Boating School

Template:Episode "Boating School" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season one. SpongeBob tries to pass the driving exam to get his license, but things do not go well. There is a coloring book to tie-in with this episode.

Time/Date:

• Wednesday, March 3
  • 8:00 AM: SpongeBob wakes up
• Thursday, March 4

Characters Present:

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Mrs. Puff (Debut)
• Patrick Star
• Ambulance Drivers (Debut)
• Gary
• Fred
• Boating School student

Locations

• Conch Street
• Mrs. Puff's Boating School (Debut)

Plot

SpongeBob is excited because Mrs. Puff's Boating School driving exam is today. If he passes it, he will get his license. First, he must pass the oral section of the exam. Having taken the exam thirty-seven times previously, SpongeBob is able to answer the questions before they are even asked. However, he panics in the boat and does not the driving portion of the exam and instead, crashes into a lighthouse, causing Mrs. Puff to enlarge her body by puffing. Later that night, he complains about his failure to his exam. Gary asks SpongeBob to go for a walk, but he denies it. Patrick is then heard talking to him from a walkie-talkie under his bed covers. He then heads into his closet and finds Patrick with his clothes on. Patrick attempts to cheer SpongeBob up with a "surprise" (calling himself "Patrick SquarePants), but SpongeBob is too depressed to laugh. He explains his problem to Patrick and mentions that he needs someone to help him think straight during the exam. Patrick quickly devises a plan. He puts a walkie-talkie inside SpongeBob's head so that he can talk SpongeBob through the test, hiding the antenna with a cowboy hat.

The next day, SpongeBob goes back to take the test again. When asked to start the boat, he initially panics, but Patrick's instructions keep him calm. This is followed by a video montage of SpongeBob acing the exam, interspersed with shots of Patrick eating SpongeBob's food and reading his diary while helping him. Mrs. Puff is floored by his sudden improvement and jokingly suggests that SpongeBob's success is due to an antenna under his hat through which "some guy miles away is giving him all the answers." SpongeBob (and Patrick) finds this hilarious, until Mrs. Puff concludes, "But that would be cheating!" Upon realizing that he has been cheating, SpongeBob goes into hysterics, driving wildly all over the course and sobbing while Mrs. Puff tries desperately to stop him. patrick, who has heard SpongeBob that he was cheating and "[Patrick]" was giving him all the answers, runs out of Sponge's house, then jumping under his rock, sobbing. He crashes the boat and thus does not the test yet another time. Upon leaving boating school, he finds Gary riding his unicycle. This means that Sponge can ride his unicycle again, and at the end of the episode he then says that he's going to surprise someone at the hospital.

Trivia/Goofs

• When SpongeBob wears his hat to hide an antenna, the hat looks like the Arby's logo.
• Patrick is once again proved to be stupid, because when SpongeBob said that he does have someone talking in his head and giving him all the answers. Patrick runs sobbing out of SpongeBob's house and to his house, upset that he found out SpongeBob had been cheating when he knew all along.
• When SpongeBob comes out of the boating school near the end of the episode, he says Gary found his bike. However, it is a unicycle.
• First Episode to feature "My Leg!"
• When SpongeBob's wearing his hat to cover a walkie-talkie antennae, it looks like the Arby's logo.