SpongeBob wakes up, stubs his toe, and starts crying. He rips his favorite shirt and starts crying again. He goes downstairs and hears a sad song on the radio, then he cries again.
At work, he flips a Krabby Patty, which lands on the ground when Mr. Krabs startles him. SpongeBob then cries once again. Squidward gets irritated of SpongeBob's crying, and he yells at him. SpongeBob then cries, wailing, "You yelled at me!"
Squidward tells SpongeBob that he cries too much; SpongeBob denies it but Squidward pulls up a TV and plays a video of a trillion tears and millions of places where SpongeBob has cried over those years. Watching the video, SpongeBob realizes he does cry a lot and promises to stop but Squidward rebukes his words as he makes a bet with SpongeBob that he couldn't last until midnight without crying.
After the bet is made, Squidward follows SpongeBob home to make sure he cries, and tries to make SpongeBob cry over things like a beautiful sunset, sad news stories with funerals, a sad song on the clarinet, and a sad bedtime story.
Amazingly, SpongeBob manages to hold in his tears until midnight, despite all of Squidward's best attempts, and after midnight, SpongeBob cries all over Bikini Bottom like crazy. Squidward comes over for a slumber party the next night, and the episode ends with Squidward crying and SpongeBob consoling him while watching television.
Although this episode premiered in 2010, it was made in 2009 according to the credits.
This episode marks the second appearance of the Bikini Bottom Men's Choir, the first being "Choir Boys." The choir makes two brief cameo appearances in this episode; first half-way in the episode when Squidward gets SpongeBob to cry over the sight of the sunset, and then later at the end when Bikini Bottom is flooded with SpongeBob's tears.
Patrick is correct after he answers SpongeBob's question: it is possible for somebody to not cry/sob for at least a day or two.
However, because of SpongeBob's strong sensitivity over something dramatic or emotional, it is impossible for him to overcome a day without crying.
This episode is similar in concept to "Funny Pants," as in both episodes, Squidward gets annoyed by SpongeBob's emotions (in this case, Squidward gets annoyed at SpongeBob's excessive crying, while in "Funny Pants," he gets annoyed at his excessive laughter).
This episode is also similar to the Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends episode Cry Buggie, when Dragon tells Squirt that big bugs don't cry, Just like SpongeBob, Squirt eventually cries in that episode, and, ironically enough, Dragon cries at the end of the episode, and Squirt comforts him, just like SpongeBob comforts Squidward when he begins crying.
It is revealed that Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy airs eight times a day, but it is brought down to seven in this episode, according to the news anchor.
Apparently, until this episode, SpongeBob was unaware that he cried so much.
On the radio, the announcer said the song was by Eely Dan. This is an obvious reference to the jazz rock band Steely Dan. Also, the next song was by Lionel Fishy. This is also a reference to Lionel Richie.
The radio announcer also states that the song's name before "Sad Songs" was Aja, a song by Steely Dan on the album of the same name and a song called "Sad Song" by Paul Williams.
Errors
In the subtitles on TV, SpongeBob says "Stop. It burns," when he would normally say "Sob. Whimper."
SpongeBob can be seen shedding a tear during the news story about the snail, which means Squidward won the bet all along.
When SpongeBob cries at "Sad Song," his tears come out his upstairs bedroom's window, but he is in the kitchen, completely opposite, and downstairs, from his bedroom.
