One day, after chatting with each other, SpongeBob and Patrick hear a noise that they suspect is one another, but realize that it's coming from a baby scallop in the middle of a coral plant who is alone and helpless with no parental guardian and has yet to develop the ability to fly. SpongeBob and Patrick take him in the former's house, name him "Junior," and raise him as their baby, with SpongeBob as the mother and Patrick as the father. After feeding Junior and changing his diaper, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Junior go out in Bikini Bottom through a montage. Returning home at night, they put Junior to sleep in a cradle in SpongeBob's bedroom then go to sleep themselves.
The next morning, Patrick eats breakfast then explains that he has to go to work since he is the father, leaving SpongeBob to do housework. He promises to give SpongeBob a break when he gets home. Eventually, he returns home only to be exhausted from work, and then tiredly decides to sit on the chair and watch TV for the rest of the night. This goes on for several days until SpongeBob realizes that Patrick was a lazy father figure who broke his promises to assist him with Junior. Seeing his patience is completely terminated and fed up with Patrick's laziness, SpongeBob furiously lashes out at Patrick, showing him all the diapers that Junior used; including on Squidward's house from the outside. Patrick, feeling remorse, then realizes the error of his ways and promises to come home at 6:00 PM and give SpongeBob the whole night off.
However, Patrick, back to his old, lazy self, returns at 12:00 AM from a party at work. SpongeBob, finally reaching his breaking point, confronts Patrick on his broken promises and laziness, especially his last one, as Patrick gets annoyed with his constant nagging. SpongeBob follows Patrick, who angrily said that he was going back to work, only to find out that "work" consists of Patrick watching television under his rock all day. The duo get into an argument about Patrick's bad parenting style until they see Junior about to jump from a two-story window. They immediately try to catch him, but fail and begin crying for him, believing him to be dead and proclaiming themselves "bad parents." However, they then realize that Junior is alive and has learned to fly. After Junior kisses SpongeBob and flies away, Patrick asks for a kiss from Junior, who drops a coconut on the former's head as payback for his laziness, but still gives him a kiss. After SpongeBob and Patrick say goodbye to Junior, they are proud to have looked after him. Patrick, learning his lesson, reconciles with SpongeBob by teasingly suggesting they would have another baby, shocking SpongeBob (knowing that he will probably do the same thing when they were taking care of him).
Production
Deleted scenes
The episode was originally intended to focus more on the attempts of SpongeBob and Patrick raising a child, rather than focusing more on the relationship between the two.[2]
"Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" was ranked #89 during the Best Day Ever event from November 9–10, 2006.
Due to SpongeBob and Patrick's "relationship" in this episode, many people insisted that this episode is promoting gay marriage.[3] However, it is more likely the episode was simply satirizing marriages in general.
"Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" was ranked #10 during the SpongeBob's Top 100 event in the UK and Ireland from June 4-8, 2012.
The clips of SpongeBob in his underwear and says "It's the best seat in the house" and where Gary plays the drums was used in a Nickelodeon "Up next" and "Coming Up" bumper from 2009-2011.[5]
This is the third episode where SpongeBob lets an animal besides Gary and Shelley stay at his house. The first was "Jellyfish Jam," and the second was "My Pretty Seahorse."
This episode has the most time cards with a total of five. These include "Tomorrow," "Tomorrow for sure...," "Eventually...," Uhhh...," and "12:00 midnight."
The time cards were said after the last word SpongeBob and Patrick said except for "12:00 Midnight" in which the last word said was "6:00."
That number of time cards that appeared in that episode is greater than the entirety of season 1, the season with the least number of time cards, having two.
The "Tomorrow for sure..." time card is the first to end with an ellipsis since the "3 days later..." card in "I Was a Teenage Gary."
When SpongeBob shows funny faces, the side of his head can be seen before he reveals he is using a puppet.
The word "bivalve" refers to the taxonomic group "Bivalvia," which is a class in the mollusk phylum. They are identified by their small, compressed soft bodies surrounded by a calcified exoskeleton made of two half-shells that are referred to as "valves." This class includes clams, oysters, mussels, and scallops like Junior.
Patrick reveals he has worn diapers for almost a year after changing Junior for the first time, but in most of his other appearances, he is shown wearing tighty-whities. He is also seen wearing diapers in "Money Talks."
When the last pile of diapers is shown, it is on top of Squidward's house.
Patrick's large breakfast that SpongeBob made appears to have the following:
Kelpo cereal (albeit a different variety than normally shown).
Some cereal with rounded torus shapes for the cereal, with milk.
Eggs with bacon and hash-browns on the side.
Butter on toast.
Coffee in a mug that shows the words "Dad's Mug."
Orange juice.
Pancakes with butter.
Blueberry muffins.
A container full of sausages.
File:Rock-a-Bye Bivalve 160.pngThe "12:00 Midnight" title card has the same background as the "Big Pink Loser" and "The Algae's Always Greener" title cards.
The "Uhhh..." time card uses the same background as the title card for "SpongeGuard on Duty," except without the lifeguard rescue tube.
In this episode, SpongeBob claims Patrick never wore a shirt. However, Patrick has worn a shirt in "Neptune's Spatula" and "Big Pink Loser."
SpongeBob screaming, "Overtime?!" and the face that he makes have become an internet meme.
SpongeBob showing Patrick all of Junior's dirty diapers has also become an internet meme (however, the couch cover and wallpaper usually swap places for this meme).
This episode was paired with different episodes in certain marathons:
Squidward's house is seen thrice in the episode. However, just like in "Dumped," Squidward himself doesn't make a physical appearance.
Cultural references
The worm's "We will bury you!" line is taken to from Nikita Khrushchev's speech in which he took off his shoe and slammed it on the podium saying in Russian "America, we will bury you."[8]
The title is a pun on "Rock-a-bye Baby" since the title is referring to the baby clam.
The Serbian title, "Uspavanka za Ljuskara M," is a pun on the title of the album, "Uspavanka za Radmilu M," by ex-Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme.[citation needed]
Errors
Junior's mouth stops moving when he is crying, and it does not match the lip sync on his mouth.
When Patrick says "Just call me daddy!", his mouth moves out of place to the left, and then back into place a few seconds later.
When SpongeBob and Patrick run to catch Junior as he jumps out the window, SpongeBob can be heard saying "Come to Daddy." This is incorrect as SpongeBob is the "Mommy."
When Patrick says "Somethin' about root beer, right?", SpongeBob's left arm is missing for a frame.
During the close-up of Patrick's briefcase, SpongeBob's left arm is missing.
After SpongeBob takes off his clothes so Junior could sleep in them, he still has his sleeves in the next scene.
When the worm gets picked up, he still has a happy expression.
When this episode was repeated on Nickelodeon on July 20, 2002, an unknown Nick Jr. screenbug appeared without proper chroma keying during the last few minutes of the 7:30pm airing.[9] Aside from crossover shorts, commercials, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, and The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!, SpongeBob SquarePants has never aired on Nick Jr. or the Nick Jr. Channel.
File:Rock-a-Bye Bivalve 147.pngSpongeBob's house with missing windows as well as no Squidward's house.When SpongeBob shows Patrick the massive pile of diapers outside the pineapple, Squidward's house is missing and SpongeBob's house is missing its front windows.
When Patrick heads back to SpongeBob's house at midnight, SpongeBob says, "Do you remember what you said to me this morning?" However, midnight is actually 12:00 in the morning. Because of this, SpongeBob should've said, "Do you remember what you said to me yesterday morning?"
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