate Fans
German	Karatefieber	Karate Fever
Hungarian	Karateütések	Karate Punches
Italian	Il Karate... che passione	Karate... What a Passion
Japanese	空手大好き Karate daisuki	I Love Karate
Korean	우리는 태권도 동지 (EBS) 내 사랑 태권도 (JEI TV) Ulineun Taegwondo Dongji Bae Salang Taegwondo	We are Taekwondo Comrades (EBS) I Love Taekwondo (JEI TV)
Mandarin	空手道 (China) 我愛空手道 (Taiwan) Kōngshǒudào Wǒ ài kōngshǒudào	Karate (China) I Love Karate (Taiwan)
Polish	Karate siekacze	Karate Choppers
Russian	Любители каратэ Lyubiteli karate	Karate Lovers
Spanish (Latin America)	Cortadores karatecas	Karate Cutters
Spanish (Spain)	Karatekas	Karatekas

References

es:Cortadores Karatecas fr:Fous de karaté id:Karate Choppers it:Il Karate... che passione! nl:Broodje karate pl:Karate siekacze pt-br:Karatecas Fatiadores ru:Любители карате zh:我愛空手道

[1] Nickelodeon UK - October 11, 2000

[2] NICKELODEON'S NEW YEAR'S EVE LINEUP FEATURES FUTURISTIC AND MILLENNIUM THEMES - Viacom

[3] SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge Development Archives - Internet Archive

[4] 47th Anniversary (1999) Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award Winners - Motion Picture Sound Editors

[5] Dan Povenmire talks about SpongeBob SquarePants

[6] February 16, 2002 - Nickstory

[7] February 24, 2002 - Nickstory

[8] November 10, 2006 - Nickstory

[9] August 6, 2009 - Nickstory

[10] January 1, 2013 - Nickstory

[11] January 13, 2013 - Nickstory

[12] September 2, 2013 - Nickstory

[13] February 18, 2017 - Nickstory

[14] July 20, 2018 - Nickstory

[15] July 31, 2020 - Nickstory

[16] January 10, 2021 - Nickstory

[17] July 27, 2021 - Nickstory

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