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.
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.
On October 8, 2023, "Mr. Fox" confirmed he was present for this episode's ADR records:[2] "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."[3] He told viewers to go watch and support the episode.[2]
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, has been simulcast on Nicktoons.[4] It aired early on Nicktoons compared to Nickelodeon, which aired the episode after a 5-minute commercial break.File:NickVsNicktoonsBTF.pngSimulcasting. At 4:06PM, "Big Top Flop" had just started airing on Nickelodeon, while the episode was five minutes in on Nicktoons at the time.
Cultural references
During the sad clown performance, Squidward does an impression of Jimmy Durante while even mimicking his famous catchphrase, "Ha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Chaaaaa!"
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."
